13 Reasons I'm Looking Forward to 2013

New Year is one of those celebrations that means something different each time it comes around.  When I was little it was a fun time when we'd see if we could stay up long enough to see in the New Year, but as the years have turned it's begun to represent something more.

I've had a great 2012 - it has carried many successes for my musicians, my family and myself.  Each day I have tried to make special and I like to think that, in a very small way, I'm making a difference to my little corner of the world.  It's been a year full of fantastic films - the cinema arriving in our corner of the world has made it even better!  I went to see The Avengers no fewer than three times and I've now been to see The Hobbit an equal number of times.  I organised my first ever fundraising event, which was no easy task, but managed to raise over £180 for the RNLI.  I even partook in a crowd funding campaign to help create a film (this is a big deal for me, as I am very bad at trusting internet sites!).  2012 is a year I'm proud of.

It's had its downs, of course, what year doesn't?  Partings taken, some shockingly sudden, some long expected.  It doesn't make it any easier.  While I hope that 2013 has none of these, I am thinking of all the good things that are coming up this year.

Thirteen maybe unlucky for some, but here are 13 reasons why - I think! - 2013 is going to be a fantastic year:

1. The world did not end in 2012 - all those people who lived in fear that some meteorite might hit the earth, or the sun might increase it's diameter to engulf the world, they can all sleep safe in their beds and no longer have to worry about the ancient date of impending doom.
2. 2013 has some fantastic film releases.  While I've thoroughly enjoyed The Avengers and The Hobbit (and also Spiderman, Skyfall and Taken 2) I think 2013 looks set to top that.  Kicking off with Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman in Les Miserables, through Die Hard, Iron Man 3, Star Trek, Superman until we get to the second part of Peter Jackson's second Tolkien trilogy - I have high hopes for that one!
3. It is a year of adventuring.  2012 saw no holidays, but 2013 has the guarantee of two already!  Whatever moment of madness inspired me to book tickets to Germany I am heading there in the spring, and I can't wait.  After the Music Festival in June it's off again to Orkney on our family holiday, and they are always great fun!  2013 is shaping up into a year of adventure, and it has not even begun!
4. Also in a moment of absolute madness, I clicked on the Skype Chit Chat perk in the crowd funding page for Eoin Macken's new film Cold.  Not had said session yet, but I'm already compiling a list of questions to avoid that embarrassing moment where, upon meeting people I admire, my natural instinct is to giggle and become utterly tongue-tied.
5. RunRig are 40 years old.  I wasn't even born when they were formed, but they awakened other artists to the fact that there was life north of the Central Belt.  Admittedly I'm still debating over going to the Party on The Moor.  I never was a welly person and it promises to be a bit of a muddy affair!
6. It's Your Turn.  Finally, 2013 might see the publication of this book!  I live in hope and yet terror at the same time in case people hate my attempts at poetry.  If it looks that way I shall have to persevere with prose writing and hope that this meets with a better reception.
7. The Rosie Janes - we're up and going, and 2013 might well be the year of the release of Lamentis.
8. Daily Quotes.  Following on from my #TodayISmiledBecause and in light of the madness that is my fantastic family, I have decided to continue with a new hashtag - #CrowSays I hope Twitter followers find them as inspirational/amusing/insane/hysterical as I do!
9. Tumblr - I had a go at creating a photo diary page which went really well for the first few days before my memory card became full and time prevented me from actually getting down to the shop and buying a new one.  I don't think I can expect to post a photo every day, but I intend to use my Tumblr as a place for posting beautiful snapshots of the things I come across in my life.  I hope it raises a few smiles.
10. Andy Murray winning Wimbledon - He's won a Grand Slam and I really think that 2013 could be his year to win Wimbledon.  Can it be the first since 1936???  I believe in you!!
11. Independence Debate continues - With 2014 as the year that we who live in Scotland head to the polling stations, this year will be crucial in the referendum process.  As well as plenty of government papers to read we can look forward to personality contests and look-who-can-shout-the-loudest competitions.  Personally, I'll be voting for whoever I can connect with best.  I couldn't care less who is the most glamorous or who can talk over the top of the opposition.  My vote is heading to the side that will bring the best to Scotland, Caithness and Wick!
12. It's a triple centenary of musical mastery!  Verdi and Wagner both celebrate their bicentenaries while Britten has his centenary.  I'm so pleased that I am lucky enough to share in the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester's concert whilst I am over in Germany.
13. Finally, I am looking forward to 2013 with the giddy excitement of knowing that, although I have plans made for some of the days, I have no idea what is going to happen!  If each day has 2013 blessings as each in 2012 had 2012 blessings, then I am getting richer every day!  I know that some will be harder to see than others; some are almost certainly going to be in disguise, but I am certain that in looking for - and living to - the maximum, 2013 will be an incredible year for you, me, and all the people we meet!

Health and Happiness for 2013!

Smiles, Inspiration and Olympics

A long silence over the summer months but I’m back now!  Sunshine, as all you blog readers will know, is a cause of many smiles and, although we’ve only had a handful of days when the sun has shone fully, you can rest assured that there have been more than a handful of smiles!

One of the major events of the summer, not just for me or the country but for the whole world, was the Olympics.  It was one of those occasions when you are sure that you’re not going to be interested in something and yet you become wrapped up and involved in.  Those people who know me will know that my highlight was doubtlessly Andy Murray’s gold medal…  I’ve waited a long time for that one!  Clemency was ecstatically excited about Sir Chris Hoy’s gold medals and even bought a chocolate medal to inspire him to his own, slightly more lasting, ones.  The chocolate is still hanging up in the kitchen, you see it wasn’t really bought to be eaten so much as a token of willing faith in her favourite athlete.  And to all those other athletes who performed so well for Team GB, you got plenty of cheers here!

And the notion of “Inspire A Generation” - well, it certainly inspired Clemency to look into taking her hobby of archery a little more seriously.  Shame that Caithness is about as well equipped to train in Olympic sports as Woodstock for a World War!  In the meantime we shall have to trundle off to the deserted beach and set up there, it’s such a nuisance that the arrows are so affected by Caithness wind!  But archery aside, it was not even a British athlete who best embodied the mission statement of “Inspire A Generation” to me.  It wasn’t even Usain Bolt, whose overwhelming confidence I find both endearing and annoying.

David Rudisha was apparently described by Lord Coe as being “Magnificent” and giving “the performance of the Games”.  I have to say I agree with that.  He literally inspired generations, not just the up and coming children of tomorrow’s Olympics, but each and every other athlete of his own generation [and here I must admit to feeling old that he, and many of the other Olympians, are so much younger than me!] to run their best times either of the season or of their lives.

And as a teacher and a musician, just as with sports, inspiration is paramount to success.  Every sportsman, every musician, every person throughout history has been inspired by someone or something, shaping who they become as individuals.  There are plenty of people who have inspired me, musicians, poets, sportsmen, philanthropists, but above all; my family (hence the picture [although 2 are missing!]).

But the really telling thing about us is not who we are inspired by so much as who we inspire.  When I trained as a teacher I learned that educating people was not enough, it is necessary to inspire them to want to learn.  This is what separates a teacher from a great teacher.  I’m not sure that I have always managed to inspire my students, but it remains my goal to do so.  And it’s not just for teachers…  I hope that as I walk (very occasionally, as I tend more often to take the car places!) past people, my smile inspires a smile back.  I might not manage to inspire generations of athletes, but I hope that I can inspire a few smiles!

How To Be A Hero

A week into May and already it feels like it’s been around for a while.  It is really peculiar how much can have happened in the space of seven days: my sister out of hospital, her first book published (not for those of you with faint or fragile hearts!) and then the news of a friend’s passing.  All in all, I feel like May is set to be a rollercoaster month, with ups and downs all the way along.

There are really many good things about my job.  When I use the I-Love-My-Job hash tag on Twitter, I really mean it.  Of course, like everyone else in the world I have bad moments as well as good, but for the vast majority of the time I would not swap my job for anything else in the world.  I get to work from home and pick my own hours, but without a doubt what makes my job so wonderful are the people that I meet through it.  In my role of music tutor I’ve been privileged to have been invited to attend Baptisms, Birthday Parties, Dinners, Performances and Concerts.  #ILoveMyJob!  But this weekend‘s funeral was a first for me.

Those who have followed my blogs since the beginning may - from the shadows of history! - recall in my very first blog the words of a friend who phoned me and told me how happy she was that she had the energy to smile that day.  In many respects she prompted me to start writing about smiling, they were inspiring words from someone who really knew and understood the power of smiling.  In her passing that’s how I’ll remember her, as an inspiration to smile.

But the last few weeks have not been without the customary smiles.  The launching of Marvel Avengers Assemble - or just The Avengers, which is much easier to say! - has definitely given me a lot of smiles and this Saturday we’re off to see it for the second time!  I do still believe in heroes, I love the Avengers and Captain America especially - let’s be honest folks, he’s definitely the best! - and I think it’s no surprise that this film has done outstandingly well at this point given global affairs and the need we all have to look up to and respect figures like these.  It’s so tempting to begin a long spiel about the film and why I - and everyone I know in the world bar one! - loved this film and it has shattered box office records… But I shall resist except to say that it fills me with confidence in the human race to see that we still principally look for good overcoming evil in these films.

What sort of world would it be where we had no heroes?  While there are few films that I enjoy more than superhero ones, there are heroes in all walks of life.  Perhaps that is the best message to take from the Avengers, that people may not always see eye to eye, or have the same gifts and abilities as others, but it is the uniqueness and driving desire for good to overcome that can turn the most unlikely of people into heroes.  You don’t need to wear a costume or have superpowers to be a hero, you only have to inspire good in people and you are a hero.

My pupil who passed away last week was a hero.  The full church of mourners proved how greatly she had inspired good in people, and to me her continued smiles were amongst her most heroic deeds.  They cost nothing, they weren’t always easy but they brightened the day of whoever she shared them with.

So go and watch The Avengers and see what you think, but above all: be a hero and inspire people with a smile!

Smiles Are The Way Forward

The last couple of days have seen the exciting launch of The Rosie Janes’ website, and after countless years of work and - dare I say it?! - dictatorship, we’ve finally made our internet debut.  Although I’m a bit doubtful that the world is really ready for us, if there is one thing we know how to do it is dig our heels in and I am certain that The Rosie Janes will inevitably filter through society, or at least a part of it!

I always thought of myself as being somewhat laid back, announcing in my leavers’ annual that my motto was “never do today what you can put off until tomorrow”, but I don’t believe I have ever fallen into the apathetic bracket.  I think most of my family are more like sleeping dragons, prepared to live life quietly until something emerges that is worth our commenting or input.  Still, I am without a doubt someone who needs something to work at or I have a tendency to drift a little.  The Rosie Janes is a perfect rein to keep me in check.

As well as which, the spring is coming: as the lambs and calves in the field, the flash floods that are the result of heavy April showers and the strong, striking rainbows all show.  How can anyone be apathetic with all that happening?!  For my part it is smiles all round, slowing down when driving to admire the newborn animals and feeling very much like I could burst into song at any moment, usually with one of those 100% corny but equally endearing songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein or some other type of big music!  It is a hope of ours to observe a “Life is a Musical” day, where everything is sung.  I think it would be fantastic and encourage people to smile (which is, after all, what these Blogs aim to do!) and that can’t be a bad thing.

Really it all comes down to hope.  Not knowing what is going to happen in life is precisely what makes it so precious, and hope is like a compass pointing our lives in the direction we want to go.  I’ve always been a hopeful person - in fact on occasions my overwhelming imagination has led to a lot of hoping! - and I think that is why I am such a smiley person.  When I walk down the street and encounter miserable people - although here I should make the point that increasingly I am encountering fewer and fewer - it seems obvious that they are people without sufficient hope.  I hope I never get like that, I hope my continuous smiles and cheery hellos spark something inside them to feel hope again and see that life is really worth celebrating.

This spring let apathy fade away and start to be hopeful.  I’ve had disappointments, tears and anger already this spring and we’re not even a month into it, but I would rather keep fighting against these things with an army of smiles and continue to let my hopeful nature drive me safely through.

Smiles are the way forward!

And thanks to all of you who supported this for Help for Heroes.  If you still haven’t and want to make a difference from this:  to this:  for a wounded soldier, a couple of pounds isn’t too much but could make the world of difference!

Moving Forward to a Smiley Spring!

We’ve had a great summer here in Caithness.  You may think that this is a premature statement, but think again!!!  We were one of the toastiest corners of the country last week and now it is all dull and grey, and so cold outside that my window has almost completely steamed up.  It’s been a long while since I wrote a blog, a very busy while as I hatched plans (or more like laid them and am currently sitting them to make them hatch!) and coached and entered pupils for their exams.

I suppose in spite of our weather issues March really does come in like a lion and go out like a lamb.  A bit like a person charging into something before regretting haste and retreating gently in the hope that the outburst might go unnoticed.  I really hope that my current schemes don’t end up like that.  If you read these blogs and have been doing for some time, you will know that I am not a person who believes in planning decades in advance, but planning is rather crucial to getting things done, and while I still maintain that the ten, fifteen or even twenty year plan is such a waste of time, I have found myself thinking ahead to a goal that does not look set to be achieved for the next couple of years at least.  To me the difference is that I shall keep things moving over these two years and not just view them as put off dreams.

On the subject of keeping moving, I am going to shamelessly use this blog as a way of encouraging you early readers to support a man on a bike already over halfway across the country in aid of Help For Heroes.  Why am I nagging people on all my social media pages to support him?  For a number of reasons, really.  First of all he is someone known to our family, and was in the same class as one of my sisters - that is how we found out about his trek! - secondly because, despite refusing to “retweet” any of my words of support for this bike ride, Help For Heroes is a good cause.  Our forces metaphorically march all around the globe, something I only discovered when I signed up as a forces penpal.  Some of our troops travel places I have never even heard of - in spite of spending some time teaching geography! - and when they are wounded return to their country having to pick up the pieces of the life they left, often with serious disabilities.  It’s not an easy change to make.

I did consider joining the navy once - don’t laugh, I could have done it!  Well, I probably couldn’t actually!

This blog is the living [artistic licence because it’s not really living] proof that smiley thoughts make the sun shine because as I have been writing it the sun has begun to shine!  And the world looks and feels spring-like again!

But March has not just been a month of making plans that shall be shelved to the wishes and dreams pile.  I have made a conscious effort to update parts of my website with snippets - which is a word sorely lacking in everyday use! - of my writing.  So if you think my blogs are ok, have a read of my prose.  Still no poems up, I’m afraid, as Shiver Wriggle is publishing our book of poetry shortly.  On the subject of which I have been asked to spread the word about Pip Sherbet… Don’t ask me, but you should find out more on the twitter page!

Spring should be a time that lifts all spirits, and I’m not talking about the whisky types!  For who cannot be cheered by seeing lambs bounding over the fields, calves on shaky legs following after their mothers or the bursting into bloom of such colours that winter forgot? I can’t help it - I’m smiling just thinking about it!

Discovering Hidden Secrets By Way of Eternal Law and Hustle!

I have currently been exiled to my room owing to the fact that Andy Murray is playing and I somehow seem to jinx him!  Obviously I don’t really but whenever I watch he always seems to commence a downhill trend!  Weirdly, by the time you come to read this his semi-final - that is currently forefront in the minds of all tennis enthusiasts - will have been consigned to history.  It’s incredible how quickly that happens.  Christmas seems an age ago now, not the month and a few days that it actually is.  Already I’m planning the year ahead, making presents, entering exams and festivals for my pupils, events that don’t take place for months and yet somehow I’m getting bogged down in it all!

Today in Caithness the sun is shining and from my little window (at about 40cm x 60cm it really is little!) the only clouds I can see are wispy white ones that look more like the result of a painting lesson than being full of potential rain.  I can’t see much else out of my window as it is so cold outside that the window is all steamed up, but I can hear the birds chirping and make out the vague and distant sound of cars every now and then.  It really is a day on which to smile!

These last few Thursdays at 9:00PM has seen the debut of the series Eternal Law.  I’m not someone who generally watches TV, normally I wait for things to come out on DVD and then watch them straight through without the tension of having to wait from one week to the next.  Now I’ve discovered that, with Hustle and Eternal Law, I’m so hooked on them I’m watching them as and when they come up.  I love the cleverness of Hustle, as well as which I think - as I’m certain you can’t have helped but notice - Robert Glenister is an amazing actor and I love the character of Ash Morgan.  I could have (and have!) watched all of the series of Hustle over and over again.  The characters are so loveable, and the acting of the main parts is just absolutely brilliant.

And Eternal Law is quite literally out of this world!  Finally, a series that prompts discussion on things beyond the crazy obsession with “talent” shows like the X-Factor.  Granted, I discovered it only through Judith’s close watching of Sam West’s Twitter page, but I can’t believe that it has been given such poor reviews, so here I am to redress the balance:

Since I first started studying Theology and teaching RE in schools, I’ve been amazed to discover just what a taboo subject religion is, but these writers openly try to get us to consider morals and ethics.  I love the thought that even in one of the most deplorable jobs - there is a reason “The Honest Lawyer” is a pub name! - there might actually be a moral compass.  Here, suddenly, is a programme that doesn’t matter that there is a week between episodes, because it takes you all that time to discuss and evaluate the ethics   in the latest part.  If you haven’t seen it, you should tune in this Thursday on ITV.  Unless of course you live anywhere but England, in which case you have to catch up on ITV Player - like we do!

What makes both Hustle and Eternal Law fantastic programmes is that you’re constantly looking for that key to unlocking the puzzle, be it con or case.  I’m guilty, as most of us are if we’re entirely honest, of making assumptions and not really looking at things properly.  Today, if you find yourself in a problematic or difficult situation, try and look for the hidden key to unlock the puzzle - it will be there, it just needs finding.  Cheat code: Smiling helps to see the best in everything!

*Picture by Susan Crow*

Looking Back At The Past And Forward To The Future

As I’m certain you all know - irrespective of how you got to this page because I’ve been raving on about it on Twitter, Facebook and through good old-fashioned talking! - 7th-10th January was our London Adventure.  It all began back in August when Judith and I were lamenting never having seen any play with Robert Glenister in and we made an agreement that whenever his next play was announced we would make sure we got a chance to attend.  And then the rest is history.

Noises Off, the play we went to see at The Old Vic, was absolutely fantastic, made only slightly less than perfect by my ridiculous idea of wearing mascara… not good for someone who always cries when they laugh.  And I don’t mind admitting that the point in the play when I came most close to crying with hysterical laughter was the part with the cactus, although the whole second act had me giggling away.

The trip was my first big adventure of 2012 - a year for which I already have high hopes, and none of them involving the Olympics.  I’m not in favour of New Year Resolutions as such, maybe because it shows up how most people lack a resolute mind, but I do have a set of aims that I would like to see fulfilled before the end of the year.  New Year is one of those occasions when people are happy to look to the future and forget the past.  I hope I never do that.

My past is fundamental to who I am.

Tonight we watched Stand By Me, the film based on Stephen King’s novella The Body.  It puts a lump in my throat every time I watch it.  There is a part of us all that when we grow up longs to be a child again, an idea that has become particularly poignant in the last couple of years with the premature death of one of our fellow childhood adventurers.  It’s a cruel reality that we six who wandered off to launch Lego boats and face whatever perils may lay around the bend in the burn or along the track and over the hill armed with homemade bows and staffs, shall never meet up again and discuss or share stories about those “Good Old Days”.

But I would never want to go back to them.  The past is what it is, and it is that which shapes the future.  Even the happiest and most exciting moments of our past if we tried to recreate them would just be a disappointing echo of the original experience.  I’m beginning 2012 with a good, honest look back at what has come before in the certainty that it is undoubtedly what will forge the future.

So to lay my cards on the table here are some of my New Year Aims:

To enter at least one writing competition each month.
To keep my room tidy - ooops! I think I’ve failed that one already!
To put on a concert of pupils’ musical excellence.
To get everyone’s birthday presents to them before or on their birthday.
To read more.

My hope of running a music school?  Maybe next year.

I’ll be thinking back on the past and forward to the future with a smile on my face, because whatever happens, if you face it with a smile the burden is a little lighter, for you and the people who will undoubtedly stand beside you.

In the meantime, if you’re around London in the next couple of weeks go and see Noises Off (Judith’s review of the play is here).  If you’re not laughing hysterically by halfway through then you must have gone to the wrong theatre!