Flying To The Stars

Hello Jack's friends page, lucymorningstar (his girlfriend) here.

Jack has gone off on a spontaneous trip with a couple of his old air force buddies for a few days, they've all hopped on their motorbikes with their fishing gear whch really is a hilarious site and they've gone over to France. He thinks he'll be back by the begnning of next week and says he'l catch up on spamming you all with classical music when he gets back!

Bye for now!

Day 13 - One of your favourite 70's songs:

(yes, that's the full ballet. No, I don't expect anyone will watch it.)

Continuing on the theme of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and ballet we have Swan Lake. (Hey, it never specified a century and Swan Lake had it's premier in '77's... 1877!)

Day 11 - A song that you never get tired of:

Georg Friedrich Händel - Messiah: Part II: Hallelujah

One of my favourite pieces of choral music. I adore all of Handel's Messiah but I would think it safe to say the Hallelujah Chorus that closes part II is the most well-known section of it. I always end up stopping wht I'm doing to listen and pretend I'm conducting!
I love how it has this deceptively light orchestral opening before rising and swelling with almost contagious enthusiam, then closing on a final solemn note. Truly remarkable.

I like to think of myself as being a fairly open-minded guy. I try not to be to judgemental of other lifestyles, considering mine is doubly alternative but I have to admit that every so often I come across something that I simply don't get.

On the internet, recently, I have discovered one of those things.

Fan fiction.

From what I can gather, it appears to be imagining characters from a tv show or movie or even the actors playing them are gay and writing porn about it.

Lucy is quite taken with it at the moment. She assures me it's 'hot'.

On one hand, anything that can get Lucy reading is a great tool. She wants to read and gets very frustrated with herself when her attention span doesn't allow her to.
I also keep meaning to speak to Samantha about reading books vs reading on the screen if it's the format that's helping her concentrate, and would be worth getting Lucy a Kindle?

On the other hand, however, I... don't get it.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, my May the Fourth Star Wars marathon would take up an afternoon. I could start at lunchtime and be done in time for a late evening meal. It was a trilogy - not a whole lot of film watching, maybe just over 7 hours.

Then the prequels happened and so the time taken doubled. That's more of a movie marathon. Now we start to weed out the weak. And of course the last couple of years there's been more increases which is even better.

This year. This year, we actually managed to do the majority of the watching ON the day. I don't work anymore, Samantha doesn't have classes on a Thursday. The rewatch often happens the weekend after the 4th, because of work etc

We started bright and early, 8am with The Phantom Menace. We finished up at 11pm at the end of Empire Strikes Back. We were all tired, and Samantha had class again today.

This evening we finished off with Return Of The Jedi and The Force Awakens.

If there's a better way to spend one day and one evening, I don't know what it is!

Never let it be said that I do not look after my girls, or that I cannot cook. I admit I'm not the best cook in the world, much prefer to just cook meat on the bbq but this is Wales and I don't get the opportunity to do that as often as I like.

Samantha & Lucy spent the day out at Penrhyn Castle & Parc with the dogs. (I spent the day watching NCIS and Bones, my backs and knees weren't up for a day on my feet and they could do with some time together, they don't get enough) They came back all cold and wet and exhausted - but happy, which is the important thing. The dogs fast asleep in front the shower, the girls have showered and are flopped down on the couch under warm blankets. Aching feet have been rubbed and dinner has been served. I made sweet and sour pork stir-fry which was a hit all round and Lucy suggested I share the recipe.

I don't have a recipe, per se.
I mixed together pineaple juice, cornflour, tomato sauce, soy, sugar and vinegar. I threw some diced pork into a hot wok, cooked it through then set it aside. Fried the red pepper, chopped pineapple and onion, stirred in the sauce, warmed it through, added the pork back in. Served it with rice noodles. I even did the dishes!

I'm about the join them - and the cats - under the blankets and we're going to watch the 2008 Incredible Hulk. I'm not crazy about this version of Hulk, I definitely prefer Ruffalo as Banner but we're doing an MCU rewatch.

The internet, blogging spaces especially, make me feel like a dirty old man. We're going to completely ignore the fact that I am a dirty old man and focus on how young everyone else online seems to be.

I come across random blogs, start reading only to realise that the writer is in their 20s or 30s. I've joined 2017revival and addme and all the posts seem to be from younger ladies. I feel hesitant to start a conversation, to request to add them because I don't know how they'd feel about a... (and I use the term loosely) more mature man reading their posts.

I try to imagine how I would feel if the situation was reversed; if I were that age and found out that someone old enough to be my father were wanting to read my blog. I think I'd feel quite awkward. I doubt I'd be interested in reading what they had to say.

Do I necessarily feel comfortable reading posts by someone young enough to be my son - if not younger than him. Am I opening myself up for completely inaccurate accusations of inappropriateness?

I did an interest search for over 60s but it was unsuccessful. I did a google search for 'over 60s blogs' and learned a hell of a lot about how to dress as a woman over 60 which I'm sure would be really useful were I of the female persuasion. I offered to send the links to an amused Samantha* and she shot me a look that would make a lesser person drop down dead.

Then again, does age really matter? Isn't this whole thing about getting to meet people that I wouldn't normally meet. Doesn't science-fiction etc transcend barriers of age, gender, race, sexuality etc.

Or is my son right and I am 'too old' for this?

^{* Samantha is still many years from 60}

I've come to realise as I'm reading blogs that I seem to spend a lot of time feeling the need to apologise for my fellow man, for the way so many men treat women, for the way so many women have been treated by men. It sickens me that there are men who think it's ok to continue making advances on a woman when shes made it clear she's not interested, and more than that.

Am I trying to say that I'm perfect, that I've never undressed a woman with my eyes, that I've never catcalled, that I've never thought of certain more manual labour as a 'mans job'?
No, of course I'm not. I do, however, know where the line is and not to cross it. I was raised by a strong woman and taught to respect women. To respect everyone, lets face it. To be a decent human being.

My son has been raised the same way and if I was to ever find out that he was treating women in a disrepectful manner, if I ever found out he'd broken a woman's consent... well let's just say he may be 30 but he'd still find his hide tanned for it!
(I tried to put a joking 'other than his mother, he can treat her however he pleases' but actually, no, despite my thinking shes an insufferable bitch, if I found out Charlie was treating his mother wrong it would still be the same case!)

I was always aware of the difficulties a woman can face. My wife struggles with gender bias a lot in her chosen fields. There is a colleague of hers who refers to her, even in earshot, as 'the cute blonde' - ok, I'm not going to argue with his assessment because she i but damnit they're supposed to be professionals, they're peers, she has just as many (if not more) qualifications as he does, she's published more, I'd like to say she's better respected.

Samantha says it's professonal jealousy combined with a masculine pride and not wanting to believe a woman could do better than her. I say it's a good job I don't have to see the arrogant fool more than once or twice a year. I'm personally not sure how she hasn't broken his nose yet!

I also understnd that would cause more trouble than it's worth and he'd just label her another emotional woman who can't control or handle herself.

I cannot understand men like him. I cannot understand the behaviour of so many men.

How are we in 2017 and still struggling with the same issues of gender equality?

According to a small child in town today, I am the coolest old person they had ever seen. Possibly even the coolest old person, ever. Old people, you see, don't wear Batman t-shirts. This is what I've learned today.

While I'm pleased as punch to be classed as cool, I'm not sure how I feel at being seen as an 'old person'. Yes, I am old and yes I call myself old. But having someone else call me old is very different to knowing I'm old.
I'm not sure how much sense that makes.

Can I just take the 'cool' and run with it?
No-one's ever actually called me cool and meant it before

Samantha and Lucy, who I was having lunch with at the time, thought it was utterly hilarious. They say that I'm just old and not cool though. One day they'll both turn old, have people think they're old and then we'll see how they feel!