Category Archives: Uncategorized

…Brenda comes to ‘Singing for Health’ each week, in her wheel chair, with her dog Rosie on her lap; we always sing ‘How Much is that Doggie in the Window?’ in honour of Rosie. The song illustrates what I shall call ‘Doggie Analysis’: Lowestoft Gull Wing Bridge… Two huge sections have arrived and been installed:Continue reading “Doggie Analysis”

Someone, someone,Someone who really loves youWhen someone really loves youThat’s when your life begins This old Crickets song was one of the first that I learnt to play on my guitar… I grew up with simple love songs, love stories… a boy meets a girl, (sometimes a girl meets a boy,) they fall in love,Continue reading “Love… Simple, Complicated or Impossible”

I’m reading ‘Four Meals For Fourpence’. Grace Foakes describes her life in London’s East End in the early 1900s… no electricity, cars, radio, television… washing hung across narrow streets in which children played. Her mother had fourteen children of which only five survived… What was most valuable to Grace? ‘They were happy days in thatContinue reading “What’s Valuable?”

Hands, touching hands, Reaching out, Touching me, Touching you… Sweet Caroline, Good times never seemed so good… Many are introduced to Neil Diamond’s love song ‘Sweet Caroline’ as an anthem belted out at some sports event… Perhaps it expresses something deeper… I’ll call it ‘The Caroline Principle’. Twenty years ago, I conducted many of myContinue reading “The Caroline Principle”

Yesterday we learnt of Len Goodman’s death. Len was a judge on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ when it  was launched in 2004, joining the American ‘Dancing With The Stars’ in 2005… He was respected and loved by many as a competitor, adjudicator, and by ordinary people who watched him on TV. Many paid tribute to him…Continue reading “What Is A Good Man?”

Yesterday… …Over 48,000 ran in the London Marathon. Serious athletes wanted to run a good time… Some ran for charities, dressed as teddy-bears, trees, super-heroes, monsters… Some ran because of very real monsters in their lives… the cancer that had taken a friend or family member… the life limiting illness that has been diagnosed… theContinue reading “Monsters… Godzilla, Dragons and Giants”

I keep fighting voices in my mind that say I’m not enoughEvery single lie that tells me I will never measure up Am I more than just the sum of every high and every lowRemind me once again just who I am because I need to know In Sunday School I was taught: ‘JOY comesContinue reading “You Say”

At ‘Music for Wellbeing’ yesterday Helen gave out kazoos. The accompaniment of thirty geriatric kazoo players made some songs sound very different!! …Including ‘Ring of Fire’: I fell into a burning ring of fireI went down, down, downAnd the flames went higherAnd it burns, burns, burnsThe ring of fire… On the news, Dominic Rabb resignedContinue reading “Ring of Fire”

Recently we visited ‘The Spice Den’. I chose the ‘mixed platter’ starter… lamb tikka, chicken tikka, seekh kebab, onion bhaji, meat and vegetable simosa… I enjoyed tasting the variety of different dishes… There’s a similar principle when the family come round for dinner… Invariably Rachel produces more than one dessert – apple pie, chocolate cheesecake,Continue reading “Tasting… Experiment, Enjoyment, Expectation…”

Victoria Arlen, telling of her pain, paralysis and healing, at one point says: ‘I define a scar as a reminder – sometimes visible, sometimes not  – of a struggle or a moment when I was in pain. My journey left several wounds and created many scars, but most of my visible scars have healed. TheContinue reading “The Scars Tell The Story”