Rock Stuff!

Can't believe it's been over a year since I last posted on here!  Well, folks, I'm about to change all that.  And the reason?  My wonderful holiday in New England...

It was a fantastic holiday.  I flew to Boston, travelled up to Canada, then back down to New York.  On the way I saw the most spectacular countryside, met some lovely people, and had myself a whole lotta fun!

That holiday was the antidote I needed to get over the grief I'd been coping with through the summer.  In June two very, very special people in my life died within a week of each other, and it took some getting over.  When you've loved people for most of your life it leaves a huge gap you think will never be filled.  So I didn't know what to expect from my holiday... Until I fetched up in a little place called Bath in New Hampshire. 

Bath is the home of The Brick Store, the oldest general store in America - or so it's claimed, and it was there I found myself waking up again!

For all of you who know me well, you know how much music means to me.  And The Brick Store is owned by Mike Lusty, the drummer with the band The Rocking Chairs.  Next to the general store is an ice cream parlour, and next to that is an art shop. 

The ice cream parlour is a sight to behold.  The walls are covered in old original 45s, and it's the real deal.  Yes, they do sell ice cream!  It was there I bought a CD by The Rocking Chairs.  Naturally I got it signed by the three members of the band who were around! 

Little did I know it then, but the healing process had begun!  It suddenly all came together in Times Square in New York.  I stood there that first evening, and I came alive!  For the first time in many months I began to feel happy.

OK, that's enough of the sad stuff...

Since coming home I've listened to The Rocking Chairs a lot!  They are good!  Rock and roll as it should be played.  After that I dug out CDs I hadn't heard for months and since then the music hasn't stopped in my house!  Music has always enhanced my mood, and really good rock music does it for me every time.

This week has been the Rockiest week so far.  Tuesday I went to see The Vampires of Rock at the New Theatre, Hull.  Fantastic, amazing, ear-splitting stuff.  Then on Wednesday there was Steve Jones' show on Rhondda Radio, that was terrific.

I must mention here that Steve had a 'big finish' lined up just for me - which I can't thank him enough for.  I'd sent Rhondda Radio a present.  They're community based and rely on donations to keep going.  Anyway, as a special Thank You, Steve played MeatLoaf's 'Bat Out of Hell' specially for me - the complete 9 minute version!  Now that's rock!

He knows I love MeatLoaf and there was nothing better he could have played for me.  I'm always asking for a MeatLoaf request, and sometimes I'm lucky, but this came out of the blue.

Friends, eh!  I love 'em all to bits, and I know they really are friends.  They've seen me through the tough times this year, and I give them my heart for their love and support, I am truly grateful...

I've also been tuning in to another on-line radio station, Aiiradio.  My friend, Brian Dade, has 4 shows on there during the week, and there's a very lively chat room in operation at the same time.  It was during one of Brian's shows I 'met' a guy called Bill Horncastle who was born in Hull, now lives in Market Weighton and has his own show on Market Weighton Radio!  He knows Skeffling, too, and I'll be investigating that further...

So there you go...  I can't get away from music, musicians, DJs and so many lovely people associated with music.  It's been with me all my life, and long may it continue... 

Meatloaf - the REAL one!

Being big fans of Meatloaf my friend, Sharon, sent me a link to Meatloaf’s page on Facebook. It was well worth looking at and after I'd listened to the music I clicked on the Like button, as you do. Now here's the exciting bit - a few days later I got a message from the man himself. Meatloaf had posted a message on my Facebook page! Then, at the weekend, he sent me a really lovely picture of himself from his personal Blackberry.


The fantasy would have been complete had I not known that exactly the same thing was appearing on several thousand other Facebook pages, including Sharon’s!

My brush with the music biz didn’t end there either.

For the past couple of weeks my son, Paul, has been on Facebook raving about his friend, Stephen Jones’ radio programme on Rhondda Radio. It’s called ‘The Old Grey Beard Show’ and is broadcast on Tuesday night between 8 and 10pm. So, curious to know what it was all about, I tuned in and was seriously impressed.

Next morning I sent Stephen a message on Facebook to tell him how much I enjoyed the show and would be tuning in again next week. I also happened to mention that if he did requests ‘Two Out of Three Ain’ Bad’ by Meatloaf would be nice.

You can imagine my surprise when, an hour later, I got a reply from Stephen. He said if he’d known I was listening he’d have given me a mention and he was working on playing my request next week!

Can’t wait for Tuesday. Rhondda Radio is, of course, a local radio station which you probably won’t pick up unless you live in the Rhondda. You can, however, tune in on your PC as I did. The web site address is: www.rhonddaradio.com.  It's on 87.8fm if you want to give the radio a try.

If you like Rock, you’ll love The Old Grey Beard Show.

Oh yes, one other thing... Whilst all this excitement was happening I gave up smoking on Monday...

Passwords

Last week the Webmaster reminded me, rather sternly I felt, that I had not posted anything since February.  Having been duly reprimanded, I am now making amends.

Wherever you go on the web you have to enter a password.  Yes, that wonderful word which give you access to just about anything - provided the computer at the other end recognises your password!  And that's where the problems begin.  I shall explain...

Last Thursday I wanted to make an appointment at the doctor's and, having signed up to this facility, and having ordered repeat prescriptions without any problems, I accessed the website, put in my user name and the password, expecting to be logged in.  That's when my optimism left me.

Your user name or password has not been recognised.  From the flashing cursor and empty field it was the password which had not been recognised.  I tried again.  Your user name or password has not been recognised.  Several tries later it was obvious I wasn't going to get access however nice I tried to be.

Next morning I rang the surgery, and was given a new password.  No explanation as to why the old one hadn't worked.  While I was on the phone I made the appointment, which I felt somewhat defeated the purpose, but there you are.

This isn't the first time it's happened to me.  When shopping on-line Visa Verification sometimes comes into play and you have to enter a password.  On six separate occasions this wonderful system refused to accept my password and I had to create a new one.  Last time it happened I got stroppy and put in the password it had just refused to accept.  D'you know what it said: You have used this password before, choose a new one.  Now if it knew I'd used it before why did it need another one? 

We're told we must never write down our pin numbers or passwords in case someone steals them.  So if we mere mortals are expected to remember passwords, why can't computers? 

If anyone can explain why computers forget passwords, please let me know.  I'm fed up having to come up with a new one because some unseen computer is having a senior moment!