indecision dice

My vice is prevarication. I know what I have to do but can I get on with it? No, I will find all kinds of activities to do rather than the one I am scheduled to complete.

If I have a piece of writing I am supposed to be finishing, I will suddenly find that video I simply have to edit. On the other hand, if it was the video I was supposed to be editing, then the garden simply has to have attention whilst the weather is good.

If I have decided I will go out and walk every day, then for some reason I have to change the sheets, put a washing in, hoover the living room and one endless task leads to another until suddenly it's lunchtime. So then, I'll go for that walk after lunch. But no, I suddenly remember that email I have to reply to, the notes I have to draft out and before I know it it's time to think about the evening meal.

Oh well, I'll go for the walk tomorrow .......

I joined Plinky which gives you daily prompts for writing. I selected the one that said 'Can you play any musical instruments?' I don't want anyone to think I play very well now. I can read music and at one time I reached a reasonable standard but I am very much out of practice now.

Happy Notes

I can play the piano. I had lessons from the time I was six years old until I left school aged 19. The first few years I lived in Austria and made great progress but once we returned to Britain, I was engulfed in having to pass exams with endless scales and boring exam pieces. The greater freedom in Austria made learning the piano a richer experience. There were no scales. Instead there were musical exercises by Diabelli, Czerny and others. I was also encouraged to learn small pieces well enough to play them without music.

When I was in my teens, I hankered to play a guitar, it was the time of Joan Baez and Bob Dylan and I was given one for either Christmas or my birthday. To my great disappointment, I found it very difficult to play because my hands are small and I could not stretch my fingers far enough to play all the chords.

When I left home I was without a piano for some time. By the time I had children, I was able to use the piano on which my father used to play and so they learned too. I practised again but was always too nervous to play in public. These days I am out of practise again and the piano is getting old too. However, now that I am retired perhaps I'll take it up again. I've always had a desire to play a stringed instrument and a few years ago thought I might like to learn the Celtic harp. Who knows? Perhaps I can take that up next year.

I used to wonder if I would rather lose my sight or my hearing and always came to the conclusion that not being able to listen to music would be devastating. At the moment, the deterioration of my sight and hearing is about 50/50 I should say. I wear glasses but don't need a hearing aid, yet!

I think more children should be given the chance to learn a musical instrument and I also wish that more young people nowadays could have the opportunity of learning about different types of music and that should include traditional and classical music.