Look, a video with B-roll! Intercut! What Christmas magic is this?
Marvel as we decorate our mini tree, in time-lapse footage that I’m immensely proud of.
Listen in awe at the okay take of It’s A Most Wonderful Time Of The Year, as made famous by smooth operator Andy Williams. (HIs was better!)
Goggle at the part where we jig briefly because that Mike Oldfield track comes on our playlist.
Go ‘Aaaaaaah’ when it’s done and we put the lights on.
Aaaaaah.
Read MoreThe Christmas Song is a Nat King Cole classic that I simplified for ukulele, seemingly so I could murder it. Or at least, so I could do something untoward with it, judging by the video.
(Your mileage may vary. I don’t think it came out that badly, if I’m honest. Remember, it’s one take with me and my uke: no effects on my voice, no edits, no extras. Singing, playing and looking good simultaneously is a bit like like manufacturing cheap, fast and high quality: you can only have two of those three attributes at any one time. Regardless, it’s harder than it looks.)
Read MoreToday’s song is It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, sung previously by Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, and more. It felt right to go with something a bit more boppy and rocking after yesterday’s gentle Judy Garland number. Variety being the spice of life and all that.
Before you ask, yes, I did a switcheroo on a couple of the names in the bridge, because there’s no reason a girl couldn’t want a pistol that shoots, or a boy couldn’t want a doll that’ll talk and go for a walk. (If that bothers you, then please, sincerely, get over it.)
Read MoreI'm not a fan of how I look on camera. My face Out There doesn't look how I think it does In Here, nor do the expressions I make when singing. Plus, if the camera adds 10 pounds, I could clearly do with dropping a good stone.
But, y'know, it is what I look like. This is just my face, and I've a need to make, and create, and do. In this case, sing – and the best venue for that is YouTube.
So it's time for some radical acceptance. Look at me, growing as a person.
Read MoreRome is a gorgeous, aggressive, heart attack of a city. Liberally laced with ancient history and breathtaking beauty, turn any given corner in Rome and you'll likely find yourself faced with a stunning work of art – whether classical, modern, or graffiti. Rome is a city you drink with your eyes.
The most famous of Rome's works of art, though, is difficult to enjoy, at best. (We'll get to that later...)
We spent three days in Rome, which let us taste the city long enough to know our way around, but was still a short enough stay that we'll happily visit again one day.
Read MoreIn the past week or so I've experienced almost the most physically painful thing of my life so far. I say 'almost' because there's one bodily trauma that hurt for longer, greater and deeper than this. One.
I knew it was going to hurt, probably quite a lot. But nothing prepared me for the sheer, blinding, imploding levels of pain that would follow when I sat in the dentist's chair.
Voluntarily, I might add...
Read MoreA lot can happen in a year.
You can go from the shell of a person, a desiccated husk oiled with a steady diet of poison, to something entirely else instead. You can transform your body from a collection of inflamed tissue, dusky with sadness soot, to a beautiful, fluid machine that slips between the strata of the world – emerging unscathed from between the knives.
It can be done. A wrong can be made right. A lot can happen in a year.
Read MoreStopped drinking alcohol? Cutting down? Maybe just don't fancy it right now? Good stuff. The thing is, you'll still need a go-to drink when you're out in restaurants, clubs and bars, or cosying up at home, or sitting out on verandas under the stars. Here are some of my favourite recipes for beautiful times.
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It took a while, but when I stopped drinking alcohol, many of those fleeting, fearful imaginings I'd had about what life would be like – how nothing would ever be the same again – slowly came true. The too-bright nights unwinding over a drink or ten? Gone forever. Close friends taking the same liquid shortcut to a more communicative state of mind? No more.
Sounds terrible, right? Way back when, I thought the same. And now...I get that I didn't really get it before.
Read MoreThinking. Wondering. Analysing. Dreaming. It's pretty much what I'm always doing. Overthinking? Definitely, but in the process of examining the world and my brain from various angles, I discover the well-worn grooves of thought I slip into – and can learn how to see things differently. Or choose to do something different next time.
Take, for example, a recent situation that led to a reminder of promises made, a revolution in my self-image, and the start of an absolutely terrifying new venture.
Read MoreSometimes my Kind-Eyed-Boy has to travel for work, and one of the things I tend to do when he's away is send him recordings of my hapless covers. He doesn't seem to mind.
This is one I sent to him last time he was away.
Herein you'll find some simple ukulele chords to cover this altogether pretty and and uplifting song by The Smashing Pumpkins – plus an imperfection project recording with some serious issues...
Read MoreIf you’re newly not doing alcohol any more, and you can honestly say you’re saving money, then you’re probably setting yourself up for a fall. Now is not the time for austerity measures. Now is the time for all the cake. Now is the time to spend the same money you were previously shelling out to dull your emotions on making your life easier, prettier, brighter, and more beautiful. Consider it an investment in yourself and your quality of life. Later, once you’re on an even keel, you can think about saving money. For now, concentrate on saving yourself.
Right now, I'm feeling fairly pleased with myself. It's Friday night, and I spent the evening figuring out some chords for this lovely song, did two (quietly holding back because it's past ten) takes into my phone, decided to run with the second one, and barrelled straight into writing this. I think the recording sounds pretty nice. Your mileage may vary...
Read MoreNow that I don't drink alcohol, I find myself noticing things more. Things that would have slipped under the radar before. Things worth thinking about.
Somehow, conversations about alcohol keep happening in lifts. I have no idea why, but the lift seems to be the happening new venue for short conversations that exemplify sweeping societal attitudes to alcohol. There have been a fair few more than this, but I'll call out two lift conversations that gave me pause...
Read MoreIt's Father's Day – a day that's really difficult if your dad has passed, as mine has. Social media is full of people who don't know what this feels like yet, and I hope they won't for a long time.
As always these days, I choose to meet my challenges head on – but facing down grief is no small task, even though the years render the crashing waves of loss fewer and further between. Somehow I managed to get through recording my imperfection project version of this song without full-on crying, so that's the take we're going to go with, okay? Good.
Read MoreSummertime, and the living is...sweaty. People love summer, I kind of hate it – but then I instantly burn when exposed to sun, and sweat a thoroughly rugged, manly amount in a day. The worst part of summer by far, however, is trying to work out when it's hot. It's got to be done, but it's unpleasant and excessively draining to your energy and motivation. Here are my tips for keeping up with the good stuff when the mercury rises.
Look, I know its not 'cool' but neither is playing the ukulele, or stopping drinking, or baring your lack of talent for folk to poke fun at in a steadfast exercise to grow as a person: Billy Joel is one of my favourite artists. Yeah. You heard me. I just really like his voice. His lyrics strike a chord with me. His vocal range and mine have a pleasing crossover. Some of his songs are pleasantly hard to play and have chord progressions that make me smile big. I'm resolutely uncool. And I am cool with it.
Read MoreAs a hopeless romantic at heart, I can't help but adore an earnest love song - and few contemporary artists do earnest quite like Hunter Hayes. Somebody's Heartbreak is a pretty song that's easy to play, has some nice stops and starts, and lends itself well to just you and a uke.
Read MoreIf you plan on doing cardio, you're going to need music. But, you don't want some generico-smug club dance mix. No. You deserve an incredible, motivating curation of bizarre juxtapositions that'll make you want to
MOVE YOUR BEAUTIFUL BODY.
Here is one such mix I made, just for you...
Read MoreA little while ago I wrote about how ukulele songbooks are often awful, and loftily pledged to publish songsheets for tunes I enjoy singing and playing. Since then I've been debating how to start the series. (Something easy, classic, or a lesser-known favourite?) I've settled on embracing the me, and now. It's a song I figured out this last week, and which nobody on the internet seems to have quite the right chords for: Halfway Home by Nerina Pallot.
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