Peter Bargh

Sights & Sounds
August 22nd, 2009 by Peter Bargh

Back to the 80s

Martin Fry and ABC

That’s where I went last night in Clumber Park at a gig that had a line up of T’Pau, Go West, Belinda Carlisle, ABC and Human League.

Back in the 80s I’d roamed away from UK music to more obscure ambient and German rock. So 80s music doesn’t really appeal, but I went with work as a night out for the team…and, despite reservations I really enjoyed it. T’Pau were average, and only did a few songs. They were off before they’d had chance to get warmed up. Then Go West came on and got the crowd moving. Not me I’m not a Go West fan, although the singer did sound really on form. And then they did U2’s Vertigo and that rocked.

Next up Belinda Carlisle, Started off great and I mus admit to fancying her in the 80s so good to see she’s still in good form. Sadly the same couldn’t be said for her voice which started to miss notes after the third song. Nevertheless, hearing some of the classics was good, even though they were out of tune!

Then ABC. I’ve known them since the early electronic days when they were Vice Versa. Never a fan of the glitzy pop style of the 80s though. And last night they didn’t deliver to my ears. A disappointing set.

Finally headliners, Phil and the girls with Human League delivered a great set. The drum structures and synth pieces worked well to get the crowd bopping. Recognisable hits such as Don’t you want me Baby and Love Action sounded even better than I remember, and then they played Empire State Human from the first album. Giving the Girls a rest Phil sang this one alone and it was a classic moment. The highlight of the night for me.

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Posted in Concerts / Gigs | No Comments »

August 14th, 2009 by Peter Bargh

Hacked and deleted

Some ?!%$&!!?$ has accessed my host’s server and managed to deleted all my personal sites files and folders. Luckily I have backups, but that’s not the point. It’s all the trouble I have to go to to get the sites all back up again. Why do people have to do this? Why do people have to write graffiti on signs, smash windows, drop litter, vandalise beautiful things? GRRRR
Anyway the reason, apart from rant, of this blog post is to say sorry to anyone who’s tried to access any of my personal site projects and couldn’t get on. They will be resumed as soon as I can.
One peed off person

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August 10th, 2009 by Peter Bargh

Images don’t right align in WordPress

I recently added a new WordPress template to one of my sites and found that the right align option did not work. The Alignment was set correctly in the upload “Edit Image” settings and appeared correct in the “Advanced settings” but when you preview the image was still at the left hand side. I looked up various WordPress sites for the answer and it appears that the style sheets of many of the themes are old and need updating to work on more modern versions of WordPress. Several sites suggested adding the following code:

img.centered {
display: block;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
}

img.alignright {
padding: 4px;
margin: 0 0 2px 7px;
display: inline;
}

img.alignleft {
padding: 4px;
margin: 0 7px 2px 0;
display: inline;
}

.alignright {
float: right;
}

.alignleft {
float: left;
}

The replies from various happy forum readers suggested that the code fixes the problem, but it didn’t do so on my chosen theme GabLog 1.0

After some more research I finally found the answer one line of code

.alignright { float: right !important; margin:0 0 15px 15px !important; }

Simply place this in the css style sheet. You’ll find this in the wp-admin page under “Appearance” and sub menu “Editor” From there look at the Theme files on the right, select Stylesheet (style.css) from Styles and add the above line of code in to the centre edit box. Click on update File and you should then find your image aligns to the right when you refresh.

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Posted in Helping Hand | No Comments »

July 8th, 2009 by Peter Bargh

What are the odds?

As many who read my occasional diary know, after my heart attack it was discovered that I had a totally blocked artery, and the remedy was an attempt at doing an angioplasty. I arranged a consultation with the cardiologist, Dr Grech, who put my mind at ease and said he had a 70% chance of successfully unblocking the artery. In my mind that’s a high chance of success. It’s certainly at least a glass half full situation. And, at the end of the day, even if it couldn’t be unblocked, there are alternatives.
So I decided to go ahead.

Since that day, the bit that’s concerned my is the odds within the angioplasty procedure. The risks are explained in advance.

Firstly, there’s a 1/100 chance of a groin injury – the angioplasty is performed by inserting a tube into the main artery in your groin and then feeding a catheter through up into the heart. Then hole is a couple of mm thick in the artery, so is plugged up at the end of the procedure to stop the bleeding. I guess it’s quite a strain on this area hence the risk. Now I’d rather have discomfort in the leg/groin than the blocked artery in the heart, so I’ll happily take that 100 to 1 gamble without too much worry.

But there’s also a 1 in 100 chance of a stroke, heart attack or fatality…and it’s this that’s been playing on my mind for a few month since my last health blog post, while waiting for the date of the procedure.

I thought I’d share how I coped with this. If coped is the correct word. I’ve gambled a few times in my life and enjoy playing games that involve the role of a dice. So on one hand I had the thought that 100 to 1 was pretty risky, but on the other hand, and this is the thing that gave me a glimmer of hope in my half empty glass head, is the fact that I rarely get a £10 win on the lottery (54 to 1 chance); I rarely get number 23 on roulette (36 to 1) and would I bet on a 100 to 1 horse? I have done, but I never expect to win. Even down to a roll of a dice. How often does 6 come up when you need it (6 to 1)?

So still with a sprinkling of doubt I entered the procedure room at about 9.15am yesterday in a fairly relaxed (well I hadn’t any brown stains in my pants) state. An hour or so later I was out. I had a sore leg, an aching heart, and three inserted stents, but I was still alive. Of course, I have to thank the skilful cardiologist and his excellent team. And I guess the next time when I’m presented with a health odds situation I’ll feel less anxious.

So anyone reading this with the decision ahead of them, I’d recommend going ahead. Of course this is just an opinion I’m no medical expert – so please seek professional advice.

Posted in Diary, Health | No Comments »

July 7th, 2009 by Peter Bargh

Stents inserted

I had stents fitted to widen artery in heartI had to carry this card around for 90 days so physicians could see I’d had an Angio-Seal Device on the right side of the groin and Fenoral Artery.

stent

 

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July 7th, 2009 by Peter Bargh

Angioplasty

Had Angioplasty – commonly known as stents fitted in the heart

Three inserted into the central artery to clear the blockage

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June 28th, 2009 by Peter Bargh

Open Office Tip – Changing To Title Case

I use Open Office and wanted to change some text to Title Case (Where Each First Letter Is A Capital Letter) In many programs you have a Change Case option in the Format menu. Here you would usually find Title Case, as well as UPPER CASE, lower case and sometimes Sentence case. But in OpenOffice there is no such option.
After a fair bit of trawling I found my answer and thought it would be useful to add them to my blog as a notebook entry for me and as a help for anyone else looking for a quick fix.

So if you use Open Office here are a couple of solutions:

Changing a field to Title Case in Open Office Calc (Excel Equivalent)
Click on the cell in the next empty column across from the field you want to change. key in =PROPER ( ) and insert the cell number that you want to change inside the brackets for example =PROPER(A1) You will now have the A1 cell repeated in B1 cell with the words in title case.

Changing a field to Title Case in Open Office Writer (Word Equivalent)
Select Format>Character and then click on the Font Effects tab and select Title from the Effects drop down list.

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Posted in Helping Hand | 4 Comments »

April 28th, 2009 by Peter Bargh

A trip to the theatre

In Worksop!

A series of events led to a night at the theatre.

As I walked in to town a few weeks ago a car stopped and the driver asked for directions to Acorn Theatre. I’d never heard of it, and didn’t think twice. I shrugged, said “sorry, no idea” and she went on her way. A week later, on my daily “heart exercise” walk, I passed the theatre on a back street.

When I got home I looked it up on the Internet and one production caught my eye: Pathway to the Red Sun. A striking image did it, because poetry, music and acrobatics, inspired by Madame Butterfly, are not exactly my cup of tea. But the image of a gothic woman, looking like the lead in the Japanese Horror film The Grudge, and the mention of influence from Pans Labarynth tempted me to “take a risk”.

And it was incredible, from the moment I walked through the theatre doors to the end.

Two Soldiers stand guard at the front of the theatre. On stage a guitarist to the left plays using an E-bow, his skills with that gadget were brilliant -the notes droned out harmonically, creating a sonic ambience.

Then the play begins and we see the Grudge influenced character (turns out she’s Angelina Boscarelli, the woman founded the company in 2005) appear from under the floorboards. The make up was excellent and simple, but effective lighting.

The story unfolds – a tragic love story based around a soldier and a samurai’s daughter.
Through out we hear the talented musician Andrew Bate play guitar and keyboards and add the occasional vocals. It all ended too soon.

This was my first taste of the Acorn Theatre…and maybe beginner’s luck, but it’s certainly not my last. I’d recommend this play to anyone, although it’s only a short tour but there are a few shows left.

You’ll find details on their web site here: Rogue Theatre

Andrew Bate has a Myspace page here: Andrew Bate

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Posted in Diary, Fun | No Comments »

March 21st, 2009 by Peter Bargh

Film Star

Last year I spent a day in the company of actor Tom Hardy, film director Nicolas Refn, film crew and several other actors. I’d applied for a role as a film extra and got the job. It was a cold day in Loughborough at Stanford Hall. My roll was a prison guard for the film Bronson, out on release last Friday, 13 Mar 2009 and already winning awards (I’d like to take all the credit ;-)).

I saw the film tonight and after a long wait and am pleased to say my short burst as an actor did not end up on the cutting floor. Sadly I wish I’d held my stomach in as I escort Bronson across the corridor for release from prison. Proud owner of a one pack – I look pregnant! I appear again in a scene a few minutes later. It’s a view from behind and shows my crown. I never realised how much I look like my dad until I saw the back view.

It took all day to film two scenes and delivered about 5 seconds of screen time. As a huge David Bowie fan in the seventies I am please that my film début lasted longer than his in Virgin Soldiers, where he’s pushed across the screen in the briefest of glimpses. The documentaries had to freeze frame his scene so you knew it was him.

After the film I hung back to view the credits only to see my name was misspelt as Peter Barry. Full marks to the production team!

Posted in Diary | 3 Comments »

March 12th, 2009 by Peter Bargh

Stents – good or bad?

I finally got to know an outcome of my next stage of recovery…and made a mistake of doing a bit of research on the web.

I have a totally blocked artery. Fortunately my heart has compensated and grown another artery path near to the damaged area so blood is being supplied. This puts me in a mid way position between a routine stent operation and bypass. It seems it’s going to be a complicated stent procedure, but I’m told being performed by a very good specialist.

So I have a look on the web and the first thing I see is an advert right at the top “Stents are very dangerous” It goes on to sell some wonder medicine that thins out the damaging plaque to unblock the arteries and make you all as new. If I was a blocked sink I guess it’s the difference between calling in a plumber for either rod plunging which normally works well, or a more complex repiping, or just buying some drain block acid.

I start to look at medical sites and many talk about the ease in which stents can be put in…one referred to surgeons doing stents in the same ease they change tyres. But do doctors actually change tires? 😉

The odds
There’s a risk with a stent that the body may not like it and react, or that the stent cannot be manoeuvred into place correctly and cause complications, or that you have a stroke. The odds of dying in hospital are, according to a British Heart Foundation leaflet, about 200 to 1.

There’s some recent research that suggest if you don’t have the stent at the same time as you experience the heart attack there’s not a great benefit from having one fitted later to prevent further attack. Their research indicates that you have as much chance of survival taking the medication that’s prescribed.

So I’m now in a dilemma. Do I have a stent or do I take my chances? I am currently getting chest discomfort when I exercise, but it’s not unbearable. Do the plaque dissolving methods work or is this just another age reducing/baldness curing un-wonderdrug?

I will be seeing the specialist for a pre-stent assessment. I have a few questions. I’ll add my findings here.

If anyone’s been through any of this already please feel free to send me a comment it will make for useful reading for anyone who ends up in the same position in the future.

Posted in Health | 5 Comments »

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