Setting your direction

The tried and true method of finding your way, a compass and a map as taught to this girl and used here shown by a girl scout remains unbeaten as much as modern smartphones seem to suggest they're the modern "Swiss Army Knife" of modern outdoor life.

As a Brownie, Girl Guide, Cub ot Scout you know mastering this matters cos "no signal" is a real thing and you still need to find your way.

Thoughts on arts and crafts

The chief focus of this blog was always around being assigned as a boy but being very very girlish and how that ran through my life as a child in school nominally seen as a "boy" and as time went on into exploring more that surpressed girlish side that has never really gone away.

As much as I had no issue with the short trousers I had to wear at school  I much sooner preferred to wear the girls uniform and take some lessons normally segregated along gender lines with them.

Arts and crafts was the area I loved even if I needed some help with bits as free from the frustrations of not understanding maths and the written word as a child with dyslexia, I could just express my thoughts and imagination though the creativity I had that wasn't so blighted by that.

To of done so in a school club dressed in pinafore dress and white socks would of been just magic for me.

Choo Choo's Pt.2

Another place we visited a few times in the 1970's was the Vale of the Rheidol which is a steam train line running from the Welsh university town of Aberystwyth to the Devils Bridge some 12 miles downline.

I'm sure the engine we went on was called Owen Glendwr who I think was something of a hero to the Welsh fighting English occupation of their Country.

 The countryside in that part of Wales is very mountainous and really beautiful.

Spanking and sissy life

To be become a sissy gurl you didn't get spanked but you can't deny it is an important part of being one from whatever angle you may be coming from.

The more child-like side takes it from your own childhood - perhaps you were spanked a few times and it's stuck in your head - or maybe reading about it you've developed an interest in going back to those days.

Generally spanking comes out for child-like offenses and crimes like breaking things, back talk, watching the tv or computer use after bed time if that's what you've agreed

It need not feature anything other than a open hand but implements may come in such as hair brushes, straps or the cane although that's normally only the most serious of matters.

The more adult, more post adolescent side exists for some and the rules are a different as this can cover thinks such as not being dressed in overtly sissy ways, refusing any agreed to "training" and not deferring to mistresses and masters.

Spanking will always start from your frillies and may be emotionally as well as physically intense as the restrictions that may of applied to children when spanking was common won't be applying to you as the adult sissy.

It isn't uncommon to be spanked more on a whim just to remind you of your diminished adult sissy gurl status with an emphasis on using humiliation to really add to the impact  or the odd sexual act either.

Depending on which side is "out" at the time I can go with either although safe words should you be really uncomfortable are a must.

1977 and all that

1977 was an important year in lots of ways so this is one in a bunch that looks at aspects of that.

BBC Radio One had been launched on September 30th 1967 as part of an attempt to bring the BBC in to the modern age when teenage culture that had taken off since 1955 had been largely ignored by the radio and by 1964 offshore radio so-called "Pirate Radio Stations" had transmitted pop music and featured less staid presenters from just outside UK coastal waters gaining many listeners.

In 1977 I was thirteen years old, what would of counted as a teenager not that I felt nor ever really became anything stereotypically like one remaining more that young boy in Junior school in many ways.

The radio was a big thing in my life listening to music stations such as Radio One and Luxembourg at night from just under the age of six so while not there at the very start it had featured strongly in my life. There was magic on 247 metres medium wave.

Unlike today there was no music television just the odd music show such as Top Of The Pops, no internet only magazines aimed more at teens with news so the radio was the main player in our hearing new songs.

In that time presenters some being brought from those Pirate Stations or Luxembourg's UK based shows had a fairly free hand to showcase new sounds outside of playing top forty hits which you'd expect.

I liked David "Kid" Jenson, Ed Stewpot who did Junior Choice at the weekends, Tony Blackburn and listened at school to Paul Burnett's chart rundown.

Later in my teens I grew to appreciate Anne Nightingale's request show and Paul Gambaccini.

Key personalities in that included John Peel and Alan Freeman whose afternoon show on Saturdays I listened to and my brother taped things from John Peel's late evening show which he shared generously with me.

The station also had produced  programs that looked at youth issues, engaged with organizations such as girl guiding, scouts and boys and girls brigades to talk about concerns and pioneered broadcasting news in ways that were more interesting and understood for young people.

Thus in 1977 many felt that ten years had to be marked outside of books and a special edition of the BBC's listing magazine Radio Times and that include an album of music chosen by the DJ's and listeners that reflected the sounds we'd grown up listening on the station.

The selection was overseen by the the Radio One director Johnny Beerling and took n number one hits up to the end of 1976 with Mississippi by the group Pussycat and issued as a double lp with hand penned reflections by then current Dj's and a group photograph on the gatefold starting with Flowers In The Rain which was the first single played on the day it launched.

In all some 37 songs were featured which on two discs which is difficult resulting in some premature fade outs and limited bass which was less of an issue then than playing this disc which I bought and still own is today.

What it may lack in absolute quality it makes up for in nostalgia and an emotional link to that past.

BBC Radio One becoming ten as a big thing with me and why some forty years on today we're marking what and why that was in the age of blogging rather than scrapbooks.

Little Moreton Hall

There's this really important big house in Cheshire near where I live that I like to stroll along to and admire the construction as well as reading all about its history.

It's one of the finest Tudor black and white houses in the whole of England. 

The first photographs I have of it were done on a Kodak Disc camera but they weren't too good having heaps of graininess.

Late Summer Hols 2007

For this week I've been away on vacation so here's a few images of Llandudno where I stayed.

Playing at making sandcastles using your bucket is so me.
While I was away, Mommy took me on the train to the top of the Great Orme.

This is Victoria Station where we joined the line waiting to get our tickets and get on board.

Here the train goes travelling for a part of the way  along track that has been embedded into the road surface. The tramcars are old with wooden panels and seats.

I visited a record store and bought myself some new lps and a few used cds and lps for my collection.