Coffee and chocolate

miggy

And back to an older subject... having had a month off piano lessons (teacher away, money went to holiday fund instead), I'm starting again on Tuesday. I haven't of course, practiced as much as I meant to so I've been getting my hand in again over the last couple of days.

DH has a much better ear than I do and surprised me yesterday by offering tentative encouragement after I had inflicted Clementi Op.36, No. 6 on him yet again. It's far longer than anything else I've ever played and has been haunting us a good few months so I was chuffed to discover it's starting to sound like music. Of course, if I ever manage to get reasonably proficient, I will move on to something else and no one will hear it for a long time, until I'm doodling through old pieces one day and wander across it, by which time I will be distinctly rusty.

ani_26

miggy wrote: »

Reader's Digest, People's Friend - both being kept going by mum!

Goldfish - no, not very good in the touchy-feely stakes but strangely relaxing. I once found my most worldly-wise, techie, gadget-brained offspring in a room with a lit fish tank, watching it like a TV. And clearly enraptured. My fish tank is next to the computer and late at night the fish queue in the corner nearest me until I give in and feed them.

But not cuddly. I imagine you are a dog person but I haven't decided what breed. (People seem to choose breeds that somehow suit them. The rest of my family - those that are bothered - would like either a Jack Russell or a Yorkie. I would prefer a cat).

Where was I? Yes, plumbing - fixed! Yippee! And he hardly charged us anything. No more jugs to fill the cistern.

NSD today, back on shift tonight. Spent spare time last night reading Gordon Ramsey's autobiog, as bought at car boot in the morning. Easy reading but am still waiting for osmotic improvement to my cooking.

Ok, so i'll have a vision of miggy in my mind from now on, which looks like a goldfish. You'll have to change your avatar :rotfl:



Yes, i am a dog person, and the bigger the better

Its funny you should say people choose a dog that suits them. I find it amusing when you see people who choose dogs that look like them. How many times do you see people with their dogs and you think, like dog, like owner. Often highly amusing :rotfl:


I hate little, yappy dogs, and more especially Jack R's. Horrible little dogs with an attitude, i've often found. The only dog i've ever been bitten by, ( for no reason ). They seem to be more aggressive than larger dogs. Maybe they feel they have something to prove. Not keen on yorkies, either. No, i don't like small dogs.

If i were a dog, what breed would i be? Probably an old english, as i've a penchant for them. I owned one for 13 years. She had just the most adorable nature. But then, i always say dogs take after their owners, because they absorb your personality :rotfl:

They've come back into fashion again, have'nt they, being rekindled with the dul*x adverts, what is it? 50 years? They are just the daftest creatures, but alot of hard work, ( obvoiusly ), on the grooming front. That dog went everywhrere, with me.


If i had a dog now, it would most likely be a rescue dog, because you've got to do your good deeds for mankind. But its all in the eyes. It would be their appeal to me through their eyes.




As i speak, theres an advert. Celebrating 50 years of our colourful friend. Aaaaaww. I'm not sure i like the trend of not docking their tails now, though. Takes some getting used to.



Forgot to say, i'm glad you got your plumbing sorted out. x

ani_26

miggy wrote: »

And back to an older subject... having had a month off piano lessons (teacher away, money went to holiday fund instead), I'm starting again on Tuesday. I haven't of course, practiced as much as I meant to so I've been getting my hand in again over the last couple of days.

DH has a much better ear than I do and surprised me yesterday by offering tentative encouragement after I had inflicted Clementi Op.36, No. 6 on him yet again. It's far longer than anything else I've ever played and has been haunting us a good few months so I was chuffed to discover it's starting to sound like music. Of course, if I ever manage to get reasonably proficient, I will move on to something else and no one will hear it for a long time, until I'm doodling through old pieces one day and wander across it, by which time I will be distinctly rusty.

Had to laugh at this. Keep up the good work / practise. Rather you, than me :rotfl::rotfl: I've had too many years of practising, and too many years of trying to get out of it. Are'nt you supposed to have a vocation to want to make music? I've always avoided it, wherever possible.

miggy

I don't think it's necessarily a vocation - that seems to presuppose some sort of talent which I don't have, but I love it just the same.

(Supposing I decided I really wanted to be a doctor but was no good at it - that wouldn't be viewed as a vocation, would it?)

This morning my teacher gave me some sight reading - excerpts from Haydn and Mozart and I was quite proud of how I played them, then came the Clementi which has been around so long, and I kept forgetting not only the incidentals but also all the C sharps (it was in D major) - you would think I hadn't practised, but I had. Sigh.

It's been a busy day but when I called in on Mum I saw a recipe in one of her magazines which she then gave to me and I bought the ingredients on the way home: mango cheesecake. Not cheap but enough calories to keep us going for a week! It's a hit with four of the five of us - the other didn't like the sound of it so all the more for the rest of us.

By the way I wasn't prepared to pay full price for the soft cheese in it or have full fat either but the own-brand reduced fat stuff worked well enough which is just as well as there was also a quarter pint of double cream and one and a half large bars of white chocolate!

Tomorrow I will have to plan dinner more carefully and hopefully delve a little deeper into the freezer - which once again is brimful as I froze the marked-down sandwiches the other day and bought burgers and potato wedges for the boys today. The rest of us had pasta with what used to be a cheap sauce and all I needed to buy for it was a a pepper. Would you believe these are now 80p EACH at the supermarket? They are cheaper at the greengrocer but it was shut by the time I got to town.

Will try to come up with something inspiring and let you know.

ani_26

I find supermarkets very irritating for buying single items, as their policy is bulk, bulk, bulk, which is fine if you have a family / pots of money. There have been occasions ( many ) when i've bought one item of fruit or veg, and left it at the checkout when i realised what they charged for one single item. The one that always stays in my mind, is when i thought it would be cheaper to buy one potato, as that was all i could afford, and i thought it would be cheaper than buying a pack. At the tills it was 90p. 90P??????????????????????. For one potato?

Needless to say i did'nt purchase it, and i never purchase one potato, now.


Mmmmm, i've never seen mango cheesecake.



But if you were no good at being a doctor, you would'nt reach the level where you would be one?


Unlike music. I too, have always felt i've no talent, and its always been such a struggle doing something i did'nt want to do, felt that i could'nt do, and therefore, hated doing. My inner self hates playing the violin. Its an alien to me, and always has been. I should grab hold of the thing and and smash it to pieces. So why don't i do that?

A vocation means you are something. Love and marriage? horse and carriage? Its your very being.


But the main thing is your are enjoying playing. Thats all that matters, in this instance. Theres little point doing something you don't enjoy. Why don't i take heed of my own words?


Have a good day x

satchmo1

Have you tried frozen peppers? Cheap, quick and no pith or seeds to scrape.

miggy

ani_26 wrote: »

90P??????????????????????. For one potato?

Complete rip off. I always thought potatoes were cheap and simple until I read a piece written about 200 years ago (a classic but of course I can't now remember details) in which quite a strong argument was put forth against potatoes and on behalf of traditional wheat.

ani_26 wrote: »

But if you were no good at being a doctor, you would'nt reach the level where you would be one?

True - but would that stop the feeling it was a vocation? Also, if you were no good at music, how would you be able to scale the heights there? Leaving aside the question of vocation, it could be that you are skilled compared with many (whether through natural talent or force of practice, skill is still skill) but are aware that your playing could be better? Your awareness might well be on a level that some of us will never reach because we don't have enough talent - though you in turn might argue that there are levels you will never reach.

As for 'vocation' - at root this is to do with calling and it sounds as though you were so thoroughly pushed that you never got the chance to listen in case it called to you of its own accord.

ani_26 wrote: »

Unlike music. I too, have always felt i've no talent, and its always been such a struggle doing something i did'nt want to do, felt that i could'nt do, and therefore, hated doing. My inner self hates playing the violin. Its an alien to me, and always has been. I should grab hold of the thing and and smash it to pieces. So why don't i do that?

You've had a long and emotional involvement with it, which could account for emotional ties even if hard-won, and I would imagine you may have been steered into finding your worth in it when you were a child even if your talents lay elsewhere? Perhaps on one level you do value it, like the marriage in the song I mentioned once - but it's not the best instrument for you. What would be your instrument if you could choose anything? (Not necessarily something you have to be good at, just something you would enjoy even if no-one else ever heard you play).

ani_26 wrote: »

But the main thing is your are enjoying playing. Thats all that matters, in this instance. Theres little point doing something you don't enjoy. Why don't i take heed of my own words?

True, I do enjoy it - not so sure about how others feel, LOL!

If you are ambivalent about your violin, could you find - maybe through a school or college - an aspiring player who would use it for a while? That idea's not much of an income-raiser, though.

satchmo1 wrote: »

Have you tried frozen peppers? Cheap, quick and no pith or seeds to scrape.

A very good idea, thanks Satchmo1. I used to get these from Iceland but ours shut down. Will have to keep an eye open elsewhere.

miggy

This week's budget...

...is not going very well. I was complacent because last week, although we went slightly over our minimum, we were no-where near our maximum. This week I think we are going to need washing powder and coffee, and I have been buying a really nice but rather expensive bread for my own use which is nearly run out so I need to think carefully about whether to swap brands, make my own or what?

We have been invited to a BBQ tonight and it's bring your own meat so I will have to get some today. Sausages - again!

On the other hand, there's plenty of food in the larder and freezers and I kind of have a day off today from planning so I could get ahead with tomorrow's and Friday's meals (I'm doing nights then so am not expecting anything too brainy or energetic to emerge once I start).

And there's still lots of cheesecake - I'm trying not to go near the fridge in case I catch its calorific eye.

ani_26

miggy wrote: »

This week's budget...

...is not going very well. I was complacent because last week, although we went slightly over our minimum, we were no-where near our maximum. This week I think we are going to need washing powder and coffee, and I have been buying a really nice but rather expensive bread for my own use which is nearly run out so I need to think carefully about whether to swap brands, make my own or what?

We have been invited to a BBQ tonight and it's bring your own meat so I will have to get some today. Sausages - again!

On the other hand, there's plenty of food in the larder and freezers and I kind of have a day off today from planning so I could get ahead with tomorrow's and Friday's meals (I'm doing nights then so am not expecting anything too brainy or energetic to emerge once I start).

And there's still lots of cheesecake - I'm trying not to go near the fridge in case I catch its calorific eye.

Pah, i'll reply to the easy post, first. You don't really expect me to reply with multi quotes to multi quoted, multi quotes, do you? ( and yes, i know i've been told several times ).


Mmmmm, pass me a slice of that mango cheesecake please?


Whats the guessing everyone else took sausages too? :rotfl:
Hope you're in a sausage mood, tonight.

I had black peas, today, with salt, pepper and vinegar. Yum.


I forgot to mention yesterday, the hollybush is covered in berries, already. I've never seen that before. Signs of a very harsh winter? although last winter was'nt as bad as the year before.

ani_26

miggy wrote: »

Complete rip off. I always thought potatoes were cheap and simple until I read a piece written about 200 years ago (a classic but of course I can't now remember details) in which quite a strong argument was put forth against potatoes and on behalf of traditional wheat.

True - but would that stop the feeling it was a vocation? Also, if you were no good at music, how would you be able to scale the heights there? Leaving aside the question of vocation, it could be that you are skilled compared with many (whether through natural talent or force of practice, skill is still skill) but are aware that your playing could be better? Your awareness might well be on a level that some of us will never reach because we don't have enough talent - though you in turn might argue that there are levels you will never reach.

As for 'vocation' - at root this is to do with calling and it sounds as though you were so thoroughly pushed that you never got the chance to listen in case it called to you of its own accord.



You've had a long and emotional involvement with it, which could account for emotional ties even if hard-won, and I would imagine you may have been steered into finding your worth in it when you were a child even if your talents lay elsewhere? Perhaps on one level you do value it, like the marriage in the song I mentioned once - but it's not the best instrument for you. What would be your instrument if you could choose anything? (Not necessarily something you have to be good at, just something you would enjoy even if no-one else ever heard you play).



True, I do enjoy it - not so sure about how others feel, LOL!

If you are ambivalent about your violin, could you find - maybe through a school or college - an aspiring player who would use it for a while? That idea's not much of an income-raiser, though.




A very good idea, thanks Satchmo1. I used to get these from Iceland but ours shut down. Will have to keep an eye open elsewhere.

Buga. This is'nt working. You'll just have to accept i'm a technophobe, as i try and remember all the things i can't see. :rotfl:


A vocation is a state of the soul, mind and body? My soul was never a musician, although music is in my soul. So yes, at root, it is to do with calling. Technically, i was born, to be a musician, the same as others might be born to be solicitors, doctors etc. But theres a point at which you might not achieve the impossible.


At your level, music is a hobby, or something you've always wanted to do? Being a musician in my case, is now relegated to a has been, hobby, and there it will stay for the forseeable, future. I doubt it will ever call to me, of its own accord.


I think Aesop was under the impression i played the sax, as i'd talked about the sax, but i don't think i could have the emotional attachment or expression, required. But i've always wanted to play the trumpet, so yes, if i could learn an instrument of my choice, it would be the trumpet. I'd love to be able to play the Haydn trumpet concerto.

Hope you enjoyed your barbeque / sausages?