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Thu, Jun 26, 2025

8:24am EDT

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Toe in the Water

by Beholden

Rated: 13+ · Book · Experience · #2223922

A tentative blog to test the temperature.

Ten years ago I was writing several blogs on various subjects - F1 motor racing, Music, Classic Cars, Great Romances and, most crushingly, a personal journal that included my thoughts on America, memories of England and Africa, opinion, humour, writing and anything else that occurred. It all became too much (I was attempting to update the journal every day) and I collapsed, exhausted and thoroughly disillusioned in the end.

So this blog is indeed a Toe in the Water, a place to document my thoughts in and on WdC but with a determination not to get sucked into the blog whirlpool ever again. Here's hoping.

Signature for those who are nominated for a Quill Award in 2021

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

SandraLynn

a day ago
In response to "Driving Time"

Who hasn't heard, "Are we there yet?" from a fidgety child strapped into the back seat. They appreciate the time concept better than the distance concept. "We'll be there by supper time" makes more sense. If it's a familiar route, kids look for landmarks. No one I know says, "I'll see you in 400 kilometres." It's four hours. That time estimate can and is a challenge, a dare if you will. Most drivers delight in shaving off driving time. The distance remains as is.

1 Like

S 🤦

Jun 24, 2025 at 6:37am
In response to "Driving Time"

In Australia it is also time, rarely distance. My son came to visit last weekend, and he told the lady at the pub he lived "2 hours" away.

For the same reasons mentioned for the US above - we have long stretches of road with not much traffic outside the capital cities. But Australia is even more sparsely populated, while being pretty much the same size as the contiguous 48 states.

So, for me, going to Melbourne is 10 hours away. It is also 900km by road (560 miles).
Sydney is about 15 hours away (maybe more with the slow points now), 1500 km (950 miles).
Perth is 2 and a half days away (2500km, 1550 miles).
Sydney to Perth is about 4 days, 4000km, 2500 miles.

I had to look up the distances; I only knew the times.

1 Like

Beholden

Jun 24, 2025 at 6:29am
In response to "Driving Time"

Similar things are done in Britain. And I admit that I've never set out on a long drive without having given myself a target time for arrival. Which inevitably leads to certain bending of speed limits etc.

Ned

Jun 24, 2025 at 6:01am
In response to "Driving Time"

It's also a contest. When a sister lived in PA, the contest was to cut the driving time to the very lowest possible without being stopped for speeding. My father would make it in about 7 hours, my brother could it in a little over 6 hours, but being a passenger in the car took years off your life so it wasn't really worth it.

1 Like

ßlυҽყҽʐ

Jun 22, 2025 at 8:21am
In response to "A Change of Mind"

Oh yeah, some great musicians there! I remember skipping band class, smoking my first cigarette in some kid's car in the school parking lot and listening to Dire Straits for the first time on eight track tape.

1 Like

Ned

Jun 22, 2025 at 8:06am
In response to "A Change of Mind"

I'm still wild for Sultans of Swing, it's the first song of theirs that I heard and it drove me to go out and read the album. Yeah, I read it first because all the lyrics were printed on the jacket. Then I bought the album.

1 Like

Beholden

Jun 22, 2025 at 7:59am
In response to "A Change of Mind"

I never saw them live (my score on that count is precisely one - the Byrds, years after their heyday). But YouTube allows me to see what it was like.

S 🤦

Jun 22, 2025 at 7:25am
In response to "A Change of Mind"

I saw Dire Straits in 1986. They played Footy Park, I was 15 and in year 11 at high school, and I went with two mates and one of their older brothers.

That was the night I fell in love with their 'Romeo And Juliet'. Just phenomenal.

1 Like

Beholden

Jun 21, 2025 at 1:57pm
In response to "Both Sides of the Pond"

No one said that freedom was free. And it's not, whichever side of the pond you look at.

W.D.Wilcox

Jun 21, 2025 at 1:52pm
In response to "Both Sides of the Pond"

The excessive cost for *cough* health care here outweighs any *coughs* benefits. It's freedom at a price.

1 Like

June 22, 2025 at 6:56am

#1092013

A Change of Mind

A Change of Mind

A few days ago, S 🤦

asked in QOTD about our all-time, favourite songs. It’s not an easy question to answer, so much depending on mood (both of players and listeners), circumstances, experience, etc. But I came up with an answer and gave it.

I’ve been thinking since then and today I realised there is one song and performance that beats my picks. It’s a live recording of Dire Straits in their heyday but not, I hasten to add, the Alchemy recording of Sultans of Swing. That is great enough and most would have it as the very peak of the band’s incredible output. Yet I know of another one and this, I have decided, is the best.

It’s the Wembley performance of Tunnel of Love in 1985. Yes, their best period and the necessary drummer, Terry Williams, is in the thick of it, just as he was in the Alchemy concert. The band is as together as they were in the more famous song and Knopfler’s solos are even better, in my opinion. There’s a completeness and flow to the whole thing (crowd included) that just pips Sultans.

Anyway, I dug around and found the video and it awaits you below. Sure, it’s long but you’ll wish it were longer.

Word count: 210

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