Blog Adjustment

Only a few people might spot the slight changes, but I have been trying to make a few "dickon-isms" to my blog.

Mainly this just means tweaking little settings to make it look better in my own opinion, but also I've added a few things that were not there before. So a Gold star is awarded to the first person who can name 3 simple changes that I have made in the last week.

I am off to Budapest this weekend, and I am hoping that I will continue to feel upbeat and not suffer any more travel black moods.

It really is unlike me to not like travelling, but I have had a few mini-disasters on the last couple of trips and I could really do with one being a total success from leaving work to arriving home again.

Mission Possibly-Maybe

From one of my oldest contacts, and under my cover identit,y I have been handed an assignment that is strictly top secret.

Operation MW.

My mission, should I accept it, is to book passage and accomodation in an overseas city, where I will meet up with a junior operative at the rendezvous point inside the predetermined military complex and then after leaving the base and losing our tails by mingling with the local denizens of the region I must perform an extraction across the border.

The window of opportunity for the succuessful completion of this mission is tight, and I expect to be hard pressed to accomplish it before I leave for my next 'ordinary' trip to Budapest later in this month.

I can't mention any more at this time, because of the nature of the beast, but if all goes well then I will probably be allowed to divulge more after the event.

This message will erase your harddrive in five seconds, ...four, ...three, ..

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He he, just my bit of fun.

The above is all true, just I have flowered it up a lot to make interesting reading. My old penpal Sarah has asked me to go and meet her son (aged 14), who is currently staying with her brother in Belfast's barracks, and after taking him into the town and having some fun and picking up some soveniers, bringing him back to England so that he can catch a flight home to the Emirates (Abu Dhabi).

You see how a simple favour can sound much more interesting if you look at it from a different point of view.

And as they have let me go on holiday with then in Spain and New Zealand before, I feel that I owe them this little favour.

Jools Holland Concert

My sister in law invited me to go along to this years Jools Holland gig in Rochester Castle gardens, and cos Tony was being a prat as per usual after sending half a dozen texts i sort of felt obliged to go when he suddenly backed out, calling himself too unreliable to go with.

I get on very well with some of Leigh's friends, some more i will talk to as passing aquaintences and just a few i sill have yet to see any reason why leigh even talks to them, let alone calls them good friends, on a par ( or even better ) than me ( as he did at his own wedding, when he chose someone else to be his best man and NOT he oldest friend in all the world whos been there for him from junior school ).

Anyhoo, back to the concert.

I can't understand why anyone would invite me along to a concert if they have never even heard of Jools Holland ( except they know the name and have seen them on an advert once or twice ) and then be bemused by the choice and style of music.

Years ago I decided that because of the tv persona that he had, he would never be my favourite musician, but you cant argue that a man who knows enough jazz, blues and boogie to do a complete 1 1/2 hour set with no pause or music sheets knows his stuff.

Certainly when he played the harpsichord like a deva and made me think of a mixture between the Munsters theme tune / Randall & Hopkirk deceased, just with a better back beat and base section going on, it was sheer enjoyment.

Caroline refused to dance, even telling me to f'off, and i quote "I came here to listen", and this typified everything that i hate about most people.

I didnt go only to listen, I went to appreciate, feel, get involved and enjoy myself as much as possible ... in other words I wanted to "experience it", not just have a the line in a diary could read  "Went to another concert today, was good, stayed til the end and then came home again."

Sam Brown ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Brown_%28musician%29 ) was there, as she had the most powerful yet controlled voice I have heard live in a long time, and I can see why Nancy's Dave likes her as well.

One of the songs had a bizarre bumble bee cartoon animation going on in the background, that totally threw me at first, though after hearing the music for a bit longer it did somehow go rather well.

Took a few photos, but this website blog doesnt seem to want me to save or show any photos, so I wont bother with these ones either.

Next stop, tomorrow morning is a five day trip to Sweden, and maybe if im bored enough northern Denmark as well.