I didn't intend to write this but feel I must do a short piece on the local shop at Litton. It's run as a co-operative and stocks most of the things you need as well as providing a social focus in the village. It's also a coffee shop . supports a post office and has some excellent home made cakes which I have sampled. It's run on a volunteer basis with support from the Co-Op and has been running for the last sixteen years , becoming an essential part of Litton village life.
The real plus is the people the manager Carol , Barbara , Tina, Stephanie, Myra, Judy and one of the customers Tony. They have regaled me with stories and opinions and analogies with The Wicker Man, and are amazingly friendly and welcoming. It is gorgeous to come to a lovely village and meet up with such lovely people. And I have an invitation to a Cheese and Wine Evening and Quiz at The Village Hall , a totally lovely place.
If you ever come here or even drive through , you have to check this place out , and check the coffee and lemon varieties of their sponge cakes.
I won't bother with any music for this , but it's just an appreciation of a lovely place with lovely people
Well it's the first day of March , first day of Spring and we have rain , cold , wind , snow , we have weather. This most is just some thoughts that got set off as I read Tracey Thorn's biography Bedsit Disco Queen . She is obviously famous enough to release a record and and her autobiography , but that only came with her hard work , talent , belief in herself and some huge slices of luck in meeting the right people and being in the right place at the right time. Belief in yourself gives you the confidence to do things , be it writing , applying for a job , building something , making music or introducing yourself to a stranger.
If you have belief in yourself you can help others who are less fortunate that you , you can hold their hands , you can give them advice.
People often look at their lives and say if they had done something differently then their lives would be much better. They can never know this. In my life I have have made lots of wrong decisions , but if I had done anything differently I wouldn't be in the position I am in now , and to be quite honest , I am incredibly happy with my situation at the moment. Yes there I things I would like to be better (more money , less work) but I have a wealth of friends and the ability for the most part to do what I want, the only constraints are time and distance and to some extent money.
I have friends who have become very successful and am still close to them , and it just makes be happy that they share their success rather than flaunt it. But I am sure there are lots of times in their lives where things just fell right.
Again reading Thorn's biography there are so many times when something unexpected happened which then resulted in being the stimulus to produce a song or play a gig, which then eventually resulted in the formation of Everything But The Girl (taken from the name of a clothes shop in Hull where Tracey and Ben Watt were at University) so if they hadn't gone to Hull , they maybe wouldn't have got that name and they may not have been as hugely successful as they became.
I decided to include Tracey singing with Massive Attack , a great collaboration and a lesson to us , don't dismiss something if it doesn't conform to the norm.
I think the thing in life is to find happiness in what you have and to share with as many friends as possible, and if you don;t have enough friends , talk to people , you never know who you might find. Don't sit back , go out and have fun , and the good times and good friends will show themselves,
So although luck gives us opportunities , sometimes it's up to us to grab those opportunities and create the situation where those opportunities occur. You don't usually get a job offer if you don't apply for a job (although it has happened to me a few times).
Some days something happens that is just a cherry on the cake moment. My life is good at the moment , not perfect , but in the happiness league I'll be in the top 10% if not even higher. But sometimes things happen that brighten your day even further.
As a kid I remember my friends big sister had a copy of Ralph McTell's Spiral Staircase , and I particularly loved the cover of that album , and also the title track stuck with me.
Today I was wandering round Bakewell looking for a snack , I was feeling peckish. I had visited several bookshops and one of two record shops I had visited previously had become a fudge shop (Folk Devils in Whitby became a cake shop), the other one was shut for lunch I think .
I wandered round a corner and noticed a small shop called Music In The Green with a display of album covers including the aforementioned Spiral Staircase and Deep Purple's Concerto For Group And Orchestra with a poser "What Year?" The thing is it looked like a real record shop.
On walking through the door any doubts were swept away, John Renbourn on the player (Live in Italy which I walked out of the shop with) , a cornucopia of new and classic folk and world vinyl and CDs , with a rock section ate the back,
Steve , the guy behind the counter, was easy to talk with very knowledgeable and dug out a copy of Nice Enough To Eat, an important album from my youth. I could have spent the whole afternoon in there , and if I lived in Bakewell , a shop like this would make it worth coming into town for,
Today the discovery of this treasure has made my day. It's a reason for going back to Bakewell , and should be a reason for you to visit.
Sometimes really unexpected coincidences occur. Yesterday I posted about my need to keep things simple because I am not very intelligent , and used as an analogy Lego which led me to an Iron Maiden video of them performing The Wicker Man.
Yesterday as I parked my car, I was getting watched by a guy in another , thinking I had "taken his parking space" . He started out slightly aggressive , but we chatted and when he realised what lovely person I am , we got on like a house on fire , shook hands and my car stayed where int was.
Today I want in the local shop, I'm staying in Litton in Derbyshire, and if you want to see the cottage it's here Anyway the guy was in having a coffee with friends and we chatted on and he asked how long we were staying:
I said "A week"
He said "Have You seen the film 'The Wicker Man' .... he only went for a week"
Much more guffawing ensued and I told him about the Christopher Lee video I did. And how it got pulled and all that . I bought some biscuits and left
Came back , switched on the TV and "The Man With The Golden Gun" is on TV just at the car bridge jump scene , and of course Christopher Lee played Scaramanga , three nippled golden gun toting assassin.
So this weekend has been Christopher Lee influenced , coincidentally
I think it's an acronym. Keep It Short and Simple. It's the way I've tried to live my life. Trying to keep things as simple as possible , so that I stand a chance of understanding them. A primary school teacher once told me that a genius was a person who could see and explain things in the simplest terms.
I always use this analogy when try trying to argue that even the most complicated thinks can be reduced to a simple construction. The most complex Lego creations are still just a series of little bricks which can be rearranged into any shape you desire, and that's most complex things you can imagine are just a huge combination of simple things.
The computer or smartphone you are using to view this is just a huge collection of zeroes and ones, binary switches, on / off gates that are added together to show you the most amazing things.
Anyway keep things simple and you can keep them in check and make sure the do what you want them to do. It's time for bed for me so I am going to sleep
Also an excuse to have Iron Maiden's The Wicker Man in Lego , five years in the making and it;s just lego. But a good song referencing a truly great film , featuring Christopher Lee in one of his favourite rols
At the weekend I went of a stag do organised by my future son in law Mark , who rates very highly on the scale of good to know human beings. An excellent day in which I made several new friends and had a great time including walking up a flight of steps I had only looked at before , from the Quayside to The Bridge Hotel past the Castle. I walked up with Mark which was fine til I hit the top and realised that my fat frame was not built for things like that , but the pains soon cleared and we had a canny time in The Bridge.
The main point of this post is that part of the day was spent Go Karting at KNE in Sunderland , and it was my first time. Out of 29 people Mark came second and I came last. To my credit I didn't crash or cause a crash, stall or incur the wrath of the track wardens or need their assistance. I found the positioning of the plastic fuel tank between my legs more than a liyttle disconcerting and it took me two laps to realise that I had a brake as well as an accelerator.
When I furst saw the track I was a little dismayed especially when the route was previewed beforehand , also the crash helmet did not sit well with my vague claustrophobia.
Would I do it again , Hell Yeah . I'd recommend it to anyone . When I do it again , I may still come last , but that's not always a bad thing , and someone has to.
At the moment I seem to keep running out of time to do things. This morning I can't remember if I took my insulin , but can't risk overdosing. However things are great in life.
There is lots to look forward to and lots to be positive about and really wish I didn't have to sleep then I would have enough ours to actually do what I want to do. Then problem is the body demands sleep , rest and recuperation , and that is good ,because when rested you are ready to go and deal with the next thing that life throws at you.
Anyway the other thing is that it's Friday , and the weekend is coming up , but the next three weekends are going to be very busy for me.
I am telling you that things are great and that things are busy without actually telling you anything , does that make me a politician?
Anyway I am going to start my weekend by dealing with certain things , enjoying time with certain people and wishing you , all my lovely friends a brilliant weekend. I have been listening to Malcolm McLaren a lot this week so you get "Boys Chorus" from Fans , I love this , the cockney talk over that heavenly chorus:
