{quilt} while you're ahead: music

Tuesday, 19 July 2016

*68** postcards from Canada

Day 8 - Whistler.

The boys sampled the delights of downhill mountain biking whilst Mr M and I mooched about the place waiting to see if they'd came back in one piece. When they attach a label to your child with a barcode, your name and emergency number just in case they knock themselves unconscious AND the bikes have a computer that records their location in case they fall off a cliff.... you know it's serious, right?

Anyway, they all got back safely. Splattered in mud head to toes, totally knackered but grinning ear to ear.

Good stuff.

After lunch they all took the shuttle back to the hotel (wimps) whilst I decided to walk the 4Km back. The sun was shining and it was a lovely walk.

Along the lake and by gorgeous villas (I always enjoy walking through residential areas when I'm abroad)

And then... then we heard about Noel Gallagher and the High Flying Birds (the creative mind behind the brilliant band Oasis) playing at the Pemberton Music Festival nearby and managed to get tickets and left the kids at the hotel and had an unexpected date night and a fantabulous time!

(For all of you that are now totally horrified, we didn't lock them in the room. No 1 is 15 and very responsible. AND we had had offered them the chance to come too and got turned down. We're not horrible parents, I promise you!!)

oh my what an awesome concert.

Seriously.

And the location... a huge flat valley surrounded by snowcapped peaks. Awesome.

The headlining act were Pearl Jam (... ahem... can't say I'd heard of them before but I was totally the only person there not to know them)

so we stayed for a while before catching the bus back to Whistler

We are so rock'n'roll.

19 Jul 2016 04:00:50 | boys, family, fotografie, music, Travel

Sunday, 01 May 2016

*35** Dixie Chicks Live - Birmingham (UK)

Friday night was epic. EPIC

The boys say I'm not allowed to say 'epic', or 'banter/bants/benterous' or 'tank'... I suspect because I'm too old, but they've been brought up well, so they wouldn't actually say that. I'm allowed to say 'cool', because saying 'cool' it's not cool... and when you're a parents you shouldn't try to be cool. Because you're not. That's the word on the street anyway.

BUT, they're not interesting in mum's blog... it's all about blogging these days... which let's face it, that means getting out of my pyjamas and put make up on, right? Nahhhh, I much prefer leaving you with the impression my house is tidy and I'm always perfectly turned out ready to meet the president. Or go to hospital... my grandmother used to warn me not to wear old knickers if I was going out in the off-chance I'd have an accident and got taken to hospital.

Whatever. She was quite a character. You would have liked her.

ANYWAY, I'm getting wildly off course here...

Friday night.

Yes.

EPIC

Let's consider the evidence:

Three extremely cool chicks. (So nice to see real women on stage. WOMEN. Talented, beautiful, mothers, wives, friends, flawed, inspiring, musicians, artists, fun, awesome women)

Natalie (41yrs old)

Emily (43yrs old)

Martie (45yrs old)

And the music... the music.. well the music was epic too.

Just check this out... (couldn't find one from the Birmingham night... but it was the same... sit down and enjoy)

Amazing, right?

Thank you ladies, it was ... epic.

1 May 2016 09:58:02 | music

Saturday, 19 March 2016

*20** life lesson

It's getting late on this unseasonably cold Saturday afternoon in March and I'm having a nice cup of tea... it's been an interesting day, I'm flying solo this weekend, Mr M is away on business, and things look different when you're on your own...

I've driven more than 80 miles today without going anywhere. I mean, I did go places, you know... school and football pitches and hockey pitches and cricket net places... but I didn't go anywhere as such. It's a weird world.

And I love driving... 'the road' was one of the great themes of my teenage years... the myth of the road... Kerouac... and Springsteen... my favourite holidays are driving holidays...

I don't think Jack would have written such a great masterpiece if his travelling had been between the football match and the hockey match whilst drinking cold tea out of a portable mug.

Thunder Road? It definitively wasn't about the road to the cricket nets.

My life was going to be full of adventures and I was going to be a citizen of the world and super cool with the wind in my hair and the sun setting in front of me... there might have been a motorbike in there too... oh and a great tan. Yes definitively a tan and really well fitting jeans. Not 'mom' jeans.

It's funny really.

But actually you know what? even if reality has turned out completely different... I'm more than ok with that. 'My road' is still good, it's brilliant in fact. I'd drive double the distance for my boys to do things they like.

Today whilst No 3 was hastily eating his lunch before the next activities he answering online quizzes to see which Hogwarts house would best suit him (still hoping his latent magic skills might appear soon, bless)... I said something on the lines of "it's ok, if we're not magic, we can be normal and be happy"... he looked at me and said "there's no such thing as normal mum, we're all different, normal doesn't exist"

Oh well, that told me, right?

Lightbulb moment.

My ten yr old taught me that my life is not 'normal'... it's MY life, different from anyone else's and therefore special. Which is cool by me because that was what my teenage self always wanted: to be special, to be different, to be me.

Who would have thought.

I have been 'on the road' after all...

On a completely different not I've been obsessing about this song: