Ever Learning Dad

  I really love just writing songs, getting a tune pulled together and then eventually recording it, albeit in my wee room on GarageBand (Abbey Road will have to wait). But alas, the life of marketing and communications chose me and so my rock n roll dream must wait for another life. Anyway...I managed to noodle long enough to record 'In Everything You Do', which I've posted under my The Sunset Experience moniker.  I was listening to African music recently and I quite like the way a lot of African musicians employ drone-like compositions or repetitive structures. So that's where I started at least lol. The end product is pretty far from that I suppose and I can't help but circle back to a kind of Britpop-y style. The lyrics are just based off some recent events and experiences and my thoughts on how time (in our concept of it) is so powerful when it comes to mending us or just forcing us to move on. I've got another song written and ready to go soon so hopefully

What a terrible past couple of days for the Scottish justice system. Judge Lord Lake decided to spare a 21 year old rapist a jail sentence because he got a bit weepy in the dock. And apparently given he was 17 at the time, it should be more about 'rehabilitating the offender' rather than showing them proper punishment. This boy, Sean Hogg, physically restrained a 13 year old girl and subjected her to the worst sexual assault and rape, and HE's the one getting weepy! So, in Scotland you can get married, join the army, drive a car and vote on the future of the nation but you can't do time for raping a young girl. Un-f'n-believable. I honestly don't care whether it's an SNP thing, a whole parliament thing, an independent body thing or a combination of all of those. All I know is a girl is scarred for life and has been completely failed by justice. I genuinely don't know how that judge will be able to sleep at night. But I'm sure he will quite happily,

Time to catch up after a busy ol' four days. Thursday Gig time with Nicky at the Hug and Pint to see The Musicians of Bremen . Nicky works with the drummer who happens to be a throughly decent chap. As for the band, my god they can bring the noise. The Hug and Pint venue is basically a cellar and when you bring in a three piece rock band, it feels like your standing in the middle of a thunder storm. And it was totally incredible. It was my first gig out in while and a) good to hang out with a mate and b) great to appreciate a live band giving it hell for leather. RESILIENCE by The Musicians of Bremen Friday A lovely night had with our pals Amy and Rich who came round for (slightly more than) a few drinks, some chat and tunes. Grace and Anna were also the beneficiaries of gifts in the shape of chocolate eggs! Anna also got a new audience for her Stranger Things obsession and some mad dancing before bed time. The evening's activity however did lead to a slightly hungover... Satur

Last night was a good 'un for Scotland, for a change Trying to build a bit of consistency on this blog and so I'm thinking of what I can write this evening...and nada. My day has been very boring. I woke up feeling like crap. I dragged myself out of bed to get the kids ready for school (they ended up late) and then I logged on for work. Thank god, I was working from home today otherwise I think I might have wept on the train in to town.  After work, I picked up the kids, planned to visit my gran but she didn't answer the phone so we went to that most joyously soul crushing of places - B&M. Then home for TV, dinner and bed. Oh and I had to shove about three million pairs of the girls' dirty pants in the machine for a wash too. That'll be a fun job to hang those all up to dry. 😭 So yeah, not much to report on today. In Glasgow tomorrow for a big team meeting, lunch with our Foundation Apprentice, Natalia and the always brilliant Emma Dewar, then later a gig at th

British Library, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons I've been having fun with Google's new AI tool, ' Bard ' this week. Safe to say it's still find its voice. I'm sure it won't be long though as the development of this stuff is incredibly fast paced. So with that in mind, I put the Bard up against the OG, Bill Shakespeare. Here's what the AI managed when I asked: "Write a sonnet consisting of 14 lines split into an 8 line stanza followed by a 6 line stanza." The eyes are the windows to the soul, They show the beauty that lies within. The heart is the seat of all emotion, It is where love and joy begin. The mind is the seat of all intelligence, It is where knowledge and wisdom are stored. The soul is the essence of who we are, It is the part of us that will never die. Love is the most powerful force in the universe, It can conquer all. Joy is the feeling of happiness and contentment, It is the state of being at peace. Knowledge is the understanding of f

Sunshine over East Kilbride! Hurrah for summer! So what if it's still barely double-digits in temperature. The lack of sideways rain, sleet or howling wind goes down as a win in my book. I'm sure it won't last. 👀 So it was a very pleasant walk to the library on my lunch break to return some books (I came back with the latest Alex Cross novel from James Patterson and a book on how to start running - hah!).  I was however, a bit sad to see the state of East Kilbride's supposed 'The Hub'. With Costa Coffee having packed up, it leaves the place feeling a tad desolate what with the other empty units giving some serious ghost town vibes. Not even the cheekiest of Nando's, which is still running off some lingering hype, could inject some life into the place. Not so much a 'hub' as a 'haunt'. 🥁 Confused priorities On the news, two stories caught my eye at either end of my working day. The first, from Florida, on how a head teacher at a school was p