Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Andrew Jones' LiveJournal:

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Friday, November 14th, 2008
10:18 pm	The curse of Bedwas I have nothing against Bedwas, a small town near Caerphilly. Its fairly easy to get to by train and bus- during working hours at least- and not too far from home. For some of my members, having been told they are relocating from offices in central Cardiff to Bedwas next summer, the reactions have included: Only eight months notice? Send someone else up there- its their problem, don’t make it mine.... Even though I travel to work in a 4x4, www.traveline-cymru.org says it takes 1 hour 30 minutes to get to with 4 changes on public transport, therefore its unreasonable for me to move, even though it’ll be a shorter journey time by car. Even though I travel to work in a 4x4, it goes against our employers green agenda for me to have a longer commute, even though for travel time purposes, I’m claiming I’m switching to public transport. Show me more money for the move. Now. I have caring commitments. (Fair enough, but in all seriousness I have heard the phrase “I never knew colleagues had so many disabled children”) “This isn’t fair”. Add to this mix, one of the more barking mad left wingers on my union committee (you know the type, they love causes, but actual people....) has been in attack dog mode. By sheer coincidence, his wife is one of the 90 staff being relocated. So while he’s attack my integrity (again), he’s trying to get union policy changed primary to benefit his wife. Irony or hypocrisy? You decide. Meanwhile the economy is tanking, hundreds of jobs are being lost each week in Wales, and I have people whining about having to move office next summer, and having any extra travel costs met for the next few years. Hey-ho. Current Mood: cranky Current Music: Radio Keneally (1 Comment |Comment on this)
10:11 pm	Wentloog awaits! Curses! Its seems that my Christmas order from http://www.thebookpeople.co.uk is to be delivered by Home Delivery Network Ltd- which delivers to every postcode in the UK, except for mine. And any other customers they have. So I imagine I will be visiting Wentloog Industrial Estate . soon No wonder Book People are affordable. Incompetence ahoy! Current Mood: pessimistic Current Music: Radio Keneally (Comment on this)
Friday, October 31st, 2008
12:25 am	Video editing has begun! I’ve now captured the video of last week’s concert into the my now turbo charged Power Mac and that’s about it. No actual trimming of clips has actually taken place, chapter marking or title sequences created but its now possible. Which is a start. Hope to get a move-on over the weekend. (Comment on this)
12:24 am	Venturing forth in Wentloog... Tuesday saw me taking an extend lunch break to hop on the bus to Rumney and then walk to the Wentloog Industrial Estate, a place off the maps in Cardiff. I’ve just checked Google Earth which seems t have more detail than a normal map. The reason being for the sketchiness is that once you go over the railway bridge you move from suburban Cardiff to industrial Cardiff. The roads and pavements get worse (although further up from Rumney is Trowbridge and the roads are dreadful there too), the street lighting is worse and there’s little actual traffic and pedestrians. Its an alternative Cardiff from the one I live in. I had the write postcode, but that normally takes you to 16 dwellings. Down on an industrial estate, the size of the units are much bigger and so I got a little lost. However, a friendly taxi driver (no idea why so many taxis were there- a mystery to me) pointed me in the right direction. There was a scrap metal merchant, and a MOT centre. I found Home Delivery Network Ltd- they may be completely incompetent at actually delivering goods, but to be fair, the reception staff were friendly and helpful, and the hard disc was mine, ready to the walk back to the bus stop. (Another sign of remoteness, is that there’s no bus routes in this part of industrial Cardiff). And on the way back it hailed. Lovely. The temperature has dropped in Cardiff and it feels cold. In a day or so, I may be forced to put the heating on. Winter is on its way. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
12:40 am	My battle against courier firms pt 45 Talking of 1TB external hard disc drives, the damn thing still hasn’t arrived yet, thanks to a courier fim called Home Delivery Network Ltd. While they claim to put the customer as no. 1, their website has no contact phone numbers, no e-mail addresses and no online forms. It does have a parcel tracking system which shows 3 attempts at delivery, each leaving a card with contact details for the Cardiff depot each time. Strange that, as I’ve received no card and therefore no contact details. Through the magic of the Internet I have now found the local phone number for the Cardiff depot and through that, the address of said depot. Said depot is pretty much off the map of Cardiff, on an industrial estate on the edge of Rumney. When I say off the map, I mean that the local maps get very much less detailed for such an area and the lighting in said industrial estate is poor as well as the upkeep of the roads and pavement. In short, this time I intend to go at lunchtime, rather than in the evening. A creepy place. All I ask from a delivery firm is that they deliver to me; for me to trek over to another side of Cardiff seems to defeat the point of a delivery firm. Or am I being naive? (Comment on this)
12:39 am	My heroic victory over the forces of technology Tonight, I finally installed that 2GB of RAM for my Power Mac that I bought in January 2006. Yes- that’s right, its taken me over 2 and half years to actually learn how to install 4 RAM modules correctly. Still, now its done the Power Mac feels turbo charged. I also found another speed boost a fortnight ago. The Power Mac had been slowly down tremendously, and I managed to work out it was the hard disc that was slowing things up. So I took the radical step of cleaning inside the computer with compressed air. And bingo! Back to usual speeds. However, the hard disc is refusing to verify itself, so I’ve splashed out on a 1TB external hard disc drive as both backup and storage space for video editing. Funny how these things go from the stuff of corporate servers to affordable. (Comment on this)
Sunday, October 26th, 2008
11:16 pm	Mike Keneally and Dave Gregory in concert Thursday 23rd October- a damp day. Well, damp as in strong winds and lots of rain by the dark early evening. Which was when I started walking from the bay to Llandaff to meet with Rhydian. Carrying a camcorder, tripod and digital camera in heavy driving rain in the dark was less than fun. Especially by the end of the 70 minutes trek I had started to limp. The first thing Rhyd said to me was “Why didn’t you take a bus or taxi?”, which is a fair question. My answer that I decided to walk a few days ago, before the poor weather, was received with some bemusement. Which is almost understandable. Both Rhyd and I had different run ups to the evening than we had wanted. Rhyd, now working in Merthyr Tydfil, had the proverbial customers who wouldn’t leave the shop at closing time on the day he really wanted to get away on time, and I had been in meetings in the Cardiff suburb of Llanishen and then in Bedwas, which meant I was at the mercy of my members when I could leave. Still, Swindon is only around 65 minutes by car- in good weather . And when the Sat Nav system can find the postcode of Riffs pub, it helps. Which it couldn’t. So we were reliant on the sketchy directions from the website to make it. We set off at 7pm to the sounds of driving rain and windscreen wipers. The weather was truly awful and it was a not a good night to rush. We decided to add to the ambient sounds by putting on Mike’s “Wine and Pickles”- the opening track 2CTV was completely drowned out by the rain and windscreen wipers. The rain finally lifted somewhere around Bristol which eased the pressure somewhat and Rhyd was soon to hear me sing along to the “Lonely Man” specifically “Does anybody care about anything in San Diego, the home of the dead? Does anybody know how to care about anything in San Diego, the home of the dead?” Turning off at Junction 16 of M4, we relied on the directions from Riffs website which explains how we travelled 5 miles in undulating countryside going completely the wrong way, which brought the next musical/ lyrical reaction from Rhyd: Mike on the stereo: “You’re as fucked as you can be” Rhyd driving: “Too right matey, too right” Eventually we turned round, reassured ourselves by a few landmarks that we retracing our steps and got back to the Junction and stumbled on the correct roundabout exit. This was 8.20 and the gig was supposed to start at 8.30... We came across the leafy well-to-do village of Hook and then looked for a place to park the car just outside the pub. Entering the pub at 8.30 on the dot we were glad to see no sign of either Mike or Dave on the stage. Rhyd got the drinks as I first moved myself down to front row stage right, and then the camcorder and tripod. So I was set, if with that slightly disorientated hesitant air I get at these shindigs. Then a woman in the front row said something a little strange: “You were at the Todd Festival Hall show, weren’t you? I was looking at some photos, and you’re in them.” Its certainly true that I was at the show- a fine show by the way- but I was bemused why I should have been in someone’s photos of the evening. Laura (from the Keneally newsgroup) explained, that it was from the backstage meet and greet with Todd. This made much more sense- I was imagining someone taking photos of the audience. All part of the gig experience which I hugely enjoy. Riffs is a pub quite different from any in Cardiff- very much a “rock” pub with various painted murals on the walls such as the Pink Floyd hammers from the Wall, John Lennon and Hendrix. A nice place to hold a gig. Dave Gregory, who had arranged with Riffs to make this gig happen- bless him!- came on stage to introduce Mike, and then had to wait for the music to be switched off and his microphone to be switched on. Just looking at the stage set up, reflected Dave’s influence. All the equipment was his. The mike levels for the keyboard, acoustic guitar and main vocal mike were very precisely set up. Likewise the careful stacking of both the guitars for Mike and Dave’s use. Very ordered- a change from say Cardiff in 2003 which was a bit more casual, shall we say? Mike comes on and the first thing he does is decide its too hot in the packed pub to wear a hat. The next decision is to play “Hello”- a good choice of opener for a solo/duo gig. Mike started off the gig playing acoustic guitar. Next came up “Ankle Bracelet” where Mike initially took a little while to feel comfortable with the seating/ mike placement for the first song with vocals. The first singalong came with “Potato” which the audience joined in with great gusto. After “Thanksgiving”, Mike switched to piano and in response to a request opened up with “Joe”. He then followed that up with a request from Dave Gregory- Todd Rundgren’s “Song of the Viking” which always makes me happy. At the end of the song, Dave opened the stage door and flashed Mike a thumbs up. Next was the pairing of Airport- rarely performed in Europe as Mike prefers to perform it on an acoustic piano, with Hallmark, a lyrically very strange ditty from what I can only assume is going to be a very strange album, “Scambot”. I’m really looking forward to “Scambot” which Mike after the show revealed was now 74.7% complete. He also said that he was considering having other vocalists singing some lead on the album. Up next was a piano piece of love and joy for me- Traquilado. Bliss! Mike then invited Dave on stage and switched to electric guitar- a Gibson SG. Dave mentioned that he was “shitting himself”, which might well have taken Mike by surprise- “no need for that” Mike replied. They played a brief introductory improv and then went into “Desired Effect”- this was rather lovely. Next up, was an instrumental introduced by Mike as by Allan Holdsworth and one he had sprung on Dave at the last minute. I have no idea what the song actually is. The big musical surprise of the evening for me, was to hear 2001 played as a guitar duet, rather than the piano version we’ve all known and loved over the years. Dave Gregory after the gig felt that they just about got away with it, after rehearsing it at the sounds-check. As ever, Dave is being far too modest. And then it felt that “Sleepdirt” snuck up upon me- sparking off blissful memories of Dave and Mike rehearsing for 10 minutes backstage at the Toucan Club. I remember leaning in the doorway, letting it drift over me and take in the moment, without imposing my presence on the two gentlemen. Dave wandered offstage after “Sleepdirt”, with Mike promising that he would be back later. One audience request later and Mike was playing “Skull Bubbles”, followed by “Day of the Cow” with copious use of the delay peddle. Moving into “Snowcow” he asked the audience to clap to establish the rhythm. Another Zappa cover came in the form of “Idiot Bastard Son” which pleased quite a number of us in the audience. Someone had shouted out earlier for “Paranoid Android” which clearly appealed to Mike’s sense of the absurd. Despite the inherent absurdity, Mike delivered the lyrics with real intensity. The next 3 songs were slightly lighter lyrically- Splane, Live in Japan (another audience request and singalong) and Aye Aye Monster (“play the monster song Mike”). Next up was “Skies of LA” morphing into an improv section not unlike the sections that make up “Lightning Roy” and ending with another Scambot songs “Cold Hands”. Dave Gregory was then called back to the stage for “Pride is a Sin”, “Father’s Day” and “Inca Discharge” with Dave declaring that he would “just watch”, although he added guitar at appropriate points. That ended the main gig, but to nobody’s surprise there was an encore- “Rosemary Girl”. And that was it- a supremely sweaty gig- one which uplifted me and Rhyd and pretty much everybody else there. While quite a few people travelled to the show, a lot of the audience were locals, who hadn’t necessarily heard of Mike. Apres les gig, a man approached me, clearly recognising me and me looking quite blank. It was Andrew Greenaway, webmaster of my favourite Zappa website the Idiot Bastard Son. We had met before- at the Absolute Zappa gig at the Barbican and it was good to catch up. On the way to the loos I bumped into Dave Gregory, who also remembered me (this proves how bad my memory is) and we nattered away on a few things. Mike came out from backstage to chat to all and sundry and we had a brief word. Rhyd and I both realised that staying on for too long would destroy our working lives for Friday and made the journey back to Cardiff enjoying our memories of the gig and talking thus about location: “If Riffs is in Swindon, then Barry is in Cardiff” “Barry? Dinas Powys more like judging by the houses” “Dinas Powys? If that’s Swindon, then St Donats is in (far) West Cardiff” We had a damn fine time and that’s the end of the story. Current Mood: ecstatic (Comment on this)
Monday, September 29th, 2008
1:01 am	Almost autumn Well summer wasn't all that it could have been here in Cardiff. The weather was damp and grey and I had sciatica which meant that after a few hours, sitting down with any comfort became very difficult. Also, at first walking for longer than 20 minutes was a shattering affair with a limp getting worse and worse. One by-product of all this is I missed all the summer blockbusters. So the summer was quiet. The first fortnight of September was very wet, eventually causing flooding in parts of South Wales, just when friends came to visit... And the past fortnight has been a bit of an Indian summer. So today I finally walked on the Cardiff Bay Barrage, which was a blissful experience, walking a viewing where I live from a different angle, watching families out in the sunshine and marvelling at the prices of yachts... A good time. (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 13th, 2008
12:47 am	Odd things weeks... The week before last, I remember talking to Rob and saying we better enjoy the memory of the week as we didn't get too many of weeks with successes like that: I had got some ex-gratia compensation for two members; ensured that another member in trouble got off with a slap on the wrist; negotiated a pay rise for 150 members and a few other things. The past week saw me turn up only on Friday, as I had been under the weather; visit the physiotherapist for my back and hamstring pain; pull some muscles in the same leg, thus I'm limping and see the previous week's pay deal for members fall apart. So what will next week bring? (Apart from double the amount of time it takes to walk into work?? (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 10th, 2008
12:16 am	Ever so slightly under the weather (heavy rain out) I didn't make it into work today. I awoke briefly at 5.30am- itself rarely a good thing- and thought to myself (in a bit of a daze it has to be said" "Hmm, running a temperature here". The result has been I've spent most of the day in bed, probably not doing the aching back the world of good. Having a phone call on my mobile from a concerned member in the afternoon was strange- I haven't actually been in the office this week, so I had not read the urgent e-mail she was ringing up about. I think it calmed her down slightly that the reason for inaction was not because of lack of care. Not certain if I'll get to work tomorrow- I'm not making the sandwiches anyway. Otherwise, life has been quiet, but I can recommend the reformed Pentangle in concert. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 8th, 2008
12:11 pm	Love conquers all This is rather touching.... http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/06/08/we-re-still-in-love-you-know-91466-21039613/ Current Mood: contemplative (Comment on this)
Sunday, February 24th, 2008
11:14 pm	Sniffle, sniffle So I've been on holiday, come back and fallen ill. All part of life's rich tapesty. More eventually. (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 5th, 2008
11:41 pm	Happy new year everybody I hope that all have survived the Xmas and new year season and that 2008 will be a good year for all of us. I'm off on winter holiday later this month- I'm going to Sri Lanka and stopping off in Dubai on the way. I'm deeply to looking forward to a warm weather and cultural break. So how about you? (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007
11:40 pm	Monday started weird It appears that some criminal type has managed to hack into my Yahoo account- used for holiday e-mails only and send a scam e-mail to my holiday mailing list saying that I had been mugged and "nearly rapped" in Canada and please wire money: Message Received: Sep 28 2007, 10:06 PM From: "Andrew Jones" To: "Sher" Cc: Subject: IT'S AN EMERGENCY I am in a hurry writing this.Please i really dont feel like perturbing you with my little but life threatening problem but i have no other option than seeking for you help.Actually, i travelled down to the Canada and as i was to catch a train to my daily route when all of a sudden i got rounded up by some hoodlums and as i was tried to struggle to run, they got me beaten up and even almost rapped but thank God they didnt succeed but unfortunately all my personal effects were cated away. It was a terrible encounter which have left me grounded and cashstrapped and right now, i have only access to emails, my mobile phone cant work here due to unforseen circumstances. Please can you lend me a sum of $1500 to offset my hotel and other bills. I intend to pay back as soon as i get home.I am so confused right now,i cant even think straight but i wanna believe you can have it sent through Western Union Money Transfer.Worst is my passport was among the things that got destroyed so i cant use my name to collect it. Let me know when you will be of help so i can find someone who will help me in cashing the money.Please let me hear from you on time so i can i think straight and get myself out of this mess. I look forward to your swift response.Thank you in anticipation Sincerely, Andy This upset a few people and of course Yahoo keep on sending me the same automated reply when I ask for it to be shut down- as surprise, surprise the password and security data has been changed. However my Scottish pal Ross has been writing to the fake me and I quote: >>cheques in the post<< Hello, I feel delighted that i can hear from you. I dont understand what you meant by cheque's in the post.Please things are getting worse for me here even minute that passes by.If you would help,please make it snappy.I will be expecting your reply again. Thanks >>In that case I'll send cash - in Scottish notes. Which you can immediately use - in Scotland.<< Hello Ross, I can see that you understand what i am going through but i am not in Scotland,i am in Canada and the fastest mean to send and receive money is through western union money transfer. I will be hoping to hear from you again.Have a great day. Regards Bless him! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
11:03 pm	Die Cockney Wankers, die! Last Tuesday night, my pal Rhyd and I went to see that rather decent Zappa tribute band led by Dweezil Zappa- Zappa plays Zappa- at the Shepard's Bush Empire in London town. As with last year's concert in Stockholm, it was an enjoyable but hollow affair. Let's get the negatives out of the way first: 1. Starting with the big one: Dweezil is not his Dad- no matter how some people in the audience delude themselves he is. He's a slightly vacious Californian with a personality by-pass. FZ was the centre of the band- the Zappa plays Zappa band could cope without Dweezil. The Stockholm concert was flat, when Napi or Vai or Bozzio were off the stage, because those gentlemen are unafraid to stamp their personality on the music and project. This year's concert was better, as the venue was smaller, the set list more suited to Dweezil's limitations and the band had played a lot of gigs together. 2. The audience was filled with Londoners- for once hyped up Londoners- but Cockney Wankers nonetheless. 3. As ever the t-shirts were overpriced. 4. G-Spot Tornado- nice try but not exactly the rush you get when you hear Ensemble Modern play the hell out of the piece. Far too keyboard based. 5. The "nice volcanos" in Dupree's Paradise by all of the band except Scheila Gonzalez- the vocalist, sax, flute and keyboard player who at least improvised and stretched herself beyond musical breaking point. 6. Dweezill's conducting in Dupree's Paradise- completely bogus. 7. Have I mentioned some of the audience? Frank is dead, people. And the music has always smelt funny. 8. So where's Napi? And the good points? 1. Ray White was in fine voice and good guitar. 2. The improvisation involving Thai ladyboys. 3. The compositions. 4. Scheila Gonzalez and Joe Travers- the real hearts of the band. 5. Some of Dweezil's solos. We had a good time, but not exactly a life changing one... (Comment on this)
10:37 pm	Work... Last week was the absolute busiest I've ever known in some 18 years of earning a living. A 4 days working week with some 50 hours worked. A consultation response was the blame of some 16 hours of that- 14 of which were done from home. This week has been a little easier, although today's all day meeting in Bedwas took place from 9am-6pm. One of my current tasks as tame trade unionist is following major mergers into my employer, the mapping across various grading systems into one, through a couple of job evaluation tools. Today's and last Friday's all day event covered one major part of the organisation. I've been "volunteered" in to attending all of the other final sessions too- about another week's work, I suspect. On top of this, I have another week to write 2,500 of a management essay and I haven't even picked up the reading list books yet. And then after that I have another week to write 1,500- 2,000 words for another management essay. So life is busy- good job there's some trashy tv on, right? (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 13th, 2007
11:08 pm	Bad blogger.... It's been a while since I've posted. I've been on holiday, come back absolutely shattered, got back to work, done management course essays, not done management course essays, had a reasonably relaxed summer period in work, knowing full well that September would be hectic. I didn't know that September would effectively start in the last week of August, with members requesting me to attend meetings with them at an hour's notice and the like. I'm also running a consulation with members on a re-organisation which involves posts being lost. You'd think they would turn up to meetings....oh well. In short life is ticking over nicely, no real complaints at this moment in time. How about you? (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, June 30th, 2007
11:52 pm	School's Out for Summer! I spent last week at Public Service Summer School in Bangor last week. Lots of food for thought and lots of laughter. The summer school- a new idea, as this is the second time its been run- is aimed at those who work in the Welsh civil service, the Welsh local government, the Welsh National Health Service, the Fire Service, the Police and those from the "Third Sector"- the charity sector to you and I- came together for a conference on change management and also to network, make friends and shower with the bathroom door open to set off the fire alarms. I travelled up to North Wales last Sunday, with 2 colleagues from my management course, Fran and Andy. We all arrived at Cardiff Central to catch the 1.50 service. For some reason this didn't exist, so we had to wait an hour, drinking coffee and tea and thinking about the Sunday dinner we could have had, if we had known that we were indeed travelling an hour later. Direct services to Bangor don't seem to exist on that time on a Sunday afternoon, we changed at the ever delightful Birmingham New Street- sole saving grace that it isn't Birmingham Coach Station and Crewe which has few saving graces, an hour and half wait enlivened by a visit to McDonalds... So we arrived at Bangor at 9pm, made our way to the University Hall of Residences where we were staying and bonded over a bottle of white wine, mildly chilled in my bedroom. We marvelled over the lack of actual mugs or glasses available, drinking out of these horrible plastic cups. We also studied the bilingual sign warning us to shower with the bathroom door shut. Otherwise the steam would set off the fire alarm. An interesting design feature. Waking up in the morning was a less happy experience, it had been a stormy and noisy night and the room was freezing. I soon found out why, the wind had blown the window open- which you couldn't shut properly. To add to that, rain had come onto the window sill... So I went to the Security office to complain and then to Morrison's supermarket for a bacon bap and coffee. There summer school started in the afternoon, it was damp out, so we killed some time at the university after we registered. Everything felt cold. One of my union colleagues, Chippy joined us from West Wales and more silly stuff was discussed. We also were amazed at the money being spent on this- a leather ringbound cases was given to each delegates and by the end of the week, I had a backbreaking amount of books, DVDs, magazines, memory sticks of material to take home. The conference was free of charge, all partipants' home organisations had to pay for was travel and incidental costs. This was a big deal. Highlight of the day, was a journalist, Richard Reeves talking about the price of happiness. Apparently getting married is worth about £100,000- some of us wondered if we could just have the £100k instead! In the evening, entertainment of a sort was put on- a magician who failed to be a comedian. The taxpayer was paying for this tired sexist crap? (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 12th, 2007
5:04 am	Can't sleep, might as well post The good news is that after the weekend, I'm feeling a lot better. Also I've just found out that Fopp have opened a new shop in Cardiff University Students Union. Which means that's there's a quality record shop just five minutes walk from my workplace. And they have a new sale. This could be damaging to my bank balance, after spending £25 in the past free visits. And, oh, 22 days to jazz cruise. (I may have mentioned the jazz cruise before). (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 7th, 2007
8:11 pm	Macca attack! Thanks to my emusic.com subscription, I've been listening to the new Paul McCartney album "Memory Almost Full", and its a fine sounding album too. Like last year's David Gilmour album I not quite certain how strong the songwriting is, but the arrangements are great. And the lyrics manage to avoid being the embarrassing drivel that Mc Cartney can come up with. Still feeling dog-tired though. (2 Comments |Comment on this)