Revisiting the Queen of Resorts

 

Last week runs a bit into this week really for having a number of things all one but on Wednesday I was out for the day in Llandudno, North Wales.

We were a bit late in arriving thanks to really silly idea of the drive to go due south via the motorway around the outskirts of Nantwich on the day of the Nantwich show for good measure that delayed us over a half an hour.  

A short discussion between a group of us came to the conclusion we'd better off getting food and then visiting any places of interest.

Thus the first change was in getting a meal where the usual haunt of Tribells was given a miss as reports on Trip Advisor suggested the quality had dropped off in the last year so we went to a cafe /restaurant on Mostyn Street near the former M&S shop for cod, chips and Mushy peas.

Given I had breakfast at half seven in the morning it really was a must and it did not disappoint being in thin non greasy batter with plenty of superior pure fish rather than the reconstituted sort served quite warm with a huge pot of tea.

Several shops were visited such the Gift Centre, Boots and the cat rescue shop although like a number towns in the UK there had been changes such as M&S moving to Mostyn Champneys retail park which I used to like to visit for the school wear section and HMV closing its store due to issues between it and the landlord over rent.

I did get to see the promenade walking a good length of it  and pier with the gift shop no longer with us but with the boat trip excursions around the coastline still running, busy as ever.

We took the better route through Tarvin, Winsford and Sandbach back thank goodness in the light rain of the late afternoon only to find one of our friends thought they'd lost their house keys.

Thankfully they were found after  quarter of an hour.

Musical discourse

 One of "those" adult spoof Ladybird books we've had for a good few years like people can't treasure  a series but try to take it into areas it doesn't belong but there's a bit of truth in this covers mash up.

Like anything, take a passion to the extreme and house can get filled up while are savings consumed by with everything to do with it whither it's fashion, sowing or music so it makes sense to say "do I really need that?"and "what does it exactly give me?"

It's like while the Now People have reissued the LP (and cd bookform) 1983 and 1984 Yearbooks, I'm not buying which may feel like collector "oh my goodness you're not getting a complete set that might be worth more money" but simply there's nothing I don't already have and no, owning them doesn't mean anything to me.

When it comes to the umpteenth issue of some individual albums I'm very selective so there's only three issues of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on lp, the 2014 mono, a mid 70's analogue stereo and the 2017 Digital stereo remaster and when one Doobie Brothers album recently came my way that was a one on one replacement after doing a comparison

One private forum that sometimes acted as a enabling place for such things recently closed which was kind of sad given I'd been there since 2007 when having been given the boot by the management of a bigger site we set up our own place.

Thing is many of them drifted towards Facebook making groups where I point blank refused especially when being partially pushed to go to the no longer with us Google Plus social network by them only to see them move back to Facebook for free coffee at Costa and the like and it that point slowly over time it just drifted apart.

It's like be on Facebook or be cast out.

Sorry I'm not prepared to jump through the hoops and privacy issues that site has just to keep in touch with people who just left me.

Everything links back

It hasn't been the best of weeks with both the weather and being quite ill so I haven't been about as much as I would of loved to had been but have had time to reflect a little on things.

Off and on, this life has always been me, purge or not having been there in the past usually wrapped rather more in a littles form.

Being pushed into wearing a pretty dress by a dominant mommy type, hair and make up all done up.

There always was an uber feminine side of me, willing or not that would go with this whole scene, playing with dollies getting off on non sexual "humiliation".

It can be hard to accept the real you but often the bigger problem is being able to tell others as it's not about wanting to be or seeing yourself as a female but rather you like being a sissy not a man, not a woman but this "gurl" with all the other bits in it.

I know I can be amazing, I have many skills and qualities but they all come from the whole me so trying to shut down anything but the "normal" adversely affects me in everyday life so I need to live and be more open as the whole me.

The whole me is a sissy gurl, not necessarily the one you are but the one that takes in what I relate and get off on so I need to focus more on being less "normal" and more sissy gurl me.

Cleaning records

One thing you cannot avoid when it comes to buying and playing records is cleaning them as finger prints can leave oily deposits and dirt and dust can get into the groove causing varying degrees of crackle or "rustling" in the background.

In vinyl's heyday at the record store counter you'd find various impregnated anti static cloths that worked rather like the cloths you use to clean your glasses with and if hifi was your thing you may of read and seen various fluids and record cleaning systems such as those by Keith Monks which some stores for a fee would clean your discs quite deeply.

Around two thousand sixteen as my record playing system started to improve I found myself needing something to clean some of my oldest records and oddly enough clean and take the static from brand new ones as some record plants aren't as clean as they should be.

This is what I used at the time with a pair of microfibre cloths to apply a cleaning fluid and remove it and any debris from them which worked rather well for a small amount of elbow grease doing it by hand.

Trying to get hold of some recently lead to the discovery it appeared to be no longer available, indeed the last lot I had was only in a small capacity and so some seven years on I was back to exploring cleaners which were.

I settled on this "Deep Track Cleansing" fluid with some cleaning cloths and stylus cleaner as actually from time to time you should clean that on your cartridge to remove and build up of dirt and dust by the company Vinyl Clear.

Interestingly this product is endorsed and used by Abbey Road Studios for cleaning reference records they use when working on newly mastered versions for comparisons using a tiny amount of clean ipa alcohol dissolved in distilled pure water (tap water is inpure containing lime amongst other things).

It came with a plastic record holder for allowing the cleaned disc to dry for a few minutes before putting in the inner sleeve ready for playing.

I might add if the sleeve is an old paper only one I'd resleeve it in either a polylined one or those japanese style rice paper ones so you don't reintroduce any dirt or paper acid you've just spent time removing.

This is available in various capacities - mine was 150 ml - and it does work well

Lessons learned along the tracks

 This blog has, and was always different from the point of view that it was whole life, whole interests centred and not focused narrowly around gender and identity issues as much as I may go on about them as they apply in my life.

Part of that is about going away as much as in the last eighteen or so months it has been fraught with issues but I did get away this weekend but in a lot ways the bigger thing wasn't to be found in the ultimate destination but more what was learned along the way.

Travel, especially by train can be subject to change and that change might be really quite rapid.

With me I had arrived in very good time and checked the overhead screens for the latest travel information as it was becoming apparent an earlier Manchester train was running rather late  and so it was with just under two minutes before our train was due as that train arrived that message you dread came over the public address speakers

"Will passenger on platform 6 for the London Northwestern Service to Birmingham New Street please standby for an announcement".

Sure enough we we told our train now was coming in on Platform 11 and in the process of moving at speed I almost fell over and fell my case at which point an Afro-Carribean woman comes along and picks it up and says she'll help me.

So we form a partnership getting to this platform - me feeling progressive more like the child in this relationship of sorts - very much the little gurl lost - and one missed direction we do get about about and I thanked her most profusely.

Getting off at the other end a bit shaken up still, a white guy with strong Black Country accent sees I'm a bit shaken and not only offers to take my case for me down the stairs but sees me into station concourse

We often read of the worst of people and it can be easy to buy into it but certainly I felt I had met some of the best examples of humanity you could for in the most ordinary of situations and really that's the point here.

We care for each other and those people cared for me.

Midnineties memories

Possibly the last warm week for a bit as I'm a bit dripping here recovering from being somewhat pawley Tm yesterday from the moment I got up, I'd hardly say woke up as I'd very little sleep thanks to major disruptions across the early morning.

Thoughts were drifting to the mid nineties, those days when we'd be "staying out for the summer", hoping for a "fine time" after someone said "wake up boo" and the gallagher brothers said "roll with it" to Mr alburn's "country house" in  chart spat.

Part of that is finding some of my SHINE compilations of indie hits of that era bought when Lesley and I used to hang around, share food and talk about photography, music over drinks.

She was into Hooch the alcopop brand massive back then and showing my beliefs was on regular pop although that was never an issue.

I'd bring videos of the summer festival sets the bands we liked to play as unlike me they didn't have have Sky and as her property unlike mine was rented you had to get permission from the landlord and it was only matter a few years from moving out of their parental home in the south of the city.

Those were the days.

On relationships

Sometimes I think we can get on the wrong foot when it comes to how we form and maintain relationships and we tend not to be so good at it, perhaps because few cared to show us how.

Focus is a main thing.

Are we wishing to be someone's friend or lead others in activities or play for how that may make us appear in the eyes of the wider world, a favourable comment or an attempt to be seen as a leader as if it is about us?

I feel when it comes to motivation being less concerned around that but looking more what we can offer others and from that what we may gain from that - seeing others happy, having fun can be enough

There are things we need to be mindful of,

This speaks volumes to me.

We can get so fixated on solving problems, righting wrongs that we feel we are not making a difference to someone we care about but just being there, walking along side them is really what we need to be doing more.

When you care for some one you just do.

We love them for what they have to offer rather than what we may feel our needs are.

When was it we last told them we love them?

Do it.

Feel it.

Show it.

Above all, Say it.