I have decided that I love the Arctic Monkeys. I drive around in my car listening to their new album (purchased by myself and 359,999 other people last week) banging my head like crazy and singing along like a lunatic.
Why do I love them so??
1) They sound (and are) Young and Northern, both conditions that I myself once was
Young in that the music is simple and vital. Definitely, unmistakenly Northern - the lead singer Alex has brilliant intonation, I love songs where you can clearly hear the lyrics.
2) The aforesaid lyrics
Done to death in the papers, but I still laugh out loud when I hear (clearly enunciated) lines like
" It proves that love's not just blind but deaf"
" You know your problem, you're not from New York City you're from Rotherham"
3) The sheer energy and fun of it all
I caught a bit of a gig televised on MTV - fantastic! Somewhere like the Leadmill in Sheffield, a scuzzy club where I've spent a few fun packed evenings myself, and they all (band and audience alike) look like they're having a fookin' great time!
Don't over intellectuallise it, its only rock and roll and I like it!!
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Chameleonitis
Read this great article in the Guardian at the weekend - and I suddenly realised why I feel like I've been having a problem with my working life lately - I'm a yellowish / bluish (green maybe??) sort of person and I currently work in a red organisation. They like to pretend they're not red - all the corporate mumbo jumbo on the intranet site is yellowy nicey nicey we love you all sort of bollocks - but in reality its red through and though.
Hah
I'd already decided a while back to my ownself to be true, and worry less about stuff like the dress code (current look slightly aging hippy, mainly in the hair and jewellery areas - still have to wear a suit!!) and doing the huge number of client meetings my contract says I should do each week. Either they haven't caught on yet or it was a bit of a paper tiger anyway.
The other thing is a number of decent people in other offices have resigned recently - more money / less pressure elsewhere - so perhaps they really are keen to hang on to me. My manager, who is a decent sort, tells me that anyway - on my good days I believe her, on my bad days I think she's just saying that because we get on well together and I am the only female Private Banker in the office, also the only one not in the 35 - 40 age bracket. Talk about diversity - I'm it!!
I've always resisted giving the name of my employer in my blog, mainly because I don't want people googling for C***ts and finding me - needless to say they are pretty much a household name, creme de la creme of the financial world, "Superbrand" status etc etc - and there are lots and lots of good things about them..
..but in the last resort they're still a bank.
Hah
I'd already decided a while back to my ownself to be true, and worry less about stuff like the dress code (current look slightly aging hippy, mainly in the hair and jewellery areas - still have to wear a suit!!) and doing the huge number of client meetings my contract says I should do each week. Either they haven't caught on yet or it was a bit of a paper tiger anyway.
The other thing is a number of decent people in other offices have resigned recently - more money / less pressure elsewhere - so perhaps they really are keen to hang on to me. My manager, who is a decent sort, tells me that anyway - on my good days I believe her, on my bad days I think she's just saying that because we get on well together and I am the only female Private Banker in the office, also the only one not in the 35 - 40 age bracket. Talk about diversity - I'm it!!
I've always resisted giving the name of my employer in my blog, mainly because I don't want people googling for C***ts and finding me - needless to say they are pretty much a household name, creme de la creme of the financial world, "Superbrand" status etc etc - and there are lots and lots of good things about them..
..but in the last resort they're still a bank.
Monday, January 30, 2006
Ay Up - I'm a Nottingham blog of note...
...according to Troubled Diva, so I'd better post something halfway sensible!!
Life is still strange at the moment - loved ones are still ill, friends still have various ailments...
My description of it has been "limbo" to a number of people - if I was a religious type I'd have a better idea of what that actually meant, something in the back of my mind tells me its the place between heaven and hell, the place you go when you die if God can't decide if you're naughty or nice. A bit like that TV programme I've just been watching "Life on Mars" (love the music!) - where the guy wakes up in 1973 - is he dead / in a coma or has he been transported back in time?? Perhaps I got run over in 2036 and have been transported back in time - mind you I'll be 82 then if I'm still alive, so I guess I would be crossing roads pretty carefully - that is if there's any oil left by then and there's still such a thing as traffic.
Hey ho
Life is still strange at the moment - loved ones are still ill, friends still have various ailments...
My description of it has been "limbo" to a number of people - if I was a religious type I'd have a better idea of what that actually meant, something in the back of my mind tells me its the place between heaven and hell, the place you go when you die if God can't decide if you're naughty or nice. A bit like that TV programme I've just been watching "Life on Mars" (love the music!) - where the guy wakes up in 1973 - is he dead / in a coma or has he been transported back in time?? Perhaps I got run over in 2036 and have been transported back in time - mind you I'll be 82 then if I'm still alive, so I guess I would be crossing roads pretty carefully - that is if there's any oil left by then and there's still such a thing as traffic.
Hey ho
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Blogging as therapy
I read in a blog recently (can't remember which) that a large proportion of bloggers found the whole process very therapeutic - certainly early last year when things were really getting me down, setting out all of the details of Lizzy and my adventures with Love helped me to put a number of things in perspective. I haven't been doing a lot of updating on this blog lately, but maybe I should - I certainly feel like I could do with therapy of some sort!
So...
Some facts about my life at present:
1) Work on the whole is going well again, I'm for the most part enjoying it again lately. One or two problems though of which more later.
2) Keith is really quite unwell with anxiety and depression. He was suffering throughout the term leading up to Christmas - at the start of the school Christmas holidays he went to the doctor, who put him on Prozac which initally made him much worse. He's since been back to the doctors, is now taking diazepam as well which has the effect of knocking him out, but is now less anxious and fortunately is sleeping a lot better. He's been signed off work for 6 weeks. I am trying to be as supportive as I can, and to be there as much as I can for him, and he is very appreciative of this.
3) Lizzy has practically finished her chemotherapy treatment for Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and things seem to be going well. She hasn't officially had the all clear but has had various scans etc and has been told that the tumours are clear. Hooray!!
4) A number of our friends are ill at the moment. There are two cases of shingles, two cases of anxiety and depression apart from Keith, and another case of cancer apart from Lizzy. Is it our age?? I've never known a time before when so many of my contemporaries have been seriously ill. Fortunately I'm not affected, apart from suffering from mild depression earlier in the year, but the whole thing is very concerning.
5) One of the support staff at work is having a very hard time at the moment. It seems to me like a classic case of stress, but they don't seem to want to accept this - its everyone else not themself - and its getting me down and annoying / upsetting a number of other people. I've tried to do something about it, not very successfully, and quite frankly the whole situation is pissing me off. I could do with work being calm and ordered so I can have a real stab at having a successful 2006 instead of the debacle that was 2005 for me workwise. 2005 was filled with other people that I care about's personal problems as well - I have been trying and largely succeeeding in developing a sympathetic persona - not always my strongpoint in the past - but my colleague and their problems has not touched a nerve. I suppose in my view the things I've seen other people go through last year were just so much worse. Hey ho.
Well thats a little bit of unloading. The Doctor is In.
So...
Some facts about my life at present:
1) Work on the whole is going well again, I'm for the most part enjoying it again lately. One or two problems though of which more later.
2) Keith is really quite unwell with anxiety and depression. He was suffering throughout the term leading up to Christmas - at the start of the school Christmas holidays he went to the doctor, who put him on Prozac which initally made him much worse. He's since been back to the doctors, is now taking diazepam as well which has the effect of knocking him out, but is now less anxious and fortunately is sleeping a lot better. He's been signed off work for 6 weeks. I am trying to be as supportive as I can, and to be there as much as I can for him, and he is very appreciative of this.
3) Lizzy has practically finished her chemotherapy treatment for Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and things seem to be going well. She hasn't officially had the all clear but has had various scans etc and has been told that the tumours are clear. Hooray!!
4) A number of our friends are ill at the moment. There are two cases of shingles, two cases of anxiety and depression apart from Keith, and another case of cancer apart from Lizzy. Is it our age?? I've never known a time before when so many of my contemporaries have been seriously ill. Fortunately I'm not affected, apart from suffering from mild depression earlier in the year, but the whole thing is very concerning.
5) One of the support staff at work is having a very hard time at the moment. It seems to me like a classic case of stress, but they don't seem to want to accept this - its everyone else not themself - and its getting me down and annoying / upsetting a number of other people. I've tried to do something about it, not very successfully, and quite frankly the whole situation is pissing me off. I could do with work being calm and ordered so I can have a real stab at having a successful 2006 instead of the debacle that was 2005 for me workwise. 2005 was filled with other people that I care about's personal problems as well - I have been trying and largely succeeeding in developing a sympathetic persona - not always my strongpoint in the past - but my colleague and their problems has not touched a nerve. I suppose in my view the things I've seen other people go through last year were just so much worse. Hey ho.
Well thats a little bit of unloading. The Doctor is In.
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Happy Christmas to all my readers
Greetings from the Winter family - Jim, Tina and Keith at the top of Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh.
Goodwill to all men (and women and children and cats) - we love you all!!
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Nous allons a Paris!
Proof if proof is needed that Keith and I paid a fleeting visit to Paris last weekend. We did a lightning tour of the Louvre, particularly the Egyptian collection which was amazing - I'll try to put some more pics of that on here later. Also saw the Arc de Triomphe (see above), the Tour d'Eiffel, the Quartier Latin and Notre Dame. The city has a lovely atmosphere and one of the high spots was just looking at the food shops and market stalls - bringing the perennial cry "Why can't they do stuff like this in England??".
Impressed myself by managing to be reasonably comprehensible in French (GCE O level Grade 3, 1970) - but then it was mainly buying stuff in shops and restaurants, and its in shopkeepers interest to make sure they can take your euros off you I suppose. Nevertheless, it made me feel good.
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Saturday, November 26, 2005
This young guy should go far!
Just found this pic of me and Mike Randle on my computer. Can't remember where it was taken, it may well have been York as it was sent to me by the fabulous Mr Chris Jones.
Lizzy and I have met some great people and had some great experiences all the way through the Love thang - here's hoping that there's more of the same in the foreseeable future.
I was listening to something on Radio 2 yesterday about the boom in "old" music i.e Cream, Pink Floyd reformed, etc etc, and Johnny Walker came up with a quote from David Lee Roth - "We're giving people their youth back..." Well here's to all of you rockers out there giving us our youth back, and long may it continue.
Happy Birthday to me!
This is a picture of Keith and me on our recent holiday in Crete looking very cheery - it was a lovely holiday, although it seems a long time ago now. Freezing cold British weather and the stresses and strains of life have taken their toll on both of us since we came back home.
I am 52 years old tomorrow.
I don't feel good or bad about that, its just a fact. In some ways I'm in good shape for my age - some of the people I work with who are younger than me, look and act a lot older than I do (or so I'm told - it may just be flattery, to which I am very susceptible!!). In some other ways I feel about 90 years old and that I have the weight of the world on my shoulders.
But I have some really good friends, a great family, and, apart from a few minor blips along the way, good health - so lets count those blessings peeps!
Hey ho
Saturday, November 12, 2005
View of Myrtos, Crete from the west.
This is the village in Crete we visited in October half-term. I feel very much at home there, its a "real" place rather than a tourist resort. People remembered us from last year - maybe the very drunken night in Katerina's taverna with a group of German bikers had something to do with that.
I'm off to see Lizzy tomorrow. Just a day trip but it'll be really good to see her, it seems like a while.
Right at the start of this blog I said that I had been on the periphery of something terrible that had happened in the family of some very close friends of ours. The whole sorry case reached some sort of conclusion this week - details are here
Its the stuff of your worst nightmares, especially if you're a parent.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Positively 4th Street
You got a lotta nerve
To say you are my friend
When I was down
You just stood there grinning
You got a lotta nerve
To say you got a helping hand to lend
You just want to be on
The side that's winning
You say I let you down
You know it's not like that
If you're so hurt
Why then don't you show it
You say you lost your faith
But that's not where it's at
You had no faith to lose
And you know it
I know the reason
That you talk behind my back
I used to be among the crowd
You're in with
Do you take me for such a fool
To think I'd make contact
With the one who tries to hide
What he don't know to begin with
You see me on the street
You always act surprised
You say, "How are you?" "Good luck"
But you don't mean it
When you know as well as me
You'd rather see me paralyzed
Why don't you just come out once
And scream it
No, I do not feel that good
When I see the heartbreaks you embrace
If I was a master thief
Perhaps I'd rob them
And now I know you're dissatisfied
With your position and your place
Don't you understand
It's not my problem
I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes
And just for that one moment
I could be you
Yes, I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes
You'd know what a drag it is
To see you
Copyright © 1965; renewed 1993 Special Rider Music
Johnny Echols cited this song as his favourite Bob Dylan track in a recent Mojo magazine and said it was about false friendship. I heard it on the radio this morning (covered by Mick Hucknall for chrissake - even he couldn't make it sound bad) and it just made me wonder if Johnny felt it was reminiscent of his relationship with Arthur Lee.
Hey ho
To say you are my friend
When I was down
You just stood there grinning
You got a lotta nerve
To say you got a helping hand to lend
You just want to be on
The side that's winning
You say I let you down
You know it's not like that
If you're so hurt
Why then don't you show it
You say you lost your faith
But that's not where it's at
You had no faith to lose
And you know it
I know the reason
That you talk behind my back
I used to be among the crowd
You're in with
Do you take me for such a fool
To think I'd make contact
With the one who tries to hide
What he don't know to begin with
You see me on the street
You always act surprised
You say, "How are you?" "Good luck"
But you don't mean it
When you know as well as me
You'd rather see me paralyzed
Why don't you just come out once
And scream it
No, I do not feel that good
When I see the heartbreaks you embrace
If I was a master thief
Perhaps I'd rob them
And now I know you're dissatisfied
With your position and your place
Don't you understand
It's not my problem
I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes
And just for that one moment
I could be you
Yes, I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes
You'd know what a drag it is
To see you
Copyright © 1965; renewed 1993 Special Rider Music
Johnny Echols cited this song as his favourite Bob Dylan track in a recent Mojo magazine and said it was about false friendship. I heard it on the radio this morning (covered by Mick Hucknall for chrissake - even he couldn't make it sound bad) and it just made me wonder if Johnny felt it was reminiscent of his relationship with Arthur Lee.
Hey ho
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Forgive me father it has been two months since my last blog...
A lot has happened in the interim, some of it good and some of it bad. I can say for sure though that I feel a lot more rational and together than I did between February and July when I wrote most of the blog - but it was a great cathartic experience. I even feel better about my job! Hopefully I'll get back to more regular entries shortly, but in the meantime here are a few pictures for your delectation...
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