Vinyl: Bad Company

Artist: Bad Company
Owned on digital media: No
Want to replace: No

Bad Company were one of the favourite bands of a mate I shared a house (and a room) with as a student, and also a regular feature of the "Heavy Rock" discos we used to host on Thursday evenings during our time at UMIST.

I was never that into them, even then, and to be honest I don't remember buying this album, so I suspect it's one of those I "acquired" by virtue of being the Student Union Socials Secretary during my second year. This in itself mired me in controversy, as some of my "friends" held the opinion that albums sent to me as Socials Secretary belonged to the Union, whereas I treated them as a perk of the job (there weren't many!), especially since most of the ones I received were duplicates that had already been sent to the Union addressed simply to "the Socials Committee" or similar, and in any case I was only ever interested in a handful of the stuff that turned up.

In view of the bad feeling this caused towards the end of my student years, it's ironic that I now have absolutely no interest in replacing this album in my digital collection (although I would like to hear it again just once to make sure!).

A day of quiet satisfaction

One of those days when things just feel right. It has its own slow, measured beat and whatever you do, things turn out well.

I started the day helping Natalie move out of halls. It only seems like last week since I was carrying stuff in for her and here I was carrying it out. Only - as is always the way - there was much more to bring out than there had been to take in. I can't believe she's already completed her first year at Uni. Time slips away from you when you're not watching. Another era begins in a few weeks when she gets the keys to her new digs. Somewhere - hopefully - that will be "home" for a couple of years. Alongside the two other homes she already has. Three homes is more than enough for anyone, I reckon.

By early afternoon I'd finished the design document I'd been working on. Ahead of schedule, so I could revel in one of those lazy Friday afternoons when you can savour the approach of the weekend and pretend you don't have a care in the world.

And then, as I listened to the measure tones of Carolyn Quinn on the PM show, came the best news of all. That Ireland had voted NO to the EU Lisbon Treaty (aka a Constitution By The Back Door). Well done to the Micks and Paddys. One of the few countries to actually give its populace a chance to express an opinion and they got it bang on. Brown and Blair should forever hang their heads in shame for not allowing us the referendum they promised in their manifesto pledge (going back on manifesto commitments should be a criminal offence) but in the end Ireland has done our work for us. Hopefully that'll be an end to it, although I suspect there'll be a lot of wriggling and weasel words from Brussels to get through yet. Apparently some of the institutions and procedures that the Treaty calls for have already been implemented ahead of ratification. Typical European disdain for due process - steaming ahead with it anyway because a handful of Eurocrats think they know what's best for us. These should all be dismantled now, but do you really think they will be? The French are not exactly well known for sticking to the letter of the law.

Sunday Supplement

So it was just the three of us "sleeping over" at ours last night: Nikki, me, and Blythe. Natalie had gone back to halls in case there was anything going on late evening or early morning that she shouldn't miss out on.

I have to be honest and say that felt kinda strange, and I think Blythe felt the same way too, waking up to Sunday breakfast without her sister. This is the start of what we all knew would be a weird time, when our relationships with each other all shift around to allow for the fact that one of my daughters is embarking on an exciting new chapter of her life while the other one is carrying on with the same life she had before, but without the comforting presence of her older sister for the first time in almost 14 years.

After breakfast we all split off as usual to do our own thing - Blythe on the XBox, Nikki and I went out to cut the lawn (a new 20-metre extension allowing us to cut down the weeds around the end of the garage for the first time this season) after which I repaired to the study to put the final final touches to it, in preparation for the carpet being fitted tomorrow.

I noticed today my desk calendar, sitting on one of the bookshelves that has a temporary home in our bedroom, was still set to May 25 - the day before our housewarming party and the last day the study was used as a study. From tomorrow we can finally begin the repopulation process and get back to some semblance of normality in the rest of the house. I retrieved the last few tools from the room, fixed the final two lengths of creaky floorboard and applied some sealer to the tops of the skirting board that still had small gaps and that was it. Good to go!

Picked Natalie up at 2.30 so she could have dinner with us, and we spent the afternoon watching a movie together, and then it was time for them both to pack up. Nat's hall is holding a (free!) "pizza and wine" evening to get everyone together, which sounds like fun. For Blythe and I it was a rather unusual drive back to Yorkshire. I never expected Natalie's move to Uni to redefine MY relationship with my younger daughter, but in a strange way it has. Since Blythe was born I've very rarely spent time with either of them on their own, and when I have it's been mainly with Natalie. As far as I can remember the only long period Blythe and I have been alone together was on our trip to Bath when Nat had an NYGE course and we went along and did our own thing for 4 days. So for all these years, it's been me/us and "the girls" whereas now, at least for some of the time, we'll have Blythe on her own.

I don't really know what I'm trying to say here, and I'm conscious that it's a bit of a ramble. These are times of change for all of us. In a lot of ways, it'll be hardest on Blythe. Natalie has the excitement of a new place, new friends and new activities. Life for Nikki and I, for 13 days out of every 14, continues pretty much as before. Blythe has to carry on with the "same old, same old," but on her own. It'll be tough. But she's tough, she has some good friends, and she knows we're always here - only a phone call, and MSN message, or a short car ride away - when she needs us.

A New Life

Two new lives actually. One literal and one figurative.

First, the literal one: congratulations to our good friends Jamie and Lise, whose son Isaac Dylan was born just before midnight on September 11! Well done all three of you - we'll be popping over shortly to poke him with spoons.

Second, the figurative one. Nat finally texted me sometime this morning to arrange to come over for lunch. The call of the crumpets was irresistible, especially since the hall she's in is only catered during the week and she has to fend for herself over the weekend. She'd been chillin' Friday night with her new friends in hall who all sound really nice. I was so very pleased that her first night in hall hadn't been as desperate as mine.

After my Mum & Dad dropped me off the Sunday before Fresher's Week, I'd soon discovered I was the only one on my floor and spent a very cold and lonely night bored out of my skull. There were no laptops in those days, naturally, no Internet, the hall didn't have a TV room and it was fully catered, so there wasn't even a kitchen where I could make myself a piece of toast.

I contrast, Natalie's floor sounds as though it was almost fully populated with three of the girls on her corridor in residence, and they spent the evening getting to know each other and watching the telly. When I took her back in the evening I popped in to have a look at her room. Although every bit as spartan as student rooms always are right at the beginning of term before whoever lives there has had a chance to personalise them, it is a nice size, has its own sink and the usual bed, desk, wardrobe and comfy chair (upon which, if student standards are followed, there will soon build up a pile of dirty laundry ;o)). The hall is in a quiet leafy lane, has a swipe card on the door and individual locks on the bedrooms and is quite secure enough to allay a Dad's fears. There's a warden in residence too, who insists on being called Norman, apparently.

During the day, I broke out my old student posters intending to offer them up for sacrifice. They're all at least 30 years old, so I was fully expecting Nat to decline my offer, although I thought at least they would cover the bare walls for a bit until she found something more to her taste. Her reaction was a real surprise. A pleasant one. "Wow!! Those are SO COOL!!"

I'd forgotten that thirty years was long enough for them to become cool in a retro kind of way. So my Roger Dean flying elephant and various insectoid invaders have found a new home and at least one of Natalie's new neighbours is quite jealous of her new wall coverings. Funny old world, in't it?

Friday Five

Thinking about #1 daughter a lot today as it's her first day at Uni. Strange day to start, you might think, Friday, but if I remember what it was like she'll be doing a lot of queuing. Queuing to register, queuing to join the students' union, queuing to join any of the multifarious societies that take her fancy, queuing for lunch...

And then...what? What do they expect new students, alone in a strange city for the first time to fill their time with at the weekend? Maybe they've concertina'd what used to be called "Fresher's Week" (and, as you might guess, took a whole week) into a weekend? The modern equivalent - everything has to be faster, shorter, and not get in the way of studying. I don't know, but I hope to find out later today as she will, if everything goes according to plan, be spending at least some of the weekend here. That is, of course, unless it really is "Fresher's Weekend" in which case there'll be loads of stuff to get involved with and we might only see her when it's time for bed!

And so to the famous five...

1. Have you ever run away?
No, but I used to take the bus into the city when I was a kid. I guess I'd be 12, 13, something like that. My Mum didn't find out until years later, and then had a fit when she realised she should have been worrying about me all that time. It was visiting the Victoria Centre that gave me away. One of the first large shopping malls in Britain, I used to love to hang out there as a kid and I knew exactly where all the lifts were, and which floors they served. So when my Dad parked up and they were casting around for the lifts, I just piped up "it's this way!" "How do you know that?" asked my Mum, and the game was up.

2. What is the longest you've dated someone?
Like Di, I can't figure out when dating ends and long-term commitment begins, so I'm assuming I can't count Nikki seein' as we live together. In which case the answer is about 2 years.

3. What don't you like to think about?
Leaving my kids.

4. What was your last illness?
When I was filling this in earlier in the week I couldn't remember, it was so long ago. Then on Tuesday I hurt my ankle, so the answer now is: a hurt ankle. This qualifies as an illness because it might turn out to have been a mild attack of gout.

5. Do you like to get revenge?
No. Cliche alert: I know it sounds trite but two wrongs don't make a right, you need to rise above it, don't let them drag you down to their level, etc, etc. I find being a Spiritualist helps in this respect. Because you know they will get their comeuppance in the end, even if you don't do anything about it.