A fairly routine week ahead in the sense that I’m not going out anywhere, but as ever there’s a lot to do. I’m hoping to get it all done on schedule so that I can have a bit of downtime the week after.
Geth and I got back from Leeds this morning after a great gig last night (review to follow… eventually) and are having a quiet evening in before the weekday chaos begins again.
Being in a town centre felt slightly odd yesterday evening… Christmas is apparently suddenly here! (Or it is in commercial areas, anyway.)
Photography couldn’t really capture the pretty sparkle of this tree but I gave it a good go. I love the run-up to Christmas.
Geth and I have been up in Edinburgh for a few days to see Mum and Dad and to collect some interesting computer stuff that I will blog about soon. We are back now and I have had some good post through the door today (mainly Christmas-related). Time is hurtling on as ever and it won’t be long now till the end of the year.
It’s going to be a busy weekend as we have a gig to attend tomorrow evening. I need to start catching up with my gig reviews again soon! Another thing to target by Christmas…
Quiet week next week though. Might even manage another Shouldless Sunday!
My virtual LEJOG medal finally arrived today – probably the last of my virtual medals as I’ve got no need to do virtuals anymore now that real races are back.
This week’s earworm playlists:
Saturday
Ava Max – ‘Kings And Queens’
Sunday
Kevin Gillis and Lisa Lougheed – ‘Run With Us’
Monday
The Running Channel – ‘Run With Me’ The Sweet – ‘Blockbuster’ Dead Or Alive – ‘Something In My House’
Tuesday
Roxette – ‘Listen To Your Heart’
Wednesday
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – ‘Locomotion’
Thursday
Duran Duran – ‘Anniversary’ Cast of The Jungle Book – ‘Bare Necessities’ Marc Almond and Gene Pitney – ‘Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart’ Soft Cell – ‘Sex Dwarf’
The first half of September has been almost back to pre-pandemic levels of Being Out And About! Weddings, races, gigs… it’s been a busy time, but so joyful to be able to see people and do normal things again. I even finally got to see Duran Duran this week! They announced a couple of short-notice gigs about a fortnight ago and I jumped at the chance… especially seeing as I already had a ticket for Andy Taylor on the Wednesday and so it was set to be the best coming-out-of-the-pandemic return to gig-going week I could have hoped for!
I’ll review the gigs in depth here eventually but I’ve also written pieces on them for a couple of fansites/publications so I want to wait until those are out first.
Anyway, the second half of September, in contrast, is empty, and I plan to make the most of that. I will only be leaving the house to do parkrun and an occasional long-ish run (my short daily runs are now all being done on the treadmill to reduce my risk of injury in the lead-up to the marathon) until I leave for London, with the one exception being the day I’ll be helping Geth unpack boxes in his new office. I am guarding that time very carefully as I want as much physical and mental rest as possible over the next sixteen days!
I am also getting organised for Hallowe’en so that I’m not rushing around with that in October. Some exciting things coming in the post soon…
T-shirt collection well stocked up this week! Love both of these 🙂
Saturday
The Wombles – ‘The Wombling Song’ Duran Duran – ‘Come Undone’
Sunday
Mika – ‘Grace Kelly’
Monday
Mark Knopfler – ‘Local Hero’ The Running Channel – ‘Run With Me’
Tuesday
Meat Loaf – ‘Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through’ Duran Duran – ‘Invisible’
Wednesday
Duran Duran – ‘Tonight United’ Andy Taylor – ‘Bringing Me Down’ Gloria Gaynor – ‘I Will Survive’ Duran Duran – ‘Friends Of Mine’
Thursday
Duran Duran – ‘What Happens Tomorrow’
Friday
Tom Jones – ‘Delilah’ Duran Duran – ‘Ordinary World’
The next week or so is quite busy with running events and gigs. I’m excited for all of it! And also for next weekend when I will return to my regularly scheduled dozing. The return to near-normality is nice but it can feel a little overwhelming to be suddenly doing All The Things.
The strange brief heatwave that made its way through the UK this week only showed its face in Newcastle on Wednesday, and that was quite enough for me. I’m done with hot weather now! Looking forward to cooler conditions for autumn running. It’s meant to be 13°C and cloudy on Sunday for the GNR and I really hope the forecast is right.
I made a decision earlier this week that I wouldn’t do the 22-mile run I’d scheduled for this week and would instead treat my 18-miler from a couple of weeks ago as my longest long run for the marathon. My body is telling me very loudly that a five-week taper is more likely to get me to the start line in one piece than a three-week taper, so I’m going to listen to it. I’ve got the GNR (13.1 miles) on Sunday, will do either eight or six miles next Thursday depending on how I’m feeling post-race, and six the week after, then a nice ten-day period of only doing mile-and-a-half streak savers and slow gentle parkruns leading up to the marathon. Fingers crossed it will all go according to plan.
This time next week I am hoping to report back on a slow but enjoyable GNR completion, two very long-awaited concerts, and the bulk of a game coded!
Last week’s photo of next door’s cat. He sneaked in as usual while our groceries were being delivered and looked so comfy I let him stay for an hour or so!
This week’s earworm playlists:
Saturday
Republica – ‘Drop Dead Gorgeous’
Sunday
The Beatles – ‘Hey Jude’ Tom Jones – ‘Delilah’
Monday
Koichi Sugiyama – ‘Town’
Tuesday
Koichi Sugiyama – ‘Town’
Wednesday
Boston – ‘More Than A Feeling’ Soft Cell – ‘Say Hello Wave Goodbye’
A slight bit of blog business today. Now that I’m caught up with all my pre-pandemic gig reviews, I’m planning to make Wednesday ‘music day’ on the blog. I’ve not focused on music posts for a while, as I’ve not been focusing on music so much in my everyday life, for a couple of reasons. First of all, gigs are obviously on the back burner for now. Secondly, I’ve not been listening to music in a focused way during the last year – I’ve been finding I concentrate on work better when it’s quiet, and when I’m out for a walk with headphones I prefer to listen to podcasts. When I do put music on (largely at the request of Geth when he wants some background music), it’s always an old standby like ’80s pop or synthwave or videogame soundtracks – it’s been a long time since I’ve deliberately listened to an album or sought out new music.
It’s been about eighteen months since I wrote my last New Hits Friday post, because I’ve not been keeping up with the chart for the last year (most chart music is not to my taste so I was starting to find it a bit of a chore, though I will go back and catch up because I still find the chart really interesting academically). I’m a few Now! albums behind, and other than the usual Christmas shows, I can’t remember the last time I turned on the music channels. It’s just not been a focus for the last year and a bit; there have been other things going on.
However, I would like to get back into the habit of focused music listening, which is why I’m going to be setting aside Wednesday blog posts for related content. This could take many forms – reviews, features, general ramblings – as I want to keep the scope quite broad. I expect that at first, I’ll mostly be focusing on music topics I already know about, but there’s always the potential to learn something new. Sometimes on ukulele!
Ocarina out of time. Mum and Dad passed this on to me a couple of Christmases ago but I haven’t had much chance to pick it up yet. One day 🙂
I find it a bit depressing that this last Saturday marked the one-year anniversary of the last time I went to a gig. I had so many booked for the rest of 2020, and now so many postponed ones booked for 2021… but as I’ve mentioned before, I expect it’ll be closer to 2022 before we can watch live music in a venue again.
As such, this very belated review marks the end of event reviewing on this blog for now. The next one – whenever it is – will be very special!
I’ve been really enjoying synthwave for a few years now, but this was only the second time I’d made it to a synthwave gig (the first being The Midnight a few months previously). Really hope we get a few more synthwave bands playing in Newcastle once the pandemic is over.
The support band were Tired of Fighting. Our friend George is in this band and is a huge synthwave fan, which is why they asked for the support slot as I understand it. Their sound isn’t very synthy but it was quite high-energy, creating a good atmosphere for what was to follow.
Blurry photography as usual (there were a lot of dancing people in the way!) so I’ve had to cobble the band together in this image.
LeBrock, when they came on, kept up this energy throughout their set – which was surprisingly short, finishing quite some time before the venue closed, but featured all the songs they were best known for. I loved the set but I wish it had been longer – or that the venue had organised an extra band on the bill to fill the gap, as it sort of felt like the night had been cut short!
There was more energy onstage than it looks like in this image.
So with that early finish from LeBrock, that was the end of my pre-pandemic gig-attending. Not a bad way to end, but I’m really looking forward to the return of music events!
…before heading to Slimming World, where I lost another pound on the scales this week. I’m impatient to get back to target range, and so one pound feels a bit measly considering the effort I’m putting in at the moment, but I suppose five and a half pounds in three weigh-ins is not bad. Just have to keep plugging away.
Geth and I are heading out to a synthwave gig tonight, so I’ve made sure to get all my work done during the afternoon. It’ll be really nice to have a night out – it only happens once in a while these days!
Revenge of the OOTD: it was a bit soon to announce the death of the ‘outfit of the day’ shots! All dressed up for a synthwave night out. Necklace Claire’s Accessories (2003), jacket unknown brand (estimated vintage 1990s, bought at vintage shop 2003), t-shirt The Midnight (2019), skirt Calvin Klein Jeans (2004), tights Primark (2017), trainers Reebok (2017).
Today’s earworm playlist:
The Beatles – ‘I Am The Walrus’ Del Amitri – ‘Nothing Ever Happens’ Robert Parker and Miss K – ”85 Again’
…I spent the afternoon at the Newcastle University Postgraduate Open Day in order to find out about doing a Masters in creative writing. It was odd sitting in lecture halls and listening to talks. Other than the odd occasion when I’ve sat in on Geth’s evening lectures, I haven’t been in lecture halls since I graduated in 2008!
It was a really interesting afternoon though. I spoke to a few students who are currently doing the course, went on a tour of the facilities, and attended a couple of general talks on studying at Newcastle and funding sources. I went away with a huge amount of bumpf to read and a lot of things to look into over the next few days!
I then headed to ukulele class, which was as fab as ever. Really enjoying the songs we’re doing this term.
It’ll be another busy day tomorrow, as I need to catch up with day job work in between going to weigh-in and the gig that Geth and I are attending in the evening.
I also got a free tote bag to carry all my open day bumpf in. I don’t really need any more of these, but I always appreciate a nice goodie bag!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Vangelis – ‘Chariots Of Fire’ Stinx – ‘Why Do You Keep On Running Boy’* Del Amitri – ‘Nothing Ever Happens’
*For the uninitiated (i.e. those who weren’t living in Scotland around the turn of the millennium), this was a parody of Britney Spears’ ‘…Baby One More Time’ that featured in a legendary HEBS (Health Education Board for Scotland) advert from 2000, aimed at discouraging teenagers from smoking. The advert was renowned as being absolutely genius (I did a day of work experience at the BBC during this period and they were all raving about it), and I sang the song in the school corridors every breaktime with my pals for about three months solid.
Didn’t discourage me from smoking, though.
Worth a watch if you’ve never seen it, if only for some prime nostalgia:
For some reason, for five years in a row now, I’ve always ended up in London at some point during November. From 2015-2017 it was because Geth and I were attending the Beat:Cancer event; last year it was a flying trip through on the tube on our way to Electric Dreams; and this year it’s the Andy Taylor gig. It’s become a bit strange now!
Anyway, here I am again, and I’m about to head out to the gig. I’ll update properly again tomorrow.
Nice to be greeted by one of these on my way out of the tube station! To be logged properly in a few months’ time once I get through my collection.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Duran Duran – ‘Do You Believe In Shame?’ Andy Taylor – ‘I Might Lie’
Plus a couple of videogame soundtrack pieces I can’t find the names of right now!
