“You can only help others if you help yourself first.” I've heard this phrase so many times that when it comes up in a conversation it sounds like a refrain on an old record. Repetition doesn’t make it less true, but often when we hear it we’d like to ask that person “I know, I get it, but what does it mean practically? Can you tell me what I can do to help myself?”
Music is a non-verbal language used since the dawn of time, from when the first men used it to accompany ceremonies and rituals, or just as a way to express their feelings. Communicating and inspiring emotions is in fact the primary aim of any form of art, from painting to drama, from poetry to media arts, from dance to music.
With Valentine's Day just around the corner, we've been seeing all the usual love quotes, red hearts and advertisements for special gifts to give your partner. Is that what love is all about? Do you have to have a partner to experience love? Do you need to have a husband or a boyfriend to buy a valentines present for? In our view no, and here's why...
On New Year’s Eve, many years ago, my family was gathered around the table having dinner to celebrate the advent of the new year. Two thirds of the family were there, my parents and my sister, my uncle and aunty with my cousins, my grandfather, and my granduncle and grandaunt. I was just a kid back then, and that to me was the definition of a proper party.
