I might have to start working again!

Don't ask me why but these two queries have just popped to mind. I assume very much not, but was Colonel Sanders a real Colonel?

Also...

Does anyone remember 'The Brigadier' from Doctor Who (of the 1970's) - there is Google information around (likewise Wikipedia) but he stands out in my memory as a superbly played character.

The one on the left is a zho whereas the one on the right is a dso. When asked how he was feeling later on in an interview, the one on the left replied 'zo, zo'.

The aardvark is a more famous beast than the zo (which can also be spelt dzo, zho, dzho and dso). The former can be found near the front of most dictionaries and is literally an 'earth pig' (but absolutely not a pig). The latter is a cross between a yak and a cow. Images coming soon!

It is said that if they serve smoked salmon sandwiches at your funeral then you've arrived.

A fine drawing by the master of visual art of the music maestro of the 20th century.

This suddenly sprung to mind ~

http://www.donmarquis.com/archy/

The Sophists were professional teachers who, for a fee, would undertake to teach their students how to get ahead in the world. Socrates was often allied with them by his contemporaries, but his purposes were, in some respects, different. The best-known Sophists were Protagoras, Gorgias, and Hippias, who were significant original thinkers. To get a position of importance, especially in a democracy, one had to have oratorical skill, strength in debate, and a knowledge of law and politics; one would need to know how to manage property and maybe run the State, and know something of music, astronomy, math, physics, and so on. The Sophist equipped one to be a leading citizen, and supplied answers to help people live in a world whose reality had been somewhat undermined by the Pre-Socratics. Philosophers of antiquity have nothing but bad things to say about the Sophists (even though it is extremely likely that Thucydides adhered to Sophistic principles) and we share this attitude. However, despite all we say about the origins of the modern university in Plato and Aristotle, the modern university owes more to Sophistic principles than any other philosophical school. Perhaps the most important Sophistic idea is a brand of skepticism: human affairs, ethics and politics, do not admit of certain knowledge so that good arguments can be made on either side of an argument . This view will dominate later antiquity and modernity and the exercise of arguing on both sides of the question (called in Latin, in utrumqem partem ) is one of the principal aspects of Western education from the Roman Republic to the twentieth century.

From a helpful page on Greek Philosophy ~

http://www.wsu.edu:8001/~dee/GREECE/PRESOC.HTM

Churchill used the phrase "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma" to describe the possible action of the Russians in World War II, but the phrase to me seems to be a brilliant description of how difficult it is to get to grips with the concept of Life (or as the Sophists would have it, 'the meaning of life').

How much of the time do we 'bring stress upon ourselves'? It must be possible to 'worry yourself sick' over certain matters which in reality never actually happen.

This kind of stress can come about for a million and one reasons.

The secret must be to spot when we are stressing over something intangible.

OK, I'm off for my float now.

Why is it that whenever I phone up someone who works in an office, they are either on a lunchbreak or in a meeting? Sometimes they are in a 'short meeting' (which seems to take longer than a regular meeting for some unknown reason).

Which leads me to ask the question: Why is it that one never sees celebrities on holiday?

I think that they form a special group among themselves and home-swap so that they never need to mix with mere mortals.

T.S. Eliot loved to recount how late one evening he stopped a taxi. As he got in, the driver said: "You're T.S. Eliot!" When asked how he knew, the driver replied: "Ah, I've got an eye for a celebrity. Only the other evening I picked up Bertrand Russell, and I said to him: 'Well, Lord Russell, what's it all about?' and, do you know, he couldn't tell me!"

This Clock tells young children when to get up! As Bunny wakes up, opens his eyes and pops his ears open, it is time to get your parents out of bed! - Works well unless the parents accidentally forget to set the right alarm time.

http://www.gltc.co.uk/ProductDetails.aspx?language=en-GB&productID=G4001&CatID=Product

Do you know of a site called my50.co.uk where you post your ambitions and achievements (and tick them off as you go along!)?

A few I have already achieved are as follows:

Play bridge for Middlesex

get my own .com

to have a free lunch

to palm off an unwanted gift!

receive a genuine email from a new contact

casually throw a bit of French into a conversation.

Buy something new at the Supermarket every time!

...not to be stung by a wasp for one year.

make a sarcastic remark

1,000 Hits on Google

Have my music published and in print.

Compose a Symphony

Having a Poem read out on the Radio

Be mentioned in a book!

Have a composition broadcast on the radio.

Ambitions still to achieve include:

Have a perfect day!

beat Brendan at Badminton!

Record a CD

A day without spending money!

Reach the finals of the Masterprize

distribute leaflets outside the Broadwalk

to cultivate different values

to befriend someone with a different ethnic/cultural background

Get into the Who's Who

to introduce a new word into the English language

appear on the radio.

Write a Novel

to receive a four figure royalty cheque

Sell lots of sheet music at Sibelius Software

Stop Watching Television!

avoid the beach for ten years

Become a Professional Conductor

Have Whiter than White Teeth!

Sell one of my paintings

to enter the World Gurning Championships

To take someone from their very first lesson through to grade 8 piano.

Turn my house into a museum.

Emigrate to Melbourne, Australia

To make Edgware famous!

To get a job at the BBC or Classic FM

have my road renamed

Here's a link that is either genius or anorak depending on your viewpoint.

Expert Play in Connect-4

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jamesdow/Tech/c4tutor.htm

I just received a response to an email that I sent on Sunday, 1st May, 2005. I don't imagine that it's a worldwide record, but it's certainly a personal best (or worst?) - I try to keep in touch with old friends/acquaintances quite a bit via email (I tend to only use the telephone for emergencies these days!) and this was a nice reply to receive 'out of the blue' from someone I'd thought I'd lost touch with.

Inspired by this email, I have just spent the last hour or two sending personal emails to quite a few friends on my list.

Choose the White Pieces!

Born in Ireland and lived in England, this is one of a Triptych by the self-taught Painter.

http://www.francis-bacon.cx/triptychs/three_studies.html

I have been listening to the 'Great Pianists of the 20th Century' series (EMI Classics). Lipatti was a real stylist who played with elegance, grace and panache. The first disc which I've already played round and round about 6 or 7 times consists of Bach's Partita in B flat, Mozart's A minor Sonata, Brahms Waltzes from Op.39, Chopin's B minor Sonata and Barcarolle with a movement from Ravel's Miroirs to end.

Lipatti only lived from 1917 to 1950 and is considered by the cognoscenti to be something of a legendary figure.

I am searching for unorthodox ways of breaking routines. Why would I want to do that anyway? I think it's a good way of stretching yourself and accomplishing things that might not otherwise have been attempted.

Let's start with some small things like not setting an alarm clock in the morning!

I mentioned this once before (but without much reaction). I intend to nominate a blogging 'theme' on 18/9 for use on 19/9 by those interested, and will repeat this exercise every month until further notice.

Just dreamt up the first sentence of my second novel - intriguing, isn't it?

Well, after my most eventful trip to the post office yesterday I found an activity even less conducive today, namely, placing an ad in my local newspaper.

Either it's me, or they don't seem to realise that I am actually trying to give them money.

It takes ages to get through to them on the phone and then you leave a message for the person responsible. In today's case my call went unreturned for about 4 1/2 hours. At this stage I phoned them back.

This happens every time.

One of their worst errors was putting a huge advert in a large highlighted box for one week instead of running a small lineage ad for 13 weeks.

I give up. Surely not all local newspapers can be as inefficient as mine?

I thought I was having a bit of an off day yesterday - woke up as late as 10 a.m. and messed around on the computer for ages before finally getting dressed. When my lodger's alarm clock went off mid-afternoon and he got into the bath at 4 p.m. I realised that my time clock wasn't too off-centre in comparison.

I suddenly feel inspired to write a late night blog. I had a horrible time in the post office today (see 'activities' below right). Other than that, it's been a quiet day and I am trying to get organised for the hectic beginning of term that is soon to arrive. I seem to spend a lot of time 'chasing people up' via email (is it just me?)... Have made some solid progress with the new composition Night Music and hope it will be well received by my classical musician friends.

I have a meeting with my Pianist colleague (Louis Alvanis) soon - we are trying to organise some performances of the forthcoming CD Piano Colours on Classic FM. The record company were very excited at the time of the recording, I hope they will 'run' with this enthusiasm.

Glancing at the diary, tomorrow looks fairly relaxing!

(Finally, some nonsense...)

Ampersand

And & is and, ampersand;
O ampersand and & are and.

And + is and, and and or plus;
++ are two and two are thus.

So + or & and and are three;
& spice... it is variety.

Two Philosophical posts in One day? What is going on?

The very fact that we can sit around and contemplate the question Is Life Worth Living? (which must surely be the height of decandence when viewed with perspective), proves that we have most if not all of our basic needs catered for.

The question seems to get asked by two types of people - those close to suicide and the person of an inquisitive nature.

Most people ask this question hand-in-hand with the other perceived famous modern conundrum of our time, What is the Meaning of Life?

Both of these questions are circular and misleading. Let's try to propose some more realistic questions that can actually be answered!

What is a Comfort Zone and how does understanding this help us achieve something?

I think there are two main types of Comfort Zone - one is actually physical space where one lives and the other is a psychological attitude, framework or mindset.

It seems to be extremely important to have a space to call your own. How else can you focus on what is important (to you)? If you have many people around you (for whatever reason) I don’t feel that this can be conducive to creativity or a successful train of thought. All of my best work is done in (more or less complete) isolation in my Life Space or as I am calling it here, Comfort Zone.

Moving on to the second meaning of this phrase, we really need to look at the opposite i.e. Discomfort Zone to understand what we are comfortable with. Now we enter the realms of taboo subjects or things which we may find offensive. Do these taboos change over time? I think they probably do. Should we try and extend our Comfort Zone so that we become more rounded?

That’s enough waffle from me for one day, I’ll get back to posting the normal nonsense now.

I am feeling groggy today. Has anyone got a cure?

My first attempt to advertise this item on eBay was removed by the proprietors, so I've had another go in the hope that the newly worded version will attract a better class of clientele.

eBay unusual item link ~

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=004&item=140020957115

Just put down a few preliminary sketches for a new Night Music for String Orchestra - already sounds promising and I look forward to working on this composition for my colleague in Spain.

I bumped into a young lady I used to teach the Piano to a few years ago in the Supermarket yesterday evening.

I asked her where she was up to academically. She said she'd just graduated in Natural Science.

An hour or two later, the two following witty ripostes sprang to mind:

1. ...and what's your conclusion? (Suitable for all science degrees)

2. (to be delivered in a slightly spooky voice) ...oh really, I'm rather interested in the Unnatural Sciences myself.

definition #2

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sloren

Have to take the fifth here, but does anyone know what I mean (if possible without mentioning names).