Tom Waits' Jukebox.

Saturday has been a cold, windy and rainy day. Still, I should not complain, we are still in January. Spring will arrive, and the lambs will be gamboling in the fields before long. They cannot ban that, can they. I had to go out because I was short of milk, bread, tea & coffee. I went to Lidl hoping it would be quiet, but it was busy. It felt quite warm in there as well. You would think in a pandemic they would lower the heating a bit. I am sure the virus likes a warm atmosphere. Anyway, I got what I needed and scarpered as fast as I could. It felt good to get back in the fresh cold air. My team Peterborough United lost 2-0 today which was disappointing, but they are still 4^th in the table. At the end of the day, it isn’t all that important. I sat in the kitchen listening to a CD my brother Paul gave me a couple of years ago called Tom Waits Jukebox. It is a compilation album of music that Tom Waits might have liked. There are some great tracks on it by the likes of Captain Beefheart, Howling Wolf, (I can definitely see similarities to Tom there), Southside Johnny, Jesca Hoop who I think looked after Tom’s kids at one time. There is even Frank Sinatra singing ‘One For My Baby, And One More For The Road’. It is great stuff. There are quite a few people I have not heard of before, but all interesting. My favourite track of all is a recording from 1958 of Jack Kerouac reciting a prosie type poem called MacDougal Street Blues. It is brilliant.

Me being reflective!

I did half an hour of Qigong which I am enjoying, and I do find it energising. I do not seem to need my afternoon naps like I used to, and I feel more motivated to do things. The Qi in Qigong is pronounced Chi, and Qigong means ‘Life energy’. Wikipedia says,

 ‘Qigong is a millennia-old system of coordinated body-posture and movement, breathing, and meditation used for the purposes of health and spirituality. With roots in Chinese medicine, philosophy, and martial arts, qigong is traditionally viewed by the Chinese and throughout Asia as a practice to cultivate and balance qi. Qigong practice typically involves moving meditation, coordinating slow-flowing movement, deep rhythmic breathing, and a calm meditative state of mind. People practice qigong throughout China and worldwide for recreation, exercise, relaxation, preventive medicine, self-healing, alternative medicine, meditation, and self-cultivation. 

It also said that it is used in martial arts training, but I am not interested in that bit. I will just show you another photo from my walk yesterday because I took loads of them and it is a pity to waste them. It is the last day of January tomorrow, so I will see you then hopefully.

The Woods In Winter.