Back On Line

As I sat here twiddling my thumbs last night I thought of the words of a friend on Facebook. I was moaning about my lack of broadband and the service of Open Reach in general when she replied .. "As annoying and inconvenient as it is we all managed perfectly well without it years ago." Well hell of course she's right, but I for one would not want to go back to the days before broadband. What the hell would I do? I spend double the amount of time on social media as I do watching TV these days. I chat to my friends, I look at photos from shows and visit show sites. I'm involved in groups, some for fun some pretty serious .. That is the world I currently live in. Due to social media my circle of friends is larger and stronger, as is my circle of acquaintance I suppose, but the support is amazing. Social media, well Facebook for me, really has changed my life for the better, it is what you make of it.
 So yes, I'm twiddling my thumbs .. Wednesday night TV is absolute shite, Steve is in the bath so what can I do? I know, I'll put some music on. One song had been going round and round in my head all day .. A song from the past. "In my room way at the end of the hall, I sit and stare at the wall, thinking how lonesome I've grown all alone in my room. ....." Marc And The Mambas" from the vinyl album "Torment and Toreros." Luckily for me I still have all my vinyl and the ability to play them. I bought a "Sound system" when I was 18, maybe 20 .. And it still works wonderfully well. It was hammered in early years but now without a CD player it's used less and less. "In My Room" .. Really loud with the odd crackle and jump of a stylus that's as old as the player brought back memories of my former self. A teenager dressed in black with a cross in her ear and a skull round her neck .. I remembered that even then I preferred to take everyone as I found them, to explore and celebrate individuality and to not hate because of colour, creed or sexual orientation. I guess I already despised Separatism, though I didn't know the word for it then. It was very different times, less tolerant but with the arrival of Marc Almond,Boy George and a lot of the New Romantics the world was going to have a big eye opener. Such a shame George was unable at the time to show the world who he really was ... But as I said they were different times at the beginning of the 80ies. My parents where very conventional, a typical old fashioned Welsh family. My mother went to Church, my father to chapel .. Proper Christians and there was no page in their bible to explore these freaks of nature. They hated Marc Almond the most, and typically the more they hated him the more I indulged. 30 years on and I've still not found religion in my life, I believe in love, compassion and kindness to all .. Until they piss on your parade that is of course! It really was wonderful to hear these tracks again, the music who helped make me who I am I guess.
Music has always been important in my life, It started with David Soul in the 70ies, then Boy George, Marc Almond, Robbie and now onto Ed Sheran. George Michael was always there to heal the pain, well from the early 80ies anyway. Now I still feel the void of his loss, no one else touched me in the way he did no one else has helped me through such dark times. It's such a bloody shame that there was no one there who could help him fight his demons, such a tortured soul. When Steve comes back into the living room my mood changes .... Bat Out Of Hell it is then. I doubt anyone woman who knows Paradise by the Dashboard could stop themselves from singing from ... "STOP RIGHT THERE.... " The evening passes quite well .... But God I miss my broadband