How Sez Sees It

Nearly a year ago there was a lot of discussion around bands charging for meet and greets. I even vlogged about it at the time: Recently the idea of how much bands charge for things has crept up again on a variety of social networking sites. The biggest issue seems to have been around the limited reprinting of Laurence Beveridge's ( Fearless Vampire Killers ) book, Ruple and Evelyn. There was some...discussion (we will say this for want of a better word) around the costing of the book which is up for sale for £9.99 (plus P&P) from their website. Comments were made that this was too expensive for people to buy and that the band were essentially ripping off their fans who would have little money themselves. Other comments were made about the band stemming from this thread, but I don't feel they have a place here and I don't want to open all of that up again! The reality is that bands have to make money. They cannot afford to do anything for nothing. Yes, they will ...

"How dare they assume I would use my phone as a phone!" I roared in the office a moment ago (or several depending on when you read this...) Over the last two days I have had 20 phone calls (and counting) from a variety of numbers, but all the same company. They never state who they are, but they say they are calling from O2 to offer me an upgrade. This might be ok...if I was due to upgrade! As it is I did this a couple of months ago. Anyone that knows me will remember that my old mobile handset was playing up so I upgraded to the excellent Samsung Galaxy S5 a couple of months before I was due to upgrade. I was even happy to pay a little extra in order to do this at the time. I just wanted a working phone and that is what I got (and more, it is a good handset...but enough about that). Then, two days ago as stated, I started getting the annoying calls. They never seem to stay ringing long enough for me to pick up and speak to anyone and they never seem to leave a voice m...

This morning a colleague of mine told me of some people on Facebook who were saying that breastfeeding in public is wrong, dirty and distracting. Basically they didn't want to see it while they were in a restaurant. Every woman in my office (there are only women in my office), whether they had children or not, agreed that this was an insane view and that breastfeeding in public is normal, natural and absolutely right! Personally I have no baby yet, but when I do I want the option to be able to breastfeed in public. Here's a few key points why: You can't chain mothers up at home. They would go crazy if they were stuck in the house with a little baby all the time. They need to get out and interact with the world. Baby has to go too for obvious reasons, but when baby needs feeding, baby needs feeding.  This is a natural thing that has been happening since mammals evolved. We are not the only species to do this. Also, it is highly likely that those complaining were breas...

As I approach my 30's I already seem to have a problem with memories of past triumph. I am not sure why this is exactly, but when I look back at things that I excelled at in the past I notice signs that things in the future are not all that swell. The most obvious things for me are stupid things such as not being able to drink as much as I once could. This, it turns out is a blessing. I would not say that the ability to drink excessively is exactly a triumph of one's youth, but it is a sign that my capacity for excess in any sense is dwindling already. When I look back at highlights of my life I find myself longing for those times again. A year ago I found myself looking back to the summer of 2003. This was the year I left school and received my GCSE results. I remember participating in my exams with almost photographic clarity and then the memories of taking a portable radio outside to sit in the baking sun in the mornings and dashing back inside to watch Wimbledon (the fi...

I am engaged and before I get going I want you all to know that I am very happy. I do love my fiancé very much and I can’t wait for the day that we stand there in front of everyone and make a declaration of our love. There are some things that have made me question the institution of marriage and in fact any relationship. This may be the slight feminist in me talking or just personal experience and even from things I have seen around me. I just don’t feel comfortable with certain aspects of relationships. Let us take marriage as an example first of all. There is still an expectation in the western world that the woman will take the man’s name. I do know of a case where this was the other way round as the surname of the bride was rare and so the man took this name in order to keep it going. This is very unusual and generally speaking it is the woman who takes the man’s name. This convention is a hangover from the idea that marriage is a change of ownership from one man (father)...