life with an ageing rockstar

some time ago we were lucky enough to be given a rather wonderful bath which we installed in the decidedly decrepit bathroom in our house. the accompanying cosmetic works involved a bit of a rethink on storage in the bathroom, so i fashioned some shelves from the wood gleaned from my son’s old loft bed so that we had somewhere to put towels and bottles of bath stuff. for some time the new shelves were sufficient for our bathroom clutter.  but that was before the Ageing Rockstar has his lung surgery.  the Ageing Rockstar has a rather bothersome lung condition which required surgery just over a year ago. I will gloss over the medical particulars save to say that half of one of his lungs was removed which bizarrely makes breathing easier for him. Eventually the Ageing Rockstar was allowed home, but still had a couple of pipes coming out of his side, draining into bags.  When a person has holes in them they cannot let them get underwater so  shallow baths were the ...

some time ago we were lucky enough to be given a rather wonderful bath which we installed in the decidedly decrepit bathroom in our house. the accompanying cosmetic works involved a bit of a rethink on storage in the bathroom, so i fashioned some shelves from the wood gleaned from my son's old loft bed so that we had somewhere to put towels and bottles of bath stuff. for some time the new shelves were sufficient for our bathroom clutter. but that was before the Ageing Rockstar has his lung surgery. the Ageing Rockstar has a rather bothersome lung condition which required surgery just over a year ago. I will gloss over the medical particulars save to say that half of one of his lungs was removed which bizarrely makes breathing easier for him. Eventually the Ageing Rockstar was allowed home, but still had a couple of pipes coming out of his side, draining into bags. When a person has holes in them they cannot let them get underwater so shallow baths were the order of the day. b...

well readers, i know it has been a while since you heard from me with news of events, but by way of consolation i am reporting live from a gig!  i should explain that it is slightly more low-key than wembley, being in a working men’s club in a military town.  the Ageing Rockstar and i had to leave home rather earlier than usual as this club had somehow induced the band to enter into an actual written contract requiring them to set up by a certain time.  this is unusual in the world of ageing rockers, who tend to have played at all their venues for decades and are known for their ability to plug their gear in and complete their faffing in plenty of time without legal inducements. anyway, after an uneventful if rather rain-soaked journey we arrived at the club. fortunately there was a parking space with the Ageing Rockstar’s name on it bang outside the building. well, i say his name.  actually it said ‘disabled’ but he has a badge which allows him to park in...

Today the Ageing Rockstar attains the grand old age of 62.  Having ascertained that i would not be buying him a guitar, or anything too guitar-like, he was persuaded to widen his aspirations on the birthday present front. “I might quite like one of those kindles,” he said, “then i could play games on it like i did on my old tablet thingy.” The old tablet thingy was indeed old.  It was almost as old as the Ageing Rockstar.  As well as being a dab hand with a guitar, the Ageing Rockstar is also a dab hand with a spanner. In a past life he earned a crust through spannering cars.  At this point i will need to leave you, dear reader, in order to check with mr google whether there is another meaning for the word ‘spannering’.  [sound of footsteps disappearing] [sound of footsteps reappearing] It would appear that spannering is a safe word, but spannered can mean out of one’s head on drugs.  So just to be clear the Ageing Rockstar was often spannering but ne...

i seem to have purchased a microwave.  this will be a cause for mirth among my friends.  i have been a luddite on the question of microwaves since they were invented.  for years i have been crying "be careful!  they give off rays!" but no-one paid the slightest heed.  as far as the earlier incarnations of the microwave were concerned i had a point - it was discovered after some years of the population being told they were safe that they had in fact been giving off rays.  but the current generation of microwaves is safe, or so we are told. 
 be that as it may, i was browsing the Asda website the other day looking for shower curtains.  i found some for £2 each and promptly ordered them.  Asda then informed me that if i spent over £30 i qualified for free delivery.  i quickly ran through potential purchases to make up the difference and came up with a microwave.  i am not sure why - it had some connection to my new healthy diet and having p...

The Ageing Rockstar and i have had a busy week. On Sunday we went to the Blues Jam.    This may sound like something you get in a jar but in fact is a bunch of ageing rockstars and other musicians getting together to sing and strum and bash drums. It is great fun and gives me the opportunity to film the Ageing Rockstar in action.    Then on Wednesday we were off to Uxbridge, which is somewhere almost north of Watford as far as i can work out, where we met with some friends of the  Ageing Rockstar who he has known since he was a Fledgling Rockstar.  Between strumming there was a lot of reminiscing about Gigs We Have Been To, and talk of fellow Ageing Rockstars, punctuated by exclamations of "blimey, is he still alive?!!"  Then on Saturday we were off again, this time to Sunbury on Thames.    The Ageing Rockstar did his stuff and between strumming found time for a chat with the Teetering on the Brink of Middle Age bass player abou...