I'm a very happy bunny at the moment.....

 As I sit here, in the dark early morning of a late January Sunday, I can say that I am reasonably happy.

Is it all this nice winter weather that has added to my pleasant disposition?

NO

Is it my general health that makes me fill with the joys of the coming spring?

Well - NO  again actually. If truth be told I have a runny nose, and the trapped nerve that I made mention off several weeks ago is, sad to say, still very much trapped, and more the uncomfortable for all that.

No, my present happiness is just due to a very good day yesterday. As I myself approach 41 on Tuesday, last night we had a bowling party for my daughters birthday and it all appeared to go very well (except for the bit where Liam got several extra ends of ten pin bowling when my own arm became to painful -    )

But part of my overall happiness, is the "leap" that seemed to take place yesterday when we went to our, now weekly, Archery session.

I know this sounds a little sad in some ways, but to me it was a major step forward. Steve, the club rep, had notice a slight defect in my technique. To cut a potential boring technique explanation short, he showed me the way in which you pull the bow string back to a position where the string sits in the dimple of your chin, with your "pulling finger" under your chin.

The difference this little change made?

The difference was quite amazing. It turned out to be the difference between maybe up to three or four Gold bulls-eyes in a two hour session, to three or four bull's in every set of six arrows (and that was five, six arrow sets at the end of the session).

The only thing is will it carry through to next week. At the minute I don't really care, I am just savouring the moment, and next week is next week.The bigger gain, for this week at least, is the fact that, for once, i beat our Liam, my Son. unlike his “Old Old Dad” who was a more academic sort of person, Liam seems to have a natural aptitude for an assortment of sports, Archery included. he seemed to be able to pick up a bow, and then let off a flurry of arrows that would score pretty well, where as myself and laura (my little “baby” –   ) would spend no little time walking passed the targets to pick up the arrows that missed.

But yesterday seemed to have changed that, and Liam was not that happy.

This is just a "play about " picture. My daughter loves any of the Big cats and so we have a few piccy's. this one has just been fiddled with via the latest version of Picasa (http://www.picasa.com)
Posted by Hello

Just trying the new versions of Picasa and Hello 

Does history repeat its self?

Is history one big circle?

I know this may sound a little "deep" but something has happened in the last few days, here at Chez Smudger, that would certainly have to make you wonder.

There is a local saying, here and here about's, that goes along the line

"What goes around, comes around"

Subtle and very - ODD

What it means, and apparently there is some historical theory to support the premise, is that History has a somewhat cyclic bent. Most the acts of history continually repeat each other in some shape or form.or so the theory goes.

Well, here, the music tastes, and equipment, have somewhat return to when I was a boy.

To cut a very long story short, the hi-fi we have had since we got married finally bit the dust. the amplifier failed and it would have cost just to much to repair, than it would to invest that money into something with a 12 month guarantee.

The replacement hi-fi, in its self is nothing out of the ordinary (we can't afford a really expensive machine just at the minute), but the salesman did mention something that appeared strange to me in theses days of DVD's and CD's. He made mention of the fact that you could hook up a turn table.

When I got married, it was that time when CD's had begun their strangle hold on the music industry, and the LP and Turntable were to be consigned to history. Myself and my beloved went looking for a replacement Hifi for the one i had brought form home, found a very nice unit that seemed to fit the bill - minus a Turntable ("old hat mate, they will have all gone in a couple of years"). So my Vinyl Records were carefully fastened up and consigned to the loft.

Well the Smudger is a well happy man at the moment. Via the household Catalogue, I ordered a Sony turntable (see picture above), plugged it into the new hi-fi, and we had music.

Now, to the kids of today, you could say my tastes are little "conservative", or as my lad would put it - BORING.

I , as a young lad , was a big fan of ABBA, Sheena Easton, Blondie and John Williams (left). His Guitar skills were my "chill out" tunes. Not oppressive, loud or raucous. Just something beautiful, tuneful and calm.

But what it has done, is allow to listen again to what was, as a young man at least, possibly my favourite record of all time ( and come to think of it , although a few other albums have come close, this is still my all time fav).

Jeff Waynes War of the Worlds. Fabulous music. Great Lyrics. The voice skills of some of the top musicians of the time. And the haunting (and I don't think that too strong a description) voice of Richard Burton as the narrator/main character. My absolute fav song of all time, Forever Autumn by Justin Heywood, is on the first album.

Forever Autumn

Justin Hayward

The summer sun is fading as the year grows old
And darker days are drawing near...
The winter winds will be much colder
Now you're not here.

I watch the birds fly south across the autumn sky
And one by one they disappear.
I wish that I was flying with them
Now you're not here

Like a song through the trees you came to love me
Like a leaf on a breeze you blew away...

Through autumn's golden gown we used to kick our way
You always loved this time of year.
Those fallen leaves lie undisturbed now
'Cause you're not here

Like a song throught the trees you came to love me
Like a leaf on a breeze you blew away...

A gentle rain falls softly on my weary eyes
As if to hide a lonely tear...
My life will be forever autumn
'Cause you're not here!

The whole song is beautiful.

I have some of my youth back.

What can I say, I’m a happy man.

Of the weather and the computer .....

"The North Wind doth blow, and we will Have snow. And what will poor Robin do then, poor thing"

That is one of the lines from a nursery rhyme of my dim and distant Child Hood. And the wind has blown, here in my part of the UK, for at least 24 hours.

But why does it sound all the worst in the dark hours of the night. the Wind howled round, and crashed against, the house all night. Sleep was hard to come by. Perhaps its worry - will the roof come off? Do we still have a tree in the Garden?

Perhaps it is something primeval. You know what I mean. That fear of the unseen. The knowledge that nature is stronger than we are.

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It seems to be that "New Dawn" time of year. I have received, in the last few days, a number of "notifications" of software upgrades. I don;t remember this time last year being quite so busy. Anyway, to keep a long story short as they say, I shall concentrate on the Blogging updates.

As I have mentioned before, I do like to use the old Posting Clients to navigate my various logs. And of my favourite programs, both wBlogger and Blogjet have been upgrade.

Blogjet has just been upgrade to version 1.5. It is quite a useful little program if you have a number of sites, as you can setup several accounts, and the program does support quite a few types of logging conventions - but it does cost you in the first instant if you like to continue using the program.

wBlogger on the other hand can be used as a freebie (although a donation is an option). This is the first remote blogging client that i ever used, and it is still a favourite for all that. It is still a pity that I can't post to all my sites from one (or two?) programs as some of them still only accept "online" entries

But we can't have everything we would want, can we?

A disturbing incident .....

We had, yesterdays, one of those incidents in life that, although not a major issue, a great problem; leaves you feeling somewhat “disturbed” 

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We (for that read I – Cathy was at work and the Kids were avoiding the same, as usual) were de-trimming the house after Christmas when the front door bell went. As I had half the TV cabinet apart after having to replace the Midi hi-Fi which had given up the ghost over Christmas, I shouted over to Liam to go answer the door.

He came back saying that it was the Police, and they wanted me.

Well, you can imagine, my heart sank – even though I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong (that I Knew of).

The two Officers at the front door had been asked by another force to serve a warrant on a particular person (who’s description i fitted apparently), but they had given our address. After obviously looking puzzled, as we had never even heard the name of the fella involved, let alone met anyone by that name, and then proving to the Officers that we had all been “had”, they left relatively happy. 

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The disturbing aspect in all this is why did he choose our address?

Was it just a name he pulled out of the air – lucky call if it was. Or has ne been passed our house and made some mental note of the address as an alibi. or have we even met this man (maybe under some other name), a chance encounter, a Friend of a friend of a friend.

I’m feeling a little nervous.