I should have posted about this a while back, but other stuff got in the way and it all sort of got away from me. This is the 50th anniversary of the founding of my beloved Croydon Symphonic Band. We're having quite a year already, last month we played the first of our special 50th anniversary concerts at the Fairfield Hall ~ although we may think of this hall as a local Croydon facility it is actually still one of the best Concert Halls in the Country, if not Europe! ~ we may not fill the 2,000 seater auditorium, but we generally mange to get a few hundred which is great for all of us. Next ..read more

 I wrote here about the difficulties I was having trying to get some of my music published. I understand that it's hard enough to get somebody to put out performers content, but for those of us who work in sheet music it is a real challenge. Indeed I have now pretty much given up and have decided to self publish through the "Arrange me" and Sheet Music Direct on-line wing of the enormous Hal Leonard organisation. This is actually quite an easy process, but although this makes my music available it does not give it any publicity, that's up to me! So I have created an extra page for this bl ..read more

The outside of the Church My last post left you all a little bit up in the air, for the really perspicacious of you yes I was in Paris. The Church we played in on the Friday was Saint-Etienne-du-Mont a church with a fascinating history dating back to the 6th Century, the current building is largely Gothic with large windows and flying buttresses, but as I was only there after dark it was the interior stone work that I really appreciated. As I was only involved in one piece in the concert I had plenty of time to appreciate the setting as well as the music ~ I also had plenty of ti ..read more

Yesterday I may have come across as a bit angry, there's a good reason for that, I am! I was brought up to be proud of my Country, I am old enough that when I was at primary school most of the map on the wall was still coloured pink (representing the British Empire), we supported a "poor" school in an African Country that has since changed it's name after getting rid of us ~ the colonial power. We were taught that the British Empire was a force for good and that colonialism was our gift to the World, spreading civilisation and Christianity. When we travelled abroad (yes we were lucky) we could ..read more

Today I was planning to write a bit about how big, or small a part of my current life being trans is. Or in other words do I think of myself as a woman or as a trans woman. I still think this is an interesting question and one I want to investigate here but something has come up that I really want to talk about. Each day, usually in the morning, I will turn on my computer, I will check out the latest Girl Genius and then Go Comics  for the latest Chickweed Lane. only then will I turn to the news, usually the Times of Malta and the BBC websites. A particular story on the BBC struck me toda ..read more

Yesterday I wrote about my little weight problem and how I had been inspired by a "Pearls Before Swine" cartoon, and then I lamented how I couldn't work out a way of sharing it. Well guess what? I've just found a way! so here it is. It's strange where inspiration comes from, and where it takes us ..read more

I'm not actually picking up on the theme from my last post by suggesting that 64 isn't too old to start competitive motor sport, or for buying new instruments ~ because we all know that it isn't! I'm just going with the revelation that it's already the end of February and I'm not sure where those two months have gone. I didn't make any new year's resolutions this year, but that's not an oversight but a conscious decision, I'm simply going to carry on where I left off in 2022, I want to play music, do a bit of gardening, drive fast and go to more concerts I'm not playing in! Christ's Hosp ..read more

It is a big commitment having a blog, and making regular posts all the more so. Often I will find that I lack the time or emotional energy to come up with something, on other occasions I will feel a burning need to write about a subject, but most of the time I want to write but have to think through what I will be writing about. Series like my Lent Course the A-Z challenge and my Advent Calendars all help focus my mind, but most of the time posts will be triggered by something that's happened either in my life or in the wider world. Occasionally another blogger will write something that e ..read more

Cheese rolling, Coopers Hill 2018 Here in the UK we have all sorts of quaint old fashioned traditions, things like cheese rolling in Gloucestershire, Morris Dancing (no cars were harming in making this post) and burning the Pope in effigy (it's actually worse than it sounds!). But not all of our traditional pursuits are ridiculous or dangerous, after all through our sporting endeavours we have given the World football, golf, cricket, rugby, and I am sure many others. But some never made it to the international stage. Thank goodness the Atherstone Ball game is one of those that di ..read more

I'm writing this on Wednesday the 22nd February and today my office is dull, dank, and dreary but Tuesday was a very different matter, all these photos are from one garden taken yesterday. Far from February being a dead month in the garden there's lots to be getting on with. So far this month I have pruned roses, pruned fruit trees, cut back herbaceous perennials, tidied up ferns, and of course cleared a lot of tree litter etc. As you may be able to tell, I am very fond of hellebores, to enjoy the flowers at their best it helps to be able to get low, (these are in a raised terrace), it alwa ..read more