I’ve known for a while that I’ve had writer’s block with this blog (and others that I used to contribute to). I got to the point where my postings felt like they were just inane ramblings, and I decided that there was no point in me continuing to write them. Sure I came back every now and then and tried to draft some posts (and I was always happy to approve comments – thank you all), but very few of these drafts ever saw the light of day. And that’s because I wasn’t happy with them. The subject, the content, well pretty much everything. So they never made it past the draft stage, and moving forwards, I won’t miss them.

So why is this post entitled artistic block, rather than writer’s block? Well, I had a eureka moment not that long ago. I realised that there were other things that I was struggling to draw inspiration from. Food being one. I was stuck in a rut of cooking the same things over and over. Photography was the second. Anyone who knows the face behind the words knows that I really enjoy my photography, but recently my camera has been gathering dust, as I just don’t have the impetus to get it out of the bag and go hunting for something to photograph. Even subjects and genres that I love working with no longer held the same appeal (in fact some of the photos I’d taken were downright awful). And that got me to thinking that surely any creative types must have that feeling every now and then that they just don’t know what to do next. How to get out of the humdrum of doing the same thing, and not feeling like they are really enjoying their creative works.

So where does this bring me? Well I thought it was a good place to start the rebirth of my writing. Has my view on photography changed? Well probably not. I still know what I can do well, and I know that it’s currently a slump that I need to work through. Will I give up? Definitely not. The same with cooking. I just need to find the right inspiration and everything will be fine. Hopefully this will be the first step on a road to change, and that before long, I’ll be writing regularly again, enjoying my photography, and cooking new food (there was even talk a while back about having a food related blog – maybe time to dig that one out and give it a go? – you know who you are!!). Of course this could be the first and last post for a long time, in which case, sorry for this inane rambling that did make it through to these pages…

When I was younger (about 12) I went to a secondary school (as most 12 year olds do). Whilst there in Year 1(Year 7 they call it nowadays), everyone was offered the chance to take extra-curricular music lessons in an instrument of their choice. Lots of us signed up across various different instruments, everything from the flute to the drums. Me, I went for the drums (as they sounded fun and a bit more practical than a wind or brass instrument).

I was assigned to a teacher named Kel Dennis. A name I knew well as my brother had been taught by Kel’s father. Kel was an incredible teacher. He could play just about anything, but loved being behind a drumkit, and therefore I always saw him at his most passionate about music. One of the trade-offs for being taught an instrument (for free) was that you played in a local Campus/Concert band. These were great organisations where all of these people came together and played music, generally developed their musical and social skills, played concerts, and generally had a blast.

I joined one such band in my local area and was immediately thrown in with some superb musicians and percussionists (people who have since gone on to have their own bands in some of London’s more well known Jazz and Swing venues). It was such an eye-opening experience that these people who had so much more experience than me, and that were technically so much more gifted, were more than happy to share techniques with you, and to listen and comment when you learnt something new – even if they already knew it themselves.

The sense of community was incredible and the 7 years I spent in the band were fantastic times that I’ll never forget. Then it came time for me to move away from home and go to University. I was put into Halls of Residence and had nowhere to store my drumkit, so it was time to sell it. It wasn’t something I did lightly, but it was necessary at the time. And so my drumming ended (or paused as I believed at the time). I never managed to go back to it, and often wish I could, but I now have very little time to be able to return to it.

One thing I do miss is the community spirit of being amongst that size group of like-minded individuals. And this also went across the taste in music. I learnt so much about music while I was there that it staggers me now when I think about it. I listen to music in a whole different way now. Over the past few years I’ve considered finding out when the band are playing a concert and going back to see them, just to see how good they are (in our day we were good – we had awards to prove it and won competitions) and to thank Kel for the inspiration he gave me and for the musical enlightenment that it brought.

Unfortunately I’ll never get the chance to do that as Kel died 2 years ago from cancer. His death sent shockwaves through the musical world in my hometown and is something that I doubt the music scene there will ever recover from. He was an incredible man with such a passion for his music, and he managed to instil this sense of passion in everyone he taught.

So why Carpe Diem as the title? Well now that I can’t, I want to thank him more than anything. I had so many opportunities to do just that and yet I didn’t take a single on of them, and that’s something that saddens me so much it hurts. I have dreams of going to see the band again and being to chat to him about music, and waking up brings me back to the reality that I’ll never be able to do it.

I missed Kel’s funeral, at which an estimated 600 people turned up. He was a legend and he is very sadly missed. As a tribute to him, a road on a new housing estate has just been named after him. Ironically this road is a stones throw away from where the band used to meet every Monday evening. If it means that someone who lives there in a few years time asks who he is, does some digging and discovers the joy that he brought to so many people, then that can only be a good thing…

I can’t tell you how much this annoys me. A reality check would do him no harm whatsoever. Starr needs to remember why he’s famous, and who makes him famous. You can guarantee though that, with the launch of his last album in January, he’s not too busy to cash the cheques that the record company keep sending him.

So for example you might want to have your homepages to be set to Psychotic Monkey and Google.co.uk and this would mean entering http://www.psychoticmonkey.co.uk/|http://www.google.co.uk/ in the homepage box on the settings screen.

Very useful indeed….

You see he also has a One Classic yet he can search against full postcodes. Very strange, thought I. And from a quick Google of the problem it appears that I’m not alone! There are quite a lot of people reporting the same problem. However help is at hand.

If you suffer from the same problem as I did then the solution can be found at http://www.tomtom.com/updates/great_britainpostal_all.zip. All you need to do is download the file and unzip it. Remove the SD card from your TomTom and insert it into a card reader, then run the setup.exe file that you’ve just unzipped. Follow the instructions on-screen and tell the program to update the memory card. Once the installation is done, pop the memory card back into your TomTom and you’re away. Full postcode searching goodness is now your to enjoy. Now you’ve got no excuse when you end up on the wrong street…

Of course, there is a healthy dose of skepticism here as it’s a Microsoft tool talking to WordPress so if you see anything going weird then let me know in the comments. Now if only Live Writer would hassle me to write more then my blogging needs would be complete!

Update: Ok so one thing i can’t work out is how to get the tags that I add in Live Writer to be added as tags within WordPress. If anyone can help then leave me a comment…

So as you can probably guess, Chez Monkey currently has a visitor in the form of a mouse. Quite cute little grey fellow, who is becoming annoying because he keeps waking me up! So cue the construction of a humane mouse trap involving a broken match, a small piece of chocolate, and an OXO tin (other brands of stock are available!). The tin has fallen twice now, both onto nothing (this mouse is good!) and so we’re hoping for third time lucky. And boy is this guy quick. My eyes could barely keep up with him last time I saw him. I guess him appearing is a side-effect of the time of year in that mice are looking for somewhere to bed down for the winter, but I just wish they’d do it more quietly!

So my plea to you, dear Monkey fans is this. Can you design me a better form of mouse-trap to catch the little guy without hurting him (any pain caused to the mouse would result in pain caused to me by Mrs. Monkey, and that is not a good thing!). Leave your ideas below. The more Heath Robinson, the better…