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Good Friday, Walk All Over Cancer Challenge.

Walk All Over Cancer ~ Day 1

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Happy month everyone! Please excuse this series of rather self-indulgent posts, I’m blogging about this to strengthen my resolve to complete the Walk All Over Cancer challenge.

walk all over cancer

I signed up for the Cancer Research UK ‘Walk All Over Cancer ~ 10,000 steps every day this March’ campaign – and then the weather did THIS!

 

Don’t worry, I’m not going to pester you all for donations (well not every day, but I will post a link in future posts). I am going to try and get 310,000 steps done across the month. You can find out more about the excellent work Cancer Research do by clicking here.

I’ve also got this thing in my head about sharing what I’m listening to every day as I do the bulk of my walk – and then there was the FaceBook “post an album picture but don’t explain it” thing that Mark nominated me for!

 

That’s a Facebook thing so I thought I’d share a few notes about the album here on my blog. Ian Hunter’s “The truth, the whole truth and nothin’ but the truth” is an excellent live album recorded at The Astoria in London in 2004 and released in 2005 (CLICK HERE for more). Ian Hunter was one of my heroes when I was at college, I even based my A Level art project on a portrait of him. His book “Diary of a Rock N Roll Star’ (CLICK HERE) is one of my favourites and I was lucky to finally see him in June last year.

Anyway, I went out for a walk in the snow with the album playing on my phone, I stopped to take this picture of the stream and my phone shut down – so my steps weren’t actually recorded! I only got about four songs into the album so I’ll finish listening to it this afternoon.

I walked for about an hour, met another gentleman who walked with me for a while and saw Michelle and lots of children trying to find enough snow to really enjoy themselves. I’m home now and it’s started to come down heavier so we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

 

Recharging my batteries

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I’m currently away recharging my batteries. 2017 has been a good year, sometimes challenging, sometimes sad, but overall I feel happy with what I’ve achieved and the decisions I’ve made. We didn’t get as much time away as we’d promised ourselves and so I decided not to take any Christmas party work this year and get some winter sun earlier than usual. So, for the second time this year, we’re in Fuerteventura.

Having said that, I’ve got 4G and a phone signal everywhere here so if you need me, or want to check a date, just get in touch.

While we’ve been here I’ve been catching up on various podcasts including Roifield Brown’s “F X V” (Friday 15. I was listening to his interview with Fil Callender on his his life in Reggae / Jamaican music and they played this wonderful track Heatwave ~ “Mind Blowing Decisions” (this TOTP version unfortunately doesn’t include the full intro 🙁 )

To listen to the podcast click here – it’s episode 27

Yesterday I spent a very enjoyable hour recharging my batteries in one of my favourite bars The Coco Beach Lounge. Playing in the background was an Eryka Badu playlist, here’s one track I just had to Shazam ~ “Window Seat”. I liked it because it had a fabulous chilled groove – the video brings it to another level. I know that I’m a tune and vibe man – that’s to say I don’t always listen to lyrics (especially at first) – but I certainly didn’t expect a video like this!

One of the highlights of 2017 for me was seeing Ian Hunter, one of my heroes from the 70’s. I actually did a print of Ian for my art A level! He was the front man of Mott The Hoople and a solo start in his own right. I finally got to see him for the first time a few months ago at The Engine Rooms and he didn’t disappoint. For a man who celebrated his 78th birthday a few days earlier he looked amazing in a black Fred Perry polo shirt and jeans – I hope I get another chance to see him. I picked his live album to listen to when I walked to the shops one evening. We may not have had as much time away as I’d have liked this year but we’ve seen some great shows which is also a good way of recharging my batteries.

Finally, for this post, I’ve been listening to another “Guilty Pleasure”… Desert Island Discs! Every episode is available as a download from the BBC Radio iPlayer. I decided to listen to the Kay Mellor episode from earlier this year as we’ve been enjoying her latest drama Love Lies & Records. Among her choices was Amy Winehouse’s version of “Our Day Will Come” which she uses as the theme music for the latest tv show. Rest in peace Amy.

I’m lucky, I have a job I love but I still need things to look forward to, so holidays and nights out are essential for me. Everybody has to recharge their batteries – make sure you do!

recharging my batteries