There is the finest layer of snow on the ground - more confectionery than weather, in appearance. Not enough snow to have any significance, really.
These days, I am less enamoured of snow than I used to be. I think it's a natural process, that we stop being amazed by the things around us, as we get older. Things which used to be wondrous and exciting now seem mundane, or even irksome.
Snow seems to underline this, in a particular way, though.
I am comfortable with the idea that snow doesn't seem as exciting a prospect for me now as it did, say, six years ago. What worries me is the idea that I might have reached that stage prematurely.
To think that I wake up to snowfall in the morning, and all I feel is worried - about traffic disruption, or about losing work opportunities as a result of the weather - is not, in itself, an alarming thing. But when I realise that there are people five or six years older than I am who wake up to snow still feeling the excitement I remember from childhood I fear that I have aged too quickly.
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
Monday, 2 January 2012
Off to a good start...
My plan was to write a new Blog post on 1st January 2012, talking to people about new beginnings, and outlining a few New Year's resolutions of my own. Well, it's now the 2nd of January, and only half-an-hour away from being the 3rd, so that's hardly an auspicious start, is it? Nevertheless, I shall press on...
My New Year's Resolutions run as follows:
So, there y'go! Let's hope I can stick to these, and possibly revisit the subject during the year, to see how the Resolutions are progressing.
My New Year's Resolutions run as follows:
- I am going to write my Blog more regularly and more frequently. (That one's going well already!) And I'm going to include more diverse material - more "serious" stuff (about work) and analysis/reviews of things, as well as the usual whimsy.
- I am going to practise more. And I'm talking about actual, proper practice - working on my technique, playing scales, learning things that I actually want to learn - not just learning the tracks I have to learn for whatever gigs or sessions I have coming up.
- I should like to do more piano gigs. I love doing drumkit/percussion work, of course, but I would really like to start doing more regular gigs on piano/keyboards as well. (You - yes, you - can help with this resolution, by hiring me for keyboard gigs! Email me for for more information.)
- I am hoping to read more books. I used to be an avid reader, but in recent years this has slipped, and I regret it. Literature is hugely important, and I intent to reverse this trend over 2012.
- I will try to write more jokes. I'm sure you're probably groaning at the thought, just from reading that - but I mean it. I love comedy, and I wish I were able to be more involved it. My one-liners and puns on Twitter are really my only decent outlet for this interest, so I hope I shall be able to make more of it.
- I will go to more comedy gigs. Related to the previous point, of course - as I said, I love comedy, and I enjoy going to see comedians perform live. In 2012, I shall make a point of making more time for this hobby.
So, there y'go! Let's hope I can stick to these, and possibly revisit the subject during the year, to see how the Resolutions are progressing.
Monday, 28 November 2011
The run-up to Christmas
The following is an extract from the English-to-Retail Cretin Dictionary:
Things which are difficult need a run-up. If you need to jump over a particularly wide gap (for whatever reason that may be!) and you're not sure you're going to make it, you take a run-up. Sportsmen need a run-up to try and maximise performance. We use a run-up to gather momentum, when we know we will really need to exert ourselves.
Christmas shouldn't be like that. We should be able to relax, at Christmas - to spend time with family and friends. It should be a time to unwind, and enjoy ourselves. We shouldn't need to take a run-up, before entering the fray, eyes wide, arms flailing, hoping only that we emerge unhurt at the other side. We should be able to enjoy all the great things about Christmas - and there are many - without letting it get on top of us.
Personally, I feel it's much easier to enjoy Christmas - Christmas as it should be - without all the retail hype. Without the run-up.
The run-up to Christmas (noun): any time after the end of the Back To School! promotion, typically mid-September.Of course, for most of the rest of us, the run-up to Christmas has a slightly more reasonable start date. Some favour the middle of November, whilst others of us try our hardest to hold out until the first week of December. But all of this just compounds the problem, as I see it; Christmas shouldn't need a run-up at all.
Things which are difficult need a run-up. If you need to jump over a particularly wide gap (for whatever reason that may be!) and you're not sure you're going to make it, you take a run-up. Sportsmen need a run-up to try and maximise performance. We use a run-up to gather momentum, when we know we will really need to exert ourselves.
Christmas shouldn't be like that. We should be able to relax, at Christmas - to spend time with family and friends. It should be a time to unwind, and enjoy ourselves. We shouldn't need to take a run-up, before entering the fray, eyes wide, arms flailing, hoping only that we emerge unhurt at the other side. We should be able to enjoy all the great things about Christmas - and there are many - without letting it get on top of us.
Personally, I feel it's much easier to enjoy Christmas - Christmas as it should be - without all the retail hype. Without the run-up.
Thursday, 6 October 2011
Heatwave decorum
So, I gather it's quite hot at the moment?
Unusually, for Britain, we are having an exceptionally warm Autumn, at the moment, with temperatures in excess of 30ยบ at the end of September, and beginning of October. Quite remarkable. But let's not lose our heads, please…
Hot weather - at any time of year - is no excuse suddenly to act or look like a slob. In the heat, people cease to care how they look, how they come across to others, what impressions they give. And they are not ashamed; they do this with brazen impunity, and with barefaced disregard for all conventions of decency.
Nobody wants to see people walking down the street in revealing clothing which manages somehow to be both shapeless and far too tight, simultaneously. Topless middle-aged men, their sweaty beer-guts gleaming in the sunlight, hair plastered to their chests with a combination of perspiration and cheap lager, waddling through town-centres in the middle of the day.
In winter, people retain some sense of style, and decorum. They wear clothes with gravitas - coats, scarves, gloves. But when the sun comes out, there is a wild notion that it has suddenly become acceptable to walk around with acres of ruddy bare flesh on show.
If the heat is making you uncomfortable - no one cares. Please dress normally, and learn to bear the discomfort, rather than subjecting everyone else to your hideous summer wardrobe.
Unusually, for Britain, we are having an exceptionally warm Autumn, at the moment, with temperatures in excess of 30ยบ at the end of September, and beginning of October. Quite remarkable. But let's not lose our heads, please…
Hot weather - at any time of year - is no excuse suddenly to act or look like a slob. In the heat, people cease to care how they look, how they come across to others, what impressions they give. And they are not ashamed; they do this with brazen impunity, and with barefaced disregard for all conventions of decency.
Nobody wants to see people walking down the street in revealing clothing which manages somehow to be both shapeless and far too tight, simultaneously. Topless middle-aged men, their sweaty beer-guts gleaming in the sunlight, hair plastered to their chests with a combination of perspiration and cheap lager, waddling through town-centres in the middle of the day.
In winter, people retain some sense of style, and decorum. They wear clothes with gravitas - coats, scarves, gloves. But when the sun comes out, there is a wild notion that it has suddenly become acceptable to walk around with acres of ruddy bare flesh on show.
If the heat is making you uncomfortable - no one cares. Please dress normally, and learn to bear the discomfort, rather than subjecting everyone else to your hideous summer wardrobe.
Saturday, 24 September 2011
Christmas Song Sweepstake
I am thinking of running a "Christmas Song Sweepstake" this year. Anyone interested in playing can contact me, and they will be randomly assigned a high street shop, and a well-known Christmas song. (I am hoping that enough people will sign up to cover all the major high street chains, and the main Christmas "favourites".)
Then, everyone who's playing has to listen out for Christmas songs when they're shopping. The first time you hear a Christmas song being played as background music in a shop, make a note of which shop you're in, and which song they were playing - then email me the details as soon as you are able.
The first instance of Christmas music being played in shops that I hear of will be posted on this Blog. There will be a prize each for the person whose shop it was and the person whose song it was.
If you're interested please get in touch, with your full name, and email address. (In an effort to prevent cheating, fraud, identity theft, and other scurrilous devilry, you will not be told which shop, or which song, you have been given.)
So... Who's in?!
Terms and conditions apply.
Then, everyone who's playing has to listen out for Christmas songs when they're shopping. The first time you hear a Christmas song being played as background music in a shop, make a note of which shop you're in, and which song they were playing - then email me the details as soon as you are able.
The first instance of Christmas music being played in shops that I hear of will be posted on this Blog. There will be a prize each for the person whose shop it was and the person whose song it was.
If you're interested please get in touch, with your full name, and email address. (In an effort to prevent cheating, fraud, identity theft, and other scurrilous devilry, you will not be told which shop, or which song, you have been given.)
So... Who's in?!
Terms and conditions apply.
Thursday, 15 September 2011
Hot drinks
I drink a lot of coffee. I may have mentioned this before. But I would never have coffee as my drink with a meal...
I've never understood how people can drink hot drinks, with savoury food. I know a lot of people do do this (particularly at breakfast - a cup of tea or coffee with a savoury breakfast) but I'm afraid I just don't get it.
Hot drinks are a sweet thing; I'm quite happy to have a coffee with biscuits, or with cake, or with a croissant. But the flavour of coffee doesn't work with, say, sausages. Or a roast dinner.
The general rule is that you should only drink a hot drink as an accompaniment to food if you could happily dip that food into said hot drink, without it creating something truly disgusting. And, I'm sorry, but if you'd be able to dip fried eggs and bacon into a cup of tea or coffee, and then eat it, there's definitely something wrong with you!
I've never understood how people can drink hot drinks, with savoury food. I know a lot of people do do this (particularly at breakfast - a cup of tea or coffee with a savoury breakfast) but I'm afraid I just don't get it.
Hot drinks are a sweet thing; I'm quite happy to have a coffee with biscuits, or with cake, or with a croissant. But the flavour of coffee doesn't work with, say, sausages. Or a roast dinner.
The general rule is that you should only drink a hot drink as an accompaniment to food if you could happily dip that food into said hot drink, without it creating something truly disgusting. And, I'm sorry, but if you'd be able to dip fried eggs and bacon into a cup of tea or coffee, and then eat it, there's definitely something wrong with you!
Monday, 15 August 2011
Breaking sandwich news
I stopped by at Waitrose today - it appears they have stopped selling the Beef & Stilton sandwich which I mentioned in my last Blog post, in comparison with a Tesco sandwich that has the same filling. Disappointing, I thought.
Also, in relation to the previous post: when I said "I would definitely eat this sandwich again", I wasn't talking about the particular sandwich I ate yesterday - that would be horrible! I meant that I would buy the product again, because I enjoyed the sandwich.
Also, in relation to the previous post: when I said "I would definitely eat this sandwich again", I wasn't talking about the particular sandwich I ate yesterday - that would be horrible! I meant that I would buy the product again, because I enjoyed the sandwich.
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