Saturday, 30 November 2024

The Saturday List #243 - Ten things that Covid and the pandemic changed in my life

 Four years ago, towards the end of November 2020, I wrote this 

" I always have a note in my diary for today to remind me to order the Turkey, think of a present for Clare, arrange an Xmas beer with a couple of friends that I've not seen through the year. It gives me a month to get myself in order. As I am sure you are aware, this year that note is largely redundant right now. I doubt those beers will be had. It seems likely that London will be in tier 2 or 3 of lockdown. It seems that we might see the family, but mass and a meal at Prezzo seems unlikely. In a normal year, I'd be in the middle of planning a few things right now. Since the Barnet Eye became established, we've always had the Barnet Eye community awards and The False Dots Xmas party in December. That isn't happening. There is the annoual Pogues/Pogue traders gig. That isn't happening. There is the Xmas trip to The Etihad for a match. There is my sister in laws Xmas party in Notting Hill. There is our post Xmas break with friends. You get the picture."  

The Blog was titled "Don't feel guilty for being happy". What was interesting was how much things have returned to Normal. I will be seeing friends for Xmas drinks. The False Dots have their Xmas gig in the diary (please come along, it will be a blast - click on poster for tix). 

We are booked to see The Pogue Traders at Dingwalls for the Xmas gig. On Wednesday, we go to the Etihad for our Xmas trip. My sister in law is having her party in Notting Hill and we have our trip away with friends. The only thing on that list that isn't happening is we won't be doing the Barnet Eye Community Awards. There are a couple of reasons for that, nothing really to do with the Pandemic. The first is the pubs we used to hold the awards at have either shut down or are under new management. The second is that I am really too busy with other things to do it properly. I may well next year, if we can get a decent venue.. I do feel that community hero's should be recognised, but getting nominations and putting an evening together is actually a lot of work. But in truth, the pandemic is the reason this stopped. When you do something every year and then you can't, you lose momentum and other things take priority. It got me thinking. What things in my life have changed because of the pandemic? I thought I'd make a list.

1. My finances. I was chatting yesterday with one of my customers. A nice chap, who was a candidate for the Conservatives in Mill Hill for many years, when the Lib Dems used to always win. He's also a musician. We always have a good chinwag about local issues etc. Before the pandemic, we were doing well financially. Don't get me wrong, we are not paupers now, but we are what you may describe as asset rich / cash poor. Keeping the business alive cleaned out our ready cash savings and the business turnover has not returned to pre pandemic levels. This means no expensive holidays, far fewer dinners out and cutting of other luxuries. Given that in 2020 I didn't think the business would survive and it has, I suppose I should be grateful. What upsets me is that it seems that at every budget in the last two years, both Tory and Labour governments have put the boot into small business. I discussed this with my friend yesterday. We are on opposite sides of the political divide, but he agreed with everything I said. If I wasn't so in love with music, I'd cash my chips in and put my feet up. Sadly, my life is music and without it, life wouldn't be worth living, so I am lumbered running my studio and my missus is lumbered putting up with it. Many people don't understand, but to me, what is the point of cash if you are not doing what you love? I could have all the money in the world and still be miserable, if I didn't have a band and my studios.

2. My sense of smell. This is an odd one. I have never tested positive for covid. I've never had the symptoms for the whole period of the pandemic. However, before the pandemic struck, over Xmas 2019, I had all of the symptoms. I lost my sense of taste. I thought I had lung cancer. I was waking up at night in a sweat. I was seriously thinking of going to the Doctor for a chest x-ray, but it abated after about two weeks and I forgot about it. I only realised when the government announced that loss of smell and taste was a symptom. We'd been having a curry on new years eve and my mates were saying it was lovely. I can recall thinking "They are mad, it tastes of nothing". I went to bed at five past midnight as I felt so ill. But.... and this is the really odd thing, now my sense of smell is 100 times better than it ever was. This is generally a bad thing. I have the sense of smell of a blood hound. Most smells are horrible. People on the tube, the smell when you have a pee (I can tell what my last meal was, be it fish, meat or veg). I can smell the pollen from Oak trees in the spring (never noticed it before). The list goes on. Anyone else noticed? Was it a long covid symptom? I am curious.

3. My musical taste. The pandemic made me listen to a hell of a lot more recorded music than I have for decades. I started making up Spotify playlists for fun. Lots of things that previously I dismissed as "unserious" I now love. A good example is the Mariachis cover of I love rock and roll, from the Mexican party album. This is now on my Cheer me up playlist!

4. My culinary ability. Mostly due to boredom, during covid, I did a lot of cooking. I had the time to experiment and I realised where I'd been going wrong previously. The down side of this is that I expect a far higher quality of food when I eat out. Summed up, I want restaurants to use good ingredients and prepare food properly. The best example is roast potatoes.  Before the pandemic, I'd par boil for ten minutes, then put in the oven. Now, I par boil for twelve minutes, give them a quick fry, salt and pepper them and put them on a hot plate in the oven. They taste a million times better. 

5. I am calmer. I did a lot of introspection during covid. I realised that I got riled far too easily. This has been an ongoing thing for me. In 1995, I actually had anger management sessions as Clare was pregnant and I realised that I needed to calm down. I am not a violent person, but I can be horrible when I am riled. During covid, I realised that I needed to do more work on this and actively practice the stratetgies. I realised this had worked on Wednesday. I was at the Virgin Gym in Mill Hill East, sitting in the sauna. A very arrogant and inconsiderate fellow member did did something that infuriated me (rightly). I was furious. Thirty years ago I'd have probably lost the plot and punched him. There was a big part of me that really wanted to but despite seething, I simply said in a very low, calm voice "what you just did was extremely inconsiderate and bad mannered" whilst glaring at him. To my amazement he backed down and apologised. It is the better way. Without the pause for lockdown, I doubt I'd have taken the time to understand my own weaknesses.

6. My time management has gone out of the window. I used to be extremely well disciplined and got things done. Now I don't.It infuriates me. Luckily Clare just about keeps things on track. Being lazy and having nothing to do for four months of total lockdown really messed me up. 

7. I discovered my voice. When we first set up the band, Pete Conway was the singer. He left and for a while I'd sing a few songs. I hated it and always felt embarrassed. After a couple of years, we got a singer and I concentrated on guitar. During lockdown, our then singer Allen Ashley couldn't rehearse. I started singing out of necessity. I realised I actually enjoyed it, I'd just been singing the wrong sort of songs! This culminated with the band releasing an album with me singing all the songs last week. I am really pleased with it. I am very much in the Ian Dury/Suggs school of singing, but as that's the music I love most, that's fine! I now bitterly regret having waited 45 years to realise.


8. My relationship with social media. The pandemic and lockdown made Social Media toxic. As people had nothing else to do, they piled on to social media and got really cross about everything. I very quickly tired of it all.

9. My relationship with God. I don't particularly feel comfortable talking about my faith and my religion publicly, but I also believe in honesty. I don't think anyone could see what was happening without challenging their view of the Universe. As someone raised in the Roman Catholic tradition, having time on my hands to think about my religion and faith enabled me to get an adult perspective that I'd never had previously. I've always had a deep suspicion of the heriarchical nature of most religions and a dislike of rituals and ceremonies. Weighed against that I have huge appreciation of the fact that churches etc are community hubs, where people come together to mingle and mix and try and be better, more compassionate individuals. I think it is a very good thing to spend an hour in such an environment. Clearly during covid, there were no masses etc at the Church. I didn't miss it, but when the Church reopened, I found I was glad to be back. I respect everyone's views. If atheism or another religion works for you that is great. This works for me.

10. My songwriting skills. When lockdown hit, I thought "great, I'll have time to write some brilliant songs". What did I do? I lay on the lounger and drank beer. I realised that without inspiration, I had nothing to write about. I tried, but failed miserably, so I gave up. Then I was looking at some old pictures and videos. When the band started rehearsing, I had some ideas. We were still in a level of lockdown but as music is my job, we could rehearse,  I started experimenting. Our drummer, Graham, started talking about how lockdown was like "Sunday in the 70's" where nothing was open and there was nothing to do. It inspired a song. The bits fell into place. It also gave me a template for how False Dots songs should work. It was the first video we released as part of the "New False Dots". Without lockdown, I'd never have written a song like this. 

What did the pandemic/covid change in your life?

Friday, 29 November 2024

Friday Fun 29th November 2024

 As always we start with The Friday Joke. Once more, a hat tip to Robert Wilkinson, who as ever makes me titter! 


Local Football this weekend

Why not come down to Brickfield Lane Stadium (opposite the Gate Pub) in Barnet and watch the Borough of Barnet's oldest football team, Hadley FC bid to go top of the Pitchings Southern league Division One Central against Flackwell Heath.


Music this week

Local Legends The False Dots will be playing as part of the Band Up/DJAMINN  London Talent Week on Friday 6th at Fabwick in Hackney Wick. Even better, it's free! It will also be live streamed as part of London's biggest winter festival for Independent bands

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@djaminn  

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Djaminnapp/

Local Mill Hill Indie Band The Sway, who were active in the 1980's have reformed and released a new EP. There is a nice write up in the Watford Observer - Listen to the EP if 90's Britpop is your thing! The Sway new EP - Listen

Local Gig List

NOVEMBER
Friday 29th
Builders Arms 8pm – 11pm - W3 Detour (Original rock/blues)
Butchers Arms 9pm – 11.30pm  - The Cavaliers (60s, 70s, 80s and 90s cover)
The Arkley Club 7.30pm – 11.30pm - Cha Night (Charity event) £5 on the door
Barrington 8.30pm – midnight -Karaoke with Johnno
Ye Olde Monk and Holt 8.30pm - midnight DJ Sadie Disco

Saturday 30th
Butchers Arms 9pm – 11pm - Groove Rats (Rock/blues)
Builders Arms 8pm Turbine - Live Metal and Rock
East Barnet Legion 9pm – 11pm -  Short Notice
Ye Olde Monken Holt 9.30pm – Midnight - Joe Cullen (Acoustic covers and originals)
The Lord Kitchener 8.30pm – Late Karaoke with Johnno
The Arkley Club 8pm – 11pm Rangoon rocks the Arkley
Maddens 9.30pm - Bowies Heroes

DECEMBER
Sunday 1st December 
Butchers 8.30pm – 11.30pm - Pauls Jam 

Monday 2nd Ye Olde Mitre Inn, High Street 8pm – 11pm (stables room) - Barnet Acoustics Sessions

Wednesday 4th
Ye Olde Monken Holt 8.30 – 11pm - Open Mic Night

Thursday 5th
Ye Olde Monken Holt 8.30pm – 10.30pm - Traditional Irish Session (Irish Folk)
Maddens 8.30pm – late Ronnie Gordon Legacy Band
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And finally, you can listen to the new album by The False Dots here!

Wednesday, 27 November 2024

What I do when I really need cheering up

 Today, I am feeling as down and miserable as I have for a long time (well since I started to feel better after my radical prostatectomy). Don't worry, I'm not feeling depressed, that is a whole magnitude of feel bad apart. But I am feeling miserable, fed up and down. There are, I suspect, four reasons. The first is the weather and the gloom. It is 3.30pm I've been staring at this all day. I normally don't work Wednesdays, but Daz, my manager is off and I'm covering.

The second reason was Manchester City imploding and playing abysmally for 20 minutes after leading 3-0 in the Champions League last night, drawing 3-3. Such things always disturb my equilibrium. The third reason is a lack of alcohol. I've not had a drink since Saturday and I won't have another one until Friday evening. I have been overdoing it recently and I needed a rest. I am not someone who drinks alone or for the sake of it, but I do enjoy a pint with mates or a glass of wine with my honey and I am giving it a rest. 

The fourth reason is I am on a radical diet and a health kick. I am fasting 20 hours a day until Friday, which means I have a bowl of porridge and 9am and a bowl of food at 1pm, then nothing until tomorrow. No nice dinner to look forward to. I'm also doing an hour workout in the gym after I finish. Not much fun. I hate the gym, but I force myself as it helps me ward off the worst ravages of age and being a drunken, greedy sod. 

All in all, it is a recipe for feeling a bit miserable. Luckily I do have a remedy. The thing that always pulls me up is music. I made a special "Cheer me up" playlist for such moments. I selected 36 songs that always put a smile on my face. 


If you are feeling down, have a listen. IF it doesn't work for you, make your own! IF you are a Barnet Eye reader, you clearly have impeccable taste, so I'd advise making sure you have a good fix of the right music, for when you need it. 

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If music is your thing, make sure you check out The False Dots new album. You can stream on Spotify, iTunes or just have a listen here >>>>>>



We also have a gig coming up at The Dublin Castle on the 13th December. It will be a great night!

  >>>>> CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS <<<<<


Tuesday, 26 November 2024

What is going on with the media gatekeepers and why do they control what we see and hear?

 On Saturday I wrote a blog criticising the music policies of BBC Radio London. On reflection, I have come to the conclusion that there is a bigger problem, something that I really don't think we fully appreciate.  Let me ask you a question. If you have a Facebook account, why did you sign up for it? I don't know about you, I signed up to see content from my friends and people who I'd signed up to follow.  As I started writing this blog, I looked at it. The first six posts were either adverts or 'suggestions' (none of which I was interested in). I then looked at a couple of groups I follow. The default sorting was "Most relevant". When I changed this to "most recent post", I got a completely different and far more interesting selection. When I actually look at my friends posts specifically, I see dozens of posts that I never saw, which I'd much rather see than adverts for pies, or the 'Star Trek fan club'. It got me thinking "Who decides what is relevant' to me" because whoever it is, they are clueless. I can select posts in purely time order (apart from ads) if I use this option www.facebook.com/?sk=h_chr but I have to save it in my favourites, as it is not easily accessible. When I do this, I actually have a chance to see some of the content I want to see, in between the ads. 

Then there is Twitter, that has two options. The "For you" is the default and it is again curated by someone who thinks they know what I am interested in. Like Facebook, they are largely wrong. I can click to see "people I follow" , but often I forget when I want to see stuff and get bombarded with crap that is designed to trigger me. Who are the curators and what are they trying to do? 

Now I am not a conspiaracy theorist. I know exactly what the game is. They want to make as much money out of me as possible. They do this by showing me stuff that makes them money. The game is not about serving my interests. There is the old adage "If you want to find the truth, follow the money". It is pretty clear to me that social media has simply morphed into a massive pyramid selling scheme. The Facebooks and Twitters of this world analyse our posts and our views and work out how to make as much cash as possible and serve up crap that they hope will do this. Which leads us to the question "Are they on your side?". I think the answer is pretty obvious. 

This tales me back to the BBC Radio London playlist and their policies of employing presenters. I don't know anyone who thinks BBC Radio London is better now than it was two years ago. I also don't know anyone who likes the music that is on their playlist. My kids hate it and laugh at me for persevering with the station. When Robert Elms was six days a week and playing new artists regularly, many people listened for the content. The gatekeepers at BBC Radio London decided that they knew best. Why? What was the brief? Do they really not know their listeners. Given that the BBC is supposedly a public service broadcaster, funded by the taxpayer, does the "follow the money" adage still apply? How do you make any money by ruining a station? Well sadly, when we follow the money here, it is even more disturbing. Because the only people who make money from the demise of the BBC are the massive media moguls and multi national media organisations. The BBC nicks a substancial slice of the media pie. The more they bugger it up, the bigger the slice of the pie for them.

Take the case of Gary Linekar. Widely recognised as the best football presenter in the UK. There has been a massive social media campaign against him lead by an anti woke mob. Linekar leaving Match of the Day weakens the product. Who benefits? Companies like Sky that are commercial. 

When Elon Musk took over Twitter, many said "Why would any sane man take over a money pit?". With Donald Trump winning the election and Musk being a major beneficiary when the jobs are dished out, it becomes clear. We live in a world where it's richest man can buy a tech company and reshape an election. 

I'll leavbe you with a thought. My band, The False Dots released an album on Spotify last week. Spotify kindly set up a "False Dots Radio" play list for us (Falsedots Spotify Radio Playlist ). Now at first I thought "How kind". Then I looked at it. Of the first 20 tunes, 12 were tracks I wouldn't recommend, don't play and bear little similarity to our music. Why did this appear? Well one can only speculate, but I have to suspect that Spotify make some cash from it. When I figure out how, I will sort it out. 

In the meantime, please have a listen to our album. It is one way of supporting a struggling band!



Monday, 25 November 2024

General Election Parliamentary Petition - I agree with Brian Coleman

Although many people suspect I spend all of my life on Twitter, I actually rarely look at it and when I do, I even more rarely look at Political Accounts. The only time I do is when I am researching a blog. I  am really not that excited about the changes Elon Musk has made to Twitter, however a comment posted on my blog  recently made me curious. I wasn't actually aware thatt Musk had changed it so that you can see the tweets of people who've blocked you. This was the comment

Nov 18, 2024
Why quit Twitter? Endless p*orn bots, spammers, blocked users being able to see my Tweets again and the search function is shot to pieces. Can't say I miss Twitter since I padlocked my account

Although it was posted last week, I only really thought about it today (been a bit busy). My first reaction was "Is this right?". I thought I'd do a little experiment. The only person I could think of that has blocked me, is disgraced former Tory Councillor Brian Coleman. I am sure there are a few others, but TBH their tweets were so dull that I've not missed them and pretty much forgotten them. So I did a search on Brian's account and sure enough, I could see all of his tweets. The only thing I can't do is comment on them. I realised that this also means that anyone I blocked can see my tweets. Does this bother me? Not really, I just don't want to interact with them and if they had half a brain, all they needed to do was set up another account to spy on me. What alarmed me more was that the first post I saw by Brian was one I thoroughly agree with. Much as I dislike the man, he sometimes does post sensible things and one of the few things I do quite like about him is that he will pull up fellow Tories when they talk nonsense. In this case, his ire was directed at Matthew Goodwin-Freeman, a rather dopey councillor from Harrow. Mr Goodwin- Freeman was getting terribly excited  about the number of people signing the Parliamentary petition to call a general election overtaking the number of votes The Greens got. 

Click for more readable version
Brian said 

This is just silly and not the way we run our Country . Government by petition ? not for me

I have long been rather sceptical of such petitions. I recognise that petitions have a place, especially on local issues. If a school needs a new pelican crossing or you want to save a library, they are a good way to mobilise support. I recall when we got a huge petition for the Save Barnet's Libraries campaign, the local Tories got rattled (much to Brian's annoyance no doubt) and had a rethink. Sadly for the local Tories, the bloke who was the "Cabinet Minister" responsible was a bit dim (sorry his name escapes me, I could look it up, but he was a nonentity and life is too short) and botched the new proposals so badly that he lost his seat at the next election, having thought that closing Friern Barnet library was a good idea. 

The reason why pettitions are effective at local elections is that something like a campaign to save a library is hyper local and councillors know that it is worth listening to voters, as a few votes can cost a seat. What struck me was the number of Tory voters that were cross about it, when we collected signatures. Engaging them enabled us to ask them to speak to councillors they knew. I suspect every irate Tory supporter telling them off was worth around 2000 signatures from Labour members. This is very different to a petition calling for another general election, which is a national matter and involves huge numbers. Another point our nice but dim Harrow Councillor may have not understood is that the Greens and The Lib Dems, who he refers to in his Tweet are both opposition parties and supporters of both are probably just as likely to sign the petition as Tories, as most of the ones that I've spoken to have been distinctly underwhelmed by Starmer and probably feel their parties would do better if there was an election, and it also may persaude Starmer to lean more towards the policies that would shore up the centre left. 

To me, the whole idea of this petition is wrong headed and lazy. The idea that signing a petition, which takes a minute to do and no investment in time or effort, might force a government to call a snap election is ridiculous. If the 2 million people who signed really want change, join an opposition party, pay your subs, knock on doors, stuff envelopes, hold tea mornings, stand on street stalls etc. If the Tory memberhip went up from the current figure of 172,000 to 2,000,000 then Keir Starmer may worry. 

Given that nearly ten million people voted Labour, the fact that people who support other parties might want an election and be silly enough to sign the petition means nothing. If every time the government was forced to take unpopular measures, it resulted in a petition and a general election, we'd never have any peace. After the last 18 months of the last Tory government, I doubt too many sensible Tories would actually want an election now. I suspect that if there was, all we'd see is Reform taking a lot of votes and a few seats off the Tories. I suspect that the difficult truth for the Tories is that even though Labour's policies are highly unpopular with Tory voters, this is far less true for Labour support. I doubt too many farmers and small business owners are Labour. The bottom line is that there won't be a general election any time soon. This might annoy whoever signed the petition, but as Brian says, this is not how we do things in Britain.

It will be interesting to see if Kemi Badenoch raises the petition at PMQ's on Wednesday. Unless it has reached ten Million (ie more than the Labour vote at the General election) she'd be silly to. One thing I am sure Brian realises that his dim colleague in Harrow doesn't is that General Elections are expensive. Another one now would probably financial cripple the Tories and it's unlikely they'd win. The new leader hasn't got a her feet under the table yet and needs time to get on top of her brief. In all honesty, I suspect that by the time we have an election in the real world (as opposed to in exciteable and dim councillors dreams), the Tories will be on their next leader. I am sure that Sir Keir Starmer is having a few sleepless nights at the moment. I doubt any of them are caused by this petition.