The day my music died

Testing, testing

Earth calling blog ... is your presence 'a relevance' in the bookface, google minus era ... answer on a postcard x

Stop the clocks

W. H. Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,

Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,

Silence the pianos and with muffled drum

Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. 

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead

Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,

Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,

Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. 

He was my North, my South, my East and West,

My working week and my Sunday rest,

My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;

I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;

Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;

Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.

For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Dusting the cobwebs of this blog, and noticed how the last post occurred in Spring 2013 - preceding a period of optimism (Dad's impending reversal of his ileostomy bag, following prolonged post surgical complications after a bowel tumour removal), then doom -  the appearance of his second tumour - of brain - and rapid demise. Even after almost a year of loss, I can barely muster the energy to spend even an ounce of effort on anything other than getting through the necessary professional and home requirements. Damn, bereavement is draining. I supposed you'd argue I'm better off than Dad right now though (or not depending on your outlook). Anyhow.

It's a pity the above poem has been 'ruined' by its association with a thousand and one schmoltsy Richard Curtis copycat moments.

Miss you Dad, miss you every day. Rest in Peace x

Somewhere over Southern Europe

Can u tell what it is yet? Not used to seeing the sun. Then again not used to not having the clouds in the way.

El Clasico!!! Mi likey mucho

Michael Fish ...

Blizzard outside .. contradicting ever so slightly with BBC weather's version of events ...

"Sunny Intervals"

:o

'Budagram'

Sounds better than 'insta-pest', non?!

Gourmetmungoliscious

Life moved on ...

But forgot to leave me a forwarding address!

I have become slightly stunned as the reality of my dwindling social life dawns on me (that is of course the life I am referring to, I remain love rich much closer to home). The physical connections have been tenuous for many years,  but the last year has seen even correspondence dry up. As I said life moves on, parenting the most likely culprit - after all I have not changed or started to do or be anything different. I am also a parent too. Have been for approaching 6 years now. I wait with baited breath (although I better not hold it too long) to find out what I did, did not, or should have done differently that allowed me to work at retaining my friendships.  Anyway, my friends will forgive my bitching I spose, with that same weary familiarity that goes with the territory.  Anyone else? Well it wont really matter will it.

The Beautiful People

I like this picture, so thought I'd post it. One of 650+ scanned over the last week from the family 'vault' - 19 of Mum and Dad's photo albums. Labour of Love, but worth it when you stumble across a gem x

+Miles Seecharan +Nina Seecharan +Tom Seecharan +Anna Seecharan +Valder Seecharan 

Do the Math ..

"Ectb Tobapuw" (Russian, for "Sir, Yes Sir!")

Surprise!

The surprise, of course, being that I have *not* been able to guess this year's birthday present a full month down the line .. the King of Gift-Guessing is dead ... and I don't know when he's coming back boo hoo.

Thanks to siblings for organising a surprise sibling break, our first shared time abroad in 20 years. No thanks, for the impossibly cryptic wild-goose guess chase I have been sent on these past 4 weeks!

I made the mistake for my 40th last year of coercing Martha to reveal my surprise party 2 months ahead of time, on the grounds that (I quote roughly) "I don't like surprises, I prefer the anticipation". And it looks like my 'bluff' has been called this year (boy you have long memories!).

So if any of the 3 other people checking this site can make head or tail of the hints (and failed guesses) below - do please get in touch - the clock is ticking - my hall of shame is nigh ... on Christmas Eve at our family Xmas gathering ... ohhhhhh the anticipation!!

Hints (issues as images,below):

1. Elephant

2. Superdrug

3. Raspberry Torte

4. Madrid

5. Boat

6. Beach

7. Chocolate

Guesses: 

1. Skiing
2. Paris (Disneyland)
3. Prague
4. Amsterdam
5. Dublin
6. Athens

And the latest hint was from Tom, Hint 8:

You may need to get your calculator and a pair of compasses out, but I'd expect you should have the answer in a few minutes. There is a truly marvellous method for working it out from this clue but, as Fermat said, I won't provide it here as the margin is too narrow to contain the details.

So, here it is:

Hint #8: Your guesses so far have been, in total, more than 3500 miles, but less than 4000 miles away from the true destination.

It is as simple as that. To make it even easier, I've shared a map. I know, I know, I am toooooo kind.

Triangulate! Good Luck!

Cheers ... por nada, chu Bastardos!

Keep your friends close ..

.. and your enemies closer, right?

Below, is a picture of the damage caused to the front bumper of my PARKED car while I was in work. Who ever bashed into it was completely dishonourable and did not come and tell me, or leave contact details.

It was parked in the small car park of the Nursing Home I work in, which has space for 5 cars max. This means someone I know must have done it. 2 of the other cars are owned by care staff who were already there when I arrived and were still there in the same place when I came out to leave and discovered the dent. That leaves two possible vehicles. One belongs to a therapy colleague I work jointly with every day who was parked on the collision side. And 'A.N. Other' who was parked to the left. 

I asked her, in as non-confrontational a way as possible:

"Is there any chance at all you could have bumped my car when you left and not realised it? You'd probably have noticed it and told me, of course, but you do drive a large van so I wondered whether not noticing could have been possible?"

Cue denials. Very good ones too. Either she is telling the truth, or she is the World's greatest liar because I couldn't detect anything, ANYTHING at all in her body language, tone etc. So that's that. I have circumstantial evidence but it's my impression against her word.

Have a look at the scuff on her vehicle, and the size of alleged collision site on both vehicles, as indicated by my hands on measurement, and tell me - What you think? To claim (against) her based on these pix and have a chance at recouping the massive cost quoted by Toyota (£700-950 quid), or let it go (thereby preserving the balance in my small team of 4) and live with a damaged car ...

My damaged front bumper .. poor Tammy : (

 Similarly sized (imho) scuff on prime suspect's vehicle

 Width of damage my car

 Width of scuff her car

Height of damage my car 

 Height of scuff her car

Oh Tennenbaum, oh Tennenbaum*

Like a virgin ...

... shine like a star

(W)rappers delight [I]...  

(W)rappers delight [II]... 

 "Dazzle .. "

".. DAZZLE!"

There once was a shining Christmas Tree

Standing out where all could see.

Its brilliance captured every eye

And seemed to cheer each passer by.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

N, M, F xxx

 * (Balfour v.5.0)

Trips 2007-2012

New Photo Book (Trips) here

(usual password)

real labour of love this one. Had a short deadline before credit expiry (how much cash do they make out of apathy?). Almost forgot about this completely what with a month of below-par health. Sneaked in with 54 minutes to spare ...

Love and Peas xxx

Watch joyful children playing ..

A zen expression I picked up from somewhere - when the weight of the world is on your shoulders, watch joyful children playing:

Dinner. Clearing after dinner. A humdrum moment, made joyful.

Clicking on this first image will open all in a single viewer