The little things that "touch" your soul.

There are many occasions in life where we meet people we naturally 'Gel' with and like immediately. So often though, you swap phone numbers, and never encounter the person again. This was not the case today.

About three weeks ago, my husband and myself went out to celebrate that he had just signed a deal with a publisher on his first crime thriller, in fact his first novel, which may I say is rather wonderfully written and very compelling. For anyone interested, it is called "Whisky from small glasses" by D.A.Meyrick and is available from RingwoodPublishing.com .

The evening started by meeting a very lovely old man who told us stories of his experiences in the second world war, then later we met a very nice "couple" who were on a "short break" for the lady's sixtieth birthday ; like me, she is Scottish and we found many things to chat about. I really liked her and she seemed a little perturbed at the end of the evening, so I gave her my phone number.

Tonight, whilst doing my usual routine, I got a phone call out of the "blue" and she decided to "call" me as she had enjoyed our conversation and wanted to chat some more. It was completely unexpected and I feel quite honoured that she did so ; hard to explain, but it 'touched my heart' that I made enough of an impression on her that she would contact me. Rarely on a 'random' meeting do we actually contact the person again.

Anyway, I will speak with her again as she bothered enough to phone me. I'm still quite amazed actually that she felt she wanted to keep in touch after such a brief meeting. That has actually made my day.:-)

A Trifle

I have always seen a "trifle" as having many layers much like society really. The cream is at the top and many swim around in the jelly, absorbing the problems of being at the lower end of life,struggling because of the utter selfishness of those who do not think or care.

The Sponge which soaks up the jelly, is the souls who work hard and never get a chance, but always the Sponge tries to help.

Then, we have the jelly, which encompasses the sponge and traps it so it may not move on.

We can add a little bit of healthy fruit in here, but it is already heading towards the next layer, not wanting to be associated with either the sponge or jelly.

Let us now add the middle layer of custard, as we begin to leave the poor sponge entrapped in the jelly.  Sweet and delicious as it is, we forget about the bottom layers; the trifle gets tastier as we move upwards.

Add a spreading of double whipped cream, and all is now forgotten ; a few sprinkles and there is your trifle.

I went off  trifle a long time ago.

Human Relationships

There is nothing quite so interesting as the way human beings behave towards one another. They really are odd creatures that do not fit into how (humans) try to categorise anything.

It would seem, and probably is true, that animals follow certain behavioural patterns that makes them them, but I am sure there is no simplicity in any of this?

Humans, who believe their species is above the animal world, are very foolish as there is an instinctive way to be that we seem to "rubbish", and I really don't understand why? Animals and all other forms of life, and I am hopeless at getting all the names right, so little point in losing the "thread of my thoughts"- just are. They act as they do, and don't complicate everything. In my experience of my love for them, they always respond and give you equally back what you give to them: not so the case with human beings.

My husband is a brilliant writer and uses words wonderfully. I do not share his talent and use them fairly badly. However, I like the freedom to express, so use them in my own way. Here I will talk of complete love, and to me it's all the same love: Denzil, Rachel, Sian, Wee Boy,Suzy, my mum, my friends, my brothers, my sister, my step mum, my dad, friends I see no longer, my cousins, my aunts,my uncles - it just goes on. Suzy and Wee Boy are my cats whom I love as much as any human being.

My ability with words is not brilliant but I can recognise that love is the most important thing that exists, and if we realised that, we all would not argue so much.

I was upset by the fact that someone very close to me was upset by the words of another person, which were just said without thought. What is the old saying? "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me"? That is the version I knew anyway,and actually, there is little more hurtful than words:once spoken, you cannot take them back and in some cases it takes years to repair the damage caused by them-so sad.

An animal, is unquestioning, loyal to the last, and often in my opinion, way above human behaviour.

I was told a long time ago, not to write, speak or basically do anything when I was stressed, but as a fifty year old adult female, I don't really need to listen any more.I started this blog as a sort of public diary which people may read if they wish, it's their choice, but I will retain the freedom to write it in my own way with no rules.; I truly hate rules!

My titles are never what I suggest, but I need to call my blogs something. I just let my thoughts run free and see what I come up with.

I have always been useless at finishing anything, as nothing truly does finish.However, I will end this blog with mentioning again my utter love for all animals, and they are not remotely beneath us human beings, but rather on a much higher level than most of us can hope to be.

My continuing theme on my cats.

Here I will speak of my my third cat "Porta", named by my elder brother from one of the characters in the Sven Hassel books which I loved. However, before I do, I mentioned nothing of my previous two cats litters. Tiger had a beautiful little kitten named "Monty" who went to live with my brother's girlfriend at that time, and "Mo" had two litters, the first two whom I named "Mehitabel" and "Jock" and a second litter of three kittens named "Lusitania", "Amoeba" and "Piccaso". I am quite sure they were all re-named when they went to their new homes and I was only fifteen years old at the time. :-)."Porta" was my first male cat.

"Porta", like "Mo" was black and I got him from a farm near where I lived. I missed "Mo" so much and though you can never replace a cat, they all have their own personalities, and "Porta" had a very large personality. At the time, my mum was a mature student at "Jordan Hill" College in Glasgow, studying "Primary Teaching" and one of her fellow students' cat had just had a litter. I had previously trawled around Possil Park trying to locate a Tabby kitten I had met with a woman on a bus, when I worked in a home for the elderly in Lambhill. She gave me her address but when I called there was no reply so I missed out on that kitten, (and now think back that it probably wasn't very sensible at nineteen years old,wandering around by myself in search of a kitten in Glasgow at night, but that's how much I love cats. :-) ). However I had no regrets in getting "Porta" who was a complete soppy beast as all my male cats have been.

In the meantime, a year earlier, my younger brother had got a labrador/collie cross pup who was just adorable, her name being "Cara". So by the time "Porta" arrived, she was only a year old. She completely mothered my new kitten and they became "firm" friends. They used to lie on the couch together and "Porta" would wrap his paws around "Cara's " neck. It was so sweet to see.

I still laugh to this day on what I call "The incident with the kipper". My older brother was about to cook one for himself, but left it unattended for a few moments and "Porta" stole it and ran up the back garden with it. I was in fits of laughter watching him chase "Porta" all round the garden trying to retrieve it, not as it could be eaten any more but he was determined if he couldn't have it then the cat wasn't eating it! Needless to say, the cat won. :-)). Still makes me laugh to this day.

Sadly, and even more sadly after he caught my fifteen year old budgie, whom one of us had forgotten to lock the cage of (Poor wee "Dougie", :-((, he was another victim of traffic at only a year and a half old. It broke my heart, especially as I witnessed it. It wasn't the driver's fault, he just dashed onto the road. "Cara" was really depressed and I swore I would get no more cats but I just had too.

Like my previous two cats, he brought me so much joy.

"Whisky from small glasses"

I cannot possibly describe how proud I am of my husband D.A.Meyrick or @lochlomonden on twitter for writing this wonderful crime thriller, set in the West coast of Scotland. He is one talented man.

For anyone interested, it's all on the website of http://ringwoodpublishing.com/

My husband, Denzil to me, is a very talented man in many ways. He is not only a very talented writer, which you will realise if you read this book, through the wonderful description of everything, from scenery to his characters, who come so alive, you feel you might know them in real life.It is a totally fictional book and I have proofread it so I am lucky enough to have read it in a "different" way than just picking the book up, but believe me, he's an extremely talented writer. However, he has many other talents.

When I first met him, I instantly knew he was a musician, and he's an extremely good one. He has a baritone voice which sounds Like "Frank Sinatra" and "Neil Diamond" and he plays guitar, saxophone and is just a very good musician. He's also an extremely good cartoonist and mimic.

I am not boasting, rather just pointing out the merits of a talented man.

I really hope that people will read this book, and realise the skill in how he writes. It's a work of fiction, brilliantly written and I so wish I had his talent.

Beethoven

What could anyone say on Beethoven other than sheer brilliance. To go all through the nine symphonies  and listen to tonight's performance was truly wonderful. I literally cannot describe the feeling it produced in me.

I have been listening to Beethoven forever, or rather it feels like that. as from the time of being a tiny little girl, aged three, I heard his music as my mum loved it. We used to listen to what I called Radio Three but I'm not sure I understood the BBC bit at that age; I merely loved his music.

Later on we had records, from my uncle and I progressed from "The Pastoral", Symphony no.6 to many other composers, including Chopin, Ravel, and many others, and so my love of classical music grew. I learned how beautifully Julian Bream played classical guitar and what a harp sounded like.

However, and I have discovered many composers since whom I love, and the musicians who perform their music, but Beethoven will always have a special place in my heart, yes, because it's something my mum and I just loved listening to together, and I just listened so intently, I felt I had every note and rhythm in my heart and if I could sing every part of the orchestra at once, I would.

I agree with my mum on the symphonies she liked best apart from the fourth which is  one of my favourites. She agreed in the end too. The first two she felt, were a bit like Mozart, which I see no problem with at all, but I know what she meant. The third, "Eroica", she adored and she loves the seventh and the ninth is the absolute conclusion to sheer beauty. So I basically will totally thank my dear mother for my total love of Beethoven.

In younger and sillier days, my mum and I used to prance around the living room, pretending we could actually perform ballet, and what a wonderful memory that is, which will never leave me. :-).

My mum never played an instrument , and probably never got the opportunity to learn but she danced, and I would have loved to have learned to do that, but we give each other different things. She gave me the chance to learn piano and violin later and I an eternally grateful for that.Most of all though, she gave me my love of Beethoven, and it will remain forever.

As a pianist, I had a great adoration of his piano concertos, another of my gifts in listening from my mum. We started as usual with the 5th (Emperor) and progressed through the earlier ones; all beautiful, but the slow movement of the 5th will always be part of me.

I was a reasonable pianist, I think, well got good grades, and my teacher believed in me but I only went so far, but I did play the first movement of the "moonlight sonata", think that is grade five, and loved playing it. His music is technically difficult, hence the brilliance of him.

Anyway, enough ranting for tonight. I will always love Beethoven's music.

A new day.thing

I feel inspired to write this by a comment on twitter, which was a response to me wondering "What tomorrow may bring"? The answer was "Magic" and "Wonderment" and to enjoy the day. May I say this made me smile and I thought that it was a lovely way to look at life.

Sometimes when we go to bed, we dread the next day, if it holds something we don't want to do, so we create scenarios, and they are not usually as bad as we imagine, but it takes a lot of will to follow through what you don't want to do: in my own personal experience, this usually happens because you have had a bad personal experience previously. However, I realise I am not remotely alone in this feeling.

This is an extremely personal thing which will have individual meanings to us all.

I am not writing this about myself, although it could so easily apply, but I feel sympathetic to the individual concerned.

In many ways, I would like to "practice what I preach", but alas I do not. I still live with my own fears, and it's an awful lot easier to advise someone else than to do the same thing yourself.

The whole point is though, to try to find a way through the past experiences and issues that hold us back from being our true selves. We all have a right to be ourselves and not be controlled by anyone, whether it be governments, or any other "body", that has that power.

Everyone should live within standards that are exceptable  to all, but we should never dread tomorrow for the sake of any other's actions.

Life really is beautiful when you open your eyes to it. Just being out in the garden on a sunny day in Scotland, which has been rare this summer, can do wonders for your soul. :-). ;just being with the people you love is all important.; losing your past issues is much harder but by no means impossible.

Here is to tomorrow and the joy of living. :-)