Summary: We have had our yearly batch of snow which has naturally caused total chaos on the roads....apart from those who haven't quite grasped the fact that ice on the roads can actually prevent you stopping we have the 10 hour delays on the motorways....where people have abandoned their cars....what puzzles me is where do they go?....."I'll just get out of my car and jump over this hedge into six feet of snow in this farmers field and take it from there".......when it all thaws out there could be solid bodies everywhere.....stay in the car!!! 2.The other item which has had a lot of coverage is the footballer who went down in the light aircraft on his way across the Channel....a very sad story as he was so young.....after calling off the search it was reopened with the help of public donations and they have found the plane.....it does make you realise how vulnerable we all are and how it's not about money at the end of the day.................and someone put an interesting post on Facebook.......it showed a photo of a beautiful view of countryside and mountains with a comment saying "This is an anti-depressant" ....then another picture of pills saying "This isn't"....which again is easy to say but some of us can't get out to see our wonderful countryside for whatever reason.....personally I enjoy the beauty this country has to offer and like to feed my soul but I do sympathies with those who can't. 3.I watched the England rugby match in the Five Nations....and strangely I found it very boring....for the first time ever.....I also find I feel the same way watching football .....I have played competitive sport all my life and I am beginning to wonder why I find it all boring to watch all of a sudden......is it my age?.....there was a time I would watch hours of cricket and be transfixed with the Olympics but strangely nowadays I couldn't care less.....very strange.....maybe it is because I am a participant at heart and not a spectator?.....maybe it's just me and perhaps these guys who get so upset when their team lose are right?.....to me there are so many other things in life.......maybe I'm wrong. 4.When I started my record company in 1980 I included a "demo service" which I advertised nationally.....I would invite songwriters to send me their rough songs and I would knock them into shape for them....this proved very successful and actually paid for my studio....although it was quite hard going as some of the songs I received involved the writer singing in the bath....or even whistling the tune.....but I always managed to get things sorted.....on one occasion this chap required his song (called "Our Lady of Chestacova") to be demoed as a choir....so I layered my voice 16 times and sent it back....he sent it to a religious song festival in Rome and it got through to the finals....(as the then Pope came from Chestacova).....I got a call from Rome requesting me to come and sing the song......as it happened I was working on a musical for Radio City and couldn't make it so I asked my pal Paul Damian if he fancied going and I'd give him the backing track.....so off he went and sang the song and met the Pope .....the chap who wrote the song never went......big mistake.................Paul came back with a vinyl album of the show which included the song....and a nice tan from his free holiday.....and I suppose I can say I was too busy to meet the Pope. 5.Paul now lives in Spain and as a tribute to my mate the song this week is called The Magic of Wales which is a track from the album I wrote and produced for him back in the day......he actually taught me to say Llanfairpwllgyngyllgogrychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.....which is approaching 2 million hits on YouTube.....great singer...great mate.
