Tired and a little dizzy. For some reason last night, I couldn’t get to sleep until about 5 am, not just usual tossing and turning but first with a headache and then a feeling of being wide awake. It was annoying and my thoughts were generally dull and nostalgic. I’m totally out of whack today but forced myself up at 9 though skipped exercise.
Today I’m grateful for:
Having a month off work and not having to spend much money on petrol meant that I had enough money left to be able to buy more cat food today.
The best thing about today was:
Getting into the garden at 6 pm and replanting the little tree that was in a pot but whose roots meant that it kept getting blown over. I don’t know if it will make it where I’ve planted it but at least it standing upright again.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
Definitely my sleep. It’s pretty unusual for me to not be able to fall asleep easily these days and I also need to get back into my working-week sleep pattern again soon.
Something I learned today?
It’s near the end of the League Championship football season and Ipswich are in third place with two games to play. Leicester are in first place, also with two games left and Leeds are second with only one game to play.
Any of these three could finish first but I just want Ipswich to get promoted to the Premier League. I doubt that they will fair well there but if they can hang around for a few years that would be good.
I’m still surprised that Bournemouth is in the EPL and Southampton in the Championship.
Did you do something difficult or challenging today?
Not napping in the afternoon was a bit of a challenge but I managed it and fingers crossed I can sleep ok tonight. As the day has gone on I have felt an improvement in my mood which is a good sign.
Little Art took this picture of Piti, which I’m spoiling.
She’s forever standing next to me Begging me with bitter sad smiles Everywhere I turn, the memory Kept as treasure in my mind’s files
She’s out there still, ten thousand miles away Taunting me with her continued silence I only wish that there was something to say To return her back to this lonely island
Some parade photos. Students and teachers had been at school all night preparing costumes and make-up. What a palaver, my mum would say.
Today I’m feeling:
Pretty good and looking forward to the sports day event so that when I got to school I surveyed the parade for all my students, many of whom were difficult to spot as they were dressed up so fancily that I couldn’t recognise them at all!
I slept badly because of my aching shoulder and woke many times laying on my back and when Amy didn’t stir after I exercised I shook her foot and she complained of lack of sleep too due to my snoring. It’s possible the exercises I’m doing are aggravating my shoulder too much and it is not recovering from whatever stress or strain that I have given it.
Today I’m grateful for:
Kwang, Premier and Program again. I spotted them in the parade and they grabbed me and insisted I walk with them which I did for a little while. As Premier and Program let go, Kwang still held on and out of the blue said quietly ‘I miss my dad.’ Sigh.
The best thing about today was:
The feeling of excitement and happiness in the whole school celebrating sports day. In the past, I’ve usually left after an hour or so and gone home but this time, with an hour and a half break at House I stayed until around 2.15pm.
I was on my way to leave at around midday but got sucked back into staying and ended up trying to find Funfai whilst other students dragged me around to watch all the team’s cheerleader routines, partly because I had an umbrella they could shelter under.
Something I learned today?
Listening to the You Don’t Know Mojack podcast today, they were interviewing Chris Shary who is an artist that works with The Descendents and All. What was interesting was how he was a high schooler in Ipswich, UK and hung around with the Stupids, even singing with them near the end of their run. Pretty much useless information but of a little interest to me in discovering more about how everything is interconnected in our little weird music world.
Review your acts, and then for vile deeds chide yourself, for good be glad. — Discourses 3.10
Congratulating everyone who had dressed up for the day. Encouraging others to cheer and do their best in their competitions. Commiserating with the few who were bored or cold whilst waiting for things to get going.
What was the biggest risk I took this year?
Lending $1600 to Ad Interim so that they could get their album made. I only knew Max through acquaintance but I liked the band’s music and made the deal for repayment within 12 months and he was good enough to get it paid off within three or four months. I’m happy to work with people like this. I can’t offer a lot when it comes to marketing and distribution but can at least support artists with funds for production.
Do you think that most people are doing the best they can?
I borrowed this question from The Red Hand Files where Nick Cave simply replied with the answer ‘No’ which surprised me a little and made me consider why he replied that way.
Even though it seems that there is only tragedy in the world and so many bad people acting in bad ways when I look around my own personal environment I believe most people are doing the best they can.
We can all do better, and all try harder, I guess (maybe that is why Nick Cave answered no to the question) but here, for many people, they are still struggling to get by.
Maybe it’s the difference between living in a first-world country and a third-world one. Maybe in a first-world one, we expect more of each other and in the third-world folks are doing the best they can in the circumstances.
Bebe took this picture because she grabbed my phone and I just let her take as many pictures as she wanted. I like this one the best because Baibua has a big smile which she doesn’t usually show for me. Namfon, in the middle, has become a favourite student of mine because although we both know she may never be good at English she will now try her best and that is the main lesson to learn. Bebe is on a similar trajectory but still gets very distracted in class, though usually in a way that cracks me up. It’s hard to assert authority when you are laughing so much yourself.
7th May 1981 No one dropped the bomb But only just
Operation RYAN At a secret meeting of top Soviet officials in May 1981, General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev condemned Reagan, whose aggressive rhetoric was decidedly anti-communist. Yuri Andropov, the head of the KGB and the future General Secretary, furthermore explained that the Reagan administration was preparing for a possible preemptive nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. Andropov announced that the KGB was launching an intelligence program, Operation RYAN, which was an acronym for Raketno-Yadernoe Napadenie, or “nuclear missile attack.”
8th May 1981 I’m dead Hoare’s read my story
9th May 1981 FA Cup Final Spurs vs City 1-1 replay Thurs PiL
10th May 1981 SID VICIOUS LIVES (Sid Vicious born 1957)
This week’s chart-topper is: Adam and the Ants – Stand and Deliver straight into top 75 (at number 1)
Record of the week: Stranglers – Nuclear Device Highest entry: Suzi Quatro – She’s In Love With You
10th Aug 2022 – The Stranglers had passed me by until now and I reckon I only heard Nuclear Device once and never again until I bought a copy a few years later. It felt strange that a song I loved and I believe charted was so rarely heard on the radio. I was starting to feel that someone out there had it in for the punks and good music. I don’t recognise this Suzi Quatro song but she was always a pleasure to watch on Top of the Pops, though as a weird soon-to-be 12-year-old I didn’t quite understand why!
21st October 1979 Nuclear Device (Wizard of Aus) is great 2p 188p*
10th Aug 2022 – Perhaps this was the start of my education into the terrible power of nuclear weapons which would only cast a longer shadow over our lives in the early 80s. I did love the pun in the record’s title. Perhaps a first inkling of an interest in language.
22nd October 1979 (tick) Specials Message To You, Rudy is as above 2p 186p*
10th Aug 2022 – The Two Tone ska revolution was just starting to swing and my friends and I were getting into it. The music wasn’t punk but the messages were. I could identify. Any youth culture was interesting to me at this formative stage.
23rd October 1979 (4) Not long Took radio to school 2p 8p 1756p*
10th Aug 2022 – Countdown to my birthday. Birthdays were still exciting. Soon to be 12. I took a radio to school so we could listen to music and particularly the chart run down.
24th October 1979 (3) Not as long as yesterday 2p 1754p*
25th October 1979 (2) Even shorter 1. Lena Martell 2. Buggles 3. Michael Jackson 4. Dr Hook 5. Sad Cafe 2p 152p*
10th Aug 2022 – Apart from the Buggles this top 5 is pretty atrocious, though I do have a Sad Cafe song in the memory banks.
26th October 1979 (1) One day Christopher’s coming down tomorrow Greatt! 2p 150p*
27th October 1979 Great HEYY! Ipswich v. For what I got, look at next week 2p 148p*
10th Aug 2022 – A Saturday birthday with a friend visiting. Unfortunately, no memories retained, sadly.
An Ipswich Town related info box in my diary for my birthday week.
Record of the week: The Dickies – Walk Like An Egg Highest entry: Angelic Upstarts – Teenage Warning
25th May 2022 – My ‘record’ of the week seems to be just different songs from the Dickies album. Well, it is that good, I suppose. Angelic Upstarts – fantastic youth anthem, Teenage Warning – classic. I wonder if I could play it on guitar? Definitely not the guitar solo though!
12th August 1979 Might be watching the match on Saturday vs Forest
25th May 2022 – I think this would be the first of two times I saw Ipswich play. The other was in Bristol, vs Bristol City, though I’ve no idea what mum and I were doing in Bristol. Maybe just visiting Bath?
13th August 1979 I’m writing this on Thursday and I can’t remember what happened today 2p 93p* 86p* 179p*
14th August 1979 Went to Sharon and Ken’s 2p
25th May 2022 – Before moving to Dorset to live with my grandparents, we lived in Devon. I also don’t really know why we moved to Devon from Cumbria, though I would guess it would have something to do with my mum’s then-boyfriend committing himself to more than one girlfriend at a time. I never really saw my mum with another guy after that. Anyway, in Devon, my cousins, Sharon and Ken lived about 3 miles away from where we did. After leaving Devon at the end of 1976, Sharon and Ken moved too, also to Dorset, about 10 miles away from us. I used to enjoy Ken’s sense of humour and playfulness. Also by this time, they must have had a least one of their two children, Mungo followed by Kim. I was deemed to be close enough in age to play with them and get out of my mum’s hair for a while.
15th August 1979 Came back from Sharon and Ken’s 2p
16th August 1979 1. Boomtown Rats 2. Cliff Richard 3. Ian Dury 4. EWF 5. Abba 6. Hersham Boys 7. Police 8. Dooleys 9. Darts 10. ELO 2p 173p*
17th August 1979 Go on holiday to East Anglia Not Dead 2p 171p*
25th May 2022 – Hehe – I’m not sure why I wrote ‘not dead’. I suppose it was a long drive. I was excited to be in the county of my team and to be going to see them play the following day. Here, we stayed with my Auntie Eileen and Uncle Dick, after them having stayed with us last week or so.
18th August 1979 Up until now because I’ll be giving Ipswich’s scores Ipswich 0-1 Forest – Boo Watched the match live. 2p 169p*
25th May 2022 – In East Anglia I remember being allowed to drink Cinzano, which was Eileen and Dick’s favourite tipple.
I also managed to convince my mum to buy the Sham 69 Hersham Boys 12″ which no one else was very impressed with but didn’t stop me from playing it. Especially showing these ‘old people’ how angry and mature I was by enjoying the beeped-out swearing on the live tunes.
We also went for a walk across a heath with lots of brackens and their old dog trailing behind. But the football match that I was so excited about I don’t remember a thing, except perhaps, being disappointed at losing.
The other time I saw them, they lost too and that trend continued many a time I went to watch the Swans play in Sydney too. There was a very big difference in the atmosphere at matches between English football and Aussie Rules.
In England there was always a tension, a palpable possibility of violence, not even my mum could protect me from. In Australia, everyone is there to have a good time and enjoy watching the sport. Overzealous fans tend to be frowned upon. There is also no separation for supporters because it just isn’t necessary. Fans would poke gentle fun at each other, that was as violent as I ever saw at a game. Even opposition fans could make me laugh when one time, Collingwood scored their first point and shouted ‘You’re losing, Sydney!’
Record of the week: Squeeze – Up The Junction Highest entry: Amii Stewart – Light My Fire
3rd May 2022 – What the world never needed. A disco version of Light My Fire. At least it’s not got Jim Morrison singing it, I suppose! Squeeze – when New Wave still had potential. Great storytelling songwriting performance. It’s hard to comprehend the deep meaning songs like this held, as part of our cultural growth, the collective zeitgeist for those exposed to it and how, now, it’s forgotten and meaningless. Or it feels that way at least. But maybe I’m just in a funny mood.
I think about the impact I might’ve had on some of the people I’ve come across in my life and some days it feels like that moment may have disappeared forever, ineffective, meaningless. Then on other days, I consider how every little bit counts, that they may not be specifically recalled but one’s actions always have an effect, no matter how trivial and small.
I guess I’m projecting what I’ve been reading today back onto this time and a song by Squeeze!
17th June 1979 Dunno 2p 2p
18th June 1979 Rubbish day – really crap! 2p
3rd May 2022 – If I could go back in time, I would slap myself and tell myself to write more detail!
19th June 1979 Boiling hot, as it has been recently But there’s a LOW coming 2p
3rd May 2022 – I was watching some video recently about the foibles of the English and one point was that we always talk about the weather, not just as small talk but as main conversation points. Of course, you can analyse all the possible reasons for this but my main thought was that this doesn’t seem to be an idiosyncrasy peculiar to the English.
20th June 1979 Er.Hum.Er.Yes.Er.Erm.Um.In one word Dunno 2p 11p
3rd May 2022 – I can hear this only spoken in an English accent. Imagine Basil Fawlty. I feel comfortable enough to make this stereotype.
21st June 1979 1. Anita Ward – Ring My Bell 2. Tubeway Army – Are Friends Electric? 3. Roxy Music – Dance Away 4. Blondie – Sunday Girl 5. Earth Wind and Fire – Boogie Wonderland 2p
22nd June 1979 Seemed pretty long and hot. Went t’ chiropodist got another pad 2p 2p
23rd June 1979 1 year, 1 month, 17 days since Ipswich won the cup. 2p 30p*
3rd May 2022 – My ongoing effort to write something about Ipswich every Saturday. I was already finding ways to cheat the system.
Record of the week: Roxy Music – Dance Away Highest entry: Blondie – Sunday Girl – 10
24th Mar 2022 – When I saw this Roxy Music song here, the tune popped into my head and I thought, I hate this song! Something about it must have caught my interest. I was still into Blondie though I didn’t explore their releases after Parallel Lines. It got a bit too slick, though Union City Blue was ok.
13th May 1979 Feel sick Found out what was at number 1
14th May 1979 Still feel sick
15th May 1979 Don’t feel as sick as yesterday Rangers 0-0 Hibs 2p 123p
24th Mar 2002 – Such a sickly boy. Ipswich were my main team but in the Scottish League, I supported Rangers, because they also wore blue. Scottish games were never shown on TV so I could only follow them by watching out for the results on TV on Saturdays or perhaps reading results in my grandparent’s newspaper.
16th May 1979 I wish Bright Eyes would budge now European Cup Winners Cup Final Barcelona 4-3 Fortuna Dusseldorf
24th Mar 2022 – I really wanted Pop Muzik to get to number one. It almost seems inconceivable these days that a song could keep selling more copies week after week. I think Pop Muzik is more likely to be heard than Bright Eyes, in other contexts now, such as movies, soundtracks or TV shows – if I may be allowed to reduce cultural attache like that. Bright Eyes was a real downer of a song.
17th May 1979 1. Art Garfunkel – Bright Eyes 2. M – Pop Muzik 3. Boney M – Holiday 4. Abba – Does Your Mother Know 5. Peaches and Herb – Reunited 2p
18th May 1979 More drama in Soap 2p
19th May 1979 Found out that Ipswich are in Europe
24th Mar 2022 – This current wonder of the internet tells me that Ipswich came 6th in the league which means they would play in the UEFA Cup the following season.
1994ever 