Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce..

Most people I know have particular music that really does it for them.  Usually the attachment is related to something important that happened  and the music they were listening too at the time is linked to the memory and adds to the story.  For instance, and I have written about this before, Neil Young’s Harvest Moon will be forever linked in my memory with the suicide of my friend David because that is what I was listening to when I heard the news.  Not only does it bring back David to me but it brings back the people and places we both knew.

I can remember where I was the first time I listened to Led Zeppelin (in the lunch break at college) and the first time I heard Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon (at my cousins house).  But the album that was to stand out for me and still means a great deal to me now I first heard when I was seventeen and living a ragamuffin life in a flat in Wellington.  Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge of Town made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.  I had no idea what he was singing about, had to sit down with the cover and read the lyrics, but the moan, the slide, the  sheer dirty dark urgency and also poignancy of the songs rocked my young heart.

Still rocks my still tender, middle aged heart as well..

What brings on this rootling around in my musical past you might ask?

Just that this is going to be out in time for Christmas, and although it’s well expensive – I want… 😉

Do you know how much I would give to time travel back and be at this concert?

Title..

yes, it has been a while..

i think i am still here…

yes, that’s right, I am….

Hiya folks!  This is my two hundred and oneth post – it may not be any where near the best but it’s lucky to be here at all.  Myriad things have got in the way lately, not the least of all another go at some new anti-depressants.  Also lots more hours of work at the shop and suddenly everything starts piling up on top of each other in trembling heaps and my life lands jam faced down on the carpet.

I have managed to get through some of my birthday books – Connie Willis’s Doomsday Book being an absolute unputdownable dream of a read  (Pat if you are reading this – I think you would love it), I am just starting another one of hers – To Say Nothing of the Dog.  I have got through two Terry Pratchett’s – Johnny and the Dead and Only You Can Save Mankind, which I have read before but thoroughly enjoyed again.  Also two of the Bloomesbury Group reprints, Henriettas’s War and Henrietta Sees it Through by Joyce Dennys.  I really, really want to read all of these so called ‘lost novels’,  what a great idea to revive them all.

I have a new hair cut – v short, which I love,  sooo easy to look after, but that of course necessitated a purchase of a felt hat from work, to keep the cropped bonce warm.  I think it is a lot colder in Hay than in Swansea,  I quite like it as I get to wear all my favorite cold weather clothes and lots of new scarfs.

New Hair

New Hat

What I don’t like is that I am on my second bout of sickness since September and this flu has lasted a week already.  I was meant to be out with my Stitch and Bitch group tonight, yarn bombing for Halloween but instead I am on the sofa, typing this , taking photo’s of my head and staying warm and cozy.  I am supposed to go with a friend to Ikea in Cardiff tomorrow to buy some much needed shelving units for the flat and as well as that I am working both Saturday and Sunday and would like to be well for it.

The dear, kind people at work let me come home from work an hour early this afternoon as I was still feeling poorly.  In fact they were probably just pleased to see the back of my miserable, possibly infectious body.  I got in, tripped over the mail on the floor and discovered that my best blog buddy Katyboo and her mum Sue from Box of Misc had both sent me belated birthday gifts!!!  Talk about making my day.  A Persephone book from Kate and a rubber stamp from Sue with a Celtic design on it – I adore both of them, the gifts as well as the giftees.

Belated presents, book and stamp

Well – that is about if from me for today.  My head hurts when I cough, when I bend over, when I look up and I think it may need some analgesics.  In the mean time..

Stay cool till after school..

One Thing at a Time..

Do you ever get the feeling there are not enough hours in the day?

When I get a day off, lately, I just feel completely crazed – so much to do, so little time.  The sheer fact that I have so much choice drives me mad and makes it difficult to concentrate

I got a pile of books for my birthday.  They are sitting there, on the book-case, gently mocking me – or smiling at me depending on my mood.  Yesterday afternoon they were mocking me and strengthened my resolve to FINISH the wonderful Mrs Ames by EF Benson (author of the excellent  Mapp and Lucia books, that I had from the library.  Library books first AND THEN the smirking pile..

 

My lovely pile

 

 

In addition to all this reading I have been endeavoring to watch my way through the utterly brilliant TV series The Wire,  compulsive it is.  Each dvd has three programmes (not enough) and I have usually managed to ingest them all in one night – has to be done..

Free time of course, has got more precious now I am working at the shop.  This is on my wish list of stuff to do today –

• Write blog – tick 🙂
• Go for a walk down the river (walks have shrunk the busier I have got – not good 😦  )
• Visit Louise in her shop
• Visit Ali at the Globe
• Visit the laundromat – washing waits for no woman
• Start to make another bag
• Finish an owl
• List my spare clothes on Ebay
• Buy veg at the Thursday market
• Cook tea
• Go to the Stitch and Bitch this evening

As I  said – this is a wish list, not really a hope that I will get it all done!

My birthday by the way, passed happily, and many thanks to all of you out there who sent me messages.  It was great to be remembered.  I had the day off from work and spent it wandering around town, visiting friends and my work to pick up a huge bunch of flower. The evening I spent with new friends down at Kilverts as unfortunately my man Mr T had to work that night.

This is one of my favourite cards –

 

and this is what it said inside

 

isn't that brilliant?

 

 

 

Tudor knows I would like one of these (a real one though, please)

 

 

 

Birthday boots - heavenly! Have worn them to work twice and they are so comfy.

 

 

I guess the answer to the ‘to much to do’ problem is to appreciate and be thankful that you have so many wonderful things that you can choose to do and then pick one and totally enjoy it while you are doing it.  I know this – why do I find it so hard to remember?