The state of the blogs.

Good morning.

It is true that blogger Peter has never been known for his proofreading skills but, since visiting Aussie, his grammar skills are suffering too. On a comment on one of Robert's recent posts he wrote, "That’d have fixed him." Wow! That must be an Aussie saying! Then, on a comment on this blog, he talks about Mr. Linford in the plural! He probably won't get a chance to check out Heaven but, if he did, he would find that there is only one Mr. Linford. Believe me, that is more than enough! 

Robert's blog is back under a new silly name. 'Walk with me Rob'. Holy shit! Yes, and he is writing holy shit too!  

"In the Gospel reading today Jesus reminds us to be merciful. The parable goes ...King Peter was 3000 km away and asked RBB to pay his debt. RBB pleaded saying he had no money so King Peter forgave him and cancelled it. Then RBB messaged Robert demanding he pay back some money Robert still owed him from a poker game when they were younger. King Peter was very angry when he heard and sent RBB a message on his blog to pay back all the money he owed him afterall." 

Where did all that shit come from? He finishes this post with, ""The greatest investment you can make is in yourself"." It looks like a quote. What is going on in Robert's mind. God only knows!

I did two and a half hours of practice yesterday - 2 hours on the violin and half an hour on the guitar. I guess I'll try to get a bit of double bass practice done this morning. I won't tell you what I practised because I suspect that no one will be interested. It WAS good practice though.

Well, that's it from me for this morning. I've got to get my car in for a service and a warrant check. 

Sospetto che i tempi della buona grammatica siano ormai definitivamente tramontati.

Ciao.

Just a quick new post to keep things moving along.

 Well, as you know, Rob's blog is all shut up and Peter is in Aussie. That just leaves me here.

I did three hours of guitar practice yesterday. I've already done 1/2 an hour this morning and will add to that. I'll also do some violin practice.

I'm off to the 'old time' and 'bluegrass' jam this afternoon and I'm taking both violin and guitar. I need to give them both a chance to play. It's important to get out and have a play.

Well, I'd better get that violin out and give it a good warm up.

Sorry, but it's just a short little post this morning.

Ciao.

What's on in Darwin?

 Hi.

One of our bloggers (Peter) is presently in Aussie and is having trouble posting pictures of his situation. He asked me to help. Here we go.

Darwin.

Charles Darwin.

Japanese bombing raids.

Cyclone Tracey and the evacuation.

A random and funny photo of Robert.

Throw in a photo of yourself (me).

Okay Peter, no need for thanks.

 Our other blogger, Robert, has closed down his blog again, so I have decided to delete the link to his site from my blog. 

Arrivederci Robert.

Ciao tutti.

What's happening around the blogs?

 NOTHING.

Let me elaborate.

Look at my blog page. Up in the right hand corner you'll see a title with two entries below it.

A cough in the distance. 

Do you get it? Think "Far cough."

Under this title are links that will take you to the other two bloggers from around here.

Non lo so - this will take you to Robert's blog that keeps changing its name and closing down. It is presently called "Wholly Holy Love" and is closed down.

The Curmudgeon is Peter's main blog. He has other blogs for all sorts of Curmudgeons, but they don't feature much. 

Peter is presently in Australia and plans to do some hiking and some train riding. He probably won't have time to write a blog post until he returns to Thorndon. Even then I can't promise you that he'll write one in the first week or so. That's his style.

As I said, Robert's blog is all shut up. I should really delete my link to it, but I'll leave it for now.

If you look at my last post, you will see that it presently has 43 comments. I've been a bit unwell lately and where the computer resides is in a very cold room, so I have preferred to write things from my phone in a warm room. So, there are a couple of 'comment posts' among those comments, as well as some very good jokes.

Although I have not been that well, I have kept my practice up to date.

The present amount of concentrated practice (and I will add more today) is:

Violin 160 hours + double bass 31 hours + guitar 29 1/2 hours = 220 1/2 hours. 

That's after 217 1/2 days.

That's it for today, I still have practice to do before picking up my little pal from childcare.

Remember: In Spagna la pioggia cade soprattutto in pianura.

Ciao.

Steve is a brikehead.

 

In the 1970s Peter, Robert and I (your three bloggers) worked for a liquor firm called Murray Roberts. Murray Roberts was attached to another firm called Levin and Co. Murray Roberts generally sold booze to individual customers and organisations like clubs. Levin and Co sold to pubs and other companies. The two firms worked side by side and all the employees knew each other. One Levin and Co employee was a truck driver named Steve. He certainly wasn't a genius, but he was a nice enough fellow. Sometimes 'humerous' statements were found written on the walls in the back storerooms. A very noticeable one appeared one day. It was written in big letters and said, "Steve is a brikehead."

Okay, there is a moral behind this. A moral that's probably better than Robert will hear in mass today. The guy who chose to insult Steve's intelligence could not spell 'brick head'.  This actually tells us more about the composer than the victim. 

The moral: 

Be careful when you set out to insult someone, unless it is Mr. Linford.

Yesterday I did 1 1/2 hours of violin practice. Not too bad. I've been working quite a bit on playing scales all over the violin lately. Those scales can make you feel comfortable all over the violin.

"We've come for the table."

Well, I'll leave you there for this morning.

Tieni i mattoni lontani dalla testa.

Ciao.

New shoes? You choose.

 

No.

Definitely not!

Absolutely no way!

Yes please!

My old friend (and he is older than me) Peter popped around today. As well as giving us (Shelley and I) a really wonderful set of place mats, he also gave me a pair of rather expensive shoes that didn't fit him properly. What a very kind thing to do! Thanks so much, Peter. I wore them today and they are very comfortable. You and Lynn are very kind! Huge thanks!

I got an hour's practice done on the violin today, but it was quite a busy day. My baby (the younger of our two children) turned 40 today. He now has two babies of his own - Harrison 3 years and 4 months and Henry 1 year and 3 1/2 months. Grandkids are a lot of fun, though they do tire you out at times. Well worth it though. 

Well, I'll leave it there for tonight. Huge thanks to Peter and Lynn for their generosity.

Ciao tutti.

Four instruments that I practise.

 

The Gloria (left) and the Bob, my two double basses that are named after my parents. I've had the Bob for a very long time and have played some pretty high pressure gigs on it. Like my dad, it's a real workhorse that came from simple beginnings. It's what is known as a plywood bass, but it plays very well. I bought the Gloria a little less than 20 years ago (2009?), about a year after my mother had died. It's a mighty fine bass. Both basses are great to play and are well set up with great strings. I've basically been playing the Gloria lately but have made a decision to play the Bob more often. It's a great way to keep my parents' memory alive.

Okay, I thought that, since both of my basses have family names, I should name the other two instruments that I practise regularly after my two children and my wife. Hey, it's a good thing that I'm not practising the trumpet anymore because it begs to be named after the first five letters of it's own name! If you look at the picture of my guitar, it is obvious that it has to be named after my son (George). That leaves the violin. This is the instrument that I am presently practising by far the most. So it could be named after two people. Look at the 'f' holes. They could actually be 'S' holes, so I've decided to name my violin after my daughter and my wife. Well, remember that there are two 'S' holes. Say hello to Stephanie Shelley.