Its a Wonderful Life....

......by Black.

This is one of my favourite songs - always has been since the 80's.

Even more so now I'm older, wiser and a little frayed around the edges. It simply says to me that whatever shit life and people throw at you you can look past it and still appreciate being alive.

It takes me back to a time when life was simpler, the world seemed "cleaner" and the future was all ahead of me.

Carpe Diem. 

Seize the day, and don't let the bastard grind ya down...!

I guess that if you take the essence of what makes you happy, write out/off those things that make you sad and build a life from what you value - rather than make the best of what is presented to you - it is possible to achieve a greater level of happiness than perhaps you think possible...

I think I will give it a go.

Easter Sunday - Cider Festival

Looking forward to the annual Cider Festival down at the local today.

All the local talent will be on show and a good time will be had by all.

Can't wait. It will be a massive respite after 3 months of complete crap to deal with and clear my head following a morning of mourning.

Never forget - It's a Wonderful Life.

....and on the Brailes subject

What a lovely notice in the church car park.

Catholic Brailes

Brailes is a lovely village in Oxfordshire - out of the way and a little off the beaten track.

Not a bad thing!

I admit that a year or so ago I had never heard of it but then my cousins wife, Linda, did some family history research for me and I found that my fathers paternal line sprang from Brailes.

Their lives were middling - gamekeeprs, saddle & harness makers, coal merchants but what stuck out and answered a question that had hung over me for a lifetime was that they were Catholic.

English Catholic.

I always wondered how I was Catholic and yet all the kids at my Grammar School were of either Irish or Polish decent. Now I know.

And what a history Brailes has.

I will be returning here time and again.