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The trouble with resolutions and bucket lists and all that stuff is that you are fast forwarding into the future…I found a lovely post from a blog  called zen habits with some reminders to help you stay in the now, rather than dwelling on the past or worrying/vagueing out about the future. I have heard it a zillion times before, but it is something we all need  to be constantly reminded of.  Part of being in the present involves planning for something that has not happened yet. This is of course a valid and good  thing to do. It is  always good to picture the crop as you sow the seeds  but then you have to water and nurture it for a while before it flowers. Also being in the present means perhaps that sowing the seeds happens today, not thinking about sowing the seeds and then missing it.

It is good to have goals, but most of a goal needs to have some connection with what you are doing today. Ultimately it  is the practice today, the small steps of today  that changes the  quality of tomorrow. You need to write everyday or sing everyday, or knit, or dance or forgive everyday, embrace life everyday, count your lucky stars everyday to change the  quality of your future.  If you spend too much time projecting into the future, or dwelling on the past, life is missed.

I still cannot believe I have posted every day in 2011, but it is about taking each day as it comes with its disciplines and commitments to the small steps. I will have reached my goal tomorrow. It is all a bit strange coming to the end of the post-a-day 2011 challenge as I  don’t feel that it is time for me to stop yet. Just because the date has arrived, I do not see the line in the sand, so I will carry on until it feels right to stop. I was going to have a big ceremony tomorrow, and still might, if I have the time in between the projects I have on the burner between now and then. Happy New Year

“I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.” – Albert Einstein

SONG OF THE DAY – SOWING THE SEEDS OF LOVE  – Tears for Fears

Had a bit of a musical crush on the curly haired one called Roland….think I still do. This was a real epic song at the time it was released……tip of a hat to ELO and Beatles …but a great track for today…the new year is about sowing the seeds of love. Turn it up and sing along…”time to eat all your words, swallow your pride, open your eyes”

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1986

Happy Birthday To YOU! Blimey me and Mickey go back a long way. I think we ‘went into the studio’ about 1984 or 5. I met him in a local pub, and the rest, as they say is history.  Hundreds of gigs and songs later…..So its MBG’s birthday today.

1999

Congratulations for reaching a fine age, and see you later, the trifle is nearly ready! To celebrate this birthday I am publishing a few fine photos of me and

2003

Mickey through our musical partnership through the years and a little bit of video of us practising just the other week.

– It is very good of Mickey to let me play the guitar with him as he is an old master, as I am really a bit of a fledgling.

I am still sorting out my speech for January 1st and my proper life plan for the next year in between sorting out my computer which is on misbehave mode, so has to be turned off and ignored until it calms down and remembers its place. It sounds a bit silly to have a ( before I  kick the) bucket list, but it is good to have a focus , not that I really need more to do!

SONG OF THE DAY – PENGUIN FURY  – GLAMOUR GIRL

The first time I saw Mickey he was playing in his band Penguin Fury at the Stapleton Pub in Stroud Green in about 1982. He was the guitarist and they had a stuffed penguin at the front of the stage. They were very good. The drummer Bruno Perosa is a film maker too   (he edited Raining In China) the thing is can you work out which of the band is Mickey?

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Coming home on the train last night was lovely. It was quiet, I just turned on my laptop and did some work for a couple of hours. We have been so lucky with all our extensive train manouvers over the festive period, and have seemed to be going the opposite way from the larger body of travellers.

I am a terrible people watcher. One thing I notice on trains is young  trendy men who have obviously been to visit their parents for the festive period, and are returning to the big smoke. It makes me smile when they get out a packet of very nicely packed sandwiches that their mum must have made them for the journey home. Sweet.

I have been wondering again about having a go at getting in an aeroplane again. It has been a long time ( 1987 to be exact) and I would not even know how to book a flight on line. I am wizzy at booking train tickets, but just would not know how to start. I am off to Dublin to run  a days workshop at the end of feb. and would go on the train and the ferry, but am thinking the ferry might be a bit rough at that time of year, and if you do the ferry and the train its about 7 hours, but once you have got to the airport and hung around, I am not sure if you would save much time anyway. I also have a problem with flying  hither and thither for ecological reasons….though I have saved up a few carbon footprints over the last 24 years! Help needed please…..

SONG OF THE DAY-  Can’t Speak French – Girls Aloud ( and a version in french)

This is to cheer up my blogger mate Seycen.  Miranda Eleanor De Fonbrune Cooper is one of the co-writers of this song…what a fantabulous a name, and a great pop songwriter! I wish I could speak french, but I can’t…… so  I ‘ll  just have to let the funky music do the talking now. One to three…hit it! quick pogo round my office. x x x

and in french…….

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I am only joking. We have had a lovely time away but it is time today to return to our  rented shoe box in the middle of the road in foggy London town. I have enjoyed being in big rooms where I could dance without hitting the walls every time I swung a cat. That has been lovely. At home there is very little chance of dancing except in the traditional Irish style with hands firmly by one’s side and using steps that  resemble the pogo.

I have also enjoyed spending time with the nieces, nephews and in-laws. There are so many of them! Check out my new year’s walk nearly a year ago (1/1/11) with a small handful of them here. I only have one living auntie, parents, one sister and 5 cousins on my side of the family. Mr P. has 10 living aunts and uncles and about 40 cousins, and a grandmother who has  over 50 grandchildren. You go to events at his neck of the woods and he does not introduce me to people, because there are so many of them, he does not remember so any of their names!  Over the years I have got to more than nodding acquaintance with very many of them, and what a varied cast they are, from car-line workers, forklift truckers,  lorry driver owners, pub landlords, pharmacists, teachers, nurses to surgeons. Yesterday Mr. P. was still too ill, so I went to watch masses of his family members go go-carting in a big place on the North Wales border. I wish I had had a go, no one was sure if the fact I did not drive might have hindered me, and also they all paid £35 each for the experience, which seemed grand as they all got to race round about 5 times and wear jumpsuits that made them all look like formula one drivers! cool.

So I am on my way home by now, let’s hope the train is not too packed and the mice have not had too much of a party since I left.

SONG OF THE DAY – Ace – how long has this been going on?

1975 eek. My first proper rock concert at the Roundhouse Camden. Went on the bus with a new date and some lads , my date  promptly ditched me. My mum made me clean the whole house before she would let me go. I had to phone my dad to come and rescue me from Radlett railway station after the journey home with the lads who did not speak to me and just left me there…thought he would be really cross and shout…but he didn’t..I wish I had washed my hair and  worn that hideous brown coat, then I am sure things would have been very different.ha ha ha . Funny that all these years later I remember the dilemma of wondering if I should wash my hair, or whether it would last another day……..Patrick Dennis, you should be ashamed of yourself!