Woke Up Smiling

I'm in an incredibly good mood  today, I know I'm generally positive anyway but , today feels special. Good things seem to be happening. Last night Preston got a goalless draw with Rotheram , we never beat them but three matches in we've not been beaten. A good friend has signed the paperwork and moving to a bigger better house and last night I saw ny friend Bethany leading the North East Socialist Singers at a rally for Jeremy Corbyn , hopefully the next Labour Party Leader.

Big JC

I was there courtesy of my friend Craig who got me a ticket , and met with my other good friend Gillan who hasn't changed her hair colour since I last saw her at the Chase Park Festival , she was there with her family. I delivered Bethany's very belated birthday present via a NESS member, and it's the first time since I heard her duetting with Jon Lee on "Where The Wild Roses Grow" at The Tyneside Bar and Cafe.

Anyway , it's the first political rally I have attended , and including the people outside the Tyne Theatre there well close on two thousand there. We got lots of rousing call to to arms for Union Leaders , Council Members and Activists to universal applause. The we had Jeremy Corbyn.

What can I say , electrifyng , galvanising , an answer for every question , vey clear , and a commanding presence , no wonder the opposition are running scared. This is no career politician , this is a hard working guy , not afraid to tackle anything and also address the supposedly thorny issues of funding the NHS , helping those who cant help themselves , working for everyone's good, in politics for what he can put in , not what he can get out.

I think my Muse is with me today , and feeling incredibly inspired. I even took some video of NESS for you to enjoy singing a song from 1012 about Suffragettes according to Bethany.

Anyway time to go to work ,and have a good day, I going to have and amazing one.

Having said that the lyrics to this song are remarkably pertinent. Big JC by Steve Gibbons

Coincidentally ... Dead Fairies

Dead Fairies

Today I dropped by the excellent Glamorous Owl and among the many wondrous things there were these amazing "Dead Fairies" . The work is fabulous and I was speaking to the proprietress's husband
who was minding the shop while his wife was giving a two hour silver ring making lesson upstairs (£25 and you walk away with your own , self made silver ring).

Anyway tonight I watched the second episode of Series 3 of Ripper Street ,"The Beating of Her Wings"  , a very dark episode which had a child apparently kept in a dungeon filled with ... you guessed it ... dead fairies

Now people would say that means something , but it really is just one of those ominous coincidences., you don't often come across dead fairies , definitely not twice in a day.

And what else could I have but We're All Going To Hell by The Bastard Fairies . So we've had two lots of Dead Fairies and one lot of Bastard Fairies.

The Hanged Man Is Not Dead

I was talking with a good friend saying that I'd ordered a set of Tarot Cards , even though I really knew nothing about The Tarot. The set I'd ordered is an absolutely beautiful set called The Psychobilly Tarot . If you search google images you can see them here. My friend then told me the meaning of The Hanged Man in the Tarot which I had always assumed meant death. It doesn't , well not in the way we think of it.

Psychobilly Hanged Man

I may be displaying my total ignorance here but here's what the actual meaning of the Hanged Man is.

The Hanged Man on the World Tree

In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil – the world tree – is the home of the universe.

The Aesir Gods live in the top, with elves, humans and ice giants populating the tree as you descend, until you reach the roots where the Norns live.

The Norns are the Norse fates – three sisters who control the destiny of all the creatures in all the worlds. 

They carve runes – symbols of magic and knowledge – into the bark of Yggdrasil, so that their power is carried through all the branches, affecting all the people. 

 Now, the Aesir gods are a curious pantheon, in that they know of a prophecy that fortells their death. 

Odin, King of the Gods, traded one of his eyes to acquire the prophecy and ever since had been searching for ways for undo their doom.

From the top of the world tree, Odin looked down and saw the sisters with their runes and felt the power of the symbols.

Perhaps, here, he might find the answer that would save himself and his people.

Down Odin descended. He asked the sisters to teach him the runes, but sadly they shook their heads. The runes could not be given, but must be earned. 

A sacrifice was required. So with strong ropes and cunning knots, the Norns hung Odin from a branch of Yggdrasil, 

 Each symbol had its own power – there were runes for protection and runes to curse, runes to inspire love and runes to acquire wealth. Runes to heal, and runes to wound. 

ll these runes Odin was now the master of, and he hoped that it would be enough to arm him and his kin against Ragnarok: the end of the world. 

 So the hanged man is Odin , who made a sacrifice (his life) to earn the power of the runes. So it's not a sign of death but a sign of change.

Admitedly not my usual tyme of post but I love Norse Mythology , and thing the Psychobilly Tarot looks amazing and it's and excuse to include a Psychobilly track. Now what should we have...

Loving Life with a Glamorous Owl and Medusa

While it's nothing earth shattering there were a lot of nice things going on today. This follows on from yesterday where I heard a friend had an offer on a house accepted , and was so pleased for them, and they were happy. And yesterday was extremely good.

And then today I had tasked myself with getting some new jackets , and after trailing through shops found a pair of linen ones in John Lewis and when I got to pay found they were half price , so it was effectively 2 for 1.

Glamorous Owl Candle

I wandered through the Grainger Market stopping off in Reflex and a chat with my mate Phil who works in there, then down through the Bigg Market towards RPM and noticed a shop that had replaced the beloved Attica , The Glamorous Owl and it is a wonderful and joyous place full of locally produced things  and the people are wonderfully welcoming. You have to visit this place it really is a jewel.




Then on to RPM where Marek told he had something coming in , a collection of local 60s / 70s vinyl coming in , which should be very interesting.

Medusa on a Man

Then in Fitzgeralds was served my a waitress who had the most amazingly stunning Medusa Tattoo , a true work of art , but I was too much of a gentleman to ask her for a photograph of it , but it was very impressive.

Anyway , the Joe Walsh song should suffice for the soundtrack to this post because the title sums up my feelings today even though I am very tired,

Oh and Preston won today which is always puts a smile on my face.

So enjoy the rest of the weekend. I know things are going to get much, much better

Great Expectations

Don't know what brought this into my mind , but as you know my mind does veer off in weird direction , with or without and inspirational muse to direct me. I usually post because someone or something or some event has inspired me.

Anyway was just thinking of a time recently where I was watching a particular exciting TV program that was coming to a climactic scene and ....... there's a loud banging on the door , completely dissipating the moment. It was my new window cleaner (not had one for a while) who has the loudest knock you could think of.

Top Hat

Now if I hadn't got a new window cleaner , the TV progam would have had it's desired effect , but
because I put in motion the new window cleaner thing , that happened , and is likely to happen again as you need to be in for him to catch you.

Sometimes things you do can have completely unexpected but still valid results.

Anyway it's been a brilliant end to an amazing week , and now it's time for the weekend to kick in . Have a wonderful one my fantastic friends.

Good Things From The Fridge

It's summer , it's hot and often you don't feel like eating a great deal, but it is nice to have something that's both cool and good for you. While I love apples and grapefruit that have been in the fridge at least a day, sometime grapefruit can get a little messy with juice going everywhere as you cut into it, but the taste as the pulp hits your tongue is tart and amazing.

Fruit Is Cool Inside You

But also grapes , strawberries and baby plum tomatoes are an absolute treat for the tastebuds slipping down a treat and you just find it difficult to stop. Just one more, just one more and then you stop. And it's amazing that there are readily available everywhere, so it's not as though they are exotic.

Raspberries are another and even bananas , which are also full of goodness and are very pleasant decorated with cream and ice-cream.

So I hope my culinary escapade has kept you amused and given you ideas to try.

It's time for bed now , early start tomorrow

And it's an excise include Prince's Cream as the decoration although I could have had Peach!

Just Three Words

I saw a post on Facebook asking people to describe their day in three words. What shocked me was the amount of negative sets of words . While there is a lot of negativity happens , it's just something to deal with like missing a bus ,  losing your wallet , and there are really big bad things , but when it gets that bad you call on your friends for support , because that's what they are for.

So an example of a couple of things yesterday is someone asked me how things were going , as usual , I said "Absolutely brilliant" , and they said it was such a refreshing change for someone not to be moaning about something , which actually made me feel even better.

A colleague asked for a favour , she was feeling under pressure, as things had conspired to corner her,  and she needed to get some information for a deadline . We sat and worked through and very quickly got what she wanted. I told her to set up a short "informal" training session for next week for her team. That was great and she did her presentation and apparently some senior people were so impressed that they will be joining next week. I just emphasized it would till be informal but we all felt very very good.

Enjoy

Then I checked an email and saw I had missed a mail from my  friends at Geek Talent. A quick change of plan meant I had tea with them at Za Za Bazaar in the Gate and met lots of new people and many old friends had an absolutely wonderful day.

The song I've chosen is just so uplifting , and had to put it in because the way I'm feeling even though I used it in a post about Peru recently, Big Day by Phil Manzanera featuring Brian Eno.




Oh yeah my three words "Loving Every Second"