David's blog

Well, this is the third week of my time at the college doing a course which is suppolse ot be helping me learn about recording music, this has been an interest of mine since I started to write some songs a long time ago, I have writen about 30 songs or so over the years, which is not a huge output, well its pretty miniscule really but I guess its only a hobby of mine and I am not obliged to make a living out of it.  It seems to have got harder over the last few years to write songs, the impulse to do it is not so frequent.  I write the tune first, well I get a riff, or a play a few chords then come up with words as I go along, a lot people do it different ways.

I found out today, that they have stopped another bus service from operating round here, it would be nice for a change that they would introduce a new bus service, instead of cutting them, it just seems like one way traffic, so to speak, though they did introduce one a few years ago but it didn't last long.  The main problem with the bus service round here is the monopolisation of routes by bus companies where they operate the route to suite themselves, this is, the result of the privatisation of services, this is also evident in the electricity company suituation, where the cartel rules the roost in relation to prices. The bus service which has stopped is part of the number 1 service from Porthmadog to Blaenau Ffestiniog, there isen't now a bus which comes from Blaenau, at 11pm, this service has been running for years and was handy for people to come down after a night out in the pubs of Blaenau, now who knows how they will get back, drink and drive?  The bus was also handy...

Today, I did my first ever recording in a studio, this came about, as I am on music technology course and they needed someone to record a song so I was volunteered.  I was not sure what song to sing but settled on Christy Moore's Ride On, I was asked to play the tune first and then sing over the tune, overdubbing I guess they call they call, this was awkward for me as I am used to doing both playing and singing this song at the same time, not one before the other, anyway I gave it a go, it wasn't even my guitar, but I did it anyway.  It wasn't great guitar playing but it would do the job. I then had to sing the song, it was hard to sing over the tune as the levels were a bit awkward, the guitar was too low and my singing was too high but it was the first time I had ever done this. The tune was then mixed down some levels were changed and then the finish product was recorded and I will get a copy sooner or later I guess, it was good fun, hopefully I can do more of this ...

Trying to write this post with music banging in my ears, there is a 'disco' at the college where I am right now.  It has been a nice day weather wise, but have felt under the weather due to the beer I drank last night.  It is really odd, how when you are put in  situation where there are a lot of people around and haven't been in that situation before for a long time, that you find the whole thing a bit overwhelming.  It  is like I have gone from one extreme to the other here, but I am sure its a good thing to have so many people around, I guess the best thing is to find the balance of the right amount of people, maybe I will find that, down this road I am heading right now, I hope so anyway.

Well, today is the last day of 2013, I will not be sad to see the back of it, it wasn't good, another year of no work, and therefore not much money, had some refurbishments to the house, but the house has ended up in a mess by the end of the year, due to some not very good builders being here.  They have taken the rendering off but forgot to put it back and therefore water is coming in, they may remember to finish the job next year, as it is at the moment, but the fact is I might not be here as I am suppose to be going away to college in Hereford.  I have been there before but I think geting away from here might be good. I did some intensive labouring this morning, ie cleaning the kitchen, I hate the job, there always seems to be a lot of stuff from garden ending up on the kitchen floor, no matter how much I try to get the stuff off, by wiping my feet on the mat by the door.  I thought I had better get the house in to some kind of clean state by the time I leave.  ...

Well, I still don't have a washing line, and I decided to do some washing today, by hand, I don't have a washing machine either.  It has been quite a windy day, ideal for drying I thought, so I have had to improvise again, by tying ond end of the washing to the bin which is full of green waste, it seems to be doing the trick, though the wind has died down and it is starting to rain a bit, oh well.  I will need something better than the green waste bin I think. There is only 2 days until xmas, for me it might as well be 200 hundred days, as the thing seems to mean nothing to me this year really.

So Ronnie Biggs, the great train robber has died at the age of 84, that doesn't mean he was a 'great' train robber, the robber was was titled the Great, train robbery.  It doesn't mean he was the best train robbery that had ever been.  He ran away to Brazil to evade being put in prison, but in one way he was in prison, as he could not come back to GB and be with his friends and family.  I think some people admired him for 'getting away with it'  like I say, I am not sure he did get away with it, I guess he was always looking over his shoulder, and in the end could not handle that, and came back to serve some of his sentence, or maybe all of it.  I think he escaped from prison, that is how he managed to 'get away' with it.  I guess there is something inside most people that is fed up of following the rules and wanting to do something outrageous, kind of break away from the norm, like robbing a train, it seems a quick route to riches, such as robbing a b...