Jam Doctor

How many people out there are lucky enough to live over the road from a great band?

I do!

Which is how I came to be listening to live music this morning as I breakfasted out on the deck.

Jam Doctor is a 4 member kiwi band. Classic rock, I guess you'd call it - great numbers like Sweet Home Alabama and Play That Funky Music. The sort of music that gets your body moving whether you mean to or not.

John Trueman is the lead vocalist and also on rhythm guitar, Daniel Trueman is on drums, Raymond Tahu is on lead guitar and Chris Matthews on bass. Daniel, Raymond and Chris all come in on backing vocals.

These guys likes to support local events so were going to be performing at the Mangakino Christmas Parade later today which explains how I was able to enjoy their music as I munched my way through my wheaties.

You'd pay a fortune some places to have live music while you breakfast!

Later in the morning, hubby and I went to the Christmas Parade and heard Jam Doctor again - this time belting out those familiar numbers that I get to hear them rehearsing. They keep things turned down a little in rehearsals so it was great to hear them turn the volume up and let it rip!

I know Jam Doctor are fully booked over Christmas and New Year but if anyone out there has got a function coming up in '09, you really should grab these guys. They rock!

What do you do?

The trial against the people who tormented little Nia Glassie finished yesterday.

You'll remember about a year ago I posted about the death of this little girl - killed at the hands of the very people who supposedly cared for her. Her mother was convicted of man slaughter and her boyfriend and his brother of murder. Two other supposed adults in the house were convicted on lesser charges.

New Zealand has an appalling record when it comes to young children. We have the 5th highest child abuse figures in the developed world.

I don't know why. And I guess no one else does because this is one problem we haven't fixed. Every time this happens we get upset and say it must never happen again - but it does.

There do seem to be a few common elements in these cases, but other countries have similar problems.

This was a dysfunctional household. A small child should never have been left there. A few neighbors heard or saw things that they knew were not right and yet no one called the police or authorities.

Cases like this bring out the worst in me. All my tolerance and humanity goes out the window and I just hope that the offenders get picked on in prison so that they get a taste of what it's like when people treat you unkindly and there is no one around who cares enough to stop your tormentor.

That poor little girl was treated appallingly until finally a kick to the head killed her.

It just leaves me feeling so sad and helpless - hell, I'd dob someone in at the drop of hat if I believed they were ill treating a child - but I never see anything.

How do we help these littlies? They're invisible until one day you switch on the television and hear there has been another Nia Glassie or the Kahu twins or ... any New Zealander can recite the list going back.

It saddens me so much to live in a society we're any one of us can treat a helpless child like this.

Twitter

I'm a recent convert to Twitter.

Oh, I HEARD about it a long time ago and took a brief look. People answering the question "what are you doing right now". It seemed like an awful waste of time.

Why would anyone want to now what I was doing? And more importantly - why would I want to know what they ate for breakfast or whether they were trimming their toenails? Not for me, I decided.

But about a month ago I was reintroduced to Twitter and this time I took to it like a duck to water, like a partridge to a pear tree, like a ... you get my drift.

I was atwitter with enthusiasm!

(You'll remember I was always a sucker for the widgets!)

So - if you cast your eyes to the right (and probably a little or a lot down) you'll see my Twitter widget, embedded there so that you too can share the excitement of every trivial detail of my life!

The thing that I like about Twitter is that it only takes a moment and yet (if you keep your list of people followed on the small side) you do start to get to know those folk.

Some people have lists of thousands but I'm keeping it small for the time being. It seems a bit pointless if all the Tweets disappear of my page within seconds - which is what must happen if you have gazillion people tweeting.

So if anyone out there has wondered about Twitter - whether it was right for them - give it a go.

It is actually fun and I can see some sensible uses for it. It's almost like a blog in giving that connection between people and yet you can do it so quickly that even on a busy day you can find time for a quick Tweet.

And there is nothing quite like a quick Tweet I've always thought!