Author: John

And another thing….

I really enjoyed my lunchtime practice today. Except it wasn’t really a practice, because instead of learning stuff or rehearsing marches or concert pieces, I was just playing some music that I felt like. So, I played “For those in peril on the sea” a couple of times, followed by a bit of “Home on

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What I Need

is a shed. See, through a bizarre series of events, which I’m probably not going to go into here because it’s all a little improbable, I have a bench lathe. This is a Good Thing(tm) because I’ve wanted a lathe for a long time – since high school, pretty much. The trouble is, I have

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A busy month

We need a weekend! Long-time nelefans may (or may not) know that we (that is, all five of us) play in our local Brass Band’s training band – me on Baritone, Mrs Gubbins on Tenor Horn, Son #1 on Trombone and both Son #2 and Daughter #1 on Cornet. Anyhoo, with the summer being upon

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What a beautiful day!

Had a nice lunch break today – went and sat at the harbour and read my book for an hour. Being without a car has had one positive side-effect – it’s got me carrying my book around with me instead of having it sit beside my bed. Anyhoo – it was high tide at lunchtime

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I hate cars

We’ve only had this one for six months – we bought it after our previous car quietly died in the school car park. Well, our current one has just quietly died on the way to work. So, much hanging about waiting for the A.A. followed by a trip to a garage where the owner gleefully

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A word of warning

Being the cheapskate that I am, I’m using the Nike+ kit without actually spending 75 quid on a pair of trainers. I’m doing this by positioning the sensor strategically in my smelly sock. This is not ideal, as I’ve just discovered. My nike.com training program today called for a 2km walk. Dead easy, thought I,

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I’m puggled

So, today was the Mid Calder gala day and our brass band were playing, so Mrs Choobs, child #2, child #3 and I were performing. One march with the procession followed by two thirty minute sets outside different pubs had us utterly puggled. It was a lovely day and a lot of fun, but we

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The Pain part II

Well, I went for my “silly run” (as my wife likes to call it) this morning and feel a good bit better for it. No cigarettes since last night, but I was of course still gasping and wheezing by the end of the paltry kilometer. I did, though, manage to shave 1 minute 40 seconds

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I love Scotland

And here’s why. You just never know what you’re going to get from one minute to the next. See, the week ahead is going to be warm/sunny/rainy, cooler/sunny, cool/rainy, cool, warmer, much warmer and thundery. Probably all at the same time. Watching the dashboard weather gadget having a complete fit every time it updates is

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