On not being disappointed

So, it's been a while since I blogged. Blame Twitter, I say.

But here I am back again.

Short and sweet this post will be. The topic: the absolutely amazing Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band gig I went to with my dad, Zaki and Toni at Hyde Park on Sunday. All I can say is - The Boss rocked it. And I've been sat watching the Glastonbury footage of their performance from the night before and it's sending tingles down my spine.

Life can often be full of disappointment. Things that used to be ace get dull and boring over time. The first flush of a love affair passes. The extraordinairy becomes ordinairy. Stuff gets old and passe. But, apparently, Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuce will always deliver. Fucking brilliant.

I remember boucing up and down to Bruce Springsteen with my dad when I was little. I remember my dad going to see him at the NEC and then listening to the tale of how awesome the concert was, and how he'd played for THREE HOURS and completely rocked the house. It sounded like the best thing in the world. I'd thought that seeing him some thirty years later in Hyde Park wouldn't quite be the same. But it was ace. And he played three hours.

Thanks for such a great day dad. I shall remember it 'till I'm "old". :-)

Unravelling a few threads

So I just wanted to jot a few thoughts down, prompted by the beginnings of my sewing odyssey into the land of niche and all things "nerd" ( ;-) ) . . .

You may recall that this latest little blog thread of mine was prompted by a little article I heard on Radio 4 about the fact that the printed magazine market is going through an interesting change: sales of general "lifestyle" magazines are "falling off a cliff" (still love that phrase) but sales of niche titles are steady or, in some cases, growing.

My hypothesis: we're all becoming more nerdy. We don't want general. We want specific.

I've been to two of my eight sewing classes now and I have some further observations:

1. Sewing is really bloody easy - I have no idea whatsoever how my sewing class teacher at school managed to make it so miserable and difficult-seeming.

2. Sewing is really rewarding - so far I've made a shopping bag and a purse. In two short lessons. Next week I start on a dress. How cool is that?

3. Sewing is really complicated - whilst observation one (above) is true, it is also true that the more one learns about sewing the more one realises how much there is to learn. But that's a good thing. Who wants a hobby that you can master in two lessons? (Bridge, my other new hobby, is also proving to be ever more complex. I like it.)

4. Sewing could become all consuming - there is definitely HUGE nerd potential here. And, I've found the magazine that feeds my nerdiness - it is "Sew Hip!" (you see what they've done there?) Genius magazine. Read all about it on their blog here.

All of this has prompted some much more work-related thoughts about the nature of content (online and offline) and modern lifestyles and trends and turning points and things not necessarily always being true. I am going to try and make these more coherent on a new work-related blog I'm working on with my fellow social media-ist Simon Mustoe. Coming soon to a WordPress blog soon. Watch this space!

Until then, I challenge you to go out and find your hobby and get RIGHT INTO it. Hobbies, it turns out, are one of the secret ingredients to happiness. Fact.

A geek like me

An update on my mission to find my inner nerd. You may recall that I was pondering whether fishing should be my chosen specialist niche subject. The reason I'm drawn to fishing is that I have tender memories of going fishing with my grandad when I was very little. 

I was lucky enough to have a grandfather who was a country-grammar-school-boy-made-good. His own father had been a senior member of a country squire's domestic help team (see what I did there - good old marketing speak!) What I mean to say was: he was a servant. And so was his wife. But my gramps got some decent qualifications and, eventually - after the pesky second world war was over - qualified as a surveyor. With useable skills like that, he was soon joining the civil service and heading overseas. First Africa and then, after my mum had grown up and had me, to Bermuda. 

So my childhood experiences of fishing with my grandad weren't down at the local canal or rezza like many of my school mates, but standing on volcanic rocks at the edge of the Atlantic with a balmy breeze just balancing the hot, humid night's air, and a hand line dangling down to the tropical fish that inhabit Bermuda's infamous coral reefs. These latter have been wrecking ships for centuries, but also mean that the island's fish are safely enclosed in a barrier that keeps out many of the big fish predators that would hunt them elsewhere - including sharks.

We used to sit on the rocks for hours staring at the stars, slicing up bits of squid to stick on our hooks and catching all kinds of amazing looking fish.

I've come to the realisation that I'm unlikely to be able to recreate that kind of fishing experience in the UK. So have decided to save fishing for a hobby when I'm a bit older and have, hopefully, retired to more tropical shores!

But - this doesn't mean I've given up on my quest to find a hobby. Far from it. I've got two possible serious options now.

Since last writing I have been gripped by an addiction for Bridge. The card game. This has pretty much happened accidentally, but four of us have started playing on our credit-crunch-with-children-nights-in on a Friday, Saturday or even Sunday (after roast dinner) and what was a slightly ironic activity has taken on increasing fascination and seriousness. It's so complex. And so enjoyable. A bit like The Wire, it's all in the game, yo.

Meanwhile, my mum bought me a sewing machine a couple of weeks ago in a bid to get me to stop talking about how I want to learn how to make my own dresses and get me actually doing something about it. I've booked myself into some beginners classes (found via Gumtree - what an ever increasingly brilliant site that is) that start in a couple of weeks, purchased a load of patterns, some material, scissors etc etc. So watch this space. The next Coco Chanel may be about to reveal herself. I've also discovered a really quite vibrant community online of fellow would-be seamstresses and seamstrers (?) in this funny little website called Burda.

So, give me a few weeks and I'm going to be a cocktail-sipping Bridge demon by night and a cocktail-dress-making sewing machine whizz by day. Not sure how it's quite come to this, but I'm not fighting it. I can't help thinking my grandad is having a quiet giggle to himself somewhere as he catches another sea bream "for the cat" at the big fish-in in the sky.

Four just feels so good

What a game. What a result. It ain't over 'till the fat Spaniard signs.

1447: I'm utterly stunned. Who could have possibly seen that coming? United haven't suffered a home defeat like that since New Year's Day 1992, when Dennis Bailey bagged a hat-trick and QPR left Old Trafford with three points and a 4-1 victory.

1445: "They cannot get to the exits fast enough at Old Trafford and United simply wanted to be put of their misery. Liverpool have ripped the champions apart - and if this performance does not give them the incentive to continue carrying the fight to United nothing will.

"The turning point of the game was the brilliance of Fernando Torres, who stripped away the armour of Nemanja Vidic and gave him an horrendous afternoon. United are still title favourites - but no need to roll the credits on this one just yet."
BBC Sport's Phil McNulty at Old Trafford

1444: "Liverpool did a very, very professional job here today, but United looked very leggy, especially near the end. They need a rest this week, put their feet up and come back stronger. All these games have caught up on them."
BBC Radio 5 Live's Chris Waddle

1443: Full-time Manchester United 1-4 Liverpool

The Silly Noise Game

So, I Twittered last night about comprehensively trouncing my daughter at The Silly Noise Game in the car journey up from Canary Wharf to my mum's house. This game is a staple for long car journeys in our family. It was invented by Mr H, my daughter and I.

Especially for @jasonryan and @Jonny_Woowah, here are the comprehensive rules. As with most of the most satisfying and enjoyable things in life, it's very, very simple.

The Silly Noise Game

For at least 3 players - 1 person is the umpire or judge. The rest are silly noise competitors.

The aim of the game is to find the Silly Noise Champion.

There are ten rounds in every game.

To play, the umpire or judge announces the start of each round. Preferred way of doing this is to sue a boxing match style, eg: "Ding! Ding! Rooooooouuuuund Onnnnnne!" etc.

Each competitor makes the sillliest noise that they can, one after another.

The judge or umpire announces whose noise in that round was the silliest. That player receives a point.

Repeat until ten rounds have been completed, keeping score for each player.

The overall Silly Noise Champion is the player with the highest number of points at the end of ten rounds.

[A tie-break, winner-takes-all round may be played between any players who have the same number of points at the end of ten rounds.]

This game rocks for long car journeys. But I believe it may have great potential, if played secretly, for really boring meetings too.

Big shout going out

There are loads and loads of shit things that I could write about at the moment. But where's the fun in that?

So, instead, a quick post to welcome the new born son of Mrs & Mr L to the world. One of his middle names is Darwin. How cool is that? I'm going to use it as his de facto first name from now on ;-)

Mrs & Mr L did not have a straightforward path to parenthood. They first started planning junior when my own daughter was just a wee one. She's seven now. So, it's a double joy that Darwin L has joined the thronging populace of our gorgeous planet.

I wish love, happiness and many, many years of sleep-filled nights to all three of them.

X

Nerds are the new cool

I listened with some glee today to a report on Radio 4's You And Yours show about the changes that are currently happening in the magazine market. (It's half term and I've taken some time off work for childcare purposes - this means I get to hang about at home and do loads of housework and remind myself of how bored shitless I would be if I didn't got out to work. It also means I get to have a big glass of cold white wine at lunch time - well, it is the holidays - and listen to Radio 4 shows.) apparently the sales of some of my favourite periodicals such as Heat, Grazia, Loaded and Maxim are "falling off a cliff" (my new favourite marketing term du jour). Hooray! (Sorry if anyone reading this works there - or knows someone that does - but I truly believe that the world would be a much, much better place if mags like this didn't exist. That doesn't mean I'm wishing you out of a job. Well, actually, it does. Sorry.)

You may suppose that this is just another symptom of the GFC (my new fave abbreviation - courtesy of Mr Righetti - I like it because if makes the Global Financial Crisis sound more like the Big Friendly Giant. If only eh?) and in part you'd be right. But it's also the result of an increasing variation and specialisation in our magazine reading habits. It would seem that, increasingly, we don't want to be reading about "lifestyle!" or "fashion!" or "high street honeys!" - instead we are seeking more edifying topics for our reading pleasure. We want to know about Sheds and Bikes and Building and Designing Our Own Houses and Allotments, and Knitting.

Could it be that we no longer want a bunch of over-worked and creatively desperate journalists and editors in London to tell us what to look like, think, eat, wear? Is the pull of (Photoshopped) celebrity cellulite weakening? Fuck I hope so.

I love the idea that we're starting to embrace our inner nerd. I've been pondering all day what my nerd specialism would be . . . and I'm still not sure. I feel slightly inadequate that I haven't got a secret passion that I have a need to know EVERYTHING THERE IS TO KNOW about. but when I work out what it is, the first thing I'm going to do is find the magazine that will tell me and take out a subscription.

UPDATE: I've worked it out. I think I want to get into fishing. And I think this is my magazine.

So tell me dear reader: what's yours?