55 songs in 55 days - one for every year of
my life...so far.
In January 2002, after 18 months with the
coffee company (and in a echo of my first
record shop job in 1981) I was offered the
opportunity to manage my own store in
Norfolk. The branch was located within a
bookstore, the perfect environment.
Occasionally, authors stopped in to sign
stock while on promotional jaunts, in some
cases hosting a reading and Q&A event in the
evening. If I was on shift, I'd be sure to
offer them a cuppa. Here I am with Our 'Enry.
55 songs in 55 days - one for every year of
my life...so far.
By the time my record shop closed in March
2000, I was in considerable debt. When asked,
I always say that I had 10 really good years
and 4 of increasingly swift decline. I should
have pulled the plug around 1997, but when
you're in the middle of it, you can't see the
wood for the trees. And you always think it's
going to get better.
In the Summer of 2000 I managed to secure
employment in a newly opening branch of a
modest sized national coffee shop chain. (15
years later, the same company is now a
massive global brand.) As some regular
readers might be aware, I am something of a
coffee nerd and while my new employer's
particular blend is nothing to write home
about, I was really looking forward to working as a
regular team member, able to leave work at
the end of every day with no stress or
worries. It lasted three days. The store's Manager walked out mid-shift, never to return
and, purely because of my age, I was asked to
take responsibility for the store (and ten
staff) until a replacement could be found. I
knew nothing about the company, ordering
procedures, rotas or budgetary constraints.
I'd barely even learned how to make a cup of
coffee, but somehow I struggled through for a
few weeks until a new Manager was recruited.
New York, October 2001.
After the uncertainties of the latter years of
my business, it was a joy to receive a weekly
pay packet and have a regular holiday
allowance. I had debts to repay, but, with
careful budgeting, I planned a trip to see my
cousin and her family in Manhattan at the end of October, coinciding with a couple of Bob Dylan gigs. One
morning, on the way to work, I stopped off in
our local Lunn Poly travel agents to book the
ticket for my flight to New York. The date was September
10th 2001.
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Halifax Pier formed in Kentucky in 1998 and,
by some accounts, are still musically active,
though the last recordings I have by them
date back to 2001. 'Lightly Noise' is from
their second (and last?) LP titled 'Put Your
Gloves On and Wave'. If I made you a CD,
Minidisc or Cassette compilation at any point
in the early noughties, this tune would've
been on it.
I usually wake sometime between 6am and 7am,
earlier if it's an exceptionally bright
morning. I've never been one to 'lie-in', I
get restless and bored, so, I'm out of bed
quite quickly. We sleep in the loft, with
dormer windows looking out over the marsh.
The view is often gorgeous at this hour and
subtly different every morning depending on
the weather, so I invariably pause here to see what
permutation of mist, mizzle and sunshine is
out there, before heading carefully down the
narrow staircase. In the kitchen, my trusty Chemex awaits and within 15 minutes of waking
I'm sat on the sofa in the conservatory, enjoying a peaceful pot of coffee and checking out the early birds rummaging around the garden. And so begins another day.
'The First Thing I Do In The Morning' by
Joyce Williams has appeared on a number of compilations
with titles such as 'Eccentric Soul' and
'Rare Funk Liberation', which, let's face it,
if you saw sitting in a record shop, you'd
buy without hesitation wouldn't you? I have
the latter in my collection and I can assure
you that the album more than lives up to its cool title.
A sense of normality returned
to Swede Towers this week,
with the arrival of a new
espresso machine. No, it's
not a NEW new machine - much
as my inner coffee-nerd
cherished one of the top of
the range pieces of kit on
offer, my inner fiscally-challenged level-headed self
won the day and I am now the
proud owner of a second-hand
workhorse purchased from a
well known online auction
site.
Here's the little beauty, settling in to it's new home!
Every Saturday morning the
comforting thud on the
doormat announces the arrival
of this week's coffee
selection from Has Bean
(currently drinking, Rwanda
Rulindo). My previous
espresso machine lasted a
good six or seven years, but
breathed it's last just
before Christmas, since when
I've been on brewed coffee
only, however the difference
on the palate between the
many different ways of coffee
preparation can be immense,
so I'm glad to now have the
benefit of a choice once
again.
Told you I was a coffee-nerd! Time for a cuppa I think!
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