Trying times

 

There are days when you really feel you are "at your limit", that you cannot go continue any further without losing any and all control of your emotions whither or not that might be the seventh time you gone to do something and it hasn't worked or you've made a massive mess and now that to deal with on top of felling tired for everything else you did before.

It might be less you and perhaps someone elses attitudes and behaviours that are really taking you beyond your normal endurance ability, I mean some stresses and strains are part of everyday life rather like if you go to catch a train, you know a delay or a platform change is a perfectly possible situation.

Some people just appear to love creating dramatic scenes, raising fears and waves of impending doom demanding that you and the wider world must save them now and really nobody cares.

Emotional manipilation is common and not as some might expect, just with young children who perhaps may not of learnt better solutions and strategies.

You yourself may have issues with dealing with any and all of these situations, I know I can soon get out of bounds as lots of noise and waves of emotions just pass through me like a massive wave I can't always reliably control and I could easily act in ways whose consequences may last a long time without realizing it.

 There always are times when I need the uncomprising message of firm spanking to help me regulate my responses and to help prevent me doing anything really rash.

Situations can be crazy, other people can be a pain in the rear but in the end I need to learn to deal appropriately with it and you may need to make sure I learn a painful lesson so I I don't repeat it.

Rounding up, staying warm

 So I'm preparing a post for this blog and there are a few a few things going on like a widening of one social media account to cover a few related points in their own way that in a previous blog life there had been some posts around but because of issues with cross linking and plowing through profiles I decided it was best removed.

It has got a bit cold this week - was around one degree c yesterday morning - so thicker socks and more layers are called for although I do have warm padded jackets for outdoors and woollen hats for exploring around and about.

I did get a used speciality record that came out some thirteen years ago by Rickie Lee Jones, namely her excellent debut album of 1979 but in a 45 rpm cut super high quality form that I missed out on then with both budget constraints and a a certain scepticism that my then stereo could make all it may have to offer.

Perhaps you remember that hit, Chuck, He's In Love?

I'm delighted to get a copy from a proper record store in Cornwall that does mail order  that knows how to package things well and it sounds great with the much improved system now.

Back and going back

 

Batty bats and ghoulish things were very much out this weekend as one tried to both be good and put a bad chest behind me as I played and played with friends to two in the morning being always up for a good by the embers yarn.

Rather like last year, I did rather roll back the years when it came to presenting with pleated skirts of different lengths and more obviously girlish tops as it's more an occassion for showing that side of as much that other times I can be very Tomboyish.

Sometimes it's a good thing let both sides out and let others see the whole you before them rather like a sporty girl may attend an award in a dress.
 

And I had dollies with me too! 

 

Pre Halloween edition

For most people Halloween has been and and gone although I'll be off at the weekend so I don't think they'll be an entry here on Friday as I'm gonna be rather busy getting sorted ready for an early morning start.

There weren't so  many little people at the door on Saturday dressed up looking for candy although the weather was more reasonable than last years so I have some spare candy and I believe at least another one of us had the same experience. Around here I know the families of them well.

That kind of leads us into a kind of a theme because of one of things about about that weekend is about re-acquainted  with people you love having fun, the weekend despite some problems with pulled a  leg muscle and badly jarring my neck yesterday also was about that but in a different way as I encountered a few people I hadn't seen for a while.

 

Piano music is a favourite of mine either solo or in the form of a concerto with other instruments typically a full orchestra and Beethoven wrote a set of five such concertos for piano and orchestra which remain hugely popular even today.

This is the third in series of I have that were recorded around 1961-3 for the first time in stereo by the acclaimed pianist Wilhelm Kempff with accompaniment from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by  Ferdinand Leitner.

The whole set came on four lps, and this like the others is an original  with the "Tulip" logo on the record label.

Given they are over sixty years old, I gave them a very thorough cleaning to remove anything that in that time had worked its way into the groove which helps as there are a good many very quiet passages that don't like any intrusions of dirt and other debris.

That's the rear and it does also show the more usual thick spine with title wasn't commonplace back then as this doesn't have nor do Decca albums of the same era although I have to say the more modern spines with titles are much easier when hunting for your recordings when in racks.

As for the playing, the orchestra is a full on with modern instruments that won't impress those who favour using replicas of eighteenth century instruments but the playing especially the piano just sweep you along in their romanticism which to me is most apt as you just focus on the playing.

It's a set that although there have been a number of great modern accounts  that may offer modern musical scholarship and digital recording you just find yourself very much coming back to.

Letting it all out

 Sometimes you do feel that you really are BatGirl, trying to sort out every thing as it happens no matter how you may be yourself while others are focused on just their own needs or support those of one often lacking a real knowledge of just what it is and the extent of what you provide.

It isn't always helped when you, yourself are undergoing periods of ill health so you struggle to get done your own things and other things on top and you feel other people who aren't actually doing anything seem to be expecting more and more.

I just try to put this kind of the stuff to the back of my mind rather than "mining" it further but it just bugs me.

Putting a full stop in it....

 It hasn't been a great couple of weeks dealing with really bad flu while trying to sort out bits around the next major get together that keep getting changed when you think you got it sorted and dealing with gaps when it suits you less when it comes to getting away for  spooky weekend in a couple of weeks time.

It can and it does drive you really cranky just ten seconds away from a stomp fuelled mouthful back which is really the point in which ideally you need someone with a no nonsense attitude to step in and cut you off midstream in an altogether memorable way.

That's really where spoanking is at with me rather than a precourser to anything kinky or sexy, just that "stop right there, Missy" moment I need.

Children's Magazines again

Although the weather has been lousy for most of the week coupled with being very ill I do get out rather than living life behind a screen, interacting with people and that means at the very least I get to go to the general store and newsagent quite a bit.

I had been looking for a while at comics and magazines aimed for children are both displayed and also the kinds of content because in the time I've been on this planet things have changed.

Most comics and magazines are still sold on a "sales or return basis, the newssagent gets a credit for any unsold copies that are gathered up and collected by the distributor but an increasing number are going for direct sales with indviduals taking out subscriptions with copies being posted out in timed intervals to you.

Inspirations for comics can come from anywhere.

This one from the mid 1940's only had a short run came from parents in the United States who felt existing comics wre too sensational, lacking any meaning content and purely escapist and so mixed more wholesome stories, comic strips in with information about what girls could get involved in and interests.

A kind of "mash up" between comic and magazine.

I really like that cover and the concept.

  A more modern co-ed version is this published by Bayard in France which mixes a short story with comics set in the past with features on science, nature and intresets in a way that is lively, leaping off the page and easy to read.

A well written comic or magazine gently pushes language development, introucing new words and concepts and this is aimed more at 8-14 which given my reading problems is about right and guarantees you do get a challenging gripping story to read given I struggle with Young Adult fiction nevermind naytrhing really intended for adults.