Monday, 29 December 2008
Sunday, 28 December 2008
150 songs...
...for my 30th Birthday. (Part One)
Once upon a time I wrote a post about music. Then I wrote a small follow-up to it.
I found those 18th Birthday Tapes the other day (they so deserve capitals) and was reading through the track listings and smiling at the memories that appeared.
So I decided to create my own playlist for my 30th. One hundred songs that represented the thirty years that I'd been around. Then I hit a few snags...mainly the fact that I couldn't narrow it down to 100. So I upped it a little. The list is now 150 songs, split up into 0-10, 10-20 and 20-30 sections so that each decade gets a fair shot. Not every song is in the decade it was released in, they fit in where I remember them within my life.
It's been very good fun - although Anthony is a little scared by some of the choices, and is very scared by some of the songs he didn't know that I then played him.
As I suspected in that first post, there are a few songs that have carried across to the 150. There are also a few that haven't due to not conjuring up a moment in my head. The Beatles are a casualty for this very reason, as are The Rolling Stones. I know. Shocking isn't it. They summon up a general time (sixth form and uni respectively) but no specific memories so I've had to be ruthless and chop them out.
While I'm working on the 150for30, here are my 100for18 - the result of three days choosing and locating the songs (as I had to find all the LP's/tapes with them on) and three weeks or so of Dad arranging them, copying them onto the reel-to-reel and then making the cassettes.
Queen - Headlong
Del Amitri - Driving With the Brakes On
CSN - Just a Song Before I Go
Eagles - Take it to the Limit
Livingstone Taylor - House at Pooh Corner (which I want on the 150for30 list, but this version isn't on iTunes so I've had to go for the version by Loggins & Messina - meh)
Neil Young - Pocahontas
Beatles - Revolution 9
CSN - Long Time Gone
CSN - Cowboy of Dreams
Billy Joel - Only the Good Die Young
Chicago - A Hard Habit to Break
Don McLean - American Pie
Jim Croce - Have to Say I Love You in a Song
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Blinded by the Light
Oasis - Morning Glory/The Swamp Song/Champagne Supernova (since they all just flow into each other on the album)
Four Seasons - December '63
Beatles - The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
Jim Croce - Photographs and Memories
Eagles - Hotel California
Billy Joel - Piano Man
Elton John - Candle in the Wind
Neil Young - Rockin' in the Free World
Beatles - Yesterday
CSNY - Deja Vu
Jim Croce - New York's not my Home
Queen - Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Ash - Oh Yeah
Boyzone - Key to my Life
Levellers - Hope Street
Commodores - Easy Like Sunday Morning
Jim Croce - Operator
CSN - Suite: Judy Blue-Eyes
Beatles - Hey Jude
Neil Young - Like a Hurricane
Beatles - Ticket to Ride
Doors - Strange Days
Madness - Our House
CSNY - Our House (two very different songs with the same title - I always loved the fact Dad put them together)
Billy Joel - Always a Woman to Me
Stills-Young Band - Long May You Run
Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever
Queen - Radio Ga-Ga
Chris De Burgh - Lady in Red (on the tape track listing as by Chris Rea for some reason)
Dodgy - Making the Most of
Aerosmith - Cryin'
Ash - Girl From Mars
Who - My Generation
Bonzos - I'm the Urban Spaceman (Produced by Apollo C. Vermouth, otherwise known as Paul McCartney)
Fleetwood Mac - The Chain
Oasis - Wonderwall
Al Stewart - Song on the Radio
Mama's & Papa's - California Dreamin'
Byrds - Mr Tambourine Man
Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
CSN - Military Madness
Chicago - If You Leave me Now
CSN - Teach Your Children
CSNY - Ohio (These two songs are forever linked in my mind)
Eagles - Best of My Love
Bluetones - Carnt Be Trusted (When I wrote this on the list Dad asked if I needed spelling lessons, then he said the band needed them!)
Queen - We Will Rock You
Ruth - Fear of Flying
Neil Young - Round and Round (It Won't be Long)
CSN - Simple Man
Billy Joel - Uptown Girl
Huey Lewis - The Power of Love
CSNY - Helpless
Beatles - All You Need is Love
Mungo Jerry - In the Summertime
Bluetones - Putting Out Fires
CSN - Horses Through a Rainstorm
Billy Joel - Christie Lee
Doors - When You're Strange (With the voice of my friend David at the beginning saying "These really are strange days, and they're full of strange people too")
Beatles - Birthday
Bluetones - Bluetonic
Queen - Killer Queen
Dodgy - Grassman
Alanis Morrisette - You Learn
Bryan Adams - Run to You
Doors - Light My Fire
Neil Young - Unknown Legend
CSN - Blackbird
Billy Joel - The Ballad of Billy the Kid
Beatles - Good Day Sunshine
Crosby & Nash - Cathedral
Beatles - Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Jim Croce - Time in a Bottle
CSN - Chicago/We Can Change The World
Alanis Morrisette - Ironic
Crosby & Nash - Carry Me
Blur - Charmless Man
Queen - Don't Stop Me Now
Al Stewart - Year of the Cat
Billy Joel - Famous Last Words
Anyone still here?
So lets see... at 18 I was in a phase of listening to a whole lot of my Dad's music, with occasional bursts of Billy Joel and Queen (courtesy of Mum), and a few dribs of current tunes.
One of the reasons I split the 150for30 into three sections...
Once upon a time I wrote a post about music. Then I wrote a small follow-up to it.
I found those 18th Birthday Tapes the other day (they so deserve capitals) and was reading through the track listings and smiling at the memories that appeared.
So I decided to create my own playlist for my 30th. One hundred songs that represented the thirty years that I'd been around. Then I hit a few snags...mainly the fact that I couldn't narrow it down to 100. So I upped it a little. The list is now 150 songs, split up into 0-10, 10-20 and 20-30 sections so that each decade gets a fair shot. Not every song is in the decade it was released in, they fit in where I remember them within my life.
It's been very good fun - although Anthony is a little scared by some of the choices, and is very scared by some of the songs he didn't know that I then played him.
As I suspected in that first post, there are a few songs that have carried across to the 150. There are also a few that haven't due to not conjuring up a moment in my head. The Beatles are a casualty for this very reason, as are The Rolling Stones. I know. Shocking isn't it. They summon up a general time (sixth form and uni respectively) but no specific memories so I've had to be ruthless and chop them out.
While I'm working on the 150for30, here are my 100for18 - the result of three days choosing and locating the songs (as I had to find all the LP's/tapes with them on) and three weeks or so of Dad arranging them, copying them onto the reel-to-reel and then making the cassettes.
Anyone still here?
So lets see... at 18 I was in a phase of listening to a whole lot of my Dad's music, with occasional bursts of Billy Joel and Queen (courtesy of Mum), and a few dribs of current tunes.
One of the reasons I split the 150for30 into three sections...
Did you all...
...have a nice Christmas?
I had a very nice Christmas Day, a not so nice Boxing Day (due to being at work serving idiots who can't wait ONE MORE DAY to go shopping) and then a very very nice birthday.
I have TWO new Leyton Orient shirts (a team shirt and a polo shirt) to wear plus some very scary boot-style slippers that my mother sent me and assorted other lovely things. These include a very very posh handbag from my darling sister who is trying so hard to make me elegant and grown-up. Pictures of this will follow, because it's just too damn gorgeous not to share!
We also appear to have a breeding population of Terry's Chocolate Oranges since everywhere you turn there's another one!
This may conflict slightly with my goal reaching on my lovely shiny Wii Fit that I got for my birthday. Chocolate Oranges are not exactly healthy food after all.
Today is a day for chilling out even more, especially since Anthony is fighting off the lurgy. He's doing this by shooting people on his XBox (not a 360, he wouldn't let me get him one) while I work on my birthday playlist.
Very unimpressed that "Leyton" pops up on the spellchecker!
I had a very nice Christmas Day, a not so nice Boxing Day (due to being at work serving idiots who can't wait ONE MORE DAY to go shopping) and then a very very nice birthday.
I have TWO new Leyton Orient shirts (a team shirt and a polo shirt) to wear plus some very scary boot-style slippers that my mother sent me and assorted other lovely things. These include a very very posh handbag from my darling sister who is trying so hard to make me elegant and grown-up. Pictures of this will follow, because it's just too damn gorgeous not to share!
We also appear to have a breeding population of Terry's Chocolate Oranges since everywhere you turn there's another one!
This may conflict slightly with my goal reaching on my lovely shiny Wii Fit that I got for my birthday. Chocolate Oranges are not exactly healthy food after all.
Today is a day for chilling out even more, especially since Anthony is fighting off the lurgy. He's doing this by shooting people on his XBox (not a 360, he wouldn't let me get him one) while I work on my birthday playlist.
Very unimpressed that "Leyton" pops up on the spellchecker!
Monday, 22 December 2008
It's...
...Christmas!!
(and I've had a haircut too).
(Foley is in the box for the new computer chair that my mum bought me for Christmas. Silly cat could get in...but not out.)
(and I've had a haircut too).
(Foley is in the box for the new computer chair that my mum bought me for Christmas. Silly cat could get in...but not out.)
Monday, 15 December 2008
Fifteen...
...happy things for the 15th of December.
1. The squeaky noises that Foley makes when I get home. (Sounds like Broccoli Kitten).
2. Having a beer when I get home.
3. The smell of the pink lillies sent by Anthony's workmates.
4. The super-duper graphics card I got as a surprise early Christmas present yesterday.
5. The "care package" arriving for me at work sometime this week (containing Christmas presents sent all the way from deepest darkest Essex).
6. My sister moving into her lovely flat in Colchester and therefore no longer having to drive up and down the A12 every day.
7. Kettle Chips - like crisps tasted when I was little.
8. The Christmas edition of the Radio Times.
9. Hearing a good Christmas song I'd forgotten about (few and far between).
10. Having a clean and shiny kitchen after the broadband conked out yesterday and we got bored...
11. ...and having the broadband back this morning!
12. Anthony coming up with the idea to snuggle on the sofa under a soft red blanket while eating Ben & Jerry's (Phish Food for me, Caramel Chew Chew for him).
13. Looking through the new Waitrose wine list.
14. A big bowl full of Lindor chocs.
15. Buying broccoli for Foley...and watching Esme fight her for it.
1. The squeaky noises that Foley makes when I get home. (Sounds like Broccoli Kitten).
2. Having a beer when I get home.
3. The smell of the pink lillies sent by Anthony's workmates.
4. The super-duper graphics card I got as a surprise early Christmas present yesterday.
5. The "care package" arriving for me at work sometime this week (containing Christmas presents sent all the way from deepest darkest Essex).
6. My sister moving into her lovely flat in Colchester and therefore no longer having to drive up and down the A12 every day.
7. Kettle Chips - like crisps tasted when I was little.
8. The Christmas edition of the Radio Times.
9. Hearing a good Christmas song I'd forgotten about (few and far between).
10. Having a clean and shiny kitchen after the broadband conked out yesterday and we got bored...
11. ...and having the broadband back this morning!
12. Anthony coming up with the idea to snuggle on the sofa under a soft red blanket while eating Ben & Jerry's (Phish Food for me, Caramel Chew Chew for him).
13. Looking through the new Waitrose wine list.
14. A big bowl full of Lindor chocs.
15. Buying broccoli for Foley...and watching Esme fight her for it.
Thursday, 11 December 2008
Blood...
...I still didn't have enough of it yesterday.
The doc went for my right wrist first and managed to fill four sample tubes with what he got. Then it was "a bit of blind poking about" in order to find the nice vein in my left elbow that the nurse had found before. It turned up first try and provided enough blood to fill the other nine sample tubes. Unlike the nurse before, he didn't fill each tube up straight from me. Instead he had this giant syringe and then decanted it.
Anthony was ever so sympathetic...sitting there and telling me my veins were crap while showing off the fact that his aren't.
Got my revenge when the doc decided to take some from Anthony too as part of the screening process that now kicks in as that was my third strike.
The big patch on my hand is where the catheter went for my nice general anaesthetic. That one (of course) bled like a bugger when they took it out.
------
So I'm here, and I'm ok. Not great, but ok. Thank you for all of your love and best wishes, hugs back at the lot of you.
Now I'm back to the sofa to watch more curling (love that sport) and be purred at by a possessive pussycat.
The doc went for my right wrist first and managed to fill four sample tubes with what he got. Then it was "a bit of blind poking about" in order to find the nice vein in my left elbow that the nurse had found before. It turned up first try and provided enough blood to fill the other nine sample tubes. Unlike the nurse before, he didn't fill each tube up straight from me. Instead he had this giant syringe and then decanted it.
Anthony was ever so sympathetic...sitting there and telling me my veins were crap while showing off the fact that his aren't.
Got my revenge when the doc decided to take some from Anthony too as part of the screening process that now kicks in as that was my third strike.
The big patch on my hand is where the catheter went for my nice general anaesthetic. That one (of course) bled like a bugger when they took it out.
------
So I'm here, and I'm ok. Not great, but ok. Thank you for all of your love and best wishes, hugs back at the lot of you.
Now I'm back to the sofa to watch more curling (love that sport) and be purred at by a possessive pussycat.
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
Third Strike...
...and I'm down but not out.
I haven't been blogging much recently because I've been absolutely wiped out with a combination of extreme tiredness and nausea. Also because the reason for the tiredness/nausea was really the only thing I wanted to blog about.
I didn't want to blog about it til after Christmas, until my birthday in fact.
Then I could announce the fantastically good news that I was expecting a baby in late June and then everything was going well.
And it was.
Right up until the point during my first scan yesterday when I was lying there looking at the screen and making out the shape of my baby and the ultrasoundographer (is that even a word) said sorry. She said she couldn't find a heartbeat.
So I'm afraid that instead of joining the many blogging friends and friends from school with happy baby announcements, once again I have to buck the trend and be the one with bad news.
I'm off to the hospital this afternoon for what is referred to as "surgical management". Anthony is here and proving yet again exactly why he is the Yeti's polar opposite.
You know what? Next year I'm going to have a bloody fabulous Christmas, cos last year and this one are just too pants to count.
And if anyone would like to buy me an early Christmas present? I'd like this please. *grin*
Love you xx
I haven't been blogging much recently because I've been absolutely wiped out with a combination of extreme tiredness and nausea. Also because the reason for the tiredness/nausea was really the only thing I wanted to blog about.
I didn't want to blog about it til after Christmas, until my birthday in fact.
Then I could announce the fantastically good news that I was expecting a baby in late June and then everything was going well.
And it was.
Right up until the point during my first scan yesterday when I was lying there looking at the screen and making out the shape of my baby and the ultrasoundographer (is that even a word) said sorry. She said she couldn't find a heartbeat.
So I'm afraid that instead of joining the many blogging friends and friends from school with happy baby announcements, once again I have to buck the trend and be the one with bad news.
I'm off to the hospital this afternoon for what is referred to as "surgical management". Anthony is here and proving yet again exactly why he is the Yeti's polar opposite.
You know what? Next year I'm going to have a bloody fabulous Christmas, cos last year and this one are just too pants to count.
And if anyone would like to buy me an early Christmas present? I'd like this please. *grin*
Love you xx
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