MUM’S THE WORD

It’s after 2am and I’m pulling this piece together just a few hours before publication.

This is most unusual as I’m the type who has things written up weeks in advance, rarely deviating from a planned schedule. But in truth, the posting for 29 November 2019 was always going to be about a blogging friend but I wasn’t sure until now just how I was going to approach it.

The past wee while has been strange in terms of blogging. A crisis of confidence (of sorts) has led to me not reading other people’s stuff over the past six months – I was genuinely scared of visiting places and discovering so many amazingly well-written posts which I had no chance of matching that I’d end up using them as the excuse to give up entirely.

It’s been a selfish thing to do, especially given that I rely often on guest contributions. It’s also been a stupid thing to do as I’ve missed out on things that have been happening to friends – some good things, some bad things, some sad things and some happy things – and my life has been the poorer for it.

I can say that with some certainty as I’ve just spent much of the past three days, whenever I’ve had some spare time (of which there hasn’t been much and thus this particular late shift), catching up with SWC, Tim Badger and KT over at The Sound of Being OK.

There’s a number of reasons why theirs was the first to go back to after all these months – one being that I have received a few e-mails from the trio asking after me and they were kind enough to accept my excuses for not visiting and indeed being very understanding in so many ways.  The main reason, however, was because Tim and SWC supplied me with info and news which was very much in the public domain through their blog but which, of course, I had missed out on, namely that KT and her husband Dom were going to become parents around the end of this calendar year.

I don’t know how many of you are regular visitors to their place – I do know from their own comments section that a number of the regulars to T(n)VV are fans of TSOBO, something which is hardly a surprise given the quality of writing to be found over there.

The month of November has been a particular joy to read as TSOBO has been more or less handed over in its entirety to KT to allow her to say a few things before she takes her leave (hopefully temporarily). Tomorrow is her last day and will see her reveal something about her #1 song/singer/band of all time.

But today, KT will talk about #2 and I have it on good authority it will feature Coldplay. And I have promised the boys that, in her honour, and as a way of saying both thank you and good luck, I will have this blog do likewise. Eventually…..

KT previously provided an ICA on Coldplay. It was a wonderfully written and high-quality piece as you would expect, albeit most of the songs were unfamiliar to me, which in itself is not unusual with most guest ICAs.

However, in this instance, there was a badly judged effort on my behalf to take the piss out of the band, one in which I shamefully encouraged others to join in. It was meant to be funny but the joke wore thin rather quickly and KT would have been well within her rights to call me all the names under the sun.

The fact that she didn’t shows what a class act she truly is…..and I’ll always be grateful to her for being so magnanimous.

TSOBO is the follow-on from an old blog which was known commonly as WYCRA, something which the authors collectively deleted sometime ago.

KT (or KC as she was for much of WYCRA) was introduced to us on the back of an incredibly personal posting about how her world had collapsed around her without warning….it was one of the most remarkable pieces of writing I’d seen anywhere, in hard physical copy or digitally. Over the succeeding weeks and months, Kay (for that is her given name) took us on a rollercoaster of a journey through the life she had lived, introducing us to so many great people who surround her, be they family or friends. Oh, and she also threw out the most wonderful titbits that revealed very funny things about SWC and Tim Badger….

Kay is a ridiculously talented writer – as indeed are her two male sidekicks… and I’ll likely focus on them some other days.  Today is all anout the mum-to-be, someone who is  going to be missed by many, and no doubt by SWC and Tim more than any others, and I’m really looking forward to reading her final two contributions today and tomorrow.

I’ve never heard the song I’m posting today….but an internet search of ‘What’s the happiest Coldplay song?’ threw it up as a suggestion…..and the title seemed appropriate.

This one’s for you missus…..and I want to wish you, Dom and your soon-to-be-born daughter all the happiness in the world.

mp3 : Coldplay – Adventure of a Lifetime

JC