One of the consequences of my recent move has been a need to
sort out my music collection – with the aim of being able to move away from
physical CDs and to an electronic solution. Not because it's better – it really
isn't – but simply for convenience and to save space.
Having successfully sync’d everything I have bought from
Amazon and iTunes I set myself the task of uploading 10 CDs a day until I had
finished the balance, and at the weekend I completed it.
One of the joys of this of course is that you get reminded
of CDs that you hadn't played for ages, which has led to me revisiting Prefab
Sprout in a big way over the last week. A band I had a lot of time for in the
90’s – at least musically (I still think that the lyrics can fall just the
wrong side of clever-clever). And it’s still good – they have now been uploaded
to the MP3 player as well. What is interesting is that my ranking of the albums
has certainly changed over the years – and that Steve McQueen is now
unquestionably my favourite. Great songs but a simpler set of production values
that Jordan or Langley Park – which I now see as a bit overblown. (Swoon, the first
album is simpler still, but for me the songs just aren't as good.)
And so, it was with my quest for simplicity in mind that I
went for the first time to Balham Ukulele Society’s fortnightly Jam session on
Sunday*. I’d never played a uke before – well maybe I’d strummed one once or
twice – so getting thrown straight in with no concessions to beginners was a
steep learning curve. I think I did OK though – enough of the hand shapes are
familiar from the guitar that I could have a decent go anyway. And thank you to
Rachel who leant me a uke to practice on between now and the next time.
Of course, the different tuning makes for some oddities for
anyone thinking in guitar language. Not least that the E chord seems to be
incredibly difficult. But most uke songs seem to be in G, so that’s OK. Until
you come to sing them. Still, it’s another thing to keep my diary ridiculously
full.
Other news, my beloved 5 year old iPhone 3GS finally bit the
dust. Well, got to the point that I could only get a signal standing next to a
phone tower anyway, which kind of renders the phrase “mobile phone”
questionable. I have a new one and am still at the stage that I am amazed that
I don’t have to charge it for three days at a time.
It has a ‘walking’ app on it. I should backtrack a bit here.
In order to try and lose some weight I started using a free website thing
called ‘My Fitness Pal’. It’s a diary really. You plug in goals, and the
exercise you do and the food you eat (it has a huge database of these which
makes that quite easy). And this is quite motivational – even though no-one
else can see it - the thought of typing in “three bags of crisps and 17 bourbon
biscuits” in the “Dinner” field is a deterrent. And I can use it on phone and
I-Pad as well as PC. Anyway – it links to all sorts of applications, so on both
Saturday and Sunday I used the pedometer thing and was pleasantly surprised how
easy it is to burn calories without it seeming like it, simply by walking
around. So that’s added to the routine now too.
Generally my fitness regime is going pretty well. I started
it, in theory, around the middle of May, though in practice didn't get going
until June. But in the eight weeks since I've eaten well, and exercised at
least four times a week. I've lost a bit of weight and feel a lot happier with
that sort of thing as a result. Of course, the progress will slow down now –
the first few pounds are the easiest. But a huge benefit of living alone is
that I can avoid treats and snacks very easily – by not buying them. So I am
optimistic that the five weeks from now till end August will bring further
progress.
Well, that’s enough – the train is pulling in and I’ll post
this later. Off to rehearse for a wedding this evening – where we are singing
on Friday. I don’t think they need ukuleles but I will ask.
___
As I come to post this, I thought I would share this from
John Oliver – the UK satirist/ comedian who seems to be taking America by
storm. When there is so much crap going on in the world, this made me smile -
#gogetthosegeckos.
* of course, this isn't the reason at all – someone invited
me, but it’s a nice narrative link!
