GOFFA FROM THE BLOCK

These 7 things are all the rage nowadays so why not and I'm going to run them along side 7 reggae songs

Lots of tributes and eulogies on FB today.  I've got a blog though so I thought I'd write mine up here instead.  Like most people I didn't see it coming although I remember one of those spiteful newspaper articles from a few years ago ( October 2012 ) in which the Daily Mail full of its usual bile speculated about DB's health.  As usual, how cool does he look  but with the benefit of hindsight maybe for once DM got it right. I thought about Bowie yesterday,   I was at the gym and heard this brill Rock'n'Roll Suicide/If I Can Dream segue by Elvez on my iPod.   I made a mental note to give DB's version a spin....  Maybe later. And last night I decided to try  Blackstar   on Spotify.  I played it through twice. It really is rather good, much better that anything he's done for nearly 35 years and so much better than 2013's  The Next Day .  I will listen to it again. So today his passing was announced and i...

Long suffering followers of my Goffa blogs will know all about my torment as a Boro supporter.  I don't always go and to be truthful in recent seasons I have missed many more home games than I have attended.  But my absences and silence is more to do with not being able to take the pain above anything else. Other football supporters judge my unwillingness to join in the tribal hatred of other local clubs, Newcastle, Sunderland and Leeds as not caring enough about the Boro.  Of course I am not part of that tribe but it is more because in my world there are no other football teams worthy of  me having an opinion.  I am indifferent to them all.  We are simply The Boro. So although I know it will end in (my) tears (hopefully later rather than sooner) I've renewed my season ticket after an absence which has been too long. Brief Match Report At 80 minutes with the score at 0-0 the announcer read out todays crowd, an impressive 32870 to warm applause (not ...

No resolutions this year just looking forward to hopefully a much healthier 2016.  Also going to try and post a bit more.  Not sure what about yet.  To get these going with a bang here's my second post of the day. My eldest son has been working/holidaying in Australia for the last month.  I told him to send me some photos as he went along.  In true Dr Mike style all he's sent me are photos of cricket matches plus this photo of a banana autographed by Australian fast bowler Peter Siddle.  There is a joke in there but only the most devoted of us cricket anoraks get it.

Good thing/Bad thing? So why are the Tories are rebranding the National Minimum Wage , currently £6.70 per hour as the National Living Wage ?  Increasing it to £7.20 per hour in April 2016 and then further to an impressive sounding £9.00 per hour by 2020.  Of course the National Living Wage should not to be confused with the Living Wage Foundation 'Living Wage' which is already £8.25 per hour and £9.40 per hour in London. Excuse me for being sceptical about whether any good will come out of this for many. First of all remember how this idea came about.  The Tories didn't agree to these changes to help the poor.  They did it as part of the "jam tomorrow" deal to reduce working tax credits now and increase the National Living Wage in stages by 2020.  The House of Lords blocked the plan to reduce Working Tax Credits now so all's good?  Definitely no bad thing for people relying on tax credits.  But what about in 2020? From what I understand ...