tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62733633414326622322024-02-20T00:50:28.702+01:00Faith's diary and creative corner (fapj)faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.comBlogger358125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-48502982934801185512022-05-17T09:58:00.002+02:002022-05-17T09:58:47.160+02:00Final curtain?I thought it was on Dcember 13th 2021 when an ambulance eventually found me and took me to hospital. I was given a hefty dose of a painkiller that left me wondering if I was already dead. I decided it wasn't so bad to die. After that, I remember nothing for the next 3 days. Then I woke and remembered why I was in a post-operative room.
I did not know then that 1 in 10 died of the injury but sure that it would not have mattered. But that sounds terrible and is not really how I feel. I am grateful that I did survive!
Not quite 5 months later, my 3 broken ribs are definitely mended and I can walk though I limp heavily unless I use a stick or a crutch, the latter being more comfortable.
The accident triggered off arthritis, but let's not talk about that, though it isn't good timing to have knee problems when you are learning to walk. I have had to learn to accept my age, but otherise try not to think about it.
No more health bulletins. This one is really for me, since I doubt whether anyone sees this blog and to be honest, I had also forgotten it and came across it by accident this morning.
When I wrote the last entry, the virus was still unfolding. Now many of us have had 4 jabs and vaccination is widespread, though a percentage don't understand why they should get vaccinated. You can still catch a strain of the deadly Covid vrus, but the outcome is almost always a mild cold or flu. It's anyone's guess what happens otherwise.
I read last night that the death toll has passed 1 million in the USA. Horrific!
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I won't write about the horriific invasion of Ukraine, There is non-stop reporting and the cruelty and sadism of the Russian instigator are the work of insane greed and power.
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Thanks to the pandemic, my chorus work stopped and will not start up again.
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Should you find this blog and read it, it would be nice to have some feedback.
faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-74961024601583789332020-11-23T22:56:00.000+01:002020-11-23T22:56:07.055+01:00Good news and bad news<p> At least one vaccine is 90% safe, at which time you have to ask if you belong to the 10% group that is probably going to catch the disease from the vaccine! Or how else do you explain the claim?</p><p>In Switzerland today they were asking people over 60 to declare that they did not wish to be resuscitated. What a caring request!<br /></p>faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-40295904535922901422020-11-18T21:04:00.001+01:002020-11-18T21:04:07.607+01:00Get in line for the vaccine?<p> We are still labouring under the curse of that virus, with no end in sight unless everyone gets a jab.</p><p>I promised myself that I would update this blog often, but time seems to fly and so it'a a month since I last wrote something - about survival, which is still topic number one in view of the danger of catching the virus and being a high risk candidate, so that there is no prediction that I would survive.</p><p>Two weeks ago my oldest relative, a cousin aged 92, died of a recurring infection that was not the virus. The almost physical pain of losing the last real contact with my youth and family caught me unawares. I scribbled countless drawings to relieve depression. I could not bear to play the piano or listen to music.</p><p>On reflection, there is so much in one's life that one cannot explain satisfactorily later, but that particular loss was very hard to bear, especially at a distance of 1000km. A webcast was made possible so I attended the sad little funeral, made even more remarkable because everyone wore a face mask. Nobody sang. Appropriate canned music was played and appreciated </p><p>So that's what life is all about, is it? If you look back when you are old, it usually distresses you. If you look forward, there is very little there. So we live for the day we are happy to have woken up to, and that is probably the best solution.</p><p>This short blog is really to remind me that we are all in the same boat, and I should - despite setbacks, disappointments and often a self-inflicted nemesis - be grateful.</p><p>I doubt whether anyone will read these lines, but what matters to me is that I have written them.<br /></p>faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-67411928247553581222020-10-17T18:54:00.001+02:002020-10-17T18:54:40.017+02:00SurvivalI know survival sounds rather grand to describe everyday life, but that's what it seems to be these days, especially for high risk people like me dodging the corona virus.
It's well over 8 months since anyone came into my flat. I don't have many visitors at the best of times, but this is really over the top and there is no end in sight.
The second wave of that virus is probably worse than the first, and no amount of preparation based on the experiences of the first wave seems to have mitigated th effects, though at least we have enough loo paper this time round. Adlittedly, I saw scarcity coming and was myself prepared for that eventuality, but I was running out of paper hankies and mineral water, neither of which was avaiable for weeks, while loo paper was severely rationed once it did start coming into the shops. My local supermarket was charging 3 times the normal price for somee of its products. I thought it very sad that shops were hell bent on profit-making at that time.
Since February shopping habits have changed. Shops are feeling the brunt of online trading, It was inevitable, but not quite so suddenly. Noany people are now also looking at oversharging in shops when you can get the same things much cheaper online.
If you have to watch what you spend, times are definitely better than in the days when you could only buy things from shops and that depended on them bing the right size etc.. The downside for the workplace is the loss of many jobs, but that has been happening for a long time. So high-street shopping has been replaced by internet searches for bargains for many of us. Firms with offices are now thinking of reducing space and leaving their employees working at home. It's cheaper for the employers, but the workers have to heat their rooms and organize a space to work in, which is not always realisticat home, so many offices are now kitchen tables and the workers are isolated for many hours a day.
I'm asking myself why bother to write all this down. But it is a record of what is emerging as a lost year in many lives, including mine. And you can't get the year back. 2020 is not as 2020 as the date could make one believe. 2020 vision is reduced to the view from a window for most of the time.
But it's still good to be alive, I tell myself every day!
faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-22046245453357353692020-09-06T10:12:00.004+02:002020-09-06T10:13:20.099+02:00Time and tide wait for no man<p>A few weeks ago I had to remove the chorus blog I had kept going since the virus lockdown ended rehearsals. I was disappointed that almost no one bothered to look, judging from the meagre response I was getting. </p><p>The blog got a technical bug (possibly due to changes in the blogspot programming - not mine) and had to be taken down. But that was probably for the best. The corona virus sintuation has effectively put an end to the chorus project. </p><p>Anyone venturing onto this blog can read that I am seriously tempted to discontinute my work with the chorus. If they want to continue, they will have to find a new director. I do not anticipate being able to discuss this with members of the chorus as this is basically a personal decision, but influenced by months of genuine distancing. </p><p>The coruna virus has not died out. Far from it. People with my health problems and in my age group are warned to stay away from possible infection, and since singing is known to be fraught with the problems of escaping virus particles, that's what I have to do.</p><p>It's easy to calculate the danger. You could equate it with the idea that if you can smell someone's breath, you are too near and vulnerable to infection. Breath escapes at a much faster rate during singing (or shouting or playing a wind insturment). Face masks help, but you can't wear a mask while singing.</p><p>The virus is particularly contagious in rooms because the virus aerosols can inhabit the air for many hours unless the room is very well aired, and that is normally impossible, and certainly impossible in our former practice room, which had no windows at all, if I remember rightly. Compare this to the effect of a room spray that hangs in the air and can be smelt as perfume or not at all if the air spray is not perfumed.</p><p>This is my first indication that I will not be continuing with the cohrus work because of the reasons explained about. I don't suppose it will be read by anyone. If so, they can take a translate to fully understand my comments.</p><p>The truth is that nothing lasts forever!<br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-24318258252633370852020-08-27T09:36:00.004+02:002020-09-06T09:53:27.086+02:00What's in store?<p> </p><p> https://science.orf.at/stories/3201392/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-de-DE </p><p></p><h1 class="story-lead-headline">Die Zeit als Kristall</h1>
<p class="story-lead-text"><b>
Vor acht Jahren sagte der Physik-Nobelpreisträger Frank
Wilczek die Existenz von Zeitkristallen voraus. Diesen seltsamen
Materiezustand haben Wissenschaftler jetzt im Labor hergestellt – und
die Grundlage für eine neue Technologie geschaffen..... go to the link to continue reading!<br /></b></p><p> </p><p></p><p>Incredible space age stuff: But remember how we smiled at the flat screens they had in Star Trek and/ or similar epics. In 1969 an 'expert' said that the world would never need more that 5 computers. OK. Go further back. I seem to remember smoking having been declared healthy! </p><p>So what next? It is now being claimed that the coroma virus will never go away. Survivers will need frequent vaccination to keep them immune since a vaccine against the corona virus will only be active for a short time.<br />It's hard to believe anything these days.<br /> <span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p>No wonder people rebel at intrusions in their habits and preferences (without regard for anyone else). Science changes it's mind according to the results of research. Politicians do their own thing (see Boris U-turns or the claims made by Trump. Boris has made 11 U-turns on the corona virus logistics - he wrote 2 areticles for the Telegraph - one for and one against Brexit - getting it done now is his pure vanity and thoughtlessness (and the stupidity of all those who still think it's a good idea).. While the US wallows in a depression and mourns its dead, their president claims everything is going fine and the US is now thriving! His wife is all for truth in politics, so normally she would have ditched Trump years ago if vanity had not kept her at his side (!).<br />But 'normal' citizens are dependent on science to keep us alive and relatively well, and on politicians to keep us alive! <br />Back to the drawing board. I have hundreds of pens of various types and colours. About 40 of them are green according to the labels - but they depend on light for their colour (don't we all?). I also have a green summer jacket. It's in the car in case I need it. But it is grey in the car. So at home I have a green jacket, but elsewhere I have a grey one.<br />A German adage translated goes 'all cats are grey at night'.<br />Getting to the point, that is exactly why racism should not be tolerated anywhere at any time.That isn't the only argument. Children are born equal, but some are more equal than others, as demonstrated by the Brit education system, which delegates children from socially weak or poor families to the back of the queue.</p>faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-48485617149238305272020-05-09T07:53:00.001+02:002020-05-09T07:54:55.249+02:00Lockdown<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm not sure it's a good idea even to think about what is happening to the planet's social framework. Apart from ast trips to get the groceries at 7 in the morning, I haven't been anywhere for 7 weeks.<br />
<a name='more'></a>I've been forced to think urgently about being dead, since I am in a high risk group. But to be honest, it hasn't changed anything. I have bulbs growing in pots and a beautiful hanging geranium, a thriving new plant (a dipladonia with extraordinary trumpet-like, dark red velvety flowers) on my window ledge, and can find enough to do without going anywhere, though it's hard to be creative when one's stuck with one's own company all the time. Even writing has become a chore.<br />
That said, I'm always alone and have learnt to live with myself (more or less). I notice that I do what my mother did to keep going. It's a challenge she lived with. She had no choice, and neither do I. I also have her painful arthritis and wish I had been more sympathetic in those days. She took 2 aspirin every morning to combat the pain and stiffness. I find I have to resort to a painkiller when I get to the point of almost entire stiffness.... like mother, like daughter.<br />
But I no longer suffer the painful homesickness that used to plague me. The people I was homesick for are mostly dead or have forgotten me anyway and most of the UK is 'foreign' to me. I have no home in the UK. I don't belong there. Thanks to the corona virus, even if I had the cash to go back there, I wouldn't. I am tied to the status of 'foreigner' I had long before the corona virus came up.<br />
I never thought I would commit myself on paper to having lost my roots. Did I find some here? Yes, if children and grandchildren are counted; no, if we are talking of friends, since I have never been able to feel German and never wanted to be in a group of like-minded since I don't really know any.<br />
The chorus I restarted after 2 years abstinence brought back people I know. I have to ask myself if what started out as a fun idea can ever really get going again when this lockdown has run its course. Can I even summon up the creative energy to do it? Time will tell, I expect.<br />
It isn't staying at home (in the small world I have created for myself behind the locked door of my flat) that bothers me, but being compelled to 'self-isolate' as if I didn't do that nearly all the time.<br />
By writing these lines, I have reorganised my thoughts - put them on record I suppose. </div>
faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-53542259078064863002020-03-15T00:23:00.002+01:002020-05-09T07:20:35.217+02:00How many words?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm short of time at the moment because I am reviewing all the books in the Price series (for links to the blogs go to top right of this page).<br />
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I started wondering just how many words I was going to have to read half way through my task. All toe words probably don't even amount to one of Dickens' novels. He wrote in episodes for a newspaper and people waited spellbound for his next episode. What a memory. What a brain. My little books are really very modest, but I've had fun writing them. I will enter the amounts in the link list, but here they are and all the amounts are what showed up on the WORD counter some after revision, some before.<br />
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01 Friends for Life 160247<br />
02 Finch's Folly 87713<br />
03 Barn Dance 95803<br />
04 Bell Tower Blues 93525<br />
05 Too Many Cooks 72618<br />
06 Kelly's Secret 78589<br />
07 The Beachhut Murders 113645<br />
08 The Spiritual Murders 74747<br />
09 The Revue Murders 109468<br />
10 Murder to Go 74926<br />
11 The Choral Killings 78063<br />
12 Pensioner's Party 83081<br />
13 Lucky 13 60047<br />
14 The Dream 64425<br />
15 The monks of Grumpsfield 58099<br />
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TOTAL (approx.) 1 274 994<br />
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ALREADY out of date!!!<br />
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faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-51243946247921254002019-11-20T18:09:00.002+01:002019-11-20T18:09:44.562+01:00Where does the time go?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Nearly Xmas and I never seem to get round to updating this blog.<br />
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I spent 5 summer weeks in the UK battling with sinus trouble that left me deaf on the right ear and with only about 50% hearing on the left. I recovered only when I got back to Germany and was able to buy the capsules that always work: Gelomyrtol is the substance. You can get it in the USA, but they had never heard of it in the UK. Somehow I got through that vacation, including a week in Scotland only memorable for 2 things: the torrential rain and a visit to Stirling Castle. My journey back was a nightmare of a ripped tyre and rescue by a charming English guy who organized the rescue service and a new tyre. I even managed to get my train under the tunnel!<br />
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The UK has again postponed its total chaos caused by witlessly leaving the EU. Whether I will ever drive to the UK again is uncertain since the traffic chaos at and near the ports will last for months if not years. This year might also be my last Xmas in the UK after many years, and I'm flying! I no longer feel British and the death of my younger brother was a sobering and tragic event which leaves me without close family and the possibility of reminiscing about my parents.<br />
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I have skipped NANOWRIMO (write a novel in 39 days) this November as I have nearly finished the latest (15th) in the Price crime series, whereby crime crept in unintentionally but has taken over. I wanted to finish it in time to start a new one, but my sinuses thought differently. I felt quite ill and did not have any creative energy. I am retiring Miss Price after writing about her for 28 years, starting with a little book of short stories designed for advanced English learners. So what next?<br />
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Writing is important to me as I speak English very little these days. When I solve puzzles I notice that I have missed quite a lot of new ways of saying things. I am constantly updating my repertoire of expressions and vocabulary I never used in the past, but which crop up all the time these days. Many (more) Americanisms have crept into the English language (their uses of preopsitions often annoy me!), but also quite a few German words that did not exist in English when I was a student! Think gestalt, schadenfreude.... German has wonderful, often highly inventive ways of saying things. I consider myself fortunate to be able to use both languages, though my 'beletristik' or fictional writing is always in English. I should mention the crude shorthand English used often in the media. It is not my kind of language. I suppose I'm the wrong generation.<br />
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After retiring from chorus directing in 2016, I now find myself running a new chorus of old and new singers and one or two newcomers It's the 6th chorus I have founded and probably the last, but who knows?<br />
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Time to stop writing this and get back to finishing the current novel (The Monks od Grumpsfield) or correcting the 12th (Pensioner's Paradise), which turned out to be very confused at the end, so is getting new chapters to clear up the mysteries. I hope not all the novels are in as much need of rewriting!<br />
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faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-61155653778891450032019-07-14T22:05:00.002+02:002019-07-14T22:10:34.633+02:00Pick's disease ...There is a website called "The Painter's Keys" that was run by an artist who died a few years ago leaving a huge amount of material. I used to read the letters twice weekly and often contributed to the site. I also have a collection of letters and comments that was sent to frequent contributors as a gift. Looking for something quite different under my artist name (FP), I came across this comment here: https://painterskeys.com/creative-muscle/. This is the entry copied exactly including one or two errors I obviously did not see at the time.<br />
I don't subscribe to that website now. It lost its charm for me when his daughter took over.<br />
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by Faith Puleston, Herdecke, Germany</div>
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<a href="https://i1.wp.com/painterskeys.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/042208_faith-puleston-artwork.jpg" rel="prettyPhoto" style="border: 0px; color: #e54e53; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="042208_faith-puleston-artwork" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-35623 no-display appear" height="300" sizes="(max-width: 218px) 100vw, 218px" src="https://i0.wp.com/painterskeys.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/042208_faith-puleston-artwork-218x300.jpg?resize=218%2C300" srcset="https://painterskeys.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/042208_faith-puleston-artwork-218x300.jpg 218w, https://painterskeys.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/042208_faith-puleston-artwork.jpg 544w" style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px 21px 0px 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" width="218" /></a><br />
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“Creative Processing”<br />
original painting<br />
by Faith Puleston</div>
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PPA is a most intriguing subject. How many of your readers and contributors are going to start looking for signs of what is called <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/picks-disease/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" style="border: 0px; color: #e54e53; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Visit: Pick's Disease - Recent findings and perspectives on medical research ">Pick’s disease</a> in some circles and has a number of other names: “Primary progressive aphasia; Aphasia — primary progressive; Semantic dementia; Dementia — semantic; Frontotemporal dementia; Arnold Pick’s disease”? It has always intrigued me that scientists insist that every brain has the same pattern of functions, even though not everyone is e.g. right-handed. What if the talented artist has different brain patterns from the word go? We need never know what is going on in our brains, unless some striking change in “activity” is classed as a medical condition. Autistic children are born autistic and presumably also born savants, though at birth they have never seen a piano or held a pencil. Brains presumably do not all function in the same way, so what’s to stop a congenitally different brain-layout and functioning contributing to someone being an artist of some kind? I instantly went around the Web looking for more information on this. In this <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/24/health/24pain.html?_r=1&oref=slogin" style="border: 0px; color: #e54e53; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Visit: After a Stroke, Artistic Transformation">article by Benedict Carey</a> two artists who suffered from Pick’s disease are compared. The message seems to be: As long as the effects are not debilitating, it’s not such a bad idea. Unfortunately, we cannot choose which disorder we contract. Is Pick’s disease wasted on non-artists, then? I find it really uncanny that Anne Adams hit on Ravel, who died of the same disease. Birds of a feather.</div>
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faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-20807395276505803522019-07-14T09:23:00.002+02:002019-07-14T09:29:04.809+02:00Down memory lane...Sometimes I open my file of old painting photos - These days, for lack of space, I paint small or draw (examples will follow in later posts) Half of my old paintings are abstract. For years I saw animals in paint haphazarly thrown on to the canvas all the time - and painted them.<br />
I'm going to start my review of my painting days by posting some abstracts (more to follow).<br />
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<br />faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-56259911184865514132019-06-15T20:53:00.000+02:002019-06-15T20:58:03.644+02:00More of the same.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Brexit is still going on with the added treat of replacing Mrs May as PM. Sickening, the whole business! At least one liar is touting for the post and despite having a catastrophic political record, he is likely to get into No. 10 and thereby finish off the ruination of the UK. So much for the "green and pleasant land". It's going to apply for status as the 52nd US state and feed the hoi poloi on trash food including chlorinated chicken imported from the US, where food safety standards are inferior.</div>
faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-72471516251880827842019-03-21T10:04:00.005+01:002019-03-21T10:04:59.029+01:00The bell tollsBrexit - that disastrous coup - is almost upon us. Another 8 days of stupidity and idiocy in the UK and the deed will be done. Or will it? The EU is rightly fed up with the dreadful UK politics and dreadfully incompetent and stupid politicians. They are OK. They've moved their assets out of the UK to the EU and elsewhere. But wht about the idiots who voted against EU who are dragging the EU favoured out?<br />
It's a disgrace!faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-15737282287156581882019-03-01T09:19:00.001+01:002019-03-01T09:19:37.966+01:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
St David's day today. That's the patron saint of Wales and he's the little guy who slayed the dragon that's on the Welsh flag but sadly ignored by the union jack!<br />
I'm plodding my way through either flu or some other bug and trying not to feel sorry for myself. The writing helps and I'm making quite good progress with what is now the 14th story in the Miss Price series. Trying to produce timeless copy under the severe (locality) stress caused by the bexit chaos, I can only choose to ignore it. The Price series is located somewhere north of Bristol and east of Oxford. I don't think it will adapt to a post-brexit era, any more that the UK can within decades. But I''m not going to discuss any of that. It is too sickening.<br />
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faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-81711281312381031092019-02-21T09:07:00.002+01:002019-07-14T09:09:07.060+02:00Illegal immigrant???<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Yesterday Brits were being threatened with having to have a visa consting 52 quid if they want to visit EU countries. So I am puzzling along with millions with a UK passport as to whether that also applies to people who are already resident in EU countries (in my case for over 52 years). The visa threat has been with us before and quashed, but now it's only 36 days to that Brit rush off the cliff, so things are looking more than theoretical.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>And yes - the problem of what happens next is like a dark cloud hanging over me. I am only an expat in Germany. I have no voting rights in the UK either, so no control over political decisions, and I get no Brit pension or other subsidies.<br />
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The only thing that maks me a UK national is the remark in my passport that I could settle in the UK if I wanted to. Since I have nowhere to go there and no money to finance any kind of housing in the UK, I am obliged to stay here (I now want to stay here, not least because I have a modest home here and can depend on the health system) and hope for mercy - the kind of mercy that is missing in UK politics as they strip people who've been residents for many decades of their right to stay in the UK because the home office destroyed all their documents in one of their clean-ups rather than be bothered to digitalize it!<br />
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It's a long, disgusting story. The tory party is awash with disgusting stories and racist, xenophobic but filthy rich supporters and politicians and it mystifies me as to how people can still vote for them and their lies and greed. Those same people voted for the brexit exit because they were told lies and are still being told lies about the EU.Admittedly the opposition is just as awful....<br />
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It truly beggars belief. I'm writing this as I want there be a record of my disgust at the way things are going. I came to Germany to get a theatre engagement that would not have been available to me in the UK. I stayed to raise a family and long after, with one long stay in the UK in the 1990s that convinced me that I could no longer live with the prevailing attitudes there. Now I am aware of being a foreigner in a German car when I am there and have been faced with agression because of that! Amazing, considering that the English language borrows from at least 150 other languages and the English (emphasis on English) are derived from many different ethnic groups. But the English are in charge in Britain. Sad, isn't i? Not all of them, of course, but the politics are pro-English..<br />
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So Treeza May is now trotting back to Brussels again to beg for perks she won't get. The UK will crash out of the EU unless something amazing happens; Scotland will get ready to leave the UK soon so that May and the brexit she was actually against but is now fghting for will have the dubious record of breaking up the UK. Whether Ulster can decide to join with Eire remains to be seen since they worship different gods - religion being the most obvious cause of aggression there. The god Mammon is the driving force in England, with Wales trotting along obediently except that North Wales, where I come from, voted to stay in the EU.<br />
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Only Scoitland can survive on its own of the 3 virtually external parts of the UK. Wales has almost no industry and neither has Ulster, but foreign firms are getting out of England fast and it remains to be seen how a UK can get along since it sold itself out industrially years ago and the service industry depends on foreigners. So what to true Brits alias Englanders do? Ponder on their greatness?Or get on with stockpiling foods. Maybe carpenters will have more work making coffins for the people who can't get the drugs they need or simply starve to death.<br />
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As for me? It remains to be seen, I suppose.... . <br />
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faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-68006645063561161842019-01-26T15:22:00.000+01:002019-01-26T15:24:29.731+01:00Crashing out and crashing in again<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It's nearly February and I've neglected this blog and seem to be busy with Facebook instead. There is such a mess going on in the UK as they get ready to crash out of the EU thanks to an unbelievably idiotic referendum and the tory PM believing that a corrupt referendom is written in stone that I keep on posting articles and cartoons for friends to read if they can be bothered..<br />
I had to scratch from the November novel writing competition because I was pressurizing myself to finsh and not really getting anywhere. I did eventually finish the book and its in teh link list to the right of this text.<br />
I then had 2 weeks of sleepless nights because I plot myself to sleep and write what I've thought up next day except that I was totally devoid of plot!<br />
Three days ago I was looking through old files for somethng that might start a book and actually found a short story I wrote donkey's years ago but never really finished, and that triggered a new novel that I am working on now.<br />
Writing is therapeutic, of course. The time-passing is mind-boggling. Sometimes I work for 5 hours without a pause, especically in the evening. Even if the result is trash in most people's opinion, I enjoy myself and I enjoy reading them later. Publication? For that I'd need an editor and an agent. Hard to come by and vanity publishing is not my thing, so it' all just the organized passing of time, I suppose, like all the embroidered table clothes, knitted jumpers, crocheted mats, doodles and anything that is enjoyable and not too laborious. ...<br />
Back to the book now.</div>
faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-10476708485215436512018-11-21T12:11:00.001+01:002018-11-21T12:11:50.477+01:00Time to move on<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I was going to entitle this post "Worn out", but that's too near the knuckle to describe oneself.<br />
However, I am grinding to a halt with the 13th in my series of novels that started with a short story about a piano teacher (Miss Price) as long ago as 1991! Unbelievable, that. I am now much older than the erstwhile heroine of those stories and - I finally have to admit it to myself - ready to move on ir is it out?.<br />
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The 13th epistle "Lucky 13" (not a coincidence, that title) is a struggle and I'm not sure I even want to finish it, though I probably will because the original plot is quite good.<br />
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<a href="https://lucky1313131313.blogspot.com/">HERE </a>you can find the chapters I have already posted:.<br />
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I should have known better. My 12th novel in this series was already a struggle, not least because I have over the years destroyed some of the main characters. It seemed a good idea at the time, but creating new characters to replace them has been a struggle. I finished the last novel on October 26th after a long summer break when I was not at home and unable to get any continuity into my writing. But I can't come up with this argument now. I'm at home and have nothing else do that won't wait. Maybe I should write a bit more now, though I have already written over 4000 words this morning and need a break - not least to make decisions about what is to come next. I have ideas, but they have to be workable. All the posted novels are at various stages of revision. That's another problem. I need an editor but can't afford to pay for one...<br />
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On this blog page you can follow the link to any of the novels, They are numbered in order of their genesis..<br />
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faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-5105739537844118692018-09-29T23:07:00.002+02:002018-09-29T23:16:11.472+02:00The geese are getting fat ....<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The title is the second line of a Xmas song. Quite appropriate. The evenings are getting shorter and the shops are full of calorie-laden goodies. People must be hoarding them till Dec 24th, which is when Germans celebrate the "Christ child" coming (from somewhere, I never found out) with presents and - presumably - the lebkuchen, chocolate hearts with a Turkish delight lining and stollen, to mention but 3 of the delicacies. I don't really have a sweet tooth, but I must confess to eating stollen (a currant and candied-fruit yeast-baked bread) from early October, since it's baked during the summer months for sale everywhere and by Xmas it's getting a bit long in the tooth and I don't like stale bread.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
I had to get used to the custom of eating bread to the last stale crumb here in Germany (but I don't do it unless forced to). Add to that the dry cake and the bergamotte-laced tea and you get an idea of what is on offer at tea-time. There's no such thing as Christmas pudding for lunch or dinner afters, either. I have to get a friend to bring some (or make it myself, but that is very laborious). We Brits also do lovely mince pies, which are not made of meat, but have a currant and apple filling. Traditions are different here in Germany, of course, but I try to make my Xmases taste like the ones I remember at home. Otherwise, I'm not a food fanatic and a very lazy cook.<br />
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I finally got round to writing more chapters for my book. I have started to read it from the beginning and noticed quite a lot of errors that will have to be corrected when I revise. The problem is that when I revise I don't write new copy at the same time, so I will never finish the book unless I ignore discrepancies and wade on. I probably have about 3 chapters to go, but I'm not sure.<br />
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November is my traditional month for writing a whole book (I've done it 5 times for NANOWRIMO and revised all those books at least once since I wrote them). I can't decide whether to ditch my 12 novel strong Miss Price series for something new, but I love my characters (except the ones I have killed off or pushed out of focus). I don't know if that sounds silly. I don't know any other authors. I'm on a different planet in that respect.<br />
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Maybe I should write a love story, or one about beaten women, or one about womern who use men to climb the career ladder. I don't really have much experience of any of that (I could tel la tale or two about colleagues and the casting couch!), so I'll probably stick to crime. My experience of that is minimal too, I hasten to add. I once, heaven help me it's 53 years ago! - rode a tram without paying in Frankfurt, shortly after I arrived in Germany. I knew too little German to ask for a ticket - but there was no conductor anyway. I felt like a criminal for weeks.<br />
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faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-91403621342922979402018-09-03T20:17:00.001+02:002018-09-03T20:28:01.485+02:00Moving along<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A friend complained recently that he could not find anything to do with singing among my links, so this little entry is dedicated to him.<br />
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When I was just starting out on the opera stage, I was mobbed by female singers and even got a letter from a fellow colleague accusing me of arrogance and not being as good as my colleagues. I should add that the female colleague did not have a contract the following year - but I was never in competition with the lady, and probably just sang better, or was more versatile, or both. I never asked.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>I replied to the guy who had sent me the vile mobbing letter, sending him an autographed photo of myself (probably at my best) and thanking him for his communication. I have no idea to this day why the guy thought he had to criticize me and I decided to forget him and just use stagecraft to upstage him physically and vocally if I happened to be on stage with him, which was fortunately (for him) not often.I never spoke to him about his vindictive gesture.<br />
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I never found out for certain who had triggered his maliciousness off, but one or two older female singers as well as my colleague (with whom I had been double-cast in some roles), but I vowed then not to stand in the way of younger singers and not to limp my way out of the opera scene as a hasbeen.<br />
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I kept to that vow and quitted the opera stage on a high note - as Brangäne in Tristan and Isolde - after coaching the Isolde in her role (but that's not really relevant). At that time it was even suggested that I take up coaching at the opera, but I did not think I played the piano well enough.<br />
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With my retirement from the stage went part of me and it took me a long time to get used to not being a singing actress. Teaching singing was always a chore for me; it got on my nerves actually so I quit that as soon as I could.<br />
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So what was left? I had finished rearing my children single-handed after freeing<br />
myself of an intolerable marriage /and choosing divorce rather than suicide, the latter being counted out only because I could not do that to my children), and I taught English and translated with occasional interpretiong until at long last I retired from that.<br />
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I still had my chorus, however. In the course of 25 years I had founded several (and left them for various reasons only to start another one!), wrote all the arrangements for all of them, and enjoyed fabulous reviews of all the concerts I 'presided' over. That really was an ongoing challenge, but that, too, had to have an end, and I decided to call it a day almost two years ago.<br />
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I had always wanted to paint and thanks to the encouragement of my chilren, too up the paintbrush shortly after the turn of the century and loved painting, as I still do. But that, too has taken a back seat except for occasional commissions, the main reason being that I have no studio in which to make a mess, and hundreds of canvases that I spent thousands of hours painting.<br />
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So cnsidering the space shortage I moved on to drawing. I should mention that I also write novels for my own pleasure (now No. 12 in the series) and to keep up my English in a country where I speak German nearly all the time. I also write poetry when the mood takes me, but in English. I have no desire to write in German.<br />
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My drawings are abstract. OK, I can draw things, but abstract painting fascinates me more, and abstract pattern and/or line drawings are almost a fixation with me now. I'll add a couple of images here to strengthen my case!<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir9o4Eq73ew3YGABfKjiGkx-FbCyVtNsQic3_lr0uhlYKqtrmox1GJVk1J0PCSpycFMhFgURe3M-ZUap0qTEDEYlsuQPi75KpY_SVxJuKNMU1eccAPnWXwpYPoDl6NtdZPFin3lq3PSb1T/s1600/case-1-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="714" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir9o4Eq73ew3YGABfKjiGkx-FbCyVtNsQic3_lr0uhlYKqtrmox1GJVk1J0PCSpycFMhFgURe3M-ZUap0qTEDEYlsuQPi75KpY_SVxJuKNMU1eccAPnWXwpYPoDl6NtdZPFin3lq3PSb1T/s200/case-1-web.jpg" width="140" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">abstract drawing (A3)</td></tr>
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When I've been to an exhibition like the Picasso one in London recently, I get a strong urge to paint. I have numerous blanco canvases stacked and waiting to be filled. But will I? Watch this space just in case...<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUGBQOy_0E2PRUC42dkz953yB0Ta40ob-rJYGgRaB7fBRhnxbqAa6AaDyyuMiqvEaLYYX6l1ahORuXv_MF1Qbq3Vj6Ei_rSyflpGTaixd7NzdAyHWygChtI4zlKl2TNoNWifa33vjsNBy7/s1600/DSCF6096.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUGBQOy_0E2PRUC42dkz953yB0Ta40ob-rJYGgRaB7fBRhnxbqAa6AaDyyuMiqvEaLYYX6l1ahORuXv_MF1Qbq3Vj6Ei_rSyflpGTaixd7NzdAyHWygChtI4zlKl2TNoNWifa33vjsNBy7/s200/DSCF6096.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">abstract (oils) about 80cm x 1.80 metres</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">photo montage over my sofa</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSMbppBitx0dtTH16JSSwTWtjRqxehoYrxS5jAlYHs0jdWD-OXgJilnpvKXZrCKNq_q8XQfMexdYYs48tF8yoNJqeZY83zsUWtYiNe5oYCBDChiFldjk4y8aUoO6qddr3UoSAAS9jVZ9Ar/s1600/wetter+exhibits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="978" data-original-width="870" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSMbppBitx0dtTH16JSSwTWtjRqxehoYrxS5jAlYHs0jdWD-OXgJilnpvKXZrCKNq_q8XQfMexdYYs48tF8yoNJqeZY83zsUWtYiNe5oYCBDChiFldjk4y8aUoO6qddr3UoSAAS9jVZ9Ar/s400/wetter+exhibits.jpg" width="355" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A selection of works (mostly oils) painted a while back</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNKmh8-j712yZG0mg_AIlu8nqGW7jn1qlNSFJfc5DiTeeXjHOMeWqM0bYoA5dkVf6MDvWdAXXm8VutEW7bA9gbd4S3KAE2v_sEXfScdUrCvQ6NPMJ6qnnGQtSswghYee7Ib055VNCK0Xeu/s1600/others.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="569" data-original-width="367" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNKmh8-j712yZG0mg_AIlu8nqGW7jn1qlNSFJfc5DiTeeXjHOMeWqM0bYoA5dkVf6MDvWdAXXm8VutEW7bA9gbd4S3KAE2v_sEXfScdUrCvQ6NPMJ6qnnGQtSswghYee7Ib055VNCK0Xeu/s400/others.JPG" width="257" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">a few more paintings</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZhKDdwTDGk-SmdrOPBDvuQWhloagkFXFwiiwkPfwX5gQzyfi5_kwtmeDdjl8Hx8v_XCl8J2RRY1TQ8DaVYHpxDkRWn2dEU-zOWZ-Bi4eec-Dc-z3Ja1K6hyphenhyphenxAMBK6aMh4q_GxAa9cXWR5/s1600/rose-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="713" data-original-width="1000" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZhKDdwTDGk-SmdrOPBDvuQWhloagkFXFwiiwkPfwX5gQzyfi5_kwtmeDdjl8Hx8v_XCl8J2RRY1TQ8DaVYHpxDkRWn2dEU-zOWZ-Bi4eec-Dc-z3Ja1K6hyphenhyphenxAMBK6aMh4q_GxAa9cXWR5/s200/rose-web.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I tried extreme realism on this</td></tr>
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another abstract A3 (my preferred paper size)</div>
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faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-80833518017837277902018-06-02T00:29:00.002+02:002018-09-03T20:21:11.839+02:00What did you say?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">concupiscent</span></b></div>
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Another delicious word from one of the illustrious word-of-the-day sites I get delivered every day in an attempt to keep up my English while I speak mostly in German. So what does it mean:</div>
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1. lustful or sensual and 2. eagerly desirous</div>
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<a name='more'></a>A thesaurus can advise you on synonyms, some of which are rather obscene and should be used with care, while this one has an educated air about it, though it is a down-to-eath adjective. </div>
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As a writer, I'm always looking for them. Words, I mean. The right one sometimes escapes me since I don't use that many in speech, but would like to see a variety of vocab. in my book chapters and I fancy I could use this adjective. It actually describes quite a lot of people I know or used to know. I don't count myself in. </div>
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I don't think anyone would use or even have used that word to describe me. I'm not sad about that. There something prmiscuous about the word. That's because it immediately reminds one of 'concubine', a word I have used in a novel and a role I have only played on the operatic stage - and even if that was not strictly true, I would hardly own up to it, would I? </div>
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I found the word too late to describe persons (women) I have seen off (killed off) in a literary way, so I might have to create one to fill the description. An inspiring thought.</div>
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Maybe I'll wait and see what tomorrow has to offer. I wonder if concupiscent can be used to describe men? If not, what is the equivalent? I can think of some, but they are not very nice.</div>
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Food for thought: The word concupiscent has been around since the 14th century, and I'd never heard it before. I suppose its one of the hundreds of thousands that I don't know.</div>
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I'm curious to see if the word exists translated into German:It does, as "lüsternd", which can be used to decribe a man probably more appropriately than "sinnlich" which you could translate as "sexy", but in the example I found it was used to decribe something culinary being served in such a way. I'm sure that is not the last word spoken o this word and I doubt wether even the miost artistic of chefs would decribe his culinary artworks as concupiscent.<br />
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<span style="color: #898989;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">adjective <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #393939;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://link.dictionary.com/click/13426287.1391886/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5kaWN0aW9uYXJ5LmNvbS93b3Jkb2Z0aGVkYXkvMjAxOC8wNi8wMS9jb25jdXBpc2NlbnQvP3BhcmFtPXdvdGQtZW1haWwmY2xpY2s9Y2E3N3Jo/5a56841ed4cd669c548b56b8Eb9d7667d"><!-- DEFINITIONS --><span style="color: #393939;">lustful or sensual.</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #393939;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://link.dictionary.com/click/13426287.1391886/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5kaWN0aW9uYXJ5LmNvbS93b3Jkb2Z0aGVkYXkvMjAxOC8wNi8wMS9jb25jdXBpc2NlbnQvP3BhcmFtPXdvdGQtZW1haWwmY2xpY2s9Y2E3N3Jo/5a56841ed4cd669c548b56b8Fb9d7667d"><!-- DEFINITIONS --><span style="color: #393939;">eagerly desirous.</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-35395318832769055462018-05-31T22:38:00.002+02:002018-09-03T22:17:49.135+02:00What happened to the poems?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I did keep up the poetry writing for a few days (see previous post), but I have to be in the right mood and I was battling with getting my banking, such as it is, organised. The bank I was leaving, which had low security (in my case at least - MCs were hacked several times and had to be replaced), was not cooperative, but eventually I got it all straightened out with the help of the managen at the other bank, where I had already had an account, but opened a new one to facilitate the move - if the bank I was leaving had cooperated.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>For the past weeks I have been struggling with the Eurotunnel booking I moved from last September 10 to a day earlier, but it had not gone through, though I had a confirmation thereof.. It's a very long story, and almost unbelievable, but they have lost my booking alstogether seemingly and I no longer have the right codes because they were not sent to me after a frantic couple off hours in Calais and a reulting phone call with a helpline assistant who postponed my booking to June 30th. The original booking has apparently now disappeared altogether. The revised one has also disappeared for this June. I am now communicating with a nice guy called Jim at the accounts department somewhere in charge of Eurotunell accounts. The company does not pay money back even for travel they cannot honour! It beggars belief! One more try tomorrow, then I will ask them for a charity receipt so that I can offset the lost fare from tax..... What fun I've been having.<br />
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So my drawing and writing have suffered greatly and with my granddaughter's christening coming up in Hamburg and July and August spent in the UK, there's little chance that I will get much writing done, though I will do lots of drawing. Here's my most recent effort.<br />
I will try to update my doodledallying blog very soon. The address is listed in the right hand column on this blog. I posted all the new poems on my russian doll poetry site, also listed on the right here.<br />
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faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-71428555560331561572018-04-01T10:51:00.001+02:002018-04-01T11:41:49.518+02:00Vesti la giubba ... <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I got a notification from <a href="https://allpoetry.com/Faith_Puleston" target="_blank">this website</a> to say that there would be a challenge to write a poem every day in April and after not writing any poetry at all for well over a year, I have decided to join in.<br />
It's really a basic attempt to keep moving mentally - like a sort of brain jogging - but also because poetry and the art of using words economically can take a form other than the short cuts and abbreviations common in cell phone communications and is a wonderfully expressive medium!<br />
Carry on reading for a bit more on the poetry exploit and performances of the famous tenor aria from Pagliacci (hence the title of this post).<br />
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So what will be the first poem of 30?<br />
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Tradition dictates that April 1st is the day of the fool, so why not join in the foolishness? I will publish but not in this mail. My lamentably neglected poetry blog is <a href="http://russian-doll-poetry.blogspot.de/" target="_blank">HERE</a> and the new poems will be posted as I write them.<br />
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Listen twice to this wonderful aria: Vesti la giubba (On with the motley) sung here in English and presumably a live recording. By the way, the first really dramatic tenor high note was recorded as being heard in 1832 (i.e well after Beethoven's opera "Fidelio" was composed. The role of Florestan (see recording in this post) cannot be sung. without those incredible high notes, so Beethoven, who suffered from almost total deafness in later life, was truly a prophet!)<br />
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The second recording is a performance by the immortal Pavarotti. </div>
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There are three recording of his on YouTube snd I have taken the middle one. The date pf publishing says nothing about when he sang, of course. </div>
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He died in 2007 (and was born in 1935).</div>
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If you just want to listen to Kaufmann's voice in the Fidelio recording, move on about 4½ minutes. Beethoven wrote a long introduction to transport the viewer into the prison in which Florestan is languishing. (He is later rescued by a lady, Leonora, disguised as a man so that she could get in! - That's opera for you! The stage lighting is very poor, unfortunately.<br />
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Jonas Kaufmann is a bright star in the modern operatic heaven!</div>
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As a little light compensation, I include the recording of Lang Lang playing one of the standard piano "pieces" at least attempted by nearly everyone who plays classical piano, here at the breakneck speed I don't think Mozart envisaged. It's followed by Kaufmann singing the evergreen "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz" to Lang lang's piano accompaniment. </div>
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faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-81103471188825029212018-03-31T09:37:00.001+02:002018-09-03T22:19:58.606+02:00Things wear out<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm not thinking of myself at this moment, but with advancing old age I notice that parts of me are the worse for wear, e.g. my left knee (twisted it years ago and have never really got it back to normal), my right shoulder (too many Match 3 computer games and I hate doing them with my left hand though I am actually left-handed), my hands (arthritis) and I must confess: my patience, which was never much to write home about e.g. I got a comment on a junior school end of term report that said that "she does not suffer fools gladly". I suppose that's still true today and often with regard to equipment that comes and goes regularly in my household.The criticism contradicts all the foolish things I have done in my life, but why live in the past? you can't change it.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>I have not kept a tally of been-and-gone equipment. My most recent replacement was my fridge-freezer, The door of the freezer would not stay closed. I'd get up in the morning to find the food still frozen, but the freezer full of snow. I don't think I should talk about the 5 dead printers in my cellar (I used to do heavy-duty music printing for my choruses) or a few computers that outdated themselves or in one case overheated and switched themselves off after 40 minutes- often with catostrophic results - a repair woiuld not be accompanied by a guarantee because that (all in one) type of computer always overheated. No one had told me that when I bought it!. I now also have 3 laptops; one is very old and probably does not work at all; one is fairly new but terribly slow and needs a lot of updating all the time to keep it going at all, and the one I am writing on now, whose main feature is that it is compact.<br />
And that's where my tustle with keyboards comes in. I don't like writing for long stretches on the laptop/notebook keyboard because I have constant skurmishes with the pad and have to sit too near the screen for comfort. So I attach an external keyboard, and they break down too, I discovered. Currently I have a nice white one that is losing its keys and has been discarded, a black one that does not do multi-media and the one I am using now, which has multi-media but keys you can't read! Oh dear. My touch-typing leaves a lot to be desired. I cope better with numbers and peripheries than with the letters and found I was thumping in my missprints at an even higher rate than usual. What now? I can't buy another keyboard one week later, can I?<br />
A stoke of luck rescued me. I came across a packet of small capitals on sticky paper, so the keyboard now functions with sticky letters. What bliss to find the 'D' every time. There are 3 layers of sticky letters and lots of duplicates, such as the E, which I find every time anyway - E being the most used letter in the English alphabet - the letters must have been imported since there are no umlauts, but since I write mostly in English (on a German keyboard), that is not a problem. I'd put the English version on permanently if I could do without the umlauts that have to be written open on an English keyboard).<br />
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You can see from this account that life is fraught with difficulties.<br />
I'll make some toast now - on my brand new toaster, the old one having decided to burn anything put into it whatever the setting!<br />
I have since moved from the vacuum cleanter to a brush, though do have a new one now, but it tends to fall apart at the slightest jerk. It's main feature is that because of its talent at falling apart it does fit into the space reserved for it.....</div>
faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-83457116356932906172018-03-17T12:32:00.004+01:002018-03-17T12:32:49.849+01:00A slow boat to China<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have just spent a solid 3 hours trying to update the format of my art (now mostly doodling) blog <a href="http://doodledallying.blogspot.de/" target="_blank">HERE</a>. Saturday is not the right day for doing that. My WIFI is painfully slow and blogger takes its time changing anything. I still have a long way to go and this website needs smarteng up, too. I suppose I could go back to having a wevsite, but that is even more work and less convenient. I gave that up years ago. For leisure purposes a systemized blog is the best solution, especially if you are keen on adding lots of images!<br />
It's weekend so have a nice one!</div>
faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6273363341432662232.post-87140648919292035662018-03-16T09:49:00.001+01:002018-03-16T09:52:16.410+01:00Aphrodisiacs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Writing a novel always involves research. For me it has included tree-stealing in Canada, poisoned toadstools and campanology. This time I'm in the region of magic spells and google brought me <a href="https://blackwitchcoven.com/how-to-create-a-very-strong-love-potion/f" target="_blank">this link</a>, which really amazed me.<br />
I can assure you that I will not be including the content of that website in my book. I am not about to promote black magic! Who are the women who indulge? I have never knowingly met one. Do they out themselves to like-minded?<br />
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There are of course nice places to get information, including <a href="https://www.keen.com/articles/love/do-love-potions-really-work" target="_blank">this one</a>.<br />
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faith1110http://www.blogger.com/profile/02358925817174593317noreply@blogger.com0