A collection of unreliable memoirs and jottings written at haphazard times with questionable logic, bordering on the pointless
30th February or 1st March
I have been noticing over the past six months the use of the word "oversight" to imply examination or overview, eg the OPI will have oversight of the police force. I am aware of oversight, or an oversight, to imply that something has been overlooked or not noticed,eg "...that was an oversight missing that street sign..." This is almost the opposite of the way this word is being used currently. Similarly, the word "fulsome", so often used in a positive fashion such as fulsome praise, is from the word foulsome, a pejorative.
27th February 2008
Getting quite excited now, as you probably can feel through cyberspace, because this is a leap year. However, for me it is not just any old leap year. On Friday 29th February 2008, an intercalary day, it will be the 60th anniversary of my arrival from Ceylon (Sri Lanka nowadays). Being the pedant I am, it is actually only 15 years since I arrived in leap year terms. I plan to do some leaping to celebrate. I didn't realise at my then tender age of 7 that I would be given the mnemonic of having an Olympic Games happening on each leap year to remind me of my arrival at Princes Pier in Port Melbourne on the P&O ship "Strathaird". I accompanied my mother, her parents and my brother Nigel. My father had come to Melbourne the previous year to set up a home for us and one of my strongest memories of that arrival morning was waking in the cabin to the sound of my father's voice when he met us and leaping off the top bunk to greet him.
So leaping has been part of my activities for as long as I can remember. I've leapt impetuously into all sorts of things, some of which I've managed to get out of (or, more correctly, some out of which I have managed to get). As my syntax teacher used to say, a preposition is not a word one should end a sentence with.
I had a wonderful time in Phuket staying with my daughter Cassi, son-in-law Phil and grandkids Pascal and Indigo. The two weeks whizzed by, specially as Patong beckoned a couple of times and memory banks tend to take on sub-prime lending meltdowns in that part of the island. Took the 12 string and did a little concert at the British International School just to check that the pupils had indeed learned all four verses of Morningtown Ride.
Also caught up with dear friend David Groom, with whom I had written several songs during our time together in England, a couple covered by The New Seekers. He has lived in Thailand over 17 years and we have communicated only sporadically but, as with such friends, the years matter little. There is one particular song we wrote, "Sad Elena" that I am working on to include in the new CD.
The Barham Country Music Stampede last weekend was great fun. Met lots of country music folk as well as getting together with school friends from 50 years ago who suddenly materialised in the crowd. I was able to draw on some of my repertoire from the days of producing Leapy Lee (there's that word "leap" again "creaping" in) most written with Barry Mason in the early 1970s. One of them was the single I produced for Leapy, EVERY ROAD LEADS BACK TO YOU. I had just logged on after getting back from Barham when I received an email from Geoff P to say that he and his wife had recorded the song for their new CD. 'Twas in the ether doubtless. May even do this one for my new CD.
Talking of new CDs, I am running seriously behind time with my recording plans. However, as running and leaping are Olympic sports I am keeping focussed in a manner of speaking, this being a leap year if you hadn't realised. Need new spikes.
Word of the month: incorrigible. If you're going to be in anything it may as well be a corrigible. I have recently been in tuk-tuks but a corrigible, well tuned and with a hardtop, beats them any day.
Thought for the month: What we have today is all we have until tomorrow
Have been asked by readers about adding comments to this rant. Because it is a "faux" blog, that is not immediately possible but if anyone wishes to contribute, please use the "Contact Us" page and I will make sure the contribution is inserted where it needs to be. Would love to get feedback on anything or even break new ground on any topic so write away. Your emails come directly to me.
30th December 2007
Was hoping to make this at least a monthly jotting but anyway for those who read this please accept my best wishes for a happy and healthy new year. January will be a time for getting new stuff together for my third CD, entitled TRAVELLING AND NOT. Unsurpirisingly, this will be a collection of travelling-type songs and non travelling-type songs.
Thought for the new year: We live and die as a result of our own decisions
Word for the month: MACULATE (adv) describing someone not very tidy eg His clothes were maculate, hence he was not allowed into the Executive Lounge Bar of the Crown Casino
24th September 2007
Geelong, Hamilton and Wyndham dates just gone by featured four wonderful musicians: Michael Harding on keyboards, Mick Hamilton on electric and acoustic guitars, Paul Gadsby on bass and John Creech on drums. 'Twas great to work with them all and I look forward to the next time whenever that may be...
Gary Ablett is hot favourite to win the 2007 Brownlow Medal, announced tonight. This award honours the memory of that famous Australian Rules Football legend, Horace Medal, who thrilled crowds with his high marks. However he didn't matriculate because his marks were not high enough. This is a little known fact about the great man and is likely to remain that way judging by the paucity of visitors to this web site.
Grand Final Fever is gripping Melbourne and Port Adelaide. Equine Influenza is gripping the whole of Australia. Vaccines for both will be available by Sunday 30th September.
Gee, all the paragraphs so far have begun with the letter G.
Goodbye for now.
28th August 2007
Well here are the first words. There is a proverb (Chinese, I think) that states: a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. If that is the case, does a journey of two thousand miles begin with a two step? And what of the Fox Trot? Consigned to the sprung floors of decaying dance halls, I venture. And what of The Ventures? Walk Don't Run, they opined. I hope they took their own advice and started their journey without jogging. And what of The Journeymen? Contemporaries (or forerunners) of The Kingston Trio, they too had motion in their name. I wonder if there was a group called Motion...
The moon is red as I write but this will not be read as I write, which I think is not quite right.
So you get a hole in one. What if you get a hole in the other one as well?
I reminisced tonight with Nicola about our respective early childhoods. My memory of that time in Ceylon is hazy but I think I can visualise Nigel and me being looked after by the servants: career carers who were our keepers and tended us tenderly. They left little bowls of milk on the wide verandahs each night for the cobras.
Nicola's upbringing didn't have cobras, otherwise there were similarities. We will reminisce again soon. It was fun.
Early start for me tomorrow because of first gig with Michael, Mick, Paul and John. Sounds like part of a gospel group in a way. Folk mixed with country rock, pop and inanity is probably nearer the truth.
I have been noticing over the past six months the use of the word "oversight" to imply examination or overview, eg the OPI will have oversight of the police force. I am aware of oversight, or an oversight, to imply that something has been overlooked or not noticed,eg "...that was an oversight missing that street sign..." This is almost the opposite of the way this word is being used currently. Similarly, the word "fulsome", so often used in a positive fashion such as fulsome praise, is from the word foulsome, a pejorative.
27th February 2008
Getting quite excited now, as you probably can feel through cyberspace, because this is a leap year. However, for me it is not just any old leap year. On Friday 29th February 2008, an intercalary day, it will be the 60th anniversary of my arrival from Ceylon (Sri Lanka nowadays). Being the pedant I am, it is actually only 15 years since I arrived in leap year terms. I plan to do some leaping to celebrate. I didn't realise at my then tender age of 7 that I would be given the mnemonic of having an Olympic Games happening on each leap year to remind me of my arrival at Princes Pier in Port Melbourne on the P&O ship "Strathaird". I accompanied my mother, her parents and my brother Nigel. My father had come to Melbourne the previous year to set up a home for us and one of my strongest memories of that arrival morning was waking in the cabin to the sound of my father's voice when he met us and leaping off the top bunk to greet him.
So leaping has been part of my activities for as long as I can remember. I've leapt impetuously into all sorts of things, some of which I've managed to get out of (or, more correctly, some out of which I have managed to get). As my syntax teacher used to say, a preposition is not a word one should end a sentence with.
I had a wonderful time in Phuket staying with my daughter Cassi, son-in-law Phil and grandkids Pascal and Indigo. The two weeks whizzed by, specially as Patong beckoned a couple of times and memory banks tend to take on sub-prime lending meltdowns in that part of the island. Took the 12 string and did a little concert at the British International School just to check that the pupils had indeed learned all four verses of Morningtown Ride.
Also caught up with dear friend David Groom, with whom I had written several songs during our time together in England, a couple covered by The New Seekers. He has lived in Thailand over 17 years and we have communicated only sporadically but, as with such friends, the years matter little. There is one particular song we wrote, "Sad Elena" that I am working on to include in the new CD.
The Barham Country Music Stampede last weekend was great fun. Met lots of country music folk as well as getting together with school friends from 50 years ago who suddenly materialised in the crowd. I was able to draw on some of my repertoire from the days of producing Leapy Lee (there's that word "leap" again "creaping" in) most written with Barry Mason in the early 1970s. One of them was the single I produced for Leapy, EVERY ROAD LEADS BACK TO YOU. I had just logged on after getting back from Barham when I received an email from Geoff P to say that he and his wife had recorded the song for their new CD. 'Twas in the ether doubtless. May even do this one for my new CD.
Talking of new CDs, I am running seriously behind time with my recording plans. However, as running and leaping are Olympic sports I am keeping focussed in a manner of speaking, this being a leap year if you hadn't realised. Need new spikes.
Word of the month: incorrigible. If you're going to be in anything it may as well be a corrigible. I have recently been in tuk-tuks but a corrigible, well tuned and with a hardtop, beats them any day.
Thought for the month: What we have today is all we have until tomorrow
Have been asked by readers about adding comments to this rant. Because it is a "faux" blog, that is not immediately possible but if anyone wishes to contribute, please use the "Contact Us" page and I will make sure the contribution is inserted where it needs to be. Would love to get feedback on anything or even break new ground on any topic so write away. Your emails come directly to me.
30th December 2007
Was hoping to make this at least a monthly jotting but anyway for those who read this please accept my best wishes for a happy and healthy new year. January will be a time for getting new stuff together for my third CD, entitled TRAVELLING AND NOT. Unsurpirisingly, this will be a collection of travelling-type songs and non travelling-type songs.
Thought for the new year: We live and die as a result of our own decisions
Word for the month: MACULATE (adv) describing someone not very tidy eg His clothes were maculate, hence he was not allowed into the Executive Lounge Bar of the Crown Casino
24th September 2007
Geelong, Hamilton and Wyndham dates just gone by featured four wonderful musicians: Michael Harding on keyboards, Mick Hamilton on electric and acoustic guitars, Paul Gadsby on bass and John Creech on drums. 'Twas great to work with them all and I look forward to the next time whenever that may be...
Gary Ablett is hot favourite to win the 2007 Brownlow Medal, announced tonight. This award honours the memory of that famous Australian Rules Football legend, Horace Medal, who thrilled crowds with his high marks. However he didn't matriculate because his marks were not high enough. This is a little known fact about the great man and is likely to remain that way judging by the paucity of visitors to this web site.
Grand Final Fever is gripping Melbourne and Port Adelaide. Equine Influenza is gripping the whole of Australia. Vaccines for both will be available by Sunday 30th September.
Gee, all the paragraphs so far have begun with the letter G.
Goodbye for now.
28th August 2007
Well here are the first words. There is a proverb (Chinese, I think) that states: a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. If that is the case, does a journey of two thousand miles begin with a two step? And what of the Fox Trot? Consigned to the sprung floors of decaying dance halls, I venture. And what of The Ventures? Walk Don't Run, they opined. I hope they took their own advice and started their journey without jogging. And what of The Journeymen? Contemporaries (or forerunners) of The Kingston Trio, they too had motion in their name. I wonder if there was a group called Motion...
The moon is red as I write but this will not be read as I write, which I think is not quite right.
So you get a hole in one. What if you get a hole in the other one as well?
I reminisced tonight with Nicola about our respective early childhoods. My memory of that time in Ceylon is hazy but I think I can visualise Nigel and me being looked after by the servants: career carers who were our keepers and tended us tenderly. They left little bowls of milk on the wide verandahs each night for the cobras.
Nicola's upbringing didn't have cobras, otherwise there were similarities. We will reminisce again soon. It was fun.
Early start for me tomorrow because of first gig with Michael, Mick, Paul and John. Sounds like part of a gospel group in a way. Folk mixed with country rock, pop and inanity is probably nearer the truth.