Ever Learning Dad

Made with Ideogram The ease with which super-rich men can manipulate and turn the working classes against each other never fails to amaze me. It's happened in the UK and across the world, and now surely reached its zenith (again) in the USA. Donald Trump is once again the president of the financially most powerful nation on earth. And the west has a cheek to call the Arab world backwards.  The unbelievable amount of money spent on media and advertising makes a mockery of the term democracy. The idea that people simply going to vote gives them freedom is laughable. The months of relentless brainwashing, half-truths and outright lies coming from the mouths of republicans and democrats count significantly. How can it be a true individual decision from the voter with all that in mind.  However, that's the system and Trump and his team know how to work it. Harris did not. She never communicated her personality or policies. Even if you accused Trump of not having coherent policies, h

Granted I've only been to Würzburg, Freiburg, Aalen, Berlin and Saxony (Gräfendorf)) and mostly in summer so my experience is limited...anyway here's what I love about going there as a tourist and with my German fiancé. Bread It's 100x better than anything you get in Britain. German bakeries are the real deal and frankly, what we get in our country is laughable. Germans look upon British bread with rightful and utter contempt. There are so many varieties regionally and even locally. Briegel for example seems to really only be available in Aalen and someone from just up the road in Stuttgart wouldn't be able to get it in the city. But it's bloody marvellous. And that's before we even get to the sweet treats! And the displays are always impeccable, even in their chain stores. I'm making myself cry just writing this. Beer Germany is the home of quality beer. And it doesn't cost a fortune. You can get a proper case of 16+ bottles for a fraction of what it

Another Sunday, another week has passed. Time just seems to be drifting forward at the moment. One week I have the kids, the next I don't and so it goes in such a cycle. I'm not really complaining either, I love doing stuff with the kids, even if it is more about taxi-ing them around these days! This weekend has included, birthday gift shopping, party drop-off and football.  But at the same time, I know in the back of my mind I'm in a malaise and need to buck up my life at some point. Turning 40 in May next year is already weighing on my mind. Every night when I go to bed, I lie there thinking about what I haven't accomplished in the first 39 years (I'm not saying half my life because making it to 80 seems a bit optimistic in all honesty).   Grace pre-party blue slushie. Headache just looking at it. There are so many things I've said to myself over the years I'll do but those ideas have never quite made it to fruition. Chief among those is the desire to writ

A new song (which I'm still kinda polishing) but I recorded it on video during some free time today. I'll hopefully get it tracked out soon with drums and everything else soon. Continuing the theme I had going with my other one, I think this is about those times when you feel like there's no point, you're maybe suffocating a bit, and annoyingly self-aware that it's probably your own fault!  Again however, I like to have a wee melancholic upside in there and that is the fact that time, reflection and crucially your loved ones are there to pull you out the hole even if you don't see it for a little while.

  I really love just writing songs, getting a tune pulled together and then eventually recording it, albeit in my wee room on GarageBand (Abbey Road will have to wait). But alas, the life of marketing and communications chose me and so my rock n roll dream must wait for another life. Anyway...I managed to noodle long enough to record 'In Everything You Do', which I've posted under my The Sunset Experience moniker.  I was listening to African music recently and I quite like the way a lot of African musicians employ drone-like compositions or repetitive structures. So that's where I started at least lol. The end product is pretty far from that I suppose and I can't help but circle back to a kind of Britpop-y style. The lyrics are just based off some recent events and experiences and my thoughts on how time (in our concept of it) is so powerful when it comes to mending us or just forcing us to move on. I've got another song written and ready to go soon so hopefully

What a terrible past couple of days for the Scottish justice system. Judge Lord Lake decided to spare a 21 year old rapist a jail sentence because he got a bit weepy in the dock. And apparently given he was 17 at the time, it should be more about 'rehabilitating the offender' rather than showing them proper punishment. This boy, Sean Hogg, physically restrained a 13 year old girl and subjected her to the worst sexual assault and rape, and HE's the one getting weepy! So, in Scotland you can get married, join the army, drive a car and vote on the future of the nation but you can't do time for raping a young girl. Un-f'n-believable. I honestly don't care whether it's an SNP thing, a whole parliament thing, an independent body thing or a combination of all of those. All I know is a girl is scarred for life and has been completely failed by justice. I genuinely don't know how that judge will be able to sleep at night. But I'm sure he will quite happily,