Where did it go?

Wow, December already. I still miss my old neighbours. I miss playing the ukulele and I miss yarn craft. My fingers and hands hurt more than ever. My feet? Well, we are at vegetable peeler stage. I kid you not! When I go to bed, my hands and feet go into overtime. Each joint in my fingers feel on fire and my feet and ankles feel like they are constantly being peeled with a sharp razor. There seems just no getting round it.

So, in my head, I have all these projects going on. In reality… everything’s stands still. By the end of the day I just don’t care anymore. I just want it all to stop.

here I sit, on the end of the bed in darkness. Christmas fireworks started before dark so we sat inside, under the fan and trying not to move much in the heat.

I am listening to some of my favourite songs and marvelling at the pure magic of Dave Brubeck. I could have sworn I first heard him in a Movie called Murder by decree. I now fear I was wrong. It was in the end years of the seventies, I went to the movies with my mother and I begged he to wait through the credits to find out the musicians of this amazing sound that blew my mind. I swear there were tears in mum”s eyes, so proud I was possibly becoming a jazzer and not a rocker.

Dave Brubeck became a fast favourite. Songs I could chill to! Then, realisation, this guy called Tom Waits! I saw him on the Don Lane Show! I was in love with the gravelly voice, fingers tripping over keyboards, smoke and booze on set, I found my true idol.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I still loved Jon English and Russell Morris and Brian Cadd and even David Bowie and the Bay City Rollers but, wow, to this day, I still love the pure romantic Jersey Girl and will always stop what I am doing and just melt into the music.
The next on My song list is Acker Bilk and Chris Barber along side Herb Alpert and radio head.

At least once a day I listen to my playlist and I am transported to the late 70’s not a care in the world and I feel good. Tom Waits still hits my main spot though. The passion and the artistry. I didn’t even mind when he cleaned up his act. He just mellowed into the last true Beatnik.

Right now, I am going to go back to cleaning my fridge. I will leave a decidedly non jazz tune that was our Halloween ukulele gift to YouTube here. I hope your lead up to Christmas is cool and drizzled with the smooth tones of the great Tom Waits 🎶