Trials & Tribulations: Happy 2009

I just hope It"s a better year than 2008. Personally it"s been a horrible year. My oldest friend whom I"ve known for nearly 28 years died back in June so I"m going to pay a little tribute to him here:
I was actually ill in bed with a virus, when I got a phone call from his dad saying that he had a fall, banged his head on the pavement & later died in hospital from the injury he sustained. He"d hurt his head only a few weeks earlier. I immediately realised that he"d had a seizure. [he suffered from epilepsy] I just couldn"t take it in. Luckily, I was better by the time of the funeral & met all these people that I"d never seen before from his home town of Chesterfield. I could talk to them straightaway which shows human beings are brought together when they"ve suffered the same loss.
He was one of the most warm hearted people I"ve ever known so will be greatly missed by me and many other people, especially his mum, dad and his many relations from Chesterfield.

Trials & Tribulations - Walking the dog

I don"t think I"ve mentioned the dog in the picture. You"re maybe wondering who he is. Well he"s not actually my pet. He belongs to the next-door neighbour & his name is PJ although I call him boysy. I take him out regularly because the elderly neighbour can"t manage him herself.
Trouble is, he likes to gallop like a raging bull even when he"s on the lead. When he"s just walking he walks too fast, pulling me along aswell if he can get away with it. There is a field that I go to so I can let him off. but he sees other dogs & runs up to them to try to make friends. He never fights them as he"s very placid but other dogs can get nasty. The owners have been great so far [touch wood] but I know some can be funny.
I once took him in the pub but he won"t settle & starts misbehaving yelping & jumping about. He always wants to keep on the move even when I stop to talk to someone but I still love taking him out - that"s why I called this blog "Mans Best Friend"

For more on PJ & dog handling in general click here:
By T.R.Dunn @copywright 2008

Trials & Tribulations - The Dating Game

I know this is quite a tricky subject, but I like to try to be very open about things which happen in mine and I"m sure in some of your lives aswell.
Just recently, I had a message from one of those social networking sites from a woman [won"t mention her name] looking for a serious relationship & gave me her yahoo mail address.. I nearly didn"t reply but as I was getting on a bit [I, always the oppotnistic type] replied and we exchanged a few mails. It turned out that she had a South African mother & a Turkish father. I got a sob story that her mum had died in 2001 so she came over here to study bio chemistry at Guilford University in Surrey. Her dad had gone back to Turkey.
Trouble was, she said that she wasn"t in the country at the time. She had gone to see her grandma in Nigeria. I being the sympathitic sort lent a "distant" sholder to cry on. She was saying that after reading my profile page she hoped that I would be her kinda man & she also sent me photos, which were very nice "seriously" Anyway, her mails grew increasingly intense [almost like extracts from a Mills & Boon novel] which basicly said that I was the man whom she wanted to spend the reast of her life with. Of course I was by this point flattered - & replied that no-one had ever said things to me like that before - arrrhh!
Anyway, the second from last mail said that she was due to catch a plane to the UK but realised that she had mislaid her pastport on the way to the airport. She then returned home & amasingly, it was there. She them found out that she"d missed the plane and would need a new ticket - here"s the catch, she needed £450 for a new ticket & to revalidate her passport and asked if I could help out. I replied saying that the ticket could be used to catch another plane & could I have her number so we could speak. The last mail that I got said that she didn"t have a contact number. Immediately, I smelt a rat. How could anyone be on the internet without a phone line? [If I"m wrong, feel free to email me] In any case how could I send money to someone whom I"d never met. I grew suspicious & emailed the website where we first met. They replied saying that her profile was due to be [or already had been] suspended. So that usually means that she must have "spammed" loads of users. I then cottoned on that he or she must"ve been copied & pasted the same email to lots of people with just their names altered. This is apparently easy to do. I mention "he" because for all I know, she could have been a sad short fat baulding man with no friends trying to pull a scam. I"ll never know the real truth and I obviously never fell for it. I think the moral of the story is: "Don"t get sucked into a relationship online".

Trials & Tribulations snow!

Would you believe it! A few days ago it was mild, even warm in the sun. Now snow! with a bitterly cold north wind so I thought I"d write on here, best place to be. I had to brave it this morning to fetch my tobacco but it wasn"t so bad then. Right now [around 9.30am] the snow"s realy comming down & settling on the ground well. The birds who my mum fed in the spring when they were bringing up their young have come back with a vengance. They dissapeared during the summer months but like most animals, they come when they want feeding.

Trials & Tribulations with the Fezz

I sometimes play the keyboard with a couple of local musicians and our band is called The Fezz. A few weeks ago just before bonfire night, we got asked to play at a wedding in Kirton. The groom was going to play drums with us so we agreed as we were looking for a drummer.
Anyway, we made our way there on the bus & waited in the church. We didn"t know at that point where we were going to play. As it turned out, it was in the groom"s house where there was also going to be a disco. I wondered how that was going to work out because live music doesn"t mix with disco. We got in and of course there was no room for our equipment but we made room in the end. They turned the disco off when we played which amazingly went very well & sounded better than the disco, even with the singer"s tiny amp & the sound from the built-in speakers on the keyboard plus the other guitar player.
Trouble was, The last bus back home was at 7.30pm which came and went. I started wondering how we"d get back home. The singer rang his sister who said would give us a lift but she wasn"t in so I panicked a bit & got a bit restless. anyway the groom stormed into the room & shouted something at me, [can"t remember what] so I shouted back and he just punched me in the mouth. Blood dripped on the floor although I didn"t fall down as I"m pretty strong myself. I wanted to hit back but our guitars, amplifiers, microphones etc was just behind them & could have got smashed and we didn"t have insurance.
In the end, the dj took us home. I asked him what it was all about. He told me that I had said while in the room the groom should have took us home instead of dancing with his new wife which I didn"t say at all. In any case, he was too drunk to drive so I wouldn"t have said that. Needless to say the drummer isn"t gonna play in our band now.
The singer/guitarist has made a new CD with the Fezz with loui on drums & Tony on keyboard. Brian also plays guitar. There are sample songs mixed on video from the new cd as well as live video clips & info. These can be found at http://www.myspace.com/thefezzle

Click Here for to view my site on guitar related stuff, the history of the guitar & it"s main exponents, lessons etc.

Trials & Tribulations cont - Nosy people

I went back to where I fell this Friday night & guess what, It"s much better lit now. anyway, I went to get a takaway nearby & someone in there said I"d have no chance of a claim. How would they know? They said they worked for the council but this matter had nothing to do with them.
So my question is: Why do strangers always try to disagree with me all the time even though I know I"m in the right? Food for thought.

Trials & Tribulations cont - Call from lawyers

Today I responded to an unsolicited email I recieved from solicitors [exuse the pun] who specialise in personal injury claims on a no-win no-fee basis. What a stroke of luck, considering what happened to me last friday night as explained in my last post. I got a phone call strait away & took my details of injuries etc.. They wanted some photos of the schene where I fell which I took today. In daylight, the wood planks were painted in red & white stripes. These are perfectly visible during the day but not at night. They wanted to know who owned the building so I contacted the local council but they said I would have to contact the land registry. The good news is that I"ve got a very good chance of compensation.. great as I"ve had quite a bit of bad luck lately.

Trials & Tribulations - At the pub

The next day {Sat} we went to the pub in the afternoon bcause it was better in the day & played pool and also had a go on the punchbag machine. Trouble was , my first two goes on it didn"t register the score because we hadn"t set it properly. We then set it right & had a go again but my friend & I both missed. Oh well! at least we got some good videos of it. I then thought that I would have a go on the pinball machine. Trouble was, It was turned off so I got underneath it & turned it on at the wall. I then had several goes, not realising why it had been turned off in the first place. Matey from behind the bar came along & pointed out that the score window was smashed so I turned it off again. As I was doing that, I heard a funny bang noise which gave me the fright of my life. It turned out that my friends made it.

My Trials & Tribulations - A fall

There"s quite a lot of things that have happened in my life lately. Starting with last week {Friday night} when I was walking out of a pub and I was just crossing the road when I tripped on something & fell flat on my face. It turned out that I"d tripped on some planks of wood on the road which running alongside scaffolding on a building. There was no lighting on that part of the street & no warning signs. Luckily, not too much damage was done. Has anyone have any thoughts on this?

Someday a little poem,song

Someday, you"ll fill my heart
with the sunshine and stars
and I"ll feel alright

In this place
I see your face
My heart beats apace
and that"s no discrace

When I think of you
my mind"s askew
Oh. my broken heart
will it ever heal
Oh those gloomy days
keep my mind in a daze

For the first time in a long long while
my heart is healed and frown turn to smile
I"ve trailed the world for many a years
to see you for real and your face full of tears

Previous verses repeat once: