Steve Wright in the Afternoon

After a Ashtanga yoga class yesterday, swimming on Sunday my shoulders and arms feel like they've worked hard... so, I gave hot yoga a miss today. The vinyasas have done me in! Any excuse, huh? In any case, I had 4 large suitcases to unpack, we had just got them back from Mike and Claire's who have been kindly keeping them for us in their garage. Where to put all our things? Plus I have a about 30 boxes arriving from the UK and Trinidad soon. The UK boxes are here, awaiting clearance at customs. The boxes from Trini minus one that has mysteriously disappeared, maybe it's just as well will be here in a few weeks! Where shall I put all that stuff??? Not going to think about that, till it all arrives.

I have been listening to several BBC radio stations on line, mainly Radio 4 for The Archers. Just a Minute and Friday Night Comedy. Radio 2 mainly for Steve Wright in The Afternoon. Not listened to his Love songs on Sunday as yet. Radio 5 Live is good too, as is Radio 6 and 7, just depending on my mood.

Jeremy Vine is doing poetry week and today's theme was war poems. A few were red out. I am not a fan of poetry but some of them were rather poignant and thought provoking..a listener had come on to share her favourite, a Siegfried Sasoon(1886-1967). I cannot remember what it was called but have since had a look and here's one that I like.

Survivors

No doubt they'll soon get well; the shock and strain
Have caused their stammering, disconnected talk.
Of course they're 'longing to go out again,' -
These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk.
They'll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed
Subjection to the ghosts of friends who died,-
Their dreams that drip with murder; and they'll be proud
Of glorious war that shatter'd all their pride...
Men who went out to battle, grim and glad;
Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad.

Craiglockhart. October, 1917.

She encouraged us all to read more poetry, especially children as it was easier to read than a book and may make us think more, cheer us up, stoke our emotions... I may give it a go...

Another that was read out was one by Rudyard Kipling, written after his son had perished in the First World War, wish I could remember what it was called so I could share it....

Here's a poem about LOVE

Love Comes to Stay
You broke into my house while I was out
and lodged and laughed and cooked and disarranged things.
I find it very hard to tolerate
intruders with the energy to change things.

You cluttered up my home with friends and noise;
stole my entire routine and broke and spoiled it,
wrecked my attempts at dignity and poise,
dismantled old machinery and oiled it.

You heard the song I knew by heart, and learned it,
explored each corner of my home and filled it;
and snatched my dearest prejudice and burned it,
and caught what terrified me most, and killed it.

You hold opinions I don't wish to hear,
make jokes about me which I don't quite get,
break rules, support the cause I least approve,
and fail to see that I'm in charge, as yet.
You barge in without any invitation,
slam doors which I prefer to keep ajar
you go and smash my blessed, slow stagnation.

But, since you’re here, we’ll leave things as they are

Lucy Berry

Steve Wright in the Afternoon came on after Jeremy, and this is one show that cheers me up no end, with it's factoids and music of yesteryear, more my kind of thing. Isn't technology wonderful, it enables me to listen to the show live, we're 5 hours behind here in Canada, so was listening in from 9am..I had to unpack these bags, organise the storage that we have and the show kept me going, in between several breaks to play bejewelled on facebook... wish I wasn't so attached to that game! I am crazy, but then we already knew that.

Steve was playing some familiar tunes and some not so familiar, as I am rubbish with music, minimal exposure when I was young and am not a person that needs to listen to something all the time. Anyhow, he said to email him as he loves hearing from his listeners so I did. Telling him where I was listening from and what I was doing this morning, and being all on my own with just his show to keep me company.... and .... my email was read out just after 4pm UK time! Whooooooooo Wheeeeeee.... Can't tell you the excitement I felt..... what a buzz, made my morning, for sure.... I know, easily pleased, me.

Will end here with some factoids from the show!

1. bigshowfactoids
   The average person flexes their fingers 24 millions times in their lifetime

bigshowfactoids

Some people have more bones in their feet than others

bigshowfactoids

The oldest rainforest in the world is not the Amazon, but the Daintree rainforest in Queensland, Australia

bigshowfactoids

A beer has been launched in Japan that is made from barley grown in a lab in space

bigshowfactoids

Iceland consumes more coca cola per capita than any other country on the planet

bigshowfactoids

Ostriches live for about 75 years and can reproduce for 50 of them

Digest that!