And what do you know, I found a good day to wear the earrings that maninthebox72's mom gave me. I miss her a lot. I hope she's looking down on us, happy.
For the New Year, I am going to grant myself sainthood - Saint Flamingo Dancer the Wonderful - and throw a bit of fabulosity about the world. I will also sell indulgences for financial gain (mine). Stay tuned for price lists.
- 23:38 Why does syrup form medicine taste so bad? Is there REALLY no way to make it taste at least tolerable? #
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Someone may have awoken in the early dark hours of Christmas Day feeling somewhat ill. Sadly it was not from any excess of Christmas Eve festivities, though we had eaten brandy soaked chocolate cherry cake for dessert and downed several cocktails.No, the hostess with the very mostess went down with boring old diverticulitis, so the mission for the day was not to let anoyone else know. I battled through lunch anvd the afternoon. I even allowed Neice aged 4 1/2 to paint my fingernails and toenails with nail polish. I am a fantastic great aunt, naturally.
I got to about 6pm and everyone had drinkies and I set The Boy to carving more ham for a dinner when I found a quiet corner on the floor and fell asleep. At this stage I had confided to Daughter2 that I was ill and instructed her to remove my nail polish should I die in the night, as I would prefer not to go into eternity attired so.
About 2 hours later apparently I was still asleep and Daughter2 was making noises about me being really tired to cover for me, when someone joked that "maybe she dead!" Ha Ha Ha.
This is when Daughter2's FD genes showed to their best. D2, knowing that I was actually sick, thought "what if she really is dead? What if we are one of those horrible famillies who joke about someone dying on Christmas Day and they really are lying there dead? Will we be all over the papers tomorrow morning? Should I go and check? No, I don't want to go near dead people." So, she just went on enjoyng the evening! I could have actually died and no one, not even the fruit of my own womb, would have cared. Revenge will be sweet.
I did rise from the dead, with everyone joking about how they thought I might be dead. I remember muttering a reply along the lines "did anyone attempt the kiss of life on me, or draw a moustache on my face? Ha Ha Ha" , and wandered off to bed, letting Daughter1 into "the secret" wth instructions to play the game wth D2.
The flaw in my plan was telling MR FD when he came to bed, for first thing in the morning he walks downstairs and announces in his best town cryer voice that anyone in a 5 street radius would have heard the "FD is ill!"
Well in the blink of an eye, my mother and sister, who had stayed overnight, were racng each other up the stairs and at my bedside. Mother started her hand ringing routine "oh it's so unfair" and Sister her "I'll spring clean your bedroom and organise your closet into the colours of the colour spectrum" and both being so utterly annoyng that I gave into the pain and wished for instant death. They left several long hours later...Merry Christmas.
Daughter 2 went for a long walk on Boxing Day and a man was opening his car to put his two bulldogs into the back, when they saw D2 and raced across the street to greet her. The man called the dogs back and they went back to the car, but as he was putting one into the car, the other dog raced back to D2. He called out to her "Pick him up!" D2 is however not comfortable around dogs and so she replied to him" I am not very good with dogs" and so in a panic tiptoed daintly across the street saying "here doggie, doggie" in the hope that the dog would follow her. Luckly it did. D2 is always having weird things interactions with the general public.
Yesterday Mr FD, Son and D2 went to do their duty with Mr FD's parents. Apparently Grandpa was in the toilet a long time and D2 told me later that she was a little concerned that he might have died in there "but as you know, I don't check dead people!" so she went and sat down again! Compasson is a big thing in our family, obviously!
Son arrived home and told me that Uncle Adulterer and Cousin Dropkick, had done us a great favour because Grandpa hates Uncle so much, and has such a low opinion of cousin that "we look like the prodigal family in comparison"
Don't you love Christmas?
I arrived in England a year ago today. A lot has changed since then, luckily for the better. I moved from a seedy house with an odd landlady to a lovely quiet house that I practically had to myself. It was brilliant until bailiffs started knocking on the door and notices of repossession came through the letterbox a few months later. By the time the water and gas had been turned off it was time for me to move on anyway. My tenure at the school I was teaching came unexpectedly to a close 3 weeks early and I was suddenly relieved of the worst job I have ever had.
In the weeks that
followed I scoured the Internet looking for another teaching post mainly to see
me through financially. Meanwhile, Nancy was packing up her life in Taiwan to
join me as planned in July.
The day she arrived we were burgled. Only one bag was stolen, but in it was our marriage certificate – a crucial document Nancy would need to apply for a resident card. To our dismay this meant having to apply for a new marriage certificate from the notoriously inept department of home affairs in South Africa where we were married. Miraculously with my mother’s help we managed to get an unabridged copy delivered express to us just days shy of Nancy’s visa deadline 3 months later.
It was stressful time not knowing whether Nancy would be able to stay in the UK for much longer or what we would do if she had to go back. This was compounded by the added stress of moving from one part of England to quite another and having to find a new place to live when we got there. Then there was the stress of me starting a new job and Nancy trying to get a job of her own and in between all this were niggles like applying for National Insurance numbers, a driver’s license, a bank account and so on.
Amid the frenzy Nancy
and I decided on a trip to Paris. It seemed rushed and badly timed, but we had always
wanted to go, we were both out of work, Nancy’s visa was still valid and we
really, really needed a rest. It was perfect - We spent our days strolling
about the city, lazing in parks, eating, drinking and getting bronzed in the
sun. We returned to England with renewed resolve.
Fast forward to the
end of the year. Nancy and I are far more settled and relaxed. We share a clean
and comfortable flat with a Chinese couple who simply leave us be. I am getting
on well in my new school and Nancy has a part time job that she quite likes. So things have gotten better.
Hopefully by this time next year I will be fully qualified to teach in the UK. Ideally I would like to be either the Head of Department at the school I am in at the moment or to be working in a better school. Nancy should have a ‘regular’ job by then doing something that is suitably challenging, and if things go according to plan we will finally have bought a place of our own to call home. It is going to be an interesting year.
The topic today is guitar – specifically the kind that plug in. Why? Because it's my birthday and that's what I want to blab about.
So anyway, here’s an easy lick that enables even intermediate level guitar players to readily throw some ripping scale runs into their improv playing. It goes through 24 notes just to ascend a single octave, so it’s a great way to add a bar of shred while relocating to a new position on the fretboard for the next part of your solo.
It also sounds pretty damn slick.
But what’s really nice about this riff is that it only uses the first and second strings and the exact same frets are used on both strings. That makes it easy to remember and easy to execute.
We’re in everyone’s favorite shredding key, E minor, which is spelled E, F#, G, A, B, C, D. Begin on the E note located at the fifth fret of the B string and then ascend the scale in six-note stairs.
I’ve tabbed it out in the example above as a legato riff, which really makes this lick haul ass. To play it this way, pick only the first note in each triplet, then hammer-on the next two notes. The result is a fast, fluid run of notes that also looks cool as you play it.
This pattern also makes a terrific alternate picking lick. Start with a down stroke and use an “outside” picking style by alternating up-down-up-down all the way through.
Once you’re comfortable with all four positions, start adding some spice by mixing them up all over the place. The results can be pretty cool. I uploaded a full sheet of tablature examples with this post to help get you started. Yay! FREE TABS!
It's not a very bad cold. In fact it's one of the milder illnesses I can remember... My sinuses are about 40% stuffed up. My throat is just vaguely scratchy. I'm more tired and achey than usual, but not by much. Nonetheless I am taking the cue and lounging on my couch for the 2nd day in a row, swaddled in blankets, books, and handkerchiefs.
Sometimes when I'm sick I will do a juice & tea fast for the day - to keep myself hydrated and let my body concentrate on killing the virus, rather than digesting complicated foods. So today I've had emergen-c, water, yerba mate, and vegetable juice. And I really must not be all that sick, because I am STARVING. I think I will get some extra-spicy thai food for dinner.
And then perhaps I will watch the Dr. Who xmas special AGAIN! I can't believe it's the 2nd-to-last episode starring David Tennant.
I got a copy of The Talented Miss Highsmith for xmas (Patricia Highsmith's new biography). It's sort of fascinating, especially considering that the author seems to hold a certain amount of (justified) disdain for Highsmith. Apparently she was a racist and anti-Semite. Her personal life was chaotic, despite her solipsistic tendencies (it is even referred to on the inner flap as a "Pandora's Box"). She was an obsessive list-maker and left behind 8,000 pages of journals when she died. Her life is a rich territory. Still, this bio is a bit cumbersome... Mostly I'm interested in reading about writers' writing habits.
Being sick is dull. More tea!
- More love.
- Less weight.
- More yoga.
- More books.
- More exercise.
- More vacations.
- More fun!
These all seem totally doable.
Bring it, 2010! Bring it!
there's the HUGE lindy hop event the week between christmas and new years. everyone in the world* is going and they're all rabid about it on facebook.
