Kiki's Delivery Service

At the instigation of a online friend from a forum I recently bought this title in the acclaimed Studio Ghibi collection.

Adapted by Hayao Miyazaki from the Japanese childrens book by Eiko Kadono, it is about Kiki - a thirteen-year-old witch, and daughter of a witch - who is eager to leave home and spend a year working away from home. Her only talent is flying on her broomstick, but she sets off with her black cat JiJi) and finds a big city by the sea that she decides to live in.

She makes a deal with the bread store owner to work for her board in store that soon transforms into a courier service delivering anything from pies to pets. In this activity she -a polite, cheerful if naive child - encounters the rudeness and spoilt behaviour of others especially of a girl of her own age.

She encounters a boy on a bicycle who becomes her friend but undergoes a crisis of confidence losing her ability to fly. Only by looking into herself can she regains her abilities saving the boy from a Zeppelin flight that goes disastrously wrong.

What I liked about was the attention to detail in the drawings coupled with the message of triumph over adversity it presents.

Music for violin

Violin and piano based music has always been a staple of my classical music likes and the recordings by Augustin Dumay and Maria Joan Pires are amongst those I have collected in recent years.

I picked up this disc of French music for violin and piano recently from an online retailer that slots in well with my Ravel recordings which is extremely well played and recorded.

The way they handle Ravel's Tzigane is with much needed restraint  so we get the infectious feel without just being a moment to the violinists own ego.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Well this was going to happen sooner but I got waylaid so here goes...

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

I wanted this so much when it came out around November time last year but if ya hadn't noticed there's a recession on and one consequence of this was threat Beez's UK distributor went into receivership but I managed to get this reissue.

The story revolves around Haruhi Suzumiya, a high school girl obsessed with finding all forms of the extraordinary and supernatural, and Kyon, a cynical classmate who proclaims his non-belief in such matters and narrates the series. 

After being displeased with the mundane happenings at school and the lack of interesting after-school clubs, she forms her own, the SOS Brigade, to investigate any mysterious happenings, with Kyon forcibly drafted as its second member.

She drafts in additional members into the SOS club and in time they are revealed to be the extraordinary characters she is seeking (Yuki, an artificial human created by the extraterrestrial Integrated Data Entity; Mikuru, Time Traveller; and Itsuki, esper), sent by their various organizations to observe Haruhi. 

All see Haruhi as possessing a superhuman control over the universe, capable even of recreating the entire universe in a state of dissatisfaction and attempt to prevent this by keeping her entertained, holding her powers in check, and maintaining the illusion of a normal life.

The series became an Internet phenomenon and in the absence had to make do with a subbed import with so-so quality but have now gotten the UK R2 Re-issue 4 dvd set

Paul Stanley

The initiated know I've aways had a soft spot for the American rock band legend that is KISS and above is a picture of guitarist Paul Stanley with the stage make-up on!

I my humble opinion is solo album is the best of the four comprising of a slab of melodic hard rock with the odd ballad throw in.

Footwear

 

Given my physical disabilities and how they make walking for me very difficult  I tend to stick very much with sturdy flat soled shoes although in my younger days I wore leather sandals a lot which were more breathable.

Any kind of a heel just unbalances me and in practise the only real differences between boys and girls brogues tends to be the motifs on some.

When it comes to socks either girls white socks or boys grey ones with turn over tops works and that is what girls at co-ed Prep Schools wear, essentially the same socks as the boys.

Life at home

This week I'm writing a bit about life it home from my bedroom HQ.

This is a picture of a porcelain doll I've had since my teens called Debbie.

She was bought for me from a doll fair near Macclesfield and she's been with me no matter where I've been living ever since. 

I like the blouse and dress she's wearing.

Feminine Little Gurls like me love our dolls.

As a LSG I live by the rules of the Grown Ups who decide what happens when I break their rules and they are displayed in a very visible place to remind me at all times there are consequences to my actions.

We have standards that I am expected to keep to which are set out on the chart.

Ours is a house which spanks so I will always be spanked firmly to teach me not to do it again which isn't nice but I don't need nice I just need to learn to behave by our rules without question because they keep me safe and teach me how to live right.