Quince

Welcome to South Manchester on a bright, sunny but cold day. This time in just over a week, I’ll be on my way to Malaysia where I am informed the temperature is more like 30 °C to 35 °C (86 °F to 95 °F). I can cope with those kinds of temperatures and I’ve been to Singapore a few times (where the climate is roughly the same). 

I’m looking forward to it. 

In the meantime, here is a quick dive into this week’s Sunday Stealing. 

 Three things I love (Remember, these are things, not people):

1. Rock music

I’m going to say “rock” as opposed to the subgenres like progressive rock, heavy metal, psychedelic rock etc. I would add that progressive rock is probably my favourite subgenre but I like most other types of rock music. 

2. Where I live

Manchester is a wonderful city and I am delighted to live here. It is a good base for travelling around the UK, being close to Wales, the Lake District, the Peak District and Yorkshire where the scenery is wonderful. It is easy to get to Birmingham and London by train, a mere two hours to London in fact. My house is also in a good district in the city, about five miles south of the city and within half an hour’s drive of the Cheshire countryside. I also love my house. 

3. Travelling

Travelling is wonderful for the soul and very therapeutic. I have travelled extensively and already have plans to go to Malaysia, Hong Kong and Spain this year, with another destination as yet unplanned in September with a possible university reunion in a European city squeezed in sometime too. 

Three things on my desk:

1. My laptop

2. My printer

3. A mini Groot light. 

Three things I can't do:

1. Play guitar

I would love to be able to play the guitar but sadly it is not to be. I chose to learn the piano because it gives me more options. Until the age of 16 I could play the trombone but I’m not sure that I could now. 

2. Sing

I have a synthesiser and it has a microphone that you can use to add vocals to a song. Last year, I used the synthesiser to produce a very crude version of “Just Can’t Get Enough” by Depeche Mode and record it using a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) on my laptop. It wasn’t good but it did sound like the song if you were being very kind. Really it was just a practice to help me get used to the concept of recording music on a computer so, as bad as it is, the experiment was a success. That is until I tried to sing the lyrics and add it as an extra track. I decided to use my pure vocals rather than adding effects to my voice using the synthesiser. As the words left my mouth they sounded wonderful. They were in tune (according to my ears) and I thought that Dave Gahan, the lead singer of Depeche Mode, might say “Not as good as my voice, Dave, but pretty bloody good”. 

And then I played it back. 

MY VOICE SOUNDED DREADFUL!

The notes were okay but the tone of my voice was so bland, banal and boring that I was absolutely shocked. It didn’t sound like the angelic vocals that came out when I recorded it. 

Note to self. If you are going to make music, Dave, DO NOT SING! 

Make instrumentals or get somebody who CAN sing to do it for you.  

3. Ride a motorbike

I have a friend who loves his motorbike and has often asked me to get on the back of the thing “for a ride around the country roads in Cheshire”. It would terrify me so I have always refused. I never saw the point of riding a motorbike because although, apparently, the experience is “exhilarating” (as he described it), to me at least it just seems dangerous. I am delighted that I can’t ride a motorbike and I will never ever get on one. 

Three things I'm good at:

1. Maths

I always found maths quite easy and I was so good at it that I took my O-Level a year early and acquired an additional “advanced” O-Level before going on to get an A-Level too. When I went to university, I studied Computational and Statistical Science but a large portion of that, at least in the first two years, was maths. I know it is something that a large number of people struggle with but to me it is not that difficult. I am such a geek because I find it absolutely fascinationg.

2. Programming

I wrote loads of computer programs for over forty years and I was told that I was good at it. These programmes ranged from supplying the relevant data to display flight data on monitors in airports to controlling the flow of edible oil through various processing plants; backing up a crucial database without shutting down to routing vital messages from several incoming sources to several outgoing sources. And that’s just off the top of my head. There are lots of airports around the world where you can see the fruits of my software creation. 

I have a logical mind and, as many programmers will tell you, as long as you know and understand the algorithm, you can get most things to work. Sadly, the rise of AI has eluded me and, currently, I have no desire to dive back into the realms of computer science because I want a break from it. That said, I may consider diving back into it as a hobby in future because I am quite interested in exploring the world of AI. 

3. Ranting

I am trying my best to retire from ranting, having been called a “grumpy old man” and a “weird curmudgeon” (amongst other things). At work, people used to push my buttons on purpose because, apparently, I made a lot of people laugh. It was always good natured and I always tried my best to make it slightly humorous. I think it worked. The problem is that these days I start to get angry because the world is devolving. I am planning a (non-ranting) post on this in due course – but trying to do so without actually ranting is proving very difficult, if I’m honest.  

Three things I want to accomplish:

1.  Learn to play the piano 

Playing the piano is a good retirement project that I am currently enjoying. It is really a stepping stone to trying to create and record some digital music and record it on the computer. A retired mate of mine does this now and has released his music on Spotify. I will never be as good as he is but I don’t really care. I am doing it for fun. If you want to look up my mate, his "artist" name is Methyl Orange. 

2. Write a novel

I am currently (and very slowly) writing a novel. I don’t plan to get it published (as I am not a good writer). Nevertheless, to actually finish one and be happy with it would be very satisfying. 

3. Speak a language almost fluently

I am currently trying to learn Spanish, French and German and I am improving at all of them. I know really that I will never be fluent because you really have to immerse yourself by living there for a while. It’s still a goal though and if you don’t have a goal you will just stop. 

I’m getting there – slowly.