Rhyme and No Reason!

Blogger, author and rhymester who likes to find the humour in life.

Episode 321: RIP ‘You Sexy Thing!’ — May 9, 2015

Episode 321: RIP ‘You Sexy Thing!’

I might have mentioned on more than on occasion that I am a huge fan of the music of yesteryear, namely the 70s and 80s. I was therefore really saddened to hear of the death of Errol Brown, the lead singer of ‘Hot Chocolate’ a few days ago.

Who hasn’t pranced around to the stains of ‘You Sexy Thing.’ thinking it was written about them? Considering it was their best-selling hit and even featured in the film ‘The Full Monty’ (brilliant film), it was amazing to think that it originally started off as a ‘B’ side to another of their records, in the 1970s.

I remember being transfixed watching Errol, as he always seemed to wear rather. ahem, tight trousers which I am sure helped him along when he needed to hit the high notes. He also never seemed to age, looking and sounding the same 30 years after he first started out.

What I also liked about ‘Hot Chocolate’ was the fact that their music got us up dancing (I use that term loosely when it comes to me, but I always had a go) to hits such as ‘Every 1s A Winner’, ‘You Sexy Thing’ and ‘So You Win Again’ to name but a few.

On the flip side, I have been known to have shed a tear to ‘Emma’ and ‘I’ll Put You Together Again.’ They were an extremely versatile group, and Errol was responsible for writing many of their songs.

Although I am sad that Errol is no longer with us, I am grateful that he has left a legacy of such fantastic music behind that will continue to be enjoyed.

Episode 320: A Shock Result! — May 8, 2015

Episode 320: A Shock Result!

Now the Election is over

I am feeling rather bereft

Apart from the Prime Minister

All of the other main leaders have left!

What a shock the results were

Poor old Lib Dems lost out

UKIP didn’t do a lot better

And Labour suffered a rout!

So Cleggy got his comeuppance

For going back on his word

UKIP’s voters were useless

And Labour’s chances absurd!

The Scots all put their foot down

And voted for their own SNP

Nicola Sturgeon is happy

To win every seat there, bar three

So British Politics are changing

At the moment only one thing is clear

That Dave Cameron is running the country

For the others it’s all ended in tears!

Free-For-All Friday: #9 —

Free-For-All Friday: #9

It’s Friday already. which means that it is time for me to share some more wonderful posts with you that I have discovered over the last week. I have tried to choose a variety of posts from all types of blogs. It goes without saying, that all of them are worth checking out.

Nutsrok Linda never fails to amaze me with stories about her crazy family! The fact that she is such a brilliant story-teller and is so funny as well, really adds to my enjoyment.

Vashti Quiroz-Vega This post caught my eye as I am really getting into Haiku writing, and I thought both of these offerings were brilliant in totally different ways.

Homemade Naturally Now although I like  to have a go at sewing from time to time, I am not that good. However, I saw this, and loved it, and am actually tempted to have a go at it as it does look quite simple.

Fourth Generation Farmgirl This is an inspirational post that shows what you can achieve with a lot of determination and perseverance.The follow-on post is the culmination of this, and the end result is stunning.

I Refuse To Follow Your Blog This post made me laugh! I love the way he writes, getting his point across in a humorous way. It works for me 🙂

Smorgasbord – Variety Is The Spice of Life I just had to include this one as I didn’t stop laughing throughout the whole post. That is no mean feat at the moment either!

Wild Daffodil I loved this post. We take many things for granted and don’t often see the beauty in nature. This shows just how lucky we are to have such beauty surrounding us.

I am sure you will enjoy these as much as I did.

Episode 319: Who Will Win?… Take Your Pick! — May 7, 2015

Episode 319: Who Will Win?… Take Your Pick!

As it is the General Election today, where we can decide who is going to govern our country for the next five years, the politicians have done all they can now to convince us to vote for them. I have already voted, preferring to do mine by post, and I await the results with anticipation that the party I voted for will be successful.

In the meantime, I thought it would be a bit of fun, if I gave you my personal opinions on the main contenders. I am not going to go into their policies or anything like that as that is not what my blog is about. No, I am going to describe what impression I get of their personalities.

David Cameron – Conservative. Ah good old Dave. He is the ex-public schoolboy who likes to think he is a ‘man of the people.’  Recently he invited a news reporter into his kitchen at home where he was awkwardly chopping up veg for a salad. He had assembled his long-suffering family around the dinner table, so it all looked very cosy. 

I do think he tries hard, but he doesn’t seem to get it quite right, Bless him. He has had a series of blunders and cock ups that don’t help. Last year whilst out visiting a pub with his family, he ended up leaving his daughter behind!; he has also left a bright red ministerial box on a train complete with key in the lock; he has admitted he doesn’t even know how much a loaf of bread costs as he uses a bread maker at home. It does make you wonder how he can run the country when he has such a bad memory!

Ed Milliband – Labour. Ed has been referred to as ‘Mr Weird’ but to me he is a bit of a non-entity. He does not seem to speak with any conviction and when challenged, has been lost for words on occasion. Added to that, he does seem to be very awkward and accident prone.

Now, I am clumsy I know, but I am not trying to inspire confidence in people, and convince them that am capable of running our country, Last week during a live debate, poor old Ed looked a bit uncomfortable, then right at the end, managed to trip over the stage. Another time for some reason he thought it would be a great idea to munch on a bacon sandwich complete with ketchup, Needless to say the press were there and he got in a hell of a mess with it! Can we trust him to run the country without breaking it?!

Nick Clegg – Liberal Democrat  As affable as he is, Nick is always going to be 2nd best. I can’t ever see him as Prime Minister, not for his want of trying though. He was pretty happy to ‘get into bed’ with the Conservatives and would have no qualms about doing the same with Labour.

He has also got into a bit of bother by going back on his promises. All in all, Nick comes across to me as a bit of a tart. He doesn’t care who he goes with as long as there is something in it for him. I am not sure where his loyalty would lie if he ran the country.

Nigel Farrage – UKIP  Nige is a kind of ‘salt of the earth’ type bloke. He likes a cig and a pint, and whenever you see him. he seems to be in the pub. He gives the impression of not taking life too seriously, cracking jokes, pulling faces and acting the fool. However, he too has dropped a few clangers.

He has said that he does not like it when people speak in foreign languages on trains despite his wife and children speaking German! Plus he thinks breastfeeding mothers should ‘sit in a corner’ and not make it too obvious. Mostly Nigel has had to try to defend his fellow members as they have dropped him in it many times, with their remarks that he had tried to defend, only to make matters worse!  I wonder what would happen if he were to run the country!

Episode 318: Wacky Word Wednesday! — May 6, 2015

Episode 318: Wacky Word Wednesday!

As I am now lamenting the end of the Blogging From A-Z Challenge and the fun I had finding words that appealed to me, I have decided that I will do a post on a Wednesday highlighting a weird, wacky or wonderful word. I am kicking off with a great-sounding word today……..

Cantankerous. This word is the crabby and crotchety, crusty and cross old codger that likes to moan and whinge about everything. He is grumpy and grouchy, miserable and morose. His ill-tempered and irritable demeanour makes him snappy and sour.

Or what about the sullen and short-tempered child, cranky and quarrelsome, who will not be pacified?  They are prickly and petulant, obstinate and onery, not to mention fractious and  downright foul!

A bit like me when I get hungry really!

Episode 317: One-Liner Wednesday. —

Episode 317: One-Liner Wednesday.

Life is short. Smile while you still have teeth!

This post was inspired by LindaGHill

Episode 316: The Unity of Humanity – #BeWoW:Humour —

Episode 316: The Unity of Humanity – #BeWoW:Humour

For my ‘Be Wonderful on Wednesday’ post on The Unity of Humanity, I have chosen to focus on humour,

No matter what race. gender, colour, creed or sexual orientation we are, everyone likes to laugh, it is universal. You only have to look at young children playing together, from even the most disadvantaged backgrounds, to see that they still manage to find something to laugh about.

Most of us have a sense of humour; even the most dour amongst us will find something that makes them laugh (particularly if it is at someone else’s expense)! I know I am pretty bad at laughing at the wrong times as well. Mr Grump once hit his head on the shelf above the radiator when he was taking some dry washing off of it. He clutched his head and went to the floor in a dramatic movement, making a hell of a fuss, Meanwhile I was helpless with laughter, doubled over. It was my mum also clucking round him that made me worse! (He was ok, by the way, a little scratch and a bit of a bump, but ok).

I feel that humour has a way of uniting people. If we look at some of the comedians like Eddie Murphy for example. He has been in many funny films that people have enjoyed and even his voice as ‘Donkey’ in Shrek, makes me laugh. I roared my head off at the movie ‘East is East’ which was mainly about the trials of an Indian family growing up in England in the 1970s.

I absolutely love Stephen Fry; I think he is one of the most intelligent and witty people alive, he also happens to be gay, as does Graham Norton, Ellen de Generes and a host of other comedians. No-one has the monopoly on being funny and being able to make others laugh, just the same as you don’t have to belong to a particular group to be able to laugh.

Another one of my favourite comedians is Omid Djalili, although born in England, his parents are Iranian, I love his humour as he takes the mickey out of himself, and everyone else as well, he just doesn’t care. An interesting fact that I discovered whilst researching his origins, is that he belongs to a faith  called Baha’i. which is a religion which endorses the unity of humankind, to me, that says it all.

Unity in love, respect, tolerance, and of course humour  would make the world such a better place.

Episode 315: Reflections: Blogging From A-Z — May 5, 2015

Episode 315: Reflections: Blogging From A-Z

I took part in the Blogging From A-Z Challenge for the very first time this year. This was because two blogging friends had also signed up for it and thought that I might also be interested, as we had all participated in the November NaBloPoMo together. I agreed as I love a challenge then promptly put it to the back of my mind until I was jolted back to reality, There was only about a week to go and most of the participants seemed to be going with a Theme, something I hadn’t even considered.

Actually, it was pretty obvious what my choice would be given my love of words, and once I had decided on that, I didn’t worry about it. My blogging style is always ‘off the cuff.’ I decide what I am going to write normally just before I write it! However, I have to say, I did do a little preparation for this challenge, as I wrote one or two posts in advance the day before. and all of my posts were scheduled.

Finding words was not too much of a problem. There were some that I had considered anyway. and the others seemed to fall into place as well. Even the letter ‘X’ was not the problem I thought it would be!

So, i would really like to thank Wendy, who did a wonderful take on the challenge by writing letters to people, characters or objects, and chose a song each day, and Mary-Anne who gave us a wonderful story about a hand-sewn quilt she was given by her students (she is a teacher), and what each square represented. I had a lot of support from them both for which I am extremely grateful.

I also met some new bloggers along the way Diary of A Dublin Housewife, Kim L Hine, and All But The Kitchen Sink to name but a few, It was also great that some of the blogs that I already followed were taking part as well LindaGHill, RonovansWrites,  Joeyfullystated and My Spanglish Familia.

I have been extremely lucky in that I had some really positive comments and lots of interaction during the challenge from my blogging friends, and I think, their encouragement and support spurred me on. I really wanted anyone that read my posts to be entertained, and I tried hard to find words that would do that.

I miss the challenge already, It was such fun to do. I loved how different bloggers interpreted it and the subjects they covered, I liked the fact that I had a focus, and a ‘prompt’ as it were. I don’t usually write about anything specific and it made a change to do that. I can’t wait for next year!

I would definitely take part in the challenge again next year and would encourage others to give it a go as well.

I

Episode 313: Five Things I Have Learned About Blogging! — May 4, 2015

Episode 313: Five Things I Have Learned About Blogging!

  • Don’t forget to proofread! Now I am one of those people who, once I have written something, unless there is a glaringly obvious mistake, then I might not notice it, despite re-reading the whole post to check for errors. I have hit ‘publish’ before then have gone into the article at a later date and found a typo in the very first word! How embarrassing! Mind you, even worse is when I have commented on other blogs and made a few typos!
  • Interact with others. This may seem bloody obvious, but you can’t afford to be shy. I know I was very daunted by commenting on other blogs, but we all like to know we are doing something right, so a little encouraging remark can go a very long way; sometimes you might even get a reply!
  • Be careful what you say. Again, this might be blindingly obvious, but if you are having a bit of a rant and rave about someone who has annoyed you, the chances are they will find out about it! Once a post has been published, it is there for all to see, so think twice about putting up drunken pictures of yourself in a heap on the floor. It’s not pretty!
  • Learn how to connect with social media, If you want people to read your blog, and are a dunce when it comes to using social media, you need to learn how it works. So many people use it, that you are missing out on a huge audience if you do not know how to share on these sites. This is a work in progress for me, which I am getting to the bottom of as it is going to take a bit of time, I think!
  • Be passionate about what you write. Nobody wants to read a boring post that drones on and on with no feeling or emotion. Who wants to be dragged down to the depths of despair by a dismal post? Exactly! I find that when I have written a positive and enthusiastic post then I get more comments and likes. Readers can pick up on when you are passionate or excited about something, and it influences the way they feel about it too.
Episode 312: A new Princess and Playmate For George. — May 3, 2015

Episode 312: A new Princess and Playmate For George.

Amidst a great deal of excitement, a new royal princess was born yesterday. William and Katherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrived at hospital at 6am yesterday morning as Katherine was in the early stages of labour.

Whilst the poor woman was puffing and panting, not to mention pushing, the world’s press were gathered outside the hospital desperate for news. Our national news reports were covering every aspect and angle they could whilst awaiting confirmation that the baby had been born.

News soon filtered out that a baby girl was born at 8:34am weighing, 8lb 3oz, There had already been huge speculation that the baby would be a girl, and the Queen wore a pink outfit yesterday, to mark her great-granddaughter’s arrival.

Poor little Prince George went to visit his mum and new baby sister, and trotted along holding his dad’s hand, probably terrified at all the people looking at him and taking photos. He did manage a little wave to them though, despite his bemusement.

From about 5pm onwards when I tuned in to watch the news, there was a shot of the hospital door as it was reported that William, Katherine and the new baby were going to leave soon (Prince George had already left; there is no excuse to mess up his evening routine, and he had to be bathed and have his tea.)!

Around 6:30pm we finally got to see the proud parents. Katherine looked as fresh as a daisy with immaculate hair and make-up. No doubt her stylists were on hand to sort her out, as she was probably a bit dishevelled after giving birth less than 10 hours before!

They posed on the steps for a while with the pretty princess, but unlike they did with George, they got straight into to car and drove home, rather than speak to the press.

You have got to admire Kate; it seems like delivering a baby is on in a day’s work for her!

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/05/02/19/283E093100000578-3044227-image-a-136_1430591628209.jpg

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