Woke up about 9am with a sore throat, headache and aching muscles (not to mention a runny nose) took an extremely hot shower, which did my muscles wonders, and then headed to the ‘Farmacia’, took proper meds and a bunch of water. Felt better after nap, went round the corner for vegetable soup and to use internet. Came back and slept off and on all day. Watch some more (boring) CNN and drank water. Fell asleep around midnight to rain and the noise of the city.

…and then I woke up again at 2am and turned the telly on to MTV. Every now and again I think it fun to have a go at MTV, the videos are fairly entertaining and, sometimes, bordering on the hilarious. See, I don’t have much use for MTV, (but to young people (and was not I young once?) the images must seem mysterious or something, videos are expensive, but, as my Father was fond of saying, ‘one must spend money in order to make money!’ This does seem to hold true, if your equipment sounds like carp, no one will hire you to play music.

And so, as usual, silly thoughts would go round my silly brain at a delusional 2.45am. How nothing ever works as it should. Girls you really want will never want you, girls you don’t want really want you. When you are full there’s food everywhere, when you are in a band that has two cases of beer on your bus, everyone wants to buy you a beer. When you are down and out, no one could be bothered to help you along..And such is life and the way it works. I never get anything exactly the way I want it because I have to take into account how other people feel. Still, it doesn’t diminish my determination, but it does make me aware of the ‘flip side.’ I never like the ‘flip side’ of anything, I guess I don’t want the ‘other story.’ But I am accommodating and understanding and some folks even accuse me of being patient. How can you not be at 3.15am?

Mike Randle