The Barnsby Blog

This is the second day of my incarceration ina side ward in West Park =
hospital having caught MRSA. My new minders seem kind and efficient, my=A0m=
ain minder being a Zimbabwean girl who spent twenty of the last forty odd y=
ears in England. We had a long chat establishing I was in South Africa duri=
ng the WW2, pre dating Nelson Mandela as a fighter against apartheid, but w=
ithout his distinction of course. The Physio team gave me a good work out t=
oday and we found that the two guys in charge of physio had been at my blog=
and found it very interesting and discovered that my books were being sold=
on ebay at an enhanced price, which I did not know of.

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It is=A0good to see that my friends are rallying round and Bob Hazlehu=
rst has produced a detailed account of the Chillcot Enquiry which I hope is=
a start of many other contriutions to the blog. Another friend I have hear=
d from today is Dave Holmes, one of the pupils I taught in the good old day=
s at Etheridge=A0Seconary Modern=A0school.=A0 Dave sent me a birthday card =
which I very much appreciate. He is a drummer of distinction and has played=
with some illustrious British jazz bands, and today is the mainstay of jaz=
z at The Trumpet, which is the only venue in Britain to play live 7 nights =
a week. He also rallied other distinguished pupils I had taught and he cont=
inues to produce regular material on jazz and obituaries concerning importa=
nt musicians in=A0jazz.=A0

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On a lighter note, today=A0delivered the January issue of History Toda=
y which carries the motto "What happened then matters now" and is=
a review of what they=A0 call the bulldog spirit of Britons and booze. It =
follows the excesses and normalities of Britain and booze through the centu=
ries reminding us of the=A0 binnge drinking of modern times. It also deals =
with the American=A0war of independence and loss of our empire,=A0a loss wh=
ich has been repeated many times since.

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I have often warned against neglecting THE VOICE which is the organ of=
the West Indian communities and diaspora, recent issues have reinforced th=
at warning. For instance, VOICE believes that Michael Jackson was the great=
est soul singer of all time and wrote an article concerning the female who =
spent the last months of his=A0life caring for him, something that I had no=
t heard anywhere else.

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Time prevents me form adding anymore, visiting time is over once again=
, until next time.=A0

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