An Apple a day...would be too expensive to keep up for long

Ok, so here's the scoop. Spoke to Chell on the phone tonight and she said these (soon to become legendary) words. "If you sell enough stuff you can can buy a mac" Whoop, whoop. That's virtually a green light already! And funnily enough today I sold a guitar pedal for a decent price...so now I'm scouring my house for other things to sell - a fact that Chell will be happy with in itself! (She thinks I collect junk - whereas I'm confident it will all prove useful one day. Anyone for a go on my blowup whale?) So far I have the following for sale:

- A '61 reissue Cherry Red Gibson SG: £700
- A Marshall JTM 6o 1 x 12 with 1 x 12 extension cab: £350

I have lots more stuff to sell but some of it's a bit rubbish - might sell on Ebay though? I'm sure someone will buy that old Epsom printer...

Oh and I can write songs by request - if you want one written I can negotiate a fee!

Tom and his mate

No, this isn't a MySpace post - it's about my sat nav... what a wonderful device it is too.

As of Christmas day I have been the proud owner of a TomTom One Europe version - Chell in her extreme generosity and kindness bought it for me. Sure, there have been a couple of incidents (one being when I was towing the trailer and it took me down a dirt track just wide enough for my car which in turn tried to lead us straight through a deep looking ford. We decided that wouldn't be the best idea and had to unhitch and push the trailer back up the lane! Hmph!) but on the whole it's been very handy.

The reason I mention it now? I haven't yet had a chance to try out the mainland Europe maps but today I had some time so I had a browse. I pointed it at Lake Garda, in Italy where we went on our hols last year. Apparently it would take 13 hours to drive there and it was 950 miles away... Funny how having the figures there in front of me made it all the more tangible; it suddenly felt like 10 minutes down the road! Full tank of diesel? check. Sat nav? check. Who's with me? Off we go!

Time to Type

...I got overwhelmed with the amount of stuff I was doing. It all started with a busy week around valentines day and then, because I've been up and about loads I've got so many stories that I've gradually become paralysed from the wrists down, and as such haven't been able to write. It's like TOO MUCH has happened to even be able to think about blogging about it. I think if had been able to keep going on the 'little and often' method it would have been fine but, even now as I type, I find myself away from home again. But at least there's an Internet connection here...

I find myself at Sunbury Court, the Salvation Army's antique retreat centre. It's very nice here. And it's particularly old and warm, like an overtly ornate and mismatching old people's home - it must cost a bomb to heat this place. In fact it must cost a bomb to do anything in or to this place.

By way of getting over the blog-clot (that sounds horrible in itself) that I have been experiencing here is a distilled version of the last few weeks. Since my previous post I have:

• Been to Glasgow for the Territorial Youth Rally (Scotland Edition)
• Been into London on valentines day to share a lovely day with Chell. We went to the Ice Bar (it was cool), the Marriot Hotel next to Westminster Bridge (it was posh), AND we went to IHQ for a coffee and cup of jelly beans (it was...well...IHQ!)
• The next day I met Grinner in Covent Garden for a coffee and a good chat following which I ventured into the national gallery to look at Monet and Van Gogh. It was awesome to see some real masterpieces in real life, like Monet's Waterlilies, Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Van Gogh's chair! Incredible.
• We (E=) went to Leicester South corps to play a gig and play during their worship on the Sunday. It was great to have some catch up time with Matt and Lizzy (and Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby) Elsey.
• Led worship in Chelmsford Cathedral
• Visited the Osteopath for the first time ever. It was awesome - I got cracked around all over the place. Loved it. I want more crack! (Can I say that?)
• Played a gig with Dweeb in Coventry - it went well. It was at the Nexus Academy venue. Very nice too.
• We had the prayer party at Mashbury - singing in the sticks! God bless us Mashbury residents!
• We had a great meal out with Andy Hill to celebrate his *****y-eth. Happy Birthday to you!
• We had a weekend off!
• And this last weekend we did some training with the Essential Course delegates, I played football with them that night (ALOVE UK beat them 29 - 13: Leeder got 2 for ALOVE UK)
• Then we gigged in Yeovil at 'Nth Fest' - along with One Hundred Hours, Vera Cruz, Dweeb and 15 or something other bands.
• Then we led worship in Exeter at South Western Division's Youth Councils.

That is why I haven't blogged. I had so much to say about each one I didn't know where to start and I got overwhelmed. But it's out now - I'm glad I was able to blog all that and draw a line under it too. Now I can blog with confidence once again - safe in the knowledge that there is nothing more to say other than blogging day by day. (Rhyming as we go - E I E I O)

As for now? Well, currently on retreat with all the officers from London NE division. So far it's been a really positive experience I am very glad to announce...may it continue that way too...

I'd better sign off now because I don't want my constant 'tap tap tapping' to irritate anyone sat here reading in the library. Here's to purposeful blogging and no more blog-clots - ever! ;-)

This is awesome...

(Probably don't need to say this but FYI: all the noises you hear are 'human generated'!)

Let it snow...

The snow has ground things to a halt in Mashbury. The normally bustling metropolis is quiet as a glutton's fruit bowl and quite frankly that's no bad thing. Today is a day of going slowly. It was meant to be a day of rehearsal but as neither of my fellow band members wanted to make the trip over in the potentially death trap conditions all is quiet in the Mashbury air.

So I sit here reflecting on life. And thinking that I aught to do something constructive with my day but currently I am content to work my way through season 4 of 24 and eat chocolate orange. In fact, pretty soon I might go and make some dinner downstairs, and then return to continue with my 24-a-thon.

After all, yesterday afternoon I spent 3 hours alone in the cold sitting in my car (which wouldn't start) waiting for an RAC man to come and sort out a new battery for me before I could drive home from Northamptonshire. It sucked and I'm kind of glad for the naturally-enforced day off. Now if only my friends could get here and we could have a snowball fight...

Words can't express...

Do you ever have moments when words can't express how you feel?

I do.

There have been times when I'm looking out at something so breathtakingly perfect and beautiful. Some sculpted landscape. I might be standing on a hilltop looking out, words sticking in my throat - I can't express how I feel. I wish I could stay there forever. But if you asked me how it feels I couldn't say. I know it's the most fantastic sensation and at the same time so frustrating...because if you asked me how it feels I couldn't say.

There's moments when you look at someone you love and you realise you love them being in your life so much right at that moment that you wish you could experience that kind of emotion at that intensity all the time and you wish time could stand still. But at the same time if you did have that emotion at that intensity all the time you'd know it wouldn't quite express how perfect you feel right now.

Or, like has just happened to me, you hear music so beautiful that you wish you could climb up inside it and rest there amongst the harmony and melody. (Maybe take a listen to the music from the balcony scene in Romeo & Juliet - an instrumental version of the song 'Kissing You' sung by Des'ree and see where I'm coming from...)

'Pre-New Years Resolutions' - Revisited

On December 7th last year I blogged about my apparent inability to stick at things. Well, if anything I have continued to think about that blog a lot, and try to improve, so in one way at least I am gradually getting better at pushing through. I have started a lot of new things this year already. I wouldn't say they're new years resolutions but...well, I don't know what else they could be...

I bought a book from TESCO about study skills. It was actually a book for people still at school / college to help them study for their exams but nonetheless I found it an extremely interesting read and it spurred me on to buy some more books that were referenced throughout. The main development book is a book on how to read faster.

Whilst I love reading I find it frustrating that my reading speeds seem to have tailed off in the last 5 or 6 years, a trait which is apparently common when you leave full time education. The book I'm working through has self-assessment exercises throughout to help you measure your progress. The first one, which helps you work out your benchmark, encouraged me a bit but also showed me I've got a long way to go! I read at 189wpm, which is about average, although I have a comprehension of 80%, which is above average. The book reckons you can achieve reading speeds of 400 + with really extreme cases where people can read 1,000 + wpm! Can you believe that? Apparently it's all true. That must be pretty weird... I wonder if it takes all the fun out of reading?

I've also joined the gym. I'm currently going as much as I can. I took up an offer highlighted by the Money Saving Expert which I still heartily recommend. The site has a link to a Pruhealth promo scheme where you sign up for Private Healthcare and get free Cannons or JJB gym membership for 6 months! Pruhealth costs around £19 a month so it's quite a deal when most Cannons health clubs are £50 + (I think the Chelmsford one is £60+). I'm trying to get swimming and exercising as much as I can - this year I am determined to surpass the sit up farce of 2006.

Cannons also have an Osteopath, so I might even be able to get my back fixed at last!

Still alive...

Hi, just a quicky to say I'm still alive...

I'll blog something good soon but I feel like my album review in the previous post was a bit of a flop; both personally and in terms of blog-visitors. I think that perhaps my confidence has been knocked by the lack of interest in it.

Anyhow, back soon...

Strangelove - Strangelove

Strangelove's self titled 1997 album is one of the jewels of my record collection - unfortunately not many people knew about them then (nor today really) so it never did as well as it should have. In fact I've got it mind to do a few of these blogs on my favourite albums - and most of them that come to mind never really achieved much commercial success. Maybe that's just the way I'm wired?

I first discovered Strangelove after rooting around my brother Michael's music collection back in 1995. He had a copy of their first album 'Time For The Rest Of Your Life' (another blinding set of songs) and I fell in love with it on my first listen. The band only released two more full length studio recordings, the second being 'Love and Other Demons' (thought by some to be their best) and this one, 'Strangelove'. The third and final was the most pop sounding of the lot and I think that might be why it's become my favourite...especially in my old age. I hope you won't mind me taking you on whistle stop tour?

Superstar, the first track of 11 opens with a mournful, cascading guitar chord. The outlook seems bleak - and from this point onwards it has to be said that the band tread a fine line between sad reflection and bleak self-loathing. Doesn't sound like a recipe for success? Well, no, it wasn't... but it's brilliant! Perfect pop melacholy. I love it.

Other highlights... Freak gives a glam tinged angry rock song with a well crafted bridge. Someday Soon, whilst not the strongest song on the album, has one of the best outros I can remember. The whining slide guitar gives way to the pounding rhythm section pushing and punching its way unstoppable and relentless to the end of the song. Awesome! I really love the sentiment of The Runaway Brothers "...both threwing up round the back" - Patrick Duff lyricism at its best.

The pub piano cleverness of Another Night In heralds the arrival of one of the most poppy tracks on the album; it was one of the singles but again, it didn't do too well. It's a really prime example of the Stranglove guitarists' ability to intertwine 2 or 3 melodic lines into a greater whole (when I was fortunate enough to see them live there were times in the set when 4 out of the 6 band members were playing guitar - we're talking full on wall of sound) - something they were brilliant at and something I've tried and failed to emulate loads of times!

The Greatest Show on Earth is a song writing highlight of the album and it's intricate arrangement makes it a good listen. You know you're back in '97 when the horns start up at the start of She's on Fire, a track which at times sounds like Suede (comparisons to Beautiful Ones wouldn't be unfair). It's a slower paced track which is might well be placed at this point in the album to slow things down a bit before the finale. Mona Lisa has an element of 90s dance music to it - it again highlights the ability of the rhythm section, especially the super tight drummer.

Looking back at how much I've written I think that'll do. Strangelove were not any worse than their contemporaries. In fact in some ways they were better. But they probably found their feet about 2 years too late to jump on the band wagon. They are at times disturbed, momentarily unhinged yet always very, very good. I wholeheartedly recommend you check them out and enjoy. Let me know what you think if you do.

I'm getting married this year

2007 brings with it many things but one of those things will be the year I get married to the mighty fine Michelle!

Up unto this point I've not really thought too much about the wedding - it was a conscious decision I suppose. It made sense to me to wait until the new year so then I could really get to grips with what I need to prepare and organise.

My jobs for the wedding are as follows:
- to organise what music we will have
- to book the cars
- to book the honeymoon

...and I think that is it... do you think I've got a good deal there? I mean obviously there is lots of stuff to do together...such as guest lists and booking venues and stuff, but my personal list of things to do is pleasantly short methinks.

Anyway, there's wedding blog number 1.

*E*l*e*c*t*r*a*l*y*t*e* on iTunes

This is a cheeky little plug - if you didn't know already the band has made it onto iTunes...but even better than that we're currently being featured on the iTunes uk store homepage - something we're uber proud about.

I'm sure it'll only be on there for a few days (it's been advertised on the homepage since the 29th Dec!) so go check it out while it's there! We are there...right at the bottom of the page under the title 'Exclusively on iTunes'.

Oh, and if you don't own a copy of our album Breakout then go ahead and buy the thing off iTunes. It's only £7.99 and comes with two tracks which don't appear on the cd version of the album. They're really good too...honest! If you do own a copy then you can just buy those two tracks on their own. Super.

(Sorry for blatant plug - I try not to plug on here too often as I realise it's not my place to do so...I'm just pleased that's all!)

Speeding into 2007

Happy New Year! But... hang on, what's this envelope I just came home to? Surely nothing bad yet? Wha...? A speeding ticket? 41 in a 30? Pesky rotten speed trap!

Christmas...with friends

Things are ramping up to Christmas for sure. What a brilliant time to meet with friends that you don't see enough of! This weekend has been manic socialising for Chell and I - starting with a night of poker (gamble free of course, my fellow good-solider friends) on Friday night. When we wound up at 2am I was definitely winning (for that round) but I'm sure if we'd have stayed on a bit longer I would have screwed up sooner or later - especially as I didn't have the foggiest what was going on for the majority of the time.

Saturday was shopping in Chelmsford - meeting up with White and Harries. I managed to get part of Chell's present - at last. Sat eve Mel came over with a jolly good bloke called Dave. We did lots of nice activities, including Eyetoy wishywashy, cards-of-comedy, listening to the Ricky Gervais podcast (!? it was like we were listening to the wireless in the 1940s!) and making a video where I was upside down and we drew eyes and a nose on my chin, I wore a shirt on my head and was interviewed for the press. I hope he wasn't too confused by the whole affair.

Today, Sunday, I cooked my first roast Chicken dinner. I've done beef before, but a chicken was a new step for me, and it went well. We had Shawn and Vicki Moye over which was a pleasure! For dinner we had: Roast Chicken, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, cauliflower cheese, yorkshire puddings, peas, sweetcorn, carrots and gravy. It was filling. We played some games and ate and laughed a lot more together before Shawn and Vic had to leave and Chell and I headed to Chelmsford SA for the carol service. We were late - but at least we had a really good excuse this time...

Then after the meeting Garry, Tania, Elliot and Georgia Smith (and Brother Glyn) came back to Mashbury manor for tea and lots of chat. (Actually the kids went upstairs for a spot of eyetoy while us boring adults chatted!) We had a really good time together - it was good to catch up with the Smiths and hear their heart for the SA in Chelmsford; I know we're involved with the right church!

So, that's been the weekend... busy but for good reason, it's great to hang out with friends and have fun together. I love Christmas! All that remains to be said is that if you consider yourself one of our friends we'd love to have you visit someday soon - you might even get to listen to the wireless with us if you're lucky?

Pre-New Years Resolution

I realise it’s a bit early for this but I got to thinking about New Years resolutions. Recently I’ve realised I’m rubbish at committing to things. Here’s a few things I’ve tried to commit to in the past year but haven’t managed to keep up:

• Sit ups
• Getting to bed before 11pm
• Press ups
• Getting into work on time
• Writing a song a week
• Being selfless
• Keeping my garden tidy
• Practising guitar
• Learning Italian
• Not using the computer after 10:30 at night
• Phoning Chell every day – especially when I’m away from home
• Putting savings away
• Phoning Will regularly to check up on him and be there if he needs any doctor advice

Seriously! Look at that list! And be assured - it goes on and on!

So I want and really genuinely need help in becoming more committed to things. Next year I will make the biggest commitment of my life and whilst that is not in the same scale as doing a few press ups or sit ups I need my wife-to-be to assured of the committed steadfast love I have for her now and for the rest of her life.

Hence I have already started thinking about New Years resolutions. You might hate them – I myself am not a fan, but I think that my bad memory would be aided by the exactness of the ‘start date’. I hold myself accountable much more successfully if I can connect a task to a date when it was set. However, I also figure that if I start trying to get into the swing of being a man of commitment now then who knows what I might achieve by Jan 1st?

I’ll keep thinking about those resolutions and record them on here as soon as I can.

Decorating for the Festive Season

Decorating for Christmas presents us with a conundrum of balance. As my design skills do not measure up to the dazzling skill of someone like Lard I find it a testing experience to work out what looks good and what looks… well… nasty.

Over the weekend Roland, Joan, Chell and I went to Bremen in Germany to visit the Christmas markets. There we experienced a true Christmas wonderland – Christmassy stalls tucked away in each and every crevice of the town centre. Sometimes the stalls were a bit off the wall, sometimes a bit clichéd but most of the stalls were nice little shops with nice little Christmas bits and bobs for sale.

So we came home Sunday and last night we decided to decorate - which is really early for me. I grew up in a house where decorations went up on Christmas eve and stayed up ‘til the twelfth night - I have nothing against that either, but this year it felt right to get them up now. We were feeling so Christmassy that we went out and bought some new lights and a tree. When we got home we put a few things up but ran out of time as we had friends coming over. It was a bit of a rush job – and we need to finish it off really soon.

I woke up this morning and had a look at what we had done…I couldn’t work out what I liked and what I didn’t like. Christmas decorations are a matter of personal taste – so what looks nice to me might repulse someone else. Having said that – I couldn’t even work out what I liked myself! However, I do have a few theories on what looks nice at Christmas (whether or not I manage to adhere to these remains to be seen):

1 – Greenery is good. Natural decoration is much better than shiny plastic. Use lots of evergreens and ivy (possibly holly too?)
2 – White lights not coloured lights – and lots of them too
3 – Themed decoration is a good idea – not too many colours
4 – No blow up Santas or ‘Santa - please stop here’ signage

I’d be interested to here your thoughts on this? More importantly I’d love to hear your ideas and tips on how to traditionally decorate your house for Christmas – especially as I have no idea how to make the clever stuff but would really like to!

God bless us, everyone...

Money Stuff

After a few recommendations from our friends Villheim, Deborah and Little Katie I have finally got round round to visiting Martin Lewis' Money Saving Expert site. It's really good!

The guy spends all his time finding out good deals that protect consumers from unnecessary costs - like paying too much council tax, or not receiving benefits that you might be entitled to. He is also currently recommending practical stuff like freeware antivirus and spam filters as well as a host of other stuff.

Other bits and bobs I've read that he focuses on are credit cards (how not to get screwed over), bank charges (ditto), free gifts and vouchers (making the most of them), & mortgage stuff.

So, if you're a grown up and you are interested in these kinds of things (sorry that this blog is slightly boring/practical) I can only say that I'm just having a look around the site and it's great - I thought I'd let you know in case you wanted to check it out...

A return and some flowers

I have had a brief soiree into the real world hence my lack of blogging for the past 20 days. I wanted to show something by way of an apology so I am giving you, my readership (i.e. myself, when I look at this next week) a lovely bunch of roses.

Well, the truth is I bought these for Chell because I messed up this weekend and didn't call her. There wasn't any excuse for it so I felt I needed to buy her a nice treat - a pretty bunch of flowers did the trick and I was back in the good books (and back into her top 5 - just beneath Ricky Gervais in the rankings - yes, she's that strange).

Anyway, what with everything and nothing to report I think I will sign off. Probably meant to be doing something like rehearsing with Electralyte anyway! Blessings!

Chris Moyles and his Essex based Salvation Army fan club

The photo above was taken today when Glyn, Matt White and myself went to visit Ottakers book shop in Chelmsford to have our Chris Moyles books signed and get a photo with the man himself. So here we are.... but there are a few things to note about this photo. Chris appears to only like Matt W as he has his arm around him and him alone. Mind you he did try to put his arm around me but I was too tall and it made his shirt come up - as you can see by way of appeasement I put a hand-of-friendship on his shoulder. Glyn is making a bizarre face and, unfortunately though much less intentionally, so am I - I appear to be smirking; "Excitedly smirksome" apparently (copyright Christina W).

Interestingly just before this photo was taken I presented Mr Moyles with a little blue plastic box with an Electralyte cd, t-shirt, poster and a couple of sticks of rock. I do hope he enjoys them! He seemed to like the gesture and put the box on the floor next to where he was sitting.

Today I met a legend.

Goldmember and the trailer

Today has been an exciting day for today Electralyte got their trailer. We bought it off of our good buddies from the band [dweeb] so it already has a sterling rock and roll heritage. I do hope we don't disappoint it in the future.

You will be pleased to hear that the Goldmember pulls it well - I was very relieved!

I must say that that my automobile looks particularly good in this photo - the sun catches the gold livery beautifully. Long live the Goldmember - may all who travel in her be kept safe.

PS Thank you to everyone who has left nice messages and phoned me in response to Tuesday's post - it's lovely to know I have such great friends! x

My life (and love)

Whenever I talk to people about my blog I usually tell them that I'm not a consistently deep blogger - I generally go for a 1 in 5 or 6 ratio Depth vs Shallow Ramblings. This is an attempt at the '1 in 5'...

The past few weeks have felt like a lot of hard work. I've felt slightly out of it for a while. I dunno if it's tiredness or stress or what. If I'm really honest it's all affected me quite deeply. My relationship with Chell is affected - nothing really bad but it puts us under even more strain than the distance already gives us. I led worship at Youth Councils on Sunday and simply didn't feel up for it, although I did try. It feels like my faith in God is under strain - maybe I'm trying to be honest with where I'm at. I'm quite untrusting of nearly every friendship I have - and I'm feeling a bit jealous of others, not something I'm proud to admit. It feels like I've 'reached the end of my hoarded resources' as that old army song says...

Went to cell group last night...it was fantastic - we talked about love. Three kinds of love as written about in the original hebrew (in Song of Songs. Raya translated as 'Friend or companion. Someone you hang out with', Ahava translated as 'a love that impacts your will. An emotion that leads to commitment', Dod translated as 'the physical, sexual element to a relationship'). It started me thinking about the kind of love I have in my life - the kind of love I have for Chell, for my family and my friends. And what kind of remedy should I seek when the love I have isn't as pure as it should be?

So I read Galatians 5...

'But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.'

I scared myself when I realised just how many elements of that fruit I'm not displaying in my life. Is the life I lead compatible with this? Does stress and tiredness get in the way of a right relationship with God? And each other?