Nine Feet Underground

Blow me down with the leg of a chair!  I have woken up with a head full to bursting.  I fear I may be getting a cold. Drugs! Give me drugs! (prescription, ofc 😀) 'Know me come eat with me' Apart from work today, later on, I'll be packing for our road trip to the south coast, as will Q when she returns from work. (Grammar checkers, don't speak proper, do they) To lift my spirits and help combat the advance of the evil cold germs, I'm listening to music - my 'liked' songs playlist on random.  It seems to work, memories notwithstanding. Work is done, Q is already home and I need to finish packing so we can get going. Arrived at the hotel in Portsmouth around 9, feeling knackered.  Long day. Sleep beckons. Liela Moss  / 'Memories and Faces' / 'My Name Is Safe In Your Mouth' [[An oldie, but a goodie. Heard this again this morning after quite some while and it sent me down a path where I'm thinking about people who matter and have been lost.  ...

Things are slowly getting better and although I still do have some pain and discomfort, I've decided to stop taking painkillers altogether as I think I'll recover quicker without them, as long as I'm careful. My day is likely to pan out like all the others this week with a mix of reading, watching music documentaries, resting, and the occasional bit of writing.  For some strange reason I've not managed to listen to music much, but maybe that'll change today. In between carer visits I've managed to finished reading ' Hawkwind: Days of the Underground: Radical Escapism in the Age Of Paranoia ', which means there's room to start another book - so many to choose from!  I also found the time to write and post a review of it on Goodreads. I had a disturbing dream about a friend, which made me get in contact with them to check they were OK and it was just a crazy dream. Over lunch I started watching a documentary about Annie Nightingale, the Radio 1 DJ, whi...

Got up quite early in an attempt to be showered, dressed and exercised before the cleaner arrived, but only managed two out of three.  Finished off the last set of exercises after she arrived then set about removing the piles of books, CDs, magazines, and letters, from my office and bedroom floors, so she could clean easily. Next step breakfast, then get started on work, if only to find out if I still have work to do on the bid today. Good news! I'm no longer needed on the bid, which means I can at least eat my porridge and drink my coffee in peace, though it does mean I'll have to chase the work I was due to start next week. As I've got a phone interview for a new role, I have to ask the cleaner to do my office next.  Not easy to work at desk piled high with CDs, letters and miscellaneous stuff! Nor do I want her in here vacuuming whilst I'm having an interview over the phone. Phone interview done. Work life is getting complicated - my name is down for four ...

Saturday again and no sign of things improving enough for life to switch from pause to play. Did our shopping first thing, as usual.  Got back, started chores and then had breakfast.  Read the papers - not much in either of them of interest today, so I'll read more of the latest issue of 'Private Eye' and my book club novel, 'The Binding'. I'm barely a quarter of the way through 'The Binding', but without wishing to prejudice the final review (or give anything much away) I am finding it very intriguing.  I'm not sure where it's headed - things seem to be happening quite fast, so I'm guessing there's going to be a change of direction, but who knows! Music-wise I've been listening to a raft of albums from 2020 to see which, if any, are eligible to join my birthday/father's day selection box. So far today I've heard albums from: Mood Taeg; Porridge Radio; Moses Boyd; Pure Reason Revolution; The Lovely Eggs; Plone; Shabazz Pal...

This has been a long time in the making, but finally, almost a month into 2019, I've almost listened to all the albums I have from 2018.  If I don't complete this look back soon it'll be overtaken by the new albums from 2019 - and there already are some great albums from January and even more promised in February. (I should also add that albums I missed in 2018 are still being brought to my attention, this includes albums by Jonathan Wilson ('Rare Birds'), Steve Gunn ('The Unseen In Between') and Rezzett ('Rezzett LP')). Before I get into the top ten list I ought to say something about the albums that haven't made the list.  That's the subject of this post. Honourable mentions I guess you'd call these.  There were a lot of good albums in 2018, many of which contain 4 or 5 great songs or tunes, often including a smattering of other good tracks but, ultimately not enough to make the top 10. (Many of those songs do appear on my...

[Sunday 2nd December 2018] Written from the vantage point of Monday, I know that any optimism I felt yesterday was misplaced. To be fair, my optimistic nature often gets the better of me - show me a green shoot and I'll be expecting to see a forest the next day. I think the phrase is setting yourself up to fail. "I know nothing of the sort." [Quote is from Book I Chapter 6 of 'Finnegans Wake' by James Joyce]