How are you today ?

 

DAY FORTY-FOUR: Saturday 13th February  2021:

Am I suffering from mental health issues ?  Probably.  Are you suffering from mental health issues ? I’ll let you answer that yourself.  Is the whole country suffering from mental health issues ?  Of course it is !  What about the whole world ?

Are we living through the final days of mankind ?

SMILE OF THE DAY:  Some days are better, some days are worse. Look for the blessing instead of the curse. Be positive, stay strong, and get enough rest. You can’t do it all but you can do your best.

Yesterday was a bit of a funny day for my writing. I did hit 3,604 words bringing my running total to 323,945 words but many were spent tidying up running text. I went to bed thinking my story THE SECRET DIARY OF AN OLD MAN AGED THIRTEEN AND THREEV QUARTERS would amble along, adding a couple of hundred words each day to be finished some time in the distant future. Ah !

Last night I dreamed the rest of the story, it was a brilliant dream and I can not wait to get started writing the next stage then bringing everything to a cliff hanger end. I am going to publish this finished story on Monday.

THANK YOU to the seventeen people who purchased my books on Amazon.

Yesterday I was working on a quiz for the book WHO NEEDS A PUB TO HAVE A QUIZ which I am planning to publish on Wednesday  1st April. Writing the individual quiz sheets is easy but editing them into the book and then at the end putting up the answers is a nightmare !  Anyway, I wrote a quiz yesterday centred round classical music.

I have two e-books, JUKEBOX JURY and MILTON KEYNES A DISCO FOR A NEW CITY which are written to be read as e-books on a phone or tablet, readers are directed to YouTube to play the music while I chat about it. Last night I dreamed, or should I say my dream instructed me to do something similar with classical music. In my dream I played around with titles until I came up with IF MUSIC BE THE FOOD OF LOVE THEN PLAY ON. This, of course, is a quote from William Shakespeare. Shakespeare was an Elizabethan so the music will open with Elizabethan Serenade.

Will there still be YouTube on 1st January 2121 when my time capsule is opened ? Well it is here now, sadly surrounded by the world’s worst adverts, but go and have a listen now. Type in: Elizabethan Serenade by Ronald Binge. (Paintings by Vladimir Volegov)

So what about that classical music quiz ?  See how many you can answer:

  1. Which piece of classical music was used by BBC television to introduce its news coverage of the Apollo Moon project ?
  2. Who is the most financially successful composer of all time ?
  3. Which orchestra sells more CD’s than any other artist ?
  4. The Geriatric DJ refers to which orchestra as where classical music meets rock and roll ?
  5. In which opera would you listen to The Brindisi or The Drinking Song ?
  6. Gustav Holst composed The Planet Suite. What nationality was he ?
  7. It was composed for the coronation of King George II by George Frederic Handel and has been played at every coronation since. What is it ?
  8. Who sang Barcelona with Freddie Mercury ?
  9. Why is it tradition for the audience to stand up during the singing of The Hallelujah Chorus ?
  10. Who composed The Liberty Bell ?
  11. Who does legend say composed Greensleeves ?
  12. Who was the former slave captain who composed Amazing Grace ?
  13. How many symphonies did Ludwig can Beethoven compose ?
  14. Who composed The New World Symphony ?
  15. Anitra’s Dance and Morning Mood come from which piece of work by Edvard Grieg ?
  16. Who conducted Chariots Of Fire at the opening of London 2012 Olympics ?
  17. In which ballet would you expect to find The Russian Dance ?
  18. Who played second trombone in The Tittipu Town band ?
  19. Which member of the Strauss Family composed The Thunder And Lightning Polka ?
  20. Which is the only piece of orchestral music to feature the zither ?
  21. Who is famed for his unfinished symphony ?
  22. Who composed The thin Red Line March ?
  23. In which opera by Giuseppe Verdi does La Donna E Mobile feature ?
  24. Sometimes called The Prince of Denmark’s March it is better known as ?
  25. The flight of which insect is celebrated in  music by Rimsky-Korsakov ?

Time now for ON THIS DAY. Wikipedia here we come !

13th February 1951: Korean War: The Battle of Chipyong-ni commences.

13th February 1855: Israel obtains four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls.

13th February 1990: An agreement is reached on a two stage-plan to reunite Germany.

13th February 2017: Kim Jong-nam the brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un is assassinated.

Sorry and all that but as per usual not a single person within Wikipedia’s list of those born on this day that I recognise !

13th February 1958: Christabel Palkhurst, co-founder of the Women’s Social and Political Union died.

Yesterday there were another 15,144 new cases of china virus in the UK and 758 more deaths. Locally where I live there were 68 new cases and two deaths. Yesterday I was watching something on TV where a doctor in Mozambique was speaking, he said it would take FIVE years to vaccinate everyone in his country. I have had my first vaccination, today my wife receives hers as do my 95 year old father and 92 year old mother. What if we were to live in Mozambique ?

SMILE OF THE DAY:  Some days are better, some days are worse. Look for the blessing instead of the curse. Be positive, stay strong, and get enough rest. You can’t do it all but you can do your best.

Catch you again tomorrow:

Dave

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