Telegraph Road

Yesterdays's P&L: GBP - 680.00

Yesterdays Booze: 1 bottle of non-descript Rose wine, (am I going Gay)? and 8 cans of Stella Artois


Been listening to this song a lot lately. As anyone who knows me knows, I am a huge fan of Mark Knopfler and love all of his music. This song is a little different, to me it represents lost dreams and forgotten promises. A subject I feel somewhat strongly about right now. For anyone who doesn't know the track, it tells the story of the growth of a town, the promise it held and the ultimate betrayal of the dreams we have. It is hardly original material just read any kitchen sink drama or talk to any kid arriving at Euston Station, the story is writ large.

Knopfler puts his cards on the table quite quickly as we hear about the man on a track, putting down his load where he thought it was the best.

"then came the churches then came the schools
then came the lawyers then came the rules
then came the trains and the trucks with their loads
and the dirty old track was the telegraph road"

"Then came the mines - then came the ore
then there was the hard times then there was a war
telegraph sang a song about the world outside
telegraph road got so deep and so wide
like a rolling river. . ."

Every City has a Telegraph Road, you probably know one in your town. In London I think of it as Commercial Street, in Bangkok Wireless Road but the great cities have more than one
The song then turns into a more personal narrative,

"I used to like to go to work but they shut it down
I've got a right to go to work but there's no work here to be found
yes and they say we're gonna have to pay what's owed
we're gonna have to reap from the seed that's been sowed
and the birds up on the wires and the telegraph poles
they can always fly away from this rain and this cold
you can here them singing out their telegraph code
all the way down the telegraph road"

One verse that sums up the dehumanizing feeling of losing your job. I grew up in a time when we are service economy. Nobody I know puts things together. We are bankers or spin doctors or salesmen or estate agents. I don't give a great deal of thought for the people in the cities of industry - why would I? Its something I have no experience of. Those people had jobs, they were sold a promise that turned out to be a lie. The verse after is quite sad and, to me, expresses loneliness as the narrator tries to stay with his wife. Nowadays its all to easy for people to separate just because things get hard. I have a friend whose wife has turned on him, perhaps when he needs her most. Even in my own dysfunctional family, when things got really bad, and I am talking bad enough that the police advised us against having contact with each other), we all did our best to pull together. Again this is hardly original - Springsteen, for one has made a career out of singing about men whose wives leave them during the hard times. I am sure there are plenty of other women out there that do the whole stand by your man thing, just that I have never met them. In my experience, they always let you down when you need them. Mind you I have little right to complain as I spend my relationships distancing myself and presenting myself as the kind of person that doesn't need anyone else. But that's the beauty of being a drunk, you can have some duality, its expected - on one hand you say "help me", but at the same time your eyes are saying "fuck you".

I am still getting killed in the markets, at this time of year trading volumes are so thin you can really get bullied by big speculators. They know that over-leveraged people like me can only take fifty or so point moves before we have to meet margin calls so they just outspend us. What else can I do though, I need to at least try to generate some income or I will have a very dry and cold Christmas and New Year - at least my doctor will be happy!