What is it about modern society and this obsession with taking offence?
A supermarket correctly labels its burgers as being reindeer and parents say that it has upset their children, so now they are calling them moose burgers. Well if, on behalf of the moose preservation society, I am offended about that, so what should the supermarket do now? Continue reading
Filed under random rants
My parents were not musical. Other than belting out hymns in church with more enthusiasm than technique I can't remember either doing anything remotely musical, and so I don't know where my interest in music comes from. Continue reading
Pressures of work are curtailing my writing at the moment hence me being less prolific than usual across my various blogs, and my priority is towards keeping up my Monday Musings column each week.
I have not given up on these blogs though and am working on things for all of my various blogs as well as three e-books in various stages of development, one of which is in the final revision prior to editting stage.
So lots of work in progress. Keep watching and thanks for all of your interest.
Filed under about me, Books & Reading
Music and books played a part in my life from an early age. I was something of a sickly child and would be laid up for one to three weeks at a time. As both of my parents worked, albeit not that far away and could pop in to check on me, when I was ill in bed it was just me and the radio to start with. Thankfully talk radio hadn’t been thought of then (not many of us had ‘phones to call in with anyway) and most of the programming was music.
This was in the 1950s and so a lot of the music was from the big shows; Carousel, South Pacific, Calamity Jane, Oklahoma! and so on. These especially sparked the imagination for farway places and times and could take that small boy with them.
One of my early treasures was an atlas, and I would try to find anywhere mentioned in a song on the map. Of course there were some fictional places, but, through song, I found a love of geography, travel and maps (even now I can spend a happy hour with an ordnance survey map).
Song also helped my vocabulary, pestering my parents when they came in about new words, and when Doris Day sang Que Sera Sera or Dino crooned Volare more horizons burst into my developing mind.
Picture books and annuals with cartoon strips came into my life as well then and I began to understand a few written words too as I struggled with the captions. We didn’t have much money, but jumble sales were a good source of cheap books that helped me read well before I went to school even if I did make a complete nonsense of pronouncing some of them (ocean came out as okeen, and Pharaoh as something like farrower I recall).
Books still play a big part in my life, but music require less effort and I can listen with my eyes shut (that does tend to impair one’s reading ability). I have an ancient i-Pod that I love dearly and be transported to places and memories or just listen to the different components of the sound.
I have very catholic tastes and there are all sorts of genre on the i-Pod; punk, chamber music, folk, big bands, blues, light opera, soul, classical , protest songs and pop plus a few that I’ve no doubt missed.
Along the way I’ve I’ll write some more about music and books that I enjoy in coming blogs
Filed under about me, Books & Reading, Music
There are those days when there is so much that you want to say that you just don’t have time to get it all down, and other days when you stare at a blank screen with your fingers waiting for messages to flow down from the brain and tell them what to type. Some days they can wait a long time…. Continue reading
Filed under writing
The Muppet show was always a highlight of the weekend TV for me when the children were small. This clip is from an episode that featured Mark Hammill fresh from his Luke Skywalker role, but strikes a chord for me as a lover of DooWap singing.
So for a bit of innocent pleasure on the anniversary of a dark day for the world, enjoy a Muppet take on Ramalamadingdong.
Having managed to put my back out speaking at the Public Procurement Show the other week I have been back at the chiropractor. The one that sorted me out after being rammed from behind on Birdlip Hill has moved so I have found myslef a new one. Not the one where the owner runs a Maserati and wanted me to pay them thousands, presumably to keep up the payments on the trident job, but one who has reasonable charges and has got me walking around pain free again.
If you do take up this route you do need to think about long term work on your skeleton to get bones and muscles working and, as you get older, this makes more sense.
So if you have problems, do consider a chiropratctor to help you. It has worked on me and I would be happy to recommend my lady to you. Drop me an email or post a comment here and I’ll pass on the details.
Filed under about me
Why is it that the mobile phone culture dictates that a person’s volume on their phone is in inverse proportion to the substance of their conversation?
Riding home from London on the train last night I was joined by a fellow businessman, but a complete stranger. His papers identified him as working for a company that I know well and he spend much of the journey making and receiving calls, but I heard probably less that 30 words over about the same number of minutes of talk time despite the fact that we were sat so close. A shame in some ways because, being in an industry where I frequently earn my keep I might have picked up something useful.
Three or four rows in front and behind were a man and a woman who were both so loud that every word rang out through the carriage, and boy were they inane. Having seen them both neither looked like a gormless moron, but they both sounded that way. Do these people think that a lack of decent conversation skills can be overcome by shouting?
Oh, the joys of train travel.
Filed under fun stuff, random rants
I’m in the process of having to take strong action against one publishing house and am actively chasing another for payment for articles that I have written for them and, in the former case, for several photos to accompany the article. Both articles have been published against agreed terms, so what is the problem with coughing up what is owed?
One problem is that it is taking me longer to chase them than it did to write the darn things in the first place, but I am going to keep going even if I end up taking them down the small claims route.
It is a shame as it takes away both the pleasure of having something published and any feeling of support for that publication, but such is life. There are a lot of shysters out there.
Filed under business life, random rants, serious stuff, writing
It’s long overdue, but at last Bruce Forsyth has got his knighthood, so the disappointment that I didn’t get mine (one in the family ought to be enough) is offset by the joy the Bruce has his, long overdue, reward for goodness knows how many years of entertaining us.
Filed under serious stuff
The Voice of the Bloke at the Back 