Three Holes In The Ground...

Well, well, well...

Thank you for your lovely New Year's wishes and my best to you, as ever!

2011, and what is different about me?

Nothing, zero, zilch.

I have some good intentions. Not resolutions, no. Intentions.

1. To exercise a bit more. Diane - (Please click on her name to get to her fabulous and wonderful bloglette) - inspired me last year by having set some goals, which served to spur her on to do more and to accomplish a number of runs for very worthwhile charitable causes. I'm very proud of what she has achieved.

I am going to let you in on a secret. I have pledged to run a 5k Race for Life later this year for a cancer charity. Oh yes! The button will appear and the begging bowl will be out, and I am committed (or will be!) to do it. Come hell or high water, fire or flood. -- And if you catch me out there with a box of matches, or pulling that boy's finger out of the dam, you will know I am trying to avoid having to do it!

2. I must lose weight. I talk about it, but then I don't change my lifestyle. Go figure. I wish I had a figure - Ho, ho! I am hoping that the drive towards the run and more exercising to get me into that state where I can at least jog a little, will also get me to lose some of this post-baby weight. (Note: Grizz will be 19 in February!)

3. We're off to Italy this year. 26th July sees our 25th Wedding Anniversary. How we got here (and we're not there yet) I'll never know, but in a mad moment on our wedding day, (I think it was then - Long veils of white shroud my memory), I got GJ to say that he would take me to Venice and Florence, (I've since added Rome for good measure and I like things that come in threes), for our 25th Wedding Anniversary if not before...

For our 25th it is then! And no, GJ, I don't think a day trip to Ventimiglia counts when we holdayed in Nice in 2006 - No, not at all! So, I'll have to mug up on some Italian before then. I shall blog about things I so desire to see later, like the Keats museum by the Spanish Steps, of course, but if any of you have any hints and tips for a less than millionaire-cost trip to Italy, I should be most grateful for them.

4. To have more fun and enjoy life a bit more. Seriously, I bore even myself to death with my low-rent, Olympic-range, whinging; I don't think I have a lot of fun, at least I can't remember loads of it. I laugh quite a bit. Mainly manically, but I worry loads. -- I'm hoping my Group Therapy might help me get to the bottom of that torment. I usually worry about money, and not having very much of it. And so, losing my job later this year will not be good for that, I know, sooooo...

5. Part of my plan to have more fun is to do more things with music, so I have a weekend in Shoreditch, London planned (but nothing booked!) for April, so that we can see our neighbour John Steel with his Animal friends performing at the East by East Festival - The Blockheads are also going to be on stage, so there's something else to look forward to.

We've Richard Thompson at the end of this month at the Sage with his Dream Attic tour, and I want to see the local comedian Sarah Millican, whom I adore, at her gig in Newcastle in April, I hope, but her tickets are selling out fast across the country, and well, I'm worrying about money again, so shoot me!

Above all, I hope to be a better friend and a fair, good enough mother and a decent partner. That is all. And Angels? If you can swing it my way to do even better in the Leek Competition in late summer, that'll be muchly appreciated!

Ciao, mes beaux... Mwah! Have a great year!

Si tu dois partir - Fairport Convention 1969

If you've gotta go, go now, if not you must stay the night...



...And who wouldn't have wanted to stay the night with the wondrous singer-songwriter, Sandy Denny, who is famous for hanging out with John Bonham, Nick Drake and Keith Moon, and who also sang on some of Led Zepplin's albums - Did you know that, mes musical fruits?!

Sandy died at the tender age of 31, and the usual riders apply to her early departure...

Her friend, and fabulous fellow vocalist, Linda Thompson, said of Sandy: "...they all knew how fantastic she was. Robert Plant was the loudest singer on the planet at the time, and Sandy could blow him off the stage. You'd have to hold on to the furniture when Sandy was singing. So these guys knew what a star she was. And like a lot of girls who are unhappy about the way they look, she became one of the boys".

Here are the lyrics to Fairport Convention's Si tu dois partir, (also Bob Dylan's - If you gotta go, go now, mais as the ethereal Joan Baez mentioned recently when we saw her in concert, '...but then, Bob Dylan has stolen a lot of songs...' So who knows, mes enfants du vanessa paradis...?!)

C'est pas que je te demande
Que faire que tu ne jamais fais
C'est seulement qu'il fait trop tard
Et il fait trop noir pour trouver la porte

...And it's too dark to find the door...

Mais si tu dois partir, va t'en
Mais si tu dois partir, va t'en
Si non, tu dois rester la nuit



C'est pas que je te demande
De prendre part dans ce jeu
C'est seulement je n'ai pas de montre
Comme toujours faire le par contre

Mais si tu dois partir, va t'en
Mais si tu dois partir, va t'en
Si non, tu dois rester la nuit

Tu sais j'aurais des cauchemars
Et aussi mauvaise conscience
Si je t'empêche de faire
Ce que vraiment tu espère

Mais si tu dois partir, va t'en
Mais si tu dois partir, va t'en
Si non, tu dois rester la nuit



"Si Tu Dois Partir", (also named "Si Tu Dois Partir, Va T'En") is a French-language cover of Bob Dylan's "If You Gotta Go, Go Now". It is Fairport Convention's only charting single in the UK.

It may also be notable as having a percussion break involving wicker chairs and a renegade beer bottle. Did you hear it, my leetle bat-ears? Non?! Shame on you!

This was the band's only charting single, reaching number 21 and staying in the British Chart for nine weeks.

See this NYC graffiti? "Denny loves Sandy!" I love it...



Here are Dylan's lyrics, if you want to check them out CLICKIE