The Scribbler

I've changed the Seeqpod music play list in the right hand column with what I believe is a more representative sample of the kind of stuff I like to listen to. In doing so, I've included two of my all time favourite pieces of Classical Musical, namely the intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana as well as Clair de Lune, which I really wish I could play on piano. I did try learning it years ago but gave up the ghost after the first few bars. I remember falling in love with Cavalleria the minute I heard it so elegiacally interwoven into the fight scenes of Raging Bull . To start things off, I've added Stan Getz's magical Desafinado. If you're staying here for a while, do keep listening and I think you'll hear quite an eclectic choice of pieces. I would recommend that you use Internet Explorer if you wish to listen to the player as it doesn't seem to work as well in either Firefox or Google Chrome (I can't vouch for the Opera browser or any others because I te...

Once upon a time in a place overrun with monkeys, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for R100 each. The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them. The man bought thousands at R100 and as supply started to diminish, they became harder to catch, so the villagers stopped their effort. The man then announced that he would now pay R200 for each one. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. But soon the supply diminished even further and they were ever harder to catch, so people started going back to their farms and forgot about monkey catching. The man increased his price to R250 each and the supply of monkeys became so sparse that it was an effort to even see a monkey, muc h less catch one . The man now announced that he would buy monkeys for R500! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant...

I've just read a promising news report that states Pres. Ahmadinejad is ill. Perhaps he is suffering from radiation fallout, brought about by all those visits to the Iranian nuclear facilities... Let's hope he really remembers those trips, for all of the wrong reasons.

Blue I don't know what made Jeff different from all of the other guys. I mean, he was ordinary looking wasn't he? Blue eyes, angular chin, slicked back black hair and about 5'7 tall. He could have been anybody. But he wasn't. He was Jeff. The very same Jeff who saved my life. The very same Jeff. That was by and by and the night of the accident seemed like an ongoing echo that makes it way around the canyon. Never ceasing to leave a little imprint of itself in every crag. Jeff. I suppose I should have known that Jeff would be the one who'd be there when I needed help. The others seemed friendly enough but not the kind of companionship that you know will hang on to you when the ropey sinews of life are fraying at the edges. It was an accident that could so easily happen and consequently did. Jeff was there though. He gripped my arm as I hung hypnotised by fear over the edge of the cliff. Not looking up or down, just hoping that someone would be there to allow me the l...

It wasn't a particularly cold day. In fact, the sun was out and I was in a buoyant mood as I made my way up North End Road to the Royal Free Hospital. I was about to become a daddy for the very first time. I didn't know what "daddyhood" would be like. I was certainly too young be a "father" and so fatherhood was out of the question. It was to be the "daddyhood" that I wanted to experience. It's been a long journey and maybe I've migrated a little more towards the father bit but today, the baby I was going to meet turned eleven years old and she's everything I wanted her to be. And then some. Hadassah is smart, sassy, serious and special. The Shabbat, that very first shabbat, she also sparkled and she's never stopped shining. I could go on, but I guess you probably know where I'm coming from. Happy birthday kid - with infinite love from your daddy who hopes he means so much more than just a mere "father".

Greetings fellow humanoids. I'm back and I've been through the wars (or so it seems). If I haven't written for a while, I've got good reason. To be brutally honest (and that's probably the best way to be), I've been to hell and back vis a vis my corpus. First of all, I had a rotten end to Yom Kippur, where my head shuddered its way through the final Neilah prayer and figuratively begged me to have something to eat and drink as soon as I was able. The thumping headache dissipated just in time for me to put a muscle in my neck into severe spasm, the result being that an osteopath was consulted and I couldn't move my head properly for almost a week. If that weren't enough fun (did I use the word "fun"?), I've had to contend with unending Yom Tov, which is not such an issue....except that I feel somewhat discombobulated, something that I'm not too keen on being. Deep sigh. Well, here I am. Fighting my way through the personal wars and look...

I'm not one of those people who takes much pride in the car they drive. For me, an automobile is only about one thing - functionality. If it gets me to where I want to go and back, I'm happy. That said, I am absolutely perplexed as to why my little Ford Fiesta seems to bear the brunt of so many mindless attacks. Let me explain. Shortly after I came into possession of this very unassuming car, a bunch of mindless joyriders decided to use our road for their criminal activities and hit a number of cars, including mine. I was pretty pissed off about it, but not enough to shell out £200 to have the panel fixed. Attack #1 Then, in my last school, one of the students felt the need to scrape his key along a number of cars, with of course mine included. Attack #2 (in the school car park). After a summer of phone conversations with the Police, I decided not to press charges, because I don't want to be responsible for his being landed with a criminal record. He can arrange that for hi...