Return of the Hamster

Well, TG is back on our screens, and so is the Hamster. That man is a legend and I'm delighted he's back to normal.

Seriously though, it is incredible that he is alive and well and it is down to the fact that no matter what we all say from time to time, we really do have dedicated and highly skilled medical staff in this country and they are available to us all. Let also not forget the role played by the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. Most parts of the country seem to have one now and I would urge you to find and support your local one as they need donations to do the work they do. Without them, the BBC program schedule would be that bit bleaker and Hammonds family would probably have lost their husband, father and son.

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Music please, maestro

I'm rather fond of the guitar. I own a couple myself (although I'm not terribly good at playing them) and I love to see and hear virtuoso players. Well, here's one for your enjoyment: Tommy Emmanuel. There are no words to describe this guy other than he really IS this good and no, there aren't any other instruments being played during this track.

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Beaches, Greed and Environmental Cost

Anyone who lives in the UK cannot have failed to have heard about the MSC Napoli, a 65,000 tonne cargo ship carrying more than 2000 containers bound for Portugal and beyond.
While I think it is quite repugnant the way lots of people have descended on the containers which have washed up from the vessel and ripped them open believing they have a god given right to whatever washes up on the beach, no questions asked, and therefore they haul away vast amounts of goods to try and make a quick buck, this isn't what really upsets me about this incident. What sickens me to the core is the total disregard these people have for the aftermath of their grasping attitude. The beach is littered with debris, packaging and whatever people have hauled out of containers (in more than one case the personal belongings of people who were moving to another part of the world to start a new life) and decided they don't want.

There is twisted metal, plastic and all kinds of packing materials left on the foreshore, and although the environmental impact of the oil leaking from the ship will be the one most reported, there is a significant threat to wildlife posed by this rubbish on the beach. Worse still, a lot of this has already been washed out by the tides and is now littering the bay and beyond. I find litter anywhere offensive but on the seashore doubly so because I studied oceanography at university and I know what it can do to the environment and the creatures that live in it. Birds who swallow plastic are generally destined for a slow and painful death either through starvation, infection, internal injuries or suffocation. Marine creatures are equally vulnerable to debris like this and the "I'm alright Jack" attitude of the scavengers makes my blood boil. If I lived closer, I would go down and volunteer to help clean it up immediately. I am pleased that the police have finally cordoned off the area but I fear much damage has already been done.

We as humans are capable of incredibly good things but even at our best we only ever seem to be one small step away from the most appallingly crass behaviour which is a terrible tragedy and in this case, it will be the local people who suffer as a result of the greed of the people who have traveled for miles to join in the carnage. Sometimes, I'm ashamed to be human. We just don't have any respect for our environment at all.

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Infrequency? Missing Presumed Not Bothered....

Which I haven't been. Bothered that is, mainly because I've been away, moving house or ill for quite some time. Still, new year, new effort and all that, and I even intend to talk less about the evils of internet dating (still crap) and more about random thoughts and stuff.

Here's one to start us off. This evening I was perusing the butter section in my local Sainsburys (rock 'n' roll) and, being the bourgeois snob I am, I homed in on the organic butter. I always buy salted butter but I noticed that right next to the Sainsburys organic stuff I picked up and put in my basket was the unsalted version of the same Sainsburys organic range. but here's the thing: The unsalted butter was fully 20p more expensive than the unsalted stuff. Why on earth does it cost 22% more for them to NOT add a pinch of salt? It's a crazy world we live in.


Listening to: Renaissance: The Masters Series Vol 7 (Mixed by Dave Seaman)

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Quality, not quantity

I like to think that the infrequency of my posts means that the quality is higher than that of the average blog. However, anyone who has read my blog will realise that this is patent bollocks so I'll move swiftly on.

And move on to dating, no less. Yes, that's right, dating, particularly of the internet kind. But the difference is that this is not a rant, oh no. After what seems like an eternity, I have found normal people who can carry on a conversation and don't just stop talking to you apropos of nothing. Indeed, last night I went on a date. A real one. In a public place. With a lady. Better yet, we had a good time nattering away, we got on really well, and, all things being equal, I hope we will see each other again.

But it doesn't end there. In some weird analogy with buses, you wait ages and then two come along at once. Yes, another date with another nice lady (or at least I hope so - it's in a couple of days). Here's the rub though: I suspect I haven't quite got the hang of internet dating yet despite my long suffering attempts, because I feel guilty about dating two girls. No, not in a cheating or bigamous kind of way, but I feel bad that I am having first dates with two women so close together, and I just know that the next first date will go just as well as the first because life is cruel like that.

Last nights date with, well, let's call her Julie being as that's not her name, was really good fun and she was everything I would look for in a girlfriend and she was very cute too. I got the feeling that we definitely clicked in a good way. Of course, I could be wrong but I'd be more than happy to see what happens and would be very happy if a relationship formed. But over the weeks of chatting with Jenny (again, not her real name), we've been getting on extremely well too and my worry is that this date will go just as well.

You might wonder how that can be a worry, but I am an enormously paranoid person when it comes to dating and I don't want to have to choose. Mind you, that's jumping waaaaay ahead of myself there because that situation would only arise if a large number of things happen in a certain way, but being a pessimist, I view the worst possible situation as having to choose between them. That, to me, would be even worse than both of them deciding that I'm not what they're looking for. The more I think about it, the more I think that last night went so swimmingly that should something develop then I'd be daft to even consider something else.

You see, choice has never really featured in my life like that because I'm not that proactive about relationships: I have spent a long time not looking for one and therefore when the remotest possibility of two pop up (and we are talking so remote that the Hubble telescope would have trouble spotting it) I panic a bit and realise I have no idea what I'm doing.

Well, I suppose it's better than moaning about how crap modern dating is.

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