Virtual or actual?

Dear Heart and I have a lot of CDs and DVDs. We even have some cassettes and the odd bit of vinyl (remember the messages that were sometimes scratched in run out groove?) lying around. I’m not certain we actually own a working cassette player and we certainly don’t have a record player. No matter how many storage boxes and cabinets we have our collection always seems to keep outgrowing the available space.

We don’t buy enormous amounts of CDs and I sometimes wonder if the storage issue was an underlying thing behind this.

One of the things that we really liked about iTunes was that the music was virtual. It lived on the computer and iPod and you didn’t need to worry about housing it. It also meant that you’d never open the case to find the CD missing and then have to wonder which of the hundreds of other cases it could be in. I wouldn’t have to spend time organising the cases in to alphabetical order only to have Dear Heart, in the best rock ’n’ roll style, show total disregard for this and put them back any where.

We’ve gleefully downloaded tunes that we recall from our youth and that we thought were gone forever (except in out memories). We’ve bought albums on the spur of the moment because we suddenly realised that we needed to hear them.

But I’ve realised that I miss album inlays. I like looking at the band photographs. Even better I like looking back at old inlays and remembering how cool I thought the band looked. Now I sometimes wonder why they thought it was a good idea to wear what they did and why I thought it was a good idea to copy them.

I like to read the bits where the band thanks everyone they ever met. You wonder what it was that ‘Matty at Anslow’s Donut Place’ did that got them a mention. And isn’t it every music fan's secret fantasy to have the inspiration for a song credited to them on an album inlay?

I like to read lyrics. Pulp’s inlays always contained the instruction “please do not read the lyrics while listening to the recordings”. Lyrics are an area that Dear Heart and I have endless discussions over. We both have a history of mishearing song lyrics. We also have debates over what the lyrics actually say. Our latest bout in this regards ‘In these arms’ by Bon Jovi. I’m certain that “the poet needs the pain”, Dear Heart thinks he “needs the pen”. Surely pain sounds so much better. We purchased this one from iTunes so we can’t check for certain.

This has lead to us deciding to purchase things by artists we really like on CD and purchase work by groups we are less interested in virtually. However I’ve now hit a little snag with this. Alice Cooper’s new album Along Came a Spider is something I would buy on CD but I think that the iTunes version has bonus tracks.

I suppose I’ll buy the iTunes version and hope that someone in the near future invents that downloadable inlay which goes beyond the cover artwork.

Zevon and Zwan

No it’s not a new comedy duo or an exciting brand of mineral make-up. This was the second week of my attempts to broaden my musical knowledge and horizons. I listened to Warren Zevon’s I’ll sleep when I’m dead. It appears to be a great hits compilation, which makes the fact that I’ve never heard of him rather worrying. The song that really stood out for me was ‘Mr Bad Example’. Lyrics are a very important part of music for me even if I’m groaning at how bad they are.

I also took in Zwam’s Mary Star of the Sea. I enjoyed this and may well borrow it again at some point.

So I won't be making any additions to my iPod this week. I’ve now listened to 2 artists beginning with A and 2 beginning with Z. So it’s back to B. There seem to be loads of groups who have a name beginning with B. I could easily spend several weeks here exploring groups that I’ve heard of but don’t know anything by.

Dear Heart and I were discussing the other night how limited our knowledge of David Bowie is. We can give general facts (mismatched eyes, married to a model) and have a passing knowledge of his best-known songs but that’s it. So this week I’ve got a load of Bowie albums to listen to and I will be looking him up in some reference sources to try figure out what all this thin white duke/ziggy stardust stuff is about. If nothing else it will improve my performance at music quizzes!

Abundance in the universe

What a marvellously abundant weekend. My allotment is producing crops of all kinds. Peas, French beans, Runner beans, Potatoes and masses of courgettes. I was rather perturbed when Dear Heart suggested that I put it all into a soup and blend it up! He just doesn’t appreciate the delights of freshly picked, home grown produce.

I was a bit stuck for what to do with the courgettes. I have an awful lot and they are rather big. Happily someone pointed me in the direction of The Healing Foods Cookbook: The Vegan Way to Wellness. I’m always keen to read new vegan cookbooks and found this book contains a marvellous (and easy) recipe for courgette and tarragon soup. Dear Heart loved it (and he doesn’t like courgettes) and his sister had two bowls and asked for the recipe.

Blackberries also seem to be growing everywhere at present and a few scratches are small price to pay for such delicious fruit. The freezer is starting to look a bit full though…

Things are coming along very nicely with the redecoration of my study. When Dear Heart went out to buy plaster at the end of last week I hopped in the car with him and we visited an army surplus store that he’s been raving about for a few months.

I picked up a green shirt (£2) which just needs a few darts to make splendid fitted shirt for winter wear. I also got a green long sleeved top (£3) which is very soft and just needs a few adjustments to be perfect! My best buy had to be some heavy cotton fabric. I think they might have been tablecloths at some point. I can’t decide if I want to make a dress or a bag. Work on these will hopefully be among the first projects I undertake in my newly renovated room!

This does put my clothing purchased total up to three items for this year, but I don’t think that’s too bad for the end of July.

Enjoy the sunshine

Raspberry juice

It's amazing how a small quantity of something can go such a long way.

It's my turn this week to prepare the food for our Thursday lunch group. I'd been thinking about various things to serve and it definitely seemed to be the time of year to go with fresh fruit for dessert. Rather annoyingly the market seemed to be full of peaches, apricots and nectarines imported from all over the world and a real lack of English fruits. Anyway I needed to make up my mind so I grabbed a pineapple and a couple of punnets of raspberries. Then like a complete fool I put them both into the same cotton should back and headed off with the bag thumping against me with every step I took. And, of course, the raspberries were between me and the pineapple. I only realised when the bag had a big circle of pulped raspberry on it and so did my dress.

I took the raspberries out and re-wrapped (the remains of) their paper bag around them and put them in my other bag. I put them right on top so that they wouldn't get crushed any more. Then when I got to my destination and had a chance to reorganise my bags I moved them to the bottom of my shoulder bag. This was the one that came with Easy Living magazine and the fabric seems to be quite waterproof.

So I got home to discover a puddle of juice at the bottom of my bag. Everything in the bag was marked by raspberries juice in some way.

I'm looking on the bright side here. I gave everything in my bag a wipe over and it all looks much brighter. I also had to wash my cotton bags that I use all the time. In all honestly they could probably do with washing at least once a fortnight. The marvellous weather means that they'll be dry in no time. So everyone's a winner in this apart from the poor raspberries. Maybe it's time to start growing my own?

Black and green

I've been wearing black and green (clothes not chocolate!) for the past three days. It's been too warm for jeans (not that I'm complaining) and it feels like the height of luxury and decadence to smooth body so fine on to make my legs look a little bit sparkly as they peek from my skirt.

I'm assuming that my move back to wearing green and black (my favourite colours) means that I'm feeling like me again! I've even painted my toenails green and have been wearing green bracelets.

I was interested to see this take on wearing green clothes. I've also been adding more green items to the collage on my study wall. All the different shades of green look so good together. Alas it's going to have to come down as Dear Heart and I are working on transforming my study into the perfect room for me to do my stuff in (that'll be sewing, writing, reading, yoga and feeling creative then). We took the carpet up last week. Chipped the plaster off the chimney breast to expose the brick underneath. Stripped the paint off the door to reveal the wood. Dear Heart is going to sort out the plaster on the walls, sand the floor boards and paint it all in a nice neutral shade. Except for one wall which is going to be covered in cork tiles so that I can use it as an inspiration wall.

I'm rather excited by this prospect. I've been taking a break from eBay but I have several boxes taking up floor space in my study that I just want to sell so that there is no clutter! Photographs will hopefully follow at some not to distant point!

Do dead people watch you shower?

I must say it's not something that has ever worried me, but it clearly bothers enough people out there (and isn't there quite enough to worry about as it is?) for Harper Collins Australia to publish a book on it. And the author has a myspace page on the subject.

So let's talk about nicer shower related things like the new Lush emotibombs which are essentially bath bombs for the shower. I'm always sad that I can't make use of bath bombs because a) I only have a shower, b) baths are too time consuming, c) the water in a bath is never hot enough and d) baths are not very good for the environment. Hence I imagine that I will be making a trip to Lush this week to examine the goods in person.

Enjoy the sunshine today and remember not to grumble about being too hot!

You only find it when you stop looking

I ache all over today. Yesterday I did half an hour of rowing. It's much better exercise (and harder work) than I'd ever imagined. Despite the indecisive weather we had a fabulous time. A picnic on the river bank (supplied with style and Pimms by the divine Miss Mimi) followed up with half an hour actually on the river. Dear Heart and I took an oar each and attempted to make our way up and down the river without tipping our passenger overboard or hitting any other vessel. Lots of laughter.

Today I discovered this lovely link to an office where they have a had a decorated cubicle contest. It's so creative and fun. I guess it must be a good place to work. Isn't it totally marvellous what you find on the Internet when you are looking for other things altogether?

Last week as part of my ongoing quest to expand my boundaries/horizons I selected a couple of CDs pretty much at random from the 'A' section of the library. My choices(?) were Talkie-Walkie by Air and Move Along by The All-American Rejects. They were OK. I listened to both several times and did occasionally find myself singing along. I always though Air looked painfully cool and hence scary so I was pleased to find the album quite accessible and not too hip for me! I won't be adding either to my iPod just yet though. Off now to select something from B or Z.

A change of clothing

At reported at the start of the week, I just don't want to wear any of my usual summer stuff. I'm bored of my uniform of linen skirts and tshirts. My DM sandals need repairing. I just don't feel inspired in what I've been wearing. I also feel very middle aged (although I'm sure this is just my perception).

I used (until about 7 years ago) to wear lots of black. I think this was a reaction to the colour clashing 1980s. However I also realised that I wore black when I wanted to feel invisible. So I made a real effort not to wear black all the time and to let some colour into my life. Which has been great. But I'm wondering if I can now trust myself to wear dark colours again. A sign of maturity and reflection that life has it's ups and downs maybe? Or just accepting that recession is on it's way in and the future could be dark...

Anyway I allowed myself not to make too much of an effort yesterday and wear whatever I felt like to work and I ended up in something pretty much like the image below.



The only major differences are that my tshirt said Alice Cooper, my shoes are sparkly and my bag is my fabulous (yet ancient) Wonderbag. I felt very comfortable and oddly energised and me. In fact I think that I might be wearing skirts a bit less for a while and giving my jeans more of an airing.

I have an on/off relationship with jeans. I wore them as a teen, but preferred jogging trousers as I did a lot of sport. Then I went off to university with two pairs of Wranger body glove (they did exactly what they said on the tin). Then I decided that jeans were not for me and started wearing a uniform of black leggings (matt or shiny), tshirt and green DMs. I didn't get back into wearing jeans until about 5 years later I visited the Easy store at an outlet village somewhere, tried on one of the sample pairs and begged to be allowed to keep them. I have worn jeans since then but it's always been a real labour to try and find a pair that fit. I'm seeing this latest development as another 'jeans are good' phase.

I'm also betting that I'll fall madly in love again with my skirts and dresses at some point in the next few years.

Yeah I made it myself!

A week or so back I wrote in this post about buying my bulk vinegar and making my own surface spray.

I am very happy to report my experiment a success. Despite my procrastination over making it up, it actually took no time at all (2 minutes max). I was a bit concerned about the cloudy white colour and strong vinegar smell on inital use. however the following day the mix seemed to have settled down and was clear.

It's very good at what it does. My stainless steel kitchen surfaces came up looking lovely and shiny after using it.

So no need to purchase anymore trigger bottles when I can simply refill the one I have. I might try it in the bathroom next.

Stretch the boundaries

I'm feeling a little bored with myself at present. Probably the result of some long working days/weeks. I have lost inspiration for lunch preparation. I thoroughly dislike every single item of clothing I own. In fact all I want to wear are old jeans and lots of black.

So it's time to stretch the boundaries, leave my comfort zone and find some inspiration. I'm going to borrow a random music CD from the library every week. Maybe I'll go in alphabetical order. Maybe I'll pick letters at random. Anyway, however I choose I think this will introduce me to new artists. I might discover something amazing and it will certainly give me some different viewpoints.

And, Dear Readers, feel free to suggest things I should try. I rather like the thought of all the undiscovered sounds lurking on the shelf, just waiting for me to give them a try.

When London is feeling lovely

I had to go into London on Friday for a meeting. I wouldn't say I dislike London, but I often find it hard work. It's noisy, polluted and full of people! However, on Friday, London was at her most charming.

The trains were all running well. I kept getting a book out to read on the tube and discovering that I had already reached my stop. The shops were vibrant and full of exciting things to look at (if not actually buy). I ventured into Zavvi on Oxford Street and wanted to stay all day to listen to the amazing music they were playing. I finally made it to the Japanese Centre on Piccadilly.

I was sensible and wore flat shoes all day, but I had a pair of heels tucked in my handbag for my evening excursion - a visit to the Japanese Embassy. My grandfather was a Japanese Prisoner of War during WW2 and became involved in a reconciliation programme. This also provided opportunities for grandchildren to work towards reconciliation and friendship. A reception is held every summer to promote friendship between our two countries. As ever I had a marvellous evening. I spoke to a number of interesting people, got to admire the decor and drink champagne.

Everything ran smoothly on the way home and by 10 p.m. I was eating chips on the sofa with Dear Heart.

However I'm very glad that I don't have to travel into London everyday. It is so easy when working in the big city to think that everyone else is having a more fabulous, cooler time than you are. So instead of enjoying what you have you are always searching for the elusive 'cool' people and the centre of the action.

I'm glad that I rediscovered London in small way. Maybe I'll do some museum (and pub) visits over the summer with Dear Heart.

5 of seven

Today is my fifth working day in a week of seven. So roll on Sunday. It's proving to be a particularly busy week even outside work. It's my week to make lunch for our shared thursday lunches (and hopefully we'll put somethign about them on our blog soon). So last night I shot out of a meeting, ran across twon in the rain with my shoes rubbing the back of my feet raw to make the bus so that I could get home and make dinner and lunch. I made the bus but it then broke down so I was home just as late as if I hadn't run. I'm certain that there is a lesson in there somewhere.

I did manage to get all the food prep done (and the girls where sweet enough to say it was very nice) but by the time I'd finished clearing up the kitchen at 9.30p.m. I was really ready for bed. So no drum practice last night. In all honestly it probably isn't the best week to want to do anything at home. I was hoping to get away early today but once agian I'm busy, busy, busy.

Tomorrow is another manic day, but it does feel good to be alive and occupied!

Learning to play drums

Dear Heart plays guitar and has done so for many years. He's also very into home recording, writing songs and so on. He sounds good when he plays, like the spirit of the music is into him.

I did not do well with recorder at school. I took up a violin for a few months until the school suggested that my 'talents' might be better occupied elsewhere. And really this has been fine. I've accepted the 'not a musical bone in her body' label quite well. Yes, it would be nice to do karaoke that sounded ok, but singing in the shower is fine for me.

Dear Heart purchased a drum kit a few months ago and is already pretty good. Years of playing various bands has clearly paid off. The thing is I've always fancied learning to play the drums. So I've got a book on learning drums from the library and had a go last night. It was good fun and I wasn't even doing anything fancy.

I'm thinking 10 minutes a day. I don't have to be amazing but it would be really nice to be able to knock out a beat and play along with Dear Heart. I'm a little scared that I won't be able to do it but that's what life's for. Being scared and then trying and if you fall picking yourself up and keeping trying until either it works or you really cannot justify going any further. I commit to trying and learning something new no matter how small my learning my turn out to be.

Oodles of noodles

I had lunch today with two friends. We popped to the noodle bar, started chatting and almost forgot to order! I like to try something different everytime until I've worked my way aroudn the menu and have decided which dishes are my absolute favourites. This probably works best because of my vegetarian/vegan diet. Few places have a long list of things for me to try although my local chinese does such a long list of tofu dihes I'm hard pushed to say which ones I've tried and which ones I haven't.

So I ordered noodles, tofu and vegetables in a broth. I was expecting a little bowl, not something that you could bath a baby in. To think that I was woried about making my 5 a day today. I wasn't quite sure how to eat it (it came with a ladle), but did manage to finish it. It's also a very good dish for anyone who wants to work on their listening skills - you can't talk and use a ladle/chopsticks/fork/spoon.

I think a very light dinner will be in order tonight.

I'm too old...

To stay up drinking until 4 a.m.

Not to eat a proper well-balanced diet

To be terrified of dogs

Not to clean my shoes or make sure my clothes are ironed and stain free before leaving the house

To run out of essential cooking ingredients

But I'm sure there are a million more things I'm too young for.

What is the universe trying to tell me?

I'v got one of those weird things going on.Bascially it's where something that I normally would devote minimal attention to turns up and I keep coming across references to it.

So last year I was reading this frankly bizzare book called Faghag by Robert Rodi. The book goes on about The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Not being familiar with The Fountainhead, I looked it up on wikipedia, thought 'hmm' and moved onto my next read. But then it kept turning up in everything I read. Finally When there was a reference to it in a Meg Cabot novel (one of the Heather Wells series) I gave in and read it. I don't think it was life changing, although it was very interesting and I gave it to a couple of other people to read. I had to read it thought because I kept thinking it might be the universe trying to tell me something!

The other week I picked up Simon Doonan's book Beautiful People from the library shelves pretty much at random. I thought it was very funny indeed. It put me in the mind of Andrew Collins (Where did it all go right? and Heaven knows I'm miserable now, but not his third volume, That's me in the corner). Then I pick up the Sunday Times style magazine whch I read every week and he's got an article in there. And now Gala Darling has picked upon him in Carousel! So what is the universe trying to tell me this time?? Answers please.

Petticoats

I've never been able to see the point in slips and petticoats (unless it's some kind of underwear as outerwear look). However today I am wearing dress with a quite full knee length skirt. It's made of a light cotton. Add in strong breeze and I find that I having to walk down the street with bunches of skirt in each hand to avoid revealing my underwear to. This is not a good look. Presumably this is part of the reason (other than making the skirt look really full) that women in the past wore petticoats.

Sadly this interpretation is not mentioned in the wikipedia entry about petticoats. I do actually own 2 knee length petticoats. My sister and I used them for dressing up when we we younger. I recently redid the elastic in them with thoughts of wearing them to a rock club or something. However, I thinking that perhaps the time has come to dig them out and put them to their proper use of protecting my modesty (while making my waist look teeny). It seems pointless having garments tucked away in tin trunk if I never take them out and wear them.

I'm feeling a bit uncertain about my usual summer uniform of linen skirt and tshirt. I want a change. And the only person who can make a change in my life is me. If I can't change my clothing a little with the resources I already have then how can I change anything else? Remember your life is the life you chose (and I mean that in the most positive way possible). Stop wriggling and start living.

Summer Naturals

I like to use vinegar and bicarbonate of soda for cleaning. However, despite the supposed trend towards natural products it's been getting increasingly difficult to find white vinegar. BoS is widely available but in tiny tubs.

Happy last year someone wrote to the Guardian Weekend magazine with this query and someone suggested a site called Summer Naturals. I ripped the page out, stuck to the front of fridge and promptly forgot all about it until recently.

I purchased 5 litres of vinegar and 2 kilos of BoS. It's been great to be able to fill up both a glass bottle and a spray with vinegar. I'm planning on filling up a pretty jar with BoS and I'll need to find a suitable container to store the rest in.

I'm also going to give making my own table spray a go using the recipe here. I'll report back her and let you know.

And remember life is not a rock video but it's not a dress rehearsal either.

Less than fabulous

Today I am feeling somewhat less fabulous than I think I should be. My life is amazing and I should be totally aware of this. Instead I fear that I'm going to have a hissy fit and complain that I feel like I took a wrong turn somewhere and I'm really just ordinary. I'm not sure what has bought on this need for more romance in my life. I think part of the problem with life is that every time you figure out the solution, the question changes (I believe Disraeli said something similar about the Irish question). So I make myself feel uncomfortable by trying to find the right balance of spontaneous and planned. Planning makes me feel powerful, but spontaneous is fun.

I'm going to resurrect a trick I learnt form a book called Family Baggage by Monica McInerney. you write a list (I used to have mine in the back of my notebook) of things you can do. Start simple (peel potatoes, sew a button on, pitch a tent) and add to it everything you think of something. Then at moments of doubt, have a read through and realise how amazing you are and what a wealth of experience and knowledge you represent.

Although I had do a bit of search to remember the title and author of Family Baggage I just discovered that the book I 'm reading at the moment (Those Faraday Girls) is by the same author.