Happy Hogmanay and welcome to 2013

Its past midnight,

the bells have rung,

 there are fireworks outside my window,

and 2013 is here. 

Happy Hogmanay to every one.

 

Onset of the Mega Virus

Merry Bloody Christmas Bah Humbug

Want to know how I spent my Christmas??

Something like this.

 ''Oh for F*** S***,  as if the thumping headache, the sandpaper lined throat, the hacking cough, the aching bones, the fever and the dizziness were not  bad enough, I then developed a nose like a tap without a washer.''

Confined to bed from Christmas day untill today, still far from right but at least able to stay awake for more than half an hour at a time.  

I think I’ve angered the gods.

And I've had to cancel my second lot of eye surgery, was due to get the

Cataracts fixed next week but had to cancel due to the mega virus.

At last I have my house back.

At last, I have my house back to my self. Its not that I don’t love my family dearly, it’s just that I’m used to my own space. I ended up having my youngest daughter and her son and her dog all with me, in my small apartment, for more than two weeks. Actually, I really enjoyed having her here but it’s also quite nice to be able to come home from work, just flop out in front of the TV for a while, and relax after work without thinking about any one else. 

And to be honest, I’m pretty sure my daughter is just as thankful to be in her own home.
 
My poor daughter was so busy; she couldn’t get her son into school because she didn’t have proof of address to register him until her new lease was signed, she needed emergency dental treatment and she wasn’t registered with a dentist in this area, when she did sign her lease (a week before she eventually moved) she registered her son at school and they needed to know the name and address of his Doctor, and of course he wasn’t registered with a doctor in this area. She tried several times to switch her accounts for electricity and gas from her old address to her new address, but even that was complicated because the two properties were not serviced by the same supplier. 

Her lovely docile dog daisy was attacked by a mean dog in the local park and she wasn’t registered with a local vet, and the excess on the pet insurance turned out to be quite high. Luckily Daisy dog recovered and didn’t need vet treatment, whew.She ended up paying to keep her furniture in storage for an extra week because on the day she signed her lease and was supposed to move, every one was working and there was no one to help her. 

However………I spoke to her earlier this evening and she is now a happy bunny, settled into her new house, she is registered with every one she needs to be registered with, she has TV, phone and internet connected and her heating is working just fine. She has finally managed to change the gas and electricity supplier to the one she used before and the account is sorted. 

Like I said……….she’s now a happy, happy bunny.
She moved out over the weekend, but no peace for me, I ended up having my other daughters two children AND Daisy dog for the whole weekend.  They all finally left me in peace yesterday just in time for me to get ready for work again this morning.

Not only do I have my house back, I also have my computer back, my little grandson spent lots and lots of time on the computer downloading kiddie games and playing them. It certainly kept him amused for the week before he went to school, and during the evenings once he started school. 

I couldn’t help thinking how different life is for children these days, I don’t know how they would cope if they had to live the way we did with out all this technology to amuse them. But in this instance, it was useful, all his toys were in storage and he doesn’t have friends here to play with so it was nice that he found a way to occupy himself.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been dog walking, child minding, cooking family dinners, tree decorating, card writing, and generally keeping busy but the one thing I did make time for was photo taking.  I’ve said before; I love the light at this time of year; I love the colours of the late afternoon sun, the long shadows and the early setting sun. The light is equally good inside and out. It lights up my living room in a way that’s specific to this time of year. The spectacle of the sun setting over the sea is also quite special. These are just a few of the photos I’ve been taking over the last few weeks and the nearer it gets to the solstice the lower the sun sinks, the longer the shadows grow and the earlier the sun drops beneath the sea. I love this time of year despite the cold, the wind and the ice, it has a certain beauty.

Rwanda paintngs are finished.

Finally, all three Rwanda paintings are finished and  today I took them into work. The deputy head who approved my request to take the painting course as my ‘preparation for retirement’ course also happens to be the person who organises the schools support for the Rwanda project. Every year he organises a group of staff and senior pupils to visit the project in Rwanda as voluntary workers. These paintings, taken from last years photographs, are my way of saying thank you for approving and funding my painting course. He actually recognised all of the people in the paintings so they can’t be that bed.

Hopefully they will be sold or auctioned to raise funds for the project.

Another happy coincidence happened today. I am part of the language department in the school and over the last few weeks my task has been to sort through the books in the store room and ruthlessly sort and pack at least fifty percent as surplus to requirement. We need the space in the store and many of the books are old and shabby. I’ve spent weeks sorting, cataloguing and packing; now I have a store room half full of boxes filled with unwanted books. Until today, I had no idea what I was going to do with them. Today I approached the same deputy head and asked if the books could be used in the schools in the Rwanda project. To my utter delight he agreed to try to find space on the next container shipment.

 I count this as a successful day.

The weirdest family in the world.

The Phelps family

We all know the world is full of very strange and unusual people, and for those who watch his programmes, we also know that BBC's Louis Theroux seeks out the strangest of them all. Well even on his standards, this family excels and surpasses all others in complete weirdness, my opinion, after sitting through this documentary?…..bonkers, the whole lot of them, total bonkers. A perverse combination of the darkly evil and comically insane  A so called ‘church’ made up almost entirely of the family Phelps, Grandpa Phelps, Daddy Phelps, lots of little Miss  Phelps and assorted junior Phelps all delighting in spreading hate and loathing  in the name of their loving lord.

I don’t know if I should laugh or cry. 

Words fail me

The whole documentary is covered on YouTube in 8 episodes; this is just one of them, and probable more than enough.

My thoughts on the documentary.....

I’ve debated with myself if I should post this, but it’s quite therapeutic to put your thoughts in writing, it helps sort out how you feel about things. Thing is I sat and watched a documentary about a young woman who was a transgender person, She was (in her words) always a girl but born into the wrong sort of body.

I don’t want to be flippant about this, but there are so many documentaries on TV and stories in magazines and newspapers about it that it’s almost boring, it’s a case of yeah, yeah we’ve heard it all before. Well…………..I hadn’t heard this particular story before and it made me think about the whole thing differently.

This particular young lady made her feelings known at a very young age. When she was only 5 she told her mother that God had made a mistake and she had the wrong body; by the time she was 9 she living as a girl. She went to school dressed as a girl and was accepted into a circle of friends who were all little girls. Primary school children accepted her as a girl and she was a fairly happy at that time. Secondary school was a whole new ball game; she was bullied, spat at, called a freak and much, much worse. By the time she was 12 she was actively suicidal. She attempted suicide several times, partly in response to the relentless bullying and partly due to the terror she felt at the approach of puberty which  would change her physically into a man.  She knew once these changes happened, once her voice broke and her adams apple developed, once she grew facial hair and grew tall, she would not be accepted any where as a girl. The thought of this drove her to several suicide attempts. Her mother was more supportive than any other mother in a similar situation that I’ve ever heard of. The mother researched on the internet until she found the name of a doctor in America. (forgot to mention this is a girl from the UK). This Doctor was willing to prescribe what they describe as ‘blockers’ which are drugs that effectively stop puberty from happening. Apparently this treatment is not available in the UK. In the UK the accepted method of treatment for transgender people is to make them go through puberty and grow in to their anatomical gender before starting any treatment; and it was the prospect of this, along with the bullying, that led to the suicide attempts.

So fast forward….., the mother takes out huge loans against her house and takes the daughter to America several times over the following few years. The girl is prescribed blockers to stop puberty and then she is prescribed female hormones. The result of this early intervention treatment is that this girl has never had to live with manly characteristics. Her voice didn’t break, she didn’t grow to be 6 ft 4 ( her predicted male height), she didn’t grow facial hair and she did develop breasts quite naturally during her teenage years. At that time it was still possible to get gender reassignment surgery in Thailand at the age of 16,(it has subsequently been raised to 18 in line with most western countries). Her mother took out more loans against her house, took the girl to Thailand and allowed her to have full gender reassignment surgery on her 16^th birthday. She is on record as being the worlds youngest person to have full gender reassignment surgery.

Fast forward again; the documentary was filmed during her 19^th year. What we saw was a  beautiful young woman who was apparently head hunted by model agencies. She was an articulate and confident young woman, you could see the surprise on the faces of people as she told them for the first time about her history. She was a young woman comfortable in her own skin. She entered the regional heats of the Miss England contest and was completely accepted by the other contestants. They even voted for her as the best liked contestant. Not that I’m a great lover of beauty contests but I guess that’s personal choice.

So …. What’s the moral of the story??..................it just made me think that it’s very cruel to make people like this go through puberty when the whole thing can be avoided. This girl was lucky; she has a mother who fought for her every step of the way.  Watching this made me realise how cruel we are as a society to deny these people the treatment they need when they need it. It’s cruel because the torment of developing the adult body of the wrong gender is enough to drive any one to suicide and also because once these changes happen, they can never be completely reversed. Transgender women have surgical feminisation of the face, they have their adams apple shaved, they need years of vocal coaching to imitate a female voice, they have painful electrolysis hair removal, all of this, and much more, could easily be avoided if they were allowed treatment to prevent puberty in the first place. Plus, when they do get the gender reassignment surgery they need, it’s a much bigger operation that it would have been if puberty had not happened.

So……………that’s my thoughts on the subject.    

A walk on the beach and some music.

I have the weekend to myself. Oh bliss, don’t have to be any where and no one is coming here, a whole weekend off.

The plan was to walk by the beach about three in the afternoon, just in time to watch the sun dip and the long shadows stretch out over the sea. I thought it would be a good photo opportunity. It didn’t happen quite like that. The sky and the sea were grey, there was no sun and there were no long shadows. I sat on the beach and watched the sea; it was calm, almost still, and grey. There were lots of birds feeding at the waters edge, but the light was so poor I didn’t take photos. As I walked I began picking up small yellow pebbles that caught my eye, not exactly sure what I will do with them, I just liked the colour. As I was leaving I noticed an aeroplane, not a passenger plane or a military plane, but one of those old fashioned planes that make that funny droning noise. I think it must have taken off from the little airport at Dundee. It flew out into the grey sky and headed out over the sea. It reminded me of a song I sort of half remembered. It’s taken me ages to find this song on YouTube, I couldn’t remember who sang it or what exactly it sounded like. I just remembered it was called ‘’The aeroplane over the sea’’

Eye Hospital check up and some music.

I spent the afternoon in the eye hospital. Time for my final check up after the surgery I had in August. I didn’t get the news I expected. I know the right eye has healed from surgery but I also know my sight in that eye remains awful. I’ve always been very short sighted but that was nothing compared to the lack of vision I have now. I foolishly expected to go for my check up, get my eyesight tested, get new glasses and be back the way I was prior to surgery. I though wrong. The sight in my right eye is very poor and likely to get worse.
I have developed a cataracts in that eye, which means I can get surgery to fix it and then get new glasses; or I can get new glasses now but the cataracts will get worse and then I’ll need new glasses again, or I can stay as I am and wait until after I retire and then get surgery and then get new glasses. Once I’ve had surgery to fix the cataracts the sight will stabilise and the prescription for new glasses should not change.
When I spoke to the surgeon this afternoon I initially said I’ll wait until next year when I retire, but now I’ve had time to think about it I’m going  to talk to my boss tomorrow and see if I will be paid  if I take more time off sick to get more surgery. Now I’m thinking if I can, I should get it done as soon as possible.
Not at all what I was expecting to hear, but it could be worse, after the next lot of surgery my sight should be at least as good as it was before and maybe even better.

It took me one and a half hours on the bus to get there and one and a half hours on the bus to get home. We had rain and wind last night and all the way the ground was covered in yellow leaves that had fallen from the trees. This song seems to suit my mood right now.

Autumn's Here by Velvet Green 

A round up of this years paintings so far.

A round up of my recent paintings

A walk in the forest, with photos.

 

19/11/2012

A walk in the woods. 

My daughter arrived this morning and asked if I wanted to go to the woods and walk the dogs. 

I’ve not done that for a while, so I thought it would be nice. It was cold, but dry with bright blue skies. 

This is exactly the time of year when winter creeps in to overthrow autumn. 

Every day more and more leaves lie on the ground and more and more of the skeletal trees emerge. 

A little personal history and a lot of music

A little bit of personal history, and a lot of good music.

I lived with my ex for more than 20 years, they do say you can learn something from every one and every one has at least one good thing in them. His was music, he had impeccable and widely varied taste in music (total drunken arse in most other respects but his taste/ knowledge of music was superb). I took two things from that relationship, the best was my daughters, and for them I would have happily done another 20 years, and then there is Otis Redding. Believe it or not I had hardly heard of Otis pre-ex. Soul isn’t generally my thing, but in this case, I make an exception. I can’t imagine not knowing this voice, total one off and unique.

BTW…………..Is there is such a thing as a music appreciation gene?? If so, I think my eldest daughter has inherited it. She is the one I gave my half of the vinyl collection too (getting my rightful half of the vinyl collection was a battle Gandalf would have been proud of). She also has my old Marantz turntable and amp. She is familiar with virtually every band and musician in both halves of the vinyl collection plus contemporary music I have never heard of, in fact now she introduces me to music, which is kinda nice. She is working on the ex for his half of the vinyl collection but I have a feeling it will stay locked in his attic, totally unlistened too and unloved, until they burry him, which is very sad. But for now……………..Otis Redding……………..his voice is like no other.

Visit to a gallery and a change in the times.

I’ve been out and about with a friend again today. We visited the Kinblethmont gallery to see their latest exhibition. It was mostly new work by the artist Susan Winton but there were also other works by other artists. Among these other works was an old painting that I’ve seen several times before by John Johnstone. It’s a portrate of Dylan and is called The Songs of Dylan. We were stood discussing this painting when the man behind us started singing ’The times they are a changing. The song has stuck in my head all afternoon. The seasons are changing, the clocks changed last weekend, the light levels at this time of year change and some of us are still getting used to the changes in our social networking sites. The song seems very apt for now.

Bob Dylan The times they are a changing


Kinblethmont gallery

http://www.kinblethmontgallery.co.uk/index.html

The Destroyers, Hole in the Universe

The Destroyers - Hole in the Universe

The Staves, singing Icarus

The Staves
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Staves are an acoustic Folk Rock trio of sisters from Watford, England. The group appeared on the Tom Jones album Praise and Blame, which was released in July 2010. They released the Live at Cecil Sharp House EP and the Mexico EP in 2011 and appeared on Fionn Regan's third studio album, 100 Acres of Sycamore.

The band have an album in production with Glyn Johns and Ethan Johns, which was due for release in October 2012 but was postponed for November 2012. It is called Dead & Born & Grown.

The Staves attracted notice in the United States while supporting The Civil Wars in January 2012. They followed with performances at South by Southwest and an "Austin to Boston" tour in March and April. The band supported Bon Iver on their May and June 2012 US and Canadian tour.


The Staves – Icarus

Still life, acrylic on canvas

Still life, Acrylic on Canvass

 I have a habit of not finishing paintings. I made a point of finishing this one. It’s a still life that I began in Thursdays art class. I took a photo of the arrangement, printed it off and finished the painting at home. I’m quite pleased with the result; I don’t usually do still life. It's acrylic on canvas and measures 50x60cm

Music from Josephine

Sat up and watched Jools Holland last night, love his shows he always finds really good musicians to play . Last night he had this young woman, she was brilliant, fantastic tonal quality to her voice. The first video is an interview with her.

Josephine

Music for the weekend

Today we had our first snowfall, I’ve never known snow come in October before, I think we are in for a long hard winter. It was only a small snow shower, and the snow didn’t lay, but the bus driver told me it was even colder inland (we are on the coast) and the snow was starting to lay in the open country between the smaller villages. I came indoors, turned the heating up and put on the radio. This guy was playing on the radio; he has a voice that reminds me of summer and warmer times.

CHRISTIAN KANE
Christian Kane (born June 27, 1974) is an American actor and singer/songwriter of Native American descent. As a musician he is  lead singer with the country-southern rock band Kane. He is also a well known and widely recognized TV star.
Christian Kane was born in Dallas, Texas. He is of Native American descent. His parents participated in and met at the rodeo. The family moved around the South and Midwest because his father was in the oil business. When Kane was in 8th grade they finally settled in Norman, Oklahoma. As young teenager growing up in Texas and Oklahoma, Kane was a wrestler and played American Football. He studied Art History at the University of Oklahoma but decided he wanted to be an actor and headed to Los Angeles before finishing his degree.
And this is what he is doing now;

A Life drawing

This last week has been a busy one for me; working, dinner with a daughter, childminding for another daughter, drawing class, friend staying, a few hours gardening over the weekend, and last but not least, I finally made the decision to have one of my life drawings framed and hung on the wall. I have so many life drawings, some fairly good, some not so good, some positively bad and all of them stored in portfolio or rolled up in drawers. Since decorating my living room, I've not been able to decide what to hang on the walls, until now. I decided to choose a life drawing I liked and go for it, this is the result. I've never hung any thing of mine on my walls before, it takes some getting used too.

You've been Trumped; the documentary

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-13760844

There were a few things I intended to do this evening, instead I became engrossed in the documentary ‘You’ve Been Trumped’. The film makers followed the story of the Donald Trump golf course project in Aberdeenshire , it documented his harassment of local residents, disregard for land boundaries, and what can only be described as  environmental vandalism of the ( supposedly) protected sand dunes. I feel as if I’ve seen the face of evil in action; this man gives me the creeps.
The sand dune environment was a SSPI which means, designated site of Special Scientific Interest, one academic environmentalist described it as a completely unique site and Scotland’s equivalent of the Rain Forest. Scotlands Government and Aberdeenshires local council backed Trump for reasons I fail to understand and Grampian police, although claiming to be neutral, appeared anything but………the whole thing makes me sick. If there is any one in the UK who hasn’t seen it, then you really should, and if you are outside the UK, please see it when ever you get the opportunity. 

On the plus side………..a post note on the film said he has threatened to pull out of building the Disney style Hotel because the Scottish Government refuse to stop a planned off shore wind farm. I suppose we should be grateful for small mercies although, the sand dunes them selves are already gone. This guy will give me nightmares.

Stardust...............a little music.

Out last night celebrating a birthday and this morning, we got up late, took it easy, and watched a video  The video we watched was Stardust, a  non demanding little fairy tale about a star who was knocked out of the sky, fell to earth, was saved from a gristly death and then fell in love with her hero. Yep, the star, in human guise,   found true love in the arms of the  young man who saved her and was also destined to become king. And.... they lived happily ever after. A non demanding, uncomplicated movie minus the sex and violence and plus the feel good factor, we all need a little escapism sometimes. We couldn’t help but admire the scenery in the film, then we realized most of the on location filming was done  in the Scottish Islands, no wonder it was astounding. The film won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 2008.

Stardust is a 2007 British romantic fantasy film from Paramount Pictures, directed by Matthew Vaughn. The film is based on Neil Gaiman's novel of the same name and stars an ensemble cast including Charlie Cox, Ben Barnes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes, Sienna Miller, Mark Strong, Jason Flemyng, Rupert Everett, Ricky Gervais, David Walliams, Nathaniel Parker, Peter O'Toole, David Kelly, Robert De Niro, Mark Heap and Henry Cavill. Narration is by Ian McKellen.

Tonight is a beautiful star lit night with a silvery moon casting a bluish light on the ground. This song was in the movie and it fits pretty perfectly with the night sky outside this evening.

Arbroath Beach

I’ve spent so much time touring around the countryside these last few weeks; I began to miss the sea, I felt drawn back to the beach.  I gave in and walked the beach one afternoon and watched the low sun cast its light and shadow over the rocks and pools. It looked good, no more words, just the series of photos I took that afternoon.