Life in progress

Monthly Archives: July 2014


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The Trip to Queen and Back

Now that I’ve written the official Queen and Adam Lambert concert review, it’s time to relate the story of my trip.

We arrived in Toronto with about four and a half hours to spare before the show so we decided to do some walking. And some lunch. We chose a nice English pub downtown and sat down to have a beer with our meal. This is only notable because it marked the first time I’ve ever had a beer with my son in a restaurant. But I didn’t feel old AT ALL. I’ll just keep telling myself that.

After lunch we walked until our legs gave out (and no, it wasn’t just me). We sat on a flight of steps in Yonge-Dundas Square for a rest. Whilst there, we watched as a member of the security crew poured a bucket of soapy water on a rectangle of chalk that a group of kids had drawn on the pavement. Then, another employee came along with a broom and mopped it up. Can’t be too careful about that graffiti here in Canada I tell ya.

Of course, that called for a coffee. Since there were no tables available at the first Tim’s we went to, we walked a little more and then stopped to sit beside a fountain. There I took a picture of my traveling companions:

My eldest son Fred and my best friend John

My eldest son Fred and my best friend John

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got to the Air Canada Centre long before the concert started and got to listen to some really annoying people behind us, who complained about everything: their own seats, other people’s seats, the line-ups, when was the concert going to start… I had had a headache all day and these people weren’t helping it to go away. But you know what did make my headache go away? Queen!

I didn’t think about what putting my hands above my head for almost two hours was going to do to my poor shoulder, let alone what singing at the top of my lungs was going to do to my throat. Strangely enough, my shoulder hasn’t felt better since January. Funny what adrenaline can do.

We got back home at 1:00am on the dot and I was still feeling the effects of being tired yesterday. Today I seem to have finally recovered. Not only am I fully awake, but I no longer sound like a teenaged boy whose voice is cracking either.

But you know what? I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.

 


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One-Liner Wednesday – April 13, 2004

“You are the Stars and I am the wanderer who gazes,

yearning to understand what makes you so beautiful.”

~me (part of an old poem)

 

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Anyone who would like to try it out, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday, if you see a ping back from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.

The rules that I’ve made for myself for “One-Liner Wednesday” are as follows:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Make it either funny or inspirational.

Have fun!


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And a Royally Spectacular Time Was Had By All

…and spectacularly happy I am that Queen and Adam Lambert decided to make last night’s final North American concert stop at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre.

As a long-time fan of Queen’s guitarist, Dr. Brian May, I made sure to secure seats at stage left. Not since March 2006 have I seen a more exhilarating show and that was, you guessed it, Queen with Paul Rodgers. Adam Lambert adds a whole set of unique talents to the concert however. His sense of style is so very much like the late, great, Freddie Mercury’s and yet different enough that I didn’t get the impression that he was trying to step into the fondly missed singer’s shoes. Instead he managed to make the show his own, even as he sang the songs faithfully as we all know them so well from hours and hours of listening.

The set list covered many of their most popular tunes, and some of the lesser played favourites. I had the feeling that quite a number of the younger members of the audience (and there were quite a number!) didn’t recognize the older tunes, though that didn’t seem to suppress their enjoyment. Included here were “The Seven Seas of Rhye” and “In The Lap of the Gods…Revisited,” both of which I’m honoured to have heard live. I was thrilled when Brian began to hint that “’39” was coming up as it’s my personal favourite from the album A Night at the Opera.

Dr. May’s guitar solo, as always, was truly amazing. The things that man can do with a guitar are nothing less than astounding. There are few guitarists on this planet who play with such heart and pitch that their music can pierce the soul and bring tears to the listeners’ eyes. Brian May is indeed one of them. And speaking of tears there was, of course, his solo performance of “Love Of My Life.” Enough said.

In the end, the show was made in the performance of the final three songs. “Bohemian Rhapsody” was powerful, and heart-wrenching as well when a video of our beloved Freddie was shown on the big screen, singing and playing the piano. For the encore, the band played, “We Will Rock You” and “We Are The Champions.” Anyone lucky enough to experience these three songs live… To attempt to put it into words: it’s spiritual; like being surrounded by a sense of all-encompassing love in the form of heavenly sound and to know that the very hands which played THAT MUSIC–the songs you’ll always remember where you were and what you were doing the first time you heard them–are standing before you in the same room, is just incredible! There is the a reason Queen are referred to as rock Gods. This is it.

If you ever have a chance to see Queen perform live, do it. No matter what the monetary cost, no matter how far you have to travel. It’s an experience you’ll never forget.


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Queen Day and Goal Met

Just a quick note to say I’m finally off to see Queen and Adam Lambert in Toronto today. Full report tomorrow.

And I reached my Nano Camp goal of 30,000 words! It’s a happy day. 😀

2014-Winner-Square-Button

See you tomorrow!


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Goals for Stream of Consciousness Saturday

I’ve been receiving a lot of positive feedback for SoCS in regards to it not only being fun to participate in, but also for the new connections that are being made between bloggers. However, without advertising it on HarsH ReaLiTy, the word doesn’t seem to be getting out that fast. And after all, the more new bloggers participate, the more new bloggers we have the chance to meet and follow and have follow us.

In light of this fact, I’ve decided to set up some goals:

1. Write a blog post (probably close to or on Friday this week) and ask people to reblog or copy and paste to hopefully encourage each of our “outer circles” to join in.

2. Set up a contest for the design of a new SoCS badge that we can all display on our blogs and/or display in our weekly posts. The winner will of course have their badge on display with their website name on the badge for all to see. Judging will be made public.

3. EVENTUALLY, when and if SoCS gets big enough, set up its own WordPress site and invite other bloggers to come and set up the week’s prompt and watch over the proceedings.

If you can think of ways to promote SoCS, please let me know in the comments.  The more, the merrier!


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Can a Life be made Beautiful?

There are moments out of my ordinary, often boring life when I see it as something beyond what readily meets the eye.

There are days when I feel as though I was meant for more than just this: my life as a single, stay-at-home mother. That I was born to live a life of luxury seems obvious to me, even as I put on one of my two pairs of jeans and one of my four t-shirts every day. My one pair of shoes that I wear for every occasion is all that adorns my front hall closet, and yet I know this is not “it.”

There are minutes, and sometimes hours when everything I see is in a brighter technicolor. Everything I hear is an infinite song. Every taste blooms as though it is the beginning and end of life.

There are times when the energy of the universe surrounds me and I feel one with everything and everyone.

Is this how life can be made beautiful? Is the existence of a beautiful life all in our imaginations? I believe it is.

My life can be made poetic by the creation of a poem. It can be made inspirational by a scenery or by music. It can be anything I want it to be.

My life is beautiful. I make it so.


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Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Anniversary (Question)

According to WordPress, today is the official second anniversary of my blog. It’s the day, two years ago, when I decided to see what WordPress is all about. I wrote one post and promptly forgot about it for the next six months.

So this morning I decided to go back and take a look at it. At this moment it has three “likes” and no comments. But I’m okay with that – it’s nothing to write home about. Hell, it’s nothing to write WordPress about. It’s four sentences of basically question marks. It’s the same first post I see on many blogs, to varying degrees.

But let’s face it – this WordPress thing is a tough thing to get into at the start. None of us really knows what we’re doing, and most of us don’t understand what the follow/like/comment thing is all about. How many people here had no idea that there was such a wonderful community here? Come on, put up your hand if you’re one of us.

Once we’re in, and I mean REALLY in to this mode of communication, it’s astounding what it can do. We meet people with similar tastes, we share invaluable information with one another, and we find a place to sound off, to practice our craft, and to feel a part of something so large!

And it all started somewhere for each of us. When was the last time you read your very first post?

 

This post is part of SoCS: https://lindaghill.wordpress.com/2014/07/25/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-2514/

Click on the link and join in the fun today!


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On the Buses

The people in my town are polite – I’ve written about how dangerously polite they are in the past. But today, on the city bus, I found out how far it really goes.

Take, for instance, the graffiti:
graffiti

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s something a little edgier: It originally said, “All your base are belong to us,” until a handy grammarian came along and corrected it to, “All your bases belong to us.”

graffitinazi

 

 

 

 

I swear it wasn’t me.


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for SoCS July 26/14

Can you believe it?  It’s the last Friday in July already! Whatever Friday it is though, Friday means tomorrow is Stream of Consciousness Saturday. It’s been a while since I completely left the subject or the theme of SoCS up to you, so I figure it’s about time. Without further ado, I give you the prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Saturday’s Stream of Consciousness post is, end your post with a question. Extra points if you fit an exclamation mark somewhere in the body of your post.

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at the prompt page in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Don’t hesitate to join in!

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” or “Begin with the word ‘The’.”

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people will come and read your post! The way to ping back, is to just copy and paste the URL of my post somewhere on your post. Then your URL will show up in my comments, for everyone to see. For example, in your post you can copy and paste the following: This post is part of SoCS: https://lindaghill.wordpress.com/2014/07/25/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-2514/  The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. Have fun!


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#207 – The Nape of Her Husband’s Neck

Want a good laugh? Read this. It’s hilarious. 😀

642 Things

Carol: Oh Andy, how could you do this to me?!

Andy: What are you talking about, darling?  I haven’t done anything!

Carol: Why must you turn this house into a den of lies!  Just confess your wicked ways already!

Andy: Carol, honey.  I’ve done nothing wrong!

Carol: Again with your lies.  I can’t stand it anymore!  I saw the marks on your neck!

Andy: <feels his neck, a shocked look on his face>  It’s…it’s not what it looks like.  Honest, Carol.

Carol: Who was it?  Jessica?  Hannah?  Patricia?  Who stole your heart away from me!

Andy: I…I can’t say.  You don’t want to know the truth.  You just don’t.

Carol: I deserve to know the truth!  After all we’ve been through, I at least get that!

Andy: Yes.  Yes, you’re right.  I can’t hold it back anymore.  It’s just…too hard.  I am seeing someone else.

Carol: I knew it!  Who…

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