Time Split

My mind is all over the place at times and I am very good at lateral thinking, or as most people see it, going off on a tangent. This morning my alarm went off just after 5:30 although I really wanted it to go off at 5:45 but I had set the time fifteen minutes too fast, so I switched the alarm off, then made the effort to set the time so it was just five minutes fast, which meant that I had another ten minutes before the alarm went off.

That meant I had sort of split time getting two lie ins for the proce of one, also meaning that in future I will be actually hearing the alarm at roughly the time it should do. I almost feel like Doctor Who.

It is Monday and the beginning of the final week before Christmas, I've managed to catch up on all my TV, and also added the "Riverworld" books by Philip Jose Farmer to my to reread list. It is an excellent concept but the only downside is that it stops me, or puts off reading new books, and I have a lot of those to get through.

My walking in December has been attrocious, but over the weekend I have got ahead of my required target, so I do stand a chance of actually stay on track. I have done this for nineteen months running now so I want to keep that up. The big wall is the fact that it is dark and cold in a morning so it's not that inviting to walk to work.

The winter solstice is coming up so after that day, 23rd December I think, the days will start getting longer.

So what song should I drag in today. Following "Riverworld" I'll go for Billy Joel's "River of Dreams".

Have a great day everyone.

Tired but Positive

This weekend I have been tired, lethargic and apathetic. This post will be short because even writing this is a pain. It's strange in this mood everything that fails becomes a major failure.

One example is the Moonpig small card option not working like it has for previous years and that means I'll probably have to hand write Christmas cards. While that in itself is not a major problem, suddenly you have to look up everyone's address, and that becomes a tiresome task.

I've been feeling tired and headachey, also I am re reading "The Swords of Corum" by Michael Moorcock and there is a particularly traumatic event which I knew was coming but didn't want to read, but it is extremely necessary to the plot and now I have got past that. So maybe in some small way that has affected me.

On a more positive note my friend Ellen Mellor has published a new book "Ghostkin", and the Amazon reviews are excellent, follow the link below to find out more, and then you can buy it. I haven't got it yet but I'm a slow reader but will get round to it., then there are a few more on the list to be read.

I know tomorrow I will feel better (I hope), and I will despatch my Christmas cards. I must be feeling a little more positive as I've actually managed to write this, although I will be in bed as soon as I publish this.

So what music should I share with you, I'm going to go with "Veteran of The Psychic Wars" by Blue Oyster Cult which was co written with Moorcock because that about sums up my current state of being.

Sleep well, it's Monday tomorrow.

Bright Light

I was out tonight and someone had a very bright LED security light above their front door. It's amazing how quickly ubiquitous LED's have become especially at Christmas. I do have two at the rear of my house and they're solar powered so don't have any wiring and are excellent if you have to nip out in the dark but sometimes a bit annoying when the wind gets up.

My whole house is LED lit and it saves a hell of a lot of money. Basically incandescent lights are heaters that give off light, although some LED's now are incredibly bright while not consuming that much power. We have one at the front door that's on permanently and you can touch it with your hand and just feel the cold glass of the bulb.

Again when I was out the streets are brightly lit with Christmas decorative light, you don't need street lights to light your way.  Some are lovely and some are tacky but all drive the darkness away.

I'm sharing a live take on one of my favourite Kraftwerk songs "Neon Lights" which sort of encapsulates the feeling although we have LED rather than neon.

It's Friday night so enjoy your weekend, the penultimate one before Christmas.

Lazy December

I've not done many posts this month and will probably not do many more. It might be because it's dark and cold, and I know at some point I've got to go out to work. For some reason I don't want to walk so this may be the first month that I don't hit my 340K target, although we are barely half way through the month.

Last night I wanted to go and see Bessie and The Zinc Buckets at Trillians, but wimped out because I was tired, and it was dark and cold and thought I'd probably end up catching a cold, and this morning I actually have one.

THe thing is concentrating on the negatives just drags you down further and I just found that Penetration are playing the Black Bull on the 23rd (Christmas Eve Eve) so that is something to look forward to and enjoy, and I will definitely get myself out for that,

Last night I stayed in the warm and listened to Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick" and watch "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back" with Tom Cruise which seems to be a perfect Liam Neeson vehicle.

And that reminds me of the amazing intro toe "Fargo" in Series two featuring Tull's "Locomotive Breath" , very dark, but wonderfully staged.

Enjoy your Thursday.

Back

Looking outside the cars are frozen up. I don't have a car, so I don't go through the harassment of scraping the ice off the windscreen in a morning, but it does make it cold going for the bus or walking in. This is where my full ear Emopeak headphones come into their own, as well as providing great sound, they keep your ears warm.

Christmas decorations are up and I do have one or two presents to sort out, but Amazon Wish lists are a great convenience.

Last few days I've not really felt like writing anything although I did want to write something to mark the Buzzcocks' Pete Shelley's passing and finally did that last night here.

This morning 6Music reminded me of the excellent "Thank God It's Not Christmas" from "Kimono My House" by Sparks so I'll share that with you before I trip off to work.

Settle For This

This is my 300th post this year but it is really just going to be a list of reasons why I like Settle. I have been once before maybe fifteen years back, so maybe my priorities have changed and maybe Settle has changed. Like Totnes it has no chains, no Greggs, no Fatface, no McDonald's, no Starbucks.

It has a Barclays and HSBC and Skipton Building Society so you can get money. There are also cash points at the Co Op garage and Booths Supermarket.

It has loads of coffee shops and cafes and three excellent pubs, The Royal Oak, The Golden Lion and The Talbot Arms.

It's in the middle of the Leeds to Carlisle railway line and Skipton is quite close by rail, also there's a regular bus between Skipton and Lancaster that runs through Settle.

The people are all really friendly and talk with you.

Mike Harding lives here and he talks with everybody.

There's great countryside views from Castlebergh Crag and along the River Ribble.

I have still not visited all the places in Settle and next time I come I may not use a car, just come by train, it's that easy.

So what piece of music should I share with you today, given that the only musical connection I've mentioned is Mike Harding., though I prefer his long poems like "Napoleon's Retreat From Wigan" and the like, but he does have an extensive catalogue.

But I'd missed the Victoria Hall where they show films and concerts and next week The Albion Christmas Band are playing next Friday but I won't be here, but I will share their take on "Sans Day Carol" with you.

Settle, Skipton, Sound Bar and Russia

I have to say Settle is a lovely place to say, although not a place to drive round. The people are friendly and everything is in walking distance. On Monday I met up with a hero of mine Mike Harding in The Golden Lion although missed him in The Royal Oak the same night, and absolutely lovely, funny and great man.

The cottage we're in is at the bottom of Castlebergh Crag and I went up there Monday afternoon and took this video. There's a few photographs and my fear of heights was tested. The Crag is used for rock climbing but that's not anything I will try out of choice.

Russia?

Incidentally the blog has had over a thousand hits from Russia for some reason, I don't see my posts as particularly Russo-centric, but I'm not complaining to much.

Yesterday I took a trip to Skipton to revisit The Huntress of Skipton Castle woods and see what the town had to offer as I'd only been briefly once before.

The train journey was incredibly cheap, half what The Trainline tried to charge me, which would have been cheap anyway.

My big discovery of the day was The Skipton Sound Bar and vinyl and music shop and bar and there's a short video I took here. The people are really friendly and I picked up a newspaper copy of "Thick as a Brick" by Jethro Tull, a Kool and the Gang 12"single and a Best of Duke Ellington 45rpm single. I'd recommend the place to anyone.

It is worth visiting for their posters and photographs, but they are very welcoming and were really helpful when I couldn't open my bottle of prosecco.

I also had coffee and cake at The Kibble Bakery a dog cafe which was again most excellent and much preferable to the adjacent Cafe Nero.


So I'll leave you with the lead track from the Best of Duke Ellington single which is actually rather good.