The debonair Basil Marigold's

While at a half marathon this weekend my youngest child, Joshua (9 months) revealed himself to be a little bit of a ladies man and a cunning one at that. He'd been given a bottle of powerade to play with in his buggy, which he'd happily done so for a while. But this was maybe due to the fact that he hadn't eyed up a future wife. As he waited in the town hall corridor he saw the approach of a rather attractive st johns ambulance girl, probably in her early twenties. As she approached his buggy out flew the powerade bottle onto the floor in front of the st johns ambulance girl. She dutifully bends down and picks it up. Then she passes it back to Joshua talking to him in the process, Joshua, who is now smiling widely at her, as though the act of picking up the bottle means she has now committed to marrying him. He did have good taste though, if he is going to become a mini casanova.

Music has the power to move you, great music has the power to alter your life, change your thoughts, even, arguably become a better person.  To me, life without music is not a life at all. I have been fortunate to have loved so many different bands and hopefully there will be other musicians in the future that may inspire me as much as the ones that have come before them, and they drastically outweigh the musicians of the present.  I categorise bands into two types; Those whose music is timeless and has been created before I was born or I became aware of their talents, such as the great bands of the 60/70's, like Pink Floyd, Like the Beatles. Who, stride colossal like of the musical world. The second category can at times, not equate to those in the first, in terms of talent, but I have developed a more sentimental attachment to them, as I was fortunate enough to have grown with them as their music has grown over the years. Their music has been contemporary to my life and has e

So says the summer, as it packs up the sun in a suitcase and says, 'Bye, Bye' as it takes it leave. Replaced now by a grumpy old autumnal world. Autumn can be quite a glorious time, when, for instance the sky is a wonderful hue of blue and the vegetation is transforming from greens to golds, browns and reds. I am fortunate in that when I leave for work now, if I time it rightly and the sun wants to play, I can glimpse the sunrise when I am heading down the motorway. I am discovering that this is the best way to arrive at work. The only draw back is that once I turn off the motorway I am then directly driving into that very same sunrise, this is neither pleasant nor conducive to being able to see properly where I am going at times.