Phil, You Great Big Cry Baby!

I get quite emotional a fair bit and I think that's very positive actually. Why be alive if you can't experience feelings? Very rarely though do I actually cry. It's not some sort of macho thing (anyone who knows me know I'm not macho!) that says I don't believe a guy can cry, it's just with me, whatever chemical reaction that has to happen in that moment to cause crying often doesn't take place.

Several songs, moments on a film/TV can get me all choked up and I feel that lump in my throat. However only once can I remember actually crying when watching TV. Rather humerously (and embarassing now!) it was when Kylie Minogue's character on "Neighbours", Charlene, did her final scene. It was 1988 and I would have been five or six years old (are you saying "awwww bless" yet??) and she drove off in an orange mini leaving her friends and family behind on Ramsey Street that I shed many tears. Awww! (ohh it looks like I'm not the only one)

Today, aged 28, I cried for the first time when listening to a song. As I say, there are many songs I could list (which I will provide if asked) that give me a lump in my throat. However, something in this song below caused that rush of whatever hormone it is to flow into my blood stream today.

The song in question is "Someone Like You", by Adele. It's so beautiful, accounting an experience of unrequited love. The lyrics are so powerful and return you to a moment experienced by many yet so personal to oneself.

This line in particular strikes a real chord with me:

"I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited but I couldn't stay away I couldn't fight it."
It reminds me of the time I turned up, unannounced at the home of the person for whom I had unrequited love. I was 14 years old (which turned out to be year 2 of an 8 year thing I had for her!) and I went up to hers with the aim of confessing my feelings to her. I chickened out at the last minute.

So, get a tissue at the ready, watch and admire.

Twenty-six Little Squiggles

The written word, a compound of one or more of these strange shapes we know as letters. Kinda amazing when you think about it.

The Magna Carta through to hand-written letters from friends and family I have kept. Each little "squiggle" touches someone, somehow, in some way. Whenever "a writing" is produced, I think a moment of perfection exists because they provide us (humans Inc) with the means to communicate our deepest thoughts and desires, each one generated by any one of billions of tiny little neurons. So yeah, I think it's pretty cool that we have these letters. I wouldn't be able to share this with you now without them!

Twenty-six Little Squiggles

Twenty-six little squiggly lines,
All innocent and inconspicuous,
Like a love who is unrequited,
They sit unaware of their power,

Upper and sometimes lower,
Set ready for the dart thrower,
Going from quill to keyboard,
The pen is mightier than the sword

Rosetta Stone to Tweeting
Hieroglyphics to "OMG",
Continually evolving?,
Definitely, maybe,

W.H. Auden to W.H. Smiths,
Both places for squiggles to enlighten,
Shakespeare and Wordsworth,
Inspired by authors unknown,

Causing smiles and tears, happiness and despair,
In the right hands, beautiful, in the wrong, hell,
Eight squiggles to tell someone they're special,
Yeah, those are my favourite of all the squiggles,

Twenty-six little squiggles.

The Romance of Rice Pudding

This is just totally cute and as I'm a sucker for anything romantically cute, right up my street. All the little things that define a couple and the little jokes and rituals they have - it's just great. Here's a wonderful example of this in action. Awwwww :)

I don't know if rice pudding is that popular outside the UK? Either way, did you know that it's also romantic - specifically if it's ambrosia creamed rice (which I'm fairly sure is found only in Britain)? Well, it is!

I came across this article about Ronnie Corbett - a national treasure and one half (well, maybe one third ;) ) of the influential 1970's and 1980's comedic double act known as the The Two Ronnies. In it, Ronnie Corbett's reserved personality is explored, in particular his inability (due to embarrassment) to communicate the love he has for his wife, Anne.

"Early on in their relationship, Anne Corbett wondered why her husband found it difficult to say anything romantic to her. He put his reticence down to his Scottish roots. But they found a way round the problem, Anne has recalled: "I said: 'Well, think of something nice you can say that doesn't embarrass you,'' and he said: 'Ambrosia Creamed Rice.' Even now on his birthday and Valentine cards I never put 'I love you', and nor does Ron. We put 'ACR'."
 -- Source
How cute is that?!

Here is Ronnie Corbett alongside his late friend and colleague Ronnie Barker, in what is perhaps their most famous sketch; Four Candles



So it's goodnight from me...

Ray LaMontagne

I've just discovered this singer, Ray LaMontagne, who I saw for the first time a few weeks ago on Later...with Jools Holland.

He's the type of singer I really like. One who's songs have a poetic quality to them. I think musicians such as this are a rare breed, who are actually poets that use their instruments instead of pens in which to write their works of art with.

I only feel sorry for the fact that my ears did not discover him sooner!

This is (so far) my favourite song. Beautiful.

This Is The Way We Play The Caixa

You know, it's weird how a person, a place, or an experience you don't think anything of at the time can evolve to become the inspiration to pen (or type) a poem.

Recently, I have started going to a drumming/percussion workshop on a Sunday evening put on by the London School of Samba (although ironically I'm not going to tonights as I have man flu). I don't attend the dance or costume making things as I'm not into that (two left feet, only wear jeans). I've only been to the drumming one three or four times so far, but I've really enjoyed the atmosphere created when a room full of people come together to make some (organised!) noise under the instruction of the "conductor" called Fred (I believe there's another one as well who conducts but it's always been Fred by chance on the weeks I have been).

This Is The Way We Play The Caixa

Brigadier General Fred takes his place,
Standing high above his troops,

"Today soldiers, we go forth to face our enemy,
Be ferocious in battle, but magnanimous in victory,

Tame the beast, make friends with it,
Its name - The Samba. Now let us commence",

Our army's name: The Bateria,
Our weapons are cleaned and ready for use,

The order to move up is issued by our commander,
"Standby, standby, GO!",

The engines of the Surdos roar into action,
As intimidating as any tank should be,

Following on in their masses - the Caixas,
The ever-present loyal and skilled infantrymen,

Bolstering the Caixas are the Repiniques,
Specialised in both weapon and hand-to-hand combat,

Supporting these forces, the Tamborims,
Diligent and competent engineers,

Combining their strengths are the Agogos and Chocalhos,
This signals corp defines our regimental march,

Our strengths are numerous,
We hold the ground,

Chanting the spirit of,
Dagga dagga da boom bang!

(I'm not in any of these ones by the way, but gives you an idea of things!)

Atom Spotting - Getting to Know the World Around You

I am fortunate to work for a company which believes strongly in employee well-being. A happy employee is a creative employee right? Moreover, a happy person is a creative person both at and outside of the workplace.

Our dear leader, and all-round "Jolly Good Fellow" who for the purposes of this blog shall be referred to as Kim Meng-il (although our Meng is popular and would never be so roanree - warning: video contains a naughty word!) has encouraged the holders of thousands of curious minds to continue to develop their curiosity and step into a world which will hopefully, over time will increase their general levels of happiness.

I highly endorse taking some of your time to read his blog Mengstupiditis and just see what you think.

Through the practice of a technique known as Mindfulness, the idea is to both relax (through breathing) and also get to know (through a deep awareness) someone very important - yourself. I like to think of it as "How can we even begin to understand the world around us if we do not take the time to first know ourselves?"

As far as I know, there are no official "stages" of experience or knowledge, but if there are, then I'm still very much at stage 1 (maybe 1.5 if I get extra points by blogging about it? I think so!). I just find it an interesting concept and one to play with as and when just to see what grows if I plant the seeds. My personal interest in it is to see if it can help reduce levels of anxiety that I experience (I call this "tortured genius syndrome" ;))

I've always been a bit of a curious chappy. I like to let my mind wander and see how many of the synaptic gaps I can bridge before I leave this planet. So, leading on from the mindful approach to life, I have come up with my own way to practice this -- Atom Spotting. I haven't really practiced it much, and maybe it will not prove to be useful. I suppose only time will tell!

If you can have train spotters hanging around alongside train tracks, or plane spotters gathering at an airport, then why can't you have people who spot atoms? That is to say that when you go about your daily business, why not look for everything? An example might be walking down the street, minding your own business. But, what if you played "atom spotting" and looked for everything? The clothes people are wearing, what logos are on the clothes, what they are made of, the shades of colour, the fibres of the particular fabric used to make that piece of clothing? Apply this to everything around you (vehicle detail, the fonts on sign posts right down to the small indentations on the pavements on which millions of people have walked) you essentially begin to live the saying "God is in the detail".

So, see how many atoms you can spot. I'm going to give it a go!

The Downsides of Living Within One Mile of The Houses of Parliament (perhaps!)

Warning Spoiler Alert: (if you haven't seen the first episode in series 9 of Spooks)

So you know when you're watching TV and you get a little too into it? That doesn't happen to me often, but last night, rather humoursly it did.

I was watching the first episode of series 9 of Spooks -- what is perhaps the BBC's finest show.

Cutting a long story short. Terrorists get hold of some explosives and plan to send them crashing into the Houses of Parliament. Only way to stop this from happening is to use the last resort which - detonate an EMP to disable the bombs. The downside - it'd knock out anything containing a microchip within a 1 mile radius.

The bombs (contained in small submersibles) are making their way up the Thames. There is no time to stop them. The decision is made. The EMP must be detonated to prevent the destruction of the Houses of Parliament.

As I mention, I had a got a little too into the episode, and.....see thing is, is that I live comfortably within the 1 mile radius of the Houses of Parliament. For a brief second, I was watching the episode as if it was real time waiting, the tension building inside me as I waited for my internet connection to go off. Thankfully it didn't ;)

I did enjoy this random person's tweet on the subject though. Very funny!

Anyway that's all. Congratulations to the BBC for another great episode. Also thanks that this wasn't real and my internet connection was unaffected so I could still look at porn opportunities to volunteer.