Still on CD's... I've just found a CD of the "Kennedy Experience". This is Nigel Kennedy when he stopped playing Vivaldi and began playing Hendrix. I'd totally forgotten we had that! We actually saw Nigel Kennedy performing it live years ago back in the days when he still lived in Malvern.
He used to play gigs at one of the local pubs. A friend of ours lived nearby and tipped us off when the "He's playing Saturday" rumours would go round. We saw him a couple of times and he was AWESOME, so when we heard that he was playing a proper concert in the local Community Centre we rushed to get tickets. He played two concerts. The first night was classical, the second night was Hendrix.
I don't think there was seating. We certainly didn't sit! Everyone seemed to be hanging about towards the back of the hall. Stephen scanned the room and said "Sod that, we're going to the front". I imagine people were thinking of the possible hearing impairment, and not wanting to stand in front of the banks of amplifiers, but we laughed in the face of tinnitus and went for the full on Kennedy Experience! We were right at the front. I mean RIGHT at the front. Close enough that Nigel Kennedy dripped sweat on us!! Close enough that my ears rang for days afterwards. It was amazing!
Watching an undoubted musical genius play the violin (he even got the Strad out at one point), inspired Stephen the genius guitarist to go "Pah. I could do that. I'm going to learn to play violin. It'll be easy. I play guitar. Its a transferable skill." I can tell you right now that it is most certainly NOT a transferable skill! Not even close! I bought him a violin for Christmas and after a few days of unspeakable cat torturing noises it was put away in its case and never mentioned again!!
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Burn 'em baby
We've decided to load all of our CD's onto an ipod to save a little shelf space...okay, quite a lot of shelf space! Aside from being a long, slow, mind-numbingly boring task it has provided a few surprises.
There are a lot of albums we'd forgotten we had, by a lot of artists we'd forgotten existed! Who knew we had so much obscure 90's music? Kula Shaker anyone?! Or Aleisha's Attic...you must remember them! The Lemonheads were maybe a little less obscure...and who'd have thought that we'd have two Moby CD's. I've found loads of 80's stuff I'd forgotten about too - Japan (David Sylvian was so...hot/beautiful/hot..?), Everything but the Girl, T'Pau, Terence Trent D'Arby... It has to be said that some of my more embarrassing 80's purchases are on vinyl (and I'm talking "Rick Astley embarrassing" here) for which I'm kinda grateful. I'm not sure I want to go back and listen to "Never gonna give you up"!
Its certainly a trip down memory lane! Who knows what we're going to find next!
There are a lot of albums we'd forgotten we had, by a lot of artists we'd forgotten existed! Who knew we had so much obscure 90's music? Kula Shaker anyone?! Or Aleisha's Attic...you must remember them! The Lemonheads were maybe a little less obscure...and who'd have thought that we'd have two Moby CD's. I've found loads of 80's stuff I'd forgotten about too - Japan (David Sylvian was so...hot/beautiful/hot..?), Everything but the Girl, T'Pau, Terence Trent D'Arby... It has to be said that some of my more embarrassing 80's purchases are on vinyl (and I'm talking "Rick Astley embarrassing" here) for which I'm kinda grateful. I'm not sure I want to go back and listen to "Never gonna give you up"!
Its certainly a trip down memory lane! Who knows what we're going to find next!
Tuesday, 1 June 2010
I fought the rose, and the rose won
I took Friday off to work in the garden. When I say I took the day off, I of course mean that I dealt with all the work email before setting foot outside. As it turned out, being able to duck inside and check email was a brilliant excuse for having a rest!
My garden had gotten a little overgrown. Shrubs were seriously out of hand. It was time to be brutal! I lopped, I pruned, I dug out shrubs. I even had to climb amongst the branches of my corkscrew hazel in order to lever out a stubborn plant. I had branches sticking in all sorts of places. I couldn't stand up. I seriously began to think that I might not be able to make it out of the clutches of the tree and would be stuck there until Stephen got home from Finland!! I hadn't realised that I had contortionist skills until I was trying to get out... I was twisting round on one leg trying not to stand on any delicate plants, and trying to keep from being smacked in the face by one branch whilst another was deciding it would look better in my jeans than I do!
It was a pretty intensive yoga workout! I started in the Five Pointed Star, went through Eagle, Chair, Goddess Squat, Half Bound Lotus Forward Fold, Warrior, Reverse Warrior and Crescent Moon before finally making it out of the shrubbery. This was an excellent point at which to catch my breath, check emails and pick the bits of leaf, twig and insect out of my hair!
I also picked a fight with a standard rose which had fallen over. This was a fight to the death. It was me or it.... I attacked it with loppers and it attacked me with many, many thorns... I had taken off the branches, just leaving the trunk and began to dig it out. OMG! This thing had rooted to Australia!! I could barely budge it. I had the spade and fork underneath it, but could only move it a couple on inches, no matter how hard I levered or with how much vigour I chopped through the roots. I could practically feel blood vessels bursting with the effort!! I was bleeding from the many scratches on my arms, I was sweating and I had managed to achieve 2 inches of movement. I fought the rose...and the rose fought back! I think I won in the end though...but it took our neighbour to help. Brute force won out in the end!
My garden had gotten a little overgrown. Shrubs were seriously out of hand. It was time to be brutal! I lopped, I pruned, I dug out shrubs. I even had to climb amongst the branches of my corkscrew hazel in order to lever out a stubborn plant. I had branches sticking in all sorts of places. I couldn't stand up. I seriously began to think that I might not be able to make it out of the clutches of the tree and would be stuck there until Stephen got home from Finland!! I hadn't realised that I had contortionist skills until I was trying to get out... I was twisting round on one leg trying not to stand on any delicate plants, and trying to keep from being smacked in the face by one branch whilst another was deciding it would look better in my jeans than I do!
It was a pretty intensive yoga workout! I started in the Five Pointed Star, went through Eagle, Chair, Goddess Squat, Half Bound Lotus Forward Fold, Warrior, Reverse Warrior and Crescent Moon before finally making it out of the shrubbery. This was an excellent point at which to catch my breath, check emails and pick the bits of leaf, twig and insect out of my hair!
I also picked a fight with a standard rose which had fallen over. This was a fight to the death. It was me or it.... I attacked it with loppers and it attacked me with many, many thorns... I had taken off the branches, just leaving the trunk and began to dig it out. OMG! This thing had rooted to Australia!! I could barely budge it. I had the spade and fork underneath it, but could only move it a couple on inches, no matter how hard I levered or with how much vigour I chopped through the roots. I could practically feel blood vessels bursting with the effort!! I was bleeding from the many scratches on my arms, I was sweating and I had managed to achieve 2 inches of movement. I fought the rose...and the rose fought back! I think I won in the end though...but it took our neighbour to help. Brute force won out in the end!
An unusual gateau topping
I've just watched a cookery programme and it triggered a holiday memory I forgot to share!
Rendezvous has two restaurants. One is the Trysting Place a la carte and the other is the Terrace which is buffet. Stephen and I were choosing food from the buffet when I ended up behind a young lady holding a dessert plate with a slice of rather delicious gateau on it. Nothing unusual about that you may say....except she was piling vegetables onto the plate as well. Then she got a slice of nicely rare beef wellington. And then...she spooned on horseradish sauce....!!!! Eurgh! Most people would pair cream with a gateau!!
All of that one one teeny little plate....horseradish and gateau and beef wellington and carrots!!!! I suppose it all goes down the same way, but a little separation (separate plates, or even separate courses!) might make it more pleasant!
She did the same the next night too. I began to wonder if this was some new diet fad... Or did she think this was Sizzlers where you are only allowed one pass at the buffet??
Rendezvous has two restaurants. One is the Trysting Place a la carte and the other is the Terrace which is buffet. Stephen and I were choosing food from the buffet when I ended up behind a young lady holding a dessert plate with a slice of rather delicious gateau on it. Nothing unusual about that you may say....except she was piling vegetables onto the plate as well. Then she got a slice of nicely rare beef wellington. And then...she spooned on horseradish sauce....!!!! Eurgh! Most people would pair cream with a gateau!!
All of that one one teeny little plate....horseradish and gateau and beef wellington and carrots!!!! I suppose it all goes down the same way, but a little separation (separate plates, or even separate courses!) might make it more pleasant!
She did the same the next night too. I began to wonder if this was some new diet fad... Or did she think this was Sizzlers where you are only allowed one pass at the buffet??
Sunday, 23 May 2010
Happy Anniversary to us...
Tuesday 18th May was our 20th wedding anniversary. I have now been married half my life... and still loving it!
We had a lovely day - breakfast, pool, lunch, jewellery, sun downers on the deck, cocktails at the bar and dinner in the Trysting Place where they had decorated the table with confetti and put the wedding covers on the seats.
"She's sitting on the throne" said the waiter as he settled me in my seat.
"shnorkhehe...um thank you" I replied as I tried to stifle the giggle.... "Sitting on the Throne" in Scotland means sitting on the loo...
We had a lovely day - breakfast, pool, lunch, jewellery, sun downers on the deck, cocktails at the bar and dinner in the Trysting Place where they had decorated the table with confetti and put the wedding covers on the seats.
"She's sitting on the throne" said the waiter as he settled me in my seat.
"shnorkhehe...um thank you" I replied as I tried to stifle the giggle.... "Sitting on the Throne" in Scotland means sitting on the loo...
Stunning Saint Loo-shah
There were armed police on the jetway, scoping out everyone getting on the plane. I thought this was a bit extreme as Stephen hadn't been THAT stroppy.... However, Upper Class looked to be very empty so we guessed that there was someone "special" on the flight. Especially as three burly suited and booted blokes were inserted into the front of the immigration queue in St Lucia, apologising to us as they had to get on the same plane back. Hmmm...wonder who it was who was frolicking in the Caribbean surf this week....
Thankfully our cases made it to St Lucia at the same time as we did, so we do owe a thank you to the woman at check-in who was at least not vindictive...or perhaps there were no flights going anywhere far enough...
It takes over an hour to get to the hotel from the airport. We spent that hour in a taxi being driven by a lunatic. He was digital on the accelerator and the brake, and the steering too. I was feeling pretty sick after 1/2 hour. There were times when I had to shut my eyes and offer a quick prayer to whomever upstairs was listening...these times mostly coincided with us being stuck behind a truck which he decided to overtake from 2 cars behind, on a hill, on a blind bend... After a couple of these manoeuvres I was pretty sure that we were going to die horribly. Remember that, thanks to my tablets and consequent threat of projectile vomiting, I was stone cold sober...no cushion of alcohol to soften the peril assessment!
Rendezvous was wonderful. They've had a major refurbishment and it was kind of like turning up to meet your aunt who normally wears Marks & Spencer and finding her tricked out in Chanel. What makes the place special are the staff - and they all seemed to still be there, including our favorite barman Imran and our St Lucian auntie Angie...and they remembered us! Big hugs from all the staff in fact.
We spent the week just chillin'. Thankfully I only had to be sober the first night, as being on an all-inclusive holiday and not being allowed to have a drinkie would have been terrible! Especially as I could have champagne. I can also recommend: Spiced rum and ginger, passionfruit daiquiris, mango daiquiris and the rendezvous delight (it really was!).
Stephen often toddled off to the man-creche. He'd take a hobie cat out sailing or go take part in the activities like"fish a prize" and archery. I lay on my lounger and read books. Lots of books. Bliss! Man, it was hot though! And humid. Drip water on your shirt at lunchtime and it was still damp come dinner...
Our trip out was to the duty-free mall in the harbour. This was a fun trip! Its full of jewellery shops and when there are no cruise chips in port they are quiet and the staff are bored. Needless to say we went in them all! We had such fun in one shop...the two ladies were so funny and we wandered about from display to display in peals of laughter whilst they bedecked me in diamonds and rubies. Very clever on their part as I did end up with a couple of pieces that were gorgeous and I really liked. Very clever also to send these pieces to their display table at the managers cocktail party the next night to further tempt me! Sadly, they were rather expensive and the exchange rate wasn't great so we didn't buy them... we did have a D'oh moment when we looked in the jewellers window in Worcester on Saturday though...!
The check-in at St Lucia was absolutely great! No hassle. No Pressure. No Problem. And an upgrade to Upper Class - YES! The plane must have been oversold as there were lots of upgrades going on - we're not complaining!! It was a great flight....and a great holiday!
Thankfully our cases made it to St Lucia at the same time as we did, so we do owe a thank you to the woman at check-in who was at least not vindictive...or perhaps there were no flights going anywhere far enough...
It takes over an hour to get to the hotel from the airport. We spent that hour in a taxi being driven by a lunatic. He was digital on the accelerator and the brake, and the steering too. I was feeling pretty sick after 1/2 hour. There were times when I had to shut my eyes and offer a quick prayer to whomever upstairs was listening...these times mostly coincided with us being stuck behind a truck which he decided to overtake from 2 cars behind, on a hill, on a blind bend... After a couple of these manoeuvres I was pretty sure that we were going to die horribly. Remember that, thanks to my tablets and consequent threat of projectile vomiting, I was stone cold sober...no cushion of alcohol to soften the peril assessment!
Rendezvous was wonderful. They've had a major refurbishment and it was kind of like turning up to meet your aunt who normally wears Marks & Spencer and finding her tricked out in Chanel. What makes the place special are the staff - and they all seemed to still be there, including our favorite barman Imran and our St Lucian auntie Angie...and they remembered us! Big hugs from all the staff in fact.
We spent the week just chillin'. Thankfully I only had to be sober the first night, as being on an all-inclusive holiday and not being allowed to have a drinkie would have been terrible! Especially as I could have champagne. I can also recommend: Spiced rum and ginger, passionfruit daiquiris, mango daiquiris and the rendezvous delight (it really was!).
Stephen often toddled off to the man-creche. He'd take a hobie cat out sailing or go take part in the activities like"fish a prize" and archery. I lay on my lounger and read books. Lots of books. Bliss! Man, it was hot though! And humid. Drip water on your shirt at lunchtime and it was still damp come dinner...
Our trip out was to the duty-free mall in the harbour. This was a fun trip! Its full of jewellery shops and when there are no cruise chips in port they are quiet and the staff are bored. Needless to say we went in them all! We had such fun in one shop...the two ladies were so funny and we wandered about from display to display in peals of laughter whilst they bedecked me in diamonds and rubies. Very clever on their part as I did end up with a couple of pieces that were gorgeous and I really liked. Very clever also to send these pieces to their display table at the managers cocktail party the next night to further tempt me! Sadly, they were rather expensive and the exchange rate wasn't great so we didn't buy them... we did have a D'oh moment when we looked in the jewellers window in Worcester on Saturday though...!
The check-in at St Lucia was absolutely great! No hassle. No Pressure. No Problem. And an upgrade to Upper Class - YES! The plane must have been oversold as there were lots of upgrades going on - we're not complaining!! It was a great flight....and a great holiday!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)