Loud White Noise

Normally Mondays are going smoothly for me, but today must have the exception. I certainly hope that chaotic Mondays will not become the norm.

Contracts not finalized, power outages, bad weather and working late today because of the outages…

I must say, I absolutely hate it when incompetent people make a complete hash of things and then simply shrug and leave it there.

For me Monday is the second day of the week, with Sunday therefore the start of a new week, so I can at least say that my week started on a good note yesterday, but the work week from Monday to Friday did not start well.

I hope things will be going all right tomorrow.

January has always financially been a difficult month. This time, I have a little money saved, for the long month of January. I hope it helps, because the previous years I have been broke.

A song by Black Sabbath, with singer Tony Martin.

Anno Mundi is one of my favorite Black Sabbath songs.

Interesting information:

Anno Mundi (Latin: “in the year of the world”), abbreviated as AM or A.M., refers to a Calendar era based on the Biblical creation of the world. Numerous efforts have been made to determine the Biblical date of Creation, yielding varying results. Besides differences in interpretation, which version of the Bible is being referenced also impacts on the result.

That is not a good feeling at all. Those of you, who have been arrested before, will most likely know.

I have been arrested before. Not for playing music too loud or something like that, but for stealing, and assault to cause grievous bodily harm.

I got on the wrong track. Things got worse and worse, and then I started breaking the law. I always knew that I could get caught and then I would be in serious trouble, but somehow, as time progressed, I did not care anymore.

I lived for the moment. What might happen did not bother me. Eventually trouble caught up with me and I was arrested for stealing. I was lucky. I was released and told to appear in court the next day. I got off with a suspended sentence. I was free once again. That feeling of freedom, even though I was never in jail, was good. I decided to stay on the straight and narrow.

Then a year or so later, I got in a bar fight and hit the crap out of someone. Later, when I had time to think, I realised I should not have hit him that hard and should have stopped, but then, with him attacking, I did not have a long time to think and rethink. I just acted.

I was not arrested immediately, only later did the cops come knocking on my door. Friends suddenly knew nothing about me and they did not see a thing.

Being locked up is not funny. When that heavy steel door closed, the first thing I knew was that I no longer had freedom. I then knew the value of freedom. Freedom is priceless. There was a very good possibility that I could go to prison and do time.

I did not cry. I think I wanted to, but could not find tears. There in jail I thought about my future. Your future is going to be difficult, I told myself. I was not wrong.

Living with a criminal record, is not nice. Doors that were wide open before, close for you because of your criminal record. Finding work is difficult.

Explaining to people why you did not get a job even though you are perfectly qualified is also difficult.  You fall in love and when you tell about your past, the relationship dies.

Nobody wants to employ a thief or a dangerous person who has assaulted before.  Who wants to love a thief, a dangerous street fighter?

How can a shop owner trust a thief?  How can a delicate, beautiful girl love a brawler?

When you are locked up, you have a lot of time. I thought about the above, and later, I experienced the reality of fitting back into society with a criminal record.

I picked up the pieces of my life and carried on. I desperately wanted to prove myself.

Being arrested is awful. Having a criminal record is like having a bad, infectious stain on your life. People do not want anything to do with you.

Luckily I have found a beautiful wife, who know the good inside me, and who realised that I have left the bad behind, for good. For ever.

The fact remains, that if I did not break the law, the life that I am now living, would have been better because I would have many more opportunities. There would have been more open doors for me.

The life I have now, I have accepted, because it is the life I have because of my own choices, and I try to make the most of it.

The Maori Troubadours were a Māori-based showband which performed in Australia and Southeast Asia, beginning in 1958 and continuing well into the 1960s. The three original members were Prince Tui Latui (aka Tui Teka), Matt Tenana and Johnny Kealoah (real name Johnny Nicol). Drummer Neville Turner joined the band not long after its inception. They were a popular act, playing at Chequers and the Rex Hotel (Sydney), the Theatre Royal (Brisbane) as well as a host of centres on the Australian country show circuit. They also toured as support band with the Mickey Mouse Show and the Harlem Globetrotters.

Johnny Nicol became a solo performer, playing throughout the USA and England in the late 1960s, and Southeast Asia in the 1970s. He is recognised as one of the finest jazz singer-guitarists in Australia. Originally from North Queensland he currently lives in Cairns, North Quuensland and is still performing regularly both solo and with various jazz/swing bands.