Monday 17 October 2022

About hidden price hikes

As I searched the shelves of Aldi for my usual body lotion, I was surprised to find it had had a change of shape, from the former graceful convex lines to a less attractive, in my view, concave curve. On examining the contents lists, guess what; the volume had changed from 500ml to 400 ml - yes, a 20% decrease! 

Of course, I do not have a calculator in my pocket and, although I know my mobile phone can work such wonders, I haven't yet mastered that particular function - and probably never will - age being against me in that department. The maths would not be straightforward anyway, the price not making the arithmetic easy! The cost of the bottle may have followed suit to match the lesser amount - but I bet it hasn't!


Friday 14 October 2022

About bullying

Basically, a bully is a very 'sad' person.
A 'whole' person has no need to 'pick on' someone else.

Many of us can be bullied by people who feel the need to feel 'bigger' than someone, anyone, else. They usually have an innate knowledge of who to pick on and an unerring knowledge of who not to pick on, ie anyone who looks 'bigger' and/or tougher than they are.

If we have been bullied, should we feel weak or ineffectual because of this?
I say no. If we are people who do not have the propensity to pick on others, I say, "Be glad".

To misquote a friend who'd been burgled,
"I'd rather be bullied than be a bully".

Thursday 13 October 2022

About being conned


I was once conned by a schoolgirl, aged about 17 I'd say.
We were on a coach going to London.
She spoke to the driver/conductor, in quite a loud voice, about not having enough money to continue her journey onwards on the greenline bus.
Quietly, I offered her a ten-pound note (feeling, if the truth is told, rather noble) and she put my number into her mobile.

Did I ever hear from her?
No, of course not, I hear you say. 
This was a thought I had later.

'She put another nail in the coffin of her conscience.'

She and everyone else who ends up going down that road.
Let's hope she grew out of it.

Given with love - for Katy and the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM)

 A box of matches given with love

would light a million candles of joy.


Tuesday 4 October 2022

About 'Being Beethoven'

Having been exposed to the music of Beethoven from a very young age and loving it very much, I want to try to put together my thoughts about the series called, ' Being Beethoven', as I come towards the end of the final episode.

There have been many excellent contributions to the programmes, most of which, I have enjoyed tremendously, along with the filming which has, as far as I'm concerned, been brilliant.

Last night, however, I was disappointed and even upset by the views of some of the many experts called upon to shed light on his life. Yes, he made dreadful mistakes with his nephew, Karl, but is it surprising, given his background?

He lost his mother at an early age and was raised by a father who pushed him into the world of the prodigy but was, himself, an alcoholic, giving Beethoven an over-developed sense of responsibility for his two younger brothers.

Yes, his actions were truly reprehensible but his heart was full of misguided love. Was Karl's mother the 'Queen of the Night,' as he described, "Out at 3 am, displaying the bareness of her body and her mind," or words to that effect or was that picture of her a product of his paranoid personality?

Obviously, I am not in a position to judge. Certainly, a man who was unable to take proper care of himself was a hopeless candidate to care of a young boy, let alone someone who was very likely to grow into a disturbed young man himself, given his circumstances and the divided life that had been inflicted upon him.

The paranoia of Beethoven's feelings about his lack of nobility is, for me, completely understandable, given the class system of his times; with the nobility raised above the heads of all other people.

Despite the sublime majesty of his music, although accepted even in his own lifetime, as incomparable, he was relegated to the life of a composer, who, alongside Mozart and most others of the day, were seen as journeymen who spent their lives trying to make a living.

He was not to know that those selfsame Dukes and Duchesses, Counts and Countesses would largely, if not entirely, be forgotten whereas the true nobility of Beethoven as the creator of the music, he whose livelihood was dependent, to a large extent on their patronage, would be unquestioned in time to come.

The dedication, written in his own hand on the original manuscript of the Missa Solemnis, "Vom Herze, moge es weider zum Herze gehen." (Literally, 'From the heart; might it again to the heart go.') speaks to me of his universal love for all and the true nobility of his soul.

A message to trolls

You may think you are venting your spleen whereas the opposite is true;

you are storing up ugliness which will gradually poison your own inner being. 

You are clogging up the pipes of your souls with the bile of your poisonous invective.


Monday 26 September 2022

About the virus and us

As long as there is one person in the world who has covid,

it will never be far from our doors. 


Friday 8 July 2022

Life's tragedies

 May I always bear in mind that there are very few, if any, people 

whose lives have not been touched by tragedy of one kind or another.


Thursday 7 April 2022

Saturday 29 January 2022

About he, she, you, us and they

There's a time for 'he' and a time for 'she';

a time for 'you', a time for 'us' and a time for 'they'

but there's never a time for 'guys' - 

(in my book anyway.) 

As they used to say in the day-

"Vive la Difference"


About the virus and us

 As long as one person has the virus,

it will always be knocking on our doors.


About the problem with our gifts

The trouble with our own gifts is that, mostly, we don't see them, 

probably because they're just part of who we are.

Whereas we can see other people's gifts and can so easily feel bothered or upset 

because we don't possess those gifts ourselves.