Three nice things

[tamaranth]

1. I seem to have lost my joy-in-music. Has anyone seen it? (Possibly connected to viral lurgy and inner-ear issues.) Listened to the Cocteau Twins whilst driving to Tesco, and most pleasant it was: but there's nothing I long to listen to, and I've just realised that I haven't played a CD or switched on the radio (except in Alarm function) since I got back from holiday.

2. I have two resolutions for February, one personal and one global.
2a. Write a flashfic (short story, no editing, sit down and write start to end) every day in February. (I have a list of 29 Notions.)
2b. Buy nothing. I'd add 'superfluous', but I still intend to indulge myself in food and drink and cultural events. What I will not be spending money on is books, music, clothes, shoes, toiletries, cosmetics, or tat. (If I have a sudden urgent need for an item of clothing, Redhill has many charity shops.)

3. Fizz for breakfast! But Marmite with Champagne is not actually very nice. (I bought it for myself. The cats don't have any money.)

Comments

[serennos.livejournal.com]

Can't help with resolutions, but can't stop myself commenting; my god is nothing too commercial for Valentine's day?!?

[camies.livejournal.com]

It wouldn't exist if it wasn't commercial to start with.

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

I presume that you will break the resolution a little if you run out of deodorant - otherwise you won't be so popular at the cultural events!

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

deodorant is just one of the things that I have multiple copies of ... I do have a bit of a tendency to stockpile in the event of a new Ice Age or something!

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Anti-consumer month is a great innovation, and February is quite the best time for it. Good luck! Though on food, drink and cultural events: eating out is a key thing we minimise during our implementation of anti-consumer month.

Love of music: I find that the best thing to reinvigorate my joy in music is *playing* music; and the second best thing is seeing bands live. On playing, it doesn't even have to be very grand. I spent 15 minutes this morning humming one of the Guitar Hero III parts obsessively, and I was paying minute attention to a different guitar part on the radio thinking about how it must be structured and how I'd never noticed before the other day. (the GHIII parts are much more like guitar parts than previously; in some ways this makes them less game-like. So Barracuda, which is driving me mad, has the main thudding guitar line repeated about 27 times.)

And I got to Charing Cross to hear someone busking with something that sounded a bit like a one-reed accordion. As I walked down the tunnel, I wondered if it was a concertina (which is a one-reed accordion) but as there was no bass, and the player was mostly only playing one note at once. So I tentatively concluded it was a rather reedy wind instrument. But there was the odd chord... so what was it? I turned the corner to discover it was a melodica.

Anyway. Music, joy. Surrounds and envelops me. Play some tunes.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

I don't eat out, for the sake of the meal, very often these days: that said, if I'm Up Town all afternoon and evening, I'll have dinner with people rather than grabbing a sandwich.

Have worked out that I can do absolutely no shopping, in one sense, by organising grocery deliveries. Actually this does fit the aim, as it doesn't expose me to temptation: I'll order what I want and need, rather than buying what looks good or is on offer or is shiny.

You may well be right about doing music or seeing it live. I'm going to a concert this evening (Mussorgsky / Beethoven / Sibelius) and hopefully that will wake up music-me. So might a walk with something arresting on the MP3 player, but it's vile out there!

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

We find that delivering groceries saves us money, on the whole, even though we use Ocado. Switching to Cravendale milk (which keeps fresh for a fortnight) and baking our own bread saved us more money because it drastically cut down on the interim trips to the corner shop.

[ms-cataclysm.livejournal.com]

You don't give your cats pocket money ? Shocking :-)

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

I did once, but they blew it on catnip.

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

I have the same problem with music. Improved somewhat when we replaced the tiny little player in the kitchen (yup, I mainly get to listen to music while cooking and cleaning) with something a bit classier. Although I'm sure your equipment is classy already and does not need replacing - especially in February.