Category Archives: weekendcoffeeshare

What streaming service to listen too

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If you were a regular coffee buddy of mine you’d already know that my life runs on music. You’d also know that I am in the first year of a PhD program that follows on from completing Honours last year. My study has been fueled on coffee and a lot of music. I estimated that I listened to more than 20,000 songs during my Honours!

So as we catch up on coffee I’d ask you what are you listening to and how are you listening to it? I’d get into the specifics and quickly I’d get to my current dilemma – Apple Music or Spotify supported by a Pandora. You of course were expecting the topic of conversation over coffee to be on the US elections and its impact on us in Australia!

Before you had a chance to change the topic I’d continue with my topic telling you pandora-thumbprint-862x647that I like all three. I’d quickly explain that I see Pandora as a great companion to my mainstays of Spotify and Apple Music. Pandora is easy as the music is selected for me and with the best part of a thousand Thumbprints Pandora makes listening easy.

However if I want to listen to something specific Pandora’s greatest asset, that it does it all for you becomes a problem, so its off to either Spotify or Apple Music.

I’d explain to you the history of how a couple of years ago I moved from iTunes to Spotify. As I transitioned away from CDs I’d found iTunes an easy way to carry all my own music with me.  This was because I had downloaded my hundreds of CDs to my iTunes Library via iTunes Match. That way my CDs were available everywhere on my iPod, particularly with the work travel timetable I was on at the time. About the same time as my iPod froze for the last time I also  decided that buying CDs from the almost nonexistent CD Stores in Adelaide was no longer satisfying as they didn’t have the range and with that I moved to Spotify.spotify

It was initially a bit  of a hassle finding what I liked but I got used to it and at the same  time Spotify got better. As a Premium user, that is I pay for it, I was able to download music so I could listen offline solving a dilemma of listening while traveling which I was still doing. Continue reading →

Alice’s Restaurant

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If you haven’t ever listened to or haven’t recently listened to Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant, I suggest  make yourself a coffee, sit down and listen to it.

While I owned the record, I hadn’t listened to it for many years until it just appeared on a Spotify playlist I selected. Within a fraction of a second of it starting I knew exactly that it was Alice’s Restaurant and more scarily I  knew every word just as though I’d only heard it the day before. It had been a regular at our Friday night singalongs in the 70s.

I thankfully was too young to be in the Vietnam Draft but knew many who were either in the Conscription ballots or were called up to serve in Vietnam, so its significance is one I understood all too well.

As the song progressed I stopped what I was doing to listen again as I ‘d done so many times before, first chuckling internally and then just laughing out aloud. And there was plenty of time to do this as its more than 18 minutes long! Too long to fit on a 45 it filled  the whole of a side on an LP (Released 1967). It’s hilarious while at the same time having a pretty hard edge.

If you haven’t listened to it and want too click on the link – Alice’s Restaurant before reading on as there are spoilers below. Continue reading →

It’s Negroni not coffee this week

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Negroni – Second Valley style

Well this week we won’t be sharing a coffee rather it will be a Negroni! After all,it is Negroni week .

Negronis have become our drink of choice. A wonderful aperitif that doesn’t seem to be climate dependent. Whether at home, at the beach (Second Valley) in a local bar or somewhere on our travels they have been a highlight. In Australia they are carefully measured, unless you having one of my homemade versions, whereas in many of the bars we sampled them in Italy it was a “glug” of Gin, Campari and Vermouth making them all the more special.

After a Negroni or two the conversation often becomes obtuse. For example – unusual words in songs.

“moot” in Rick Springfield’s Jessy’s Girl – surely a little sophisticated for a song like this?

“gavotte” in Carly Simon’s Your so Vain – Carly Simon in Variety discusses why she used the word which means a French dance. Continue reading →

A reflection

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Hardware Societe - Melbourne

Hardware Societe – Melbourne

I use the weekend coffee share post as my period of reflection. The opportunity to think back over my week. What better to do than over a coffee?

This week I have written more than a thousand words on my PhD Thesis proposal. It’s also been a week where I have found an opportunity to pursue an idea I have been musing over, about converting my own experiences in transitioning to retirement into something that might be useful for others facing the same daunting challenge.

It’s also been a week where I rediscovered the music of The Moody Blues, a band that had been a regular listen during my high school years. This might seem unimportant but as I’ve wrestled with my thesis proposal I’ve been frustrated about what music to listen too!

While making a serious start on my thesis proposal is important, it’s been the concept of converting my own experiences into something that others might find useful, as they plan their own transitions that has captured my imagination. Continue reading →

Diary of a Slow Traveller – The Food, Siracusa, Sicily

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Sitting at our favourite local coffee shop on a lovely Adelaide Autumn day, my favourite person and I quickly returned to our usual conversation – Sicily and when we can get back there.

There are so many things to talk about when it comes to Sicily but it’s the food that becomes the centre piece of pretty much all of our coffee conversations. Is it the freshness, the fish caught that morning, the local vegetables (seasonal produce only) or  the sweet temptations?

Oranges and Grapes a t the market

Oranges and Grapes a t the market

I guess it depends on what takes your fancy and across our nearly 2 months in Siracusa it all took its turn in delighting us. Staying so close to the Ortigia food market all food thoughts started at this truly special local market, just over the bridge on the island of Ortigia and next to the ancient Temple of Apollo. The choices grapes, pears, carrots, brocolli romanescue, bread, meats, fish and cheeses.

Fresh fish - Ortigia Market

Fresh fish – Ortigia Market

Even on days when we didn’t plan to cook in our apartment,  we still seemed to find things to buy at this delightful local market. Continue reading →