Sing!

I didn’t know that there was an official song for the Diamond Jubilee. It tickled me to imagine the Queen sitting in her car with her iPhone, blaring out the music from the back seat and singing along with Prince Philip on their way to the Epsom Derby this morning. It’s a catchy and uplifting (cheesy) song. I can just picture Her Majesty emptying her lungs and belting out the chorus…and swaying in time, maybe waving the royal handbag above her head, both white-gloved hands in the air. Must be a nice change from hearing “God Save the Queen” for the last 60 years.

I was wondering if the song was a gift from the Queen to her subjects, but turns out it will be on sale and some of the proceeds will go to the Official Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust.

What isn’t there a song for? What’s the official Olympic anthem going to be? I haven’t been keeping an ear out for it. I hope that it’s good. But I had better step away from the computer now and watch that those scones don’t burn otherwise when HM turns up later, there’ll only be the cucumber sandwiches on which to dollop the clotted cream and that won’t do (even though I can definitely eat clotted cream like some do peanut butter – straight out of the tub with a spoon!)

Well, I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far. Even if you, like me, are not planning on hovering around street parties to see if there is any free food going… Apparently Scotland is due to get most of the Jubilee party sunshine amazingly! Bet the Queen was wishing she could have stayed at Balmoral and had a good knees up there, without all this traipsing around 😉

The simple pleasures

Well… Friday. I do love Fridays. At the brink of the weekend, there is that anticipation that wonderful possibilities lie ahead …and even despite the promising sunshine this morning giving way once again to hazy blue-grey clouds, the weekend beckons, and life is a beautiful thing. Thank God for Fridays.

I promised to explain the random photograph I published earlier this week: I decided to challenge myself to a simple photographic project, the focus of which being everyday details that I enjoy. I was inspired by this post on VagueMemories where the author posted a photo of a familiar building. It made me think of my commute and how I love to gaze at random things in the train or out of the window. One thing I love is details. Beautiful details. Patterns. Forms. And sometimes the familiar is the most beautiful. The things I pass by every day, objects that are anchored in the landscape of regular routes that I take. I just love that opportunity for watching the world go by.

An old film photo from over 10 years ago. A familiar detail. A detail still firmly etched on my mind.

I remember reading an article some time ago about how we have lost the art of journeying. With all our modern technology, we tend to focus on the destination. Commuters read or stop up their ears with repetitive beats from various electronic devices. Our minds have to be continuously occupied. We fail to hear the sounds of the journey – doors opening and closing, the footsteps and shuffling of other passengers, the train rumbling over the tracks (although in London, I’m sure you can still hear that over anything else you might be listening to!) We have become unfamiliar with our travel scenes and most definitely avoid eye contact with other passengers.

I certainly am not one of those commuters. I am the one that looks like I am totally wasting time day-dreaming or staring into space. I treasure the time and space that commuting gives me, to mull over the day and migrate my focus away from work. I also love walking (although not in the recent heavy rain) and discovering beautiful things on a well-trodden path – which is how I came upon the detail in the photograph above.

Part of my this is lemonade goal is to remember and celebrate the good things. To extract out of the yucky, something that will remind me of my purpose and a reason to stay alive. In the photograph above, I didn’t just love the dandelions, I loved the harsh weathered texture of the structure behind them more. Over a decade ago, I did not know I would be writing a blog based on something yellow. In fact, I’ve never had a particular affinity with the colour, quite far from it. However, as I spend more and more time pondering on the lemonade side of things, I am finding that its vibrancy energises me.

As we know, dandelions eventually lose their intense sunshiney petals and become globes of little soft, feather-light parachutes which then carry the dandelion seeds wherever the wind may blow. What a beautifully challenging and inspiring picture to take into the weekend with me. I wonder what that image brings to your mind?

Relax…

I can’t remember where I stumbled across this old news, but I’ve listened to the three music tracks below a few times this week. They were ranked as the top three most relaxing pieces of music in the world last year, based on how the rhythm influences your heart rate among other things.

The first one is officially the most relaxing. According to Lyz Cooper, founder of the British Academy of Sound Therapy, it “contains a sustaining rhythm that starts at 60 beats per minute and gradually slows to around 50. While listening, your heart rate gradually comes to match that beat…And there is no repeating melody, which allows your brain to completely switch off because you are no longer trying to predict what is coming next.”

I don’t work well to music in general because I get immensely distracted anticipating what is coming next. It’s worst with songs because I start singing along to them in my head (if not out loud). But I also get very distracted by people around me talking, walking around, making random irregular sounds by sighing, picking things up, putting things down, dialing a phone number…

We had some fun in the office yesterday afternoon after lunch. A few of us were feeling particularly tired and zoned out at the end of a long week, so we decided to put the music to the test. It just so happened that some sunshine started streaming through the window at the same time, after the lunch time downpour.

Some of us felt all too ready for a weekend lie-in as a result and one colleague found the first tune annoyingly boring!

I really enjoyed the resulting atmosphere however. It was so nice to be able to relax into the remaining tasks of the day. I think these three are going to be my go-to tunes when I find myself unable to focus whilst blogging too…let me know what you think. Do you work well to music or are you easily distracted by it?

1. Marconi Union – Weightless
2. Airstream – Electra
3. DJ Shah – Mellomaniac (Chill Out Mix)

(Links via Soundcloud)