Thee Oh Sees latest album 'A Weird Exits' is pretty cool and there is no finer way to kick-start a working day than with 'Plastic Plant' a psych workout with a humming bassline...
After a long period of stasis, I have just completed the first step in changing our house and garden to meet the needs of us all. The first step is converting our garden into a usable space for socialising and hosting gatherings (maybe with food if guests are lucky!) I'm on the verge of starting a project to convert our garage into a combined music room, library, and guest bedroom. It's long been a dream of mine to have a library and a music room, and this dream is now almost a reality. You might ask why I didn't start this sooner? The overarching reason is that being E's carer, with all that entailed, it was almost impossible (for a long time) to muster the energy or positivity needed to make such big changes. Not only that, some of these changes would have been impossible whilst E was in her hospital bed. Getting to the point where I could even imagine there was a future for me was a very long process involving pain, upheaval, and a lot of counselling. I need t...
It's been a while since my last post, longer than I anticipated when I decided I didn't need to post daily. Since then, which was a little over a week ago, a lot has happened though quite a lot of it can't appear here. Work has been especially busy as my work on the project is coming to an end. Unusually, design uncertainties are increasing rather than decreasing as things wind down, which means I am doubly busy with new stuff as well as trying to ensure I wrap up and tidy all my documentation. There's been lots of monitoring activity keeping me busy while I get to grips with the joys of SDR. It's opened up a world of possibilities that inevitably come with new challenges including the need for better antenna or better-sited (higher, outdoor) antenna and RF filters on top of the RF amplifiers I've also required. The antenna issues are especially challenging when I'm in Liverpool, given the 'temporary' nature of my presence. When I'm away I thi...
Been shopping for the first time since last weekend and only the second time I've been out in a week - went for a run on Monday. Despite good intentions, work has kept me so busy during the days that I've not even managed to squeeze in a walk the rest of the week: by the time I've stopped work it's been getting dark and, to my shame, I couldn't be arsed. Next week, I've promised myself I'll do better. Gonna put something in my work Outlook calendar each day so I do some walking. (I have been exercising every day though: press-ups and weights which is better than nowt, I guess) Did my first Zoom-hosted Yoga class on Thursday evening, which was an experiment by our Yoga teacher. It was successful, though very odd to be adopting the tree pose in the living room while watching it on the laptop. This is going to start in earnest next week, so it'll be back to Yoga at 10am on Monday, except no need to leave the house first. Zoom is fast becoming th...
Work again and, for a change, it looks like being a dry day, so we all know what that means. Early doors son #2 and his gf headed to the airport as she is returning to Costa Rica via Houston. We're having shower leaks again, or appear to be. Investigation is under way (as is a call to the plumber). It's going to be a very busy day, so I'll probably not have much else to say which may well mean I resort to posting this week's poem. I may not, though as it's not a favourite. It's by Thomas Hardy and he's from an era that generally doesn't light my fire. I'm more of a fan of the work of Laurel and. All week I've been attempting to take daily blood pressure readings (when I remember) ahead of my annual blood test tomorrow. No pressure. There have been a few visitors today but no cleaner as she cancelled on me yesterday. No worries. It's pizza night delayed (it was insisted upon) but the meal was nowhere near quorate so son #2 and I watched som...
Clearly I'm going to have to admit defeat - at least on one front: the format of this blog must change, at least for the foreseeable future. So let's finish off the February album of the month and then on to a new, crisper approach to the blog. Feb's fab five did get a full work out and here's what I made of them... I had high hopes for Rumer's debut, 'Seasons of my Soul', even though for some time I'd consciously ignored the album mainly due to solo female singer overload: too many too similar. Then out of the blue I heard 'Slow' and was bewitched. Sadly the rest of the album is a disappointment: don't get me wrong, her voice is beautiful and given the right material this could have been a great album, but the songs drift by like lift music, barely registering. The songs and her voice rarely combine to convey emotion - not a problem if glacial cool / ice queen is the aim (Sarah Nixey where are you now?), not so good if soul is the g...
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