Little time away

 I was away for a few days with some friends I only met face to face last year so here is a few notes about that.

I travelled to one friend who kindly gave me a lift with them to the property we would be staying in with extensive grounds.

One of my friends brought a train set which kind of puzzled me as a number were girls and train sets generally don't go together with them but it proved to be quite interesting in that it is a Fairy based set a bit like this with Fairies, Trees and a Station and the Engine and Coaches in painted in girlie colours rather than the more boy sort especially the hobby sort like those by Hornby and the like. 

The track was made from wood with grooves in that you pushed the train along by hand.

I found myself actually enjoying  playing with trains sat cross legged on the floor , making hooting noises and yes having the odd crash as that little sissy gurl!

Perhaps this was just what I needed to work through my emotions.

A member of our little group had been rather poorly for a period and on the Friday evening I heard noises. 

Waking up the next morning I like the rest of the girls found a present which when unwrapped turned out to be a Tatty Teddy blue nose friend with mine being a "Peanuts" model.

Apart from being a really lovely gesture, this plushie didn't just talk, it conversed to others in the series when correctly set up, in an awfully cute way, talking of  having adventures, playing together and being best friends.

To me it seemed to sum up the whole feel of being together as girls and boys sharing and playing together

I spent a bit of time talking about dollies as a few of us had brought our dolls or that bit of our collections we could carry in our cases with us, learning  about them and why they mattered to their owners.

Among the many games I played Scrabble, Frustration (and boy wasn't it just!), Pool (well kind of!) and Tetris which was fun although with my amazingly bad co-ordination and memory it's not my strong point.

One thing I did enjoy which takes me back a bit to actual childhood was playing with guns that fire plastic pellets out with some of the 'younger' ones because many of the girls I played with were tomboys and we did these things while the boys were well out of doors, in the woods.

Just being out as a sissy gurl in hur jumper and skirt for several days with other littles was just magical.

A trio of releases

You may remember back in August  my post about the DCC Gold Paul McCartney cds I got and how a certain album was being re-released at the time. Well finally it's here!

Packaged like the other McCartney and Stereo beatles releases has the white band to indicate it's a new remaster done by the same team at Abbey Road although this is on Concord records not Capitol/EMI.

It's a digipak rather than true Mini Lp mores the pity with slots for the discs to scrape and a booklet in 1976 was the first time in many years Paul performed his Beatle hits back to back with his solo works with a great band and is one the best live albums issued.

The sound on this is quite a bit better than the original 80's cd version and for the modest price I paid for it well worth the money. 

Moving on, the 50's thru the 70's were for many the heyday of Soul - no not that  R&B as in Rap and [insert word] stuff they try to pass off as "Black Music" today but rootsy soul delivered with conviction (rather than having one!) from folks straight out of Gospel singing.

One of the finest examples you can ever hope to hear of that is the recordings of Aretha Franklin during her long period  at Atlantic.

A few weeks ago Mobile Fidelity Inc of Illinois re-issued this stereo compilation of hers from 1969 with a good number of her early hits from when she left Columbia who didn't really know how to use her abilities.

Because of that, it does miss a few gems of hers from the early 70's however in the opinion of many this Super Audio cd that is also playable on regular cd players, has the best ever sounding stereo versions of these early recordings such as Respect, Chain Of Fools and I say A Little Prayer that simply as a soul fan I have to say you really need to hear.

Strongly recommended. Also note the Rhino "Queen Of Soul" 4 cd box set can be had cheaply featuring many mono versions and much of her output to 1976.

Summer '83 for me is wrapped up with seeing Flashdance, the movie several times and an infatuation with the songs featured.

I've had this 12 single since it first came out but there's a pressing fault actually several such as  being off centre, a pressed mark at the end of the track and so on.

Finally I've gotten a replacement copy!
In my opinion this was one of last truly great 12" remixes  totally transforming the song.

That was the original Chromedioxide pre-recorded tape of the soundtrack album I bought back then that sounded pretty amazing for a tape back then that by the late 80's had gotten worn out so I bought the cd version that remains one of the best sounding early cds.

You'll notice how the image from the lp inner is includes on the credits side of the 'J' card.

I did get recently a mint copy of the UK vinyl release which sounds absolutely superb.

More dolls for this adult little gurl

Hey, hey folks this week I'm talking about a couple  of friends who've recently come into my life after requiring a new home.

They're a reward for moving along in letting my feminine boyishness out as in this recent picture I'm wearing white girls knee socks with pretty bows on.

First up is Millie who as you can see is a  magnificent 8 inch 'vintage' rag doll in her sailor uniform including woollen bloomers in pretty good shape.

In addition to that one here is her rehomed friend, Amy

Okay for feminine boys of certain chronological age  this means something because she is one of the Holly Hobbie characters popularized in the works of Denise Holly Ulinskas, an American children's story writer.

The cat-loving, rag dress-wearing little girl in a giant bonnet and licensed to Knickerbocker Toys who popularized these rag dolls in the mid 1970's. 

Amy is an original  and had to be resewed carefully during her previous life but otherwise is in good rather than exceptional shape.

Be that as it may, these were the dolls my female friends played and now I have Amy to play with when I'm dressed in skirts.

Gurl-O-Matic experiences

 The Gurl-O-Matic experience always starts from somewhere.

It may be that comes from trying and feeling a need to emulate a older teenage girl or a young woman but with me a larger chunk was more wrapped around being and still feeling more a younger child.

For me it was more wrapped in being like but not a girl typically in junior school or possibly the first year of her high school years dressed in pretty skirts and dresses, playing with dollies, playing games with your friends

It took in a loss of any emerging teenage responsibilities and even more that of anything approaching adult status, certainly not been seen as an equal and where grown ups could just come along, take a hold and spank you.

Your biggest fear was ridicule by peers and assertive encouragement and a treat helped you cross that line and BE A GURL.