h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Cass,

Sounds busy, Cass.

I had a stressy day today, my Mum has taken unwell and while I am mostly rational, the weather has taken it toll and she gets herself into a tither sometimes just doing too much. She might have to up her steroids for a while, but if she justs keep cool and takes things easy for a few days, this will be fine

There is still a little bit of me, that feels sick with worry and fearful because of the risk of a stroke.

had his stitches out and was none to grateful at the time, however it was a pleasant surprise that todays appointment was free, which gives me a little wriggle room tomorrow for ice cream tomorrow as I'm taking the girls out

how are your carrots, everything in the garden is flagging a bit

Peanut

Hi Peanut

Sorry to read about the stress.. I have to say that during my weekly Tesco trip there was a moment when I felt a bit stressed myself.. My "brush with the law" has lost any element of novelty and I am reminded of the "Quicksand mantra" that I regularly used with pupils who were "losing it" when they found themselves in trouble with me..I remembered this when paying the £272 fine the other day, for I had initially printed some of my fighting back letters. But it is not sensible to make yourself too much of a nuisance. In fact the whole "on the spot fine" culture is based on the principle that if you do not choose to pay they will just make sure that you will regret it.

In fact my good friend on the allotment with whom I had a good chat yesterday, and who should "by rights" have died of a heart-attack a few years ago had advised me generally to just try to be calm for the sake of my blood pressure.

But this sudden intense heat is quite hard to take especially the first floor south facing bedroom. I have to sleep with the windows drawn right back and the opening windows as open as they can be in order to have any hope of sleeping. And then you wonder just how good the quality of the sleep can be when it is light so early. But my friend came here from Jamaica in the Fifties and still understands how to "chill out" when it is lovely and hot. Fortunately the back of our house, and therefore the first part of the garden is quite shaded

That is amazing...I did not intend to post that.. Our son has been and gone, and I rather assumed that the page that I was writing on would no longer be active, and that I would have to copy and paste..

But he has left me "sick with worry" over the Quicksand possibilities. Best to stay calm.. Time to go an water the allotment, a nice calm activity for a summer evening.

Hope your Mum and cat has a quite and restorative evening/night and that you and the girls can enjoy an icecream tomorrow.

Cass

Hi Cass

What went on there then? I hope the allotment had the calming effect

We are off to the beach soon for some , first though got to bundle three teenagers into the car by 7.30am

Peanut

Hi Peanut

I have tried replying twice- only to loose it. The Stress is ongoing worry about my "brush with the law".. But I decided this morning to get back to more mundane matters - correspondence and paper work, though that did include a CD of Sibelius and Tchaikofsky violin concertos just to take the brain to a real "Utopia". Then it was lunch and since lunch a bit of quiet hedge-trimming. Just made a pot of tea for a break before tidying up the clippings and branches.

Also just after lunch I phoned our daughter to wish her Happy Birthday, having been moved in my tidying up by a very appropriately imaged birthday card she selected to send me last year which said "You make the Sun shine every day of my life".

I hope that you excursion to the sea-side is going, has gone, well.

Cass

Morning Cass

I'm still feeling off about the the beach.

We enjoyed each others company, we stuck to our budget and bibbled about as we do
I was gutted though at the state of the beach, it was so littered, not just stuff that had washed up, stuff recently dropped and accumulating. It looked trashed, disrespected and over exploited

I am at a loose end today, Hiccup has gone away for a few nights, last minute invitation, I think though I am going to enjoy being at a loose end for a bit, it is quite nice just to please myself for a while

Peanut

Morning Peanut,

I feel for you about the beech.. There is a side to modern ideas of entitlement and a right to abuse people and places because " we have paid good money" that really annoys me. Enjoy your break.

Cass

Peanut

Re having a break:

Mrs Cass has realized (as I intimated yesterday) that I am probably not really up to our trip tomorrow, and I suggested Tuesday would give us a bit of "recovery time".So we have deferred our ferry booking. Hopefully I will be able to genuinely relax a bit..

It did not help- in the short term- that I ended up watching much of the opening ceremony last night, and was especially moved by the tributes to London as a city that has always been turned towards the wider world- known and yet to come. London is "the Front Line" where positive can confront negative.

Many years ago [1965] when the now Mrs Cass asked me whether I was optimistic or pessimistic I replied that I was probably a cynical optimist.

I think it was the summer of 1974 that I wrote a song-cycle "From Child to Man" that included a song "The Death of an Optimist", with a repeated refrain looking back "that was nearly the death of an optimist".

I know that people have been moaning about all the money involved in the Olympics, but what we have seen is an energy and enthusiasm that money just can not buy. And I was particularly moved by Mr Logge's tribute (a) to London the first city to host a third Olympics, as Seb Coe added each time being a period of real international crisis and uncertainty in which London can send a strong message: and (b) the the fact that it was indeed Britain that gave the world the idea of an international sporting culture that can bring the peoples of the world together (as opposed perhaps to the tradition of Gaelic sport which was revived as part of Irish Nationalism)

But I am trying to tear myself away from the Olympic coverage. I am perhaps still too fragile for too much triumph and disaster.

Cass

Hi Cass,

How is the relaxing going?

I have decided to bite the bullet and blitz the house I don't know why I find it so stressful but I do

Peanut

Morning Peanut

From the queues at the local recycling depot yesterday it looks like lots of people are getting around to blitzing house and garden.. I think that one factor has been that we hardly had a Spring in which to carry out "spring-cleaning"- Spring being the particularly energised time of the year- and now we are forced to try to "£play catch up" when another few months have left their impact and the weather is suddenly hot and sultry.

And as far as Blitzes are concerned there is always that problem of deciding on just what the target should be. Just cleaning and tidying away or a genuine sort-out. I find that I need to be in a very particular mood in order to tackle the latter, not least because we have been in this house since 1978 and have accumulated masses of stuff, mostly just "lumber".


But perhaps I am approaching a decisive moment ready for putting our house in order, especially because of the uncertainties in our childrens' lives. Driving back from the recycling depot I heard a GB Gymnast talking about the impact of the loss of his Nan, and I was reduced to tears by the thought that grandparenthood may never happen, and if it does I may never get to see our grandchildren getting to the flower and fruiting stage.

This morning, having just finally peeled the rhubbarb that I harvested a week ago, I was putting the peelings out for the compost bin on a nice "English summer" morning [the sky a mixture of blue and white] when I was reminded that "life is for living" and the process must be enjoyed. If our children have no children and "lose-out" on that incredible life-adventure, in a way they will need us and our love even more.

Love and Light, as our Druid friend signs off.

Cass

oh Cass, I'm am so sorry to read of such sadness *hug*

are you off tomorrow?

I have to go now ( I am going to borrow the car and do a recycle/skip run), be back later

Peanut

Morning Peanut

Sorry to have made you sorry and thanks for the *hug*.

Fortunately some rest and quiet are having an effect: and I was really uplifted last night when I went to the allotment and found that at least my maincrop carrots are springing into life. As the h2g2 piece on carrots says they are reputed to be a bit tricky to grow but I have the reputation on the allotments of being THE carrot man certainly as far as the maincrop are concerned.. not least because it is a favourite family vegetable and I try to grow enough to put into store to see us through the whole winter. So many years ago other plotholders were noticing my rather large crops- and I have never really yet got into succession planting.

Some of my worries about cars and caravans etc are also getting resolved.

Your comment about the recycle/skip run in part answers my queery about what kind of blitz.

And yes we are due to be off tomorrow, and I hope to load the car and generally get ready for departure 'at leisure' rather than in a rush.

Have a good day.. and a good next few weeks. We will be up at 5.30 and hopefully on the road by 7am.

Regards

Cass

Morning Cass,

You don't have to be sorry, it would be odd if I didn't feel for you.

I'm glad your carrots have come good and will keep my fingers crossed for them while you are away , also that your car and caravan worries are begining to resolve.

It is that kind of blitz. I am unlikely to get the house to myself until September, not that is a bad thing, I just thought might as well, blitz, not tinker, maintain, do it like you mean it Peanut, like you are moving, *tremble* and

It is also good to have a target, I am planning 'a reveal' so am going to ask Granny to come and pick up Hiccup with me, so hopefully they will walk in and go

Hopefully have tim to stick another post in before you, but if not, safe journey Cass, I hope you enjoy your time in your other home

Peanut

Hi Peanut

Sadness and pleasure are so mixed.. Another song of mine really goes back to early 1965 when I had heard of the suggestion of the PM of Pakistan at a Commonwealth PM's Conference that Western Law was perhaps inappropriate for a such a poor Islamic country and that Shariah Law with its various quick-fix mutilations was more practical. I sat down and sang a Blues which I some years later wrote in a rather different form. But the refrain was/is "I ain't gonna cry no more". I was something of a 'cry baby' as a child and part of my adolescent "taking my life in hand" involved refusing to let things touch me so intensely. That "upward thrust" involved immense strength of will especially aimed at escaping from my personal roots and off to university. The result was that for many years I was unable to cry at all: and when I finally was able to once more it was as painful as the first drink when you have been dying of thirst.

I think that one of the things that moved my pupils was my emotional engagement with the people whose history I was trying to tell them about, glorious as well as tragic. Like the story of the little girl who presented the Conductor with one rose at the Premiere of Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony: one small rose to bring its promise in the midst of one of the horrible episodes of the Second World War.

Good luck with your house blitz.. and I hope that you will get a boost from the reaction of your family. You too are at a crossroads moment with Peanut having finished school, and perhaps, as with us here, the process of "setting the house in order" will be indicative of preparing a "base" for 'the next phase'. For surely that is all part of the problem of having a clear-out. It demands a some understanding of just what does and does not have an important part to play in the future. In our case we have hoarded so much because of our impecunious roots and upbringing. But there is a cost and burden in so much clutter, and we are in the fortunate position that actually I tend to buy whatever I need for my DIY projects rather than bother to check all the bits and pieces that I hang onto as my Father did. He used to say that such things "Do not eat or drink". But they do take up space. Another song referred to "the things with which we clutter up our simple lives."

Thanks for your good wishes. The sun is shining and I had simple phone call with my Insurance this morning which extended my full cover to France, and (as our car is no longer in the full flush of youth- like us) I took out their RAC breakdown cover which covers France too for £80 pa. I feel more assured and I am finally beginning to look forward to being in Burgundy- and even perhaps going camping.

Enjoy your summer

Cass

Afternoon Cass,

Breakdown cover is worth it weight in gold even if you never use it

Thank you for your good wishes for my blitzing and the Summer, I hope we get a couple more weeks of it yet and finally get some camping in as well

Take good care



Peanut

Hi Cass

Hopefully you are safely installed in Burgandy and

I was over ambitious about the big reveal, I think Hiccup will be impressed, and so would Granny but I wanted it 'just so' for Granny and it is not quite there yet so I am not inviting her round until the weekend and I am under-playing the type of clear up I am having

Peanut

Morning Peanut

We got back last night.. Hope things have gone well with you and yours. . Unfortunately I have just lost the post I had written, but my theme is "Home at last" and the need to get on with 'putting my house in order'. I think Mrs Cass is attacking the lawn here and I need to go to see what has happened to my allotment. Catch you later.

Cass

Cass

I have just landed myself from a short break in a woodland glade

will catch up properly later

Peanut

Hi Peanut

Welcome back..I have lost a couple of posts- one to you and one to the Has Rock Become Meaningless thread. I hope you enjoyed your woodland break. Our time in Burgundy was perhaps most notable for me personally in the pleasure that I took, as I had anticipated, in London really mounting an inspirational games as a great host to the world. And in particular, as I explained in the first new post to the "Rock" thread, I felt that Britain's pop culture since the Sixties achieved a coherence in that great closing ceremony extravanga, in particular the music, which has been such a part of my life. It was as if my own musical journey could finally achieve the coherence that I have always sought.

Having lost my second post last night I took the precaution of copying it just now, "just in case", so I may as well post you a copy in the hope that you too can feel refreshed and pleased to be "Home at Last" and ready for the next stages of your life journey.

**************************************************************


Second attempt.. My last post got lost somehow.. The Jennifer Warne link led me to the Joe Cocker version which was accompanied by pictures of 9/11. It was a reminder of the Joan Baez/Bob Dylan contrasts in vocal delivery- melody or meaning, and the fact that Cocker was a real Sixties "bluesman".

Those 9/11 images come regularly to my mind whenever I sing a song that I wrote in 1967-8 on my first experience of really "big city" life. It starts

"Man look around across your crumbling town
Your buildings they are all on fire."

And ends with:
"The fire is spreading fast
Your next works may be your last
See the flames as each new building crashes
Look to the day when they're all burned away
And you're living in a world of ashes".

The fires I had in mind were "cozy fires of hate", for a great motor of recent history had been a trend of hostility and suspicion of city life, going back at least to the "Versailles effect" and this idea that those with various forms of power were best advised to flee from the city, always the "Front Line" in the struggle. Though much of "Rock" was forged in the urban world music it too often tended to embrace the idea of the Flight from the City.

America "A Horse With No Name"
"The desert is an ocean with its life underground
And a perfect disguise above
Neath the city lies a heart made of stone
For the people can give no love".

Better therefore to escape and enjoy the opportunity that urban wealth paid as tribute to those that it could hail and worship as remote and ideolised "Stars" and enjoy the privilege of "Hotel Living"- but it was a life in which "you can check out any time you want but you can never leave".

Epicurous apparently wrote a story about a traveller who found a hotel so much to his taste that he decided to stay there. But his life-journey was THROUGH such a place not TO such a place. Life with "no direction home" is a life that merely floats in empty space like Major Tom floating around in his capsule and then just floating of "across the universe". In order to genuinely "make a difference" you do, eventually, have to find a way of changing the place where your heart is and where you belong from within as Leonard Cohen said he had been trying to do for 20 years. Changing the world takes longer than that, but London 2012 the two games may be a "great leap forward" for Humanity and certainly has a momentum based upon thousands of unprecdented small steps by people supported by teams, as Neil Armstrong was.

Cass

Morning Cass,



well that post has certainly given me something to think about this morning

It was lovely to finally get away, leave the stresses of everyday life behind for a few days and when we got back everyday stresses didn't seem quite so stressful, so a holiday that was needed as much as enjoyed.

We have good news about Hiccup's exams, she got the grades she wanted and needed. She is very happy with them and herself (the latter particulary pleasing to see) so school life finished on a high note

Now to the burning question of the day, how are your carrots Cass?



Peanut