If I ever had to borrow a sound mixer from musicians friend I would be so paranoid that something might happen to it. I don’t like borrowing things for fear that they break or get damaged. My grandfather used to live by the advice he gave out most often – ‘never a borrower nor a lender be’ he used to say. And he lived by that rule religiously – if he didn’t have it, he’d work until he did or else he’d go without. Sound advice.

Whilst on vacation in France recently, I noticed some really good cigar specials in our local tobacco store, or le tabac to be precise. Now I’m not a smoker per se but I do appreciate a good cigar from time to time as do some of my colleagues. So instead of bringing back tatty souvenirs from our travels, I decided to show a touch of class and avail of said specials. Now we just need an excuse to get together and enjoy and appreciate our finds.

Now that summer has arrived we’ve decided to clean up a little outside. We’re pretty good at keeping things looking good but there’s only a certain amount we can do before we have to call in the professionals. So when a roof cleaning company was in the area last week we called on them to price a job for us. They were very reasonable and so they’re back tomorrow to do the job. Trouble is, with that job complete, it surely means there’s another one waiting to be done!

Ever have something that was next to near impossible to find? Well that’s the latest problem I’ve encountered while helping an elderly neighbour with particular tastes… He seems to think that next Christmas will be his last so he’s compiled a list of things he wants to have in place prior to this. Almost like a bucket list of shopping really! So what’s his latest desire I hear you ask? Try this… brown wire christmas lights? Who gives?!

We were lucky enough to be invited to a trad session while we were on holidays recently. One of the musicians played harmonica. It was amazing. I asked if I could have a go – always figured they were really easy to play. I was wrong, I just made a horrible noise whereas he made beautiful music when he played. He explained how his hohner mf (his harmonica), which he named Barbara, was at one with him when he played. He got all deep and spiritual and I just told him to play some more because I couldn’t listen to him talking anymore!

I don’t know about you but I just love watching fact based programmes. The other night I was watching a programme about a gold bullion heist in England during the 1980s. It was fascintating to watch this programme and discover all the planning and scheming that went into the heist. It seems that they caught some of the perpetrators but not all and to this day they haven’t recovered all of the bullion. Think it’s time to go treasure hunting and hope I find it.

My brother asked me to post an ad for him on a social networking site recently, specifically about exceptional Marshall Amps that he was hoping to acquire. I willingly obliged but made the mistake of not putting his contact details on the same ad and now i’ve been inundated with messages related to the ad, that I quite simply have no understanding of. Next time I’ll double check what I’m posting. Scrap that, there won’t BE a nex time.

Every now and then I do some shopping during my lunch break – could be for a few essentials to bring home, like bread or milk or similar. Today is a little trickier and more specific… I going shopping for gaskets! Should be fun trying to get to a hardware store and back during lunch and manage to get someting to eat. Chances are I’ll bring home the wrong ones. DIY is not my forte.