A very civilised evening

Saturday night Bryan, Sally and I went to a concert. Only a half hour, but a performance by a young cellist called Simon. Simon plays in Bryan's band, Strangeworld.

He was accompanied by a pianist and the concert took place in Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge. You can't get much more civilised than that! (Beats my last gig which was an Irish evening in Loughton...) Simon played excellently and performed works by Bloch, Beethoven and Debussy (the last piece being a very expressive concerto).

A lovely setting, nice music, and a very pleasant evening all in all. As we rose to go Bryan said 'He plays Beethoven, Bloch and me!' - which is absolutely true! Not sure it puts Bryan in the same category as the other two Bs, but it does show Simon's versatility.

Oh, and Jesus College Chapel is pretty cool too!

The Brits love their chocolate!

One of the products I am selling on my trainer site is chocolate, yes chocolate! No, it's not so I can sample the stock, honestly! Though I have tried it and it is rather... mmm...

Thing is, this stuff is 'healthy chocolate' - the way they have processed it makes it a fantastic antioxidant, and I think if taking antioxidants daily is a good healthy thing to do, taking it in chocolate has to be the best option!

Well, I'm going to give it a try on the site, see if the trainers like it, and I'm giving away free samples to get things going.

http://www.completetrainer.co.uk/Training_Add_Ons/Healthy_Chocolate

Aparrently the fastest growing outlet for this chocolate, which was 'invented' and launched in the US, is the UK. We does love our chocolate it seems.

The Food and Drink Federation say:

"The UK confectionery market is valued at an estimated £4.41bn in 2006, although growth is slowing as this sector is seen as unhealthy. A move to more healthy options has occurred amongst suppliers with sugar free versions as well as the inclusion of additives such as vitamins.
In 2005/06 the most obvious trends in the chocolate market were the moves towards darker and more expensive chocolate. The health benefits of cocoa were one of the reasons behind the move towards darker chocolates, which are also perceived as higher quality."

So, healthy chocolate is the way to go. £4.41 billion? How much chocolate is that!! Chocolate Confectionary Industry Insights report that the 2008 UK market for chocolate alone was 6411.3 million Euros!

Is chocolate recession proof? Thing is people get depressed during recession, and often eat chocolate which is known to free the good old endorphins... so it could be that people eat more chocolate during recession. I don't know, it will be interesting to see though.

Right, back to work! I've been distracted by chocolate (and now I REALLY want to open the stock, but I won't....) long enough.

Skins!

Well, my daughter asked if she could watch Skins last night (a TV programme about young adults). And we said 'yes', because she watches it, her mates watch it, her brother watches it... and last night I overheard some of the language in the programme. I daren't think about the storylines that go with some of what I heard them saying!

But the thing that really strikes me is how different TV and people are now since when I was young. OK, maybe I was an exception, but at 15 I was still watching Scooby Do and didn't know 'who dunnit' either!

We are asking kids to grow up very quickly now. It seems in our wonderful developed world we are curtailing the joy of youth voluntarily. In the third world kids are sent out to work, even in the developed world many children have to work, take on responsibilities and face a difficult world in which they live.

I'm not saying I want to wrap my children in cotton wool and keep them young forever (goodness no), but the deterioration in language (in my opinion) is surely fuelled by these highly adult themed programmes which are aimed at kids. I don't care how 'real' or how 'relevant' these programmes are, they are making bad language, drug taking and bad behaviour acceptable to the youth of today.

And hey, folks, when we are old (I mean really old), these guys are going to be the ones who look after us. Am I totally naieve in wanting some positive role models for our children that are still valid, real and relevant, but don't have to be splattered with foul language and continual bad behaviour?

Maybe Skins is not the best example, I can't say, I haven't actually watched it. So, put me right! But I've seen Eastenders, and I don't think that's much better!

Right - now where did I put my Thomas the Tank Engine Video? Darn those pesky kids...

Blogging

Well, it may seem I have neglected this little blog, but in truth I've been running two other blogs (work based), plus I should do more on the Sheppard Family History one.

Also, I'm tweeting, facebooking, myspacing... I think ... I'm very scared that I might ... actually be turning into a virtual person too!

Nope - the ironing still needs doing, I can't be that virtual!

Check out my work blog if you get the chance:

http://www.thecompletetrainer.blogspot.com/

And, of course, I'm putting lots of stuff on my main site too http://www.thecompletetrainer.com/

Outside of work I've been designing the cover for Ted's album that Bryan recorded www.myspace.com/edwardmikalski and doing loads of other things. Mel has been accepted by a modelling agency (hardly surprising, she is drop dead gorgeous) and I took Alex up to Coventry University last week for his interview. Conditional acceptance, way to go!!

Right, back to work, that's enough for this lunch time! Oh, I should have another blog post up soon - Shani and I are doing a St Patrick's night on Saturday. Yes, English and Israeli singing Irish songs all night. Should be a laugh! See you at the Gunmakers Arms, Loughton, by any chance??