Rock and Roll Stories #47 - So what is it actually like at a False Dots rehearsal?

 Last night, I had a rehearsal with my band, The False Dots. I've no idea how many rehearsals the band has had in our career. I'd  guess that its probably between 1,500 and 2,000. It is often the highlight of my week and I always look forward to it. Last nights rehearsal was a bit unusual in that we had two extra guests. We are playing a private party at the weekend and will be having an extra trumpet player join us, as well as a guest vocalist for a couple of songs. When the guest vocalist turned up, his first question was "where's the beer?". These days, when we rehearse, we are an absteemious bunch. Graham and Tom both drive to rehearsals. It was not always like this. 

I was recalling with Graham when we used to rehearse in 1988 and he'd bring a mate of his called Buddha. Buddha would sit quietly in the corner watching us rehearse. He'd constantly roll large joints and smoke them, whilst sitting in the lotus position. At the time, this was not that unusual. However, what made Buddha different was that he had a pet tarantula which used to sit on his head. I am not an arachnophobe, but I tend to try and avoid poisonous things that can hurt. Buddha assurred us that the spider was tame and friendly, stating it was better behaved than a family cat. Whilst I didn't mind him sitting there, I did give it a wide berth. I don't know if it was the fumes or the music, but the spider was very well behaved. I don't think too many bands can claim a tarantula as a fan. At the earliest rehearsals, we'd always have an audience, often girls that we knew, who we thought would be impressed by our stunning lack of music aptitude. We'd get cider and beer and after rehearsals, sit around with our friends listening to music until the early hours. Often, we'd also have a game of five a side football, under the M1 spotlights on thr roadway at Bunns Lane Works.

I recall one incident, where we were playing at around 1am, the games were actually pretty serious for us. The Police clearly thought the studios were a den of drug taking and inquity and three vans turned up to bust us. They were bemused to find us mid game. They had expected a bunch of stoned hippies to cart off. Even more dsconcerting to them was the fact that one of our mates was the son of their boss, the chief at West Hendon. After that, they left us alone. 

As we all developed stable relationships, the girlfriends would sit in another room and chat whilst we rehearsed. After football, we'd usually have a cup of tea. One ot my favourite memories was when the Flower Lane industrial estate was being built on the old railway sidings. The workers were on a 24/7 schedule. We had a rehearsal, followed by a game of football. At around 2am, we retired for tea and biscuits. To the horror of Steve, one of our mates, there was no sugar. So he strolled over to the workers hut at 2am and asked for some sugar. I think they were completely bemused. 

We always took rehearsals seriously. We'd do things like rehearsing in the  dark, with a strobe on, so that we could play with lights and not be distracted. We'd also rehearse standing on chairs and jumping off at key points. to ensure we could do the dynamics of a show properly. One passing musician who watched a rehearsal said that he'd never seen anything like it and suggested that we were more like a circus act. Six months later, we did a gig with them. They were as dull as dishwater and their static show got the response it deserved. Of course, they were disdainful of the fact the audience liked us.

When Paul Marvin was in the band, his Dad Hank of the Shadows gave us some great advice. He said "You don't rehearse to learn the songs, you should do that at home, you rehearse so that if you make a mistake, you can seamlessly recover and no one will notice". As a result, we always used to try and put each other off and clown around at rehearsals. Often bits would get incorporated into the show. The net result is that to this day, I always get a buzz and enjoy band rehearsals. I was in a covers band on bass for a short time. It was good experience as a player, but no fun at all. 

Here's a little clip from a recent rehearsal. Tom our trumpet player filmed it as he played!

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Rebuked!

Yesterday I published my views on the Trump Middle East deal. Today, I received  a long series of rebukes. I am not sure whether they think I support Hamas or I am a Zionist. I have somehow manage to convince many people that I am one or the other. Some people tell me they are highly disappointed that I have been duped, others that I am patsy or worse for one side or the other. I generally studiously avoid the subject of the Middle East and Israel on the blog, not least because I don't really know a lot about the intricacies of the politics. For the record, after what Hamas did at a music festival to innocent people, I abhor the organisation. As to the Government of Netanhayu, I am amazed that the atrocity happened on his watch, yet he is still PM. I see little evidence that he has managed the situation well and sadly, he has lost a lot of friends with his actions. Even Trump and his missus did not like the images of starving kids. One of my studio customers is an elderly Arab Israeli, familiar withe the area. He tells me that it is incomprehensible to him as to what happened. It has been one of the most heavily protected border areas in the world. I don't know. 

What I do know is this. People who tell me what I am or what I think are genuinely clueless. The reason why I wrote a blog yesterday was because there seems to be a chink of hope in a terrible situation, for a lot of people who have been badly hurt, on both sides. I am not getting into the numbers or the rights and wrongs. Just the fact that a lot of people are a lot happier at the start of this week than they were last week. As a human  being with a degree of compassion, that gives me grounds for hope. So by all means rebuke me, it is a free country. But maybe you need to look at yourself first, as if you believe that there will ever be a fair and just solution that genuinely addresses all the genuine grievances of all the inoocent people hurt by this situation, then you are even more deluded than you think I am. Sadly, all we can hope for is a solution that is the least worse available.

Trump!

 I had a very strange experience today. I was discussing the Middle East peace deal with someone and I realised that they had the look of someone who has just had a bereavement. It is no surprise to anyone that Mr Donald J. Trump produces rather mixed emotions, but I was mildly surprised that when he actually does something useful (ie stopping people killing each other), people can't just say "Thank God he's done something useful for once" if they hate his guts. I dislike the man intensely, but if I recognise the fact that if I was a citizen of Gaza, who was no longer getting bombed and may get a decent meal soon, or if I was an Israeli who's brother/sister/etc had just been released, when I though I'd never see them alive, I would probably not be too bothered about all of the reasons that liberal minded folk (like me) generally can't stand the fella. 

There has been too much talk about the Nobel Peace Prize and Donald Trump. My view? It was too early to give it to him this year. If he'd received it and five minutes later Hamas and Israel had resumed hostilities, the Nobel committee would look ridiculous. If thise time next year, the deal has held. Given him an extra special, super bigly amazing one in a solid gold frame. He will have done something I thought nigh on impossible. 

The bottom line with Donald Trump is that, as my Dad always explained to me, you have to deal with the realities of the world we live in, not the one we want to live in. In a perfect world (if I was the architect), we'd all be nice to each other and whatever gene makes us such a psychopathic race, would be eliminated. When there were earthquakes, floods, famines, tsunamis and meteorite strikes we'd all chip in to help the victims. When plagues hit, we'd all support the efforts of scientists and doctors to cure them, not scoure the web for bonkers conspiracy theories that it's all a plan to enslave us. People wouldn't fight or abuse children, because they knew it was wrong. People wouldn't care about people's colour. If someone was a different religion, we'd just say "Well we can all believe what we want and we will be happy with each others choices and respect them". In truth, most people (I know) already live by these rules. 

However, the rich and the powerful don't. That is why we are where we are. However much I wish I could change the way people behave, I can't. So we have to live with people in power we don't like. Be it Trump, Starmer, Sadiq Khan, Vladimir Putin, etc the world is full of leaders who I hear people despair of. It seems almost every conversation in a pub ends up with some sort of discussion about leaders and how rubbish they are. I sometimes wonder if Donald Trump is simply a practical joke played on left wing people by God (yes I believe God has a sense of humour). You put a man like Trump in charge, he fixes a problem that all rational people would want fixed and then you watch as those who don't like him try and find a reason to hate him even more. 

As far as I am concerned, all of the reasons I had to dislike Trump before the peace deal were signed are still valid. But...... And I know this upsets many readers of this blog massively, if he has managed to sort out peace in the Middle East, then people like me should acknowledge the fact that he's pulled off something good. I've no idea what the future holds, whether Israel and Hamas will stick to the deal, whether the ordinary people on both sides who have suffered will see their suffering end. What I do know is that today, it seems as if they might. So be grateful for small mercies. I heard a conversation where one party said "I can't believe that ordinary people in Gaza are chering Trump". The other person said "You'd cheer Trump if it meant people stopped bombing you and you were going to get a proper dinner for the first time in months".

The world will keep turning. I won't be around to read it, but I'd love to know how history book writers perceive what has happened over the last few days and months. Trump is not a year into his second term. There are doubtless going to be many more chapters. There is a Chinese curse that says "May you live in interesting times". Whatever you think of Trump, there is certainly many things of interest to blog and chat about. Someone, who does like Trump, asked me if I could sum up mu views of his efforts in the Middle East today. My response? Ask me in six months time, when we have seen what actually happens. Sadly, I've seen all manner of deals come and go and the reason we are where we are is because they've all fallen apart, through mutual suspicion and ill will. If Trump can put that Genie back in the bottle, he deserves the plaudits. If it doesn't, then he will join the long list of politicians like Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, who thought they'd sorted it all out, only to see things become even worse. I genuinely hope I have to join in the plaudits through gritted teeth, as he gets the Nobel prize next year. If I wanted it to crash and burn, because of my personal emnity towards Trump, what would that make me?

The Sunday Reflection #64 - 30 years ago today, my life changed forever

 What were you doing 30 years ago today. Thursday 12th October 1995? I can tell you exactly. But first let me tell you what I did on The preceding Wednesday evening. I sat in on my own, with a tasty curry from the Mill Hill Tandoori and I watched England play Norway. It was a 0-0 draw. The England team contained such talents as Nick Barmby, Dennis Wise, Tony Adams and Gary Pallister. Terry Venables was the manager. I had onion bhajis, a bhuna prawn masala, tarka dal, pilau rice and a naan. I washed it down with a couple of cans of Fosters. I'd had a busy day. I had a early night after that, as I was exhausted.

On the 12th, I got up, had a shower, had a cup of tea and a bowl of porridge and drove up to Edgware General hospital. I was bring my baby home! The day before, my eldest daughter had been born. Clare stayed in with her. She was tired and I had left her to rest with our new daughter. Clare had been tired after the efforts of giving birth. She looked much better. Our little baldy baby was a cutie. The previous nights curry and beer had been the last time for a very long time, that I'd sit in on my own, watch footie and do such things. A baby changes everything in a family. 

After seeing the midwife, etc. We packed up everything and drove home in my gold Ford Cortina estate. To my wife's mild irritation, I insisted on putting on Sailor by The Steve Miller band before we entered the house. I was told that if you introduced a baby to a noisy house, they would never have problems sleeping. I thought full on Punk rock would be a bit much, so Steve  Millers greatest album seemed right. We got settled in and then the visits started. Clare called her Mum, who turned up almost immediately. Maddie was her first grand daughter, so she was most excited. My mum then showed up. She already had six grand daughters, but she was still thrilled. 

Clares sisters and my sister Caroline also showed up. I was worried it was all a bit much for Clare, but she was fine. We had no idea what to expect. I wasn't looking forward to the sleep deprivation that everyone told me would happen.  We were determined to try and get our little baby into some sort of routine. We put her down at 11pm and she slept until about 4am. At first we checked ever two minutes to ensure she wasn't dead. We ensured the door was shut, so the cat wouldn't murder her. To my amazement, she never really woke up in the night. We all think our babies are the best, but Maddie was really easy. She always had a big smile, except when her bottle ran out. She'd always scream with anger when she realised the bottle was empty. 

Many things changed in my life. I stopped playing 11 a side football. I did this for a year, as I felt that being away all day on Saturday would be unfair. I never played it again. The band was in hiatus at the time. Any plans I might have had to relaunch it went on indefinite hold. We were in the process of building the studio up. At the time, we only had two studios. We were making plans, but they were very much a sideline. We didn't have the shop, the hire business or the recording operation. Ernie Ferebee had just got involved. My main job was doing IT consultancy for Streamline, whichg was Nat West IT Business. It was well paid. When Maddie was six months old, we went on a holiday to Devon. She was just starting to talk (she hasn't really stopped since). The waiter came around and offered us menus. To his surprise, when he asked this little baldy baby if she wanted a menu, she said "yes". He asked her what she wanted and she pointd at something and said "martoes". I said "She wants tomatoes". So these were duly brought and she tucked in. 

I was doing long hours and was on 24 hour callout, doing my best to ensure that our little baby had a secure upbringing. For me, having kids was never something I'd thought about until Clare started to expect Maddie. I was convinced that she was going to be a boy. I told everyone this, and that my eldest son would be called Joe (after Judge Joe Dredd from 2000AD, Clare was horrified but actually liked the name and agreed. She was less keen on my suggested middle name of Rico, which is Judge Dredds rogue brother). All the family were convinced as well. When Maddie was born, we realised that we didn't really have a name, but we'd discussed Madeleine and quite liked it. When I told my mum, she said "You can't call her that, I have a book with lots of nice names in". Once she turned up, everyone agreed Maddie was a wonderful name. I am actually glad I had a daughter first. I think I'd have been a nightmare for a first born son. By the time Matt was born, I had calmed down a bit, The Lord works in mysterious ways. Having not really wanted kids, I now realise just what a blessing they are. I've always believed in letting them follow their own path and supporting them as best we can. It works for us. I am so proud of them all. 

And here we are, 30 years later. On Friday night, we had a birthday party for Maddie at the studio. My other two lovely kids were there. Playing Steve Miller as she entered the house clearly worked as she loves music. I was proud that my band, The False Dots (who emerged from our hiatus when she was five) were asked to play by her friend Helen who arranged the surprise party. It was a blast. Here is how we partied!

@falsedotsrog The False Dots performing We don’t live in America at @Mill Hill Music Complex for Maddies birthday #jazzpunk #ska #punk #soulmusic #skapunk ♬ original sound - FalseDotsRog

The Saturday List #362 - My top ten namedropping list!

 First a quick explanation. The last list in this series was #499, you may wonder why the number has gone backwards? Well its entirely due to my incompetence. When I got to blog 361, I missed 20. I realised as I compiled the full list, that there was a 20 blog gap! So here we go.

Running a studio, doing acting, playing in a band, I've met a few celebrities. Here is my top ten namedropping list

1. David Soul. I always say he's the most famous man to use the studios. A true gent, back in the 1970's Starsky and Hutch was the most iconic cop show on TV. David moved to London and used the studios a few times. Always happy to have a selfie with customers and staff. 

2. Sir Tom Jones. The most famous British person to use the studios. He rehearsed for an appearance on TOTP with Chicane. When he came down, we were having building work done and our bathrooms were portaloos. I was mortified. Tom came in and asked for a tea and where the loo was. I profusely apologised for not having proper bathrooms. Tom made his visit, came back for his tea and said "Don't worry about the facilities, I've played worse toilets than that!". After that, we realised he was a decent, down to earth guy!

3. Stephen Fry. I appeared as an extra in a film called The Tichborne Claimant. Stephen Fry was a leading character. We had a good chat on the set. He was a funny guy, very friendly (I can't say the same about Brian May of Queen, who was on set as his missus Anita Dobson was also in the film).

4. Dickie Bird. The legendary cricket umpire was at a black tie dinner I was at. He was the guest speaker. After the speeches, I spoke to him at the bar. I am not really a cricket fan, but his anecdotes were brilliant. An honour to meet him

5. Jimmy Page. I was visiting my sister in Fort Lauderdale and we went to a bar she liked, in one of the local marinas. When I went up to the bar, there was a guy I sort of recognised, obviously a muso. I assumed he was a studio customer. We had a chat about guitars as we waited for our beers.When I brought the beers back, my sister said "I didn't realised you knew Jimmy Page". I felt like a bit of a muppet, but he nodded to me when he left!

6. Tony Blackburn. Tony lives locally. He has a child the same age as my eldest. Where the Harvester is in Mill Hill used to be a childrens soft play area called Wacky Warehouse. Tony would take his family at the same time I did most weeks. We'd sit there and talk about Soul music. Tony knows his stuff. He gave me several recommendations of obscure B-sides etc that were worth a listen. Sadly The False Dots were inactive, so I couldn't slip him a single!

7. The Archbishop of Canterbury and Mick Jones of The Clash. In about 1978, I found myself at Paddington Station in a queue for train tickets. In front of me was The Archbishop of Canterbury and behind me was Mick Jones of the Clash. As the Archbishop ordered his ticket, I looked at Mick and he looked at me. I said "When I got up this morning, I never thought I'd be sandwiched between you and the Archbishop of Canterbury". Mick giggled and smiled. 

8. David Bailey. The legendary photographer took my picture several times when I was doing child modelling. I have to confess I have no recollection at all of this, but my mum told me of this. My Mum didn't like him. At one shoot, she got chatting to his girlfriend, who she liked and then Bailey dumped her. My mum thought that he was not a nice man for doing that. 

9. Captain Sensible and the Damned. Used to be regular studio customers. I got on well with the Captain, as he shares lots of interests with me beyond punk rock. When I saw the band at Euston Station recently, I got chatting to Captain and I nearly missed my train. 

10. Amy Winehouse. Amy rehearsed at the studio for several years before she made it. She knew us all. I was tempted to put her first, but thought I'd save best until last. He was always lovely in our company and I cried when I heard she'd passed away. We sold her the guitar she played on her first TV performance. A blue Mexican Stratocaster. 

Rog T Food blog - The anticipation is usually the best bit

 This is a first for me! A blog written at the gym on an exercise bike! What better place to blog about food!

I’m warming up for my session dreaming about the fish and chips I’ll be having later in Harpenden, before we watch Hadley play. There is a lovely chippy there. It got me thinking about how so much of the enjoyment of food is anticipating it. Tonight we will smell the chippy before we even enter the door and by the time it arrives, we’ll doubtless be Hank Marvin! (Starving). 

I think one of the reasons we love fish and chips is the amazing smell of a great chippy. The same is true of a Sunday Roast. You have the best part of an hour to build up your hunger, with delicious aromas. That is why I never have a drink before I sit down to Sunday lunch at home. 

I like to think of a great meal as theatre, at Christmas, the centrepiece is setting the pudding alight. Sadly too many of the meals we eat lack such drama. My advice? Add some fun when you cook for friends and make sure they get a good whiff of the food!

And for the record, the Fish and Chips at Godfrey was delicious! 

The Tories announce an excellent policy at their conference

 I daresay that most of my readers will be rather surprised to hear that I have something good to say about Kemi Badenoch and the Conservative party. However as someone who takes blogging seriously and also believes in fairness, I have to say that today they have released a policy that might actually work and has the potential to save the UK hospitality trade. As someone who runs a small business, I have felt we are under attack by all parties since 2008, when the credit crunch hit. 2007 was the year when my studio didn't have to take measures to save money to maintain our business as a profitable entity. This enabled us to give our less well off customers extremely cheap rehearsals, pay our staff significantly more than the minimum wage, invest in formal training for all staff, and do our job properly. We were able to regularly renew our studio equipment, ensuring our customers generally had equipment that was under three years old, and we sold the old gear in good condition.

All of these things helped generate economic activity in the UK. Everything is substantially more expensive now. VAT is 20%, energy prices have been an absolute roller coaster, things like employer NI have been hiked substantially. Minimum wage rates have meant that we simply cannot afford to maintain the differentials that we used to have with other businesses. We simply cannot afford to send staff on external courses. And then there are business rates. These clobber us. Following the slashing of government support, we have had to hike prices this year and cancel equipment upgrades.

Today the Tories have announced that they intend to abolish business rates for certain types of businesses. This would make a huge difference to us. I know many restaurant owners and pub landlords who this will return struggling businesses to profit. Once businesses are profitable, they start planning for expanson, that increases tax income generally. If the UK wants to be a successful economy, we need to make running small businesses viable. This measure is a huge, real and practical step. I genuinely hope Labour has the common sense to shoot the Tories fox and nick this policy. 

There is lots of hype in the press about Reform replacing the Tories. I am not a Tory, have never voted for them, but the truth is that, unlike Reform, they are a grown up party that is capable of developing sensible economic policies. I've seen no evidence that Reform are anything but shouty loudmouths, who are actually rather thin skinned when challenged. This was perfectly demonstrated by the news that Reform run Kent council is to raise Council tax by 5%, the maximum allowed, because they 'discovered' that all the waste and savings they imagined did not exist. The real problem with Reform is that Nigel Farage is a political fantasist. The stories he spins and the tales he tells are attractive to some. But the problem is we live in the real world, not a fantasy world. In the real world, the big bad wolf eats Grandma and Little Red Riding Hood. And our trading competetors and national adversaries are licking their lips at the concept of a Reform government, as it will open up all sorts of opportunities as Britain descends into economic mayhem. Liz Truss showed us what happens when a fantasist takes over. It was telling that the Tories turned to Jeremy Hunt to sort the mess out as Chancellor. He was the most left wing senior Tory left after the Boris purges. That is the problem with the real world for extremists. It always ends in chaos when  extremists get the opportunity to actually get their hands on the wheels of power. 

The Sunday Reflection #63 - Free speech and the truth

This week we saw the launch of a new publication, set up by former Observer journalists

Former Observer big-hitters inc @carolecadwalla @sarah_donaldson @JaneFerg @ImogenCarter launch title with redundancy payouts

After Observer sale "We decided to launch a title that the journalists themselves would own, that would be truly independent" https://t.co/pa7pTKUL8d pic.twitter.com/qYUKMDjFKm

— Press Gazette (@pressgazette) September 26, 2025

Carole Cadwalla's blog logo

Anyone who has followed the trials and tribulations of Carole Cadwalla and her battles with the rich and powerful will wish them every success.  This week, I've been binge watching The Hack on ITV. If you've not seen it, I recommend it. A brilliant series. I followed the story in the Guardian and I also worked with a member of Hacked Off at The Passage, so I was more than familiar with the story. Even so, it was shocking. Perhaps the thing which I found most upsetting was the huge effort the Murdoch empire put into getting stories that were largely tittle tattle. Scoops on celebrities private lives was of no interest to me. It might have been excusable had they been  exposing scandals that truly were of public interest, but the NOTW seemed more interested in ruining the lives of people, rather than improving them. Another story in the news this week was the fact that Her Ladyship Michelle Mone's dodgy dealing will require a repayment over a hundred million pounds. I doubt this will happen as the company that supplied the dodgy kit to the NHS has gone bust and needless to say, having pocketed the profits in dividends, she is under no personal liability to pay the money back. I have a deep interest in the story. A whistleblower approached me with the story before any news outlet had picked it up. They were deeply sceptical of the mainstream media, not least becuase of the hacking story. We met and the evidence was truly shocking. I started writing a blog partly to expose such shenanigans. However, I also have become painfully aware of the limitations of a personal blog.  Occasionally, people have given me tip offs of things that have become larger stories, the Barnet Freedom pass scandal being one such story. But none of these are national scandals, concerning hundreds of millions of pounds. Such stories are well beyond the resources of a blog such as this one to manage. I am not poor, but I am not in a position to face down the legal teams of multi millionaires. My advice was to approach the Guardian. Through my contacts with Hacked Off, I am of the opinion that the newspaper is the one most likely to run with such a story. The person I spoke to was an intermediary for the actual whistle blower. Like me, they were aware of the pitfalls of facing down the rich and powerful.

I was pleased to see the Guardian take and develop the story. I deleted the emails and the trail, as a precaution and suggested my contact do the same thing. Their main concern was the consequences of taking on the rich and powerful. I explained that The Guardian has a legal team and understand the protocols of anonymity. The editor will not lose their house if the story goes pear shaped, although they may get the sack. The people who are always most at risk are the actual Whistleblowers, who get no proper legal protection. About six months after our conversation, odd things started to happen. It became clear that I was being followed. To this day, I have no idea why. My assumption was that it was related to my opposition to various local developments and that they were looking for dirt to lean on me to shut up. It was all a bit strange. Nothing really happened. One dodgy character, who I saw repeatedly lurking around started to get on my nerves. As I know the local geography pretty well. I was able to sneak around the back and sneak up on him. I invited him in for a cup of tea and suggested that he just told me what he was looking for, as it would save us all a lot of bother. I also took a few pictures. I suggested that if he didn't bugger off, I'd put them on my socials and blog. That sort of ended that. More recently, I wondered if it was related to the Mone scandal. I have no idea. I have rattled a fair few cages over the years. If ever you think someone is following you, it is pretty easy to spot, especially if you walk a dog! I took great delight in putting on wellies and doing the waterlogged Darlands trail. If you are ever planning to meet someone and you don't want to be seen, arrange to meet someone on a super long dog walk in muddy fields in February. 

Yesterday, I mentioned my old blog sparring partner Brian Coleman. Mr Coleman  took great delight in tainting me about my prostate cancer, when I announced it. Many people told me stories of Coleman that I have never been able to publish due to the fact that I'd get sued. I believe the sources implictly, but don't have the requisite level of proof to defend a legal challenge, if he decided to sue. I always said that if I discovered I had terminal cancer, I'd leave a forward dated blog, with all the worst stories on, change all of my blog passwords, and let that be my deathbed present to him, to pay him back for his gloating. When he got ejected from public life, following his criminal conviction for assaulting Helen Michael, I lost interest in him. Brian will be pleased to know that he is such a non entity now that I really wouldn't want that to be blogging legacy anymore.

My experiences made me reflect on one of the key themes in the Gospels. Jesus said that someone can only really be a follower if they give up all of their possessions and follow him. I used to think this was to show their commitment to the cause. I now realise that it was something entirely different. If you follow a difficult and dangerous path, the less you own and the less people you love, the less people can lean on you. If I really wanted to publish all of the terrible stories that I've been told and would love to publish, I'd get divorced, give my wife and kids every and live under a tree in Mill Hill Park, writing the blog on the computer in the library.

That is why I salute Carole Cadwalla and her colleagues. She's braver than I am!

The Barnet Eye - An apology, a correction and yes I am a moron and an idiot

 For the last few weeks, I've been giving it large. I have been promising you the 500th Saturday list! I promisted that I would give a list of all 500 blogs. I started complining the list in the week. To my horror, I found that, rather annoyingly in October 2022, I went from blog #361 to #382leaving a gap of 20 blogs. There is no excuse for such slipshod blogging. There is no excuse (other than dyslexia, alcohol, short sightedness and getting constantly nagged for breakfast by the missus and the dogs). On making this discovery, I realised that I couldn't have the big celebration planned. Even more pressing though, what should I do? I could either renumber all blogs or simply add blogs #362 to #381, albiet out of sequence. 

After giving it much thought, I have decided to simply add the blogs, albiet out of sequence. The will appear in sequence in the #500 blog list. I have another 200 or so to check and it is always possible there are more gaps. I have also found a couple of duplicate numbers. These I have amended. It is all rather annoying.  I will restart the series next week with blog #362, which will be my top ten biggest blogging cock ups. 

I had a lunchtime meeting with a journalist from the Camden New Journal yesterday. Itw as nothing to do with blogs or journalism, but the subject of our old blog friend Brian Coleman came up. It made me realise just how boring the GLA constituency of Barnet and Camden has become since Labour won the seat in 2012. Brian was manna from heaven for bloggers and journalists. He also was a major force in me making sure everything I wrote was accurate. When he was GLA rep, I got several snotty emails threatening legal action if I didn't correct a blog. Generally, the errors were highly pedantic. As I recall one was along the lines "In your blog, you claimed a figure of £336,000 had been paid, when in fact it was £363,000, Mr Coleman demands an apology and a retraction". In actual fact the figure made the story reflect even more badly on him, so I was happy to thank the lackey for his diligence. I asked him to pass on my fulsome apologies to Coleman for any offence caused. And of course, I updated the blog. Of course, the reason Brian Coleman asked for the apology was so he could say "Roger Tichborne is always getting things wrong and making things up, I have the apology to prove it!". His Trumpesque relationship with honesty and the truth was always fascinating. 

But it did make me more careful. It seems that the lack of a Brian Coleman has made my standards slip. So there you are. I apologise and will try and do better in future. Here is a song that seems appropriate for this moment, given my abject failure to count properly!

When all else fails, there's pineapple chunks with custard

What do you do when the world has gone mad? I could talk about all of the terrible things that make me ask this, but even thinking about them is disturbing and depressing. Is it me, or has the influence of Donald Trump rubbed off in people we know in our own circles of friends? People who I previously thought of as calm, sane and rational, seem to have developed Trumpesque personality traits, that I had previously not noticed. When you've known someone for 50 years and suddenly they start spouting complete rubbish, it is shocking. When you watch the news and it's horrible, go to the pub for some solace and you get a mini Trump spouting nonsense, what do you do? This is how I was feeling today. I had a really important business meeting for a very exciting project which my business is getting involved in, I can't say too much at this stage, but it could be brilliant. However, I was approaching the meeting in a foul mood, which is not helpful.

Many years ago, I did a positive thinking course. I was too cynical to really appreciate the whole thing. However, I did learn some useful techniques. One was that if you are approaching things in the wrong state of mind, there were some exercises to reset your mindset. Of course, your mindset has to be stable enough to remember to do the exercise. So I set off in the wrong frame of mind. As I boarded a crowded Thameslink train, I was not cheered. As I usually set off ridiculously early when things are important, I had time. I arrived to find it raining in Camden Town. As I had a free voucher for a coffee at Cafe Nero, I made my way there. I sat down, realising I had half an hour to spare. I then thought "I am not in the right frame of mind for any of this". So I sat down in the corner with my double espresso (I rarely drink coffee but I felt I needed a caffeine boost). I shut my eyes and started to visualise something I like, that is a guilty pleasure. What did I choose? I visualised myself eating a nice tin of pineapple chunks with custard. When I was single, I'd always keep a tin of pineapple chunks and a tin of custard in the cupboard for just such moments. As my missus is not a fan, I have got out of the habit. But it is a mental exercise I do and it works. One of the interesting things that I learned on the course was that the most successful visualisation exercises involve all of the senses. In this one, you mentally feel the tins,  sniff them when opened, smell the custard when heated, then taste them, as well as looking at them. What is a really good thing to do, is to actually do the real thing and memorise every step of it. As I finished, I thought to myself "Can you still get Libbys pineapple chunks?". The exercise had worked, I'd mentally moved on. 

This may all seem remarkably trivial in a world of madness and chaos. But getting your thought processes in line for important business and shifting yourself on from negative thoughts is a super power. You can't wish away all of the problems in the world, but you can change your mood and build your defences against the stresses of life. The human brain is an incredibly powerful thing. I have long despaired that our schools don't teach us how to use it properly. Being dyslexic, I grew up thinking my brain was seriously defective. I struggled with reading, writing, long division, balancing and speaking. Certain things are still difficult, I particularly struggle with people's name. At times, when I was in my early teens, I really struggled to cope with the stress this caused. I didn't realise it at the time, but these things started to improve when I started playing guitar. I didn't realise it, but playing and instrument opened up pathways in my brain, and a lot of things that had been impossible became quite easy. 

On several occasions, I've done other courses and as I've got older, I've realised the benefits. When I worked for TSB Bank in the late 1980's, they paid for me to do a 'relaxation course'. They also had a wine tasting club and this had guided tastings. Such things taught me different aspects of the brain's immense power. There has been a lot of talk about AI (not least on my blog). On the way back from my meeting, which went well, I was thinking about writing this blog. It got me thinking about AI. I got to thinking about wine tasting and AI. I asked Google AI what Vinha Do Fava tasted of. The answer

Vinha do Fava wine typically tastes of rich, dark fruits like black cherry, plum, and cassis, often accompanied by spicy notes of clove and sweet pepper, with a long and dense finish. It has a velvety texture and firm but well-controlled tannins, offering intense flavor and richness.

A pretty good description. But to the AI it is just words. Even if an AI could actually be developed to taste, it would not appreciate it. An AI cannot chill out by imagining pineapple chunks. Anyway, what I am trying to say is that maybe we are looking on the wrong place for the answers. 

Have a great weekend. Here's a song to cheer you up.