“Immortality is to live your life doing good things, and leaving your mark behind.” - Brandon Lee Coming back to the New What's Going On blog this week. I have gone into the woodwork the last few weeks as there have been many things happening to me and around me: Illnesses, a death, some friends leaving Australia, and I have been busy preparing for a couple of art exhibitions that I had committed to some months earlier. I’m sharing a French song I’ve written with you today. I’ll give you the lyrics and the translation if your French is a little rusty. This song and all my music you can find in my “Otidorchestre” channel or listen to it on YouTube, Spotify, Amazon, Deezer, Flo, Pandora, and other music sharing sites. La Musique de Ta Pensée « De tous les chiffres de l'alphabet, C’est le cramoisi que j'adore… », dit-elle ; Et je la regardai, déconcerté, Amusé aussi par sa propension à colorer Jusqu’au plus terne des sujets. « La mer, elle vole si bien, chassant les rochers Tandis qu'ils s'élèvent vers le fond… » Je lui ai souri, me prélavant dans le soleil De ses hyperboles, m'approchant au plus près de son étoile En ce court instant d'un périhélie hyperbolique. « De ton toucher, j'aime la musique et le miel, »
Murmura-t-elle, sous un souffle de ciel ; Et j'ai chanté l'onde de ma main, trace de soie, Sillon de sucre où mon âme se noie. « Mes pensées secrètes vivent dans un tiroir fermé à clé dans mon ventre… » J'acquiesçai, en caressant son nombril, Voulant ouvrir ses cachettes les plus intimes Pour m'y perdre tout entier. « J'apprécie l'honnêteté des pégases Qui, en période de mue, avouent ne plus savoir voler… » Remarqua-t-elle pensivement, caressant mon omoplate, Et à cet instant, je sus... oui, je le sus pertinemment... « De ton toucher, j'aime la musique et le miel, » Murmura-t-elle, sous un souffle de ciel ; Et j'ai chanté l'onde de ma main, trace de soie, Sillon de sucre où mon âme se noie. Alors que je me préparais à un aphélie perpétuel, Que je l'avais perdue, à jamais... Dernière lettre muette d'un alphabet désormais sans chiffres.
The Music of Your Thought “Of all the numbers of the alphabet I adore crimson…”, she said; And I looked at her bemused, Amused too, by her propensity to add colour To even the dullest topic. “The sea, she flies so well, chasing rocks As they rise up to the bottom…” I smiled at her, basking in the sunshine Of her hyperboles, approaching nearest to her star In that single moment of a hyperbolic perihelion. Of all the music of your touch, I love sweetness…”, she added; And I sang with my hand, Leaving a trace of honey, treacly, sticky, On her smooth skin. “My secret thoughts live in a locked drawer
In my belly…” I nodded, as I caressed her navel, Wanting to open up her innermost Secret hiding places to lose myself into. “I appreciate the honesty of pegasi Who in their moulting season admit they cannot fly…” She pensively remarked, stroking my shoulder blade, And at that moment I knew, As I prepared for a perpetual aphelion, That I had lost her, evermore.
“When one with honeyed words but evil mind Persuades the mob, great woes befall the state.” ― Euripides, ‘Orestes’
Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.
There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.
Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.
Mount Olympus (Greek: Όλυμπος, romanized: Ólympos,) is an extensive massif near the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea, located on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, between the regional units of Larissa and Pieria, about 80 km southwest from Thessaloniki. Mount Olympus has 52 peaks and deep gorges. The highest peak, Mytikas (Μύτικας Mýtikas), meaning "nose", rises to 2,917.727 metres and is the highest peak in Greece, and one of the highest peaks in Europe in terms of topographic prominence.
In Greek mythology, Olympus is the home of the Greek gods, on Mytikas peak. The mountain has exceptional biodiversity and rich flora. It has been a National Park, the first in Greece, since 1938. It is also a World Biosphere Reserve. Olympus remains the most popular hiking summit in Greece, as well as one of the most popular in Europe. Organised mountain refuges and various mountaineering and climbing routes are available. The usual starting point is the town of Litochoro which lies in the eastern foothills of the mountain, some 100 km from Thessaloniki.
Taking the opportunity today to direct your attention to the Greek entry for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. It is sung by Klavdia and is called “Asteromáta” (Starry-eyed one). It’s a beautiful song and Klavdia has a rich, expressive and lucid voice. The song is about loss - loss of loved ones, loss of one’s homeland and loss of all things that one holds dear.
“Don’t send me flowers when I’m dead. If you like me, send them while I’m alive.” - Brian Clough All Souls Day on November 2nd is a holy day set aside for honouring the dead. The day is primarily celebrated in the Catholic Church, but it is also celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox Church and a few other denominations of Christianity. The Anglican Church is the largest Protestant Church to celebrate the holy day. Most protestant denominations do not recognise the holiday and disagree with the theology behind it. Poets United this week celebrates All Souls Day and invites participants to write a poem on ways of honouring the dead and commemorating a soul’s passing. Here is my contribution.
The Liturgy for the Dead
The heady smell of burning incense
And the drone of the priest’s voice
Reciting the liturgy for the dead.
The chanting of the ancient psalms
And the sobs of the family and friends
Under flickering candlelight.
The cheerless black garments
And the long mauve ribbons
Bedecking glittering icons.
The open coffin on the bier
And the corpse looking like waxwork,
No longer the person we knew and loved.
May he rest in peace, may his soul find repose,
May his memory be everlasting,
May his life have made difference.
Brief is our life like a burning candle,
Our youth as fleeting as a blooming rose
And love as transient as a butterfly.
All in vain, and vanity of vanities,
Our existence is over in the blink of an eye;
We forget while we live that our shrouds have no pockets.
Come all and pay your last respects
To the dear departed, for he will be a long time dead
And you will join him before you know it.
Let us celebrate on this day of his death
For our time in the sun is short
And like a dream life’s pleasures are over before we know it.
Here is the first part of the Greek Orthodox Liturgy for the Dead chanted by Theodore Vassilikos and his choir.
“The streets of Prague were a fantasia scarcely touched by the twenty-first century – or the twentieth or nineteenth, for that matter. It was a city of alchemists and dreamers, its medieval cobbles once trod by golems, mystics, invading armies. Tall houses glowed goldenrod and carmine and eggshell blue, embellished with Rococo plasterwork and capped in roofs of uniform red. Baroque cupolas were the soft green of antique copper, and Gothic steeples stood ready to impale fallen angels.” - Laini Taylor Ludvík Kuba (April 16, 1863 in Poděbrady, Bohemia – November 30, 1956 in Prague) was a Czech landscape painter, musician, writer, and a professor in the Academy of Fine Arts. He was a representative of late Impressionism, but was also very interested in folk culture of the Balkans, collecting folksongs, folk tales, customs and cultural heritage. Kuba was the second of eleven children of Ludvík Luba Sr, a locksmith, and his wife Anna, née Mikšovský. Ever since his youth the young Ludvík showed artistic leanings and of his siblings, only his brother Charles shared this, later becoming a blacksmith specialising in decorative ironwork. Apart from drawing Kuba had talent in music, gradually learning to play the violin, piano, organ and other musical instruments. From 1873 he attended primary school in Podebrady. In the years 1877 - 1879 he studied at the Prague Organ School at Francis Zdenek Skuherského. He then undertook further studies at the pedagogical institute in Kutna Hora, the director of which at that time was Gustav Adolf Lindner. There, he often painted parts of the historic city and its surroundings. At the same time he began to study Slavic languages and was interested in ethnographic study. After graduating in 1883 he worked for two years as an assistant teacher and also intensively worked on the first volume of the collection “Slavonic Peoples in their Songs”, which came out in 1884. In the same year he decided to leave his teaching career and pursue a profession as an ethnographer and writer. He undertook frequent study trips to Lausitz, Halič, Ukraine and Russia. Most often, however, he visited the Balkans, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina. From 1888 he decided to continue his painting education, and at Karl Liebscher’s recommendation, he enrolled in 1891 in the Prague Academy of Painting. In 1893 he went to Paris, where he studied painting at the private Académie Julian. This trip was important to as it was there he met his compatriot Olga Joujovou, who in 1895 became his wife. Soon after the wedding, the couple went to Mostar where Kuba wanted to paint a cycle of Slav traditional life. But this failed to be completed because it seemed to him that he was not sufficiently in control of the technique of oil painting. He decided to study painting further, this time in Munich, with Slovenian painter Anton Ažbeho. Kuba lived in Vienna between 1904 and 1910, and then, before returning to his homeland, he undertook a three-month trip to Italy, where he visited major art centres, Venice, Florence, Rome and Naples. From 1911 he settled in Prague. After some disagreements with the Artistic Association Mánes he mainly focused on ethnographic activities, for which he received over the years a number of awards at home and abroad. He undertook a study tour and worked on compiling collections of Slavic Folksong. In 1921 he traveled regularly with his family to Březnice Pribram, where the parents of his wife had their house. Here he painted genre pictures of the town and surrounding area. From there he also went on trips to paint landscapes in South Bohemia. In 1937 he participated as a member of an official delegation in an exhibition of Czechoslovak art in Moscow. During his long life he painted prolifically and almost until the end of his life organised exhibitions of his paintings. He collected over 4,000 folk songs and published widely on ethnographic and folk musical matters. He died in Prague on 30 November 1956 at the age of 93 years. The urn with his ashes was in possession of his only son, Louis Maria Cuba until 1992, when it was deposited in the Urn Grove in Kluk (Poděbrady). The painting above is “Square in Pardubice”, painted in 1911. This was when the artist had come back to Prague after his further studies in Vienna and this is a confident, freely executed work, capturing the vivid sunlight and bold triangular shadowy area on the left, which nevertheless highlights the warmly glowing ornate building façades.
“It is
impossible to imagine a more complete fusion with nature than that of the
Gypsy.” - Franz Liszt We watched an
excellent film at the weekend. It was Tony Gatlif’s 1993 documentary “LatchoDrom”.
This is the second in a trilogy that examines the life and culture of the Roma
people. The Romani (also spelled Romany) are a traditionally itinerant ethnic
group living mostly in Europe and the Americas, who originate from the
northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent, specifically from Northern
India, presumably from the northwestern Indian states Rajasthan and Punjab. The Romani are
widely known among English-speaking people by the exonym “Gypsies”. However,
according to many Romani people and academics who study them, the word has been
tainted by its use as a racial slur and a pejorative connoting illegality and
irregularity. Other exonyms are Ashkali and Sinti. Romani are
dispersed, with their concentrated populations in Europe (especially Central,
Eastern and Southern Europe) including Turkey, Spain and Southern France. They
originated in Northern India and arrived in Mid-West Asia, then Europe, around
1,000 years ago, either separating from the Dom people or, at least, having a
similar history; the ancestors of both the Romani and the Dom left North India
sometime between the sixth and eleventh century. Since the nineteenth century,
some Romani have also migrated to the Americas. There are an estimated one
million Roma in the United States; and 800,000 in Brazil, most of whose
ancestors emigrated in the nineteenth century from eastern Europe. Brazil also
includes some Romani descended from people deported by the government of
Portugal during the Inquisition in the colonial era. In migrations since the
late nineteenth century, Romani have also moved to other countries in South
America and to Canada. The Romani
language is divided into several dialects, which add up to an estimated number
of speakers larger than two million. The total number of Romani people is at
least twice as large (several times as large according to high estimates). Many
Romani are native speakers of the language current in their country of
residence, or of mixed languages combining the two; those varieties are sometimes
called Para-Romani. This film is an
amazing celebration of Roma music, explored through travel along the migration
route from India to Spain. The music and dance of the Roma is the common thread
that binds them all, but it is interesting to also note the differences in the
various countries they have settled in and the various local influences they
have absorbed. It is a touching
film, very sad in parts while full of joie de vivre and unbridled passion in
others. The music is quite amazing and varied, ranging from the flamenco music
of the Spanish Gypsies, to the sweetly melancholy music of the Central European
Gypsies – and everything in between! If you like music, this film is a treat.
If you are interested in world culture and folklore this is the film for you.
And I am sure that some people who watch this and have no special interest in
either gypsy music or culture will enjoy it because of its sheer humanity.
“The Sophists’
paradoxical talk pieces and their public debates were entertainment in 5th
century Greece. And in that world, Socrates was an entertainer.” - David Antin I was looking
through my archive of digital photos at the weekend and came across some of
Pireás (Peiraieus for the classically minded) from several years ago when we
had visited Greece. Pireás is the port of Athens, 12 kilometres southwest from the
centre of Athens, and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf. It has a
population of just under 200,000 people and is a lively, colourful, beautiful
municipality. The photos brought back some fond memories and a sense of
wanderlust and nostalgia. It has been some years since I have travelled to
Greece and I am certainly missing visiting the country of my birth. Most people
would be familiar with Pireás from the 1960 Jules Dassin movie “Never on Sunday”,
starring Melina Mercouri, Jules Dassin, Giorgos Foundas, Titos Vandis and Despo
Diamantidou. This was a hit movie worldwide and established Melina Mercouri (1920–1994)
as a screen legend, but also typecast her a little as an “independent woman of
easy morals”… Mercouri the now
legendary Greek actress plays Illia, one of the good-time girls of the port of
Pireás. Every day, Illia swims at the pier, entertaining the dockhands and
attracting business. On Sundays she never works and has an open house with
food, drink and song for all her friends. Homer Thrace (Dassin), an amateur philosopher
from Middletown, Connecticut, arrives in Pireás to investigate why Greece has
fallen from her ancient greatness. He meets Illia and immediately decides she
is a symbol of that fall, so he sets out to study the reasons behind Illia’s
decline and to elevate her to her ancient forebears’ greatness. If he can
achieve this, he thinks, Greece can do the same and achieve another period of
greatness. Unbeknownst to Illia, he gets the money for the books and all else
he gives her from Mr. No Face (Alexis Solomos), the local vice boss who wants
Illia retired because her independence gives other whores ideas. Whose spirit will
prevail? Homer’s classical ideal or Illia’s earthy and hedonistic reality? The film
constitutes a variation of the Pygmalion plus “hooker with a heart of gold”
story. The viewer is gently submerged into Greek culture of the 1960s,
including dance, music, and language (through the use of subtitles). The
signature song and the bouzouki theme of the movie became hits of the 1960s and
brought the composer, Manos Hadjidakis, an Academy Award. It won the Academy
Award for Best Song (Manos Hadjidakis for “Never on Sunday”). It was nominated
for the Academy Awards for, respectively, Best Actress in a Leading Role
(Melina Mercouri), Best Costume Design, Black-and-White, Best Director (Jules
Dassin) and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay as Written Directly for the
Screen (Dassin). Mercouri won the award for Best Actress at the 1960 Cannes
Film Festival for her role in this movie. Having seen this
movie again recently, I was amazed at how much Greece has changed since 1960
when the movie was released. Even though I left Greece with my family in 1970,
my memories of the place then are vivid and I can say that looking at the film
I can recall much of what is depicted as what I left behind when we emigrated.
Comparing that to what I saw the last we visited some years ago and what I see
now on cable TV, it is definitely chalk and cheese. Some things have changed
for the better, but unfortunately much more has changed for the worse. Financial
woes notwithstanding, Greece has become less Greek and more foreign –
“cosmopolitan” carries a positive meaning (and I would argue that Athens at the
very least was very cosmopolitan in the 1970s when we left). I think Greece has
become “foreign” in the sense of “globalised”, with every negative aspect of
the word “globalisation” you can think of. Watching the
film made me nostalgic for the Greece of my childhood. A place where it was
safe to walk the streets at all hours of the night, where neighbours knew one
another and cared for each other, where one had many friends, where one could
enjoy life while having little, where one’s worldly possessions may have been
few, but were certainly of good quality and made locally by craftsmen who had
learned their craft from their father or grandfather. Where food was fresh and
tasted wonderful because it was brought to the market by the growers
themselves, the very morning they had harvested it. A place where national
pride was stronger than pressures of global capitalism, and the financial
aspirations of the majority of the population were modest. A place where
happiness was more widespread… Much is made in
the film of Illia’s sense of morality, which clashes with Homer’s ideal of
morality and ethics. In that sense, I can recall my own family’s sense of
pride, morality and “filótimo” (sense of honour and social justice). Some things
then were never even considered, much less done, because of these cultural and
ethical guidelines dictated by “filótimo”. And somehow it was a better, happier
society because of that. I think that this Greek “filótimo” is one of the
things that is dying a slow and painful death in Greece now, and the country is
in a poorer state because of this – economic crisis or not…
"Custom
will reconcile people to any atrocity." George Bernard Shaw Mikis
Theodorakis, Greek composer, was born on this day in 1925.He is the composer that people the world over
equate most with modern popular Greek music. His well-known and loved "Zorba’s
Dance" and other popular Greek music and songs have captured the Greek character
so well in many of its forms and variations. However, it is relatively unknown that Theodorakis has also composed
major works in the Western “classical” tradition.One such of his works that I particularly
like is his "Symphony No 3", especially the 3rd movement, titled Byzantine Hymns
for Petro of EPON.Another major work is
his "Canto General", a choral work based on extracts from the monumental poetic
work of the same name by Pablo Neruda. The song cycle "The Ballad of Mauthausen" on lyrics by Iacovos Campanellis
is also a favourite of mine, especially the lovely first piece, the “Song of
Songs”.These four songs express the
anguish and horror of the Nazi Concentration camps but also the inexhaustible
hope and universal humanity of the prisoners, even as they march into the gas
chambers. Theodorakis’
music reaches its elegiac best when the theme is a melancholic one. The music
soars and tugs at our heart and soul, its sweetness drawing from us the deepest
emotion. As Percy Bysshe Shelley remarks: “Our sweetest songs are those that
tell of saddest thoughts.” Politically, Theodorakis
identified with the left because of the long time connection with the Communist
Party of Greece. He was MP with the KKE from 1981 to 1990. Nevertheless, in
1989 he ran as an independent candidate within the centre-right New Democracy
party in order for the country to come out of the political crisis that had
been created due to the numerous scandals of the government of Andreas
Papandreou and helped to establish a large coalition between conservatives,
socialists and leftists. In 1990 he was elected to the parliament (as in 1964
and 1981), became a government minister under Constantine Mitsotakis, and
fought against drugs and terrorism and for culture, education and better
relations between Greece and Turkey. He continues to speak out in favour of
left-liberal causes, Greek-Turkish-Cypriot relations, and against the War in
Iraq. He has consistently opposed oppressive regimes and was a key voice
against the Greek junta 1967-1974, which imprisoned him. Here is Maria
Farandouri, one of the most celebrated interpreters of Theodorakis’ songs,
singing the Ballad of Mauthausen song cycle:
“Nostalgia is
like a grammar lesson: you find the present tense, but the past perfect.” -
Owens Lee Pomeroy Gilbert Bécaud -
the legendary “Mr 100,000 volts” of the French music world - rose to fame in
the 1950s and enjoyed a successful career spanning more than 40 years before he
died in December 2001. One of the most popular music French stars of all time,
Bécaud performed at the famous Olympia music hall in Paris 33 times, a record!
Gilbert Bécaud,
was born François Silly in Toulon, a lively port on the Mediterranean coast on
24 October 1927. François had a relatively happy upbringing, despite the fact
that his father abandoned the family while François was still in early
childhood. Madame Silly’s new partner, Louis Bécaud, raised François, Jean and
Odette as his own children, although he was never able to marry their mother
(her first husband steadfastly refusing to consent to a divorce). From an early
age, François showed an enormous musical talent and he was able to study in the
Nice conservatory until the war put an end to his studies in 1942. During the
war François and his older brother Jean joined the resistance. After the war
the family settled in Paris where François began to work in nightclubs and
wrote songs.
He soon met
Maurice Vidalin and Pierre Delanoë, fellow songwriters and the team wrote many
successful songs well into the ‘50s. He met Edith Piaf, wrote her some songs
and went on to manage Edith. In 1952 François officially adopted his new stage
name, Gilbert Bécaud. It was also around this time that the singer began to
forge his legendary image, sporting the famous spotted tie, which would appear
around his neck at every single concert throughout the rest of his career.
In 1954 Bécaud
was invited to inaugurate the newly refurbished Olympia music hall in Paris and
such was the excitement of the crowd that they began ripping out seats and
destroying L’Olympia’s brand new decor. This kind of behaviour at a concert was
totally out of the ordinary in the 1950’s and the French press had an absolute
field day over the affair. Numerous papers and magazines ran stories on
Bécaud’s explosive concert, dubbing the young singer “Monsieur Dynamite”, “The
Atomic Bomb” and, most famously of all, “Monsieur 100,000 volts”.
In 1961 Bécaud
rocketed to the top of the French charts once again with his enormously
successful hit single “Et Maintenant”. This was written by Pierre Delanoë and
would prove to be one of the most famous songs of Gilbert Bécaud’s entire
career. The song would be covered more than 150 times by a host of French stars
and the English version of “Et maintenant”, entitled “What now my love”, would
go on to become an international hit in its own right.
In 1964 Bécaud
returned to the studio to record a new single entitled "Nathalie".
This single proved phenomenally successful, selling thousands of copies within
months of its release. Indeed, "Nathalie" would go on to become one
of the most famous hits of his entire career. Later that same year Bécaud would
perform "Nathalie" live on stage at the Olympia, during his tenth
concert performance at the legendary Paris music hall. He went on to record
many more hits and remained a successful singer/songwriter until his death in
2001.
It is this
last-mentioned song that I wish to share with you today as I associate it with
some of my earliest childhood memories in Athens. We had the record at home and
I remember hearing it often and being enthused by its poignancy and vibrancy
even at my very tender age.
Nathalie, Gilbert Bécaud
La Place Rouge
était vide
Devant moi
marchait Nathalie
Il avait un joli
nom, mon guide
Nathalie
La Place Rouge
était blanche
La neige faisait
un tapis
Et je suivait
par ce froid dimanche
Nathalie
Elle parlait en
phrases sobres
De la Révolution
d'Octobre
Je pensais déjà
Qu'après le
tombeau de Lénine
On irait au Café
Pouchkine
Boire un
chocolat
La Place Rouge
était vide
Je lui pris son
bras, elle a souri
Elle avait des
cheveux blonds, mon guide
Nathalie,
Nathalie
Dans sa chambre,
a l'université
Une bande
d'étudiants
L'attendait
impatiemment
On a ri, on a
beaucoup parlé
Ils voulaient
tout savoir
Nathalie
traduisait.
Moscou, les
plaines de Krim
Et les
Champs-Elysées
On a tout
mélangé et on a chanté
Et puis, ils ont
débouché
En riant à
l'avance
Du champagne de
France
Et on a dansé
Et quand la
chambre fut vide
Tous les amis étaient
partis
Je suis resté
seul avec mon guide
Nathalie
Plus d'questions
de phrases sobres
Ni d'au
Révolution d'Octobre
On n'en était
plus là
Fini le tombeau
de Lénine
Le chocolat de
chez Pouchkine
C'est, c'était
loin déjà
Que ma vie me
semble vide
Mais je sais
qu'un jour à Paris
C'est moi qui
lui servirai de guide
Nathalie
Nathalie
Nathalie by
Gilbert Bécaud
The Red Square
was empty
In front of me
walked Nathalie;
She had a pretty
name, my guide:
Nathalie.
The Red Square
was white,
The snow made a
carpet.
And I followed,
on this cold Sunday,
Nathalie.
She spoke in
sober sentences
About the
October Revolution.
I thought that
after seeing the tomb of Lenin
We would go to
the Pushkin Café
To drink a hot
chocolate.
The Red Square
was empty
I held her arm,
she smiled
She had fair
hair, my guide, Nathalie,
Nathalie.
In her room, at
the university
A group of
students awaited us impatiently
We laughed, we
spoke much.
They wanted to
know everything,
Nathalie
translated.
Moscow, Kremlin
square,
And the
Champs-Elysées -
We mixed
everything up and we sang…
And then, they
opened,
While laughing,
in anticipation,
A bottle of
French champagne,
And we danced.
And when the
room was empty
When all the
friends had left
I remained alone
with my guide,
Nathalie…
No more
questions, nor sober sentences
About the
October Revolution.
I’m not there
any more.
The tomb of
Lenin is no more,
The chocolate of
the Café Pushkin
Is far away
already.
Now my life
seems empty,
But I know that
one day in Paris
It is I who will
be Nathalie’s guide,
Nathalie…
Nostalgia is a
bitter-sweet emotion and what better accompaniment to it than an old song that
reminds us of those times long ago?
I have been blogging daily on this platform for several years now. It is surprising that I have persisted as the world is changing and "microblogging" is now the norm. I blog to amuse myself, make comment on current affairs, externalise some of my creativity, keep notes on things that interest me, learn something new and to surprise myself with things that I discover about this wonderful, and sometimes crazy, world we live in.
I sometimes get the impression that I am on a soapbox delivering a monologue, so your comments are welcome.
