More Blue Skies

It's the start of the week and there are clear blue skies and frost on the cars and rooves or is it roofs? Grammar is such a weird thing , especially English which is probably the most complex idiosyncratic language in the world. How do you pronounce the word "wind" . You need to see or hear it in context.

I was just on Amazon's Kindle store and noticed that Ebooks are subject to VAT. I'm not sure if paper books are, but I assume not if Ebooks carry that notice.

Still that's a minor thing , so I'll include The Strypes Taxman as a video (check out the drummer he looks about 8 in this clip.

Have a great day, it looks lovely out.

So Glad and English As Tuppence

That people are enjoying my blue sky pictures, it's always nice when you do things that people like. Today we've had more gorgeous blue skies. I've been out for a couple of walks and yesterday mowed the lawn for the first time this yeatr and the garden is looking fine after the winter.

I'd ordered some Aftercut from Amazon and Yodel delivered in a huge box on Saturday, so we shall see how that performs. I need to change the bird feeders as the plastic perspex ones don't seem to do for the birds here, so I'm going to pick up a couple of wire ones and hopefully the birds will enjoy that.

The Local Church

I'm listening to Radio 6 and an advertisement came on for a program called "English As Tuppence" about Vivian Stanshall singer with the Bonzo Dog Band, presented by their musical leader Neil Innes. You can listen here for the next week, though it is three hours long. Now this would be ideal to listen to on the way to work but as you can get a consistent signal between Newcastle and Darlington and they don't let you download radio broadcasts I'll just listen at home.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend, I certainly will do

Kate Bush, Matt Haig, Jon Evans, Books and Why You Should Go OVO

I have a date for collecting my books for World Book Night on the 23rd of April. The book I have chosen is Matt Haig's The Humans so I need to get myself a copy fairly rapidly as April is nearly hear. However, many years ago Waterstones had a promotion called "Try Me For 99p" where you could pick up a number of loss leader books for 99p. One of these was The Blood Price by Jon Evans whicj, although not my usual sort of read, is a rivetting , exciting page turner which I would recommend to anyone, although I suppose I can draw certain vague parrallels with what happens in the book. Anyway that's the literary bit.

I've also nearly completed my power switch to Ovo Energy, after being with E-On for years (and having a fixed price deal). The thing that turned me on to them was that when the Big Six said they had to raise prices because wholesale prices were going up, MD Stephen Fitzpatrick implied they were being economical with the truth as he hadn't seen any price rises for two years. Articles here and here . The guy deserves respect and to be quite honest iof you're looking for a switch just go OVO. Their website is here

Oh and the wonderful Kate Bush has announced fifteen dates in London in August, her first since 1979, which will be amazing but the tickets probably sold out last year, full details here . Kate is one of my favourite artists who has manged to just do what she wants on her terms. Her albums are always a pleasure but The Hounds Of Love is still my favourite.

So that's more positives and hope I've given you some food for thought if you are in the UK and thinking about a power switch.

Blue Skies and Sunshine

Blue Skies Over Fenham

To Be Mown

Woke up this morning to blue skies, sunshine and the realisation that lawn mowing may have to start soon, although it is almost the end of March. So really there's no getting away with it. I'm awaiting a delivery of Aftercut that cam via Yodel on Wednesday when I was at work. I was expecting another run in with the delivery company as they only deliver Monday to Friday 9-5 (what sort of time is that to deliver large items to home address/ Anyway, went on their web site and they now deliver on Saturdays, which is good, so I'm expecting delivery of that today, so another thing to brighten up my weekend.

Sunrise in the Back Garden

It's ages since I used my camera to take pictures as I now tend to use my Samsung Note, but have had the camera out this morning and it's good to get to use the optical zoom. It's a five year old Canon Powershot but is compact and easy to use. It may be superseded by my next phone and phone manufacturers have gone for the huge megapixels that allow lossless zooming of pictures negating the the need for an optical zoom for the sort of photographs I take.






Anyway everyone have an absolutely wonderful weekend, I intend to, and if you are in the North East then it's a brilliant day weather wise, and if you are elsewhere in the world you are probably have good weather anyway. Enjoy every moment.

Being Positive Is Good For You

View From A Drone

I saw a lovely picture of a gathering on a school field, apparently taken by a drone and it got me thinking, I remember when getting a aerial picture was a luxury item, and soon we'll all be able to take aerial pictures of your house ore whatever. Google Earth and Streetview give us a lot of that already. And this reminded me of one of the most inspirational TED Talks about Henry Evans who is quadroplegic but uses drones to inspect his vineyards and the roof of his property.
I was shocked by how much this guy can get out of his life using robots and drones, and I think it's a lesson to us all, that life generally is improving. There is still a lot wrong in the world but there are people who are slowly showing us how we can get things right.

Also if you search TED you can see that there are a lot more beneficial applications of drone technology. Soget inspired, it may be from a friend or someone you don't know, it maybe from someone next to you or on the other side of the world, but you will feel better for it. Inspiration comes from many sources and places. So again be inspired and have a wonderful day. Oh and if you are doing the #nomakeup selfie for #breastcancerawareness , smile , really that is the only make up you need. Smile please

Share and Be Positive

Woke up from some dream and there was something in it on how good life can be when you are positive and smiling and share things with others. That thing you share may be your smile, good news, knowledge or something you think people will will like. And it gives you a lift when you give things and people take things and then later do the same thing to you.

Building relationships like that means that people can be there when things maybe aren't has good for you, and they will know that you are probably there to help them as well.

I've not done any posts about happiness and positivity recently , but it is something that we should always maintain in our lives otherwise we will basically be miserable. I always look for the good, the positives in situations , as it's so easy to find faults. Remember faults are there to be dealt with , while good things are there to be savoured and enjoyed.

Key looking for the good, share and open up with people, and I hope sunshine fills your day.

Oh by the way, and example of this is that on Sunday I started using Runkeeper. Two of my good friends at work Neil and Lee said Endomondo was better as it was more configurable, and they use it on a daily basis, so it's only a small thing but it shows they think about me and it makes you feel more connected.

Have a great day. And I think "Love It When You Call" by The Feeling is a fantastic upbeat song which always makes me happy, and I love it when my friends call.

Some Positives

I know I haven't been too positive on my posts and have been ignoring certain things. So I got the Nintendo WII out and did the Tennis and Boxing , before finding it was seventy four days since I last used thing. I'm just a pound lighter so the good news is I haven't put on weight. It's too easy to put things away and just forget about them and we should never do that , I am atrocious for doing it.

The second thing was installing RunKeeper on my phone. This product looks like it actually works. I have no intention of taking up running, but walked about a mile and burnt 130 calories according to the app.

I included the Chariots of Fire  opening , because it's one of the most archetypially English musical pieces , obviously composed by a a Greek (Vangelis) , and also one of the lads on the beach was a trainee for me when I was at Littlewoods back in the day.

Anyway enjoy what's left of the weekend, another week awaits ...