RIP Kevin Ayers

http://www.clashmusic.com/news/kevin-ayers-has-died


Another hero of my misspent youth has passed away, and at the relatively young age of 68. He was champion of that specifically English sound of the 60’s / 70’s known as the ‘The Canterbury Sound’. A term which came to mean a mixture of progressive rock, the avant-garde and jazz, produced by bands of the early 60’s and 7’s, many of whom were based in or  around the city of Canterbury, in England.

He has been called an ‘acoustic troubadou’, he was founder member of Soft Machine and later in life shunned the limelight  and became somewhat of a recluse in Southern France. The two tracks here are from ‘Whatevershebringswesing’, which is my personal favourite although most people I know seemed to prefer ‘Joy of a Toy’.

The last track here is a brilliant, it’s from an album with  Kevin Ayres, J. J. Cale, Brian Eno, Mike Oldfield and Nico and ( of Velvet Underground fame) – released June 1 1974

RIP Kevin, you made some great music.

Eye surgery was cancelled, and other stuff.

Last time I posted I said I was about to get more eye surgery.
It didn’t happen, I was packed and ready to go, I had a friend staying over who volunteered to come to the hospital with me and, at the last minute, (actually at 9.30 the night before surgery) I had a phone call from the hospital to say my surgery was cancelled. Apparently they were one surgeon down due to sudden illness, they had an unprecedented number of emergency cases admitted for surgery the following day and my surgeon was allocated to take care of all the emergencies, therefore unable to do any of his own cases. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. Eye surgery is not pleasant and I’d managed to get myself into the right frame of mind, I was totally organised and my head was absolutely in the right place, and then it didn’t happen.  I had to do a bit of thought reprogramming but in the end I realised that I was in fact the lucky one, I was going in for minor, routine eye surgery that can be done any time. It wasn’t life threatening and I was not in danger of losing my sight, the people who urgently needed eye surgery  were not so lucky, they were in danger of losing their sight and for them it really was a big deal and major surgery.
I then went down with another cold and realised it could have been dangerous for me to have surgery anyway as I already had a viral infection, so in some ways, I guess I was very lucky.
Last weekend was one of the  school long weekends, Friday through to Monday,  and even thought I still had the cold and wasn’t feeling 100% I did manage to go down south and see my sister and my mother for a couple of days. Mums not been well, nothing specific, but she’s in her 80’s and becoming frailer. I felt so sorry for my sister; my sister has osteoporosis and is not at all well sometimes. She takes a long time to get going in the morning and is heavily dependent on medication to keep her mobile. As mum becomes older and frailer, she also becomes more demanding and more dependent, she thinks nothing of phoning my sister in the middle of the night to come round because she doesn’t feel well, there is never any thing specifically wrong, she just says she doesn’t feel right. My sister lives just around the corner to mum, I live in Scotland, about 600 miles away and my other sister lives in France, even further away.  This means mum only has one daughter near by to call on and as she gets older, her awareness of other peoples needs and limitations has become non existent. I feel so bad for my sister looking after her, she is not well and I’m worried mum is making her worse. Hopefully I’ll get down more often once I retire.

My first time online in about a week and I’m shocked to find someone I knew over on Blogster has passed away. I read her posts before and knew her diagnosis but I didn’t expect it to be so soon. Three weeks betwen diagnosis and death is shocking. I keep thinking that if she were that close to passing by the time she was diagnosed her suffering must have been awful. I have lost too many people to that horrible disease, family members and friends and also people I consider friends but have never met in person. I think I have a lost a friend from every social network site I’ve ever been on.  I was not as close to her as others were but I’m shocked and saddened. I’m just happy her suffering has ended and she is at peace. 
Its too late tonight but over the next few days I will hopefully get round to catch up with every one.

Music for those afected by the storms.

Music; For every one affected by the snow storms.

Right now our weather is mild for this time of year. Sometimes it gets a bit cold, sometimes the wind or the rain can get a bit fierce, and if I look north the hills are all covered in snow but, compared to what many people are going through, we are having it easy. So if you are snow and ice and sub zero conditions, keep warm and stay safe. 

Sometimes we have to stand back and realise how lucky we are,

Sometimes;
We have to stand back and realise how lucky we are.

I keep reading about how we are all in a period of change, I guess we are, I feel as if change is all around me.
 I’m going to see my friend who lives a couple of hours away most Saturdays now; I went to see her today and spent a lovely afternoon with her.  She’s had so many medical problems for so long and I’ve lost count of her multiple diagnoses. The root of the problem is an auto immune disease that triggers may other serious illnesses.  The latest, and what will be the last of her many diagnosed illnesses is liver disease. It’s advanced, severe and untreatable; I go to see her as often as I can.  It’s so sad, she is two years older than me and some days she looks closer to 80 than 60.
On a somewhat brighter note; my two daughters are in serious training for the biggest challenge of their life. They follow an exercise programme 4 times per week and have completely changed their diet. My youngest daughter, has a horse and rides every day, because of this is has remained quite fit and has never become overweight, but even for her the training is strenuous.  My eldest daughter has an even bigger fight on her hands,  she used to be very fit but now has some early arthritis and needs to lose about  2 stone in weight. They are taking part in something called ‘’Tough Mudder Scotland 2013’’. It’s described as a; ‘’hardcore 12 mile-long obstacle course designed by the Special Forces to test your all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie. With the most innovative courses and half a million inspiring participants, Tough Mudder is the premier adventure challenge series in the world’’.
I get scared just reading about it. Their reasons are sad but also inspiring; they are doing this challenge in support of a young woman who has battled cancer for several years. The woman thought she had beaten it, her chemo finished, her hair and eyebrows started to grow back and she began planning her wedding. Then the illness came back with a vengeance and it’s now terminal. She’s living every day and still planning her wedding. 
My daughters are training to compete in Tough Mudder to raise funds for the charity that  helped this young woman, the charity is called ‘Bosom Buds of Scotland’ and my daughters has named their team ‘Mud Buds, a combination of the challenge name and the charity name.

This is their donation page
http://www.justgiving.com/mudbuds2013
this is about the challenge
http://toughmudder.com/
this is the ( rather scary) video  


My final eye surgery is to take place on Monday, I used to feel quite sorry for myself about the problems I’ve had with my eyes. I don’t any more. I’m extremely grateful that my sight in that eye has been saved and even more grateful that they can remove the cataracts and restore near perfect vision in that eye. I’m a coward about hospitals and procedures but all of this puts it in perspective, I’m looking for ward to getting it done on Monday and very happy its not something far more serious.

My retirement grows ever closer.

My retirement grows closer and closer,
Every day it’s a little closer
Seven weeks on Friday to be precise,
And then no more work, EVER !!!
And this little song has been in my head all day.
I wonder why? :-)

Life study, acrylic on canvas.

I've done quite a bit of life drawing over the last few years, but this is my first attempt at life painting since I was at college as a teenager. It's acrylic on canvas, not exactly anatomically correct but I quite like it anyway. Obviously I don't have a model lounging around my living room; this was taken from a combination of a couple of different pictures.

Ravi Shankar and George Harrison

Ravi Shankar and George Harrison

 

I used to have an uncle (long since dead) who, I was told,  came home from work one day  and announced to his family that they were all going to be vegetarian. He played the sitar; I remember this instrument fascinated me as a child.

While we were still children he decided to move himself and his entire family, my auntie and four cousins, all the way to Wales. I never saw any of them again after they moved, they apparently moved to a cottage/ farm house type home in the middle of a field and half way up a hill. He became the village postman and … from what I am told, they all lived happily ever after.

When George Harrison developed his interest in the sitar it always made me think of my sitar playing uncle, my auntie, and my four cousins all lost to the hills of Wales

  

translation ( taken from the comments on youtube where it’s posted)

om saha nāvavatu saha nau bhunaktu saha vīryaṃ karavāvahai tejasvināvadhītamastu mā vidviṣāvahai oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ 

Om ! May He protect us both together; may He nourish us both together;

May we work conjointly with great energy, May our study be vigorous and effective; May we not mutually dispute (or may we not hate any).

Om ! Let there be Peace in me !

Let there be Peace in my environment!

Let there be Peace in the forces that act on me