This is going to be partially vanilla, so if you are only here for the spanking pic then just scroll down past the video for this weeks spanking offering. I promise, there is a spanking pic in the post, it is just at the very bottom after I talk about 2018.

2018 has come to an end and for obvious reasons it was a very bad year. When my brother grew sick earlier in the year it was obviously bad, but I have to be honest that at the time I had no idea that it was going to take his life a few months later. The early part of this year I spent a lot of time talking to him, and while his health was going to prevent us doing things immediately, we did make plans to go to Iceland in March and then we were planning on going to Japan for the Rugby World Cup in 2019.

As you all know, after my brother passed away in June I decided to go to Japan a year earlier than I had planned, and I’m still heading to Iceland in a couple of weeks time. It was a really tough year, much tougher than I thought it was going to be. Getting to a stage where at 55 years old I have no family left, it just wasn’t something that I was prepared for. So while I was virtually absent for the early part of the year, you just never know what people are dealing with. On top of that I also just got laid off to bring 2018 to a crashing end.

It has changed my outlook a bit to be honest with you. There is no mistaking that I can be somewhat aloof anyway, you only have to show me an ounce of disdain before my personal morals kick in, it isn’t something that I have ever accepted, nor will I ever. The thing is though, there is literally nobody I dislike, people have their own reasons for being the way they are, the same way that I do. Since the summer though I have been much more laid back in my approach, I simply wish everyone well and live my life engaging with what makes me happy. I gave up fighting many years ago, there’s no blood left to draw from this stone. While it might be foolish to question my own mortality at such a young age, I don’t have a good family track record to fall back on.

So with that said, there is this Japanese band that I have loved for a couple of years now, and when I got back from England after burying my brother, I think I had a bit of a mid life crisis, lol. Watching their videos was therapeutic to me and kept some happiness in my life, and then a spark just went off, I was watching a video and in a snap decision I said fuck it, I’m going to Japan to watch them live. That same night I got in touch with a third party ticket agent, he assured me that he could get me tickets for two shows, I sent him $300 and the very next day he had purchased two tickets for me.

It really seems crazy to me, at 55 years old I was going to fly half way round the world on a whim. I got the tickets for a band before I even booked the flights and hotel. Moreover, they weren’t even a big band, just a niche band with a loyal fan following. Though it is true that just prior to getting tickets the band had just played to 12,000 people, and they had their first number 1 in the Japanese charts. The shows I was going to were auditorium shows though with a limited audience. Before I say anything else, I don’t regret it one little bit, it was the craziest thing I have ever done and I loved every minute of it, in fact I might do it again in 2019.

There was also partially a reason that made me act on a whim. The girl who is pretty much the lead vocalist (first girl to sing in the video below) I had this strange suspicion about. Something told me that sooner rather than later, she was going to progress as a much bigger star in Japan as a solo artist. I wanted to make sure that I saw the band in their current form. As it turns out though, after I had been to Japan to see them, they blew up in a major way. They played a concert to 17,000 fans, and then they were awarded a ‘New artist of the year’ award at the annual Japanese music awards. That wasn’t all though, as part of their award, they were automatically nominated for the best new artist award. It’s a big award for a band that once played during intermissions at wrestling matches, and at shopping malls.

I woke up yesterday and turned my PC on, when I visited Twitter I had to rub my eyes. On the left hand side, under trending, the number 1 trend worldwide was BiSH. I did a double take, yes, BiSH, stylized in the way the band name themselves. What in the ever loving…….

It took me a couple of hours to work out why they were trending number 1 worldwide, and it was a combination of events. Firstly, they performed at the event and wowed the audience. Then came the vote, they didn’t win, and that was primarily the reason that they were trending, the feeling was that they had been robbed of the award. Once the result was announced they also won the audience over by hamming it up and fake crying, and then when it came to the photo shoot all the other bands were posing, while BiSH hammed it up yet again. So I have changed my mind about the lead singer leaving the band, I think that they are now about to embark on a pretty magical 2019. Their dream is to play Nippon Budokan, and I have a feeling their dreamed may be realized this year. To me, it is like watching a family member graduate.

Here are some photos from when I saw the band in November, and the video below that is their latest release in front of 17,000 fans. The first concert that I went to in November was the first time the band performed that song live.

Now I did promise you a MEN ARE LIKE STREETCARS spanking pic, but I also wanted to tidy up 2018 so I hope that you didn’t mind a vanilla post. This image is from 1954 via Franklin Community High School.