20 Years On

I served a girl yesterday and she had the punk look down to a tee. If it wasn’t for the lip piercing’s she could have stepped out of the eighties. It was an interesting thought - not that I was ever a punk - but 20 years on, here was I looking fairly normal, serving someone recreating a look that was around when I was their age.

All this may make me sound old, but although I may joke about being old I am in fact rather bemused by my age.
Next week I will be 35. It’s kind of crept up on me.
I certainly don’t feel 35 and I’m not sure that I act 35.
Don’t get me wrong I have no problem with being this age; in fact I’m rather enjoying it. It’s just that I’m not sure I believe it!!!

I may look back fondly at being a teenage Goth, proudly wearing a backcombed Robert Smith birds nest on my head but I certainly wouldn’t want to do it again. It was high maintenance. It took a whole week of abuse with hairspray, crimpers and a comb to get my hair into a spiky tangled mess for the weekend. None of us used to get to the pub that much before nine on a Friday night because we were all at home slaving over a hot hairdo!!

As for the tight stretch black jeans, I’m not sure I would ever want to put my testicles through that again.

But it was a good time and I would never change it for the world. It is amusing to see teenagers going through the same pains in hair and tight jeans!!

My other addition is my amusing sight for the day, which occurred on my way home from the pub. It was a strange sight. A drunk man trying to quietly get a large (2ft by 3ft by 2ft) cage of birds in through his front door at around midnight.
I don’t think I need to add any more.
In fact by not adding any more I give any one reading the chance to ponder for themselves – what happened next?

Calculate your carbon footprint

Do it know, there's no time to loose....

Calculate Your Carbon Footprint

Personally I'm not sure about this idea of offsetting your carbon footprint. I think the answer is to reduce your footprint, not ease your conscience and say "well I'm offsetting so therefore I can"....
Good as planting a few tree's may be, surely those with celebrity status would do more good if they promoted a lifestyle of not using resources needlessly. For pop stars like the singer in Coldplay, a keen advocate of planting trees to offset his jet-setting, wouldn't a better approach be to work on a more ecologically friendly way of touring.

I think a carbon neutral lifestyle is a good start, but it is just that, a good start.

Stimulating Conversation

Well here I am again, post pub, not particularly intoxicated, but stimulated by a good discussion and exchange of views. I have to say that going to the pub after work is my favourite bit about going to work!! Tonight both of the H’s were present, partners in setting the world to rights over a beer.

It is one of the things I like about the social drink. For too much of my life I indulged in the social smoke, which doesn’t have quite the same effect. With smoking I found that the more I smoked over the years the more introverted I became, reaching a pint where I was spending time with people mainly because we shared a drug in common. I don’t really regret it, although I do wonder what I would have done with my life if I hadn’t been quite so detached and sedated. But that’s another story.

I rather enjoy sitting around in the pub having deep and meaningful conversations. I have never been very good at small talk. Quite honestly I don’t give a toss which celebrity is sleeping with which, or what happened last night on some TV soap opera.

I don’t do small talk like that. Call me a nerd but I like to talk about real stuff. I may not always be right about what I spout about, but I like to get it out there just to hear others opinions on it and hopefully learn something along the way. And that’s why I like going for a beer with either one H or two! Because we sit around and exchange opinions, ideas and views - and it stimulates my mind.

And after many years of sedation I like stimulating my mind!!

I have to admit I stated writing this intending to waffle about something completely different, but I’ve completely forgotten that particular thread…

But hey, its my blog!!

Keeping fit with Sainsbury's!!

Whilst sitting on a checkout the other day, dutifully fulfilling my customer service duties and generally being nice to OAP's a cry went up behind me of "hey she's nicking...(something or other, I wasn't really listening)". This was followed by one of my supervisors shouting for me to run out into the car park after something or other.
So up I leapt and ran out the door where two of my colleagues who had made it out before me shouted out "no, go around the other way" - so off I headed. By the time I made it out the front door a few things were dawning on me.

1. I had no idea who I was chasing or why.
2. I had no idea what I would do if I did work out who I was chasing.
3. It was raining!!

Having met up with one of the other guys outside who was looking up and down the road outside for any sign of our fleeing criminal I decided that I had probably performed enough duties for one hour and went back in to my nice dry checkout.
It transpired that our thief had made off with two whole bottles of cider! Not the most enterprising thief ever I feel, but I did quite enjoy that quick run round the car park. And for anyone who knows me the concept of me chasing down and tackling hardened criminals is probably rather amusing.

Life, the universe and everything, on the walk home from work!!

I love walking; it’s my favourite form of transport. Apart from my desire to leave the smallest imprint on our fragile earth, it is also the best way to build a relationship with the place you live in. You actually pass through life as part of it rather than riding through as a mere spectator (if you even bother to look).

My current joy in the wonder of walking has a lot to do with the time of year. In the last few weeks all the trees have exploded with leaves, and walking to and fro from work, noting their progress has been a soul lifting experience. Who can be down when the world around you is bursting with life? The though has just struck me that perhaps the fresh acid green of new leaves is the happiest colour I know! It makes me so happy to be alive.

My favoured route to and from work at the moment was introduced to me by a friend from work, and comes down the tree-lined edge of the level and round the front of the church before heading up the hill for home. I’ve got quite into walking down that tree-lined stretch. The spring sunshine and warm evenings have been great and every day the trees have been that little bit further on. And I just love the smell of life in the spring; it takes me back to tramping round the bluebell woods as a kid.

I have always found walking to be conducive to having a good think. Many a problem has been worked out while thinking and walking. I also find it a great way of experiencing the environment I live in. in walking to work and travelling the same route every day you get to watch and keep tabs on certain things as they change with time. Also, each time you make the journey there always seems to be some thing new to see, something you hadn’t noticed before or something which has changed. I don’t even mind that much when it’s pouring with rain. True some days can be down right miserable but other times it can be quite enjoyable.

I have to say this is my main reason for preferring to walk everywhere rather than use public transport. You get out and see life, and it makes you feel alive.

Post Jazzanova DJ'ing Rant

Well its taken quite a long time to upload this one, I started last week with a draft and have only just got back to it. It’s been quite a hectic week.

Music with no boundaries. (After Jazzanova – Sunday 30th April 2006 @ Audio Brighton)

Monday 1st May.

Well the suns shining as I sit here basking in the aftermath of a full fried breakfast with J&H and a truly superb night out.

I left the club for once last night with no real desire to go away and play records, as I sometimes do when not totally satisfied with what has been offered. I know it sounds snobby but along with being a geek, I am a bit of a music snob. Last night I left totally satisfied, the bloke from Jazzanova having played a superb selection of stuff and I danced my arse off. It was a wrench to leave the dance floor on those necessary trips to get a drink or go to the loo.

Added to that it was also the first time in ages that nearly the whole of our group of friends were out together, and it made it one of the best nights out I’ve had for a long time.

It always amazes me that so called music loving DJ’s allow themselves to get stuck in a musical cul-de-sac. There is so much superb music out there and often DJ’s end up playing similar tunes for hours on end.

Shame more of it doesn’t get played – Deep Detroit techno, deep house, broken beat, soul, funk, boogie, jazz…….whatever it’s called - It all needs to be played together. As Kerry puts it, ‘putting peaks and troughs’ - or creating dynamics within a set. The music should take you on a rollercoaster ride of emotion, dancing through an emotional journey with the joy of discovery in each new tune. No sub standard fillers just put in to get somewhere else. The DJ needs to work, taking you on a magical mystery ride.

Personally I don’t believe sets like these can ever be planned. True you may have small groups of records that you know fit together. But a set should be a fluid organic thing. Evolving with the dance floor. Leading it and responding to its needs.
And it has to be a balance. You can’t dictate to a dance floor and you can’t slavishly obey. In the former case if you turn up with the intention of playing some pre-prepared artistic masterpiece you may well find the atmosphere is wrong and you succeed only in boring the pants off of people.

You need to be adventurous. If you just cater for what every one wants to hear exactly, you may as well go home and give them a juke-box.

Unlike playing live, where you are presenting something of your own artistic creation. When DJ’ing you are playing other peoples music, and what you are trying to create is sound-scape which an audience can emotionally respond to and be entertained by.

Step outside genres, if its good music that will fit the atmosphere then play it.

Of course I'm just as guilty at times, letting my nerves get the better of me and playing it safe rather than pushing it..... but thats a different rant, and right now I'm hungry!!