respec'

there are occassional turning points in your life where everything changes. sometimes you only realise these defining moments after the event.
two such moments for me were as follows. the night i realised that i was never going to be a serious academic. i was writing a paper to give to my theory class during my first attempt at a masters degree. the paper was all about the transition from feudalism to capitalism. given the amount of sense i was writing it might as well have been the joys of ants and ice cream. i read and wrote into the early hours of the morning. making loads of coffee while listening to radio 2. i was workign in a cramped kitchen and all i really wanted to do was go cuddle up next to the lady in my life and go to sleep.
the paper was a disaster and my toes curl to think of it now.
playing on radio 2 that night was andrew lloyd weber's phanton of the opera "i am the music of the night". if the song was played once it was played 50 times in the night. it scarred me.
i failed that masters.

a few years later and i am on a train going to visit my good lady who was now doing her masters in coventry. i had a bad feeling about this trip. i almost didn't go. my journey up there was accompanied by a bloke with his (then new fangled and expensive)personal cd player who was playing ... you guessed it andrew lloyd weber's phantom of the opera. he managed to play it three times on the journey. it was not loud enough to complain about, but loud enough to irritate and lodge itself in my mind.
i was traumatised by it.
that weekend my lovely lady told me to take a hike (thanks annemarie). if i had woody allen's money i would still be in therapy.

failed masters and there is lloyd weber.
failed romance and there is lloyd weber.
like some bad luck stink.

even his working with the great jim steinman has not quite saved him in my eyes, no matter what (now going on admit it you are in admiration of that...) he does lloyd weber is always going to be associated with some serious failures in my life. (my pal paul would just simple say he is a dull and boring composer...)

so what are you trying to tell us here pat?

well in yesteraday's independent (and i wish i could link you to it, but the indie wants you to pay ....) dominic lawson had a column. hold on did you say dominic lawson, brother of the arch tory nigel lawson? yes i did say dominic lawson. i think it is part of the independent so how ...well .. independent they are, what a beacon of free speech they are yadda yadda.
so far the columns of his i have read have just made my blood boil as he comes across as a jumped up shite who seems smug in the fact that he hasn't done too badly out of the mess the tories left this country in and now he can snipe at new labour for not doing the job it should be doing ie looking after the workers and not pandering to middle england.

but to give him his due he sometimes points out that actually all was not rosey under the tories.

he was talking about the current honours for cash scandal, and pointed out that the then tory government did the same, that the leadership (if that is not too bold a word for it) of iain duncan smith did it and to an extent cameron is doing it.
the way the tories go about getting the money is is by getting loans from the rich party faithful, which are loaned at commerical rates, but once they have gotten the ermine and have their seat in the house of lords the loan is forgiven. and so the coffers of the tory part remain filled.

and now i must paraphrase dominic, because i can't copy it from the indie site and i can't be asked to type it all out.
apparently there is one one lender, who once he became a sir ignored the time honoured trradition of "forgiving" the loan and rather than follow the tradition of the has insisted that his loan was in fact just that: a loan. a loan that he expected to be paid back.

step forward that man and take a bow.
yes andrew lloyd weber you may no longer be the toast of the tory fundraiser - but for a few moments on my blog you are toasted.
so join me and raise a glass to andrew lloyd weber as he waits for his loan to be repaid.

but in case you think i am going soft - i still blame him from for my failing the masters degree and annemarie kicking me out. but i can't deny him a little bit of pat blog heaven.