Monthly Archives: December 2011

Anno Mundi

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.

Arrested and having a criminal record

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.

Mona Wiki & The Maori Troubadours – Rose In Her Hair

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.

Chateau Neuf Spelemannslag-Hopparen, Lausslått etter Ola Mosafinn (Gammalosten)

Chateau Neuf Spelemannslag (CNS) is a Norwegian folk music band that is experimenting with different musical styles. The band was formed in 1994 at the University of Oslo, and consists of some nineteen odd instrumental players and vocalists. They have become famous in the folk scene for combining traditional Norwegian folk tunes with modern sentiments from genres such as jazz, swing, classical, and rock.

Discography:

- Spell (1995)
- Tjuvgods (1997), was also released under the title Stolen Goods for the North American audience
- Curing Norwegian Stiffness (2001)

Intimacy and Privacy

Adult couples are intimate. That is just a normal part of life. Some people wait until they are married before making love while others do not.

My wife and I were intimate since before we were married. It was our choice and we enjoyed every moment with each other. We kept our intimate matters private, but of course it became known that we “share the same bed”. A few people had a problem with that and talked bad behind our backs.

Mother In Law had a problem with that. (Even though I suspect she also banged her boyfriend.)

These days, we have been married for almost seven years, and still Mother In Law cannot accept that a closed door means something private is going on.

When our bedroom door is closed at night, she will bang and call at the door until she gets an answer. And then when she has finally disrupted us, she asks for something really silly like an aspirin tablet, what the time is, tell us the cat’s food bowl is almost empty etc.

She is very disrupting, and I have talked to her about it. I have talked hard and serious and long, but still, she just promised to not do it again, and then the same night she’s at it again.

Privacy is not a privilege. Privacy is a right. I hope that sometime very soon Mother In Law will get it into her thick skull.