Thursday 9 May 2013

I think I've found Swanhilde

Been thinking a lot about the Coppélia story recently.

I think I've just found Swanhilde (let's call her Coppélia's nemesis).




Bartlett beautiful Beethoven

The proms are coming.

And with them the Royal Albert Hall is beginning to bubble with Bach.

In serioousness, I was looking for classical music to settle my mind after a stay in hospital.

Affordable morning

What I found was a coffee morning with Martin James Bartlett.

For the modest sum of £11 his piano peformance, coffee and a pastry were delivered.

Well I say delivered, thanks to a bad night I only just made it in time for the music, so no coffee or pastry for me or my far more punctual friend (bargain anyway).

Brimming with Bartlett

I can only applaud the performance, musically I can describe it only as flawless.

And this is coming from a girl lacking good sleep and the presence of mind of turning up on time; normally my forte.

All of the chosen pieces were brilliant and, to my grade four ears, sounded technically difficult.

A word of warning

This young man is a multi-instrumentalist and young, which means he has perhaps a penchant for extra physical flourishes.

But I refer you to my relative amateurness musically.

Last words: Bartlett, beautiful.

Tuesday 7 May 2013

A very hyperactive dog

I'm not great when it comes to tracking down my keys.

I'm great if I've got systems and things are in an ordered phase.

But if things go a bit haywire then keeping my mind on where my keys have been last placed gets more taxing.

Adult advice

As a result, my mum decided it would be good to get me a dog shaped electrical device that would bleep at me when I whistled for it.

Sounds great doesn't it?

Your own plastic dog shaped friend to alert you like a sheep dog to your lost item.

However, it didn't work out that way.

Testing technology

This dog device appears to have a mind of its own.

Instead of reponding to a whistle, it seemingly responds to the slightest of stimulus, but when you actually start whistling or shouting at it, not a peep.

In other words it manages to be really irritating, constantly beeping and completely fails in its task of identifying your keys when you are actually looking for them.

Bad outcomes

The constant bleeping actually led me to hide said dog and keys under a cushion to shut it up.

Result, I walked out without the keys and had to make a longer journey to unlocking my front door than should be necessary.

In other words the key finder made me forget the sodding things.

Gadget fail

Between this and the mice deterent I am not feeling to inspired by 'helpful' technology.

Any thoughts on what I should do with this useless piece of plastic would be happily received.