Friday 31 May 2019

To Buy or Not To Buy


... that is the question, I was thinking about getting a Google Pixel 3A and then I thought "What will it give me that I don't already have?". The onboard memory is double that of my Pixel , but that is really a minor thing. It may have better battery life, a faster processor and better cameras, but the reality is that it will not tangibly improve my life. I still miss the Samsung Note Stylus, but I am not paying a grand to be able to use a dedicated stylus every now and then.

Whether it's age or just being sensible I think for the foreseeable future I will just keep my current phone on my SIM Only plan.

It's like the roll out of 5G, seriously what do I need that for. I can see it's uses in a large scale or industrial environment, but for personal users the benefits, again, don't really affect you or me.

I've just finished Stephen Fry's "Mythos" and absolutely loved it and am following that up with Neil Gaiman's "Norse Mythology" which I am sure I will enjoy , being a fan of almost all mythologies, and I got into them at School not through Stan Lee's comics (that is not a dig at Stan Lee, just me showing my age).

The blog is set to hit 200K page views tonight, which is an unexpected surprise due to Feedburner helping me to hit 20K views this month. I really didn't see that one coming. Also I was only intending to do about 15 posts this month to hit 2K posts since the blog started, but I have manged to post 32 times this month.

A Sudden Surge on Seven Days In
Given that the post numbers are now corresponding with the years of our current timestream, I thought for the next ninety posts I could use a piece of music from the corresponding year. This is post 1932 so we'll go with the Cole Porter song "Night and Day" from "The Gay Divorcee" performed by Fred Astaire. I bet you weren't expection that. Although the first time I heard this song it was John Peel playing Tuxedomoon's take on it.


Thursday 30 May 2019

Focus On The Good


Working from home yesterday which meant I could listen to whatever music I wanted , although I did end up listening to 6Music for much of the afternoon. The issue with the Garden Waste payment was dealt with when I phoned Newcastle Council to tell them their site was down. They came back with the evergreen excuse "Oh You Know, Computers". I didn't bother pointing out that that you shouldn't make something public when it doesn't actually work, I then paid over the phone and that did work (hopefully).

Focus On The Good
Anyway I saw a post from my Facebook friend Raul Kohli (The Newcastle Brown Male, brilliant comedian) which was a short piece by Scroobius Pip eulogising appreciating the good  rather than going on about the bad. Too many times people just whine and moan about things, but while you have to deal with the bad, it should not become the main point of your life, although I see lots of people who are not happy unless they are miserable ad have something to complain about. I suppose the phrase "A Pessimist is Never Disappointed" does hold true.

This means I finally worked out a title for this post, and it's really to give priority to the good things in like like friends and family, socialising , music, theatre, film and good tv, and good food.




If you do focus on the good things in life it makes it easier to deal with the less savoury aspects of it. I've said it before that I always look for positives in disappointing situations. You miss your bus, it means you can walk to the next stop and get a little fitter. Though I know people who then say "What if it's raining?" or "What if it means you'll miss your train?" , to the first I would say stay under the bus shelter or run to a bus shelter, to the second I would say you should have caught an earlier bus.

You can always find fault with any situation, look to find the positives of you situation and build on them. I've included  "A Letter From God To Man" by Scroobius Pip which gives a little food for thought.

Stay Happy.

Wednesday 29 May 2019

Thwarted


I'm giving the Laptop update attempt a rest, the guy is comping to fix the roof link later and the weather is good. I also decided to pay for the Garden Waste Collection for this year found the site and it told me to follow a new link if I was renewing. The new site is a beta site that doesn't work, so I thought I'd try the normal way. It told be I can't because I have paid before (last year).

It does amaze me the sheer volume of online idiocy who's normal excuse is YOU (the customer) must be doing something wrong. I don't know if  I've just become immune to it or what , but I just feel it's another example of the idiocy and buffoonery profligate in our world today. This is the page and the new link is at the bottom, but it resides here. It may work when you try this or they may change it on the live page to a live address.

I also woke up very early and couldn't get back to sleep and now feel tired, but I am showered and dressed and ready to get off to work, so no real option to go back to sleep, also I have a piece of work to do using my three screens at work before I work from home this afternoon.

So really what better song to share than "Gardening At Night" by REM, which I first heard when I bought the album "Epobymous",  who I've never featured in a post before which surprises me, Enjoy your day.

Tuesday 28 May 2019

A Laptop Stole My Week


I am still trying to update the laptop to Windows 10. This is basically because the software I want to run on it won't run on Windows 8. It seems that every time I get past one brick wall there is another one waiting.

Added to that the leak in the roof is still there, I tried getting into the rook but my biggest ladder is not long enough so, I've ordered a longer ladder although hopefully the roofer will turn up and sort it out this afternoon.

The skies are very grey and it is frustrating not being able to get into the roofspace , but the new ladder should help with that. Water is very insidious, yes we need it to drink and clean but it can find it's way through the most unexpected paths.

The laptop had some software updates which I applied and apparently there are 619 issues for it to fix, if I pay £27 for software to do him. I feel this is, to say the least, underhand Toshiba.

So I am still in this limbo , though I am sure I will I will eventually get my way with it. As I say if Cars and Washing Machines were like computers no one would drive or wash anything. I don't know where the "Limbo" thought came from but it gives me a chance to share "Sitting In Limbo" by Jimmy Cliff.

Monday 27 May 2019

A Laptop Stole My Day


I bought my dad a laptop for his 80th birthday. He virtually never used it, so I bought him a tablet and he gave me the laptop back. He likes the tablet, it's easy to use though he's still getting to grips with the concept of wifi, but he likes using ing to watch youtube videos and research things via Google. So far so good.

I was going to sell the laptop but the battery was dead, which means I can't really sell it. A new battery will cost £20 - £40 and I could maybe get £50-£60 for the laptop. Then I thought I only use laptops plugged in , so I could make use of it, then I thought get my guitar interface and keyboard and this could be the studio. It's a 64 bit operating system, and was thinking it looked slightly strange. Ut was because it's Windows 8.1 . So I thought simple, just upgrade the Windows 10 then it's the same as my desktop and other laptop. No problem.

That was about twelve hours ago and I am still trying to upgrade to Windows 10 and it keeps getting into a loop searching for updates. There is nothing worse than something looping when you cannot break the loop. This is similar to the incident in March with an unexpectedly lengthy update that I documented here.

I am still attempting to do this upgrade, and each try takes a long time. I have nearly written a few songs while this has been going on, but as the laptop is going to be my recorder they have flown off into the ether. I was playing along with songs on the radio including "Isis" by Bob Dylan, then sat and played the guitar solo from Thin Lizzy's "Emerald" and still I came nowhere near having a recorder.

So we have just passed midnight and slipped into the Bank Holiday Monday and the upgrade is going along with no sense of urgency whatsoever and I am hoping for success but feel that I will hit another brick wall. It is now of the "Checking For Updates" sequence and this is where it keeps failing although I have taken precautions to try and circumvent this situation. Things should just work. I always say that if Washing Machines and Cookers were like computers we would never cook or wash anything.

And it looks like it has stuck once more.

So what do I leave you with, well Thin Lizzy's "Emerald", the penultimate song from the album "Jailbreak", is one of their finest moments so we will go with that.



Saturday 25 May 2019

Still The Same and Ghostbusters is Great


I wasn't going to write a post today, intended to give it a rest as I am absolutely shattered, and want to go to bed, but also want to be sure that I will go to sleep. This afternoon I finished watching series two of "Black Books" which is consistently anarchically funny and tonight watched the reboot of "Ghostbusters". I was surprised and the remarkably low score it gets on IMDB but that is the power of white men scared of women with the ability to cast a digital vote. I mean women can't do what men can do can they? The answer is a resounding YES THEY CAN. There is no place for misogyny full stop.

I suppose the complaints about the final series of Game of Thrones is similar but is probably more triggered by the fact that Game of Thrones has now ended, so pedants can pick over plot holes rather than enjoying the amount of brilliant moments throughout the final series. You had two amazing battles , with buildups and then the fallout from those battle, and an anything but expected ending. At least it didn't go on for an hour like "The Return of the King".

The original "Ghostbusters"  is great , the reboot is brilliant and funny and I love it. The complainants are the same numpties , gammons and male "supremacists" who went mad over Jodie Whittaker becoming Doctor Who. We would probably get a similar reaction for a non white Doctor Who , but let's face it, Whoopi Goldberg and Samuel L. Jackson would be fine to fill those boots. Anyway, I'll say it again, "Ghostbusters" is great.

This post was just to note that I am still getting  over 1.2K hits per day, and there are still five recent posts in my top ten all time posts. The only problem sort of being is that posts over the last month are still getting hits, the last one that is not get hits is the one about the Facebook Ban here.

So because I have always loved the theme to the original "Ghostbusters" I will go with that, because the Ray Parker Jnr song is still cool and fun.

Friday 24 May 2019

I Played A DVD


I am definitely becoming lazier and lazier. Also while I have a large CD and digital music collection, there are big chunks of it I have never heard and probably never will. It's similar with DVD. This week I have actually taken the DVD from it's place on the shelf, switched on the DVD player and switched the channel on the TV and actually watched  the films. The two I watched were "The Golden Compass" which was excellent but has been on the shelf unplayed for ten years, and "Fight Club" (adapted from Chuck Palahniuk's novel) which has been there for even longer. Both these films are excellent, and I should have watched them years ago, but apathy and laziness has meant that despite knowing how good these are ("The Golden Compass" was the film of the first book in Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series which is coming on TV from HBO and BBC).

I don't know if this is just a digital malaise, because my vinyl collection is always played when I purchase anything and I often share things on my Instagram Channel , but when you buy digitally it is so easy to put it on one side for later, and after a week or so it's forgotten about. If anthing gets put in a box or a drawer then thats usually it. I still listen to music digitally from my network and on my phone, but still eschew streaming services such as Spotify or Amazon as to use them without wifi means that your data gets consumed fairly quickly, so I load albums from my network to my Google Pixel which I may upgrade to a Pixel 3A in the future.

So one of the good things of being in the digital world is that I can share suitable music with you as I post entries on this blog, but I do think digital storage has turned us into magpies , buying things that we don't actually use or properlay appreciate. With that I will share "Digital" buy Joy Division with you with an excellent video taken from the equally excellent film "Control".

Thursday 23 May 2019

Snackwallahlicious


Over a month ago I wanted something quick for lunch and decided to go for a KFC because it's quick and cheap, then I remembered that there was an Indian Streetfood place in The Grainger Market that I had seen flyers for and walked past and thought I would maybe give it a try.

My first meal was a Mixed Platter  which I can't really describe but for three pounds it was full of textures and flavours that were a definite reason to go back, and it was extremely good value for money.

The following time I tried their daily curry whicgh for four pounds gives you a nutitious and tasty dish of rice , dahl , curry and roti. The food is also vegan which is another plus, although I am not vegan myself.

My problem, or rather not a problem but since that date this has been my lunch three days a wek. I look at other options and think maybe I will spread my custome around but there are these points that always come up when I am looking for something to eat.

  • It's quick
  • There is a great choice
  • It changes on a daily basis
  • It's great value for money
  • It's good for you
  • It's vegan
  • The people are really helpful and friendly
  • They pay their staff a decent wage
  • Everything they use is recyclable so very environmentally friendly
  • It tastes great

And that is why Snack Wallah is getting so much of my cuntom. I do go to other places but this ticks so many boxes it is ridiculous.  If you visit the link you can see the gorgeousfood they serve on a daily basis.

You can also eat your food there or take away. I am a great fan of not eating at work so that is another plus for me.

It is situated in the Grainger Market so it's in the centre of Newcastle and very easily accessible.

I don't think this will be my last post about them and there are a lot of posts on my Instagram feed such as today's meal here.

I may be there tomorrow as well but maybe I will resist, but probably not.

Also I tried to think of a relevant song and settled o the really not very relevant "Hungry Like The Wolf" by Duran Duran.

Lost In France


French Favourite
As I have mentioned Feedburner has been a huge boost to th esite visits. As far as I can gather it is a result of me sharing my posts via Twitter. I am no expert or avid follower of Social Media but that it my current view on the situation.

Another thing that I have noticed is that of my top ten all time posts on this blog, five now come from this month , or since I started sharing on Twitter.  So sharing on Twitter, which I don't really use that much, is beneficial to audience reach. And I only started doing this because Google ditched Google+ !

One of the real oddities is a huge number of visitors from France. Now I am not French , I don't post in French or feature much French related stuff aparat maybe bands like one of my favourites Gong,  or the darker Magma (who have some great logo / images) and are with listening to if you can take their relentless sound.


As I have said I do not know if this is just a blip , a short spike, or permanent, though obviously I am hoping it is permanent and I am happy to keep sharing on Twitter if this is the result.


I am currntly enjoying the lovely weather as we head towards the Bank Holiday Weekend and think I will share with you Gong's "I Never Glid Before" the finale from "Angel's Egg" the middle of the "Rafio Gnome Invisible" trilogy , one of my favourite ever riffs despite it being quite complex while retaining an excellent self depracating playfulness. Gong are extremely accomplished musicians with a wonderful way out sense of humour.

Wednesday 22 May 2019

Expectations


Last month I expected to get 30-50 hits per day on the blog with maybe 20-30 for each post. At the end of April Feedburner seems to have somehow picked up the blog and now I am expecting more that a thousand hits a day. That's a twenty to thirty fold increase but I am now expecting that. I personally have done nothing knowingly to casue this, and I don't know if it's a temporary or a permanent thing , so I am just appreciating the attention while I am getting it.

I had never heard of Feedburner and in theory if I start getting too many hits I may have to look at self hosting rather than using the blogger.com platform (which I believe is part of the Google Empire.

Recent post visits are in the multi hundreds so hopefully one of them will depose the "Buying Lion Pooh At Dobbies" post from 2009 which has been at the top of  my posts for years although in reality the top one is "Devon - Record Shop Heaven" from 2010 which is far more relevant to my main blogging areas.

So what should I share with you today. Given we're talking about numbers, maybe I should share my most visited Youtube slideshow which features Christopher Lee's take on the Paul Anka song "My Way" probably more familiarly heard by Frank Sinatra and Sid Viocious.


Tuesday 21 May 2019

Forget It ... Lets Burn Kings Landing


Tonight I have watched a lot of TV but then thought it's time for bed, then suddenly remembered I had a delivery from Tesco as they were offering 25% off wine and it meant I could order sparkling water as well, so it means I won't have to cart it back from a local supermarket in my rucksack. That isn't really a problem and it does stop you buying to much , a maximum of four bottles instead of the fifty that came tonight.

It seems that Feedburner is keeping up the hits on the blog, at the moment 1,200 so far today, when I was lucky to get maybe 1,500 a month. I'm not complaining about it, maybe someone might leave a comment if these aren't actual robots.

Lot's of people have been complaining about the end of "Game of Thrones" but I thought it was fine, if a little rushed and now we have "Lord of The Rings" and "His Dark Materials" to look forward to.

It is stunning the amount of television that we have at our disposal, and these days we don't even have to record it it to watch when we want as we can stream it. I actually watched a DVD of "The Golden Compass" tonight and very good it was. Lee Scoresby was inspired by William Scoresby who's house I pass every time I stay in Whitby.

Someone soundtracked the burning of Kings Landing with Metallica's "For Whom The Bell Tolls" but it is rather pedestrian metal and didn't do it for me, I was sure I could find a better soundtrack. I didn't have to do anything, someone had shoehorned "Hells Bells" by Ac/DC onto it and that's what I will leave you with, best seen on a big screen and turned up load.


Monday 20 May 2019

Feedburner and Interrupted Dreams


It looks like the huge increase in visits is due to being picked up by something called Feedburner which is some kind to data feed. I'm not sure if this is permanent, although I wont complain if it is. I'm not sure if this is as a result of me sharing the blog posts on Twitter or including a link with my most visited Youtube slideshow. , 26K views and featuring Christopher Lee, so it could have been any one of those. Twitter has resulted in a few retweets and also I tried MeWe after Google dropped their social sharing although I do not think that has resulted in any visits. I use it to post on then stipe the post to post in Twitter on my phone.

This morning I woke at 5:30 and thought I had quarter of an hour to enjoy, but fell back into an unspecified dream and the was rudely awoken by the alarm going off seemingly about thirty seconds later. That's is the problem with falling asleep when you are about to get up. It always amazes me that often at night sleep refuses to come, but when you have to get up, especially for work, sleep is so, so welcoming.

I'm over halfway through Stephen Fry's "Mythos" and thoroughly enjoying it and am now thinking about which book will come next.

So what should I share with you tonight, Huw Stephens featured Caught By The River and from that Jeff Barrett's Labe's first single release was "Under Dubwood" by The Dubwood Allstars featuring the tones of Richard Burton and the music of King Tubby (think it was used for Ali Baba by John Holt)

Sunday 19 May 2019

Apathy In The Uk


Apathy From The Uk
This is nothing major. Although I am English and live in the UK, I would expect my UK visits to be top 3 normally but they are not.

UK Visits are less than half the USA and Germany and only 20% of the French visits. As I have said before the Unknown region has me flummoxed, maybe some rogue robots.

I'm not complaining, this is just an observation, and lets face it the uSA is far more populous than the UK though I don't think France is (though it is much bigger. Germany is slightly bigger (though that may be completely wrong as I am too lazy to check it out at this moment, but I am glad for the visits)

The recent visit explosion (for me) has boosted the site income from about 10p per week to £10 per week which is a significant increase which I wasn't expecting.

The blog is not about making money but acting as a diary and sharing interesting stuff with people.

I wasn't intending to do this post until tonight, and the title came to me and I thought I'll make a start on it. Although it's about people visiting this blog the title could also apply to political engagement and taking an interest in things that actually affect your life, but most people would rather watch a soap and make a cup of tea.

So maybe I should take the song that I stole the title from and Share a little Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias (a typical Manchester name) with you. I bet you thought I would go with The Sex Pistols didn't you?

FactoryZoo


Just shoved together two of my most liked record labels Factory from Manchester and Zoo from Liverpool because I do  have a book called "Factory".

Factory was the imprint of Tony / Anthony Wilson and brought us among others Joy Division , Happy Mondays , New Order and lots more as well as lots of iconic design ideas. The Hacienda Club used the black and yellow warning stripes , now every time I see it I don't think WARNING I thing HACIENDA or FACTORY . A brilliant idea. The film "24 Hour Party People" is about Tony Wilson and the lasting enigma of Factory Records. It was also responsible for releasing "Reach For Love" by Marcel King, one of my favourite records ever. It's also Shaun Ryder's favourite Factory single.

Everything on Factory had a catalogue number (The Hacienda was FAC51)

Zoo Records from Liverpool was nowhere near as influential as Factory but I remember getting a compilation (Street To Street: A Liverpool Album - 1978) and loving "Match of The Day" by Big In Japan, who featured Holly Johnson, Ian Broudie , Bill Drummond and Budgie. The label also featured Echo and The Bunnymen , Teardrop Explodes and lots more so still very important.

It is quite surprising that Zoo Records are almost impossible to track down these days and a lot of the Factory compilations are similar. Discogs seems to be the best way of sourcing them.

So it's Sunday , the weather is gorgeous , so I may relax and enjoy it or possibly nip out for a walk, but either way I am going to have a relaxing day. Hope you do too.


Saturday 18 May 2019

A Strange Thing


A strange thing happened on the blog today . Normally I'll get 100 hits if I post and 20-30 if I don't.. I did post today but I have had nearly a thousand hits today from the mysterious "Unknown Region". This is probably just some mad robot but will it is nice to have your hits increase, it only matters when it is like that on a daily basis. It would be nice to think these are reading visitors, but I would only know that it was if people were to leave comments or communicate with me about it.

The numbers are below:


As yet there is nothing, which does imply robots.

So I will see if this continues into tomorrow, and if it does , or I start  to get communications , I won't be sure why, as I haven't done anything differently to what I have been doing over the last ten years.

This post number 1918 so the post numbers are like the years from the last century, 1918 being the year World War 1 ended, so maybe if the year / number is significant I will mention something about the significance.

Maybe I could even choose music related to the year 1918, and in looking I found a metal band called Sabaton who have produced a concept album about the Great War. It is almost amusing how noticing one thing (the post number was the year that WW1 ended) which resulted in me finding even more music that I have never heard before.

A short post with a new band for you to check out, Sabaton with  a Great War concept album.

Rolling Fultium


I though I would try Speechnotes again on a shorter passage, and thought I would make a note about how my blue Fultium tablets almost always roll off te desk when I put them out to take. Speechnotes heard Fultium as 14 as well as other errors but probably gets about 90% of it right. Fultium is supposed augment my Vitamin D and keep my bones in good shape (I think). This is what Speechnotes heard.

"Ok right and try this again and this will be a bit shorter it's just about the 14 blue 14 tablet that you take and every time I put my tablets out there's about 20 tablets XL always manages to find a way to roll off the table and hit the floor I haven't a clue why not the only round one"

How Fultium Rolls


Make what you will of that. The thing is , the more you say the more you have to correct, but that is probably true of normal writing. I suppose this could als be a coach for public speaking, as it pays to get what you say write, although you do have the option of correcting it later.

Speechnote also doesn't seem to punctuate and you need punctuation to actually make things reasonably readable.



Thursday 16 May 2019

Come On


This is just a shortish post about an app called "Speechnotes" that I put on my phone (a Google Pixel though I expect to upgrade to a Pixel 3A in the next few months) just to see if it could actually take what I was saying and put it into readable format. This is a first try so it didn't do paragraphs (I don't think) but generally the translation was OK, what I was saying maybe wasn't that good:


This is just a check to see if there's some software actually works could I have suddenly my words write them down and then before me wondering about it for writing my blog and things like that to be actually working in the actually putting most of the word rightly in this in this sir wondering alright basically it's gonna get a slightly funny but it's trying to trying to understand what I actually say which a lot of people can't actually do but that's just the nature of this sort of thing but I'm just wondering whether I can do this instead of typing.
It's it's so far there's a bit of repetition and things like that and obviously I keep saying on and things like that the breaks up my speech sudden it's one of their one of those things you know no I mean one of the things today that came about her I was going to write about something then I forgot about it and this will enable me to capture it assuming that I can talk and people don't think I'm some kind of nutter who just starts talking in the street like you do sudden see so many people having loud conversations on the phone in public and you think who does he think he is you know so that I know everything about what he's actually saying and ways that should be they should make an attempt to privacy but often there for two important to deal with that the obviously.
If you're listening to what they're saying then you're intruding on their privacy which is just get outside just weird anyway I'm just wonder capture this my blog and then see what actually happens paragraph.
Alright I was hoping that it would actually but it's put the word paragraph in just one of those things and today I was in somewhere having something to eat and they played the very first song that I think I played in public where I sang and played guitar on which was the Rolling Stones what's the cover of a Chuck Berry song (Come On) it's got a mouth organ harmonica solo in it and that bit I played on the guitar but that was as a teenager a long long time ago but basically it's a three chord. Chuck Berry song one of my favorites and I will possibly included with this now and we shall see cut this and send it somewhere.

So that is what it did , a lot of mistakes but there is some sense in it, and that's about 400 words or so. I'm just wondering if it gets better the more you use it so I may try this again and see what comes out and also actually make some corrections. On the one hand it may create more work, but it will mean just actually editing so it's probably going to make me a little more involved in what I am writing.

So I will obviously include The Rolling Stones take on Chuck Berry's "Come On" for you.

Wednesday 15 May 2019

Too Lazy To Learn



I think we are all guilty of this to varying degrees. Often it's because the learning process is time consuming , expensive and even difficult. Sometimes it's because it's time consuming. While I can doodle about on most musical instruments I can't actually play apart from basic rhythm accompaniments and maybe the odd simple solo. However something like Trace Bundy's take on Pachelbel's "Canon" just leaves me awestruck. Learning takes practice, time and dedication.

There are other instances where people cannot master computer basics, yet can drive a car. I point out that , generally , learning to drive a car is a lot more complex, difficult and dangerous than using a computer, but lots of drivers eschew computers as the black arts.

Sometimes it's the fact that people refuse to use short cuts and simple methods because the have used a particulal method of doing things and would rather take fifteen minutes doing it their tried and trused way rather than the two minute simple method that has exactly the same  result. It's like they would rather gather woould and make a torch that they burn to provide illumination but you would rather switch on the electric light.

The same could be said of cooking, although millions watch cooking programs for many of those cookery consists of sticking a ready meal in a microwave or ordering a takeaway. I sometimes have a mental battle over this, I can cook an Aloo Chole in about two hours and it costs me about a pound plus heating (it does for two servings)  or I can can order a portion from Rajnagar (my local Indian Restaurant) for six pounds. I value my time at a lot more than six pounds an hour so I ofetn go for the takeaway option , although that is a decision arrived at by weighing up all th eoptions and making the best decision rather than laziness.

One of things I have noticed is that cooking vegan / vegetarian is usually much simpler than cooking with meat or fish, so my next experiment is a chickpea and apricot curry. I think that should be quite good.

Jamie Oliver has a book called "Just Five Ingredients" so that gives people an option to get into cooking for theselves very easily, but again, for some people reading is too much of a chore,

There are probably a million other examples but I thingk that's enough to be going on with and I will leave you with Trace Bundy's TED Talk showing what you can achieve with practice.