celebrations

hello there


oh, you say. today is indeed, look you see, possibly a strange time to look back at a cause of celebration, but i have just gotten around to it. it's been busy. not that this is much of an excuse, for when it comes to the ways of the world in which one may be busy, who is and who isn't, i suppose.

anyway, yes, after that laborious, contrived and challenging introduction, on to the point. it was recently the circumstance that i - moi - marked another year of being around passing in the milestone sense. how was it all? good. and how have they been, the years, in general? i would so surely argue there has been many more good than there has been bad.

i am indeed blessed enough to be surrounded by people who are so kind as to celebrate special events with me via the conduit of good wishes and gifts. the former i cannot really share with you here, but i suppose i can over on that facebook thing if you elect to connect with me. it is fortunate, however, that the latter allows itself to a more visual representation.

should the above look like they might be an indication of a selection of the gifts which my family, the 75% of my family whom you all tend to like a lot more of than you do like me, lavished upon me, all is well. yes, i know that looks all rather smart in Commodore 64 mode, but a "proper" picture to come along soon.

not that it was just my immediate family who lavished gifts upon me. and not that this has stopped, either, for i am reliably informed that an extra special one is on the way from the mainland. actually, it probably will have arrived by the time this is published, but at time of writing no.


yeah, this blog post is getting a bit confusing with the writing, even by my usual standards. sorry for that, just a confusing day i guess. clouded, somewhat. anyway, let's press on.

indeed yes the above is a celebration of two of the equally fantastic seven 7" singles which were released by the band Frankie Goes To Hollywood; the best there ever was, the best there ever will be. this framed celebration was presented to me by my Uncle, and yes that Uncle, the one that took me to see the band perform their art. it was, of course, presented on a broader scale as an offering on behalf of the entirety of the sensational Harlo gang, and i appreciate it all from all.

when the subject of a birthday comes up it is a natural instinct to consider this a most suitable, indeed agreeable reason to have cake. cake is always a very welcome thing to have, and the thing with it is that when there's a justified reason for having some it means you can eat even more of it than usual to show your passion for celebration.

the most magnificent sponge cake you see above, resplendent with cream and jam as is the English way of doing things, was most kindly and thoughtfully baked for me by Gran. i would like to give you, dear reader, every assurance possible that it tastes absolutely magnificent. William, our youngest, really likes the taste of this cake too. he is, however, quite small and relatively easy to fight off, allowing me to enjoy more of it all the more.

speaking of Gran, it is one of the realities of life that she is no longer able to visit either the nearest HMV or the closest tobacconist as much as she might like to. such things are quite an effort for me, and one must remember that Gran is now precisely twice my age.

with the above being the case i was presented with suitable and indeed sufficient finances to go off and collect some very specific things for my birthday as a gift from Gran. this i most certainly did.

yes, indeed. a rare case of a UK bought packet of my most beloved and so sorely missed Marlboro Red, and the most recently of released of David Bowie compilation CDs.

in respect of the Marlboro, they remain the finest cigarette in the world, and so out of jealousy, spite and malice they are the ones most brutally taxed by the British government and thus most expensive. they are of a cost that, despite being in no distress financially, i could not afford to smoke on a regular purchase basis. the travels of Spiros, and others, around the world to places where they are cheaper is a most wonderful, luxuriant and splendid blessing.

a closer look at the David Bowie set will be here with us below soon, or right now if you like - just scroll down, no one is stopping you. for now, though, a look at them gifts from that 75% in the detail which is decidedly not Commodore 64 mode.

actually i have missed out one or two things here, and i have missed out the boss, brilliant popping candy chocolate bar that Auntie (no, the other one) got me too. hey ho, let's play the hand dealt.

and absolutely yes, that is a plush lush meerkat you see before you. i really do love meerkats, man. here in England they seem to be associated with some sort of adverts. for me, though, i shall always fondly remember going to see them in the parks and zoos of Africa. awesome, beautiful creatures they are. and as with the cake, William has taken something of a shine to this gift for me, but also as earlier he is quite easy to fight off so don't worry.

that is indeed the luxurious 4 disc (1 x Blu Ray, 2 x DVD, 1 CD) box set of the celebrated 1976 film The Man Who Fell To Earth, starring David Bowie and others whose names i failed to catch. a really beautiful box set too, and one that in time i shall no doubt have a closer look at on the pages of this blog.

the novel? the very latest Charlie Parker adventure from John Connolly that exists in a paperback form.as i have mostly enjoyed these novels, in particular the last few, i look forward to starting to read this one quite soon. i have some 50 or so pages of Nomad to go, and that has been one of the best novels which i have read in quite a while.

yes the above is indeed the magnificence of the Frankie Goes To Hollywood celebration presentation in Commodore 64 mode with the scan lines most decidedly on. there would be little more i can add in the way of comment, i just thought it would be smart to include this variation of the image here.

cards? cards. in this day and age it is of course the case that greetings and messages of goodwill are sent digitally if not electronically. that would be because it is cheaper and easier to do so, and there's nothing wrong with that. what would be the point of technology, after all, if we did not use it. also, electronic greetings here in England might well be all stored by the wicked and the evil of Theresa May for who knows what purpose, but at least they don't suffer attempts at being stolen as is the case with the mail.

but still, it is most splendid and wonderful to get things through the post, especially and in particular when they are really awesome and amazing birthday cards.

no, your eyes do not deceive you, young jedi - a significant percentage of the cards received, or at least those that are on display here, are branded with all that Star Wars stuff. well, the odd flippant comment aside from time to time, i have really rather liked all the Star Wars stuff since i first encountered it, what, some 40  years ago. blimey.

on  the one side this post feels as though it is me, me, me, woo hoo, look at me, i had reason to celebrate. on the other, though, this is my blog, kind of, and so what else is it that i would write about, or where else is it that i would put it? hopefully, as my age suggests, this isn't all generation snowflake of me, at the least.

a return to look at that David Bowie Legacy set? sure, and of course an appreciation of the fact that, thankfully, for the time being Marlboro are resisting the legal requirement to change the iconic packaging of their brand. i guess they are waiting until March or May or whenever it is, when it becomes a legal requirement.

i elected not to purchase or otherwise obtain this Legacy set, either in this 1 CD format or the 2 CD one which has also been released, when it came out. the reason for not doing so was that it left the door open for someone to get it for me one day as a gift, if they so wished, and that i had the overwhelming majority of stuff on it quite a few times over.

it is, however, a rather smart set to have. the single edits of songs actually feature, which is nice. rather infamously, the early 90s Singles Collection featured, rather frustratingly, the album version of songs rather than the not available at that time 7" edits. the compilation itself has been rather well thought out and flows really well.

with regards to stuff unheard on this set by me, that would amount to two tracks. that's the "2016 edit" or remix of Life On Mars?, and the "radio edit" of Lazarus. they are very nice indeed to have for the sake of completion in the collection, but neither pose much of a challenge to the original, loved versions.

and that, as they would say, would be that. thank you for indulging me by having a read of this and, should you have sent them on, thank you once again for the good wishes!



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!