Love, Poetry and Revolution - Wednesday 1st January 2025

The old year stretches out behind me and the new one beckons me.

I haven't made any resolutions as I believe that you should try to improve every day and learn from things you got wrong.  Doesn't always work that way, but trying is half the battle.

What I want most this year is for E's suffering to end as soon as possible. We don't even know the full extent of it, only the part of the iceberg that's out of the water. Over the past few weeks, her decline has continued apace, such that we are now keeping one eye open for signs of sepsis.  Fingers crossed it happens sooner than later.

This weekend I should be off to Amsterdam with Q and her daughter (who is returning to her home there) to celebrate Q's birthday, hot on the heels of Christmas.

I had a neck, head and shoulder massage at the Sue Ryder hospice yesterday which set me up nicely for New Year's Eve.  I have three more sessions to go and I can try reflexology (which I might try) and reiki which sounds like a load of cobblers. Oh yea of little faith. 

Let's wander back to Christmas, spent in the Peak District.  We had a great time with family from both sides, with some fun board games played including the grimly titled, 'Secret Hitler', which turns out to be a lot of fun and the equally fun, but perhaps more childish, 'Don't be a Dik Dik'.

Today I've made a chicken casserole in the slow cooker.  I didn't work from a recipe (not one of my strong points), so let's hope it turns out all right.

Happy New Year to my reader. May 2025 bring what you need.

Ozric Tentacles /  'Sniffing Dog'  / (Live)


[[]]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

World Shut Your Mouth

Image
A lot of people seem to go to gigs to hear the headline act, but nothing more (not to mention those who don't seem to go to hear the music at all?)  I'm  always keen to hear the support, especially if I've never heard of them as you never know what you'll find. And so I found myself at the front of the stage in SUB89 waiting for Tom Hickox to take to the stage. Never heard of him or heard anything by him, so looking forward to hear what he does. As the hour of 8pm arrived, he took to the stage and seated himself behind a large electric piano, joined by Sam Grimley on various guitars. From his opening number, I was struck by his voice - he really has presence on stage. For the first song or two I just thought, 'yeah, he sounds OK, but...', and wasn't really drawn in. A couple of songs had great stories behind them, and his spoken intros to 'The Lisbon Maru' and 'The Dubbing Artist' were intriguing.  The song that really land...
Read more

Dreadzone at SUB89 in Reading Friday 7th April 2017

Image
Back to SUB89 and also to Dreadzone after a semi-enforced break, on a Friday night and accompanied by my sons - "Dreadzone virgins" in the words of MC Spee: sounds like the setting for a great night out... ...and so it proved to be! There was no support act though Greg Dread (Greg Roberts, drummer) played a DJ set prior to Dreadzone taking to the stage - a gentle warm up for what was to follow.  The band took to the stage to cheers and applause and launched straight into 'Rootsman' from the new album, a great reggae-based opener that led neatly into MC Spee's intro for 'Return of the Dread' - and already the "bouncing crew" was in full sway. Dreadzone are a joyous band live - it's impossible not to dance - and I for one had a grin from ear to ear whilst dancing for the entire two hour set. There was a good mix of old and new songs though a definite bias towards their most "successful" album, Second Light. S...
Read more

Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble at South Street Arts Centre in Reading 27th May 2017

Image
Inexplicably this is my first visit to South Street Arts Centre though I've lived in the Reading area off and on for more years than space allows. After this visit, though, I will plan to return again especially to see bands but probably other gigs. Why? It is a great size - a really intimate venue in which to see bands - and a really friendly venue, like seeing a gig in a room in your own home (assuming you had a fairly large spacious home). The support act was a band called Mauno from Canada who've been supporting Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble on this leg of their tour. A four-piece with 2 guitars, bass and drums playing I guess some kind of hybrid of pop and rock with Talking Heads-style rhythmic shifts. Not being familiar with either them or their songs it took a couple of numbers to get into their sound, but as the set progressed it became clear there was something interesting going on, both lyrically and musically.  In such a small venue it was great to see the...
Read more

Too Tame?

Image
It's been five years since Tame Impala's previous excellent album, 'Currents', so the latest album has been eagerly anticipated. Kevin Parker has been in demand ever since 'Currents' and has written songs with a variety of artists and also been involved as producer on a number of albums, so he's not exactly been resting.  Back in March 2019 the first new song emerged, 'Patience', which seemed to augur well for what was expected later in the year. 'Patience' is a funky ballad which wouldn't have sounded out of place on 'Currents', though it did up the disco/dance vibe a notch or two, but I'm cool with that. It certainly upped the anticipation for the new album - so far, so good. This was followed up in April by 'Borderline' which came as something of a surprise. How so? Weeeell, as songs go, this was pretty limp. I listened to it over and over in the hope of finding something, but found an empty centre wit...
Read more