Monday, August 10, 2009

What a rare flower I am!

Woo Hoo!

I have a condition that is so rare that the urologist I saw today hasn't actually seen a case in his 37 year career. Not only that, there is a chance that I have a variation that make it even rarer!

Swine Flu? I spit on your swine flu!

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Missing in action.

Long time no hear! There is an excuse though. For the last two or three weeks I have been suffering from a condition which has caused a certain part of me to swell up where no man wishes to swell up. And it's B painful! I'm on 7 lots of painkillers a day and it's still painful although there is a chance that I have got a secondary infection which is helping the pain along. Lots of hospital appointments plus operation to come.

Anyway, enough of that. There have been a acouple of things in the news I just wanted to comment on.

1) With the passing of Henry Allingham and Harry Patch I finally accept that WW1 is history. Now there is no-one left to tell the tale whose own eyes saw the horrors that faced both the British and Allied troops and the German troops as well. Harry was very strong in pointing out both sides lost good men and it was a tragedy for the entire generation of all the conbatant countries. Rest well with your fallen comrades, they have waited a long time for you to join them.

2) Harriet Harman is an idiot. I don't suppose for a minute that will be greeted as breaking news! Last week she was on about making sure there is always a woman in the top two positions in the labour party. When is she and the rest of the equality ilk going to fall off there high horse and realise there is only one criteria for getting a job and that is being the best candidate. No-one ever posed the question to her I wish they'd asked. Here it is;

Your 6 year old child suffers a major heart attack with a rare condition. Magda Yacoub, acknowledged leading heart expert, is unavailable to operate but luckily there are two other surgeons available. His number 2 is ready to go into theatre and peform an operation he has seen done on a few occasions, assisted in occasionally and knows he can manage. The other choice is a female heart surgeon, very good in her own right and destined to possibly be a top heart surgeon in a few years. She could operate but has only seen the operation once or twice and has never assisted. who are you going to choose. The best available heart surgeon or the woman to promote equality?

I'm sure I'd be hearing the cry that that is different. Yes it is. If you choose the wrong surgeon you have only affected your own family anf friends. If you insist on promoting somone on the grounds of sex, colour or creed just to even up the numbers in politics you are affecting 60 million of us.

I have no problem with women in power. I have had women bosses, I think Margaret Thatcher was a good PM, I don't even mind women earning more than men in a field. I just want the best person to get the job!

Right, off to take more tablets!

Saturday, August 08, 2009

Remembered - Neville Bower



The man above was my hero. He had been a concert pianist and became a respected composer and between those two events he spent somt time teaching music in schools and I was very lucky to have been at one of those schools.

His concert days had been foreshortened by a car crash which had left him unable to use his left arm to the standards required, particularly by him. I suspect this interim period was a time when he was unhappy and unfulfilled but his influence on me, and I suspect many others, carries on today.

My love of music comes from his teaching. The fact I have returned to singing this late in my life is because of him. Whenever I have played that old dinner party game "would you rather be deaf or blind" I always choose blind as I cannot conceive being in a world where I can't hear music. There has probably not been a year gone by in the last 40 where his name hasn't cropped up on many more than one occasion.

How often have I thought about contacting him to thank him, I had an e-mail address,
but I never did as I suspect that it would have reminded him of a time when he wasn't at his happiest. If I had tried during his illness with cancer and not received a reply I would have been selfish in being upset as I wouldn't have known then that he was ill. So I'm glad I didn't try even though i'll never get the chance to tell him what a great man he was.

It is 40 years ago this year since I had my first performance with the school choir, it was Handels Messiah. I have been toying with joining a local choir who are performing it this December. I think I should get off my a*** and go perform it, not just becuase I like the piece, but in memory of him and as a thankyou for giving me something that has stayed with me since the first days I met him.