Category: Life

The Daily Post #1: Countries

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life
Proms in the Park
Proms in the park (Image via Wikipedia)

I’ve decided that I want to blog more often, so I’ve signed up to The Daily Post, to use their daily inspiration for some posts. Today’s inspiration is a question: What are the three countries you’d like to visit and why?

England

England is my first choice of where I’d like to go. First of all to see my heritage – my mum was born in Liverpool. But there’s plenty more in England that I’d love to see. I’d love to attend a Manchester United football match at Old Trafford. I’d love to see a county cricket match. I’d love to attend an Ashes test at Lords (even though Australia isn’t going all that well at the moment).

But the thing I’d love to do the most (and did seriously consider at one stage) would be to take two months off, and visit England during the Proms. Just stay in a backpackers for the two months, and head off to a prom each night for two months (and hopefully get in for the last night of the proms). It would be such an incredible experience.

United States of America

There’s lots of stuff that I don’t like about the USA, but there’s still lots of things that I’d love to see. The sports, for one thing, is incredible. I’d love to see a Los Angeles Lakers match, an NFL match (Chargers are my team, but I don’t follow closely) and I’d like to see a baseball match live.

Music in the US is also incredible. One thing that I would like to do is to go to a College Football match to view the marching bands. This morning I watched the Edinburgh Tatoo, and now I’m watching the Rose Parade. The thing that I think makes the US marching bands incredible is their percussion section, the drum line. But the music doesn’t just stop there – many of the greatest orchestras are in the US. I’d love to see the New York Philharmonic and Boston Philharmonic, amongst others.

There’s also a number of people who I’ve met online through Violinist.com that I’d love to meet in person.

Europe

I know I’m kinda cheating here, in that Europe is more than one country, but this is the third trip I’d love to do. I’d like to visit Germany, Austria, Italy and France to visit all the places where my favourite composers lived. And again, hearing the other great orchestras of Europe – such as Berlin Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic. And if I got to go skiing in the Alps, well that would just be a bonus.

So that’s it, that’s my first Daily Post, and I’m looking forward to seeing what else gets suggested. Hope you enjoyed.

Other Postaday2011 posts:

Golf week 3

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life
Golf_Course

Well I’m writing this again sitting at Wembley Golf course. I’ve done an hour’s practice already, on the putting green and chipping. I’m waiting for the driving range to open at 9am. Silly me for not checking that the opening hours aren’t the same on a Friday as opposed to a Saturday (last time I was here). Guess it just felt like a Saturday to me.

Last week I shot a 66 on the course at Marangaroo. I’ve decided that from that round, I want to set myself a goal of saving 20 shots over the round. That would give me a round of +10 over 9 holes, or an average of just over a bogey each hole. If I can get down to that I’ll be quite happy. In order to achieve that, I need to be more consistent in my hitting. My putting last round was excellent – averaging under 2 putts per hole, and only 3 putting once. However, I didn’t hit one fairway off the tee. If I’m to get to my goal, I need to be hitting the fairways.

So that’s why I’ve decided to stick around, take this break and wait for the driving range to open. I need to work on my swing so that I’m consistent, and can hit the fairways.

I’m also going to play a round every fortnight, at different courses around Perth. While the driving range is great, there’s not the limiting factor of where the fairway is, and the rough around it. Plus, by playing a round regularly, I’ll be testing all parts of my game, and getting some good exercise at the same time. Next weekend I’m playing a round at Hammersley, and I’m also looking forward to playing at Embleton, Burswood and here at Wembley (two courses here for me to play on too).

So another 20 mins until the range opens. I’ll have a bit of a browse on the internet on my phone, and maybe have a browse in the pro shop. I don’t need anything, but it’s always nice to look.

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Golf Week 2

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

The strangest thing happened this week. My wife told me to go play golf on Friday. Her friend’s boyfriend was looking to play a round at Marangaroo, and I was only looking to do some practice so I hadn’t responded, but my dearest wife managed to convince me otherwise.

I popped out to the driving range at Marangaroo before my round, and started my practice just as last week. Having to put a tee down each time quickly got annoying (compared with the automatic range at Wembley) but I survived. Was hitting a number fairly straight, but there were still a large number of hits going all over the place.

My round was a lot better than a fortnight ago. First of all, I shot 66 compared with 71, saving 5 shots over the round. The big improvement was in my putting – I managed to two putt or less on all bar one hole, so that my average number of putts was less than two. That goes a big way to saving shots over the course.

However, my shots were still all over the place – not once did I hit the fairway from the tee. So that’s something that I’ll need to work on. But overall I’m very happy with how I played, but I just need to keep going on the improvement areas.

I think I’ll start trying to get out on the course every fortnight, so that I can see how my practice is actually going.

Merry Christmas, and I hope you have a wonderful New Year,

Golf Practice day 1

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

 

A Photo of the driving range at Wembley Golf Complex
The Driving range at Wembley Golf Complex

I’m writing this from the Wembley Golf Complex. This is my first time here, and it looks incredible, especially for a public golf course. It boasts a modern 30 bay automated driving range, large spacious pro shop, tavern and two courses.

 

I’m here because I’ve decided that I want to get better at golf. I played a round last week with my dad and a friend, and I wasn’t great. I highlighted two things that I need to improve in. Continue reading “Golf Practice day 1” →

Count Your Blessings

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

At the end of a Songsters rehearsal last night, I was asked from a musical perspective what I think of the Songsters. The Songsters is the Salvation Army choir, and it’s very different to any choir I’ve sung in before. However, there is a wealth of music there that fulfills me Musically, Lyrically and Spiritually. Continue reading “Count Your Blessings” →

Sherlock

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life
Sherlock Holmes (r) and Dr. John B. Watson. Fr...
Image via Wikipedia

I’ve just finished watching an episode of Sherlock – the new series where the characters and world of Sherlock Holmes is thrust into the 21st century. I thought it was very good, a worthy adaptation, that will hopefully bring the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to a new audience.

I’m not particularly familiar with his stories, knowing only a few salient details that was picked up in this new series.

Firstly, the casting in this new series is excellent. Holmes is borderline genius/neurotic, which differs to the original where Holmes was slightly more gentlemanly. Secondly, in the episode I watched, “The Great Game” his violin playing which makes a brief appearance is shockingly bad. In the original stories, Holmes was a fine amateur player, who enjoyed attending concerts of Sarasate when available.
The character Watson has also undertaken an update, becoming Holmes’ blogger, a nice touch. He gets frustrated with Holmes’ lack of knowledge about basic things such as the solar system, yet is astounded about how he can connect the minutest of details.

The episode finished with a confrontation with Professor Moriarty, who had a strangely Irish lilt to his accent, and I couldn’t help thinking he was a crazed yet calm Irish bomber – though that could have something to do with the episode featuring a lot of bombs. The episode finished on the mother of all cliff-hangers – guns focussed on Holmes and Watson, Holmes’ gun focussed on an explosive vest at the feet of Moriarty. And some how, I don’t think I’m ever going to find out how they all got out of there alive.

I’ve got to wait until next year for the next episode, but the DVD is available next week, if it has more episodes, I might just buy it.

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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Crucified By Email (via Mark Sayers)

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life
Christ Driving the Moneychangers from the Temp...
Jesus drives the money changes from the temple - or drives the merchandise sellers from the church/revival/crusade? (Image via Wikipedia)

I found this blog while looking at blogs for work (what a wonderful part of my job) and I thought it was fantastic. It’s a theme that has been hashed out in different formats through different people at different times and basically proposes the question: Would Jesus fit in at our church? Would he be the type of person to fit in at any church? Are church structures too strict sometimes and do we lose our perspective?

When I read this out at my bible study tonight, someone else got me thinking on this. God is too vast, and too immeasurable, too infinite to fit into our churches. He is also someone who judges what the audience wants, what they desire, and gives them what they truly needs. Like in this post, He gets sent to the youth church, where the pastor thinks he’ll fit in – and then changes and gives them something different. Then sent somewhere else based on this latest change, and he changes once again. Each time, he upsets many people, and leaves many people asking questions. All the time, he affects people’s lives, often in ways they do not expect.

Do our churches need to look past our traditions (which are often done because someone once did it for a certain reason, and a church did it ever after), and start looking at what our church – and more importantly, our communities – truly needs?

Crucified By Email On 07/06/2010, at 3:34 PM, Pastor@BelmontCommunityChurch.org wrote: Dear Jesus, I have been praying that you are sensing God’s presence during this difficult week for us all. Last night the Church board and I held an emergency meeting and I am writing to inform you that we have come to a difficult decision. Writing this email is one of the hardest things that I have had to do at my time here at Belmont Community Church. Before I tell you of our d … Read More

via Mark Sayers

I say Tomato, you say Potato

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

Following a graphic (and controversial) sermon on Sunday, I was challenged to find out a bit more about Abortion – a controversial subject, for anyone, let alone Christians. I won’t get into it here, because that’s not what I want to write about. However, I was amused to find these two News articles on a recent study into public opinion on abortions. Continue reading “I say Tomato, you say Potato” →

7 Links

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

I was going through my Google Reader account, clearing out feeds that I no longer read, and I came across a post from ProBlogger that I thought would be a good starter for a post. It’s called 7 links, and you’re asked to provide 7 links to set themes. So here are my links.

  1. Your First Post – My first post on here is one titled The Importance of Something Different. It talks about the importance of having a passion away from your field of work, to allow your mind to have a break.
  2. Post you enjoyed writing the most – I think this would be The On this Day… series of posts, which highlighted an important musical event that happened on that day, for example this post on Belgian Composer Gossec
  3. A post which had a great discussion – The post which has had the most comments is my Pachelbel’s Canon arrangement, which I’m highlighting below, and they are mostly comments thanking me for the arrangement. So instead, the one in which I had great discussion was A Christian Gamer? which had a couple of really good quality comments on the post.
  4. A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written – How to walk through Steel-Enforced walls. A great post that highlights some of the struggles we face every day. We have our own steel-enforced walls, and we have to find ways to walk through them.
  5. A post with a title you’re proud of – “Shoot-em-ups” don’t kill people. People keep claiming that First Person Shooters are games that mass-murderers are likely to play, but that’s a long leap of logic. It’s not the games, it’s other issues in their lives. Don’t blame the games.
  6. A post that you wish more people had read – Has Twitter decreased our internet safety. I believe that URL shorteners are a huge security problem that hasn’t fully been looked at. Being able to look at the URL in a status bar is a big part of judging the safety of the link. I think more url services need to add something like the TinyURL preview function, or have Internet Browsers filter shortened URL’s to show the URL they are redirecting to.
  7. Your most visited post ever – my arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon for Solo Violin is by far and away my most popular post, having had over 1700 views since I uploaded it, at an average of 108 views per month. I’m very pleased with this arrangement, and glad that so many violinists have been able to get use of it in a variety of situations all across the world.

There we go, 7 links to 7 posts. If you haven’t read them, have a read, there’s some great posts (if I do say so myself.