31 May 08 Rockferry
In my spare time, when I’m away from the computer, I like to relax with either a good book, or some good music.
Of course, one’s tastes in either are very subjective; I tend to prefer non-fiction, and science, history, and geography when reading; and my tastes in music are fairly wide, covering classical, country, folk, rock, soul, and jazz.
It’s difficult to give any one specific genre, and I can’t ever truly name favorites – it really depends what mood I’m in at the time, when it comes to my choice of listening.
This afternoon, while doing some work, I was listening to Paul Gambacinni on BBC Radio Two. I wasn’t listening all the time, as I was talking as well, and concentrating too. One track caught my ear enough to listen intently afterwards to catch the name of it.
It’s called Warwick Avenue, and it’s off the debut album from Duffy entitled Rockferry
Duffy [born Aimee Anne Duffy on June 1st 1984 in Nefyn, Gwynedd, Wales], is a Welsh female soul singer-songwriter. She signed with A&M Records in 2007
During late November 2007, she performed on the excellent BBC2 television show “Later with Jools Holland”, which resulted in a second appearance on his show, well his Hootenanny, which has seen the New Year in great musical style for the past few years.
On the show she performed with soul legend Eddie Floyd. She came back a third time in February this year, and performed three tracks from the album, which was released in March 2008. Duffy is the first Welsh female to achieve a number one pop single in the past 25 years.
As befits an album that begins with ‘Rockferry’, a mournful, slightly unsettling tale of moving on, and ends which ‘Distant Dreamer’, a soaring epic that finds Duffy contemplating “all the things I’d like to do with my life”, Rockferry is a musical journey that’s both sad and stirring, and is in a largely retro-soul style.
I thoroughly recommend it.
Tags: aimee, bbc, bbc radio two, classical country, country folk rock, debut album from, duffy, genre, geography, good music, nefyn gwynedd, non fiction, rockferry, science history, singer songwriter, soul singer, spare time, tastes, wales, warwick, welsh
30 May 08 Saving Energy
We just got this months electricity bill. Now, I’m never one to get excited about paying bills, particularly the ones that stay with you until your dying day – i.e taxes, power, water,regime fees and so on.
At least, hopefully, you eventually make the final car or mortgage payment, and while they usually get a little less in real terms as the years go by, that first bunch is always guaranteed to steadily increase, and often way more than the rate of inflation.
They always have a good excuse of course – new infrastructure; previous neglect; incompetent management etc.
Anyway, to get to the point. This months electricity bill was $22 cheaper than this time last year, and it was the same average temperature too, according the the records.
We do try to make an effort though. We don’t use more hot water than needed; take showers more often than baths; have CFL’s throughout the home; and don’t run the air conditioning unless we need to – that’s $7-8 a day each time it’s on all day.
There’s always more that could be done. Putting laundry outside to dry saves a lot of money, and is much better for your clothes too. Turning down the thermostat in the winter, and up in the summer helps a lot. Not leaving the home theater system on standby 24/7.
I’m not a tree hugging green, but hey, if it’s good for the environment, and I get to save some money, I’m all for it.
It’s almost ten pm here now. I’m going to switch myself off for the evening.
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