The Ghost of Christmas Presents.

Apologies to any Dickens fans for that title...

Well, it's been a while. But, like the best of friendships I'm hoping we can be straight back to being comfortable with each other right away, as if the gap had never happened. Right?

Its a little over four weeks since I wrote and it's just been so busy that I haven't had the time. Am typing this on train to work, but imagine I will not finish it until lunchtime, but I've been busy enough that any time I've had with a clear diary I've either needed to do the shopping/washing etc, or I have needed to sleep.

So, what have I been doing you ask? Plenty of rehearsals - for gigs with Voxcetera - gig Saturday 13th - come along, Albert Hall gigs, and Ukulele gigs too (less rehearsing for these to be fair). Plus socialising, trying to make the most of the nice weather - which seems to be back today - by getting out and about and thinking about / planning Christmas things.

As ever, the thought of buying Christmas presents fills me with dread and panic. 'Oh, it's the thought that counts' is a phrase I have always viewed with as much suspicion as 'size isn't important', 'it's what's on the inside that counts' etc.

At least with kids you get a list - and adding a surprise or two to that isn't difficult. This year, not only have I got a list from one, he has helpfully (no irony intended - I mean this) linked it to the relevant Amazon entries. If only he could have done it as a wish list, he could have saved me six clicks, but pretty good. And the others just want money, which is a pretty dull present but I was the same as a teenager.

Parents (who have everything they need and dislike clutter etc, so don't want to have things they don't need) are a difficult one though. But easy compared to friends - I'm not going to get disinherited for a 4/10 Xmas gift...

Mind you, I can't be an easy person to buy for. A book or music you think? Yes, but a good chance I've got or borrowed it already. Unless it involves Russell Brand. But if you know me well enough to buy a present you would know not to buy that.

If somebody asks me what I would like, I honestly have no idea at all. It's not particularly that I want to be surprised, it's just that my mind is a blank in that area. And that is an area very adjacent to the 'good ideas for presents for others' and indeed seems to share the same tumbleweeds.

Given I'm not going down the route of The Voucher (other than perhaps for those who are geographically remote) my strategy is to walk up and down the aisles of shops until I receive some sort of divine inspiration. Which just, short term, exchanges the uncertainty over what to buy with one for whether I bought the right thing. Which will by 25/12 be itself replaced with the knowledge that I didn't, or an uncertainty as to whether it was really appreciated or they were just saying that.

Be honest - am I over-analysing here? I am, aren't I?

Right - first 20 minutes of lunchtime used up in posting this - off to wander the Whitgift centre now in search of ideas. Wish me luck.

From gigs to pigs

Last Thursday saw my first ever ukulele gig, and what a blast it was. Performing in a benefit at Streatham's famous Hideaway club with some members of Balham Ukulele Society, we did a range of songs from Jonny Cash through to Keston Cobblers Club, stopping off at the Everly Brothers, the Jungle Book and many others on the way.

It felt a good tight performance (OK - I have no direct experience to compare it with) and it seemed to go down really well with the audience. We then got back on stage at the end with closing act MyFlat, to do a couple of numbers, which also felt great.

On Saturday I was back in audience mode when a couple of mates were singing at an open mic in Streatham - and very good they were too, and then a further uke practice on Sunday.

In the meantime, I took the boys to Bodeans in Balham. If you don't know the place - well, where to start? Brash, very 'American style' - lots of noise and sport, and above all lots of animal produce. Looked like a huge selection of interesting beers too, though none of us went near them.

Really not the sort of place to go as a delicate vegetarian or indeed an eater of small portions. I watched them as they polished off probably about an entire animal between the three of them, and then followed it with waffles and chocolate ice-cream. They loved it, and for that sort of family or quite-blokeish do, it was perfect. I suspect that if you wanted a quiet or romantic dinner for two, you would be better pretty much anywhere, including Nandos or the local chippy.

Rehearsals continue apace for Christmas gigs (with uke ones now figuring in the list as well as two different lots of choir stuff of course), and to close the musical journey, I'm off to see Difford and Tilbrook (as in Squeeze)at the Union Chapel on Saturday - should be fun.

All this doesn't leave a lot of time for sitting around and having a restful evening, so I am pleased that I am managing to keep reading. I must admit though that looking through the year, quality has not held up as well as quantity. Heavy tomes do not work well when I am tired, so it's been pretty fiction-based. 

I've just finished the three volumes of S M Stirling's Draka series - which is an alternate reality, dystopian nightmare - a bit like Croydon in that way I suppose. Bought in part because I like alt-history stuff, but largely because it was incredibly cheap on Amazon. It was OK. I think my slight disquiet is that it is written about some pretty nasty people (minor spoiler but necessary - the Draka is a civilisation based on slavery - the competing Alliance is based on tech) and because it is written in a point of view style (Game of Thrones-like) you start feeling sympathy with people for whom you should clearly have none. 

This sort of thing shouldn't matter - either the book entertains (and to be fair, it did - in a geeky way) or it does not, but there was an unease. There is no doubt Stirling does not advocate slavery, torture etc, but they weren't really eyes I wanted to look through.

Now looking for the next thing to read. As my search is based on 'Science Fiction under a quid' the same experience is entirely likely to occur.

Depending on Your Appetite

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!