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.