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Tori
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Oct 17, 2014 01:03AM

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I agree with you about liquorice allsorts too...
However you can keep the lip balm,I'll stick to noon lazy lips thank you.

I agree with you about liquorice allsorts too...
However you can keep the lip balm,I'll stick to noon lazy lips th..."
Lol! That's settled then - Ian can have Joey, which would be three males in Ian's new posh pad if you include Rupert the Chair. Joey does nothing for me!! And as for the men in Big Bang Theory - well just get me a bucket (especially as we're on the bucket list thread lol). No eye candy there at all. Again, not that I like BBT, but my boys watch it.
On a completely unrelated subject, I still haven't seen Frozen. Maybe I should put it on the bucket list, but I'm in no rush. Two of my piano students have brought the music to lessons. Groan. I'm unimpressed.

I agree with you about liquorice allsorts too...
However you can keep the lip balm,I'll stick to no..."
Tori,
I watched Frozen with my grandchildren. They loved it. I, like you, was unimpressed. However, since it has been officially recognized at the most financially successful animated feature film of all time, I doubt that the Disney studios much care what you or I think.

I agree with you about liquorice allsorts too...
However you can keep the lip balm,I'l..."
Well quite, Jim. Disney won't be losing too much sleep about our opinion. Anyway, I've yet to form mine, I just hate it when students bring music like that along to lessons, and I didn't rate it. Why play songs from Frozen when we can play Mozart?
Kids today!

I agree with you about liquorice allsorts too...
However you can keep the ..."
Art, like beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.



Indeed, Carol, but people tend to like whatever they're brought up on, be it music or food or anything else. I agree with you that the old Disney films had some great tunes. And when I compare the old musicals like The Sound of Music and Fiddler on the Roof with Lloyd Webber's music (for example) I don't think there is any comparison. Rogers/Hammerstein were incredible songwriters, as were the Gershwin brothers. I don't rate Lloyd-Webber much really. I can't bear 'Memory' even though it's incredibly popular. Worst of the lot is The Music of the Night, followed closely by Any Dream Will Do. Don't get me wrong, as a musical and a visual spectacle and a story, I love Phantom of the Opera. I like Joseph too, and have seen both of these productions live, but I'm not a particular fan of the music. I remember The Music of the Night it being No 1 when I was young and Michael Crawford singing (!) it at the end of TOTP for weeks. Yawn. Jim might insist that the beauty of music lies in the ear of the beholder, but I'll have to disagree. There's taste, yes, and then there's quality. Never mistake the two. Just because someone enjoys a piece of music doesn't mean it's good - it just means they enjoy it. I enjoy chocolate in particular and a good sugar rush in general, but it's not good for me and never will be. It just slips down nicely and is effortless and gives me a buzz. For some people, music is like that.
While I'm having a little rant, I'll say here that music in public really irritates me. I'm turning into my mother! If I'm walking around a supermarket or sitting in a doctor/dentist waiting room, I don't want to be assaulted by music. If it's at a very low level, it's acceptable, but beyond a certain level and it really gets to me. I especially hate it when I'm put on hold on the phone and I get pop music in my ear. Classical musical doesn't offend me, but it's not everyone's taste. I just think that music is over-used in general and that people become completely desensitised to it, which is a great shame.
Of course, music is my subject, so I get a little bit passionate about it. All of the above are my opinions only.

Exactly! Why do companies assume that we don't mind music following us everywhere we go? I do mind. there's nothing wrong with the exquisite sound of silence.

Read: The Idiot, dostoievksi. I guess only, I mean, I love reading, but I can´t think of any more books I really have to read before I die, I guess I´ve read them all. (the ones which would be on the bucket list)


I agree with you about liquorice allsorts too...
However you can keep the lip balm,I'l..."
Jim, in our aborted chat about the possibility of life after death, I missed the opportunity for an obvious line (and I call myself a writer)! I'll say it belatedly.
There may be other life, Jim, but not as we know it.
Boom boom!

I personally am not religious and do not believe in any type of existence after death; other than molecules being recycled. However, if I were and did, I don't think I could take being in heaven for very long before I would freak out and start running around destroying all those harps being played by the angels. Such action on my part would no doubt result in ejection to that other place.
Hell, on the other hand, might not be so bad. While serving in Vietnam many, many years ago, where temperatures often exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit for weeks at a time, a popular story was that of the ghosts of Marines returning to earth briefly, after a week in Hell, just to obtain a blanket.

I personally am not religious and do not believe in any type of existence after death; other than molecules being recycled. However, i..."
Gimme the harps and the angels! Got to be preferable to eternal fire!!! I sometimes say to my OH while he's listening to his choice of music, 'If I ever walk through hell's gates, I expect that to be playing on loudspeakers as I enter.'
Vietnam sounds like my idea of hell. Even putting the conflict to one side, 100 degrees for weeks on end? I couldn't cope with that. It would send me insane. I don't suppose there was any air-con in the army digs!

I personally am not religious and do not believe in any type of existence after death; other than molecules being recycled..."
In Con-Thien, where my outfit spent most of its tour - no air-conditioning, no toilets, no running water, no electricity, no prepared meals - Just a bunch of young, naieve kids, who had grown up watching far too many John Wayne movies. However, we did mature rather quickly and the naivete rapidly disappeared.

Life back then was more hostile/brutal in general though, wasn't it? We've said before in this UK group, that growing up decades ago was never having known air-con, or even central heating. We travelled a hundred miles for holidays if we were lucky and ate basic foods. My mum never cooked pasta or anything remotely Italian, Indian or Chinese. If you suddenly lifted the kids of today out of their lives and stuck them back in the 60s or 70s, they couldn't cope. They'd have the shakes within hours!! No phones, internet, laptops, multi-channels etc etc. So, it's always impossible to imagine an experience beyond our immediate set of experiences. Therefore, I can't imagine being in a warzone in Vietnam in 100 degrees and with no toilets, showers or prepared meals. It really does sound like hell.

Life back then was more hostile/brutal in general though, wasn't it? We've said before in this UK g..."
Tori,
The best thing about the good old days was that, back then, I wasn't good and I wasn't old!
lol Jim.....but does this mean that you are good now as you are certainly not old.....just that bit older than you were??

that was supposed to sound pithy - didn't quite work....

Ian,
I am now 67 years-old. Although I have always recognized the benefits to be enjoyed by being bad occasionally, I now find that my ability to be as bad as often as I was in my prime has diminished considerably; however, I still give it my best shot whenever the occasion arises. I'm just grateful that it still arises.

Ian,
I am now 67 years-old. Although I have always recognize..."
Lol!!
May I just report here that I've now completed two weeks of morning exercise. I have the weekends off. Be it known to one and all that I'm putting myself through torture and hating every second of it. But - it is on the bucket list to have a tip-tip bod, and it's only going to get harder year on year, so I've made a start, and so far, I've stuck to it. I'm definitely getting a bit fitter. Firmer? Erm - dunno. Too soon to tell.
Did I mention I have the weekends off? It's the weekend!!! Yay. Let the Tori see the chocolate and let the potato see the couch!!

Ha ha! Good idea - then I can shred the exercise routine and bin it, which would give me great pleasure.
Tori wrote: "Did I mention I have the weekends off? It's the weekend!!! Yay. Let the Tori see the chocolate and let the potato see the couch!! ...."
LOL. Well being 7 hours ahead here in Singapore, I've beaten you to the sofa. There's a cold glass of something by my side and a slice of chocolate cake is calling to me from the fridge.... The weekend is here - finally!
LOL. Well being 7 hours ahead here in Singapore, I've beaten you to the sofa. There's a cold glass of something by my side and a slice of chocolate cake is calling to me from the fridge.... The weekend is here - finally!

LOL. Well being 7 hours ahead here in Singapore..."
Hope you enjoyed it Liz. It's actually on my bucket list to be THE person in history who abolished Christmas and consigned it to the past. But! Rome wasn't built in a day and I haven't got many followers in my let's-get-rid-of-Christmas-because-it's-ridiculous campaign, so last weekend I embraced it instead and did a load of shopping. Until I can find a way to abolish it, I deal with it by avoiding the crowds, the bad feeling, the pushing and shoving and the types who give me that evil stare from their cars, which says, hey! that's my parking space lady, don't you dare go in it. Need to stay ahead in this game. The earlier the start the better. Chuffed that I've made significant headway.
The fact that this makes me very happy is very sad!
Usual message to self: get a life.
Only done my exercise routine once this week. Half term! It's meant a lapse. Reached for the giant buttons yesterday too. Time to get back on the horse next Monday. In the meantime though, I'm enjoying the break!! Keep fit is pants.

It's interesting that all the Christian festivals originally just replaced pagan ones at the time. Even the pagan sites were often taken over.

It's intere..."
I love Christmas too. Not the commercialisation, which is nauseating, but the genuine goodness that can come out of it. I love the whole decorating the tree thing, and wrapping presents too. Still it's difficult for people who are alone/have lost loved ones at Christmas; it can make them feel more isolated.
Even though I'd miss all the traditional trappings, I'd like sometime (bucket list) to spend Christmas away somewhere completely different - just to see what it would be like. Maybe Nice...? Florence...?


I agree Tori...mostly! And I'm sure good people are good all year round. I probably put that badly. But I remember years ago, walking my dog on Christmas day on a nearby field. (I lived alone at the time with no family around) and I wished Happy Christmas to a guy walking his dog. I'd seen him loads of times and normally he never let on, grim-faced. But that day his face lit up and he returned the greeting and smiled! I was chuffed. And I've come across this attitude a few times over the years. Even a little bit of extra good-nature, goodwill - call it what you will - must be worth having? When I listen to the news, there seems to be precious little of it going round.

Yes, I agree. I'm all for good will, of course I am. There isn't enough of it. I don't go for new year's resolutions either. If there's something I need to change about myself, I don't wait until New Year's Day. I always sound a complete misery guts when it comes to talking about Christmas, but I don't think I am really. I work really hard to make it nice for the family, but I listen to my own feelings too, and I can't deny that during December, I invariably feel overwhelmed, overworked, slightly sickened, stressed and a mixture of a ton of other things I can't put into words. Every year, I think I'll have a baking day in December and just make stuff for a few people, just to show I care. And then the time comes and goes and I haven't managed it. I am taking a small group of singers into an old folk's home in early December and will play the piano while they sing carols. I've done this before and always hate myself for wanting to escape the smell and get out of there. I really shouldn't feel relieved at the end of the evening. I suppose it's called being human!


1. Make one more attempt to steal Angelina Jolie away from Brad Pitt. (I still can't believe she chose him when she could have had me.)
2. Become much taller.
3. Achieve that four-hour experience that the makers of Viagra are constantly warning me about.
4. Tell someone how good it is to see them after so long and actually mean it.
5. Quit making New Year's resolutions.

Amen!!! Why do we put ourselves through it all?!

Rofl, Jim! Love it. Can't understand why no 1 hasn't happened yet. It isn't like Brad Pitt is good looking or anything. What is she doing with him anyway? Lol. At least there are no kids involved if she leaves him for you!!!!

Tori,
I think that, if I can achieve item 3 on my list, I might have a real shot at achieving item 1.

I have to agree, Jim. Item 3 is the real challenge and key to unlocking 1. Should be a fun challenge though. A four hour experience. Blimey. I could roast a large leg of lamb in less time, and have it on the table with veg and gravy and mint sauce, and probably rumble up a crumble with custard too. And then you men would be struggling to decide which you'd prefer wouldn't you - the dinner or 'the experience'.

Tori,
As much as I hate to admit it, I believe it would be more realistic and achievable to fly to the U.K. and enjoy your lamb dinner than the other.

I'll set the table!!

This year my hubby wants to help serve Thanksgiving dinner to some needy folks. We've never done that. It's a nice idea since my family lives far away and we don't see them. We have to find a charity that serves Thanksgiving dinner.
I'm sad today because a neighbor of ours died yesterday. We didn't know him at all really but he was running for office (state representative) so his death was in the news. He had colon cancer. He had a wife and 2 kids and was only 48.

This year my hubby wants to help serve Thanksgiving dinner to some needy folks. We've n..."
Blimey! It's sobering isn't it? Cancer is still killing people indiscriminately. One in four affected? It scares me a bit if I think about it for too long. Best to make each day count. ;-)

This year my hubby wants to help serve Thanksgiving dinner to some needy fo..."
I wish I had gotten to know this guy while I had the chance. Now he's gone. Very sad...
I think Jim can easily achieve no 2 on his New Year Bucket List. Just get some high heels mate. If women can bear the pain and the bunions, surely not a problem for a man with ambitions of a 4 hour tantric moment with la Jolie or even a 4 hour lamb dinner chez Tori.

Hahaha! Let's not forget that Jim HAS made his choice. He opted for the lamb dinner avec moi.
He'll have to come in the heels though. I don't expect any guest to show up with a bottle of anything, but an American bloke landing on my doorstep wearing four inch heels would certainly give me a giggle and would compensate the four hours of work! Not sure Bernard would arrange a welcome committee though!

Ian and Tori,
The high heels would be a very economical and quick fix for an instant height adjustment. However, if a passerby should happen to take a picture and put it on You-Tube, I guarantee you that I would receive tons of inquiries from my relatives, friends and acquaintances; not to mention my four adult children. I also guarantee you that any explanation provided by me would be looked upon with great skepticism.
Jim
Books mentioned in this topic
Beyond the Birds and the Bees (other topics)What Father Christmas Left (other topics)
What Father Christmas Left (other topics)
Sweet Liar (other topics)
False Allegations (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (other topics)Charles Dickens (other topics)