Post Christmas edition

Well I'm feeling about talking around Christmas today.

Food is one thing I look forward to and I usually meet with family members on Christmas day for lunch as for one thing it saves cooking and for another it's a good deal more relaxing being waited upon so you're able to talk more. The Christmas pudding with Brandy sauce was nice.

Also I went to the works Christmas lunch before we broke up which this year was held near Oulton Park race track surround by the Forest which I look forward to as its a chance to speak to people I don't see too often otherwise being in the other office most days. The staff were really helpful escorting a visually impaired staff member in and finding them a spot well illuminated to eat by talking of which the food was well cooked. I don't like lukewarm carrots.

We had a quiz and my tables team won by half a point!

This christmas I had some money, a voucher for the Electronics store Maplins - whose customer service around these parts is something of a joke with staff that can't do math and so on, the latest Naruto dvd set, a new watch, a Beatle mug and lots of candy.

I've yet to go physical shopping because in my neighbourhood the public transportation is locked down until this morning when it resumes as a 'Saturday' service although I raided Amazon for some goodies like replacement cds yesterday.

My mailman has quite a backlog of stuff to get through!!!

Christmas Edition 2011

Well yes finally I've gotten around to doing this entry cos this time of year has some bad memories for me and I struggle to be motivated.

Still, not before time I've gotten all my Christmas cards written, gifts sorted and otherwise almost sorted which considering I've only bin on the case fro the last few days is a bit of a miracle. Someone was on TV yesterday saying it's all right to have an okay Christmas rather than getting caught up in delivering the most perfect one ever and it think its true. It's what you bring to the event that counts and that isn't in the shops!

Happy Christmas everyone.

Keeping the draughts out

Cold windy few days here so thoughts turned to this nice Thompson tartan scarf in 100% acrylic from BHS. A good Christmas stocking filler if ever I saw one as it would be most useful.

RIP Suzy

My life with Caroline started in 1997 when I was found very young in her garden and she took me in. Shortly afterwards there was a big bulge in my tummy with everybody else saying it was food but she got it right . Actually I was pregnant not that I knew about safe sex and that so I gave birth to five kittens!

Caroline adopted two - Moomin and Will - and found good homes for the others not before she stopped me from having more.

I enjoyed mousing, chasing sticks and rolling about on the ground but I became unwell Saturday and I was really off Sunday.

At the Vets, Suzy was found to have a blood clot along her back,

Peer influences

I was pondering the influence of others on what we do the other day while recovering from a periodic condition that flared up.

For instance there was a time when I'd allow what other people thought about my tastes in clothes dictate what I would choose by either colour or type - I loved knitted tank tops but my friends would say 'Nah' - and back it would to either the store or a used clothes selection.

Or someone would say "If you go there with him, I won't speak to you" and I thought this was okay at the time.

I noticed recently two little reminders of this type of thinking when reviewing my cd collection where a group of people sought to influence which copy of an album to have though peer pressure at a place where briefly I joined.

The first was the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever where I have a very nice lp copy but when in 1995 the cd was reissued onto a single disc compared to two i finally brought a copy which I thought was pretty good. This was a downfall as a lot of people there kept on saying how the older one was better with the vocals more upfront, having issues with process called UV22 used to master it to cd and I allowed them to influence me into getting this one and removing my more recent edition.

As well, I allowed them to talk me into replacing the remastered edition of Kiss's Love Gun to an West German original again because the view seemed to be the older the better.

Now as I think I wrote maybe three or four years ago because of the 'make everything darn loud' thing going on indeed some older cds are better but on these two this isn't the case.

Take Love Gun first, it has the same lack of upper high notes like on the percussion as the 1982 UK lp that I replaced in a matter of months with the US original even though I love that 'starburst' Casablanca label design so I ended rebuying the remastered copy which may be a just a tad louder but has a much fuller sound.

Saturday Night Fever was similar because although I like the emphasize on the mids, there's something quite wishy washy going on on the high notes sounding like a tape going up and down the tape heads on a tape recorder and being somewhat recessed too so I've just re-bought the 1995 edition.

I think the moral here is we own our own preferences, which isn't to say others can't offer their advice when asked, not being put off by peer pressure or the thought someone might think you're a bit funny for having your likes.

They may even be wrong.

Also we need to be on our guard for those that invade our head space making everything into it's me or him for no good reason. Boundaries exist for a good reason and they ought to be respected.

The Kinks are Well Respected Men!

Well it's almost an annual ritual here that every year as we approach the Christmas season, a expensive box set arrives for me to buy, starve the cat for a few weeks or something a bit like that and this year is no exception.

The Kinks are quite simply one of the most important British groups of the 60's who took R&B, created the heavy metal riff with You Really Got Me and pioneered social comment in popular music with albums like Face To Face as well as The Village Green Preservation Society exploring the British way of life and inspiring countless acts ever since.

Entitled the Kinks In Mono, this set comprises of the seven UK albums of the period plus two discs of mono collectible versions plus a disc with four of their EP recordings on it, housed in a mini lp style sleeve, gatefolded with credits and fresh photographs on the inner folds.

The first three albums -Kinks, Kinda Kinks and The Kinks Kontroversy - are R&B albums with a high number of originals such as Stop Your Sobbing,Tired Of Waiting and Till The End Of The Day leading to the band being adopted by the 'Mods'.

From 1966's Face To Face onward Ray Davis's introspective song writing comes to the for with such classics as Dandy (a massive hit for Herman's Hermits in the States), Sunny Afternoon, David Watts as covered by The Jam, Death of a Clown, the impossibly perfect Waterloo Sunset, Starstruck (from Village Green Preservation Society) and Victoria from 'Arthur'.

The EP disc takes in four UK EP's (Kinksize session, Kinksize Hits, Kwyet Kinks and Dedicated Kinks) with Louie Louie, All Day and All Of The Night, A Well Respected Man, Dedicated Follower of Fashion and Set Me Free while the Mono Kollectables has singles mixes, b sides and the mono Lola and Apeman singles.

The mastering for is very good, a little louder than the early Kinks discs from mid 1980's but with plenty of contrast between the loudest and softest volumes and much improved on the 1998 re-issues with Village Green having a brand new mastering exclusive to this set.

For the money I think it's worth it, lacking a set of Kinks albums on cd.

At the bottom there are some picture one of the discs in the box and another of the book which is like the Pop Annuals Radio Luxembourg and Thank Your Lucky stars had out back then telling the Kinks story.

It's no weighty tomb of knowledge never mind a set of lyrics so you'll go whistle if that's what you want but as a slightly goofy period like introduction to the band it serves well being a fun read.

Winter Fashion 2011

Well after all that serious stuff a few weeks back and a musical interlude, I was considering what this post was going to be but as I'm a little cold that's kind of made it's mind up for me.

Winter you see is starting to make an appearance so for those of us brought up in cold climates thoughts turn to keeping warm and this by designer Louise Gray who lives in Hackney, London caught my eye.

She specializes in knitwear of the more traditional sort made in a textile mill in the Scottish Boarders but with a contemporary young feel.

The first item is a Beanie -very popular in the UK presently but using traditional patterns and then there's loose fitting jumper although I think the arms are a bit too long for the model.

The range also includes thick knee length socks and wrist warmers a kind of sleeve going from your wrist to your upper arms.