The High Chaparral

You know how you remember a really excellent proggy from back in the 70s, but when you see it again it turns out to be very disappointing?

Well, a couple of months ago I went over to visit my father in his Nursing Home, and onto the TV came this. I was amazed and delighted! When my sister and I were little we used to love it, and on (I think it was) Monday nights we used to beg Daddy to let us watch it. He liked it too, but he almost always wanted to see the opening few minutes of Panorama first, just in case… The tension and excitement as we waited to see whether Daddy would be willing to turn over could have been cut with the proverbial knife! Almost always it was resolved in our favour.

Well these days I’m in charge of the remote control, and so when I browsed across it in Daddy’s room I stopped to look. It was good, and so when I got home I looked it up and found that they broadcast two eppies each Saturday and Sunday on CBS Action, a Freeview channel.

I’ve been watching it for a couple of months now, and it’s absolutely excellent! So extremely well written, with engaging plots and story lines. There’s the occasional dud (IMO), but I reckon that can be said of just about any otherwise excellent series.

So! If you, like me, enjoyed this Back In The Day then think about giving it another whirl. Major kudos to the writers: for me, at least, it’s more than stood the test of the intervening years 🙂

Lucas PawPaw Ointment

I just thought I’d mention this. Some time last year I was looking up hand cream and in reading reviews came across this. It isn’t hand cream, but there were lots of rave reviews about how good it is for minor scratches, abrasions, burns from the stove etc.

I decided to get some, and it’s actually really good! Well worth a place in the bathroom cupboard. Just thought I’d mention it 🙂

Altered Priorities Ahead

Does anybody remember A Very Peculiar Practice? One of the best things I’ve ever seen on TV, but I love just about everything that Andrew Davies has ever done. Brilliant music too!

I now work in a university, and yesterday, during my lunchtime walk in the woods, I passed a nun. I couldn’t help but smile 🙂

David Bowie — Touched my Life

I’m more than sad today to hear of the death of the incomparable David Bowie.

When my sister and I were muddy little sprogs growing up in the country with our lively and equally naughty pals across the fields the four of us couldn’t afford to buy a lot of albums, but there were two that we listened to all the time. One of them was Hunky Dory, and the sounds of it will forever be all muddled up in my mind with my memories of those golden early teenage days, and etched into my heart.

Not that I’m the first to ask the question, but where does life go? It seems to have flashed past from 14 to 54 in the blink of the proverbial eye.

Bizarrely, in the circumstances, my sister returned from New York this morning. She flew over last week to see DB’s new play and to watch a tribute band. Happily, she didn’t hear of DB’s death until she got home this morning. Now she feels it like a family bereavement.

I’d die happy to have been able to write just one line of one verse of any of these tunes. RIP David Bowie, and thank you x

Changes

Oh! You Pretty Things

Eight Line Poem

Life on Mars

Kooks

Quicksand

Fill Your Heart

Andy Warhol

Song for Bob Dylan

Queen Bitch

The Bewlay Brothers

 

 

 

 

 

Master & Commander in Swiss Figures

It may be that you need to have read some/all of the amazing Patrick O’Brian Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin/Master & Commander books to appreciate this, but if you love the books you’ll love these too! Many thanks to Swisskun for making them, and for putting them up on YouTube.

And if you’ve not read the books yet then this is the perfect opportunity to start 🙂

The quality of the first one isn’t brilliant as the original files were lost (aagghh…), but the humour still comes through just fine 🙂

Gorgeous flute! (Oh, and Happy New Year!)

I’ve not heard this for years, but browsed across it in bed this morning whilst watching a trailer for the fiLm ‘Youth‘. I had to jump out of bed and search t’internet for it, as I’d forgotten what it was. I don’t think I’ve heard it for about 25 years 😦 Better late than never again, though!