Uh oh...

[Redundant]

...weekend ramble follows so look away if you're looking for meaning, sense (common or otherwise), insight blah blah.   First up is the job front, which has changed a tad, the totally cool but unsafe job I really wanted...nope.    Then there's the job that I got offered, which requires a licence for which the application requires a listing of any criminal offences, and as luck would have it, this includes "spent" offences.   Spent offences are those offences that, having aged sufficiently, normally do not need to be mentioned in an application (on average 10 years but it varies), sod's law the job I am after is one of the exceptions.   [Redundant squirms uncomfortably with more than a hint of embarrassment]

But first a musical interlude; Aynsley Lister "Home" from the album of the same name:

https://youtu.be/FAyiRSG9gOM


So, criminal records of the none musical kind.   It turns out I have one of those, even worse it's truly pathetic.   The exact description of my first 'offence' says it all really, it's "Larceny of Christmas Trees"...way back in 1981 for which I was fined a tenner.   Now, in my defence, I was a single parent at the time, taking a very rare night off as my son was staying at his mother's, and a 'friend' turned up with a crate of Breaker lager.   Some time later a friend of his turned up, and I happily jumped in the back of his car and off we went.   I woke up to find myself sharing the back seat with two Christmas trees, stolen from a local forestry.   I didn't really mind, it may even have raised the overall IQ of the vehicle by several points, I got dropped off at home (sans a tree of any kind) and thought no more about it.   Until the inevitable knock on the door several weeks later, and the brief and embarrassing appearance in front of the local magistrate that followed.

And there you have it, thirty-five years later the damn things back to haunt me, I can almost hear Santa and the Elves, doubled over in laughter.   I suspect it's not enough to deny me my licence, but then I'm applying logic when I say that, and this is unfortunately a licence issued by the same Government I sort of stole a couple of Christmas trees from...

After this you may be getting a sense of my current "mood", Eric Steckel "Love me or leave me" from the album "Dismantle the sun":

https://youtu.be/EB6kjV_WNjU

On the good news front, in January I posted several hundred calendars on behalf of the company that is making me redundant, be it ever so slowly, of which so far about forty have bounced back with incomplete address stickers, inside of each calendar there is a free memory stick [someone explain that to Roger] so yours truly will never have to buy one again.

I took my wife, daughter and son-in-law out for a meal last week, an Italian restaurant, within an hour I had them turning up the opera music so I could hear it better, and by the end of the night had introduced them to the music of my hero, Jussi Bjorling [or Bjoerling if you prefer], wine's a wonderful thing.

After Roger's comment about playing Cribbage I went looking for a good online Cribbage site, failed to find a really good one yet, but did find a great Dominoes site and an equally good Backgammon site, check them out, I really recommend the Dominoes one, haven't played for years:

https://dominoes.playdrift.com/ and http://www.247backgammon.org/

And then there's Joe Monamassa "Wild about you baby" from the album "Blues Deluxe":

https://youtu.be/dCzPrhTT75g

Finally, another couple of songs, the first is a change of pace and simply brilliant, the second is another of my music heroes, King King and "Nothing takes the place of you" from the album "Take my hand":

https://youtu.be/MYPqDTyOTYg

and the master, Leslie West - "Legend" from the album "Usual suspects"

https://youtu.be/o9BVXyLhKzw

That's shallot

 

[The Peepmaster]

I'm pretty sure that nicking a Christmas tree is towards the lower end of criminal behaviour.

I'd add a covering letter to the application to explain what you've told us, (leaving out the YouTube videos, and any mention of the large volume of memory stick acquisitions).

[Redundant]

I'm pretty sure that nicking a Christmas tree is towards the lower end of criminal behaviour.

I'd add a covering letter to the application to explain what you've told us, (leaving out the YouTube videos, and any mention of the large volume of memory stick acquisitions).

Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately it's not allowed, it's strictly yes/no to have you a criminal record, spent or not, and if so provide the details, which comes via the Data Protection Act from the police at my request [I even had to pay a tenner to get it].  In theory it's a spent conviction from 35 years ago, for something trivial and shouldn't cause a problem, the unfortunate bit is I have a lot of experience of the relevant Commission who review this stuff, and their track record is about as abysmal as my criminal career.

We'll see what the outcome is, being government they can take their time, three months is the average time to get a decision.   Meanwhile my redundancy rolls on, so waiting for a decision is at least paid for!

In reality, if I was able to give an explanation, I would probably settle for declaring it a stupid mistake which ultimately was my own fault, there's no real mitigation or justification for stupid.

[Redundant]

I'm getting better, or the medications kicked in, I managed to forego doing my latest diatribe here [Letter to America - Part Two] and slapped it on the blog instead.   For those hard of hearing the link can be found in my profile, or you could follow the link below [or not, as is your want]; it's primary purpose has already been achieved...less stuff floating around in my head.

http://redundantphoto.blogspot.com/