A trumpeter is serenading me with an instrumental version of Frosty the Snowman as I commence this literary offering. To clarify, the guy isn’t just serenading me in the front room of chez Strachan senior. He’s part of a quartet entertaining the massive queue of kids/parents below the mezzanine which bears the coffee shop where I’m plying my penmanship. The group of four dressed in fancy dress, accomplished musicians playing […]
Today marks the second anniversary of my dad’s passing. Twenty four months during which I learned for the first time in half century on this screwed up planet what loss truly meant. A valuable lesson formed from consequential emotions evoked at the realisation I’d never again being able to share the company of a dearly loved family member. This two years enlightening me that deprivation of anything other than a […]
The narrative penned earlier this morning was the 1600th I’ve written since embarking on this literary journey in March 2015. An odyssey which was the catalyst to dragging me from the metaphorical ditch where at that juncture of my life I’d lain for many months stricken with depression. Although my penmanship was/is unable to resolve many of the elements of my life that weighed heavily then (and remain now), this self-help […]
Yesterday, despite commencing a literary piece, I didn’t publish a narrative on my website writesaidfred.org. Eventually giving up on the offering in the early evening after penning around 300 words of prose. This rare loss of interest in completing an essay not through a lack of notions on my part; moreover the consequence of finding the subject I’d chosen (the current UK political climate) as too emotionally exhausting. I’ve covered […]
Yesterday, on writesaidfred.org, I published an essay It’s Good To Talk about depression. This updated piece was predominantly written a couple of years ago when I was more guarded about suffering from mental health issues. A time when, in a badly veiled attempt to maintain my anonymity, I’d refer to the sufferer as ‘a friend’. As it’s still Mental Health Awareness Week, I thought I’d re-share some musings on the same […]
It’s Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK. As someone who’s experienced the all-consuming joylessness of depression I felt it’d be remiss of me not to pen my thoughts on the subject during the days aimed at raising the profile of mental illness. Below I enclose an updated version of an essay I wrote two years ago on the subject of mental health. A time when I was more guarded […]
Occasionally I’ll listen to movie scores on Apple Music. I find the act of experiencing these suites of music without pictured accompaniments concentrates the mind into a more focussed evaluation of their artistic integrity. Allowing a more informed critique supporting the merits of the audio underpinning the film; an element often inadvertently ignored by an audience distracted by the unfolding onscreen action. Recent examples of my listening choices include an […]
