enjoying - the colours of the last of the hydrangeas.
very excited - about the coming week (more about that soon!)
astounded/flabbergasted - due to 'the' event of the coming week I have bought my very first (and I hope not my very last!) Cath Kidston dress...well 2 actually as I couldn't decided which I liked best so bought both to try on and send one back. This has been my weight loss goal - a Cath dress - so when they arrived yesterday I was a little scared to finally try one on.
I thought the large might still be too small for me but when I put them on they swamped me! So now I'm waiting for the medium size. A Cath dress at last! But I can't choose so I'm hoping that Anth will let me keep the second one for my birthday in November.
loving - 3 new to me songs ~ Miserere Mei Deus by the Choir of King's College Cambridge (oh this is exquisite) Be Here Now by Ray Lamontagne, and Silence by Seal.
looking forward to - the first of the Christmas magazines out next Thursday (Ideal Home's Complete Guide To Christmas...umm yes, I actually rang the magazine to find out the exact date - sad or what!? Don't tell my family or I'll never live it down!) The first of many good ones this year I hope. I can't believe it is my most favourite time of the year again - but where has this year gone?
going to - Totnes tomorrow to the Nostalgic Mix Fair (do come starts at 10am) and to meet a lovely blog reader and her husband from the US. So excited as I feel I know her already. Funny that. So as you can see I have spent most of this week in a state of high excitement and it looks like next week is going to be even better. How much can a girl take!
Yes, it's almost time for that great event at the Royal Albert Hall - to see Crosby, Stills and Nash and I am going crazy with excitement. Crazy. I am also the proud owner of 5 dresses now and I have to find the right one to wear just in case my sweet David Crosby just happens to look my way or bumps into me as I stake out the Stage Door! There are only 4 are real contenders though but the above photo is only showing 3 (the navy thing is a long cardigan complete with frills and a tie which I love). Here is the other one with me in it (sorry) with and without a grey cardigan. The tummy is still evident and I'm even breathing in for the photo! But I'm slowly getting there and it's so, so wonderful wearing some new clothes. All from Marks and Spencer by the way.
I think this dress is my favourite - plus the photo doesn't show my double chin so perhaps it has some magic in it. I think it might be the one..what do you think?
If you have happened to be passing by our home recently, the chances are you would have been hearing some new tunes being played (& sung) wherever possible. There is nothing better, nothing, than finding a 'new' favourite song.
But talking of discoveries as per usual I am well behind the crowd on this one - give or take 6 years or so but over the last few weeks I have discovered Keane. I heard 'She Has No Time' on a TV programme and was hooked.
"Why didn't you tell me about them before?" I complained to Matthew who, as it transpired, had actually seen them live ages ago. I had heard the usual well known songs before but never really listened I suppose. I still only like a handful of their songs but the ones I do like I'm really into at the moment. I also unearthed a beautiful song called 'Still Lost' by Tom McRae. (Again on a TV show. My ears prick up and I put what lyrics I can into google to try and identify it and voila you can have the song playing on YouTube in no time - and hopefully it will turn out to be the start of a beautiful friendship!) Anyway, here is my current favourite playlist:
She Has No Time - Keane
A Bad Dream - Keane
On A Day Like Today - Keane
Still Lost - Tom McRae
Hamburg Song - Keane
Bedshaped - Keane
My Shadow - Keane
Is It Any Wonder? - Keane
Love Is The End - Keane
We Might As Well Be Strangers - Keane
Very Keane dominated - see I told you I was into Keane at the moment..! Better late than never I guess. Now what's on your favourite playlist at the moment?
I have spent the entire week covered in goose bumps and with the odd lump in my throat as I have immersed myself in vintage Genesis.
You see it all started the other week when Matthew mentioned that there was a channel on Sky called Sky Arts (or something similar) which showed music documentaries and concerts. A quick flick through showed that there were 2 documentaries about Genesis due to be shown this week. Well, what a week it's been. My love affair with Genesis started in 1977 (you can read about it here) and since I don't like what they have done since Duke in 1980, I am, or so I thought, limited in finding DVDs and live concert CDs and footage which focuses on the 70's and the 1980 tour when I saw them in my home town and almost in my actual home! Yes, I could have slept under the same roof as them in 1980 but I wont dwell on that fact (thank you Mum. Not.! Story in above link)
Anyway, I have been enthralled with these documentaries watching snippets of the vintage Genesis I love. I also discovered a very interesting fact and I am kicking myself for not making the connection before. In the 1980's their producer was Hugh Padgham - Hugh is Cath Kidston's partner! If I'm brutally honest I never bought any of the Genesis albums he produced as they went more commercial after 1980 and lost the very essence I loved. But this week's Genesis rediscovery doesn't end with the TV - I went on to discover a treasure trove of videos on YouTube even better than the snippets of television concert footage. I never thought to look on YouTube before. I have been in heaven but there have been grumbles and a far share of eye rolling in the family. Lucy walked in quite late on Wednesday after school and stood at the sitting-room door her face aghast, "You were watching this when I left for school this morning and you are still watching it now?!" The other night we had 4 minutes before the news started so I suggested 4 minutes of the Afterglow footage which they sat through complaining...well I did get to the remote control first! Tom was encouraged (read forced) to watch some with me last night as he is home for Easter. With each new song I was asking everyone, "don't you recognise this? Surely!" Funnily enough If they said yes I was thrilled. Why I don't know. Probably because I want them to love it as much as me; but I'm not holding out much hope - though Anth was able to sing along a bit with Ripples which made me look at him in a new light - I may have my own rock star husband yet! And did you think that you, my friends, were not going to be subjected to a little vintage Genesis love? Oh no. You can't get away that easily. Here we go..and no eye rolling... here's Afterglow one of my absolute favourites.
And the last bit of The Musical Box
and... ...you have had enough already? Just one more...
..oh and I can't resist Ripples even though it's a newer concert.
This week I discovered a song by the Cinematic Orchestra and sung by Patrick Watson. I actually heard a tiny snippet of the song on a TV programme and did an internet search and managed to track it down. It's beautiful and Patrick's voice is haunting. It is called, 'To Build a Home'
There is a house built out of stone
Wooden floors, walls and window sills...
Tables and chairs worn by all of the dust...
This is a place where I don't feel alone
This is a place where I feel at home...
Cause, I built a home
for you
for me
Until it disappeared
from me
from you
And now, it's time to leave and turn to dust...
Out in the garden where we planted the seeds
There is a tree as old as me
Branches were sewn by the color of green
Ground had arose and passed it's knees
By the cracks of the skin I climbed to the top
I climbed the tree to see the world
When the gusts came around to blow me down
I held on as tightly as you held onto me
I held on as tightly as you held onto me...
Cause, I built a home
for you
for me
Until it disappeared
from me
from you
And now, it's time to leave and turn to dust...
I then went on to find this song Music Box which I like the lyrics to (from 1minute 30 secs)
My darling, darling girl
Won't you shout it to the world?
My darling, darling, darling girl
Shout it out, my golden girl
Wrap yourself with all the world
Little bit of gold, little bit of pearl
Little bit of gold, little bit of pearl
(Oh my golden girl)
Little bit of gold, little bit of pearl
(Wrap yourself with all the world)
Little bit of gold, little bit of pearl
(Shout, my golden girl)
Little bit of gold, little bit of pearl
(Wrap yourself around the world)
Little bit of gold, little bit of pearl
Little bit of gold, little bit of pearl
(Wrap yourself around the world)
Little bit of gold, little bit of pearl
It reminds me of Lucy. Our lovely Lucy has been having a bad time of late. That's where the faith bit comes in. Quite unbelievably she has been rejected (hate that word) from every university she has applied to to do medicine. Her teachers are dumbfounded. We are dumbfounded. The rest of the family are dumbfounded. (Hate that word too!) Lucy is a straight A student. She spent all her summer holidays doing a medical bursary at our local hospital and spent a week with my doctor brother Matthew doing 12 hour shifts at his hospital for work experience. She chose Chemistry, Biology, Maths & English for her A levels and is doing very well. She is conscientious, well-behaved (i.e doesn't go out and get drunk/sleep with boys etc), mature, studies everyday and is almost a year younger than her peers as she was born just 2 days before she would have been in the school year below. Who knows why these things happen? We just don't know. I could wail on her behalf. But in all the disappointment she has been so strong, only once blinking back the tears as she sat on my bed in early February when the first rejection came through. I could only say to her that that wasn't where God wanted her to be. Surprisingly I've had to say that 4 more times now and we're beginning to take comfort from it. Those doors have closed for her and we are thinking that a gap year might be just what God intended all along. In that old suitcase of mine that caused such a distraction the other day, I found a yellowing piece of paper with a prayer on it. I read it out at Lucy's dedication in church when she was a baby - well with all my babies. I did not write it and don't know who did. It says,
My God here is my child. I give her to you. Reach out and touch her with the finger of Your love so she may stop where she is, sense Your presence and turn to You. Take her and make of her what You want, not what I want. Call her to adventures You have planned for her. Keep her from sin, but if she sins draw her back to You. Keep her from smallness of spirit. Help her to know herself and enjoy the person You created her to be. Help her to use her gifts to serve You. Help her to plunge deep into the mystery of her union with You and love You above all things as for me. Help me to love her without possessiveness. Help me to be firm and protect her when I must. Help me to be patient while she strives to find herself. Then help me to respect her for what You made her to be. Help me to guide her with Your wisdom. Help me to love letting her go. And when the work is done and she is formed and raised and gone, help me to turn back to You without her and continue the journey, wiser and more understanding of You and Your way with men because I have borne a child of my own.
I have to hand her future over to God because he has plans for her that are different to what we thought. After all I did pray for that 17 years ago. It's felt good writing this post - therapy almost! To cheer Lucy I bought a Cath Kidston neckerchief with her favourite print (London - she thinks London is the most coolest place like I did at her age and was her first and second university choice, bless her.) and made a pillowcase for her. She'll get to London one day.
And on that pillowcase I pinned some of the lyrics of Music Box because I had discovered them that very day and they just felt God given for that very moment.
Another sunny morning and it isn't just the humans in the household enjoying it's warmth. I stood for a moment watching him rolling on our bed. Slightly different story this time last week. Alfie had to have a little haircut...well a big haircut really.
Poor boy had got rather matted and I was out of action for the last few weeks and was unable to keep up with the grooming. He has been behaving rather strangely since he has been, er, scalped as he keeps jumping onto things that he shouldn't or hasn't done so before. Take the above photo on my trolley. (Look how grumpy he is!) He also has been jumping into our bath and basin. Perhaps he feels lighter on his paws.
Ooh the big pleasure today is having Matthew (my youngest brother) here and my Tom for the weekend. Matthew came with a surprise for me..look....look..
...tickets for my beloved Crosby Stills and Nash. I am sooooooooooooooo thrilled and excited!!! I may not have mentioned very often how I spent my teenage years, after loving pre 1980 Genesis, totally LOVING Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (I was a bit of a hippy then.) I have only seen them once and that was in 1983. I was unemployed and living in Perth Scotland and saved up to buy a ticket and the train fare to Birmingham (it was a 6 hour journey). I was the youngest in the audience and the first to run down to the front and was thanked for doing so by one of them. I love David Crosby best, then Stephen Stills and then Graham Nash. What I do dislike immensely is whenever anyone plays any of their music it is always 'Teach Your Children' or 'Marrakesh Express' which are totally the worst songs they have ever made. It doesn't showcase their wonderful harmonies. Right, rant over but my goodness I am so looking forward to seeing them. I thought I would have to go to the US to see them again as I missed out in getting tickets last year when they were in the UK. Such big pleasure...I'm counting the days...
Dear Blog Ladies, How very kind you have been showering me with your good wishes. I have had my trusty iphone next to my bed and have read your comments as they have come in. So nice. Your advice has been invaluable too. Thank you so much. Well, how am I? A little improvement has been seen, no more bleeding they think but I'm still under the normal levels of iron. I feel my body has been taken over by an alien I feel so strange and weak and still spend 22 hours a day in bed. I'm so hoping to come out of this a new woman but I wish this whole thing will hurry up. Dear Anth has been a star bless him. Thank you again for your kindness, Warmest wishes to all, Jane xxxxxxxxxxxxx P.S The tea cozy is from The Laundry. I became obsessed with it at the beginning of January and it arrived the day I fell ill. It cheers me.
Letter Two
Dear Mr Shawcross, I bought your book for Christmas and being bedridden decided that the time was right to start reading it. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Little did you probably know that one day Jane Goble would be suffering extremely weak wrists and can barely lift it! It's humongous size is a danger to small children and animals. I have had to come up with an elaborate balancing plan just to read it. I'm really enjoying it though, so all is forgiven. When I finish it I will probably use it as a weight for my exercises. Best wishes, Jane Goble
Letter Three
Dear Shim, During my extended bed-rest I have discovered your new album 'Tri-Polar' and have fallen big time for the track White Balloons. It has sort of become my feeling ill sound track over the last fortnight . It has really resonated with how I'm feeling at the moment - it's just so good. I just love your voice and the pain of life always there in the lyrics. My children laugh at me because they hear these heavy guitar rifts coming from a very floral and feminine bedroom! I like to hear you loud so Anthony bought me some proper-over-the-ear headphones which totally rock - so much better than those silly tiny in the ear jobs.
I think you are great. When will the Sick Puppies come and tour in the UK? Please come - I would make you happy if you came over here. Take good care of that beautiful voice and thank you for White Balloons. Lots of love, Jane P.S Don't tell Chris (Martin) I have written to you!!
I love reading lists that people make - I feel you learn so much about them by their choices and so I thought I would list a few of my special loves and (maybe dislikes) and encourage you to share some of yours with me. Blog land is such an inspiring place to visit and even though I find myself identifying with most blog ladies it's the little things that define us that make us the women we are now. So keep posted for a few days of lists. So for today's list it is about those songs that make me cry. If I could choose to have any talent or be anything I wanted to be - a singer would be top of my list. I have always loved singing and spent a large part of my life in a church choir which, as I'm getting older, is appealing to me once again. But I have an average voice - it certainly wouldn't move someone to tears or enthrall a concert hall. Music has always played a huge part in my life and I get deeply moved by some songs- particularly the lyrics. My brother Matthew and I regularly send each other texts with snippets of poetical lyrics from songs we both love or newly discovered ones. He knows that I will probably get choked up just by reading the lyrics - that's if I'm not in the middle of doing something in the classroom when my phone goes off. Tut tut. Incidentally, last time that happened a few months ago I overheard a 9 year old boy say to his partner when my ring-tone for Matthew filled the room (Talk - with the words, 'Oh brother I can't, I can't get through. I've been trying hard to reach you coz I don't know what to do..' ) - he,rather knowingly and particularly confidently remarked, "Oh that will be Coldplay." And the funny thing was he was right - it's amazing what they pick up! Anyway on to my today's list..
:: Songs that make me cry ::
With One More Look At You/Watch Closely Now ~ Barbara Streisand (The finale of the 1978 film A Star is Born. My favourite film but not seen for at least 20 years..sob). A song about the worst thing that could ever happen to me - the loss of my soul mate.
This Woman's Work ~ Kate Bush. This is a hauntingly beautiful song and melody which sends me every time even though I'm not really sure what it's about!
Aubrey ~ Bread. Matthew recently introduced this to me and we just love the lyrics .." and God I miss the girl, and I'd go a thousand times around the world just to be closer to her than to me." And in the last line he changes it to, "and I'd go a million times around the world just to say she had been mine for a day.." I think it's about a baby who died but Matthew thinks it's about a girl. Who knows, but it pierces the heart!
Sand & Water ~ Beth Nielsen Chapman. A song about the loss of her husband but it's the line.."..All alone I raise this child..flesh and bone he's just bursting towards tomorrow and his laughter fills my world and wears your smile."
Scarlett Ribbons ~ Sinead O'Connor. It doesn't help me that her voice breaks with emotion in the middle. Oh, a mother's love.
Song for Athene - Sir John Tavaner. Info and lyrics here. Probably the most exquisite piece of music ever written and one I would like at my own funeral. I can't listen to it without a huge lump in my throat and goose bumps over my body.
Diary ~ Bread. (I don't really like Bread either!) It's the lines.."and as I go through my life I will give to her my wife all the sweet things I can find." Then at the end " and as I go through my life I will wish for her his wife all the sweet things she can find. All the sweet things they can find."
Ruby Adeline ~ Minnie Driver. This is my song for Lucy, it's my ring-tone for her.
Little Star ~ Madonna. This is my song for Alice and also her ring-tone.
Beautiful Child ~ Eurythmics. My song for Tom but it's not cool enough for his ring-tone!
Ripples/Snowbound ~ Genesis.
Good life ~ Francis Dunnery because I have a exceedingly good life.
Sweetest Taboo ~ Sade. The song I heard the morning of our wedding.
Let Me Say Once More ~ Amy Grant. A song I would dearly love to sing on a stage to, and for, my Anth.
All I Need To Know ~ Emma Bunton. Another love song for Anth.
Most of Coldplay's back catalogue.
Any peal of church bells.
So that's all I can think of now but it is by no means finished. If you want to join in then please do. Until tomorrow..
I have a story to tell you. But first a little background knowledge of me..
In 1977, or there abouts, I discovered the band Genesis. I have had 5 major music loves in my life so far - when I was 6 to about 10 years old I loved The New Seekers. Then the next obsession was Genesis when I was 13 following on to Crosby, Stills & Nash when I was 17 (gosh, I've just discovered that site. Wonderful). Then I got married, moved to NZ, moved back, had babies until my beloved Coldplay touched my heart 5 years ago. I have no idea why any of these bands have left such a footprint in my heart as I do like lots of other bands/artists and always have some music on somewhere. But so far, these bands are the real essence of me. Maybe I should point out in the interest of 'coolness' that I don't listen to the New Seekers quite as much as I did when I was 6!!
But I digress...it seems that history again has repeated itself. In late 1979 my mother casually mentioned over the breakfast table one morning if I had heard of the band Genesis? The fact that most of the music that had floated out of my room over the previous 2 years was Genesis seemed to escape her.
"Genesis, have I heard of Genesis? I squawked in my indignant teenage manner.
"Well, their management rang up to see if they could stay in the hotel for their tour." (We lived in the largest hotel in Paignton at the time. Blog fodder for another time. Promise.)
.......mouth hit the floor..."What did you tell them?" breath held....
"That we were full...."
We were not. She was just understandably nervous at having a rock band and their entourage (that she had never heard of) trashing the hotel.
Well, this then was the start of trying to get tickets for the Duke tour. Mum, obviously racked with guilt, did everything to try and get me one. They were playing 2 dates in Paignton (unheard of to get such a big band) and there were none available. I was absolutely heart broken. Devastated. It didn't get easier and I tried not to wince when the band were interviewed at 'their hotel' (the 2nd biggest in Paignton). The night of the first concert I went outside the theatre and pressed my ear up to the fire door and tried to listen to the show. No good so I went home.
The next morning as my father drove me to school we drove past the theatre and I saw Genesis name up on the billboard a strange sort of peace entered my heart. I think now it was an acceptance that it was too late to get a ticket and I should just let it go. I did . Two hours later a miracle happened - I had a ticket for that night's performance in my hot little hand ! Yes, I really did!
So on 18th March 1980, thanks to God, who manovered a girl at school to sell me her ticket (as she didn't want to go. What!?.) I took my seat. When they came on stage and straight into Back in NY City, I had tears streaming down my face I was completely overwhelmed that they were only yards from me. I'll never forget that. Ever. I have found that in my life when I really, really want something I have to change my attitude - almost an acceptance, create the right spirit within me. When that happens God never fails to bless me with my heart's desire.
Going back to the title of this long post (sorry) Genesis are touring in the UK again in 3 weeks, only 2 dates, but tickets have sold out again and are only available at vast prices. Yes, I would dearly love to go though I do not like the later Genesis (from 1980 onwards) but it looks like it won't happen for me this time. But hey, I'm OK about it - it just makes me smile that I am in the same position again only 27 years later! I'll just have to add this to my wish list and in the words of one of their songs..."Some you lose and some you lose.."
