It's the last day of November and therefore the last blog of my little Blogaday-athon. 

I've quite enjoyed it. It's been fun trying to come up with stuff  and to post every day whether I felt up to it or not. I may do it again at some point. (Possibly February as there aren't as many days! Haha!)

Thank you to everyone who has read every day. Apologies again for taking up timelines along the way. 

It's extra nice to end on a high after two days of seeing so many friends in Liverpool. There's been a lot of love in the city - thank you to everyone who called in to say hello. (Extra special thanks to Donna for bringing some of the ceremony for George to me. Also to Ellie for Bourneville chocolate bar *knowing wink* - next year it's you, me, a bottle of scotch and CFG sweetie!) 

I will of course still be posting blogs (look out for some on Sisterbluebird.co.uk as there's a few gigs to round off the year)  just not every day. 

Cheers! 

 

Anniversaries are times for reflection. It's hard to believe it's been ten years since George Harrison passed away, and so much water has flowed under the bridge since then.

Today I have to be in work, but we will be playing George's music all day. At at 11.30am I will add my thoughts to those who are attending the ceremony at the Anglican Cathedral here in Liverpool. The idea is to celebrate the life of George and that's a fine philosophy!

So if you can, play your favourite George tunes and remember the Quiet one with the wicked sense of humour and a passion for guitars and racing cars.

I make no apologies for using this footage from the end of the amazing Concert For George concert from 2002. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. I'll see you in my dreams...Love one another.

Do you have any carpet at all in your house?
At home there is lots of carpet. In Liverpool I have a purple carpet in my room.

Don’t you love it when lotion smells all yummy?
Indeed.

Did you ever notice that ‘non-scented’ hairspray actually has a scent?
No. I don’t use hairspray.

Which are better: Carnivals or Festivals?
Either/or really..

Do you like penguins?
I do.

How do you like your coffee?
In a morning, .

Is love a mind disease?
Disease usually implies cure.

Sex- Before wedding or after?
Depends, what time is the vicar due? 

What’s your main worry at the moment?
Jez - EVERYTHING!! .

Were you upset at the death of MJ, or did you not care

 I was interested in the way the rolling news channels covered it, but I am uneffected by his passing.

Would you rather kiss the last person who texted you, or your most recent ex

 I don't know how good a kisser Ellie is, or if she would mind snogging me so erm...pass!

What is the next concert you are going to?
Deep Purple tomorrow!

Who was the last person you called on your cell & why?
Stephen, to check postage.

Who was the last person you complained to?
I moaned to a mail order company, who ignored my moaning, but the stuff arrived.

What’s the most annoying song at the moment?
That 1Direction one.

Do you own any Tupac albums?
nope.

Do you wear an eye-mask when you go to bed?
No.

Are you high maintenance?
I don't think so, other opinions may vary ;-P.

What’s your favorite older movie?
It's A Wonderful Life.

What was on the last CD you burned?
Erm....pass, I work on stick drives these days darling!.

Are escalators really necessary? Can’t we just walk up the stairs?
Handy when you're carrying stuff though.

Inner beauty; out of everyone you know, who holds the most?
That's a toughie, all my close friends are beautiful inside an out.

What’s the coolest thing you’ve EVER seen?
watching my niece growing up is the most amazing thing ever!.

Are you sexually attracted to any musicians?
Some, but not all ;-)

What mythical creature would you like to have as a pet?

Pheonix

Where would you like to live?
Venice or by the seaside.

Where do you live?
Good question!!  :-/

What makes you think someone is skanky, automatically?
usually when they open their gob and garbage falls out..

What makes you automatically like a person?
I don't automatically like people, I quietly judge them till they pass all the barriers to friendship! ;-)

Who is the last person that was at your house?
Me.

Do you like standing in front of fires?
No I prefer sitting in a comfy chair in front of them.

Are you a fan of seafood?
Not sure it's a fan of me at the mo.

Last book you read?
The Marty Feldman one by Robert Ross.

 

Last time I was at the Academy the security couldn't be more helpful, however on this occasion they seemed to have very little patience and as I arrived at the venue had just turfed everyone out into the cold to queue up for half an hour. Not sure why the union bar wasn't open but it would have made a few bob before everyone went in. Then when we did get in we were left milling for a second not knowing which bit we were going to, which seemed to annoy the security people. Some actually signs to the different sections would be really handy you know!

Venue griping aside this was a really entertaining night. Me and gig buddy had a pint or two and browsed the merch stall before the show began. The merch seemed really reasonably priced. I forked out a mere £30 and came away with a t-shirt, a signed drum head and a pair of drumsticks. The venue wasn't packed which made it possible to get a good way down towards the action. I'm usually slightly shorter that the rest of the audience so I'm used to a limited view at standing gigs.  Nobody pushed and nobody shoved, it was quite lovely.

Opening with the familiar "Welcome Back" section from Karn Evil  9 the set list moved through a selection of well known ELP pieces. The sound from trio was tremendous. Closing your eyes you would have been hard pushed to believe there was only a guitarist, bassist and drummer on that stage.  Paul Bielatowicz made some amazing sounds on his guitar, pulling the best "rock guitar" faces I've seen in a long time. And bass player  Simon Fitzpatrick was also superb, particularly during his bass solo bookended by "Take A Pebble"

Carl Palmer, as you would expect, was faultless on drums, and percussion and big old gongs! He really looked like he was having a ball up there on stage. The tour is to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Pictures At An Exhibition. The band did their own version of the piece, which although obviously not exact (there is no keyboard player or vocalist) was an excellent piece of work of itself. We didn't stick around to meet Carl afterwards, instead it was out into the chill November air to head home after a thoroughly entertaining night out.

With thanks to Paul Dean for the photos of the set list and my gig booty!

This entry was also posted in my music blog www.sisterbluebird.co.uk

I have bought a TV. It's a wee little one, well 16" anyway. It's got a built in DVD player and USB port so that's all cool. 

It's for my room in Liverpool. At the moment I watch TV through my laptop but that's no good if I want to do anything else on there, and the DVD drive is on the way out. 

It's HD too, but the only advantage of that on such a small screen is that I can plug my android tablet into it. 

Going to set up and check it out tomorrow before taking back to the Liverpool. No time now as I'm off to see Carl Palmer this evening. I'll give you three guesses what tomorrow's blog is likely to be about. ;-)

I am starting this before midnight so it still counts okay?

I am home for the weekend and I have so much to catch up on I don't know where to begin.

It looks like tomorrow is going to involve some gadget upgrading so I expect I will be swearing at the netbook a lot. But the reward is getting to see Carl Palmer that night.

I've already cursed about creating back ups. Files have taken so long to transfer that it's eaten a big chunk out of my night.

A better blog tomorrow I promise, but right now I need to sleep. It's been a long week.

It's Thanksgiving in the USA, not a holiday we Brits share but it's quite a nice holiday. It was Donna who pointed out that it's a holiday about being with friends and family and celebrating gratitude rather than it being about gift giving etc... Dani called it "Happy Count-your-blessings Day" on twitter too. Now I like the idea of a holiday like this. I'm not a big fan of holidays invented to sell cards and gifts but I would approve if one was invented over here to just give thanks. A nice feel good holiday with no gifts. It's unlikely to happen so I'm going to lig in on the American celebrations!

This year I am thankful for my family who are simply brilliant! My neice is growing up so fast that it's now quite scary, but she's a good kid and I'm proud of her. My mum and dad are and always have been strong, loyal and supportive. I am grateful for all the amazing adventures I was allowed as a kid, everything I got away with and all the things I didn't, all the stuff that let me grow up with sense of individuality, a head full wild nonsense and sense of joy and wonder that still prevails today. 

I am thankful for my friends. My close friends are amazing and I am so grateful to have them in my life. I'll spare blushes by not naming names ;-)  I adore each and everyone of them and celebrate their diversity and individuality. I just wish I could see some of them more often.  Also I love everyone I interact with on a regular basis online, despite the fact I may never meet most of them I am often overwhelmed with the kindness and generousity of spirit from so-called "complete strangers"  The fact that I haven't actually met some of my favourite people in my social circles in no way detracts from the fact that I view some of them as valued and trusted friends. 

I am thankful for my job. It's tiring and at times completely soul destroying and sometimes I am surpressing the urge to runaway and hide from it, but there are some lovely days and it pays for my nasty gadget/comic book/prog habit. 

I am thankful for the music that plays such a big part of my life. It soothes my soul and puts me back on track at the most turbulent of moments. 

I am thankful for the freedom to be myself. 

 

I really shouldn't start things later than planned. Nothing goes well! Just had a minor panic that my hard drive had died. I got it working again though. 

I am currently trying to select some music to go on my Galaxy Player. I have just bought it a shiny new 32Gb micro SD card to upgrade from the 16Gb one.  That's twice the music! Actually I'm not likely to fill the card just yet but I thought I would take the opportunity to refresh the music that is on there and add a bit more to it. I wish I travelled more at the moment, that tends to be when I get to listen music. Sadly the 20 minute journey to and from work doesn't give me much time to really listen to stuff and I end up playing the same familiar stuff over and over because there's no time to get into a new album etc...

Anyway, must get on with it, or at least as far as getting the files onto a memory stick. 

I've decided to draw a line under my photo a day project. I've not updated it since 25th October. It's more than likely I've not actually taken a photograph every day since. I did fairly well and I'm not giving it up easily. It was fun to try and do it. 

I'll be honest it had kind of got in the way of selecting lots of photos from days out etc... so it will be nice to get back to that.

I only take photos for fun, I don't think I'm great at it, but sometimes I like the results. 

Anyway, here's a couple of my faves that I have taken recently. 

 

My PhotoBlog

My Flickr Account

What a strange non-day. I feel like I have sleep walked through most of it. When the highlight of the day is making baked potatoes for tea you know there's not a lot going on.

I have a fuzzy headache. Please don't let it be a cold.
I'm hoping for a less fuzzy tomorrow so I can attempt something more interesting. Good night.