Wednesday, November 02, 2005
A Knight In Shining Armour
All rise for the main man, Bobby Mackerel.
From this day forth, he shall be known as Sir Bobby Mackerel, for remarkable activities above and beyond the call of duty, for outstanding generosity, friendship and bravery, and for just being a top bloke.
Why?
Well it was a normal day. An over cast sky dispelled rain over the country, children trudged to school through the forming puddles and workers dragged themselves through the damp streets to their offices, shops, sites and wherever.
Just as I was leaving the house, the postman arrived with a bundle of goodies. Some I knew were a variety of CD's and DVD's ordered recently from Play.com for Christmas, others were junk. One contained some reading material from my mother, and one was from Bobby Mackerel. I had to sign for it, as it was on Special Delivery.
I opened the small parcel and out popped an unmarked CD. A note was attached, which read: "This should bring back some memories, old pal."
Assuming it to be digital images of photographs, I stuck the CD into my inside pocket and left for the office. When I arrived, I put the CD into my PC and opened Explorer to check out the pictures. I was excited to see them, thinking they might be of a distant Madness concert or some other drunken outing from years gone by.
But there were no images. On the CD was a single file, the kind you would see an audio CD, and unplayable on my work. I would have to wait until I got home.
During the day, I got through a lot of work.
I completed my article on Edwin Morgan and reworked it for submission to Circadian Poems, which I sent off later in the evening. I worked on further articles on my Great Scottish Authors, getting to the final editing stages on articles about Janice Galloway, Muriel Spark and Iain Banks.
I also read and edited several more issues of Hunting Jack in preparation for reformatting into PDF and when I got home there was an email from The Barcelona Review who have chosen to reject Loaded.
I received an email from another author under the KIC umbrella of doom. We've been sharing information about the author's we know, (no names mentioned), to get a more general idea of what the feelings are and actions being taken by the authors. Some are much, much worse off than me, with double-figure numbers of readers who paid for subscriptions just before the hiatus, and have never received anything in the way of refunds or reading. Understandably, there is growing anger and resentment towards KIC and I am more delighted that I am now out of it.
Off to snooker and a few frames, a couple of pints and a couple of whiskies later, I returned to my inbox. It contained an acceptance from Circadian Poems - same day response! My Edwin Morgan article will be published on November 15th.
Just as I was about to shut down my computer for the night, I noticed the CD Bobby Mackerel had sent me, glinting, wanting to be played.
I opened the top of my CD player, placed it onto the mechanism and shut the lid. Excited and just a little apprehensive as to what I was about to hear, I pressed play and waited.
A soothing, rolling piano sound commenced. A small tear formed in the corner of my eye and a smile as broad as the River Clyde spread across my face. It was a song I have not heard in years; thirteen to be precise, but I had been thinking about it very recently. In fact, I spoke about it here on this very blog on the entry dated, Wednesday, October 26th 2005. The song was You by Ten Sharpe.
Anyone who read that entry wil know the significance of this song and why I was so delighted to now receive a copy of it.
Bobby Mackerel, is a legend in his own time. Thanks, big man!!
From this day forth, he shall be known as Sir Bobby Mackerel, for remarkable activities above and beyond the call of duty, for outstanding generosity, friendship and bravery, and for just being a top bloke.
Why?
Well it was a normal day. An over cast sky dispelled rain over the country, children trudged to school through the forming puddles and workers dragged themselves through the damp streets to their offices, shops, sites and wherever.
Just as I was leaving the house, the postman arrived with a bundle of goodies. Some I knew were a variety of CD's and DVD's ordered recently from Play.com for Christmas, others were junk. One contained some reading material from my mother, and one was from Bobby Mackerel. I had to sign for it, as it was on Special Delivery.
I opened the small parcel and out popped an unmarked CD. A note was attached, which read: "This should bring back some memories, old pal."
Assuming it to be digital images of photographs, I stuck the CD into my inside pocket and left for the office. When I arrived, I put the CD into my PC and opened Explorer to check out the pictures. I was excited to see them, thinking they might be of a distant Madness concert or some other drunken outing from years gone by.
But there were no images. On the CD was a single file, the kind you would see an audio CD, and unplayable on my work. I would have to wait until I got home.
During the day, I got through a lot of work.
I completed my article on Edwin Morgan and reworked it for submission to Circadian Poems, which I sent off later in the evening. I worked on further articles on my Great Scottish Authors, getting to the final editing stages on articles about Janice Galloway, Muriel Spark and Iain Banks.
I also read and edited several more issues of Hunting Jack in preparation for reformatting into PDF and when I got home there was an email from The Barcelona Review who have chosen to reject Loaded.
I received an email from another author under the KIC umbrella of doom. We've been sharing information about the author's we know, (no names mentioned), to get a more general idea of what the feelings are and actions being taken by the authors. Some are much, much worse off than me, with double-figure numbers of readers who paid for subscriptions just before the hiatus, and have never received anything in the way of refunds or reading. Understandably, there is growing anger and resentment towards KIC and I am more delighted that I am now out of it.
Off to snooker and a few frames, a couple of pints and a couple of whiskies later, I returned to my inbox. It contained an acceptance from Circadian Poems - same day response! My Edwin Morgan article will be published on November 15th.
Just as I was about to shut down my computer for the night, I noticed the CD Bobby Mackerel had sent me, glinting, wanting to be played.
I opened the top of my CD player, placed it onto the mechanism and shut the lid. Excited and just a little apprehensive as to what I was about to hear, I pressed play and waited.
A soothing, rolling piano sound commenced. A small tear formed in the corner of my eye and a smile as broad as the River Clyde spread across my face. It was a song I have not heard in years; thirteen to be precise, but I had been thinking about it very recently. In fact, I spoke about it here on this very blog on the entry dated, Wednesday, October 26th 2005. The song was You by Ten Sharpe.
Anyone who read that entry wil know the significance of this song and why I was so delighted to now receive a copy of it.
Bobby Mackerel, is a legend in his own time. Thanks, big man!!
Colin 1:03 pm