So ... That Was August

August has been a bitter sweet symphony of a month by no mistake. Gran was cremated last Friday, it was a nice ceremony that highlighted that despite her diminutive stature she was a strong woman, hard working and devoted to family. The only downside to the service was my grans involvement with religion was embellished by the vicar and described as a 'quiet faith' but it was so quiet I never heard her mention it ever. My grans famous catch phrase was 'Charity begins at home' and that was very much how she thought, family was paramount.

I don't often do the family thing but I must confess I did enjoy seeing some of my family after the service for a drink and a bite to eat and I shall try and make more of an effort to keep in touch with some of then in the future. I'll miss my gran, she was a good woman and very kind and loving towards me, she is an irreplaceable woman in my life.

Onto lighter things now! Gary came back early in the month for nearly two weeks, he didn't bring his usual sunshine days but on the days we did stuff I couldn't really complain. We headed to the coast one day to visit Bridlington, Hornsea and Spurn head. Bridlington seems to have lost its childhood magic for me and now is much like many other English seaside towns in the fact it has lost much of its former glory and appeal. It now feels like a run down town by the side of the sea with a very unremarkable harbour. There's tacky bars adorning the sea front and expensive children's rides and amusements. I won't be in a hurry to visit again, though we did find a very good retro shop that sold excellent t-shirts and memorabilia.

Hornsea was a small affair but quite nice if you have a family and want the benefits of a small quiet seaside resort which also has quite a quaint village tucked behind the more contemporary sea front area.

Spurn head was pretty amazing, £2 to get in with the car and lots of lots of quiet beach overlooked by what I think to be an unused light house. The whole place has a kind of majestic beauty of sorts, super long swathes of quiet beach stretching out on a delicate thin finger of land in the North sea. It was a memorable day and we drove over the Humber bridge home.

August has been a strange month for sure, highs and low emotionally, the graphics card on the computer blew up and a good friend moved over to Lincoln to live, and good luck to him. To be fair its not that far away and will probably open up new social avenues for him and his partner, and of course me if they invite me over!

Tv Of The Month

In all honesty it's not been a bad month on Tv. Shooting Stars with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer returned with much hilarity on BBC2, Monday 9pm or there abouts. This long running comedy quiz show (I say that loosely) just gets better with age and still manages to be fresh after all these years, it's surreal, it's bizarre and more importantly it's a bit of irreverent fun.

Reality show Big Brother entered the fray in resurrected sense on Channel 5 (daily 10pm) after it was dropped by Channel 4 some time ago. First up is the celebrity version before the long running public one begins proper. There was much hype surrounding it but to be honest a B-list celebrities are all that entered the recreated opulent house and I turned off after just two episodes, according to viewing figures over 5 million viewers dumped it after the first night too.

Dragon's Den is also in full swing on BBC2 (Sunday 9pm usually) but I really feel the format is looking tired now despite the entrance of new down to earth female dragon 'Hilary Devey'. I'll still stick with it as there's new innovations of interest but generally it's much of the same.

Cheesy reality talent show 'The X-Factor' also reprised on UK screens this month (ITV Saturday 8pm) but even though all the judges are new despite Louis Walsh it still feels very 'Simon Cowell'. Mr Cowell is already ruffling feathers by replacing chart singer Adele with Sinitta for the boot camp stages at the alleged judges houses. Though I must confess to watching the early shows its just purely for laughs as deluded hopefuls try and prove they have what it takes to be the next manufactured robotic pop act that is ultimately launched by Cowell's label 'Syco'. Fair play to Mr Cowell, he plays a shrewd game and why scout for new talent when you can get it to come to you via a televised format? Sadly a large amount of the younger British public buy into the whole thing because of the show and thus we have groomed manufactured mundane pop acts all over the UK charts.

You can't blame some people for trying but sadly a good majority think they are recording artists after getting through the first audition. The fact is the finalists are fast tracked to fame and don't really have to work hard at proving themselves like aspiring acts did years ago, it's all too easy via the X-Factor, the result is generic rubbish that end up doing an album of cover versions until they are dropped back into obscurity they were once plucked from, none will have longevity of the likes of the Rolling Stones or Bowie.

Next up was the excellent 'Seven wonders of the Buddhist world' (BBC2 24th Aug) presented by the very gorgeous Bettany Hughes. What a refreshing hour and 15 mins of great television as Bettany guided us around the world to view shrines and temples of the Buddhist world from Thailand to Cambodia, from Nepal to the USA. Regular readers know I'm not a faith orientated person but buddhism does interest me as it is one of the few faiths in the world with a lot of common sense attached to it. I'd been to the Buddha shrine on Lantau Island in Hong Kong several years ago and I found it to be an amazing place and I smiled broadly in fond memory when Bettany visited it on the show.

Lastly we have 'Francesco's Italy tip to toe' on BBC4 Tuesday 8pm) in which eternally smiling elfin Italian Francesco da Mosta travels from his native Venice to the toe end of Italy whilst criss-crossing this beautiful and historic country. I blogged about him a few years ago when he did another travelogue style program sailing from Venice in search of the old Venetian empire around the Adriatic coast, Greece and Istanbul. Francesco is a proud Italian historian/traveller with plenty of character and deserves wider recognition for his great shows and books.

Below is the Buddha shrine at Lantau island, Hong Kong, featured on Bettany Hughes's 'Seven wonders of the Buddhist world' . I took this photo when I visited some years back.

Song Of The Month

Well this month has been a tester to be sure, it's whizzed past and a lot has happened. On the eve on my Gran's funeral I decided to post a song on my Facebook page that reflected her life and one we'd both probably like and I came up with Jethro Tull's 'Life is a long song'. The video consists of the singer of the band Ian Anderson and a small classical ensemble of musicians, it all works beautifully. Hope you enjoy!

A Personal Goodbye

Today I went to see Gran in the chapel of rest in the town where I grew up. Initially I had decided I wanted to remember her as she was but then I thought to myself if she could ever come back and chastise us then she'd almost certainly have something to say about nobody turning up to see her. I'm not superstitious by any means but I just imagined in my head what she'd say so I decided I owed it to her to go along and say my own personal goodbye and more importantly I felt passionate about doing it.

Dad took me over in his car and parked outside as I went into the chapel. I waited briefly in a comfortable reception area before being shown into a small room that was lit with soft deep rose coloured lights and there she lay. The man asked if I wanted to be left alone and I nodded, the door shut behind me.

I looked down at gran, she looked peaceful, her face was smooth and bereft of wrinkles, her delicate hands lay over each other across her stomach, her hair looked lovely. I didn't feel uneasy seeing her lay there dead, I've seen dead people before in the past. Feeling lost for words I muttered a few things, I greeted her the way she used to affectionately greet me which was 'Hey up Bod' (local slang/dialect).

My voice began to falter and my throat felt raw, what I said next was a few disjointed sentences that I shall omit from my blog, as you'll understand, they were personal but I will share that I thanked her for all she had done for me over the years and that of course that I loved her.

Gingerly I stroked her hair and said my final farewell and left. I thanked the staff and stepped outside blinking into the sun light and I don't mind confessing for a few moments tears coursed down my cheeks and sobs welled up within. Quickly gaining control I headed to dad around the corner and he drove me home. It was some time before we spoke, he gave me a little space and reflection time and I felt warm within knowing I had said what I needed to say to a lovely dear woman, my beautiful grandmother 'Doris'.

A Surreal Day

A surreal day in Nottingham. It began with a Jehovahs witness trying to thrust a pamphlet into my hand as I waited for the office to open. This was met by a sharp verbal rebuke. Shortly after I caught up with gossip over a coffee.

Then entered a black guy with one lens missing from his sunglasses.

Then after a entered a guy with a dog called 'sausage'.

Then I called the chapel of rest to see about visiting my recently deceased grand mother, though this isn't surreal as such but the context of talking about dead people on the phone isn't really the norm for an average day.

Even the train journey home felt strange.

I've felt a bit detached for a while though, Gary visit is over and has gone too fast combined with the death of someone I loved dearly. I've not felt great health wise either, my body being very random indeed.

Tomorrow I am going to say a few final words of farewell and thanks to my grandmother in the chapel of rest and Friday is the funeral. Perhaps then I can focus on the days ahead, my plans and life in general.

Hopefully normal blogging will resume soon.

Gone

I knew when the phone kept ringing at 8am this morning something must be wrong. At first I just ignored the home phone but then my mobile lit up beside me on the pillow and my aunts name popped up on screen. I knew it was bad news so didn't answer it.

She could only be ringing for one reason, and that was my dear grandmother had passed away.

I rang her back and my worst fears were confirmed, my grandmother Doris had died in her sleep this morning, she'd been ill for some time so it wasn't a complete shock but the news still smashed into me like a freight train. She was my last remaining grandparent and without doubt the one I loved the most too, I loved all the others but Doris was really special, she had a big part in my life over the years. In a few more days she would have been 89 years old. In her in final years she lived with my aunt who has done a remarkable job in caring for her but she remained hale and with all her faculties till the last, sadly the last few weeks she had been in much pain.

I cannot describe the loss I feel today, I want to type a longer blog but I just can't because I hurt too much. I will do a blog that will do her memory proud in the future.

She was a remarkable woman who gave me so much love - I'm utterly devastated.

Mr Sunshine Returns

I'm guessing my good friend Gary will be headed this way from Hong Kong as I type for a holiday and to see his parents... and see me of course!

I nicknamed him Mr Sunshine some time ago as when he visits the sun always seems to grace us with its presence. He's over with his wife and son so not much chance of a social drink, no bad thing as they sometimes get messy! I'm looking forward to seeing them all and hopefully going to the coast with them for the day. Safe Journey Gary and bring the sun as Britain hasn't really had a summer this year yet!

A Long Lost Love

I was sorting through my old cd's searching for one in particular. It seemingly took an age to find but isn't that always the case when you are searching for something? Today a mood came upon me to listen to some Jethro Tull, it's been a while since I've had them grace my ears. I've been a fan of Jethro Tull since the early 80s when a neighbour introduced me to them. I went to see them live at Manchester Apollo and then began to collect them on vinyl before cd's came along shortly after. Listening to them today has brought back fond memories, hours sitting listening to them in my bedroom as a teenager singing along (badly) to their lyrics. My passion for them has never abated but with life being hectic its rare that I actually sit and listen to music these days, a sad fact indeed. Still after rediscovering my long lost love for them this afternoon I shall have to put them on ipod or phone and take Tull with me.

I discovered this video, which seemed relevant as I've been playing Lord of the Rings online this morning, don't you just love lazy Sundays? Anyway, this video cleverly combines Jethro Tull and Lord of the Rings movie clips, I may have posted this before, it's certainly familiar but here it is to the very apt Broadsword track for Tull's album titled 'Broadsword and the Beast'.