Guitar Hero !

Rock n roll ! I love it. My music tastes genuinely transcend genre - anything from Michael Bubble or a bit of Take That right through to Metallica. A great tune is vital but I like a realy strong vocalists (Chris Cornell is my current fav, YouTube his name with "You know My Name" if you don't know him) but a great guitar riff always gets me.

Back in my undergrad days Guns n Roses released their seminal album Appetite for Destruction. It was a monster hit across the world and more importantly with me! I became an instant GnR fan and loved the their follow-up double ablums Use Your Illusion 1 and 2. I was never a big fan of the lead singer Axel Rose, don't like his voice and his childish throwing of the teddy out of the cot got tiresome very quickly. The lead guitarist, Slash, on the other hand with his awesome playing, definitive style and grounded personality was more my scene. Axel tore GnR apart and after a while Slash reformed with some of the band members as Velvet Revolver. Their first album was very very good but the second one did not reach the same heights. After they split slash released a solo album in 2010 with a range of guest vocalists. It is back to his best.

So, in May I came across the fact by chance that he was touring in the uk. I paid 3-times the face vlue for a ticket to see him at the Birmingham O2 Academy and went last week. it was a great night. I pushed my way down the front to within 4 or 5 rows from the stage and got a great view. Got to see one of my guitar heros right up close and his was on top form.

I ended the night dripping wet from a combination of sweat (mostly) and lager being thrown about. Required a t-shirt on the way out just to have something dry to wear for the drive home!

That's another thing I can tick off from my list of things to do before I die :-)

Spidey Senses?

Gut intuition, feeling it in your water, sixth sense (great film, by the way!) are all ways of talking about intuition. My fav phrase for this is spidey senses, because I'm quite a fan of Spiderman. We've all felt it have n't we?

I remember the last time we went to Cornwall as a family. On the last day I walked the dog along Perranporth Beach on my own (apart from the dog, obviously!). I remember becoming quite emotional and having a few tears run down my cheek. It is a wonderful place the beach at the bottom of the hill below the Haven site at Perrenporth, really wonderful. I've seen beaches in the Caribbean and in Southern California that cannot begin to match up. The awesome beauty of that place is enough to make you emotional but there were other things on my mind. Especially at sunset.

Have you ever felt that you actually love a place so much that you know that you'll definitely come back BUT have a really strong feeling that things will be different next time? I had such a strong sense of it that day. Sure enough that was just about 4 years ago and we were a family unit. We were hiding the grave problems but atleast we were all there, each day. Of course a few years later it became crystal clear that Carol and I could not be happy together so things have changed. Now I'm lucky enough to see the kids 4 days a week which is quite good I guess; a lot of single Dad's are a lot worse off.

This Saturday, "the family" will go to Cornwall again for a holiday. Now however, the family is kind of made up of Chloe, Tom, Rob and myself along with Beth (Tom's lovely GF of 2 1/2 years, who is so lovely that we would happily adopt her!) and my Mum. We have a house rented in Newquay for the week starting on Saturday. It is close enough to the centre of Town so that Tom and Beth, who are both 18 now, can go off on their own if they want. It's also within walking distance of a number of great beaches to so maybe the lovely Honda, with the awesome stereo, will get a rest too!!

I have to say I'm a little apprehensive!! I have to be responsible for the well-being and entertainment of all these "kids" and my mum, who is just lovely but can struggle to hear and understand sometimes.