When Fiona phoned my Mum to see whether she was up for a visit or not today the Warden of the residential home my Mum is in said she had had a dizzy spell accompanied by headaches, had fallen over and needed checking at the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton. So it was off to the Friarage we went, Fiona and I, to visit my Mum in casualty where thankfully she had nothing broken or any bruises but was just suffering from constant dizziness which was of concern enough to the Doctors to keep her in for this evening.
I really hate it when old people fall over because they seem to hurt themselves so much just doing this in a house for goodness sake. Fiona falls over in the hills but even when it is on rocky scree it is always where it is very steep so she falls into it often a fall of only about half a metre whereas if she fell on horizontal ground onto rock from one and a half metres up say, she would really hurt herself. Old folk do that all the time God bless them.
I asked my Mum if she wanted me to sing to cheer up which got a big laugh, broke the rather dire mood and then we had a lot of other laughs but always snapped back to the reality of their might be something serious going on with my Mum's health. Family is a worry sometimes but I am sure she will be all right she has had odd things before and is a natural survivor with a very rude health and only stopped walking in the Howgills and the Lake District a few years ago just past the age of 70 and only because her feet packed up. The rest of her is doing pretty well. Except for the dizziness and headaches. She will be fine!
Family always successfully punctures the bubble of my overexcited feelings and elation that I quite often get and I like that. Besides there is no getting away from duty and dire things so you may as well try to make the best of them!
Sunday 15 April 2012
This is a post written by one of my Facebook mates Caroline Murphy and it is really great both in form and content. I just love writing that compares what is around us all the time with that which happens in another setting in this case another country: America.
"One of the things I most miss about living in America, is breakfast. Americans really do breakfast. Here it is an uncomfortable mish-mash of the fry-up (nothing wrong with that, but hard to find in most small towns and often really bad), or the carb-filled delights of a coffeeshop where you will inevitably consume enough sugar for a year and be hungry again an hour later. Its also hard to find somewhere to go. A hotel? possibly, but thats a stodgy, overpriced experience where you feel obliged to pay and leave as soon as possible. A caff? ok, but I don't want to drive 20 miles. In America, the first time my husband took us all out for breakfast, I was google-eyed at the range of things on offer, but its not so much the food, or the prices, or the fact that kids are expected to make noise/mess and you can stay as long as you like without getting 'the look' from a waitress, its something you can do, any morning, without driving more than a mile, any time from 5am to lunch and you can carry on eating it all day if you like! Brits are very starchy about 'breakfast' it should be eaten in the morning dammit, between the hours of 8am (god forbid that any of us would be expected to rise before this) and all over by 10 - out you go! In fact Americans are very relaxed about eating out in general. I was delighted to find that at dinner in a large party, the waitress did not bat an eyelid when it came to my turn to order and I asked for just 'a bowl of ice cream please'. Maybe it was my 'foreign accent' and I am expected to be a bit weird, but I felt that had I asked for a bowl of marinated toenails, she would have whipped off her shoes right there. Moving back to Britain, we all felt the usual sense of anticipation on weekend mornings, when we got ready to go for breakfast, then wandered around looking at each other in confusion - where does everyone go? Being away for a while, you forget things (things you don't like much) and this all came back to me: 'er, British Homes Stores?' Right, said my husband, lead me to it (enthusiastically), well first we get in the car and drive about 8 miles to the nearest large town, then we park and pay, then we all troop out and stare at some miserable pinkish things in a hot cabinet while a surly server drums his fingers, wait in line and part with a mortgage payment to sit in silence in the plastic splendour of the department store 'restaurant'. Its not the noisy, laughter filled, happy breakfast mornings I remember. There are lots of other wonderful things to like about living here, but breakfast is not one of them. One amazing place we used to go to in Texas, was a large old restored warehouse. It was a restaurant/wine bar and an art gallery which did the most fantastic breakfasts. As soon as you sat down, the waitress brought you an effusive welcome, an introduction and a steaming basket of muffins and other just baked pastries. Oh, I thought the first time we went, not much choice but hey ho. Then the menu's arrived. Pastries were complimentary and everything else you could imagine wanting for breakfast was on the menu. Tables were close enough that you could chat with a neighbour but far away enough you didn't feel cramped. Kids all socialised with other kids, made noise, dropped muffins on the floor, swapped bits of food, spilled drinks, yelled to friends they knew a few tables away and adults had surreptitious bloody mary's with their coffee. Also, you can have your food any way you like it! try asking for your bacon sauteed for 6 minutes exactly here, with crispy edges only and you would get a curt nod and the bacon the way it comes regardless. Americans will cook your food any way you want it and you get all that with a smile. Returning to Britain after five years, I looked forward to many things I had put out of my mind, and now we are planning a move back the the states, I can hardly wait for breakfast!"
"One of the things I most miss about living in America, is breakfast. Americans really do breakfast. Here it is an uncomfortable mish-mash of the fry-up (nothing wrong with that, but hard to find in most small towns and often really bad), or the carb-filled delights of a coffeeshop where you will inevitably consume enough sugar for a year and be hungry again an hour later. Its also hard to find somewhere to go. A hotel? possibly, but thats a stodgy, overpriced experience where you feel obliged to pay and leave as soon as possible. A caff? ok, but I don't want to drive 20 miles. In America, the first time my husband took us all out for breakfast, I was google-eyed at the range of things on offer, but its not so much the food, or the prices, or the fact that kids are expected to make noise/mess and you can stay as long as you like without getting 'the look' from a waitress, its something you can do, any morning, without driving more than a mile, any time from 5am to lunch and you can carry on eating it all day if you like! Brits are very starchy about 'breakfast' it should be eaten in the morning dammit, between the hours of 8am (god forbid that any of us would be expected to rise before this) and all over by 10 - out you go! In fact Americans are very relaxed about eating out in general. I was delighted to find that at dinner in a large party, the waitress did not bat an eyelid when it came to my turn to order and I asked for just 'a bowl of ice cream please'. Maybe it was my 'foreign accent' and I am expected to be a bit weird, but I felt that had I asked for a bowl of marinated toenails, she would have whipped off her shoes right there. Moving back to Britain, we all felt the usual sense of anticipation on weekend mornings, when we got ready to go for breakfast, then wandered around looking at each other in confusion - where does everyone go? Being away for a while, you forget things (things you don't like much) and this all came back to me: 'er, British Homes Stores?' Right, said my husband, lead me to it (enthusiastically), well first we get in the car and drive about 8 miles to the nearest large town, then we park and pay, then we all troop out and stare at some miserable pinkish things in a hot cabinet while a surly server drums his fingers, wait in line and part with a mortgage payment to sit in silence in the plastic splendour of the department store 'restaurant'. Its not the noisy, laughter filled, happy breakfast mornings I remember. There are lots of other wonderful things to like about living here, but breakfast is not one of them. One amazing place we used to go to in Texas, was a large old restored warehouse. It was a restaurant/wine bar and an art gallery which did the most fantastic breakfasts. As soon as you sat down, the waitress brought you an effusive welcome, an introduction and a steaming basket of muffins and other just baked pastries. Oh, I thought the first time we went, not much choice but hey ho. Then the menu's arrived. Pastries were complimentary and everything else you could imagine wanting for breakfast was on the menu. Tables were close enough that you could chat with a neighbour but far away enough you didn't feel cramped. Kids all socialised with other kids, made noise, dropped muffins on the floor, swapped bits of food, spilled drinks, yelled to friends they knew a few tables away and adults had surreptitious bloody mary's with their coffee. Also, you can have your food any way you like it! try asking for your bacon sauteed for 6 minutes exactly here, with crispy edges only and you would get a curt nod and the bacon the way it comes regardless. Americans will cook your food any way you want it and you get all that with a smile. Returning to Britain after five years, I looked forward to many things I had put out of my mind, and now we are planning a move back the the states, I can hardly wait for breakfast!"
This morning got off to a good start because a couple of weeks ago I threw out all of the scale and chord books that I used to use for harmonic practice and now I just do tunes and improvisation and go over any of the chords and scales from memory because I know most of them anyway. There are thousands of them but they are easy to remember because they are all related to each other.
Finally, I have found a way to practice that I really enjoy, a mixture of keeping my reading music skills up by improvising on the chords on paper, spontaneous improvisation of any tune that comes into my head both melody and jazzing it up and going over scales and chords that relate to the two things above so the scales and chords are done within a context rather than just on their own as I used to do. Hours of it in fact in the 90s when I was very keen on harmonica.
I am going to get the folk harmonica going as well and relearn all the Irish and country tunes that I used to know. The York session at the Maltings will be graced by me by the end of the month. Watch out there is a harmonica about!
I would like to thank The Button Hole Jam band as well as the Butterknowle bunch of people up there for giving me a role model prod in the direction of taking music a bit less seriously and having more fun with it. They certainly do!
Finally, I have found a way to practice that I really enjoy, a mixture of keeping my reading music skills up by improvising on the chords on paper, spontaneous improvisation of any tune that comes into my head both melody and jazzing it up and going over scales and chords that relate to the two things above so the scales and chords are done within a context rather than just on their own as I used to do. Hours of it in fact in the 90s when I was very keen on harmonica.
I am going to get the folk harmonica going as well and relearn all the Irish and country tunes that I used to know. The York session at the Maltings will be graced by me by the end of the month. Watch out there is a harmonica about!
I would like to thank The Button Hole Jam band as well as the Butterknowle bunch of people up there for giving me a role model prod in the direction of taking music a bit less seriously and having more fun with it. They certainly do!
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