Pleasant Surprises

One of the nicest things is actually unexpectedly meeting up with a friend you haven't seen for too long. Too often we put off social contact because it's easier to just be home, watch catch up TV and not socialise. Today I was walking back to work with my free decaf latte from Patisserie Valerie and ran into my great friend Sophia who I haveb't she for ages. She is working at a tattoo studio and we had a quick ten minute catch up about music and what we had been up to and she triggered an idea for me to try Audacity on the new computer, and the first try seems to have created some noise which is good.

This si what friends do for me, and this year I am going to try and resume social contact with lots of people. I do know so many lovely people that I really do need to redouble my efforts to get out more. There is a Reginald D Hunter gig in February which a few friends will be at so, that is one thing to look forward to, plus meeting up with Mark and Helen who I have not seen for probably twelve months or more.

The thing is contact is good for us, and I know this is just a short post so I will include Edwin Starr's "Contact" which I think is just a brilliant song. Enjoy my friends , and get out and reconnect with someone you haven't seen in a while, you never know what it my inspire you to do.

#ItsNotThem

Today would have been David Bowie's sevent first birthday, and he left us a huge musical legacy, so really to us he is immortal and will be with us forever. I was thinking of artists who released songs that really should have been released by someone else hence the #ItsNotThem tag. I've already included David Bowie at least one in the #LikeNoOther sequence , click on the tag below to find that entry.

The song I am going to include is "Rebel, Rebel" from "Diamond Dogs". That song should have been a Rolling Stones single , a classic riff with a Stones swagger and to my knowledge they have never covered it. It is still one of my favourite guitar riffs the hear and play.

Outside today cars are frozen and I need to go to the General Hospital for my six monthly Diabetes check up where I possible will be told off again by the consultant for doing things like walking, losing weight and reducing my insulin intake, Actually most of these are the same as my last visit apart from the weight that will be slightly down and hopefully this time I will have a more positive consultant.

So wrap up, be careful on the footpaths if you are walking, and have a good day.

Straws

It's 9:30 on this Sunday night and iTunes is still importing my music collection. It started at around ten am this morning. I don't know how far through it because I can't query it without stopping he import. Also as it imports it starts randomly playing songs from album playlists, it never plays a complete song and the songs it plays are random and unless I stop the import not of the buttoms work. Typical Apple rubbish programming. I'm just hoping iTunes will work when it has imported all the songs.

Anyway today we went for a nice brunch at the Tyneside Bar and Cafe and were treated to "Close Encounters of The Third Kind" (now a thirty year old Steven Spielberg classic) . While at the bar we got talking about the plastic straws that were in my mang smoothie and I asked about if it would be more eco friendly to use paper straws. They said they were often not actively providing staraws but leaving them in a cup on the bar so those who wanted them could take them. One guy also pointed out that paper straws are often laminated like paper coffee cups therefore probably can't be recycled. Here's one campaign to make a difference, though there are a few. If you go to a pub or restaurant state you don't want a straw BEFORE they serve you , not after they've brought the drink with a straw in it.

So what should I leave you with at the end of this weekend, I suppose "Think For A Minute" by The Housemartins really instructs us how to approach the problems of addressing small changes to look after our environment.

Success

Today I was just thinking how small successes improve how you feel in yourself. Today I was not expecting to his my step target but due to onw thing and another I ended up doing almost 15K steps , well over my required 11K , so when I passed it it gave me an extra fillip,

I had already had a good day having a nice meal out for Fiona's birthday followed by Preston doing what they should against a League Two team and beating Wycombe Wanderers 5-1 (hopefully you can watch here if you are in the UK).

The weather has not been too bad and we even saw some blue sky, but I've definitely ended the day on an up and tomorrow is Sunday so I can have a lie in (although I bet I will end up getting up early again.).

Also today I was listening to Hawkwind's "Hall of The Mountain Grill" and although the opener "Psychedelic Warlords" is based on a speeded up version of the riff for "Time We Left (This World Today)" from "Doremi Fasol Latido" some of the songs have almost patoral country rock beauty. I'm thinking of the piano coda from "Web Weaver" (though there is still a lot of fuzz guitar in there) which I will share with you before I hit my bed.

Twelfth Night

Today is the date of the Epiphany or revelation of Jesus to the Magi according to the Bible , which has gone through so many rewrites we can't be sure any of the original text is still in there and the first one was probably compiled about half a millenium after the supposed event.

It's also the date of the twefth nigh (isn't twelfth an odd looking and sounding word) t of Christmas so decorations and Christmas Trees should be deconstructed and put away or thrown out to bring life back to normal.

Today we have so far seen rain and hail and the sky is still very grey and it's total SAD weather.

I do apologise for the lack of content in my posts, as I've not seen or done anything worth writing about apart from walking, but I haven't been able to take any photographs for instagram , if you follow the link you see the last few have not been that good, but I am still walking and still exploring my record collection. To take decent photographs you do need decent light to take the and the curent weather is definitely not conducive to that, but hopefully I should be back on track within the next week. One has to stay p[ostive and as I am looking out of the window there is a little bit of unclouded sky, almost blue.

I found this great Saturday Night Live clip which is appropriate for the occasion, so I will leave you to pack up your decorations and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Mr Kilmister Said

I'm still listening to Hawkwind's "Doremi Fasol Latido" and the original album closed with this acoustic song from Lemmy (Ian Fraser Kilmister to give his Sunday name)  and sung by him. While the song is gentle the lyrics are a little more acidic although there is very little indication of  what was to come when he was sacked by the band. This was not his last album with Hawkwind and on "Hall of The Mountain Grill" he contributed probably the best track on that album and also one of his and Hawkwind's finest, the amazing "Lost Johnny". Now that I've mentioned it I have to include that as well don't I.

I wasn't sure if his surname was Kilminster or Kilmister, it turns out it's the latter.

Anyway this week my walking has been good despite some rain and cold mornings, but it's still raining now so I am glad to be warm and dry inside the house.

The weekend is here, the first one of the year and I am looking forward to some well needed rest. My knee has been playing up when I sit down so th eanswer is surely to keep walking, although I think the weather may have contributed to it.

Another thing technology wise is that most of my photos these days are taken using my phone and I was thinking I don't need a camera at all. In fact generally my phone is actually better than my camera for getting the shots I want so I may be have a small technological clear out.

Anyway it's time for bed so have a brilliant weekend everybody.
 

Early To Bed

I thought that the older you got the less sleep you needed. I've never gone for afternoon naps but this week I am enjoying going to bed relatively early after watching some catch up TV, and ending up in bed between nine and ten. That will happen tonight, and it's quarter to nine as i start to pen this particular post.

I have to admit work has been particularly intensive (mainly due to Excel 2016 being particularly tedious and lost of new projects coming up)  and maybe that has something to do with it. It's been another grey and uninspiring day weather wise, the sun didn't come out at all today. Despite that I've still managed to hit my step target so that's a little positive news for me anyhow.

Tomorrow is Friday and we can look forward to the weekend, it's also Fiona's birthday on Saturday so we shall be having something celebratory then, so definitely a weekend to look forward to.

As I said this is just a very short post mainly about me going to bed early every night so far in 2018. For some reason "The Sun Has Got His Hat On" came to mind and I found this version remixed by DJ Electro Swingable with the offensive word removed. I don't know if you can buy it but the are several takes on the song here

Right I'm off to bed, see you tomorrow.