Halloween

 

Well it may got done today as we're doing things a bit differently, a bit more rapidly than usual  but we did get away against most odds with a host issues to work through but it did happen.

Fun thing number one was having booked a cab to get the main rail station here rather limited services more directly "in area", the cab is running late which meant it was as well I allowed very generous timings from projected arrival to when the first preference train would depart.

Then you find the driver doesn't know one route at all although they had a sat nav app on their smartphone and doesn't seem to know the other that well so by the time you encounter roadworks and diversions, well my work is cut out remember 15 year old routes from roughly when we had a car, that went across that area and the back routes to the Town centre.

We did get there thank heavens in reasonable time, enough to buy a Royal British Legion remembrance badge from the sellers at the station and get on platform five for the Avanti service to London Euston that did call where I wanted quicker and the dash to get another cab to the venue.

I arrived doing a quick change act to more suitable skirt before chatting and having a cod and chips tea which having not eaten since midday was much appreciated.

Things were somewhat spookiness inside and out and on Saturday a few others had come as I read my comic and chatted a bit before settling down to a burger and fried onions ready for the Treasure Hunt which took the form of racing around the garden trying to find sheep to which you then place in a pen after having each one recorded.

We then moved on and in my instance took off coat and jumper to Lantern making from carving a pumpkin which had proved a bit elusive in some areas to get but fortunately Jennifer had bought one for me which also saved something more reminiscent of carrying a old school Medicine Football and that was mine carved. 

By early evening it was time for the fireworks display as we battled out out with the massive display in the West Midlands for bangs getting though a good number of fireworks and unlike last year we it was dry which was more fun.

I got through three sparklers which is a lot more than usual as post accident I have massive grip and shaking issues in my hands to the point I didn't safe holding a  flaming *anything* in my hands with dropping either on me or anyone else but did manage that which was personal triumph after all these decades.

We had a bring along a bit of something buffet afterwards, with me avoiding anything connected with cheese for reasons those who know will well understand (you wouldn't want to next me if accidentally had any!)

That was followed by Jennifer's General Knowledge and Music quiz which I score a reasonable 29 out of fifty and a good laugh was had taking part in which is the bigger thing really.

After what seemed an eternity for those of us on early bedtimes, we did get to sleep after talking through the next meet up and other related stuff to get up later the next morning for a Bacon sandwich before heading for a meal.

The meal was scrumptious, I opted for a Turkey Roast, a Sticky Toffee Treacle sweet and a orange flavoured J20 which I must admit was the for time I drunk one and it was really smooth which helped my throat a bit.

Everybody else's look good, was well presented and we had steady walk back before people made their way back home before Iris and Mary kindly offered me a lift to the station where although we had missed one by minutes the next wasn't long back home to the door at decent hour.

I'd like to thank Jennifer for her hospitality, Andi for the trifle, help in the kitchen plus technical support with fireworks and everybody for making it a fun time

* assembled on Asus Chromebook with NO processing or picture editing*

Dizzy Heights

 This week we're going for a spin.

The music countdown to Christmas has began although this isn't one those "For the Xmas market" releases strictly speaking but one that came out in early September part of series of reissues that I cherry picked this one from.

This was an album I bought back in February 1997 on pre-recorded MiniDisc but whose modern take on mid 60's was one that did rather like.

It was issued at the time on vinyl, it did come out in four formats, strangely enough back then including cassette, compact disc and vinyl but these days getting your hands on the vinyl edition will prove elusive and very expensive

There was a blue vinyl edition but passed over that for the black one, for one thing it's easier to spot defects and for another most vinyl was black back then.

Released in November 1996, The Lightning Seeds' fourth album pleases all fans of Britpop.

With 'Dizzy Heights', there isn't a dull moment as it never lets up over both sides.

Most of the songs are so upbeat that it's difficult not to become addicted after the first play, and even the slower ones will have you humming along. The opening track 'Imaginary Friends' and 'Touch and Go' could easily have been successful had they been released as singles.

It isn't that the album falls short of well known songs, all four singles: 'Ready or Not', 'What If..', 'Sugar Coated Iceberg' and 'You Showed Me' hit the top twenty. The whole album never fails to boast my mood, and whilst I wouldn't say it was The Lightning Seeds' best album, let's say the predecessor 'Jollification' was a tough act to follow, the band certainly hit a high with 'Dizzy Heights'.

It remains my favourite modern "Pop" album so I was delighted to had got a vinyl version of it.

Next week we should be going backwards in time....

A trip around Spode's

While I get inoculated this week, I thought we'd go back a bit really to something that is very much "in the family" which is ceramics and a trip to the museum of a major player, Spode.

Some exhibits were in glass cases, probably as well as a few years ago a car plowed into the front of the museum and damaged a number of Willow Pattern plates.

A number of these pieces show gold banding which was applied by hand after an apprenticeship and being approved to use the very expensive gold gilding  which was something my late nan did for a good many years.

When people think of pottery, thoughts tend to run to cups, saucers and plates  but they need not and here is a fox which could of been bought for a cool £150.

Ware comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes as can be seen in this frame filling picture.

That plate design is "Chocolate Berry" sat by two willow pattern cups and saucers that before the guided tour we consumed with hand poured tea from leaves with biscuits.

October Brownies edition

 Stories about being in movements such as boys and girls brigades, brownies and cubs are not generally just pieces of fiction looking at the lives of those in membership but often are about what membership is about and how your being say a brownie or a cub comes into play in everyday life.

That's not least we're learning what today we call "life skills" apart from having heaps of fun together and the thing about life skills is there will be times you'll need to use them so compilations of stories don't just keep you entertained, they help form that connection and inspire you further on you way through scouting.

Very much of the 1940's and 50's, this how any girl in Brownies would wear her uniform and note she wears a tie  with her enrollment badge which was later changed.

 

Tis Autumn and sometimes you need a extra bit of help if you're out camping  so here's Fleur de Lis Scouts Fleece Blanket which is 15 x12 metres in length that you can throw over your sleeping bag, has more than enough space to sow your badges  and easily rolls up for carriage.

It has polyester fleece lining and is made for the Scout Association so mine came from the official Scout Shop.

New month round up

 

It's been a rough week and a bit here with both the heavy rain and contracting really bad flu so we've scarcely moved beyond the rubbish bins  and even with dealing pretty much with that I was having problems with my bones getting rather floppy with a good deal of pain in them.

So school gurl me been on the comics, including the restored AdventureMaxPlus as although I'd had a subscription that subscription seemed to hit problems meaning that a good a few months actually I didn't get the comic and I never got a reminder notice to renew either.

Other things that have been going on include the release of the Now Millennium 2008/9 volume as I never bothered buying compilations back then and it's good to have a a bunch gathered together that you do remember with some information about them and Now Yearbook Vaults a sub series to the main Now Yearbook issues looking at minor hits and hits that were only big in America and last friday we had 1984's offering.

Given I know most of these, let's just say playing that sipping the lempsips and taking the cough mixture was a great tonic. 

Musings

You'd worry had I of been a modern gurl born in the 2010's surrounded by interconnectedness from dawn to dusk from my Smartwatch, Smartphone and gaming Pc when I've had my struggles with online addiction in the recent past being up to two in the morning at one stage despite being in bone years at least.

So yip, Smart isn't always so.

This is the big conundrum for those of us who do love being feminine, loving our skirts and dresses.

It's like every slight possibility of unwanted exposure from stairways so open you can see up our skirts, that moment when tired you just want to spread your legs a little and you're obliged  to keep them forced together on tightly crossed least some MAN see you (and start having thoughts as if we asked for HIS attention).

Of course the attention of your Dominant is a different thing...

Like most I'll sit as I find it convenient at home. 

Steely Dan gets near to finished off

At christmas 2022 at Christmas I had a couple of Steely Dan albums I hadn't got then that were being issued by the american specialist company Analogue Productions on both record and Super Audio cd (sacd).

I had these two Super Audio cds that originally were issued in 2000 and 2003 part of a series seeing the entire Steely Dan catalogue remastered and issued in audiophile vinyl and Super Audio cd form by Kansas based Analogue Productions.

That was part of a projected ten disc reissue series that way back then I had set up pre-orders for  with a major specialist record and cd store in Wales.

This weekend one of the last three titles has eventually been delivered, November 1980's Gaucho although it had been released in the United States last month as apparently they give two company owned retailers over there a two week window before shipping out to the Rest Of The World - aka us here in Great Britain and Ireland.

It featured Hey Nineteen", reaching # 10 on theU.S. pop chart in early 1981, and "Time Out of Mind" (featuring guitarist Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits) was a moderate hit in the spring.

The whole series has been dogged by major delays even on the vinyl side due to pressing plant shortages and with the Super Audio cd, only two plants in the world make them and they're fully committed with other titles to manufacture.

This 1974 album came out around November last year with "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" which reached as high as #4 on the U.S. charts.

 

 Countdown To Ecstasy issued in 1973 home to the singles  "Show Biz Kids" and "My Old School shown in its case came out in June 2023.

 

 

1972's Can't Buy A Thrill that was their first ever album featured the hit Do It Again was issued in January 2023.

 

1977's Aja came out in March of this year although the record version came out much earlier.

That's how it came to be what normally would of been be a single launch of a bunch of titles on one day has been in dribs and drabs in two years so much so I go by my record at the store of what was ordered and what's still in the orders to keep track of it.

And much has happened since then that in many ways I'd lost some of the buzz around these coming out and even doing a full set of entries in them despite their expense so this week we're catching up.

With any luck I'll fire up the player the Saturday before posting and give this a good spin.