domenica 1 novembre 2026

A new practice schedule for a new month.

 "Thirty days hath September,

April, June and November."

Hey, that's the same number as the number of tunes I have in my violin repertoire!

One tune for every day in November!
I've decided to also learn those 30 tunes on my guitar, so I'll know the repertoire on two instruments.
Don't get me wrong, the violin will still be my main instrument.
Every day I'll target one specific tune on one instrument. I'll give that half an hour (on each instrument) then I'll devote another half hour (on each instrument) to three or six repertoire pieces.

In those two hours of practice I'll also make sure that technical practice (scales, etc.) is not neglected.
On the guitar that includes pick work and on the violin that includes long bows and intonation checks.

There you go.
I've done my guitar hour. Now it's violin time. It'd be good to get a bit of double bass (bass has its own repertoire) practice done too.


Ciao tutti.

sabato 31 ottobre 2026

Working again.

 


Hey, I said working not war king.

Bloody computers. Updating my (our) computer has been a taxing event. I have just got things almost back to normal. Akish and The The The Guy have also helped by getting their blogs going again. Unfortunately, there were problems with P. E. Nis's blog. Never mind, I'm sure he'll make his presence known with heaps of comments. 

Unfortunately, I must leave you there for now because I have quite a bit of music practice to catch up on. I have been looking after my elder grandson for quite a bit of the day. 

Hey, it is great to have things working again!

Long may it last!

Ciao.

venerdì 30 ottobre 2026

So, why am I writing a post this morning?

 

Well, I was fifteen minutes into some guitar practice and I realised how cold I was. I remembered that there was a nice heater down by our computer, so I put the guitar on its stand and headed down to the computer.

The heater is on.

So, what am I going to write about? Does it really matter? The only person who I can rely on to read it is Peter.

AKA the hat guy.

Though he will be busy tidying up his house today because 'The Old Girl' comes home late tomorrow. He only has two days to get things in order.

I was mucking around on the computer, as I started to warm up, and I saw that Rob still has a blog.

See here.

He has gone back to his older name. No mention of The Curmudgeon. I wonder if he still reads our blogs? Well, there hasn't been a comment from him for quite a while, so probably not.

I guess I should get back to my guitar practice.


Then I'll get back onto the violin, the instrument that gets by far the most practice.


Well, that's it from me.

Ciao Peter, and anybody else who read this.


giovedì 29 ottobre 2026

Father B speaks.

 Father B speaks here...



"Firstly, let me say thank you to Richard of Richard's Bass Bag (the original bass bagging site) for attempting to save me from embarrassment by not using my full name. Yes, my full name is Father Banana. It seems that I am not the only priest around here named after a fruit. There was quite an incident in our local church recently when two men appeared and claimed to be Jesus Christ.

Beautiful Jesus

Angry Jesus

I found their pictures on recent posts on this blog. Both claim, by their name, to give a particular 'quality' to our saviour. How do we go about finding out if one of these two men is the actual Jesus Christ? The only blogger around here with expert knowledge has buggered off. Well, Catholics do tend to be more conversant with the Bible than atheists. Fortunately, Richard (of RBB) has agreed to send out a series of questions to these two 'I am Jesus' claimers. So, I'll pass you over to him."

* * *

Okay, thanks to my computer expertise, I have made contact with both Beautiful Jesus and Angry Jesus. They have both agreed to answer my questions. Here goes...

Richard (of RBB): Okay, let's start. Would you consider yourself worthy of the title 'beautiful'?

Beautiful Jesus: Yes, most certainly.

Angry Jesus: Okay, I'm certainly not ugly but I prefer the words 'rugged' and 'handsome'.

Richard (of RBB): Do you find yourself getting angry?

Beautiful Jesus: I like to control my emotions, but I do like to give out love. I encourage my disciples to tell others that they love them, especially in slightly tight situations. Your ex-blogger Rob was very good at doing this. Your other blogger, Peter, doesn't really qualify as a disciple and would probably never say such a phrase to another man. Sad.

Angry Jesus: I pride myself on my anger. It cuts through the shit.

Richard (of RBB): Are you claiming to be the Jesus Christ who died on the cross to save us all from sin?

Beautiful Jesus: Yes.

Angry Jesus: For fuck's sake! If dad had wanted to get rid of sin, all he had to do was shake his hand. I told him that there was no way I was going to be nailed up on a piece of wood. I think he found an actor to stand in. Beaut Jesus is just a bloody actor! Dad would have promised him a place in Heaven.

Beautiful Jesus: No, I'm not and my name is not Beaut!

Angry Jesus: It's bloody true and you know it! Anyway, I think you look like a pansy. 

Beautiful Jesus: A pansy? Where are you coming from?

Angry Jesus: If I were coming you'd soon know all about it! Pansy!

Richard (of RBB): Okay, I think we'd better wrap it up there. Thanks guys, no more opinions or answers. Please. Gosh, you can probably see why it is easier being an atheist! Ciao for now.

* * *



mercoledì 28 ottobre 2026

A B B

 




Father B sat at the back of the church. He liked to take in the full picture. The church was about a third full and mass was due to start very soon, He would not be saying the mass, but he had been asked by Father Orange to give the sermon. He had accepted the request. He noticed that the front row was empty, except for two bearded men with long hair. One sat at the extreme left and the other sat at the extreme right. Father Orange came out onto the altar accompanied by two altar boys. He asked the congregation to stand and a lone organist started to play a church style song. I doubt that he was pissed but there were quite a few wrong notes.



After the hymn Father Orange went into action, assisted by the two altar boys. After a while, at the appropriate time, he introduced Father B as the person who would be delivering today's sermon. Father B got up and approached the pulpit.



He spoke. "Good morning and welcome. Today's sermon will be about Jesus. He is known as the Son of God and he is instrumental to why we are all here today. As far as I know, he doesn't play a musical instrument." There was a light polite snigger from the congregation. Father B carried on, "Nay, but seriously folks, the Jesus who came down to Earth all those years ago was a quiet man, a man who wouldn't stand out in a crowd because of his appearance."
The man sitting on the left of the front row, if you were looking from the front, seemed very agitated. He just couldn't sit still. The man on the right gave him quite an evil look. Father B became more aware of both of them and felt uncomfortable.

Suddenly the man on the right got up and approached the pulpit. "Hop down, Father," he commanded. "I don't want to slip on you." He was making a joke of Father B's name. Father B wanted to hold his ground but thought that it might be safer to move. He certainly didn't want to be squashed up there. The guy climbed into the pulpit and then he spoke.

"Hi, some people call me A and I'm here to tell you about the real Jesus. Let me start by saying that he certainly wasn't considered beautiful. Also, he didn't take shit." The guy who was at the left stood up and placed himself in front of the pulpit. He turned and spoke to the crowd.

"People often refer to me a B Jesus." He pointed to A. "I guess you can guess what they call him, but he IS NOT who he claims to be!"

* * *

Gosh, we have a situation developing here! Maybe we need Satan to break this up? Maybe this sort of thing is what got Satan into trouble in the first place! 




To be continued.

The present state of the blogs.

 Into resting?


OR

Boar ring?


I'm off to work now. Will concentrate on violin practice today. What will you concentrate on?

Come on readers reader, let me know in the comments.

I reckon that Peter will be cleaning the house and putting silly hats away.


If Rob was still around these parts, he'd answer, "Cleaning toilets." Then he'd complain about cleaners not getting fancy work cars. 

Ciao uno.

martedì 27 ottobre 2026

Tuesday, a wet day after very strong winds.

 I've just read a new post by TC. It literally goes on a bit. It's like quite long. Have a read.

"Like I literally feel good in this hat, but
I won't like wear it when The Old Girl comes home."

There's a link to his blog (The Curmudgeon) on the righthand top of this blog,*

I've seen a few comments from that ex-blogger Rob on TC's blog but I don't know what has happened to his blog. I haven't bothered to look because it has probably gone again. 

I'm home from work today. I spent most of Sunday night in A & E and got to bed at 3am. Same problems, different day. I'm feeling like I'm on the mend today and will most likely return to work tomorrow.


Practice suffered yesterday. I only did fifteen minutes on the violin and half an hour on the double bass. Hopefully I'll catch up today. I find that double bass practice is good for my health. It gets me off the couch and standing up. It also gets quite a bit of movement out of my body. I'll try to do a bit more double bass practice today. In fact, I will.


Well, that's me for today. I'll go and do that double bass practice now.

Ciao tutti.


* the original bass bagging site