Birthdays and Music

Do you ever get to the end of the weekend, and wonder not only where it went, but also what you spent it doing? Last night I sat in bed, wondering exactly that - trying to piece the weekend back together in my head. It was my other half’s birthday on Saturday. After unwrapping presents in the morning we wandered into town for lunch - with the intention of perhaps wandering along the high-street to visit some of the pubs we have never been in. Somehow that changed into eating as fast as possible, having one drink, going home, getting in the car, trying to get a lane at the bowling alley in a nearby town (unsuccessfully), going clothes shopping instead, going food shopping, and then having a birthday dinner at home - oh, and causing more washing up than I’ve seen in years. Yesterday was a little bit more relaxed. My in-laws visited for a meal at the pub. This of course necessitated cleaning the house as one might for a royal visit ahead of their arrival (read: hide anything and everything in cupboards and rooms just out of sight). My brother-in-law gave me a belated Amazon voucher for my birthday earlier in the month - so I scrolled endlessly through books yesterday evening - wondering what I might acquire to read. I know - I have a pile of unread books higher than the Eiffel Tower, but that doesn’t make the possibility of buying another book any less exciting. I’ve still not spent all of the voucher. How do you even choose books with money you didn’t expect to have? A good thing that came out of the shopping trip on Saturday was the opportunity to visit the music store - the one that sells vinyl albums. After much rummaging through boxes of records I found a Bjork album that I played to destruction perhaps 30 years ago. I’m still almost exclusively buying female recording artists, just to bring balance to the rag-tag collection of vinyl albums we have (my other half’s collection is almost entirely male). I almost picked up “Tapestry” by Carole King too. I’m thinking Fiona Apple might join the record collection soon. I had never heard of her until a good friend introduced me a few months ago. I’ve had her playing in the background on Spotify from time to time ever since. Anyway. Time to stop writing words, and start writing code. Again. Let’s see what the week throws at us.