RaeAllen.net

  • Fairytale of New York

    It was Christmas Eve babe
    In the drunk tank
    An old man said to me, won’t see another one
    And then he sang a song
    The Rare Old Mountain Dew
    I turned my face away
    And dreamed about you

    Got on a lucky one
    Came in eighteen to one
    I’ve got a feeling
    This year’s for me and you
    So happy Christmas
    I love you baby
    I can see a better time
    When all our dreams come true

    They’ve got cars big as bars
    They’ve got rivers of gold
    But the wind goes right through you
    It’s no place for the old
    When you first took my hand
    On a cold Christmas Eve
    You promised me
    Broadway was waiting for me

    You were handsome
    You were pretty
    Queen of New York City
    When the band finished playing
    They howled out for more
    Sinatra was swinging,
    All the drunks they were singing
    We kissed on a corner
    Then danced through the night

    The boys of the NYPD choir
    Were singing “Galway Bay”
    And the bells were ringing out
    For Christmas day

    You’re a bum
    You’re a punk
    You’re an old slut on junk
    Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
    You scumbag, you maggot
    You cheap lousy faggot
    Happy Christmas your arse
    I pray God it’s our last

    I could have been someone
    Well so could anyone
    You took my dreams from me
    When I first found you
    I kept them with me babe
    I put them with my own
    Can’t make it all alone
    I’ve built my dreams around you

    – The Pogues

    This is my favourite Christmas carol

  • Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening


    Whose woods these are I think I know.
    His house is in the village, though;
    He will not see me stopping here
    To watch his woods fill up with snow.
    My little horse must think it queer
    To stop without a farmhouse near
    Between the woods and frozen lake
    The darkest evening of the year.

    He gives his harness bells a shake
    To ask if there is some mistake.
    The only other sound’s the sweep
    Of easy wind and downy flake.
    The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
    But I have promises to keep,
    And miles to go before I sleep,
    And miles to go before I sleep.

    – Robert Frost

  • Love Me Tender

    Love me tender love me sweet
    Never let me go
    You have made my life complete
    And I love you so

    Love me tender love me true
    All my dreams fulfilled
    For my darlin’ I love you
    And I always will

    Love me tender love me long
    Take me to your heart
    For it’s there that I belong
    And we’ll never part

    Love me tender love me dear
    Tell me you are mine
    I’ll be yours thru all the years
    Till the end of time

    – Elvis Presley, 1956

    Song on “Crossing Jordan” tonight

    released as a single in September 1956, but not on an album until March 1958

  • The Road Less Travelled


    Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
    And sorry I could not travel both
    And be one traveler, long I stood
    And looked down one as far as I could
    To where it bent in the undergrowth;

    Then took the other, as just as fair
    And having perhaps the better claim,
    Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
    Though as for that, the passing there
    Had worn them really about the same,

    And both that morning equally lay
    In leaves no step had trodden black
    Oh, I kept the first for another day!
    Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
    I doubted if I should ever come back.

    I shall be telling this with a sigh
    Somewhere ages and ages hence:
    two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
    I took the one less traveled by,
    And that has made all the difference.

    – Robert Frost

  • Daffodils

    I wander’d lonely as a cloud
    That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
    When all at once I saw a crowd,
    A host, of golden daffodils;
    Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
    Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

    Continuous as the stars that shine
    And twinkle on the Milky Way,
    They stretch’d in never-ending line
    Along the margin of a bay:
    Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
    Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

    The waves beside them danced; but they
    Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
    A poet could not but be gay,
    In such a jocund company:
    I gazed-and gazed-but little thought
    What wealth the show to me had brought:

    For oft, when on my couch I lie
    In vacant or in pensive mood,
    They flash upon that inward eye
    Which is the bliss of solitude;
    And then my heart with pleasure fills,
    And dances with the daffodils.

    – William Wordsworth. 1770-1850

  • Animal Song


    When superstars and cannonballs are running through your head
    A television freak show cops and robbers everywhere
    Subway makes me nervous people pushing me too far
    I’ve got to break away
    So take my hand now

    Chorus
    ’cause I want to live like animals
    Careless and free like animals
    I want to live
    I want to run through the jungle
    The wind in my hair and the sand at my feet

    I’ve been having difficulties keeping to myself
    Feelings and emotions better left up on the shelf
    Animals and children tell the truth they never lie
    Which one is more human
    There’s a thought now you decide

    Compassion in the jungle
    Compassion in your hands yeah
    Would you like to make a run for it
    Would you like to take my hand yeah

    Chorus

    Sometimes this life can get you down
    It’s so confusing
    There’s so many rules to follow
    And I feel it
    ’cause I just run away in my mind

    Superstars and cannonballs running through your head
    Television freak show cops and robbers everywhere
    Animals and children tell the truth they never lie
    Which one is more human
    There’s a thought now you decide

    Compassion in the jungle
    Compassion in your hands yeah
    Would you like to make a run for it
    Would you like to take my hand yeah

    Repeat chorus to fade

    – Savage Garden

  • One more Cup of Coffee for the Road

    Your breath is sweet
    Your eyes are like two jewels in the sky.
    Your back is straight, your hair is smooth
    On the pillow where you lie.
    But I don’t sense affection
    No gratitude or love
    Your loyalty is not to me
    But to the stars above.

    One more cup of coffee for the road,
    One more cup of coffee ‘fore I go
    To the valley below.

    Your daddy he’s an outlaw
    And a wanderer by trade
    He’ll teach you how to pick and choose
    And how to throw the blade.
    He oversees his kingdom
    So no stranger does intrude
    His voice it trembles as he calls out
    For another plate of food.

    One more cup of coffee for the road,
    One more cup of coffee ‘fore I go
    To the valley below.

    Your sister sees the future
    Like your mama and yourself.
    You’ve never learned to read or write
    There’s no books upon your shelf.
    And your pleasure knows no limits
    Your voice is like a meadowlark
    But your heart is like an ocean
    Mysterious and dark.

    One more cup of coffee for the road,
    One more cup of coffee ‘fore I go
    To the valley below.

    – Bob Dylan

  • People Get Ready


    People get ready
    There’s a train a commin’
    You don’t need no baggage
    You just get on board
    All You need is faith
    To hear the diesels hummin’
    You don’t need no ticket
    You just thank the lord

    So people get ready
    There’a a train to jordan
    Picking up passengers
    Coast to coast
    Faith is the key
    Open the doors and board them
    There’s hope for all
    Among those loved the most

    There ain’t no room
    For the hopeless sinner
    Whom would hurt all mankind
    Just to save his own
    Have pitty on those whose
    Chances grow thinner
    For there is no hiding place
    Against the kingdom’s throne

    People get ready
    There’s a train a commin’
    You don’t need no baggage
    You just get on board
    All You need is faith
    To hear the diesels hummin’
    You don’t need no ticket
    You just thank the lord

    – Curtis Mayfield

  • Kubla Khan

    In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
    A stately pleasure-dome decree:
    Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
    Through caverns measureless to man
    Down to a sunless sea.

    So twice five miles of fertile ground
    With walls and towers were girdled round:
    And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
    Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
    And here were forests ancient as the hills,
    Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

    But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
    Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
    A savage place! as holy and enchanted
    As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
    By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
    And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
    As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
    A mighty fountain momently was forced:
    Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
    Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
    Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:
    And ‘mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
    It flung up momently the sacred river.
    Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
    Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
    Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
    And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
    And ‘mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
    Ancestral voices prophesying war!

    The shadow of the dome of pleasure
    Floated midway on the waves;
    Where was heard the mingled measure
    From the fountain and the caves.
    It was a miracle of rare device,
    A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

    A damsel with a dulcimer
    In a vision once I saw:
    It was an Abyssinian maid,
    And on her dulcimer she played,
    Singing of Mount Abora.
    Could I revive within me
    Her symphony and song,
    To such a deep delight ‘twould win me
    That with music loud and long
    I would build that dome in air,
    That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
    And all who heard should see them there,
    And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
    His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
    Weave a circle round him thrice,
    And close your eyes with holy dread,
    For he on honey-dew hath fed
    And drunk the milk of Paradise.

    – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  • Rae’s Anzac biscuits

     

    I like to make my biscuits chewy on the inside and crisp on the outside. Unlike many recipes I hate the bother of bicarb so use self-raising flour.

    Ingredients:

    • 1 cup self-raising flour
    • 1 cup brown sugar
    • 1 cup rolled oats
    • 1 cup dessicated coconut
    • 125g canola spread or butter
    • 1 tablespoon golden syrup

    Method:

    1. Put the butter and the golden syrup in a microwavable jug , melt and mix
    2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, oats and coconut while dry.
    3. Add the butter and golden syrup mixture.
    4. Grease a baking tray and drop spoonfuls onto the tray, leaving lots of room for the biscuits to spread.
    5. Bake in slow oven (150-160C) for 20 minutes.
    6. Remove from the oven and they will still be a little soft but will harden and brown on the tray.