"No" I hear you say.
On Mondays I usually walk to see Cousin Belinda. It's about two and a half miles between our houses. But in this heatwave I have had to take the car. We then go into Wymondham and have coffee and then go back to hers for lunch.
With Alexa nestled up the corner it's easy to request music. So today I opened up my top 139 and played a few of them. Why 139 I hear you ask? Well it was meant to be my top 100 but then I kept finding tracks to add and it grew and grew. In a few months it might be my top 200. I have a playlist on Spotify entitled 10,000 songs. It's nowhere near 10,000 but I'm adding to it all the time when songs come to mind and eventually it may make it to 10,000.
But back to my top 139. After playing quite a few of the songs we both realised that quite a few come from the "let's slit our wrists" category. Yes they are ballads and yes they are rather sad and I suppose that's the kind of music I like. To me many of these songs aren't sad, they are just pieces with lovely lyrics.
To me a great song has to have a memorable melody and also good lyrics which makes a mockery of my number one which is Mockingbird by Barclay James Harvest which certainly doesn't have the greatest lyric ever written. Seek it out and you will see what I mean. But it does come from a particularly happy time in my life and it's a lovely piece of music.
Yesterday on our hunt for scones and coffee we left new puppy Casper at home as it was really too hot to take him. When we got back I immediately thought: "Wouldn't it be great to have the logic of a puppy."
We were the nasty people that shut the doors on him and left him for an hour. But when we got back all we got was wagging tales and licks (that was from the dog and not from us). He viewed us not as the people who had shut him away but as the people who liberated him.
Do you ever have an "aahh bless" moment. I often have them when I listen in to conversations and there was one yesterday morning when I passed a youngster and his dad. I reckon the boy was about six or seven. "Dad I love my new short hair," he said. It was very short (the hair that is) but it was definitely an aaah bless moment.
I know I was named after another Peter - somebody my parents knew. I have no recollection of this person and who he was or is but it was a young man that my parents really liked. They gave me the same first name I suppose in the hope that I would grow up to be like him.
Same thing happened to me. I was playing tennis many many years ago when a father and his young son came to play on the next court. They had so much fun together and seemed to have a very close bond. The son was continually referred to as "Matt". I mad a mental note that if I ever had a son I would call him Matthew. We had two sons and yes you've guessed it.
A couple of songs for you to search out today. Both of them tip the scales at well under two minutes. Tiny vignettes and heavyweights they are not.
The first is about 40 seconds long and is Meant For You by the Beach Boys:
As I sit an' close my eyes
There's peace in my mind
And I'm hopin' that you'll find it too
An' these feelings in my heart
I know, are meant for you
The second is just under two minutes long and is Distant Summers by Chris Rea:
Sweet serenade, in your shade
May I rest
Just for a while, won't stay long
I'll do my best
To help you help me to find some friends
That I have lost
Who lie in lands where memories
And dreams are lost
The breeze that blew around her hair that day
The timeless dress that flowed in endless sway
I almost touched her shoulder, she almost turned to face me
A thousand distant summers... away
Do seek those out if you want to feel uplifted.