If it keeps on rainin'

The levee finally broke tonight. I've known all along that herself was scared. You don't share your life with someone for some twenty odd years & not get to know them fairly well. The symptoms have been there a while. She has to be either constantly doing something, in her case, gardening, walking & knitting, or sleeping. Sleep has long been her way of making bad stuff go away for a while.

She didn't pick a good time to want to talk. Right in the middle of the season final of Dr Who to be precise, but we got there. It's good that she has opened up, because now we can talk a lot more openly about things. You see, I'm terrified as well, & its been hard trying to put a brave face on things when you are faced with losing the most precious person in your life. I'm trying hard for her. I'm finishing all the projects that I have been promising her for years. This weekend saw the spouting repaired that has needed doing since we moved in. I didn't realize how badly I have been sleeping & how much it has affected me over the last couple of years until I got some sleeping tablets to help me smooth out the current bumps. The doc isn't all that happy about me using them long term, but for me, its a case of what ever it takes to get by.

Next weekend, her daughter is going to put on a birthday party for her in Auckland, so hopefully, I will be able to bring back lots of pics & herself will be able to add to her store of happy memories.

I really do hope it rains. If only for the satisfaction of looking out the kitchen window & not seeing Niagara Falls there. I really have done a damn good job of it all even though I say it myself. Oh & by the way, if you missed it , the season finale of Dr. Who was an absolute ripper. It really is going to be a hard act to follow next season.

I've had a good day..

Herself scored some nearly new spouting from a building renovation site this week. Today I started putting it up where the old stuff had rotted through. The two worst places were in the courtyard, & over the kitchen window, running down into our vege garden. Its that bad there, that in the winter time, I generally have to chase off various Asians who want to plant rice there.

I decided to start with the bit in the courtyard, as its a relatively short span of some 4.6 meters. Just a straight run with a down pipe at one end. Rip the old stuff out, cut a new bit to length, graft in a PVC end cap because I can't be stuffed soldering a metal one in, marry it up to a PVC collection box & graft the whole lot on to an existing metal down pipe.. Walk in the park stuff for a seasoned handyman like myself.

And it would have been too, apart from the fact that the space to put it in is very limited, & not having arms like a gorilla, I had to keep shifting the ladder from end to end to get it all set up right. Plus we are talking new technology here, as PVC & steel fittings are similar , but not exactly alike. Praise be to Allah for silicone sealers is all I've got to say on the matter. Now that I have the technique down pat, the existing run along the front of the house should be a walk in the park hmm..

What complicated things was that one of my workmates had asked for my help to fix a leak from his toilet cistern. It was a result of shoddy replacement of an old cistern with a bodged bit of pipe putting strain on the plastic bit of the ballcock. I could have just done it for him & saved myself at least half the time that it took for me to explain what needed doing & standing back patiently while he did it himself. That way, he has learned a new skill & acquired a bit more self confidence. When he had finished, he looked at me & said, "Y'know, you're like the father I never had." It took the wind out of my sails somewhat. Nobody has ever said that to me before. It made getting behind with my spouting well worth while.

Herself went to a meeting of the Red Hat Society today. I think we both hoped that a little bit of silliness would help take her mind off things a bit. It didn't. They were far too noisy & trivial for her. She much prefers the quiet & companionship of the patchwork group.

Straight as they come

I do like someone that delivers what they promise. I seem to be surrounded by them at the moment. I have some very staunch personal friends who have offered of themselves unconditionally if I need them & that is very comforting. Through one of those said friends, (thanks Morty) I eventually made contact with the MND support lady from Waikato Hospital. Not only is she Scottish, but she comes from Inverness, & more amazingly, she wasn't one of the famous four & twenty.

She promised a lot of things for us, which I took with a grain of salt, but it all happened within two days, including a talking machine & a meeting with all sorts of ologists at Waikato. For a Lassie that is only paid 20 hours a week, she gets around. I got to see her having lunch with a client when I made a delivery in Waihi the other day.

I had a good day at work today. I got to go to Hahei, Cooks Beach, & Hot Water Beach. Nice day with nice people to talk to....

RIPLEYS BELIEVE IT OR NOT...

As opposed to the Russian version, Ripskey's Believe it or Else. We actually got a helpful letter from WINZS the other day. They have told us that we can claim quite a substantial amount from them to help towards Karen's funeral, & that they will help us do it. I remain to be convinced that its that easy however

R .I. P KAREN JEAN LESLIE

Well, my big sis has finally solved the big mystery. She was 68 when she quietly slipped away at a local rest home. She had developed leukemia in the last 12 months. I thought I knew what responsibility meant when I had to choose for her between the options of subjecting her to the pain & indignity of chemotherapy or just to keep her comfortable & let her slip away with dignity. It's relatively easy under the circumstances to choose the latter, but the realities of seeing her slowly ebbing away are different.

You see, it wasn't a choice that she was capable of making for herself. Karen was born mentally & physically handicapped, to a frightened 20 year old whose new husband not only brought the Rubella virus home from military training camp, but also had to leave to serve his country in Egypt, as he had already volunteered for the army. It wasn't as if Dad didn't try hard not to go. He cut off his trigger finger with an axe in an effort to stay home with his new bride. It didn't work, so off he had to go, being invalided home after 3 years with chronic dermatitis & amoebic dysentery. He was , I guess, one of the more fortunate ones, as his battalion was absolutely decimated at Crete.

It took 10 years & my Dad threatening to leave before my Mum overcame her fear sufficiently to consent to trying to have another child,me. Because we lived in the country, I didn't see my big sister as different. She used to go off on her own every morning on the school bus to school, which I thought was pretty exciting. She also used to read me stories every night, running her finger along under the words, to keep her place on the page. Because of this, I could read quite well before I started school.

My Dad finally got sick of nurse maiding trout & wanted to get back into the bush, liking the look of Thames, so off we went. Karen by this time was 15, so Mum & Dad elected not to carry on with her schooling, leaving me to try & become the family genius. Karen stayed home, doing odd jobs to help Mum & churning out dolls clothes on an old hand operated Singer sewing machine & adding to her ornament collection every Xmas & birthday. She soon became a favorite with all the younger girls on the block who loved to play with her collection of dolls, both the paper cut out variety as well as the conventional type as pictured above.


Time passed. Karen turned 50 & Mum turned 70. By this time, Karen had been enrolled in "Occupational Therapy" & used to be collected & go to "Therpy" every Thursday afternoon, sometimes going down to the old folks home at Tararu. When the time came that Mum was too worn out to carry on caring for Karen, the transition to the home was an easy one for her, & on family gatherings when you went & collected her it was heartening to hear her say, "I'd like to go home now please." And home it was. I've lost track of how many potential suitors she outlived, even asking Mum on one occasion if she could get married. For 18 years she made it her home, still very proud of her family. Whenever you went to see her, if there was a lull in the conversation, as there often was, you would be introduced yet again to whoever happened to be within earshot.

In these more enlightened times, Karen would no doubt be introduced to the supported lifestyle system & be integrated into society a bit more, but in those days Mum was given the choice of caring for her at home or institutionalising her in an insane asylum. It says a lot for my Mum that she elected to take the tough option, namely care for her at home for 50 years.

So , she has now gone on, probably to catch up with Dad & all her suitors & all her other friends that have gone on. It was a lovely service. We didn't expect a lot to attend, but it ended up with round 30 people who came to pay their respects. I was even more pleasantly surprised at the number that wanted to stand up & pay their own tribute to my big Sis after I had said my bit. Normally , at such time, there is an embarrassed shuffling & maybe one or two will get up & say a few words. I was nearly killed in the rush. I didn't realise that she had had such a positive impact on so many people's lives.

Goodbye Sis. You set very high standards to follow. I never knew you to drink, smoke, swear, tell lies or say anything derogatory about anyone. Thats a tough act to follow. May the sun forever shine on you, the breeze be fair & warm & the path be smooth & easy. I love you Sis, goodbye.

End of the Golden Weather.

Well, that's it I guess. It's back to the Salt Mine tomorrow. I shouldn't grumble, I've had 5 weeks holiday. More than I have had in one hit for years. Not that I didn't need it. Even before we had the bombshell of Herself''s condition dropped on us, I needed it. In the 12 years or so that I have worked there, I've not had more than a week or two off at any given time.

It's been good in a lot of ways. It's meant that I have actually been able to be with Herself for support during a couple of scary examinations & a couple of other specialist appointments. Not that I don't intend to be there in future for her. Its been good to spend some quality time with her, as the last few weeks have been a fairly scary time for both of us.

As you know, we also had our week in Dunedin with my boys & my grand daughter. That time I wouldn't trade for anything. It is a great comfort to know that even though we are separated by quite a distance they are still there for me if I need them. In fact, its quite humbling to actually find out how many are there for me if I need them. I still feel out on a limb a little family wise as I still have a mother & a sister, but neither of them even recognise me let alone have any comprehension of what is happening in the world. Speaking of my sister, I had a call from the nursing home today to tell me she is failing fast. We went down to see her this afternoon. She just looked so old & frail it broke both our hearts to see her.

On the good side, I finally finished Herself''s Shade house. She has been busier than a bee with a bum full of honey ever since. I also took the unprecedented step of doing a bit of weeding for her. Do you know Dock Plants have tap roots that go down at least a foot & unless you get it all they will grow back ? And did you also know that they are about the only bloody thing that will actually grow through weedmat ? Scary isn't it ?

This is the finished shadehouse in all its glory. Have I not done well?

Talking 'bout my Generation

This is three generations of us. As you may have guessed, I have finally managed to download the photo's from my camera to my computer. This my eldest son Sean, (A very proud Daddy) myself, (A just as proud Poppy) & Anna Jayne, who you can tell by the pic is either going to be a hellfire & brimstone preacher, or a politician.



This is herself getting to know Miss Muffet a little better. Aren't they both beautiful? I got a text from Sean yesterday telling me that she is crawling properly now & has cut her first tooth. God it makes me feel old. Old, but proud. Oh, if I didn't mention it, today is my birthday. Happy Birthday to me. 58 years of undetected crime. Sighhhhh.......

Home is the hunter

Well, its fairly evident that we are back from Dunedin. We had a great time. The only bad bit was when they wouldn't let herself take her knitting on the plane on the trip down, but we survived that. I took about 300 odd photo's but due to a glitch with the camera at present, this is the only photo that I took that I have managed to retrieve. When I figure out how I did it , I will probably bore you all with a lot more.

This is two very proud Grandparents having their first of many cuddles with Anna Jayne, Our precious wee grand daughter at the Dunedin Air terminal. She is so cute, but I'm probably biased I guess. We had an absolutely wonderful time. My boys did us proud. Sean looked after us wonderfully & was extremely generous in sharing his time & his wee daughter with us. he took us to a place called Macrae, about an hours drive north of Dunedin where there is a huge open cast gold mine & a little further on, an old mining town, complete with a stamper battery. From there we went up to Moeraki, to look at the round boulders on the beach. I thought there was heaps of them, but they are only on a small part of the beach. I will show the pics when I figure out how to get them out of my camera.

We stayed with Ian on the weekend, & celebrated his wife's birthday the day we arrived. We had dinner at the Speights Brewery Restaurant, a wonderful place with incredible atmosphere. Again , pictures to follow. Ian works part time as a bouncer at various night clubs in the city & Saturday night on the grog with him was a real eye opener. One of the places he works is called "Monkey's Bar" & is an old church. Its under the Historic Places Trust, so can't be altered. Picture the organ pipes at the back with the disco gear in front of them. Very dramatic. Like something out of a Goth Vampire movie. He took us to the Chinese Gardens on Sunday. They were prefabricated in China, shipped out & assembled by teams of little Chinese men with wheel barrows. A lovely place. Again , photo's to follow.

The trip home was interesting. Too much cloud for sight seeing, but it didn't matter. We were sat next to a fascinating lady called Camelia, no kidding, who is a psychologist from Transylvania, again, I kid you not. It's actually part of Roumania, but you knew that, & she was there during the fall of Communism in '89 & did she have some stories. Touch down in Auckland was almost a let down she was so interesting. The final nice thing that happened was my boss rang Friday & said I could have another week off, maybe two so I might get some fishing & concreting done after all. Well, thats the Readers Digest version of our week away. More to follow when I can retrieve my photo's

Leaving on a Jet Plane

But I know when I'll be back again.. next Thursday probably. We be off on our big OE tomorrow. Firstly up to Auckland to overnight with Jude's brother who is going to take us to the Airport on Wednesday morning, then to Dunedin via a half hour stop over at Christchurch. We be flying friendly skies with Virgin Blue.

To tell the truth , I'm more than just a bit nervous about it. We are staying at my eldest son's place so that Herself can spend some quality time with our newest grand daughter, Anna Jayne Leslie & also so that myself & my two sons can do a little fence mending between us. I'm very proud of the pair of them the way that they have rallied around their old Dad. I just hope I don't stuff it all up...

See ya next week.

Eight Miles High

At least thats what I felt like this morning. Not sure why. It could have been for a variety of reasons. For a start, i didn't take my sleeping tablet till late last night. About half an hour after I turned the light off & I didn't go to bed till quite late, & read for about half an hour. I was going to try a night without them, but I chickened out. See, my old mate Hawkeye rang about twenty past seven last night & we talked till after ten. It seems that yesterday marked two years since his wife Jen, passed away. Hawkeye has had a major heart attack since then & I think he is feeling his mortality a bit.

The conversation eventually degenerated into the usual "Remember when" session. We both agree that someone should write a book, but also agree that nobody would believe half the stories anyway. Add to that, some of the stories would probably break marriages & occasion law suites, so I guess not. Its always good talking to Hawkeye. We are old comrades in arms from Fire Service days & we seem to fit each other like a comfortable old pair of slippers. Even the fact that he really fancies his chances with Herself is Ok as well. Herself regards this with a sort of bemused bewilderment tinged with a little amusement. I know Hawkeye is all shit & feathers anyway & would rather cut his drinking arm off than offend me.

Night before last, I talked on instant message to somebody who I prefer not to associate with, but she is lonely & basically has a good heart. Aside from offering any help she could for Herself & I she also told me some horror stories about my thyroid medication. Being the level headed sort of bloke that I am, I checked it out with both the Chemist & the Doctor. I have nothing to worry about, but it turns out that I have been taking my tablets at the wrong time of day for the last 20 odd years. I have been taking it in the evenings & am supposed to take it in the mornings half an hour before eating, so I changed today. That might also be another reason for feeling so weird.

An aside from this is that the chemist who looked after my family for years has sold his business & set himself up as a natural health practitioner & he just happened to be filling in at the Chemist we now go to. I filled him in on what had been happening with regards to Herself, & also queried about my Thyroxine. He rang back about an hour later with some very good council on both. He also phoned later that evening & asked us if we would come down to his clinic as he wanted to run a few things by us. We went out to Kopu, got some really lovely fish & chips, took them down the coast a bit & sat & ate them before going in.

What actually happened was that he gave Herself a consultation that lasted about an hour & a half & then refused to charge her for it. What he said made an awful lot of sense. Apart from cutting bits out or off, modern medicine can't actually cure anything. All it can do is mask or lessen the symptoms till they either become bearable or go away by themselves. he made a lot of sense. he also wrote it all down for us. We are going to give it a try at the least. At the best it could prolong Herself's time here. At the worst, she will die healthy. At least we will know that we have tried.

Some Days are diamonds

This is Herself with our eldest grandson. We went to Auckland on Sunday to visit him, his Mother & Father & his little sister. Coincidentally, her two sons were there as well, & an old friend, an ex sister in law made the trip from Titirangi to Albany to see her. We had a really great day & a good trip home.

Yesterday, we both got into the back garden & hauled a trailer load of weeds to the dump. Some other good stuff happened too that helped restore our faith in human nature, but that is gonna have to stay confidential at this point. Even with all this, which should have made for a really good day, I took Herself out for lunch as well, I had a dreadful day. It ended with me holding Herself like there was going to be no tomorrow & sobbing my heart out.

Like the song says,"Some days are diamond, some days are stone." Sunday was a definite diamond day. Clear , pure, sparkling & full of hope & happiness. Yesterday for me, was a cold, hard, stone day, with the stone sitting very heavily in the pit of my stomach. I haven't decided yet what today has been. I haven't done a great deal apart from fix a pot for herself so she could plant it, & muck about in the garage a bit pretending to clean up.

Oh I finished an excellent book by Joe Haldeman called 1968. Its the story of one young conscripts time in Vietnam, his return home & his integration into society. Its a sad book, but I guess it was a sad war.

Its not dark yet

Says Mr Dylan. This song says it all for me at the moment.

My oldest & one of my dearest friends Kathy rang from the States, (Texas actually) last night. She & I have been corresponding since we were both 12 or so. I'm not gonna tell you how long that is, because that would give away her age & a gentleman NEVER does that. We don't actually talk to each other per se that often, but we do keep in touch via email & here. It was good to talk to her. She asked me some very searching questions that I had to come up with answers for. They were mostly things that I had filed in the "Too Hard" folder under the subheading "personal stuff that I'm not ready to cope with yet." I know that if I had said I don't wish to talk about this that she would have let me off the hook, but I hung in there . Kathy, thank you for your love, concern & prayers.

Its hard for a resident comedian like myself to be humble & just say thank you to people but damn, I seem to be doing it one hell of a lot at the moment. Its so good to know that there are folk out there that actually give a damn. Morty, I know you have issues of your own to cope with, so that makes the love & concern that you have for Jude & I so much more cherished. Cwnda, you somehow have knack for saying the right thing. Thank you for being there. There are a hell of a lot of people in Jude's circle of friends out there that are there for us as well.

Well, thats really enough of the sad soggy bits for one day. We be going to sit up half the night & watch the opening of the Olympic Games.. Gosh, I wonder if Tibet will be represented...

Eight days a week

At least that's what it feels like. Its a week to the day that we found out about Herself's problems. Well what else can I call it .. Disease ?? Illness ??? Incapacitation ???? Anything else you can come up with ? All I can say is that it has to be a problem shared if the offers of help & support that we have had in the last few days are anything to go by. How many of those will continue to be there in the cold light of day when they are asked is anybodies guess, but I know that there is a solid core of friends there that will stand up & be counted no matter what the cost or inconvenience to themselves.

We had Jude's youngest son & his wife come down for the weekend, which was wonderful. They are both towers of strength, & it was wonderful to have them here. They gave so much positive support. Thanks guys. Today we had our dose of optimism in the form of a trip down to Tauranga to see Morty. Now there is more than a friend. If you follow her blog, you will be aware that she has her own problems, both short & long term, but Jude & I know beyond the remotest shadow of a doubt, that when the excrement hits the revolving air mover, she will be there for us. Her positive & practical outlook is very comforting, & actually leaves me feeling as though I might actually sleep tonight without waking up with this incredibly cold ball in my stomach.

Jude's natural brother Brian rang last night & was absolutely devastated on two counts. Firstly for Jude, as her loves her dearly, & is such a loving gentle soul, & secondly because as he told us, his ( & Jude's ) mother, died of pretty much the same thing, so we surmise that heredity is a factor. He is coming down to see us this weekend, which will be great.

Bewilderment Rules

It's 7.17 AM on Saturday morning. I have just finished work for a month. Herselfs youngest son & his wife are coming down to spend the weekend with us. My two sons in an amazing act of generosity & reconciliation have offered to pay for our airfares so that we can go down to Dunedin, spend some quality time with them both, get to know our new grand daughter & help my youngest son's wife celebrate her birthday. Apart from the weather, surely a time for celebration & rejoicing.

Unfortunately not. Let me explain. You see, for some time Herself has been exhibiting symptoms of having had a stroke of some sort, but we just put it down to other things such as ill fitting teeth. Finally a dear friend insisted she see a doctor about it, so we did. He sent her for Xrays & a CT scan, the Xrays being to rule out Parkinsons disease, which they did.

So on to the specialist, which we did on Tuesday. Since then, we have been struggling to come to terms with the fact that my beloved wife & best buddy has got a condition known as Bulbar Palsy, & as a result is going to have an extremely shortened life span. Since then, we have existed in a state of shock. The only bright spot is the support, offers of help & general compassion that has been freely offered from friends, loved ones & workmates. Thank you all

Now for something completely different

That Song is drivin me crazy

Well, not exactly crazy but this particular version of this song does evince a very powerful reaction from both Herself & Me.

You see, I have it as part of my CD collection on audio, although I have a cunning plan to add the DVD to my collection as well. Let me explain. I have the cd as part of my collection of copied discs that I drag around in my work bag, for occasions when I'm out of reception for what I believe to be an acceptable radio station when I'm working. I haven't listened to this one in a while, but I've been in a country/folk/bluegrassy mood lately, so I gave it a spin Monday. There is a few songs that evoke an emotional reaction for me, most of them are Irish. One other song is the ballad of Pancho & Lefty. Another is City of New Orleans. This particular version of this song came out of left field for me as emotive.

I happened to take herself with me yesterday. I told her to pick a CD to listen to & she surprised me by selecting "The Best Of The Band" After that had finished I dragged out this CD which is, if you were wondering, The Pete Seegar Tapes, by Bruce Springsteen. When this track came on, I surreptitiously wiped some rain that had managed to get into my eye through a closed window. I happened to look across to see herself having a good old blub as well, which really surprised me, as she is usually fairly fire proof to this sort of music.

Out of curiosity, I asked her what the pull of the song was for her. She told me that it conjured up memories of being a small child & spending time with her Grandmother in a small township down the line called Mangaweka. It would seem as though her Grandmother was really the only one of her elders who actually gave a shit about her & really loved her. From this woman , a little girl learned to love gardening, patchwork knitting & hand hooked rag rugs.

I can't say for certain what it does for me. It's a sad & gentle lament of a boy taken rudely from a home that he loved & thrust into the horrors of a civil war. He is pining for his river & his woman. Both unobtainable. I guess thats the commonality of it all. We are all reaching for things that are out of reach & sometimes out of sight. I'm not certain as I said, what it is in my case, but I think I know. I think it has too do with Grandparents that I never met. You know the continuity of the whole thing. Also I think it has to do with children & a grand daughter that live in another Island. The grand daughter I haven't met yet. I feel deprived I suppose of the whole family continuity thing. The only thing my father really passed on to me was a love of the out doors. None of the skills & interests that he really wanted me to have were of particular interest to me. That doesn't mean I didn't try; I just couldn't put my heart & soul into them. The things that consumed me as a teenager, namely reading & music, he just couldn't care less about. Family wise, I feel as though I am in a bit of a social vacuum.

Don't get me wrong here. I have two wonderful grand children in Auckland, but they function on a totally different level. I cant see them being interested in many of the things that I am. I will happily stand to be corrected though

Happiness is a hot Pipi Sandwich

I haven't had a decent feed of Pipi's for a few years now. Mainly because there has been a ban on collecting them from our particular part of coastline. The reason being that the stocks have had a hell of a hammering over the years & needed the time to build up again. Also nobody seriously heeded the limit of 50 per person per day, but is enforced more rigorously now. The big problem is that collecting pipi's is an addictive pastime.

You spend a frantic hour or so racing the tide, scrabbling round on your knees in the sand unearthing the damn things. Its addictive in the sense that there is always a few more of them in the next handful of sand that you just HAVE to have. So you usually come home with more than you actually need. Not from a sense of greed, but just because the damn things are there.

This makes it hard when you get home. You see I'm the only one that eats 'em, so I have to cook em & shell 'em. Thats the tedious bit. The good bit is when they are in a bowl with some malt vinegar & a little black pepper. You then scoop up a handful & arrange them artfully between two slices of fresh bread spread liberally & eat. I had 4 sandwiches like that for tea & I still have enough for another sammy for supper. Its a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

ON THE HEAVY SIDE....

I see that the Pope has formally apologised to all the victims of sexual abuse by his priests in Australia. Well whoop de fucking doo. Thats really going to help the poor souls that have been used & abused by these hypocrites. I guess though, that you can't really expect normal behaviour from a group of people that are expected to live their life in a celibate state. Its an unnatural way for man to be, so I suppose that you can't really expect much else.

Ok,so we only caught one snapper

But we saw about half a dozen Little Blue Penguins & we got to see how they harvest mussels from the farms, & even saw the mussels we saw being picked on their way up to Auckland for processing. We burnt probably $50.00 worth of gas just mooching around enjoying ourselves. We had a good day.

Did I mention that I have all this week off bar one day & also pretty much all of August as well ? Never mind. I do anyway....

I get high with a little help from my friends

I found this little gem of a clip when I was trolling You Tube last night. It sorta fits with my previous post as two out of the three of them are gone now, although Gerry Garcia did last longer than Joplin. Rick Danko is still doing it. From what I can gather this clip was shot while they were on tour in Canada..
Groovy huh ?

Only the good die young

I had time on my hands after seeing what the final score from the rugby was last night, so i went for a stroll down memory lane on You Tube. I found some absolutely blinding live performances by Led Zeppelin there, & came to the conclusion that they were at their utter best playing live rather than in an impersonal recording studio. To me, the mark of a good artist is being able to successfully jam during the instrumental breaks, & damn.Led Zep could do it with style. I also came across such curiosities as a band featuring Eric Clapton, John Lennon & Keith Richards playing some knockout blues. I'm not going to give you the links for this stuff. If you are sufficiently interested, go find it yourself. It's there. I also found Gary Moore & Eric Bell (lead guitar for Thin Lizzie) doing the most amazing version bar none of Whiskey in the Jar that I think I have ever experienced.

All this got me to thinking about how some people have shaped the course of rock music simply by dying. What I mean , is that their deaths have either radically changed the sound of the band, or affected the other members of it so badly that they have stopped playing altogether. in the latter group, the name John Bonham springs readily to mind. John Bonham , as we know, was the charismatic & agressive drummer for Led Zeppelin. He was only agressive behind his skins though. I have seen an interview of his with Billy Connolly where Billy was hard put to get more than two words at a time from him. The details of his rather pointless death are well documented all over the net for those who don't already know. needless to say, his death affected the other members of the band that much, that it was only this year that they performed in public again, & then with "Bonzo's " son on skins.. A nice touch I thought.

The Who sort of lost their impetus with the death of Keith Moon for a long time & subsequently "The Ox" Although Townsend & Daltry seem to have recovered heart on the wave of popularity follwing the Live8 concert & subsequent use of their music in a TV show.

Lynard Skynard lost Ronnie Van Zant in 77 & never really reformed. although a tribute band featuring Ronnies brother Johnnie is still playing. To my knowledge though, as a tribute to Ronnie for a long time when they played Freebird, nobody would sing the lyrics, leaving it to the Audience.

"I used to play my guitar as a kid
wishing that I could be like him
But today I changed my mind
I decided that I don't want to die
But it was a normal day for Brian
Rock and Roll's that way
It was a normal day for Brian
A man who died every day"

Thus wrote Pete Townsend on the death of Brian Jones. His estrangement from The Stones & subsequent death are well documented by better scribes than I. Just let it be said that his musical genius provided a depth & range of instrumental ability that was breathtaking. I'm not knocking Ronnie Woods here, because he is a very capable axeman, but it was said of Brian Jones that he could pick up any instrument & be able to play it well within half an hour. Wikipedia has this to say on the subject....

Throughout his career, Jones showed exceptional musical aptitude, able to play an array of instruments on Stones' recordings. As soon as the Stones earned enough money to record in professional studios like Olympic Studio, the RCA, and Sunset Sound Recorders in Los Angeles, and influenced by The Beach Boys 1966 album Pet Sounds and The Beatles experiment with Indian music (notably George Harrison's sitar and tamboura), Jones started experimenting with wind and stringed instruments.

Throughout his years with the band, he played stringed instruments (guitar, sitar, tamboura, Appalachian dulcimer), keyboards (organ, mellotron), wind instruments (recorder, harmonica) and several other instruments such as the xylophone and marimba. In fact, sources say that Jones could pick any instrument and learn to play it in less than half an hour. [14]

Jones' main guitar in the early years was a Gretsch Double Anniversary in two-tone green, but Jones is known for his signature teardrop-shaped prototype Vox Phantom Mark III. From late 1965 until his death, Jones used Gibson models (various Firebirds, ES-330, and a Les Paul model), as well as two Rickenbacker 12-String models.

Jones contributed to the 1960s sound of the Stones, playing slide guitar on "I Wanna Be Your Man", "Little Red Rooster" and "No Expectations", harmonica on "Come On", "Dear Doctor", "Prodigal Son", "2120 South Michigan Avenue", "I Just Want to Make Love to You", "Look What You've Done" and "Not Fade Away", tambura and sitar on "Street Fighting Man" and "Paint It, Black", organ on "Let's Spend The Night Together", "Complicated" and "2000 Man", marimba on "Under My Thumb" and "Yesterday's Papers", recorder on "Ruby Tuesday", saxophone on "Child of the Moon", appalachian dulcimer on "I Am Waiting" and "Lady Jane", accordion on "Backstreet Girl", harpsichord on "Sittin' on a Fence", harpsichord, saxophone and oboe on "Dandelion", harpsichord on Lady Jane, mellotron on "She's A Rainbow", "Stray Cat Blues", "We Love You" and on "2000 Light Years from Home", tambourine on "Can I Get a Witness" and "Tell Me (You're Coming Back), and autoharp on "You Got the Silver".

There are others that I could talk about, not only band members, but individual artists that have succumbed over the years to the temptations offered by sudden stardom & a free & easy lifestyle. I just can't help but wonder at the music the bands that I have mentioned have produced while at the top of their game & speculate in vain what they would be turning out now IF they had survived, & IF the members of their respective bands had managed to weather the turbulence that their lifestyle engendered. Damn, there is gonna be some big reunion concerts in Heaven.....

Hoots Mon...

I met these two fine wee chappies at a house just out of Paeroa this afternoon. happy little fellows who gave me a most enthusiastic greeting. Don't ya just LOVE the wee jackets the puir wee bairns hae gotta wear.. Shit I laughed...
Now for breaking news... In an attempt to circumvent rising fuel costs. Coromandel Couriers has gone nuclear. Yes folks, a steam turbine powered by a nuclear reactor has been fitted experimentally to one of our trucks.What are we gonna do with the spent fuel rods ? Oh any old convenient water course.. Who really cares if a few locals glow in the dark....... Either that or pack em all up & send em down to Parliament.. Now theres a thought...