tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46540814515353411752009-12-08T18:18:36.144ZOn an occasional basis, politics, football, family, work and slaying Hrothgar's heroes.Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.comBlogger299125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-81494087848681615232009-01-01T23:11:00.003Z2009-01-01T23:14:40.411Z

.... seasons greeting and best wishes for the new year for anyone passing this way.That said I don't really hold much store by the whole 'New Year' concept as my post of last year made clear but a little general good cheer can't do anyone any harm at the moment.G

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-79601064517490292952008-12-21T00:24:00.003Z2008-12-21T00:31:17.711Z

I’m a bit annoyed. I do spend quite a bit of time reading blogs. Lots of them are political ones and are pretty well known. Mike Smithson’s Political Betting is probably one of the best attracting comment contributors from all over the political spectrum. I do rather enjoy Guido and Iain Dale amongst quite a few others too. The main posts are always pretty good but as ever the comments

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-79250870952034687202008-12-18T23:31:00.000Z2008-12-18T23:54:07.286Z

One little vignette for the UK tax payers amongst you.Along side buying goods and services for the NHS Acute trust for whom I work, my department (or to be a little less self aggrandizing the department of which I am a part) also provides a similar service for our County's Primary Care Trust. The organisation responsible for the provision of first stop health services (like GP surgeries and

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-78011576524575176932008-12-17T22:40:00.001Z2008-12-17T23:06:17.115Z

Following on from the last cryptic post. I had this idea about adopting the personna of a character in the widely loved childrens television programme 'In the Night Garden'.Or from a parents perspective a programme widely loved by children if not themselves. Actually I'm rather fond of it to be honest although I know many peers whom it drives to distraction.It's a programme lots of other

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-25196134375755748402008-12-14T00:34:00.000Z2008-12-14T00:37:00.527Z

... as starting a completely different blog with a different persona as a short term experiment. The bane of Dane will be back.

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-85053698604046642702008-11-28T21:49:00.000Z2008-11-28T22:02:06.798Z

Back to the musical stuff. I suspect that this, along with the science posts, was the one regular feature i was running prior to the hiatus that generated a degree of interest out there.In the last post I ended up in Prussia so I thought I would travel south to its contemporary, Imperial Austria and the march conducted by Strauss (Snr) in tribute to the Hero of the Battle of Novara Joseph

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-45919904026574999302008-11-25T22:00:00.000Z2008-11-25T22:51:11.149Z

Thank you all for your kind comments in reply to my previous post. Mutley wondered whether I had been anywhere and actually no. Life had just carried on as normal just minus a few hours hunched in front of a monitor hoping that the muse of the blog would touch me with a piece of inspiration.I have spent quite a bit of my time off blogging doing quite a bit of reading. Just revisiting a few of

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-55828706254004538302008-11-22T00:34:00.000Z2008-11-22T01:05:15.298Z

I thought I had decided to give up this blogging lark. No bridges irreparably burnt of course but the whole thing had really become a bit of a burden. But I haven't really spent much less time closeted away on the computer since my 'departure', still been lurking here and there on the odd occasion and somehow feeling that this time spent had less of a reward, less interactivity and

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-47280668255715674162008-08-08T21:30:00.000+01:002008-08-08T22:05:10.467+01:00

As you may have noticed I haven't posted for ages. Well by my standards for ages anyway.I have often considered having a proper break from Blogging but have inevitably drifted back after a few days having stated my intention not to.Of course I know it's considered etiquette to announce the fact you intend stepping back for a while. I had intended on doing so and for a few nights after the last

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-46864863921730259892008-07-20T23:11:00.000+01:002008-07-20T23:21:52.750+01:00

I’m must admit I’m not really looking forward to going to work tomorrow as I will have to take part in my least favourite activity possible. Namely sitting as a member on an interview panel.Granted it’s probably a significantly better position to be in than being the interviewee but I really don’t like doing these at all. I get really nervous about the whole thing. Of course I and the fellow

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-27131171073062414002008-07-18T21:25:00.000+01:002008-07-18T21:44:54.121+01:00

It's been a bit of a slow blogging week this week. But I wouldn't want to miss doing one of my now established Friday night musical slots. Especially as tonight marks the start of this country's (if not the world's) premier musical festivals 'the Proms'.Apparently tonights composer will feature significantly in this years Proms programme and having noted over the last few weeks that I wanted to

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-32914377685043516662008-07-15T22:41:00.000+01:002008-07-15T22:45:01.333+01:00

This is a rather parochial post and is in response to a couple of the comments left on the previous one asking what video game could drag me away from the unforgiving mistress that is blogging. I’m quite a serious gamer. No actually that’s not true as this could be taken as implying that I’m any good at games. I tend to like quite serious games. Strategy games, sports games (cricket / motor

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-7318498148757519602008-07-14T22:31:00.000+01:002008-07-14T22:45:10.860+01:00

I'm currently in the middle of a game playing session hence the lack of posts for the last few days.I may discuss the outcome of this later. If in the meantime your stuck for a good read... well actually if you came here deliberately a good read may not have been your primary objective....you could do worse than check out the latest Blogpower Roundup prepared by the newest addition to our number

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-71490808852612729222008-07-11T23:01:00.000+01:002008-07-11T23:27:55.536+01:00

I was going to come back to England this week but with all this talk of bear markets I thought I would do a Russian detour instead.Again finding a decent recording on You Tube proved to be a little problematic. In the end though I found a recording of this piece (the prelude in C# minor) played by the man himself. A little on the crackly side but with so many interpretations available it's

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-3417688249313457362008-07-09T21:43:00.000+01:002008-07-09T22:08:28.435+01:00

Our Hospital’s intranet site is not, as I’m sure you can imagine, the most exciting read known to mankind. A few stats, Departmental Pages (the Purchasing one is OK as for reasons that allude me they let me author that one) messages from on high when the CEO exhorts us to redouble our efforts and details on the’ diversity’ of our workforce. It’s probably pretty similar to the internet and

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-65560620787250380492008-07-07T22:48:00.000+01:002008-07-07T22:51:52.661+01:00

With some help from Science Daily. An interesting piece of research by staff at the Vanderbilt University in Nashville has identified that the use of your imagination and mental imagery may actually influence how you see the world. Joel Pearson a research associate at the University’s Psychology Department explains: "We found that mental imagery leads to a short-term memory trace that can

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-38595019194660627902008-07-05T23:47:00.001+01:002008-07-06T00:43:58.227+01:00

I wasn’t planning on posting anything tonight but if it is true that James had closed his blog then it’s a sad day indeed. James has always been a friend of this blog (as indeed has Crushed) and his visits and comments have been regular and welcome. I think that this will be true for very many fellow bloggers. The appearance of the Higham avatar seems to be pretty ubiquitous on ‘

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-2471224479925455922008-07-04T00:02:00.000+01:002008-07-04T00:09:13.476+01:00

After last weeks posting of the Danse Macabre by Saint-Saens I had intended tactically withdrawing from France (having covered several French composers in a row) back across the channel to the more homespun delights of either Elgar or Vaughan Williams. Naturally I intended returning to the continent at the earliest opportunity. All very 1940 I know. However in the comments on last weeks

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-57272355939414211622008-07-03T22:32:00.000+01:002008-07-03T22:35:14.928+01:00

Via Science Daily. Another corking picture taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. I don’t think it could ever be possible to anything less than amazed by these. This time it is a very thin section of a supernova remnant caused by a stellar explosion that occurred more than 1,000 years ago. In May 1006 observers from Africa to Europe to the Far East witnessed and recorded the arrival of light

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-76326467633796830342008-07-02T21:44:00.001+01:002008-07-03T00:19:01.912+01:00

After the rather unexpected turn of events back in May which resulted in my elevation / election to our local Scout Group's Executive Committee I attended the my first committee meeting last night.I must admit I was ever so slightly apprehensive beforehand and indeed during the meeting.Normally I tend to pitch into group conversations without reservation and spray comments, constructive or not,

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-82779507433996544612008-06-30T23:39:00.002+01:002008-06-30T23:53:13.890+01:00

I’m not really much of an expert on Art and Music. I know about some works and can just about do enough A Level style ‘Comparing and Contrasting’ to sneak a pass as a ‘Foundation Level dilettante’.Nevertheless my critical antennae were set a twitching by the latest work unveiled by 'Installation Artist' Martin Creed in the neoclassical sculpture galleries of Tate Britain. ‘Work 850’ is an

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-65978792135367535332008-06-27T22:46:00.000+01:002008-06-27T23:03:31.668+01:00

I know, another rather obvious 'pop' classical piece. But again another favourite as a kiddie and what a corker!I appreciate that this is two French composers in a row having done Debussy last week.I'll toddle off somewhere else next week.But until then...enjoy

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-8266445371779931422008-06-26T22:28:00.000+01:002008-06-26T22:30:25.727+01:00

Lode star provided by Science Daily A couple of days ago I read about an interesting hypothesis tying together astronomy, legend and the dating of the Homeric tales of the Trojan War. "Poor men, what terror is this that overwhelms you so? Night shrouds your heads, your faces, down to your knees, cries of mourning are bursting into fire, cheeks rivering tears, the walls and the handsome

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-78882508850426613072008-06-23T23:35:00.001+01:002008-06-23T23:50:52.337+01:00

Caption – I want my Sports Day!! It’s not often that our sleepy little coastal part of Sussex gets into the National News. It’s even more of a surprise when it’s your eldest child’s Infants / Primary school that is making the headlines. But towards the end of last week this was indeed the case as the Mirror, the Daily Mail and more reputable newspapers like the Times carried the

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4654081451535341175.post-70884346520119418542008-06-20T22:58:00.000+01:002008-06-20T23:30:12.996+01:00

Where to tonight?I think one of the things that most struck me when I first met Mrs. G was her ability to adeptly bash out the odd tune or two on the old pianoforte. Indeed she had attained a pretty stratospheric Royal School of Music Grade. All of which was rather impressive for a 'playing by the numbers' rock bassist / guitarist type like me.One of the first pieces that she played for me was

Grendelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517877929080302948noreply@blogger.com7