10 Years On

Today while driving I happened to find in the depths of the glove box an old unlabelled cassette tape, and out of curiosity when I arrived home played the tape to find out what it contained. To my great joy it was a copy of an album that I had not listened to for a long time but one which remains an all time favorite. The album, "Blueprint" by Rory Gallagher.

Rory was born in 1948 in County Donegal in Ireland and first came to my notice in 1968 while playing in a band called "Taste". A self taught guitarist, Rory had a unique style and a haunting gravelly tone to his vocals.

In 1971 Rory formed his own band and toured extensively, He was greatly respected by his peers and worked with many famous names including The Rolling Stones and Jerry Lee Lewis.
In 1995 during a European tour Rory was taken ill and passed away after a short illness.

The world lost a special talent and I would recommend his work to anyone who likes good blues music.

Back Again

So I'm back, the family problems that have kept me away are now resolved and I'm hoping that I will be posting on a regular basis, although a new job will restrict my time. I am now working in the retail motor trade and my job involves road testing vehicles so I will get to drive lots of different cars. So far the job is fun and the people are all good.

I have a new toy that I'm playing with a Sony Ericson T610 mobile phone, it has a built in digital camera and loads of other features which techno dummy Ogri has not yet figured out but I'm working at it and I will post some pictures soon.

For A While

Due to circumstances beyond My control I will not be posting for a while, I will be back but just now I don't know when. To all my friends good luck and I will see you soon, Ogri

Sniffles

I've got a cold, I hate colds more than just about anything. I don't know if it's just me but as soon as the cold starts all I seem to do for ages is sneeze. This morning I sneezed for 20 mins without a break and it leaves me with a thumping headache just to go with all the other miseries that a cold brings.Of couse as soon as I start to sneeze one or the other of the cats just has to come and investigate so I end up trying to sneeze with a cat sitting on my chest. Do they do this out of some perverse curiosity or are they just fascinated by snot. Either way it does not help.

As you can probably tell I am feeling miserable and if don't stop now I'll descend into a self pitying whinge, so bye for now.

P.S. Blogger's spell checker has thrown a wobbly, so please scuse any spillong mistokes

In A Perfect World

While I am waiting for the surgery to install my new bionic knee,I seem to have a lot of time on my hands and spend a large amount of that time thinking about things that have not been invented but I wish they had.

For example, how about a device that you could link to the T.V. which would change the channel if someone you hate comes on.
Or a teleportation device that beams dogshit into the pockets of dog owners who allow their animals to foul footpaths.
Another favorite of mine is that car alarms should send a 5000 volt electric shock to the car owners nuts if the alarm goes off needlessly at night
How about a remote control for people so you can turn the brightness up and the volume down.
But my all time #1 would have to be a machine for dropping a 15 ton weight on the shop assistant who yesterday told me "yes we know that the door handles on sale do not work with the bathroom lock sold in the same aisle, we told our buyers but they have not done anything about it". This total fuckwit really made my day, one trip to the store to buy the handles and lock 2 hours work to chisel out the mortise on the new door and then another hour spent changing both lock and handles. All because this moron did not point out the problem in the first place. I suppose I should not be surprised the store concerned pays minimum wage and as my dad always said " If you pay peanuts you get monkeys".

This Rant was brought to you by Ogri, sponsored by Homebase.

Egypt 2

As promised today I will tell more of our trip to Egypt in 1997.
WE flew from London to the city of Luxor, and boarded a bus which transported us south along the banks of the river Nile to the town of Edfu, where after a visit to the temple, which is famous for the large number of mummified crocodiles we arrived at the ship which was to be our home for the next week.
We sailed south from Edfu, marveling at the scenery but soon it was time for a superb meal. While we were eating we were told by our waiter that the upper deck of the ship was a comfortable bar area and if we were to sit there that evening he would promise that it would be worth it. He was not wrong for we were amazed to see that in the sky was the great comet Hale-Bopp, this could be seen from home but in the clear skies of Egypt it was absolutely spectacular.
The next day we visited the town of Kom ombo and visited one of the most complete temples left in all of Egypt,one thing that impressed me was a carving on the temple wall showing the instruments used by surgeons, many of which, still in use today were shown in a carving over 4000 years old.

the third day was spent at an island called Filae, which was where the kings and queens of ancient Egypt had a palace, and one of the highlights of the day was a trip by Felucca(a small sailing boat) to see a sound and light show telling the ancient legend of the Gods Seth and Osisris.
On now to the city of Aswan and a visit to the High Dam, built to harness the water of the Nile which provides clean electricity for most of the country.

Now it was time to sail north through the great lock at Esna and to the City of Luxor
on the opposite side of the river from the city is the Jewel of the Nile the Valley of the Kings. We spent the morning visiting this famous valley and explored the tombs of many kings including Tutankhamun and Ramases. After a visit to the temple of pharaoh Hatshepsut, notable for the fact that this "King " ruled for many years and it was only at the time of his death that it was discovered that "He" was a woman.

The last 36 hours were spent in the city of Luxor where there are many temples and museums to visit as well as shops selling jewelry and souvenirs.

This was a memorable holiday which I would like to repeat as I believe that it would take many visits to see all that Egypt has to offer.

The Land Of The Pharaohes

My Friend AGFH has requested that I tell more of our travels in the wonderful country of Egypt, and I am happy to do so.

Our first visit was in the summer of 1990 while spending a holiday on the island of Cyprus we had the opportunity to take a four day cruise to Israel and Egypt. We felt that this would be a great chance to visit two of the most historic places on earth and gladly paid the price and departed from the port of Limasol and sailing overnight reached to port of Haifa by morning we then traveled by bus to Jerusalem and visited the Wailing Wall and the Old Bazaar, We then visited Bethlehem and although neither H.B. or Myself are particularly religious it is impossible to not be in awe of the historic significance of these places.After spending a wonderful day in Israel we returned to our ship for a good meal and a night's sleep while we sailed to the ancient seaport of Port Said where we boarded our tour bus for the journey alongside of the Suez Canal to the capital city Cairo. When we reached the outskirts of the city we got our first view of the greatest building work that I have ever seen, The Great Pyramid of Giza and close by the Sphinx. Our pleasure was increased by the fact that we were given the chance to make the last part of the journey by Camel, and the chance to do this, as had the builders of this amazing structure over 4000 years ago.
After spending some time exploring the sights of the Giza Plateau, We boarded the bus again and traveled into the city for a visit to the Central Museum, this is the repository for the greatest works of art and the artifacts of ancient Egypt, and contains, in my humble opinion, the most beautiful works of art that are in this world.

On the ground floor of the Museum there are many artifacts which have been recovered from tombs and temples all over the country and literally hundreds of Mummies many of which are of Kings and Queens, but when you travel to the first floor there is only one way to describe it and I will use the same words as Howard Carter did when he first opened the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 "I have seen Wonderful Things".

The whole of the first floor of this great Museum is devoted to the funerary goods of the boy king Tutankhamun
From the golden chariots to the exquisitely carved statues the artistry and quality of these objects show the respect that was given to the King of the ancient land. The quantity of these exhibits is so great that I cannot even begin to list them. The crowning glory of all is a separate room which contains only 3 objects. To the left a coffin made of Cedar wood and covered in pure gold with the image of the King carved on the top. To the right The inner coffin Which had contained the mummy of pharaoh, a solid gold jewel encrusted coffin weighing over 250 pounds. And finally in the centre of the room, quite possibly the greatest work of art of all, The Death Mask of Tutankhamun. I am not going to try to describe the mask as I am sure that you have seen photographs, what I will say is that no photograph can do this beautiful thing justice you need to see it with your own eyes to appreciate the skill and artistry that went into its creation. We were so impressed by Cairo that we revisited the city in 1993. And spent more time in the museum.

In 1997 we decided that the time had come to see more of Egypt and booked a 7 day cruise on the River Nile. Tomorrow I will tell more of our journey and experiences in the land of the pahrohes.

Got the TShirt

The travel bug bit me at quite a young age, being born an Army brat I was used to the idea of moving around because my Father was posted to many different parts of the country,but by the age of 10 Dad had left the forces and we had settled in the small village where I spent my teens. This brought about a significant change as my grandfather now came to live with us,and I think that I got my love of traveling from him. In those days foreign travel was not as common as today and holidays were normally to the seaside in Britain, but he often holidayed in Europe and I was always fascinated by his stories of this and his overseas service both as a merchant seaman and with the Army.
My first foreign experiences were the result of a great idea by the now defunct British India Company, who had a number of ships that had been used as troopships and now with the British Empire shrinking they found themselves with ships to spare. In a moment of genius someone came up with a scheme to use these ships for educational cruises for school children, and I was lucky enough to experience 2 of these while at senior school. So by the age of 16 I had visited a number of places in Europe and also Casablanca in Morocco and Algiers.

When I met my Life Partner, H.B. I soon discovered that she had the same urge to travel and we have spent most of our Holidays in following the travel bug and have visited some of the most beautiful places, I will list a few that have left a lasting memory and if anyone would like to know more leave a comment and I will try to oblige.

Egypt, This is a country that can only be described as beyond belief the History and Mythology are completely enthralling.

Kenya, If you have only seen the wildlife shows on T.V. then you have seen about 10% of what Kenya has to offer.

Thailand, A country of ever changing Character from the opulence and grandeur of the Grand Palace in Bangkok to the tropical paradise of Koh Samui, from the tragic but inspiring War cemetery at Kanchanaburi(on the River Kwai) to the Golden Triangle where from your hotel room you can see not only the Mekong River but also three countries ( Thailand, Myanmar and Laos.)

Hongkong, they call NewYork the city that never sleeps,Hongkong is the city that does not even get sleepy. Nobody in H.K ever seems to slow down and the shops never seem to close. Yet it has a charm that wins you over.

There are still many places that we still want to visit, India, the Galapagos Islands, Japan and the west coast of America being only a few but time and money are always the problem,so if anyone has an odd million or so that they can spare give me a call.

Andrew Vachss

Today I am going to write about one of my favorite authors, Andrew Vachss.
I first encountered his work about 20 years ago when a colleague in the office where I worked at that time passed on a paperback book Saying "I think you may like this". The book was called "Flood" and was my first introduction to a series of books and short stories that have kept me interested and entertained but also have provoked deep thought over many years.

Mr Vachss is a lawyer by profession, specializing in child abuse cases,but manages to also spend time on his novels and short stories, and collaboration with other authors and artists such as Geoffrey Darrow and Joe .R.Lansdale And even to co-write blues music with the great "Son"Seals.

The main thrust of Andrew's novels is a character named "Burke" an ex-convict and scam artist who makes his living in the underworld of New York City mainly by ripping off paedophiles and wannabee mercenaries,but on an altogether different level is somewhat of a moral crusader in as much that he has an overwhelming hatred of anyone who does harm to children.

One of the strengths of Andrew's writings, are the powerfully and strongly developed characters, not only of Burke but also of his "Family" as he calls it, of outlaws and misfits, a crazy-genius who lives in a junkyard,a transexual prostitute, a Mongolian warrior and may other strange but fascinating characters populate this strange world. Which is alien to me but could be on my doorstep

There is an underlying thread of morality insofar that the real villain never wins but there is always another waiting in the wings to take his turn. Mr Vachhs claims that these are not novels but "Trojan Horses" in other words the truth veiled in fiction.I cannot comment on this but every time my order from Amazon arrives H.B knows that I will be lost until I have completed reading the book.

So far he has published 18 novels and I believe 3 collections of short stories, and I have enjoyed every one.

To find out more you can go to http://www.vachss.com

Happy Reading Ogri