Ordinary World

The Final Day of the Song Challenge

2012-01-29T14:07:00.005Z

The whole point of the song challenge was that it would encourage me to blog more often. I'm not sure it was entirely successful from that point of view - I think it has taken me 9 months to complete it.

I'm not sure why I didn't get around to blogging last weekend but real life has been getting in the way of my cyber existance for most of this month. This is not necessarily a bad thing; Sir Bruin and I met up with fellow blogger Mr P and his lovely wife Mrs Rine (as well as Oz and Lilley) for lunch yesterday, which is clearly far more fun than sitting at a computer.

Anyway, back to the plot.

On Sara Sizzle’s original list, the song choice for day 30 is supposed to be your favourite song at this time last year. However, I have a problem with this. Being an old git, I’ve had the same favourite song for about 20 years. Therefore my choice for day 30 strictly speaking, is the same as my choice for day 1.

So, rather than put the same song up a second time, how about we tweak day 30 just a little bit.

~~Day 30 – Your favourite song from this time last year.~~

Day 30 – The song you named your blog after

Not a song from their 80s hey-day, but a later track that was a huge hit in the USA for them in 1993. They still tour together now – and my mother said they wouldn’t last!

Was that or was that not, the longest 30 days of your life? Yes? Bad luck, it’s not over.

Long before I took up The 30 Day Song Challenge, I often ~~stole~~ borrowed song titles for my blog posts (this dates back to 2007). Not only am I going to try and revive that old tradition, now that I have discovered Youtube, I shall continue to post links to stuff I like at every available opportunity.

Assuming that I manage to blog at all, that is.

You have been warned.

Day 29 – A song from your childhood

2012-01-15T18:59:00.002Z

I remember listening to Queen and Abba as well as Simon and Garfunkel because my mum liked them.

I also remember really liking “Loving You” by Minnie Riperton. How old was I when this came out? Six? Seven? An odd sort of song to be enjoyed by a young child. I can recall too, being somewhat obsessed with “Seasons in the sun” by Terry Jacks. Clearly, I was a very strange child. I’m not going to inflict either of these songs on you now though.

I notice that there is no category in this meme for ‘the first song I ever bought’. I bought my first single when I was about 6 years old, so, while we are on the subject of childhood favourites; this is the first record I ever bought:

Yes, that is the Avalon Stage at the Glastonbury Festival. The Wombles played at Glastonbury in 2011 and therefore they are officially cool. This means that I was a very cool six-year-old. Probably.

Day 28 of the 30 day song challenge

2012-01-14T15:43:00.004Z

Only 2 days left!!!

Day 28 – A song that makes you feel guilty

Back to guilt again?

Why would a song make you feel guilty? Maybe one that you associate with something you did that you are less than proud of?

Hmmmmm.

This is a rubbish category.

However, I used a song by Supergrass in my previous post and this has given me an idea. So;

Day 28 – A song that ~~makes you feel guilty~~ might be applicable to you if you were guilty…

I wanted an excuse to post this song but I didn’t think I would find one so quickly.

Day 27 of the song challenge – A song that you wish you could play

2012-01-07T16:15:00.003Z

How long have you got? Most of the stuff on my list so far would be the honest answer. We have already established in earlier posts that I am a failed guitarist. I’d love to be able to play that intro to “Paradise City”.

I’d love to be able to play the guitar on anything really.

Or the bass.

Or the drums.

But mostly the guitar…

That’s proper rock, that is.

(note to self: find an excuse to post a link to “Caught by The Fuzz”).

Day 26 – A song that you can play on an instrument

2012-01-05T20:18:00.004Z

I had guitar lessons when I was 14. Someone dobbed my teacher into the tax authorities and he had to stop giving lessons for a while. By the time he had sorted out his financial affairs, I had lost interest. I have always favoured long finger nails, which do not lend themselves well to guitar playing. This was a long time ago. You do the maths.

So, playing an instrument is a skill that I have long since lost, but I can (just about) pick out the first couple of bars of “Smoke on The Water”, very slowly, just on one string and by counting the frets rather than knowing any notes.

Wednesday Wafflings

2012-01-04T19:26:00.006Z

New Year my arse. The only thing that is new is the date.

Four days in. Nothing to report.

Today I received an email warning at work that my inbox was taking up too much space so I spent an hour deleting old messages. Among them I found an email that I sent on 5 January 2010, part of which reads "Why do people get so excited about the New Year? It's not new at all - it's just the same old shit with a different date on it!" My opinion has not changed in the intervening 2 years.

This time last week I was blogging about what a splendid Christmas I had. My Mum reckons she prefers the New Year to Christmas, but I find it something of an anti-climax. I've never been fond of New Year celebrations and I am always filled with relief if I don't get invited anywhere. This year, Sir Bruin and I didn't even bother to stay up until midnight. We went to bed at 11:15, although I did get up and look out of the window at the fireworks. I did, however, rather enjoy New Year's Day; I cooked us a beef casserole and after we had scoffed that, accompanied by a bottle of wine, we just sat around all afternoon eating and drinking and watching films. It was great! Perhaps a New Year's Day party is the way forward for The Bears.

I spent Bank Holiday Monday trying to distract myself from the fact that it was the last day of my lovely Christmas break. I indulged in some cooking, which was unfortunately not as successful as my Christmas efforts.

This is some home made bread which didn't taste as impressive as it looks. My dried yeast was out of date so the dough didn't rise as much as I would have liked and the loaves, despite appearances, could definitely have done with a bit longer in the oven.

This is a leek and blue cheese tart which was a bit lacking in flavour. On balance, I prefer Quiche Lorraine. I made a quiche for supper on Christmas Day and it was way better than the offering photographed above.

Leek, potato and bacon soup accompanied by some of the pudding-like home-made bread. Needed more seasoning; an issue which I addressed when re-heating some of it for supper tonight.

I shall return to the song challenge for my next post (I'm determined to finish it), but until then, here is a food related song featuring a very young Paul Young on lead vocals. This is what passed for entertainment in the 1970s.

Day 25 of the song challenge – A song that makes you laugh

2011-12-31T16:14:00.003Z

There are lots of songs around with amusing lyrics (well quote some then, why don’t you? – Ed.)

OK then.

“And now we’re living in the sky,

I never knew I’d live so high,

Just like heaven,

If it didn’t look like hell”. “Mile End” by Pulp.

Or how about

“Girls run around with no clothes on,

To borrow a pound for a condom,

If it wasn’t for chip fat they’d be frozen,

They’re not very sensible” “I Predict a Riot” by The Kaiser Chiefs.

But a song that actually makes you laugh? Maybe a comic song; “The Ballad of Barry and Freda” by Victoria Wood or “The Dogging Song” by Fascinating Aida. “The Knights of the Round Table” by Monty Python!

Actually, let’s go back to Fascinating Aida. This is from their Silver Jubilee DVD (which Sir Bruin owns so I have seen it several times) - buy it, it’s great! (contains some swearing):

Day 24 – A song that you want to play at your funeral

2011-12-30T16:45:00.005Z

Tomorrow's post will be more cheerful, honest.

Sir Bruin and I attended 2 funerals in the run up to Christmas as my Grandma and Sir Bruin’s mother died within 5 days of each other.

My Grandma’s funeral was rather nice and entirely free of any religion (something I approved of). Three pieces of music were played in total. We walked into the crematorium to the theme music from TV’s "All Creatures Great and Small" and left to the sound of another TV theme, "Van der Valk" (a tune which I believe is actually called ‘Eye Level’) – she liked her TV themes, my old Grandma (and when I say old, I mean old. She was 92!) The service itself involved a reading, and a brief resume of Grandma’s life and also a period of quiet reflection, during which we listened to a piece of music that I had heard many times but previously did not know the name of - "Theme from a summer place". It was lovely.

The funeral of Sir B’s mother was a religious service conducted by her local methodist minister. However, the version of the 23^rd psalm that was played was the one used as the theme to TV’s "The Vicar of Dibley".

I have blogged previously (here) on the topic of music chosen for funerals.

My mother informs me that she would like "Gimme All Your Lovin’" by ZZ Top while my Dad would like something with a railway theme; possibly "The Runaway Train." (You can see now why I am a bit odd, can’t you?)

So, with rather too much death around, funeral music has been discussed at some length in the Bear Cave in recent weeks, but no real conclusions have been made. Let’s face it – I’m not actually going to be there (my empty body may be attending but whatever made me me will be gone) so why would I care about this?

It’s top 5 time!

Top 5 possible funeral tunes for a small bear (hopefully not required for another 40 years)

“Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane

“The Great Gig in The Sky” by Pink Floyd

“Don’t Dream It’s Over” by Crowded House

“The Show Must Go On” by Queen

“Silence is Golden” by The Tremeloes (this last suggestion based solely on the fact that this song was at number 1 the week I was born)

I’m supposed to actually post a link here. Eeany, meany, miney… how about “The Great Gig In The Sky” by Pink Floyd? (make yourself a cup of tea; this goes on for ages).

Sound only.

Day 23 of the song challenge – A song that you want to play at your wedding

2011-12-29T16:09:00.001Z

Too late - I am already married, to his eminence Sir Bruin the Large Bear.

(This is clearly aimed at the younger blogger)

Sir Bruin and I have both been married before and therefore wanted a very low-key wedding when we tied the knot in March of 2010. When we sneaked off and got married in the company of only 2 witnesses, there wasn’t any scope for a wedding song. However, I do recall a best of Ian Dury compilation album playing in the car as we drove off in the direction of our 2 day honeymoon in Norfolk, so here is something from that instead.

(Possibly a description of the life we might have lead had we met about 25 years earlier)

When my brother got married, he and his wife chose two songs for their first dance. The first, first dance was “All You Need is Love” by The Beatles and then the second first dance was “I believe in a Thing Called Love” by The Darkness. Class!

In which we stepped into Christmas and back out the other side

2011-12-28T14:42:00.007Z

It's been a busy few weeks and Christmas rather snuck up on Sir Bruin and I. This was unfortunate as we had invited LOADS of people to spend the festivities with us. With a week to go, Sir B was still laying the floor in our newly built conservatory which is also our only dining space.

However, despite 2 funerals and a lot of DIY over the past fortnight or so, everything got done in time, somehow.

His eminence, Sir Bruin, resplendent in festive hat and not-so-festive dressing gown on Christmas morning.

I think I spent the entire day in the kitchen on Christmas Eve but it was worth it.

On Christas Day, Sir B and I were joined by my parents and spent a very relaxing day, opening gifts, having a little drinkie and consuming lots of yummy food.

Boxing Day was altogether more chaotic as four became eleven. My brother and his wife and children drove over from Birmingham and we were also joined by all three of Sir Bruin's sons. Chaos reigned while Boy Cub and Girl Cub opend their presents, although as Girl Cub is only 1, she was more interested in the paper. I had prepared vast quantities of food and they ate all of it (apart from the Christmas Cake and a bit of the trifle). One of Sir B's Christmas presents was the QI board game, which we attempted to play after the little ones had gone to bed. The scoring of the board game is every bit as mysterious as that of the actual television programme. My sister-in-law, who is a French teacher, threatend to explain the rules in French at one point; they wouldn't have been any less confusing in another language. It was cosy at The Bear Cave with all those people, especially as my family don't live locally and so we had 6 overnight guests.

On Bank Holiday Tuesday we went for a walk by the River Deben and to a park in Woodbridge so that the Boy Cub could let off some steam. His baby sister is generally happy to be trundled about in her pushchair, although she did choose Christmas Day as the occassion that she walked all by herself for the first time.

Boy Cub is three-and-a-half now and I wish I could bottle some of his energy. My brother and I were discussing how brilliant it must be to be that age because everything is fascinating:

"Hey! Look at that water!"

"Hey! There’s a boat!"

"I’ve found a stick!"

"Hey! There’s a bench!"

"Auntie Liz! Look at those birds!"

Actually, on reflection, if adults were like this, we'd never get anything done.

Not having had children of my own, I am endlessly astonished by the bear cubs. Small children make a lot of mess, don't they? And a lot of noise. Boy Cub is very good at talking and I wonder just how noisy it is going to be when Girl Cub catches him up in the vocabularly stakes, which she will do soon. Boy Cub cannot quite get to grips with the names of my two large teddies though. They are called Roderick and Leonard. I cannot remember why I chose Roderick as a name for a teddy bear; I've had him for nearly 40 years, but Leonard was so named bacause he was bought for me in Chapel St Leonards, which is a village on the Lincolnshire coast. When Boy Cub comes to visit, Leonard and Roderick become Lennon and Ron. It is spooky that he shortens Roderick to Ron because Ron was the name of the grandfather who bought me that particular teddy.

And then they all went home and Sir Bruin went back to work - hence I have time to write a blog today. I shall return to the song challenge tomorrow (bet you can’t wait for that!)

Top 5 Christmas Songs

"Santa Baby" by Eartha Kitt

"Step Into Christmas" by Elton John

"Little Saint Nick" by The Beach Boys

"I believe in Father Christmas" by Greg Lake

"All I want for Christmas is you" by Mariah Carey

Day 22 of the song challenge – A song that you listen to when you’re sad

2011-12-17T15:51:00.001Z

If I carry on at this rate, I might actually get to the end of this bloody challenge before the end of the year!

As previously mentioned (day 4, was it?) I don’t listen to sad music in order to make myself more sad.

If I am feeling sad, I listen to something to cheer myself up.

Surely this one would cheer anybody up?!

Day 21 – A song that you listen to when you’re happy

2011-12-15T20:49:00.003Z

Some of these categories overlap a bit, don’t they? I’ve already listed my favourite happy song back on day 3 (It was “No Rain” by Blind Melon).

Blogger is NOT making me happy today - I cannot see any of the blogs that I am following. Stupid blogger.

Anyway, back to the job in hand. There are lots of songs that make me smile and this is a real feel good tune. I defy anyone not to smile at that ridiculous falsetto that Justin Hawkins uses for the lyric “Just listen to the rhythm of my heart”

“I believe in a Thing Called Love” by The Darkness.

Day 20 – A song that you listen to when you’re angry

2011-12-10T16:13:00.004Z

I don’t listen to music when I am angry as a rule; I’m too busy seething.

But if I did, I can’t think of anything better than this track.

Are you talking to me?!

Are you talking to me?

Walk on home, boy.

Sensitive readers should look away now. This is Pantera and the song is called “Walk”

Grrrrrr.

Who wants a fight?

Day 19 – A song from your favourite album

2011-12-01T20:42:00.004Z

My favourite album varies a bit. I have several that hover around the top of my all time favourites list and regularly change places; “Appetite for Destruction” by Guns ‘n’ Roses; “K” by Kula Shaker; “The Bends” by Radiohead and “Without You I’m Nothing” by Placebo.

Which is top of that list changes with the weather. However, I am going to pick a song from “The Bends” because I have loved this long consistently ever since it came out. This song is the reason why I bought “The Bends”.

“You do it to yourself, you do; that’s why it really hurts.

You do it to yourself; just you, you and no one else.” Aint that the truth!

Great song, slightly annoying video.

(please feel free to skip any advertisements at the beginning)

Radio Radio

2011-11-26T17:59:00.003Z

We interrupt the song challenge to bring you a book review (sort of).

I do like a good memoir. Real lives are so much more interesting than anything you could make up. Among the many books clogging up the Bear Cave book shelves are memoirs/autobiographies by such luminaries as Paul O’Grady, Stephen Fry, Jo Brand, Maureen Lipman, Nina Miscow (remember her?) , Richard Hammond, Stuart Maconie, John Sergeant and John Peel. The latest to be added to this list is Phill Jupitus’s love letter to radio, “Good Morning Nantwich”.

I am, and always have been, a music fan, although not such a devoted record buying one as Phill Jupitus. My mum listened to the Top 20 (and later the Top 40) on Radio 1 and watched Top of The Pops on a Thursday night when I was growing up so it was always there. As a teenager I listened to a lot of Radio 1 and also the short-lived pirate station Laser 558. I may have largely fallen out of love with music radio in more recent years, but it was as bound up in my formative years as it appears to have been for Mr Jupitus, who is only 5 years older than me and therefore has some of the same points of reference. For example he refers to “Every Thursday I watched Top of The Pops religiously. It came on immediately after Tomorrow’s World” . This is something I remember very clearly from the 70s and 80s. We watched both programmes in our house, TW for my Dad and TOTP for everyone else; television viewing was more of a family event back then (incidentally, Z has touched upon TV nostalgia and changes in viewing habits on her blog this week) .

I like books that I can draw parallels with. Digression alert! For example, in the front of “Park and Ride” by Miranda Sawyer, it says that she “spent her formative years in Wilmslow, Cheshire in a white ra-ra skirt and turquoise mascara”. What a coincidence, I spent my formative years in rural Lincolnshire in a yellow ra-ra skirt and turquoise mascara! Similarly, Stuart Maconie’s very wonderful “Cider with Roadies” is rooted heavily in the 1980s, which is when I really began to get into popular music (and bad 80s fashion) and I love all the bits where I can go ‘Yeah! I remember that!’

Phill Jupitus is more influenced by music from the 70s than I am, which is inevitable as that is when he was a teenager. Like my husband, he got into Prog Rock but unlike my husband, he then moved on to other things. However, his reminiscences about his first transistor radio (mine was blue) and first record player (mine was a grey box that looked like a suitcase with the lid closed) took me right back to my 70s childhood.

So, I like this book because it is written by a real person, about real things and his childhood/teenage reminiscences are set in an era that I recognise. It’s nostalgia with the unpleasant bits taken out. I also like just how brutally frank he is with his opinions; no pussy footing around for fear of offending anybody (“bloody Coldplay and fucking Razorlight”), although he does have the grace not to name the local radio DJ who gave him his worst ever radio interview experience. I imagine this lack of fear regarding causing offence stems from his years as a stand-up comedian. I think he always fancied working in radio but didn’t know how to get there (nobody did media studies at school back then) and seems to have largely fallen into it by accident. When he was offered the chance to present the breakfast show on the BBC’s new station, BBC6 Music, he almost talked himself out of it; which I can understand as I wouldn’t fancy those early mornings either.

Jupitus had radio experience well before being approached for the BBC6 breakfast show, having been used by GLR as a stand-in for DJs off sick or on holiday over a number of years and eventually having a Saturday morning show of his own. There are lots of anecdote filled chapters about his early experiences of radio presenting, interviewing and driving the desk.

He had already left his regular Saturday GLR slot before the BBC re-vamped the station to make it more like all its other local radio output, something that Jupitus did not entirely approve of. I agree with him when he says in the book that he “never really understood the appeal of listening to people bicker as a form of entertainment”. To me that sounds like an accurate description of the Jeremy Vine show and the Today programme on Radio 4. Talk radio is not my cup of tea.

Now, I have to confess that I never once listened to dear old Phill when he was on BBC6, despite the fact that he presented their breakfast show for 5 years. The problem with digital radio is that you have to listen to it either on a DAB radio, your television or a computer – none of which are very portable. When it comes to radio, if I can’t get it in the car, then I am unlikely to hear it. As Jupitus himself observes, it doesn’t seem right to listen to the radio on the television (although I do so occasionally). I rarely sit down specifically to listen to music; I like it on when I am ironing or doing the housework or sometimes in the car. There is only one DAB radio in our house, it’s in our bedroom and Sir Bruin uses it to listen to Radio 4 at night. Our DAB is mains powered so if I want to move it elsewhere, I have to move bedroom furniture in order to unplug it. Consequently it doesn’t get moved and as a result is tragically underused. Maybe we should get another digital radio for the kitchen to entertain me while I am cooking.

I do sometimes retune our bedroom radio to BBC6 if I am upstairs doing some tidying up, but I rarely stick with it for long. I like the idea of BBC6, which was conceived as a sort of radio 1 for grown-ups, but the reality is, in my experience, that it tries a bit too hard and unfortunately it comes across as a bit pompous. This is a shame. I waited years for this channel to come along and by the time it did, I had lost interest in hearing the sort of music that it plays.

Getting back to the book, I enjoyed most of it but thought it went off the boil a bit (rather like Jupitus’s radio career) towards the end. I bet he’s a difficult bugger to work with and I’m surprised he lasted 5 years on the 6 Music breakfast show because he doesn’t come across as someone who would be happy doing the same thing for any length of time. One of my favourite chapters is where he recounts the experience of listening to an entire 4 hours of a commercial radio breakfast show just so that he would have something to compare and contrast his own radio show with. He hated it and I laughed out loud at his ranting about it. I shared his puzzlement at some of the things the presenters laughed at (is it me, or are they all a bit hysterical on commercial radio?); but he does concede that this sort of programme is “not supposed to appeal to effete liberals like me”. Personally, I’m not sure who that sort of mindless nonsense is aimed at but I doubt that many people sit through a whole 4 hours of it. The majority of listeners dip in and out of breakfast radio en route to doing whatever it is they have to do that day and therefore just don’t notice the inanity of it.

Another thing that I like about “Good Morning Nantwich” is the little play-list that appears at the end of each chapter – now there’s an idea I could adapt for blogging!

Back in his GLR days, Phill Jupitus did some deputising for Bob Mills who had a late night show (Sunday’s, I believe) which allowed far more scope for the DJ to play his own taste in music. On one occasion, Mr J dedicated an entire show to Elvis Costello – so what else could I use as the musical finale to this waffle?

Just how good is that intro?

Thank you, Phill Jupitus, for reminding me of that fantastic song.

Day 18 – A song that you wish you heard on the radio

2011-11-15T19:16:00.002Z

I think we established in my previous post that I am not a huge radio listener, mainly because nobody is playing enough of the stuff that I like.

I have so many contenders for this category that I could probably make it into a top ten:

“I’m In Love With a German Film Star” by The Passions.

“Dr Mabuse” by Propaganda

“The Back of Love” by Echo and The Bunnymen

“Sex Type Thing” by The Stone Temple Pilots

“Love and Pride” by King

“Don’t Dream it’s over” by Crowded House

“Six Underground” by The Sneaker Pimps

“Ladykiller” by Lush

“Breakaway” by Tracey Ullman

“Man At C&A” by The Specials

Some of these weren’t big hits, which probably explains why they have been largely forgotten. The one I have picked on this occasion I think only reached number 25 in the charts and was the only hit for this particular band.

This clip is from an ancient episode of Top of The Pops and features a bit of cheesy 80s DJ action at the start and finish.

Just how gorgeous is the guitar on that?

I may revisit some of the other songs in the list above. You have been warned.

Day 17 of the song challenge – A song that you hear often on the radio

2011-11-09T20:26:00.002Z

I rarely listen to the radio these days, I am sorry to say. I did try listening in the car on the way too and from work earlier this week in the interests of researching this blog post, but the breakfast and drive-time shows available are mostly chat and not enough music.

I was fond of a bit of the Radcliffe and Maconie show when it was on Radio 2 in the evenings and would listen to it when in the bath or shower. I miss them now that they have moved to BBC 6 Music and into a timeslot that prevents me from listening to them. I know I could listen later on i-player but it’s too much trouble to fire my ancient computer up in order to listen again.

I occasionally listen to the Chris Evans breakfast show on Radio 2 and quite like it in small doses (sorry Rog – it’s a surprise to me too, I hated him when he was on Radio 1) and I sometimes listen to that if I have the car for work, but, as I have already observed, there is far too much talking on Radio 2 so really I prefer a CD with my own musical taste on it. If I am not at work, then I might tune in to a bit of Ken Bruce but that is mainly so that I can listen to Pop Master. I tried to do just that last Friday morning while doing some ironing, but the reception on the radio in the spare bedroom was so awful that I gave up.

If you listen to Radio 2 at all, there is always too much of Bruce Springsteen, and it’s always the really shit “Born to Run”. No, I refuse to use that one.

There is a song that I have heard Chris Evans play a little too often, which is the utterly dreadful “Candy Man” (I neither know nor care who sings it), so I’m not going to use that either. However, there is another song that I have heard Mr Evans play from time-to-time, a classic song by The Smiths, which I shall represent below and at the same time re-title today’s challenge as A song that you love but that annoys the hell out of your husband.

Day 16 – A song that you used to love but now hate

2011-11-04T17:01:00.003Z

I've had a bit of trouble with this one. I can think of lots of songs that I have sort of 'grown out of' but I'm struggling to come up with anything for which I have evolved a really strong dislike, never mind hatred.

"Beat It" by Michael Jackson is a possibility. I was a huge fan of his first two solo albums ("Off The Wall" and "Thriller") and played them in my bedroom a lot in the early 1980s. However, "Thriller" turned into such a monster that all the songs on it became so familiar that they were rendered about as entertaining as a washing powder commercial. I think that "Beat It" is the track from that album that has suffered most at the hands of time. The dreadful video didn't help it.

The other contender for this is "Everything I do, I do for You" by Bryan Adams. I like Bryan Adams. I like the film for which this song is the theme tune (yes, I know that Kevin Costner doesn't even attempt an English accent in "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves" but no one knows what our accent was like 800 years ago). I particularly Alan Rickman's performance in the film. Maybe he should have recorded the theme tune? When this song was first released, I really liked it. I was in a somewhat clandestine relationship at the time and in my deluded little mind, "Everything I do, I do for You" became a sort of theme song for me and my mystery man. But then it reached number one in the charts and stayed there FOREVER! Sixteen weeks, was it? By the end of that I was sick to death of this song and after years of it topping any kind of 'best song ever' countdown on TV or radio it was a very long way from being a favourite of mine.

I'm not going to post links to either of these songs; you don't want to listen to them anymore than I do.

Day 15 of the song challenge!!!!

2011-10-29T18:09:00.004+01:00

Once more, unto the song challenge, once more.

Half-way through! Only another 15 days to go! (which at my blogging rate probably equates to about 3 months).

Day 15 – A song that describes you

I like to think that the first verse of “She’s Electric” by Oasis sounds a bit like me.

She’s electric,
She’s in a family full of eccentrics,
She’s done things I never expected,
And I need more time.

Or maybe “The Great Song of Indifference” by Bob Geldolf. “What a Waste” by Ian Dury and The Blockheads? “Oblivious” by Aztec Camera?

After much thought (alright then, not that much really), I have decided to leave it to a fellow loony, the late, great Freddie Mercury to sum me up;

I'm knitting on only one needle,

Unravelling fast it’s true,

I’m driving on only 3 wheels these days,

But my dear, how about you?

(please feel free to skip any annoying advertisements at the beginning)

Goodbye and Hello

2011-10-22T17:53:00.008+01:00

Anyone who remembers my husband's blog (which is updated even less frequently than this one) may recognise the photograph below.

This is the Suzuki Intruder VL1500LC that was affectionately known as Beorn The Bear and has been Sir Bruin's trusty steed for the past 3 years.

Not any more though.

Today we bid farewell to trusty Beorn. He has been traded in for something newer, easier to ride and a lot cheaper to run.

I had never ridden pillion before I met Sir B so I did feel a bit sad as I watched him ride Beorn away for the last time this morning.

Below is the far more practical machine that has replaced Beorn.

It's a Suzuki V-Strom.

I sat on the pillion this morning (more comfy than I expected) but I haven't been out for a ride as yet.

Can I be really girly and say that I love the colour?

I'm not sure when I shall get a ride on the back of it, but I'm actually looking forward to it now. (I might wait for some warmer weather though - yes I am a wuss).

So here is a short clip of Sir Bruin riding off into the sunset earlier this evening.

And here is a jolly song about saying hello and goodbye.

Signs of Autumn

2011-09-18T10:37:00.008+01:00

I took this photograph from the window of The Toy Room about an hour ago. I think it reflects rather nicely the autumnal feel that today has. It occurs to me that yesterday was the Autumn Equinox so we should not be surprised that there is a distinct chill in the air today, despite the bright sunshine.

Another sign that we are into Autumn now is that there are actually some programmes on the television that are worth watching (something else to keep me away from blogging). Sir Bruin is currently ensconced on the sofa downstairs watching the Rugby World Cup. In addition to this, among the programmes that we are regularly viewing are the latest series of 'Only Connect' (BBC4, Monday evenings), 'The Great British Bake Off' (BBC2, Tuesday evening), 'Who Do You Think You Are?' (BBC1, Wednesday evening), 'Billy Connolly on Route 66' (itv1, Thursday evening) and, let joy be unconfined, QI (back where it belongs on BBC2 on a Friday night)*. Over the summer, Sir Bruin treated us to a PVR which is suddenly getting a lot of use as we are not always free to park ourselves in front of the telly when our favourite programmes are on.

Last Wednesday, we went to the theatre. The show that we saw was '20th Century Boy' which is a musical about the life of Marc Bolan and featuring some of his music. What we didn't realise until we read it on the BBC News website the next day is that this is the first time this musical has been staged. A world premier in little old Ipswich - who'd have thought it?

The review above is taken from the Ipswich Evening Star (often available to buy a good 10 hours before day turns to evening). The reviewer raves about George Maguire's performance as Marc Bolan, but Sir Bruin and I were not entirely convinced by him. He certainly had the moves in all the concert scenes, and he did a good job of portraying the evolution of Mark Feld into Marc Bolan, but the voice wasn't right. Donna Hines as Gloria Jones on the other hand was awesome. The review above suggests that George Maguire steals all the limelight but I would have to disagree. As engaging as his performance is, it is the actors who play multiple parts in these small productions that often catch my eye and in particular I think praise is due to Matthew Ashcroft, who played both Steve Took and Mickey Finn in a delightfully stoned style and Peter Manchester, who played Bolan's uncle, one of his roadies and was brilliantly salacious as Simon Napier-Bell.

It is a very good musical (if you can get to The New Wolsey and you can get tickets, it is well worth a look) and the way this production makes use of the somewhat limited stage space is quite brilliant. The trouble is, shows at The Wolsey are always good and I now have excessively high expectations of them. Prior to last year, I thought they would never top the production of 'Little Shop of Horrors' that Sir Bruin and I saw there 3 years ago, but they did. Late last year, my friend Sharon and I went to see the touring production of 'Spend Spend Spend' there and it was absolutely fantastic and anyone who read my blog in October of last year may remember my enthusiastic review of another show at the Wolsey, 'Reasons To Be Cheerful' which was also completely fab. Excellent though it is, '20th Century Boy' just didn't thrill me as much as some shows I have seen. The lovely Sharon (organiser of tickets and currently sunning herself on a Greek island somewhere, lucky moo) claims to have enjoyed '20th Century Boy' as much as 'Reasons To Be Cheerful' and I have to ask myself why Sir Bruin and I didn't. The ending is a bit cheesy and overdone but in all honestly, I think it is the songs that make the difference between these two shows. In my opinion, Ian Dury was simply a better song writer than Marc Bolan. That said, I do have a best of T-Rex CD in the car at the moment and in keeping with recent song challenge posts, I think I will end with what is, in my humble opinion' far and away the best of Bolan's songs.

* I forgot to mention 'The Big Bang Theory' which can be seen on E4 pretty much any day of the week in the slots not occupied by endless repeats of 'Friends' and 'How I met your mother'.

Day 14 – A song that no one would expect you to love

2011-09-17T17:14:00.004+01:00

What? A whole month went by? Where was I while this was going on? Mostly enrolling students, working overtime (much of it unpaid) and this week I have mostly been having a new boiler installed (in my house. obviously).

The idea of a 30 day song challenge seems increasingly optomistic but anyway, here is the latest offering:

I’m not a fan of spilling your guts about very personal matters within a blog, although I think I have previously made a brief mention of the fact that one of my younger brothers took his own life when he was 19. I only mention it again now because, having had that experience, I imagine that no one would expect me to love a song about a boy who has committed suicide.

At one time, I was a huge fan of Guns ‘n’ Roses, and in particular, of their lead guitarist, Slash. After his very public falling-out with Axl Rose, Slash went on to enjoy further success with the band Velvet Revolver, who I never really got into, although I have no idea why because the stuff of theirs I have heard is pretty damn fine. Before Guns ‘n’ Roses bit the dust, during one of their Axl Rose driven hiatuses, Geffen Records indulged Slash’s side project – the unimaginatively named Slash’s Snakepit (his name is Slash and he likes snakes) – with a record deal and a tour. Of course, as a devoted worshipper of Mr Slash, I bought the album, “It’s 5 O’clock Somewhere” and I still listen to some of the tracks on it (“Beggars and Hangers On” is a nice bluesy one, if you can be bothered to check it out). However, my favourite track from the “It’s 5 O’clock Somewhere” album by Slash’s Snakepit is “Neither Can I” which is about a young man who has killed himself in exactly the same way that my brother did. It doesn’t make me feel sad. I just think it is a beautiful song.

I didn’t expect to find a clip on Youtube given that this isn’t a well known song, but find one I did. It is live footage featuring lots of sweaty young men and appears to have been taken from an Episode of Noisy Mothers and is introduced by Krusher Joule and Ann Kirk.

Doesn’t quite to justice to the album version that I know and love but never mind.

In which we doggedly return to the song challenge

2011-08-14T20:16:00.003+01:00

Well, it's better than writing nothing at all, isn't it?

Isn't it?

Day 13 – A song that is a guilty pleasure

I’m not sure why guilt should be associated with music. I’m with Dara O’Briain on this one; let’s save guilt for something that we really should feel guilty about rather than attaching it to music that we think someone else might not approve of (if you haven’t seen Dara O’Briain’s DVD “This is the show” you will have no idea what I am talking about at this point).

So, why on earth would anyone feel guilty about enjoying music? Perhaps it could be a song that might offend others; “Smack My Bitch Up” by The Prodigy for example (I am tempted to use that for this category as it has a rather clever video – the person perpetrating all the violence turns out to be female). Or how about something with excessive swearing? “Double Talking Jive” by Guns ‘n’ Roses? I love "Double Talking Jive" for the killer guitar on it; I wouldn't play it to anybody that might be offended by the language but that doesn't mean I have to feel guilty for liking it.

Many people, when asked to state their musical guilty pleasure suggest Abba, although why that should be is a mystery to me; Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson are arguably the best song writing partnership since Lennon and McCartney. I'm definitely not going to feel guilty about liking a bit of Abba.

Let us assume for this exercise that the ‘guilt’ involved is merely embarrassment that your choice of song might not be sufficiently trendy.

Cheesy pop maybe?

Manufactured cheesy pop?

How about this then?

Well Trained

2011-08-09T19:32:00.015+01:00

We went to a model railway exhibition on Saturday. Here is a photo of me outside (where some model traction engines were trundling round).

The bears attending a model railway exhibition is hardly news. Readers of my husband's blog will know that he is building a model railway of his own in our smallest bedroom and we have done a lot of looking at other people's trains over the past 12 months. (Readers of Sir Bruin's blog will remember that I was promised a nice lunch on Saturday - this consisted of a ham roll and a packet of crisps).

What was different about the Southwold Model Railway Exhibition was that it was much bigger than anything we have been to before and it took us 3 hours to see everything (fear not, I shall not be telling you about all of it).

NERD ALERT!! NERD ALERT!!

I shall now inflict photographs and information upon you about some of the lovely things we saw. You have been warned.

SEABURY TOWN

Modeller - Mike Renwick

The most interesting thing about this layout is that it features a model railway within a model railway. I took some movie of the scene above (where the tiny models were running) and to the right of this was another even smaller model within a model.

R&M QUARRIES

Modellers: Richard Timms & Steve Hitchcock

This photo doesn't do justice to all the stuff going in. The hopper in the back of the picture was actually filling the train waggons with stone. The trains moved very slowly, as they would in a real quarry setting. We were impressed by this one and amused by the notice at one end suggesting that rivet counters and know-it-alls were not welcome.

BISHOP WEARBURN

Modeller - John Spence

I really liked this layout, which is N gauge, the same size of hubby's layout at home. The detail was fab - lots of countryside and bridges and a river. It was all very gorgeous but unfortunately there wasn't much running. The locomotive in the photo below was stationary due to a major derailment just behind the scenery.

SHADBOLTS LOCK

Keith & Suzanne Armitage

This is 00 gauge, which most of the stuff on show on Saturday was. Most of the models have a little back-story with them and this one is set around 1958, which is the era Sir Bruin is going for. We thought the water looked especially realistic in this picture.

Some modellers are not keen on having their layouts interfered with by smaller fans (I can't actually remember the name of the layout this was next to).

Here are a few more that we liked

The Wharf at AVEN OVER WYRE (Mike Shakespeare WRMC & Blackpool & North Fylde MRC)

PARSONS LUMBER CO. CAMP 93 (Richard Turner).

Just how realistic are those trees?!

SPRINGFIELD SPA (Dr Michael Watts)

One of only a handful of N gauge layouts, this one was very small and set on a very high baseboard which made viewing (and photographing) much easier.

Springfield Spa Station

Another scene from the Springfield Spa layout (I think this looks like a still shot from a 1950s movie)

VICTORIA ROAD (Bradford MRC)

This was brilliant. A 00 gauge layout that was large enough to have a lot of great scenery. One end was very much in the countryside, complete with a canal and then the railway lines run through a town (parts of which are modelled on real buildings from Saltaire in Yorkshire), past a huge factory with an enormous chimney and then into a tunnel.

Here is a photo of the countryside end of Victoria Road (yes, that really is a model)

I'm rather more interested in the scenery and detail than the trains - can you tell?

I thought Victoria Road was the best model railway layout I had ever seen until I saw this next one (be of good cheer dear reader, this is the last one):

ARROWMOUTH (Redditch MRC)

This was an enormous 00 layout that had everything, countryside, rivers, bridges, town, cliffs, a beach, the sea, a campsite... I could go on. The picture above is one of the beach scenes, set somewhere in North West England in the 1960s. There was so much to see. We really loved this one.

You can see many (and better) pictures than mine on the Redditch MRC website. They have a number of layouts, but Arrowmouth can be viewed here.

It is hard to take good photos of model railways indoors with my compact camera so I took a lot of movie clips instead. Unfortunately, it takes an age to load them onto blogger and too many of them are out of focus and feature other people's fingers. However, I have managed to load a clip (which may or may not play) from the wonderful Arrowmouth layout, featuring a train passing by the campsite (apologies of fuzzy quality)

Contwaraburg, Cent

2011-08-05T17:17:00.008+01:00

For the benefit of my non-Saxon readers, the title of this blog post is Canterbury, Kent.

I was going to call it Canterbury Tales, The Sequel, but then I realised that I didn't actually write a post about our trip to Kent last year.

Sir Bruin's 2nd son lives in Kent, about 15 miles from Canterbury. He and his older brother both went to Uni in the Canterbury area, so Sir B knows the city reasonably. This was my 3rd visit and I rather like the place too.

This was a rather shorter visit than last year so we spent most of Wednesday afternoon wandering the streets of Canterbury. Below is a picture I took of a Tudor house.

I live in Suffolk, so I've seen lots of Tudor houses in my time but I think the ground floor of this one must be the wonkiest I have ever seen. Just look at the shape of the front door!

Below is the West Gate.

This is also the West Gate, with the River Stour (one of several River Stours in the England), photographed from West Gate Gardens.

Sir Bruin managing to look cool despite the heat in West Gate Gardens.

Although the gardens and river were very lovely, it was too hot to be outside for long. We visited to Canterbury Cathedral last year so that wasn't an option for avoiding the incredible heat and humidity that gripped southern England on Wednesday. We dodged in and out of shops for a while and ended up at The Canterbury Tales visitor attraction. The blurb on the leaflet suggests that "The Canterbury Tales is a stunningly accurate recreation of medieval life" . I'm not sure that I can entirely agree with that description, but it is good fun and was a pleasant way to spend 45 minutes.

It was well into the evening before the temperature dropped to a level that made walking on the city wall near our hotel a comfortable experience (hence the fuzziness of the photo below - my camera is not good in low light).

Number 2 son lives on the Isle of Thanet, close to the Hornby Visitor Centre. He shares his father's interest in trains and, as it was chucking it down with rain on Thursday, this seemed a good time to pay a visit.

We were promised a walk along the prom to Reculver Tower but it was far too wet so we went for a very nice lunch instead. Evidence of swanky desserts below:

A wet and windy view of Minnis Bay.

Of course, by the time we were ready to climb into the Bear-mobile and trundle homeward, the weather was all together nicer. Below is a view of the Garden of England taken from the M2 at about 8pm.

There was still some weather around though and we followed it home. Below is the approach to the Dartford Crossing. I think that the QE2 bridge is a thing of loveliness and I shall endeavour to get a better picture of it next time we go that way.

An East Anglian Day Out

2011-08-02T21:03:00.008+01:00

West Stow Anglo Saxon Village is a place that I have been aware of ever since I moved to Suffolk but somehow it has taken me 23 year to get around to visiting it.

Sir Bruin and I are currently enjoying some holiday and what a joy it is not to be at work for a 2nd week running. I can't remember the last time I had two consecutive weeks of summer leave. We have been out and about to Bury St Edmunds, Newmarket Races and Bressingham Steam centre already but I thought it would be nice for us to go somewhere that we hadn't visited before, hence we ended up at West Stow.

Above is a rather wonky photograph that I took inside the weaving house. All the buildings are reconstructions.

I think that what made me think of West Stow Saxon Village as a place to visit is probably connected to the fact that I am currently reading book 4 ("Sword Song") of Bernard Cornwell's series of books set during the time of Kind Alfred. The hero (if that is the right word for him) of these Saxon Stories is Uhtred, a Saxon from Northumbria who manages to get about a fair old bit and over the course of the novels has spent time in Wessex and Mercia and even paid a brief visit to East Anglia. The Bernard Cornwell books are set in the 9th century, but the archaeological remains found at West Stow are about 400 years earlier and if Uhtred were real and had visited West Stow he wouldn't have found much on the site we visited today as the villagers had relocated about a mile up the road well before his time.

Modern man; Saxon house.

There is only so much to see at places like West Stow and, having been hugely disappointed by the Sutton Hoo visitor centre several years ago, Sir Bruin and I approached our outing today with low expectations. However, we were very pleasantly surprised; there is plenty to walk around including a country park so you don't even have to go into the Saxon village if you don't want to. We had food and drink at a very reasonably priced Cafe on site and what elevated the Saxon village experience itself to something above what could be very dry archeology, was a 1 hour tour with a lovely lady called Mary Ellen whose enthusiasm for her work ought to be bottled and sold to the likes of me and Sir Bruin.

Day 12 of the song challenge – A song from a band you hate

2011-06-19T13:22:00.003+01:00

Hate is a strong word. I don’t have the energy to hate music anymore (I’m not sure I ever did, actually). Hating other people’s musical taste is the domain of the very young and painfully trendy. There are plenty of bands and artists that I don’t particularly like, however. I’ve never been a fan of Take That for example and my husband and I have agreed to differ on the subject of Robbie Williams and his solo career.

I don’t like Boy Bands and I think it would be fair to say that Westlife may well be my least favourite. But I can’t use them for this category because they have yet to make a record that doesn’t make me want to vomit.

This is a long 30 days, isn’t it?

I am not, as a rule, a huge fan of manufactured pop; however, there are a couple of Girls Aloud songs that I rather like so I think I need to move away from this genre.

Rap (or c-rap as it is sometimes known in our house) is something I am also not particularly into; although there are some rap songs that I think are good (examples – “Funky Cold Medina” by Tone Loc, “Intergalactic” by The Beastie Boys and “Insane in The Brain” by Cypress Hill) and some of Eminem’s lyrics amuse me. In fact, a good rap lyric is my idea of modern poetry but a lot if it is just too shouty for my taste (this is possibly a bit rich coming from someone who likes heavy metal). I am also not a huge lover of R&B; largely because it is somewhat mis-named in my view. Modern R&B does not always contain rhythm and bears little resemblance to the blues. To my ears it is more like corporate soul and, like its rap cousin, a little too reliant on samples of other people’s work. But sometimes, it works.

The track that I have, after weeks of consideration, decided on here is a combination of R&B and rap. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, Ms Beyonce Knowles, featuring her husband Jay-Z and a splendid sample which I think is taken from an old Stylistics track. This was number one for ages and rightly so as it is a fine tune.

Having made my decision, you wouldn’t believe how much trouble I had finding a decent video clip with embedding rights. This is clearly an overseas upload and MTV logo in the middle of the screen suggests this is a dodgy clip even by Youtube standards but I was determined to find something featuring that famous booty shake!

In an English townie garden

2011-06-12T15:34:00.009+01:00

I have been meaning to put this post up all week but a combination of being too knackered to blog after a s*** day at work plus the vagaries of blogger have conspired against me. Is anyone else having trouble logging in to blogger? If I get many more messages telling me that this website does not exist I might just believe them and give up altogether.

Anyway - I have been photographing some of the flora in my garden. My efforts are not even in the same league as Dave's garden photos, but I have been so chuffed with what has appeared outside my back door that I decided to start documenting it.

We have a lovely, long, mostly grass garden at our old house and it was the only thing I was sorry to be parted from when we moved. The garden that we inherited at our new house is mostly paved but has some flower beds. We had no idea what any of the plants were so the past couple of months have been full of pleasant surprises.

There were some flowers that I recognised - a couple of crocuses and some daffodils and narcissus - very early in the year and then after that all sorts of pretty things appeared.

These little white flowers appeared around the base of the bird bath (and on Facebook) around Easter time.

I don't know what these are either, but I thought they were pretty.

I really liked these peonies and it is a great shame that they were so short lived. These photos just don't do justice to their colour.

Before we moved, I told Sir Bruin that I was going to put some roses in the garden at our new house but it turns out that I didn't need to. So far we have had some peachy coloured ones;

and some red ones.

Then we have had lots and lots of lupins. Most of them came in a somewhat insipid selection of colours and I wasn't that enamoured with them really, although I did like the purple ones.

Some more roses have bloomed in recent weeks. There is a pale pink one that I haven't photographed but I have taken a snap of this fantastic dark red bloom.

And then best of all, we discovered that we have strawberries!

Yum!

The 30 Day Song Challenge – Two days for the price of one

2011-06-05T16:04:00.008+01:00

Two days, but not two songs

Day 10 – A song that makes you fall asleep

If only there was such a thing. I often have trouble getting off to sleep and if there were some soothing tune that would help me to drift off that would be just marvellous. But there isn’t.

Next!

Day 11 – A song from your favourite band

I’m not sure that I necessarily have a favourite band. Am I bit old for that sort of thing?

I have had several favourite bands over the years; starting with Duran Duran in the early 80s, progressing to Guns ‘n’ Roses in the late 80s/early 90s and then moving on to Placebo who I adored from the mid 90s up until their 5^th album came out in 2006. I was distinctly under whelmed by album no 4 (“Sleeping With Ghosts”) and album 5 (“Meds”) was so disappointing that I have only actually listened to it all the way through once. That said, their first three albums were fab and I do still play them. So, even though I haven't heard any of their recent material, for the purposes of this exercise, I am going to say that Placebo are my favourite band and I will do an eeny; meeny, miney, mo job on YouTube and my selection is…

… really obvious. What else could I pick? This song IS Placebo. This is “Nancy Boy”.

Day 09 of that interminable song challenge – A song that you can dance to

2011-05-22T09:06:00.004+01:00

There are lots of songs you can dance to. By now, my reader (assuming I still have one) will have surmised that I am something of a rock chick. However, there are some dance albums in my CD collection and they are not all as obvious as The Prodigy’s “Fat of the Land”.

I like a bop, although these days I find that I have to sit down again after a couple of records.

I will dance to anything from 80s pop to The Ting Tings; The Bee Gees to Beyonce. (Or The Twist, as demonstrated above)

Cha-Cha slide being badly executed by small bear and friends.

I can think of many songs that I have enjoyed dancing to over the years but which one to choose?

I nearly picked “Jump Around” by House of Pain, or “You’re The One For Me” by D-Train. But in the end I plumped for some 70s cheese that I have boogied on down to at many parties over the years. I’m not sure that this clip does justice to the fabulous intro on this track but anyway, here is The Walrus of Love with a great beat, beautiful strings and a nice sentiment.

One For The Road - The bears get a social life

2011-05-14T09:54:00.006+01:00

How the hell did that happen then?

Tonight, Sir Bruin and I are off out to take part in a quiz; something we haven’t done for a while. However, last night, we went to the Sir John Mills Theatre to see a rather good bit of am-dram.

“One For The Road”, by Willy Russell was written in the late 70s but not published until 1980 and the version we saw last night, performed by Up Front Productions, was very definitely routed in the early 80s.

I have seen Up Front Productions in action before, probably about 7 years ago, and three of the four players on stage last night were in the performance I saw previously. I only know of them because Up Front Productions includes my friend Laura, who was on fine form last night playing the part of Pauline. Another member of Up Front is Nigel-the-plumber-wot-done-our-bathroom-at-the-old-bear-cave (remember this?). He’s very good is Nigel, both in plumbing and acting terms and was very much the lead player last night in the role of Dennis. Not only did Nigel pull off a very convincing scouse accent (as did everyone else) but also put in an excellent impersonation of Terry Wogan too.

“One For The Road” is set on phase 2 of a new housing development in the 1980s, somewhere in the Liverpool area. Dennis is having a mid-life crisis. On the eve of his 50^th birthday, Dennis remembers the young man he was in the 1960s, full of dreams, and wonders how he ended up living on an estate full of identical properties, doing an unfulfilling job. His wife, Pauline, a woman obsessed with what the neighbours think, is more interested in organising a dinner party and worrying about who is vandalising gardens on the estate. Two of the guests, Dennis’s parents, never actually appear on stage, but do interrupt proceedings with regular telephone calls. The other two guests are old friends, Roger and Jane. Jane is a dreadful social climber, full of pretentions, and Roger tries hard to follow her lead. However, after a couple of classes of cheap Italian plonk, Roger quickly mellows and lets his secrets slip while Jane slides off her high social ground delightfully. You can see some of the jokes coming, but they’re still funny. If you’ve ever seen any films or plays by Willy Russell (which include ‘Educating Rita’; ‘Shirley Valentine’ and ‘Dancing Thru The Dark’), you’ll know that his legendary scouse humour shines through and it certainly did that last night. The writing was excellent, but so was the performance.

I’d urge my reader to go and see this play, but you’ll have to be quick because the last night is tonight.

Back to the song challenge - Day 08 – A song that you know all the words to

2011-05-08T20:23:00.006+01:00

I'd like to start by apologising for the formatting in this post - Blogger is being most uncooperative.

I don't think this song challenge is all that popular with my small but very select readership, so these posts are becoming increasingly self-indulgent. Someone else's taste in music probably isn't all that interesting, but thinking up stuff for the categories is at least taking my mind off work (which is utterly hideous at the moment).

So, here is a category ripe for some showing off. Sir Bruin doesn't really listen to song lyrics, but that may be a drumming thing because his youngest son, who is, according to Sir B, a better drummer than he was (but don't tell him his Dad said so) also doesn't listen to lyrics. I do though - I like words!

I have a lot of contenders for today's challenge. Many of the songs I have already picked fall into this category. I spent most of the 1980s in my bedroom listening to Radio 1 and Radio Laser 558 or playing my tapes and singing along to most of the songs. I then graduated to singing along to stuff in the car, which I still do on the rare occasions that I drive alone. Mind you, when I came to write some of these down, I discovered that out of the 100s of songs I can sing along to there are a fair few where I don’t know quite all the words. Even if it is only 1 or 2 words that I am unsure of, I decided to be strict and discount the song from this category. Of course, I am sure I could have found the missing words via Google, but I think that would be cheating.

However, there are still a good few that I can sing along to without recourse to either Google or the album sleeve. I have chosen one with lyrics that amuse me. This is an album track from a somewhat underrated British rock band called Thunder. I saw this band at The Regent Theatre in Ipswich in 1992. They rocked!

Here are the lyrics:

Laying down in this Spanish bar,

That last slammer hit me like a car,

I’ve got the 6 am Balearic blues,

Can’t even focus on my own tattoos.

I had a fight with this German guy,

I saw him give my little girl the eye,

While he was trying hard to be so cool,

I hit him with a stool!

Oh yes. Alright.

I’ll be going all night.

Gonna drink ‘till they drag me away,

I’m an Englishman on holiday.

Every year I get to do the same,

I meet the boys and get on the plane,

We like to sing and shout out ‘here we go’,

‘cause they’re the only words that we all know.

We’ve got the loudest shirts you’ve ever seen,

We’re gonna take the beaches like a team,

We’ve got so much duty-free to drink,

Enough to float a ship!

Oh yes. Alright.

I’ll be going all night.

So light the paper, get out of the way!

I’m an Englishman on holiday.

We never look for trouble at the start,

But it always comes our way.

We’ve got our pride and we just can’t walk away.

Oooh yeah!

This morning I woke up inside a cell,

They dragged me screaming out of my hotel.

I don’t remember what it was I did,

But I’ve got this drummer banging in my head.

I’ve got to get out ‘fore I miss the plane,

Next summer I’ll be back again,

I’ll be fighting for the Union Jack,

If they let me back!

Oh yes. Alright.

I’ll be going all night.

Gonna drink ‘till they drag me away,

I’m an Englishman on holiday.

Oh yeah.

Alright!

‘ere we go, ‘ere we go, ‘ere we go,

‘ere we go, ‘ere we go!

(For the benefit of any pedants reading this, I know that the British flag is only the Union Jack when it is on a ship, but clearly Thunder don't know this)

The song comes from the band’s debut album, “Back Street Symphony”, which I really don’t listen to often enough.

So, you’ve read the words, now hear the song! Sorry, this is an audio only clip. Not a very flattering photo either. This is Thunder; “An Englishman on Holiday”

Wall to Wall bloggers

2011-05-02T19:18:00.004+01:00

I have met some interesting people by means of the internet, including my husband. Today I met a whole load more.

No, not Errol The Sheep (who isn't even that interesting). No, today Sir Bruin and I trundled up to North Suffolk on the back of the Trusty Steed to meet some fellow bloggers (proper ones). This is the longest ride I have done on the back of the bike and I am surprised to discover that I can still walk. We went to the home of Z and The Sage who were hosting a blog meet / party to celebrate the completion of the wall in the photo above. They have been assisted in this wall building project by Dave. Besides Z and Dave, we also met Rog & Mrs Rine and their two gorgeous doggies (Oz and Lilly) and lots of other lovely people, including a charming gentleman called Mike who is an Antiquarian Horologist. What a fabulous job title - beats being a Student Data Administrator any day of the week.

Here is Z, our hostess with the mostess (who did a splendid job of feeding about 20 people) with Errol and the Woolly Dog versions of Oz and Lily.

And here is the real Oz - isn't he lovely. I hope that Lilly isn't upset not to be in the picture.

We spent a really nice afternoon with pleasant company, fabulous food (thanks again Z) in a wonderful old house out in the countryside. If only every Monday was like this.

When we set out this morning, we thought we would ride up the A12, which turned out to be a mistake. Not only did we get stuck in a traffic jam caused by a country fair near Glemham, but we then got stuck again when the police closed the road to clear up the aftermath of an accident (no one was hurt, we saw them all standing around surveying the mess). The Sage advised us to go home via the A143 and the A140. The Sage's advice was...sage; and we had a much better run home despite the rather alarming cross winds.

I like Bank Holidays - all weekends should be at least 3 days long - and today was a particularly good one.

Do I really have to go to work tomorrow?

Day 07 – A song that reminds you of a certain event

2011-04-29T16:12:00.005+01:00

This isn’t just one song, it’s a whole album.

Sir Bruin has three grown-up sons from a previous marriage, one of whom is a policeman (Sir Bruin has made reference to this here in his own blog and is clearly a very proud dad). When No 2 son ‘marched out’ from his police training, we travelled down to Kent to witness this event. Sir Bruin had recently purchased the most modern and trendy album that he owns; “We Started Nothing” by The Ting Tings. This is an album that has rarely been out of the car since and the only thing I can criticise it for is that it is rather short, therefore on a long car journey, we generally end up listening to it all the way through more than once. On that warm July day two years ago, it ran through the car CD at least twice and I have a particularly strong memory of crawling through the traffic in Maidstone with this album as the sound track.

Marching! Marching! Marching! (he's in there somewhere)

So the event is No 2 step-son’s marching out parade. The album is “We Started Nothing” by The Ting Tings and the specific track I have chosen is…

Sir Bruin used to be a drummer and I had guitar lessons when I was a teenager. We could have been The TingTings.

Day 06 – A song that reminds of you of somewhere

2011-04-22T20:19:00.005+01:00

I spent a lot of time thinking about this one; trying to think of a song that reminded me of somewhere I had been on holiday or something like that. I came up with any number of songs that remind me of driving but nothing for a specific destination.

Then I remembered something…

It was 1985 when my family moved from a rented house in Boston to a council house in the village of Swineshead. Prior to moving into Boston in 1984 (when I was 17), we had always lived with my Dad’s parents (don’t live with parents – bad idea; how on earth my mum stood it for so long I cannot imagine). The council house was old and decorated in a style that was really not to my mum’s taste so some hasty decorating was called for before we moved in. This involved several weeks of spending evening and weekends at the new house.

I have a strong memory of being in the kitchen on a spring evening with Radio 1 on (and my Dad grumbling about the volume). One of my brothers was rubbing down and painting door frames and I think I might have been scraping off the old wall paper. The old wall paper was replaced with something equally unpleasant, which I think I may have had a hand in choosing.

This photo was taken in said kitchen and features said dodgy wall paper (dodgy jumper too). It was probably taken about 18 months after we moved in.

Oh dear.

Anyway, the place was the kitchen at High Green and this is the song that reminds me of decorating that house.

(Top of the Pops in the 80s - lol as the youth of today might say)

We interrupt....

2011-04-16T20:42:00.004+01:00

... the 30 day song challenge because I can't think of a song for day 6. So here is a photo of a bat instead.

Last Sunday afternoon, Sir Bruin and I went out for a drive (yes, we are that middle aged). The purpose of this outing was for Sir Bruin to take some scenic photos for possible use as a back drop for his model railway. We stopped for a drink (mmmmm Aspall's cider) at a pub in the village of Debenham and on the way back to the car, Sir Bruin spotted a bat on the pavement. I had never seen a bat before so this was very much the highlight of my week. He sat on the pavement for just long enough for me to haul my camera out of my handbag and snap a photo of him before he flew off.

Day 05 – A song that reminds you of someone

2011-04-10T12:08:00.009+01:00

I’ve had trouble with this one. There are many songs that remind me of many people, but the issue I have had is in choosing anything that I felt was suitable (and I'm still not entirely sure that I managed to do so).

A lot of the songs that remind me of someone are not people that I wish to be reminded of. So, maybe a family member? Nope, I just couldn’t choose one person.

I wrote a long piece about an old school friend that I was going to use for Day 5 but when I got to the end of it, I realised that the song I had chosen was just one of about half-a-dozen tracks that remind me of her.

So, after nearly a week of dithering, I reached the conclusion that I have to think of a song and a someone that I have only a remote connection with.

Certain things always trigger music in my head; for example, when I see the option to ‘freeze pane’ on a spreadsheet, the song “Freeze Fame” by the J Geils Band pops into my head. So, someone whose name made me think of a song was the route I decided to take with this.

I come across many unusual names in my day-to-to day life, a lot of which come from other cultures. Several years ago, I came across someone whose forename was Sharif and every time I saw or heard his name this lyric popped into my head:

“The Shareef don’t like it,

Rockin’ the Casbah,

Rock the Casbah”

I don't have any anecdotes about this person. His name made me think of this song rather than the other way around so it doesn’t strictly meet the category but if I spend any longer thinking about this I might die of old age. Anyway, it is a good excuse to listen to a fine old song.

Day 04 of the song challenge – A song that makes you sad

2011-04-05T20:28:00.002+01:00

I don’t tend to listen to sad songs much (although this has not stopped me enjoying a bit of Radiohead from time to time)

I don’t see the point in listening to very sad songs on purpose. Why make yourself feel miserable? Isn’t there enough scope for that in the world already without inflicting further sadness on yourself by means of mournful music?

There was a time when I couldn’t listen to “Fix You” by Coldplay without bursting into floods of tears. That particular record was released at a time when I was recovering from a broken relationship and the lyric “when you love someone and it goes to waste” used to get me every time. However, now that I am happily married to a large bear, this no longer applies.

So after some thought, I have decided that my sad song of choice is “Saturday Night” by Suede. (At last, a song by a British band!)

This track comes from a fine little album called “Coming Up” which is full of well crafted indie-pop songs and is only about 45 minutes long so can easily be listened to at one sitting, unlike some of the American heavy metal albums in my CD collection (some of which are 75 minutes long).

It took me a long time to realise what a sad song this is, it was only when I started to listen to it on my MP3 player that I paid proper attention to the lyrics. The song is about just how mundane most ordinary people’s lives are and how they keep going by having fun at the weekends. This seems particularly apt in the current economic climate where pretty much everyone I know is thoroughly naffed off with their job. It doesn’t necessarily make me feel sad, but it is definitely a sad song.

Day 03 – A song that makes you happy

2011-04-03T11:12:00.004+01:00

No contest here; the happiest tune I know is “No Rain” by Blind Melon. It just makes me want to get up and dance about. How can anyone listen to this and not smile?

I admit that I couldn’t name another song by this band and I know very little about them. What I do know is sad (the lead singer, Shannon Hoon, died of a drug overdose) so not very appropriate for this category. I also know that Shannon Hoon was a friend of W Axl Rose of Guns ‘n’ Roses fame. I think he sang some backing vocals on one of G ‘n’ Rs albums too. However, that is not how I came to know the song.

I remember seeing the video for “No Rain” on a late night rock music television show called ‘Noisy Mothers’, which later morphed into ‘Raw Power’. The fact that it was picked up by that particular programme would suggest this track is not particularly representative of the band’s material. Anyway, this programme was shown on Anglia TV at about 2am during the early 1990s. I always taped it because I was never a night owl. I managed to not tape over this video for quite some time and re-played it regularly. This was because I couldn’t find it in any shops in an affordable format. I sought it out in various CD emporiums, but could only ever find it on import for about ten quid. Ten quid for one song! Bugger that. It was some years before I actually ‘owned’ a copy of this song; I finally bought it as a download about 6 years ago and it is the first song on my favourite play list on my computer. That play list is called Happy Hippy and this is the happiest hippy-est song I know.

Unfortunately, I cannot add the original video to this post because it isn't available for sharing. If you want to see the clip (complete with people dressed up as bumble bees) you will have to visit YouTube yourself because it isn't available to share.

However, I did find this clip on YouTube that includes the lyrics so you can sing along if you want to:

Song Challenge Day 02 – Your least favourite song

2011-04-02T09:56:00.010+01:00

I know, I know, it’s only day 2 and already I’m behind schedule with this.

I have been giving a lot of thought to the various categories in this challenge. Possibly too much thought. Last night in the shower I was so distracted that I tried to wash my hair with facial scrub. Sigh.

Anyway, back to the songs. I have a fairly eclectic taste in music so I didn’t think there were many songs that I didn’t like. However, I did have trouble narrowing this down to just one song that I like less than any other. I don’t listen to the radio much these days and I certainly don’t watch shows like X factor, so I don’t have to hear songs I don’t like very often. I’m not really one for hating anything in particular but there is quite a lot of music that I am less than partial to. There are far more songs out there that I do like than don’t, but when I sat down to think about it, I came up with a lot of irritants.

Let us consider some of the candidates;

“I’m Not in Love” by 10cc is a song that has always made me want to scream and jump out of the window and I’m not even sure why. I’ve disliked it for as long as I can remember.

Ditto “Wannabe” by The Spice Girls; shit spelling as well as a shit song.

Bizarrely, another strong candidate for my least favourite song appears on the same album that my most favourite song comes from. “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns ‘n’ Roses probably gets more airplay than any of their other songs and this is a mystery to me. It’s just so whiney! Slash once said in an interview that he didn’t really like “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and he thought it became their biggest hit just to spite him.

Then there is the deeply awful “I think we’re alone now” by Tiffany. There was a lot of trite pop around in the 1980s but this one was particularly dire. Whatever happened to Tiffany? Actually, I don’t care as long as she isn’t inflicting that sort of rubbish on the world anymore.

While I am on the subject of mindless pap, let us consider the vomit inducing “You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt. Who the hell is buying his records? I’ve seen him interviewed and he seems like a nice bloke but his music is tedious and formulaic and, and, and… I just don’t like it, OK?

I nearly picked Michael Andrews and Gary Jules cover of “Mad World”, which is a slice of pure awfulness. Music to slash your wrists to. I loved the Tears for Fears original but this version is just so depressing. Cheer up love!

I’ve just realised that a lot of the songs I have mentioned reached number 1 in the pop charts. I’m clearly not in tune with the rest of the country.

I really, really loathe “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol. Drone, drone, drone. This was nearly the winner in this category. I think my dislike of this particular song started back when we were allowed to have radios at work and I shared an office with a colleague who liked the radio on all day. When this dirge was getting a lot of radio play, after a while even my radio loving colleague used to turn it off. My feelings about this track were not improved by the Scottish woman who used to live next door to me parking on her drive with this track playing on her car stereo at ear shattering volume because she bear to couldn’t switch the engine off without hearing the song through to the end.

Dear reader, (are you still there?) there are many contenders for my least favourite song, but, after a great deal of consideration I have decided that the song I like least in the whole world is…

“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” by Deep Blue Something.

The tune’s not that bad I suppose, although it is horribly middle of the road and American. However, the thing that really, really, really, REALLY irritates me about this particular song is the lyrics, and more particularly, the fact that they just don’t scan. The chorus sounds as though they are putting a full stop after every third word. It goes:

So I said,

What about,

Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

She said I,

Think I,

Remember the film and,

As I recall, I think,

We both kinda liked it.

And I said

Well that’s

One thing we’ve got.

I’m not going to torture you (or indeed myself) with a link. I can already hear it playing in my head. Aaarrrrgggghhh!!!

Song Challenge - Day 01 – Your favourite song

2011-03-29T21:40:00.005+01:00

Easy choice – “Paradise City” by Guns ‘n’ Roses. Why? Er, because it’s loud and lively and I do like a tune that jumps up and kicks me in the head. The fact that Axl Rose cannot sing for toffee is irrelevant – it’s all about the tune, man!

I was, at one time, rather seriously in lust with a certain Saul Hudson, better known as Slash, the Gunners lead guitarist. But I’m older now and so is he. I believe the poor chap is still in litigation with the preening Mr Rose, who has sadly managed to keep the name of the band but got rid of all the talent from it some years ago.

I saw Guns ‘n’ Roses play live at the Milton Keynes Bowl (a misnomer in my opinion; ‘ditch’ would be a better description) waaaaay back in 1993. I had bought the tickets expecting to take my then husband (who wasn’t keen, it has to be said) along with me, but we split up a couple of months before the gig. So I asked this mad Swiss girl who I was friendly with at work if she would like to come. She was very keen and even managed to persuade her step-brother to let us sleep at his place. He lived about a 40 minute drive from The Milton Keynes Ditch, but as we had entirely failed to find a B&B nearby that would take a couple of rock chicks, his sofa (for me) and an inflatable mattress (for Nadia and her boyfriend) were much appreciated. My strongest memory of that day is strolling around the Milton Keynes site while waiting for one of the support bands to appear and Nadia turned to me and said “This is amazing. I’m so glad you’re getting divorced!”

The current Mr Liz is, unlike my previous partners, also an admirer of early Guns ‘n’ Roses material and has this song as a ring tone on his mobile phone. This track comes from the Gunners first album, “Appetite for Destruction” and between us, Sir Bruin and I own 3 copies of “Appetite…”

My next challenge will be trying to insert a suitable link from YouTube!

The 30 Day Song Challenge

2011-03-27T11:24:00.005+01:00

I am not the only blogger who has found it difficult to maintain regular posting. Over at Sara Sizzle, (who has a far better excuse for falling by the blogging way side than I do - a small child) she is attempting to get back into the habit of regular blogging by means of a sort of ongoing musically themed meme.

By the way, this post by Sarah Sizzle (which is 4 years old already – yikes!) is one of my favourite blog posts ever.

So, once again, I am going to pinch another blogger’s idea and have a go at this ‘ere 30 day song challenge.

Like Sara, I will not be appearing on your screens everyday for the next 30 days, but I will strive to write somewhere in the region of 30 posts while indulging the pretentious muso side of my personality (for previous evidence of this type of behaviour see this from 2 years ago). Based on the rate of my most recent blogging output, this project could potentially run for about 2 years. The only reason I am in a position to even start on this project is because I have been on annual leave all week and have therefore had the opportunity to catch up with other bits of my life. I even baked bread yesterday; something I wouldn’t normally have time for.

I think I may have become a bit too relaxed on my week off though, as I completely forgot that the clocks went forward to British Summer Time until I read the comments box for Dave’s blog today. Either that or I have been giving too much thought to this song challenge.

Anyway, here is the challenge:

Sara Sizzle’s 30 Day Song Challenge

Day 01 – Your favourite song
Day 02 – Your least favourite song
Day 03 – A song that makes you happy
Day 04 – A song that makes you sad
Day 05 – A song that reminds you of someone
Day 06 – A song that reminds of you of somewhere
Day 07 – A song that reminds you of a certain event
Day 08 – A song that you know all the words to
Day 09 – A song that you can dance to
Day 10 – A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 11 – A song from your favourite band
Day 12 – A song from a band you hate
Day 13 – A song that is a guilty pleasure
Day 14 – A song that no one would expect you to love
Day 15 – A song that describes you
Day 16 – A song that you used to love but now hate
Day 17 – A song that you hear often on the radio
Day 18 – A song that you wish you heard on the radio
Day 19 – A song from your favourite album
Day 20 – A song that you listen to when you’re angry
Day 21 – A song that you listen to when you’re happy
Day 22 – A song that you listen to when you’re sad
Day 23 – A song that you want to play at your wedding
Day 24 – A song that you want to play at your funeral
Day 25 – A song that makes you laugh
Day 26 – A song that you can play on an instrument
Day 27 – A song that you wish you could play
Day 28 – A song that makes you feel guilty
Day 29 – A song from your childhood
Day 30 – Your favourite song at this time last year

The idea of this, I think, is that the songs reveal something about you. I hate to think what that might be!

Unlike the lovely Miss Sizzle, I am an old git and therefore there is little chance of any of my song choices being particularly trendy. Also, don’t expect anything even as remotely well written, interesting and insightful as this for example. (Mind you, at least I have heard of the song she picked for day 3).

Watch this space (but don’t watch it too intently, you’ll get eye strain).

While I am on the subject of other bloggers, I feel the need to mention the Queen of Northern Blogging, Kaz, who died recently. Those who read her blog regularly knew that she wasn’t going to survive her illness. I thought about her last weekend and wondered if she was still with us and then the very next time I looked at my blog list there was the sad news that she was gone.

As well as writing an interesting blog herself, Kaz was very good at leaving comments on other people’s blogs. That is something else I have struggled to keep up with of late. I blame my new job role – there are 6 of us doing the work previously undertaken by 11; this leaves no time for surreptitious reading of other people’s blogs when I am supposed to be working.

Farewell Kaz. You will be missed.

2011-03-13T15:08:00.008Z

To blog, or not to blog. That is the question. Whether 'tis nobler to make the effort to write something coherent or just cobble together any old rubbish with some photos?

That'll be option B then.

I may have mentioned that Sir Bruin and I relocated to a larger bear cave last year. Consequently, my spare time, when not buggering about on Facebook (which clearly takes priority) is taken up with home improvements. Up until recently, this has mostly consisted of merely thinking about decorating, but finally, some actual decorating has taken place as demonstrated below in the form of some before and after photos.

The bathroom before...

... and after.

Mercifully, there is no photographic evidence of the hideous orange carpet that was in situ when we moved in. This bit the dust in January when our toilet did us a big favour by leaking and ruining said carpet (although we could have done with out the resultant water feature in the hall).

Moving on to the room that was formerly known as 'The Tardis' due to the amount of stuff we managed to fit into it.

Mmmm, loving the snot-green walls. Not.

This is now known as the Toy Room.

Here are some of my toys (this photo was taken before we put up a nice new shelf which we only realised was the shape of a banana after we had put it up)

And this side of the room is where Sir Bruin's toys will be.

Since I took this photo, lots of tiny pieces of railway track, wires and goodness knows what else has sprouted all over this board.

It could be worse; I could be regaling you with photographs of my new cooker (mmmm, shiny) and photographic evidence of my attempts to turn into a domestic goddess.

Excuse me, I think I hear a slice of orange cake calling.

Bear at Work - again!

2011-01-22T13:03:00.005Z

My readers (assuming I still have any), if they have very long memories, may recall that Sir Bruin built me a new back gate when we lived at the Small Bear Cave.

We moved to a new, larger, cave for two bears late last year and Sir Bruin's DIY skills have already been called into play. He has already done battle with the task of hanging a new door on the lounge and fitting a couple of new light fittings and then he got to play at carpentry again last weekend because the new house also needed a new gate.

Above is the old back gate. "Rotten as a pear" apparently.

Among Sir Bruin's collection of new DIY toys is a work-mate. This is an improvement on trying to balance wood on a stool while the smaller bear held the other end.

Cutting the new wood to fit the wonky frame.

Working furiously as the light starts to fade.

Another wood-work project sucessfuly completed.

The finished product, in dire need of at least one more coat of woodstain.

Where did that go then?

2010-12-31T16:13:00.016Z

What? New Year's Eve already? But I've only just got used to 2010.

So, what have I been up do this year then (well, not much blogging - Ed.)

Alright, yes, I probably spent too much time on Facebook. Above is a collage of my 2010 Facebook statuses that I created on Christmas Day (yes, I was on FB on Christmas Day; get over it).

January.

The New Year started in the same way that the old had ended – snowy and freezing cold. But at least I got to spend a week indoors in the warm while recovering from shingles.

February

Coldest winter since flip knows when continued. Brrr.

March

Got hitched!

April.

Decided to sell the Small Bear Cave. Quite strange after 11 years of living there (mostly on my own). Move partially driven by need to accomodate large motorcyle belonging to large bear.

Thanks to overpricing by greedy bastard estate agents, the sale wasn't exactly quick.

May.

Despite the lowest recorded May temperatures for 15 years, we did have a sunny day. This photo was taken at Thorpeness Mere.

June.

A whole weekend of hot weather but we had to go all the way to Birmingham to get it!

Small Bear playing in the sunshine with the (very bossy) Boy Cub.

July.

More summer weather, hurrah!

A large bear on holiday in Kent, still taking work calls on his mobile.

August.

Normal service resumed in terms of the summer weather.

September

At last! The house is sold (after the small bear dropped the price twice). However, we didn’t actually move until…

~~October~~

November!

Right at the end of November in fact.

But before the move, some good news

Auntie Small Bear got a new baby niece! So now the Boy Cub has a Girl Cub to keep him company.

Late November,

Finally moved house, just in time for major restructuring at work. Returned after only 2 days leave for house move to be interviewed for my own job (which I didn’t get!!!!!) Also interviewed for another, equally shit job in another department, which I did get. Bugger.

December.

More bloody snow!

Still, the snow did naff off before Christmas and a lovely, quiet, just-the-two-of-us Christmas was spent but the bears in their new cave.

Happy New Year bloggers!

Plucking Marvelous!

2010-10-24T12:45:00.012+01:00

My blog posts are like buses; you wait 10 months for one and then 2 come along at once.

Your friendly neighbourhood Small Bear has been out on the razz 2 weeks running. This is more by accident than design. Last week’s outing only came about because my friend had organised a trip to the theatre and someone dropped out. This week, however, was planned.

Sir Bruin and I are an old married couple who are quite happy to sit at home on a Saturday evening, watching trash telly and bogging about on Facebook. Sometimes, if the telly is particularly trashy we watch a DVD instead. Sir Bruin has an extensive collection of DVDs, one of which is ‘Anarchy in the Ukulele’ by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.

The first time my husband suggested that we should go and see the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain was almost 3 years ago, when we had only just met and weren’t even courting. I was horrified. It sounded like the sort of thing that would only appeal to an old fart. That was before I saw the DVD (and may even have been before I became an old fart myself).

I have to be honest; there are parts of the ‘Anarchy in the Ukulele’, DVD which bore me and I could do with a bit less solo singing and a bit more ukulele on some tracks. However, their musicianship is hugely impressive and their cover of ‘Wuthering Heights’ is a thing of greatness (see YouTubery below).

The above is bootlegged from the ‘Anarchy in the Ukulele’ DVD. As George Hinchliffe wryly observed, most of their back catalogue can be found on You Tube. However, this doesn’t deter them from using You Tube links on their website.

So, yesterday evening, we went to see The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain perform live at The Regent theatre in Ipswich. Sir Bruin, of course, loyally purchased another DVD (‘Prom Night’, recorded at their 2009 proms appearance at the Royal Albert Hall) from the stand in the foyer of the Regent before the concert had even begun. When they played at The Proms last year, about 1000 of their Albert Hall audience turned up with their own ukulele’s to join in. I saw no evidence of audience participation last night. Indeed, hardly anyone even joined in with the cries of “Heathcliffe!” in the chorus of “Wuthering Heights”.

The good people of Ipswich are a reserved lot. This is probably just as well given the rotten service in the Circle Lounge bar where the staff (all council employees) move at the speed of mould – less relaxed people might have rioted. The Regent is an old theatre, first opened in 1929, and I think one of the ladies behind the bar may have been there since day one. One of the advantages of sitting upstairs is access to The Circle Lounge, which, despite slow service, is at least a proper bar/lounge with tables and chairs. The downstairs bar is in the foyer, which is not practical at all. The disadvantage of sitting upstairs in the circle however is that you are a long way from the stage and the seats are unbelievably uncomfortable. I spent the evening with my coat rolled up and stuffed behind me to enable me to sit up properly – clearly these seats were not designed for short-arses such as me.

But I digress; let’s get back to the music.

The performance was, of course, excellent. Not the raucous sing-a-long sort of evening we had at the Wolsey last week, but still a splendid night out. The Ukulele Orchestra play many different styles of music. I like their instrumental stuff best (‘Dam Busters’, ‘The Good, The Bad & The Ugly’ and that one from ‘Pulp Fiction’ that they do) but all if it is beautifully performed and some of the arrangements are very clever. ‘Psycho Killer’ for the ukulele anyone? How about ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ or ‘Back In Black’ (featuring Richie Williams on the electric ukulele)? Then there is the least anarchic version ever of ‘Anarchy in the UK’. They also do a very slick version of ‘Leaning on a Lamp Post’ played in a Russian stylee (“turned out nice again, comrade”), making the uke’s sound like balalaikas. That and “Wuthering Heights” are definitely my favourites.

I like the harmony singing but I’m not quite so keen on all the solo stuff – some of them are better singers than others (George Hinchliffe and Will Grove-White are especially good vocalists) but there was nothing in last night’s show that I didn’t like. I always enjoy the asides and witty links between the tunes and I suspect these to be well rehearsed. Last night’s show did not include much in the way of classical music and George Hinchliffe claimed this was because he had forgotten to bring the sheet music. They do pretend to be amateur and disorganised, but are in fact consummate professionals in disguise.

The UOGB have been together in some guise or other since 1985 and are now so popular that it appears another very similar act, with a very similar name, is also out there touring (some might say, cashing in), although I haven’t seen or heard them. The act we saw last night was the original and best, Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Six traditional ukulele’s of various sizes; one bass ukulele and no other accompaniment. The line-up varies slightly and last night Kitty Lux was missing, but instead we had the very talented Richie Williams, leaving Hester Goodman as the sole female in the troop. All of them are brilliant in their own right, but the whole is better still. Check them out – you might be surprised how much you like them. I was!

Reasons To Be Cheerful

2010-10-17T12:34:00.010+01:00

No, not the fact that this is my first blog entry for nearly 10 months.

The above is the title of a rather splendid show that Sir Bruin and I saw at the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich last night.

Shows based around the songs of a particular artist is not a new concept; big productions of such shows (“Mama Mia”, “We Will Rock You” and “Tonight’s The Night”) have been appearing in London for many years now. I haven’t seen any of them so I have no idea how this compares, but “Reasons To Be Cheerful” is a story set around the songs of the late and much missed Ian Dury and his band The Blockheads (who I believe still tour).

My Mum has always enjoyed popular music, so I spent much my of childhood jigging about in front of the television when 'Top of the Pops' was on. For this reason I have always been aware of Ian Dury and The Blockheads' material and have loved the song “Hit me with your rhythm stick” ever since it came out. I remember it being number 1 in the charts. I also have a strong memory of “Reasons To Be Cheerful” playing on the radio (probably on the Top 40 chart show) while travelling home from Skegness in the back of my Dad’s car. That said, I was far too young to appreciate the music (and certainly the lyrics) when this band were at the height of their fame. My friend Sharon (who invited us along last night – thanks Sharon!) and the rest of the group of people I was with at the theatre last night are all slightly older than me, so have much more of a history and a connection with the songs played. I have recently gained a new appreciation of this music, mainly because Sir Bruin bought me a best of compilation of Ian Dury and The Blockheads earlier this year to cheer me up when I was suffering from shingles.

But that’s enough about me – on to the play!

“Reasons To Be Cheerful” is set in the late 70s and is the story of Vinnie (played by Stephen Lloyd) and his mate Colin (Stephen Collins), two likely lads from Southend, who are desperate to get tickets to see their favourite band, Ian Dury and The Blockheads, in concert. The other key plot line is the terminal illness of Vinnie’s father, possibly inspired by Ian Dury’s own untimely death from cancer. The play has many very funny moments as well as some touching, if slightly awkward scenes, between Vinnie and his parents (played by Garry Robson and Karen Spicer) as they try to face up to what is happening to them. Anytime the play starts to slide into sentimentality or mawkishness, it is immediately rescued by a performance of one of Ian Dury and The Blockheads songs. All the songs you would expect to find are in there, including ‘Reasons To Be Cheerful’, ‘Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll’, ‘What a Waste’, ‘Blockheads’, ‘Billericay Dickie’, ‘Wake Up and Make Love to Me’, ‘My Old Man’, ‘Sweet Gene Vincent’ and ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’.

The play is set in a pub and is introduced by Vinnie as being performed in tribute to his father, a sort of play within a play, with some actors playing a character who has been cast as a different character in the story. In places, the acting is a bit hammy, but I think this is intentional, to reflect the idea of an amateur production taking place in a pub, and I certainly don’t offer that observation as a criticism. The politics of the time are touched upon and, like Dury’s lyrics, there is plenty of swearing. Some of the dialogue is not for the faint hearted. Gritty is a word that comes to mind, but the play is fun also and the energy of the musical performances is breathtaking. Disability is also an important element of the production. The play is performed by the Graeae Theatre Company, which is a disabled-led theatre troop and I believe that Ian Dury was their patron at one time. Ian Dury himself was physically disabled as a result of contracting polio as a child. The song ‘Spasticus, Autisticus’, which he wrote in response to the International Year of the Disabled (a concept he was clearly insulted by) and which was banned by ignorant people at the BBC, also features in the play. As Sir Bruin observed afterwards, praising the performance of someone with any kind of disability without sounding patronising is potentially a problem, but they really were brilliant, all of them, both able bodied or otherwise. Sir Bruin, himself a former drummer, was particularly impressed by the fantastic band, including drumming by Mat Fraser, who I immediately recognised because he is properly famous and I have seen him on the telly box!

Mat Fraser, photo by J W Evans. Photo from Mat’s own website http://www.matfraser.co.uk

(To be fair, some of the other actors have appeared on television too, just not in anything I have actually seen)

The New Wolsey is a really nice little theatre too - all the seats have an excellent view of the stage and there is always an intimacy to the performances. I am always impressed by what I see there and "Reasons To Be Cheerful" might just be the best thing I've seen yet.

Research via th’internet leads me to understand that “Reasons To Be Cheerful”, having just finished an all too short three night run at The New Wolsey Theatre is moving on to the Theatre Royal Stratford East where it will run from 22 October to 13 November.

Photo from Graeae Theatre Company website.

I loved it – can you tell?

Square Eyes 2009

2009-12-31T12:18:00.007Z

I nearly didn’t bother to put this post up. I’ve rather lost interest in writing at the moment and I’ve certainly lost interest in battling with blogger every time I want to post anything (grrrrr).

New Year’s Eve is an occasion that makes me want to hide in a cupboard until all those nasty drunk reveller types have passed out quietly somewhere. However, I’ve been writing notes for this on-and-off for months so here it is…

Drum roll please...

Laydeeez and gentlemen! Presenting the third annual Ordinary World TV Review of the Year!

I’ve done this for two consecutive years, so I thought why not make it an Ordinary World tradition? Of course, if I was young and hip I’d be reviewing music, but I’m not so it has to be telly.

I was going to begin by reviewing season 2 of Damages but I haven’t finished watching it yet (I taped it. Yes, I know video tape is old technology and that the series finished on BBC1 at least 6 months ago, but I just haven’t got around to watching all the episodes). Anyway, I think I ran out of steam somewhere around episode 4 and it was pretty darn good by that point.

Moving swiftly on; I’ll get back to waffling about documentaries.

Britain’s Best Drives. BBC4 (repeated on BBC2).
This is the sort of quirky little programme that only the BBC could make a good job of. The premise is that the 1950s was the hey-day of British Motoring and our host, Richard Wilson, drove a route from a 1950s holiday guide each week in a car from the era. I tuned into episode 1 because he was driving from Scarborough to Whitby (in a 1958 Morris Traveller) and I have fond memories of holidays in that area. I enjoyed the scenery and even some of the dialogue. However, at the start of the series I had my doubts about Richard Wilson as a presenter; particularly as he’s been driving automatics for so long that he had to have lessons in how to drive a manual car in order to make this series (a whole – very amusing – episode was devoted to this). I can think of a whole list of people (Robbie Coltrane, David Dimbleby, Vic Reeves) who would have been better suited to the task.
Having said all that, his curmudgeonly style grew on me as the weeks went by. Programme 3 saw Richard driving from St Ives to Lands End (a route I have travelled – it’s gorgeous) and the producers of the programme wanted him to actually camp in the VW Camper Van he was driving. “That’s a lovely idea, but…no!” and his remark of “bugger you” when asked to do yet another shot in a howling wind was left in the programme and rightly so I thought. Among the other scenic places that our intrepid hero (who celebrated his 72nd birthday in programme 4) visited included the Lake District and the Wye Valley. I didn’t see them all, which is a shame.

Billy Connolly’s Journey to the Edge of The World. itv1
The Big Yin was back on our screens as a travel presenter. He has been doing these travel programmes for about 15 years now and he’s very good at them. In fact, I prefer him to Michael Palin. Unusually, this series did not include any of his stand-up material. This was no bad thing in my opinion. The object of the exercise was to travel across Canada from Halifax in the east all the way round the top of Canada (at the edge of the Arctic Circle) to Vancouver Island in the west. This is a very long trip and he didn’t even get off the east coast in episode 1. I like documentaries that are presented by enthusiasts rather than experts and Connolly is endlessly awed and excited by everything he sees. His enthusiasm for every new experience is a joy to watch. All the people he meets seem to take to him as well and he gets away with vast amounts of mickey taking (“You’re crazy people! You’re French, that’s what’s the matter with you” he said to a resident of French speaking Chetticamp, who laughed heartily at this). He was particularly taken with the Inuit people that he met as he made his way across Baffin Island and further around the edge of the Arctic Circle, although even the Big Yin balked a little as he witnessed a family eating freshly killed raw seal meat.

There may not have been any stand-up, but Connolly’s humour was ever present; “One should maintain one’s composure at all times,” he commented just after he had fallen into a river of freezing glacial melt-water and “I’ll tell you something else about the arctic – its bloody freezing!”

Monty Hall’s Great Escape. BBC2.
What a lucky, lucky, lucky ******* Monty Halls is. Last year, he swapped city life and the constant travelling entailed by his work as a marine biologist for six months living in a converted barn that was practically on the beach on the west coast of Scotland. He was immediately absorbed into the local community and for six episodes we watched him learn to live like a modern day crofter. He was kept company by a mildly insane dog called Rueben, who was undoubtedly the star of the programme.

Red Dwarf – Back to Earth. Dave.
I mention this because it was something of an event for Dwarf fans, rather than because it was any good. Apparently, “Red Dwarf, Back to Earth” netted digital channel Dave their biggest ever audience. The idea that the Boys from The Dwarf are real and the rest of us aren’t was an interesting one, but then it didn’t really go anywhere. And why was Car-bug left hand drive? There were a couple of classic Red Dwarf laugh-out-loud moments, but these three new episodes weren’t a patch on the old Dwarf episodes, which Dave repeats regularly, although sadly not in any kind of order.

Dorset Days – A Year in the Life of Longhorn Jim. BBC4.
Yet another documentary that only the BBC could make. Farmer Jim (sorry Jim, forgotten your last name already) was a man who had already had a career in the armed forces (and served in the Falklands conflict) and worked as an Airport Fireman before he took up farming Longhorn Cattle in Dorset about 18 years ago. It looked like hard work, but an idyllic life all the same. He also keeps sheep and had acquired an 8-year-old sheepdog called Speckle who was a great help to him, even after he’d run him over with his own land rover! I liked Jim’s no-nonsense attitude to farming; “I have a lot of respect for these rams” said Jim to camera, “that is why I have this big stick”. And then he said something much ruder when one of the rams butted him.

Supersizers Eat. BBC2
I don’t know why I didn’t review the first series of this last year. These programmes grew out of a season about Edwardian cuisine on BBC4 a couple of years ago. The premise is that our hosts (comedienne Sue Perkins and food critic Giles Coren – quite possibly the best double act on British television) revisit a period of history in each programme and sample the cuisine of the time. I generally don’t take much notice of the food as I am too busy laughing at the antics of the presenters. Episode 1 of this second run was a trip down memory lane to the 1980s, which was worth watching to see Sue Perkins in a blonde wig alone. Highlights of episode one included meals with amusing companions such as Norman Tebbit and Ken Livingston (not at the same meal, obviously). There was some factual information hidden amongst all the eating, drinking and arsing about. For example, in the episode set in revolution era France, we learned that the croissant, such an iconic item of French cuisine, originated in Austria and was introduced to the French by none other than Queen Marie-Antoinette. It seems she had fairly simple taste and if she was eating in private she would have simple soups, roast and biscuits and appears to have preferred to save exotic ingredients like almonds and lemon for adding to her bath. Even her gluttonous husband Louis XVI only ate to excess (44 courses!) when in front of his courtiers, preferring simpler fare when dining in private. Mind you, his idea of simple fare seems to have been about six meat courses. There was a lot of meat dished up in this episode, most of which looked greasy and unpleasant (even the chef didn't like the look of some of it). One visually unpleasant dish was called "Rabbits in Love" or as Sue Perkins quipped "The silence of the lapins". Alternately interesting, hilarious and revolting, I loved this programme and I'm still annoyed that I managed to miss an episode, even if the one on Roman cuisine did almost make me vomit!

Psychoville. BBC2
Shock horror! Liz and Sir Bruin watched and enjoyed a series that wasn’t a documentary! In Psychoville, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith (formerly of The League of Gentlemen) brought us a selection of strange and disturbing characters all linked together by some dark secret. This wasn’t quite as odd as The League of Gentlemen and was funnier. Also, whereas League of Gentlemen was mostly populated by characters played by the same four actors, this series also featured a remarkable number of recognisable faces. Dawn French (who is in danger of cornering the market in playing unhinged ladies of a certain age) was splendid as Mad Midwife Joy, one of the main characters but there were also small parts for the likes of Eileen Atkins, Janet McTeer, Nicholas Le Provost, Natalie Cassidy (who I didn’t immediately recognise – maybe she can act after all?) and Christopher Biggins. We were gripped for 6 episodes but rather disappointed with the ending.

Rivers with Griff Rhys Jones. BBC1.
Griff Rhys Jones is becoming something of an outdoor expert these days. It's interesting to see where the alternative comedians of the 1980s have ended up (Lenny Henry should take note). This programme went out on a Sunday evening late in the summer and was ideal viewing for that time-slot. The programmes were fascinating - particularly the one about the River Lea and it's long service to the city of London (I'd never even heard of it!) and the programme where Griff crossed England from west to east via various waterways, finishing up in the mighty River Humber. Lovely.

Andrew Marr’s The Making of Modern Britain. BBC2
Not quite as splendid as the “History of Modern Britain” series from two years ago, but entertaining and informative all the same. I love Andrew Marr’s style of presenting, although some of his impersonations of the people whose words he was speaking were a little shaky! I wish I had written down some of his more amusing remarks - I didn’t make any proper notes about this programme because I was too busy watching and enjoying it. The BBC billed it as “An epic account of the events that shaped Britain, from the death of Queen Victoria to the end of the Second World War”. I couldn’t have put it better myself. As with the previous series, he took our history in chunks of roughly 10 years at a time, starting with the Edwardian era and ending in 1945.

Who says there is nothing on telly anymore?

So long, and thanks for all the fish

2009-12-23T10:55:00.007Z

I feel that I ought to be writing some sort of retrospective piece for 2009, or indeed the noughties in general, as we hurtle towards the end of the year. After all, isn't this just the sort of thing blogging was invented for?

The first decade of the new century has been an eventful one, both for me personally and in the world at large. I bought my house in 1999 and the fact that I'm still living in the same house 10 years later wasn't actually in the script, but other than that there have been many changes over the past decade.

Personally, I've had a brush with cancer; broken up from a long term relationship; turned 40; started a new (and far more successful) relationship with a certain Large Bear; learned to salsa and then given it up; had my short sight lasered away; ridden pillion on a motorcycle; seen my 'baby' brother settle down and get married and I became an auntie.

In the wider world, the noughties saw the single biggest terrorist attack in history in New York City in 2001; further terror attacks in Bali and London; an enormous tsunami in 2004; never ending war in Afghanistan and Iraq; the first ever African/American president elected to the White House; smoking bans in both France and the UK and massive amounts of new technology became widely available to almost anybody. The 21st century was supposed to be all shiny and modern and bits of it are. Ten years ago I couldn't have imagined all the splendid things I can now get up to on the internet. Did blogs exist 10 years ago? Or Facebook? And the mobile phone, PC, television, camera and music player that I have today are very different animals from those I owned only a decade ago.

I could go on. But I won’t because I've started at least half-a-dozen blog posts over the past month and then couldn't be arsed to finish any of them, so I'm bailing out of this one sooner rather than later. I notice that this is my 49th post of 2009. I will try to do one more before the end of the month in the interests of having a nice round number.

So, in the absence of any kind of conclusion, here are some photos of some snow and my Christmas tree.

Merry thing and a happy new whatsit.

Another day, another blog post idea nicked off someone else.

2009-11-05T19:31:00.005Z

Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to leave comments to the sometimes brilliant posts of That's So Pants, so I thought I would post a link to her most recent missive on the subject of an anti-binge drinking campaign and leave a very long comment in the form of a blog post of my own.

Whilst I am no fan of people who get excessively drunk and behave badly (particularly when they cause damage to property or wake me up as they sing their way home at 2am), I do agree with Ms Pants that these sorts of campaigns are a waste of time and money.

Funilly enough, Sir Bruin and I were only talking about this with No2 (Policeman) son last time he was home for the weekend. Binge drinking is not new; particularly in Britain. Our continental cousins appear to be much better at social moderate drinking than the British and this is has been the case for at least a thousand years. Contemporary accounts of the Battle of Hastings suggest that while the Norman troops spent the eve of the battle making quiet preparations, the English troops got thoroughly rat-arsed and were somewhat hung-over during the battle. An (unaccredited) piece of writing from 1066 states "The English, being revelling before, had in the morning their brains arrested for the arrearages of the ingested fumes of the former night – and were no better than drunk when they came to fight."

As Ms Pants observes in her article, during the hey-day of Britain's Industrial past, manual workers went from the factory gates directly to the pub without passing go. Certainly, our coal miners were renowned for heavy drinking in the late 19th and early 20th century and are reputed to have spent on average 25% of their earnings in the pub. Punch-ups in town centres on a Saturday night were probably more common back then than they are today. In the episode of "Who Do You Think You Are" that featured Griff Rhys Jones, he discovered that one of his ancestors, a miner, and had been killed in a fight where the involvement of drink was suspected.

I suppose that the government has to be seen to be doing something about problems like binge drinking in order to appease an aging population who read The Daily Mail and have forgotten what it is like to be young and high-spirited. However, I agree with Pants' observation that "people don’t like to be told what to do with their dwindling freedoms" and I would add my own opinion that the other reason this sort of campaign has no effect is that the people it is aimed it simply wont see it because they will be too busy getting drunk.

Play it again, Vic.

2009-10-29T18:07:00.004Z

Work is always quiet during the holidays and while surfing the net today during a moment of extreme boredom, I came across a bloggy piece on yahoo about funeral songs.

Apparently, a couple of elderly vicars don't approve of the use of pop music at funerals. They sounds like the sort of people who read the Daily Mail if you ask me, but they are entitled to their opinions, I suppose. The bit I take exception to is the fact that one of them attributes the fashion for playing music other than hymns at funerals on "the "outpouring of unbelievable emotion" that followed the death of Princess Diana in 1997". What nonsense! People were playing music of their choice at funerals long before Princess Drippy shuffled off this mortal coil. When my brother died in 1989, nearly 8 years before the Diana effect, my Mum asked me to choose a piece of his favourite music to play at the end of the funeral. He was a huge Dire Straits fan, so I picked "Brothers in Arms", which was played in church with no comment at all from the vicar (who admittedly was no where near as old as the blokes quoted in the article). In fact, it might even have been the vicar's suggestion although I'm not sure about that. It was a long time ago. Twenty years ago last week, in fact.

Why shouldn't grieving families play some music that means something to them at a funeral? I'm guessing these two reverends don't go in for modern hymns either. Do they also object to modern readings? Poems like "Funeral Blues" and "For All My Loved Ones" are often read at funerals - not so different from a pop song. Surely the vicar's role is to support the mourners, not judge them. My Grandma had her local vicar conduct a funeral service in the crematorium when my Grandpa died in 2000 and no one batted an eye-lid when the theme from the Onedin Line played as the curtains closed around the coffin.

I wonder if these old reverends object to decorated coffins as well? I read an article on line ages ago about a company that decorates coffins, which I have managed to find here. I love the story about the ice-cream man's coffin being decorated with pictures of ice-cream cones and the mourners standing around the grave eating cornettos. That's how to give someone a proper send off. I sincerely hope tinkly ice-cream van music was also played.

Funerals should be about remembering and honouring the deceased and if that involves playing some music they liked, even if it's cheesy and you don't like it yourself ("Angels" by Robbie Williams?! Ewww!), then that's fine by me. Each to their own, I say.

I have canvassed Sir Bruin's opinion and he has requested "Custard Pie" by Led Zeppelin to be played at his funeral. This has made me wonder what I would choose. I'm thinking "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life".

And Wye not!

2009-10-24T15:15:00.024+01:00

Readers of the blogs of Sir Bruin and Errol the Sheep (and anyone who had the patience to plough through my photos on Facebook) will know that the large bear and I have been on holiday. We managed to drag ourselves away from our virtual Facebook farms and spent a week in the real countryside. We stayed at a cottage in Gloucestershire, near the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley.

Why the Wye? Well, Sir Bruin had visited the area when his bear cubs were little and after I saw Richard Wilson drive through the Wye Valley on 'Britain’s Best Drives' I wanted to go there too.

We stopped at Great Malvern on the way there. Tucked under the Malvern Hills, it is a pretty little place and reminded me of Derbyshire.

From there, it was less than 30 minutes drive to our holiday accommodation in the Gloucestershire village of Upleadon.

The cottage was lovely, apart from the world's most uncomfortable bed. The cottage had its own garden with ponies in the field at the bottom.

Sunday 11 October.
Drove to Beechenhurst Lodge in the Forest of Dean and walked the sculpture trail in the drizzle. Nice walk, but most of the sculptures were a bit underwhelming.

Autumn colours in the Forest of Dean.

Yes, that is a sculpture. I think it is an acorn and its cup.

From there, we drove to Ross-on-Wye, which appeared to be closed on Sundays. Found a nice cafe and ate toasted tea cakes before going for a walk. I didn’t think much of the town centre, but it did have a nice fish sculpture.

We decided to go out to eat on Sunday evening, which turned out to be harder than expected. The first place we tried was shut and the second one didn't do food on a Sunday (it reminded me of trying to eat out in Lincolnshire on a Sunday evening). We ended up, via some scary country roads, at the Red Hart in the village of Blaisdon, where we ate an excellent meal that was worth waiting for. And the owner and his staff were the jolliest people we had seen all day.

Monday.

Bright, sunny day, so we headed to Symonds Yat. Parked near the rock and went to admire the view.

We took a short walk through the forest and then went down the steep slope to the river bank and the village of Symonds Yat East. Enjoyed a particularly delicious lunch at The Saracen's Head and then went for a short cruise on the beautiful River Wye.

Weather actually rather warm. Climbed back up to the rock and admired the view some more. Really didn't want to leave.

Tuesday.

Continued love affair with the River Wye by crossing over it into Welsh Wales. Spent sometime at the very impressive ruins of Tintern Abbey.

Inside the Abbey ruins.

Also strolled around the village and went for a short walk along the river bank in order to photograph the Abbey from the English side. After lunch, drove along to Chepstow for further views of my new favourite river from the rather splendid Chepstow Castle.

Wednesday.
Went to Gloucester. Apparently, there is plenty of parking, but it isn't very well signposted. Upleadon is only just over 7 miles from Gloucester but it took longer to find a parking space than it did to drive there.

Gloucester City Centre is pleasant, although a little tired in places. The cathedral is lovely; a very tranquil place with a warm friendly feel to it. The little garden in the centre is particularly delightful.

We walked the cloisters; the same cloisters that double as part of Hogwarts School in the Harry Potter films:

Not Harry Potter.

We saw various tombs, including that of Edward II. Later, we visited the Historic Docks. Very nice. Also very warm - observe Sir Bruin in a tee-shirt; in England; in October!

This way to Panama.

This was our third consecutive day of glorious weather. We ended up at the National Waterways Museum, which was very interesting. Sir B and I would like to have a canal holiday, but the price of a boat for a week in October is nearly 4 times what we paid for our (4 star) self catering cottage, hence we stayed there and not on a boat.

There isn't really anywhere to eat on Gloucester docks, which is surely a missed opportunity, so we headed back into the City Centre. After a late and rather large lunch, we drove a little way along the River Severn and parked up at the village of Newnham and sat quietly in the sunshine, enjoying the view.

Thursday was the day when our luck ran out with the weather. We set off to Hereford in the drizzle but it had stopped by the time we got there. It seemed a really nice little place and I especially liked the main city square.

We walked about a bit and then it started raining again, so we thought we would have a look at Hereford Cathedral. I liked it, but it didn't feel as warm and friendly as the cathedral at Gloucester.

We thought we might look at the Mappa Mundi and library, but they wanted £4.50 each to get into that exhibition, and as we weren't 9 quids worth of interested, we didn't bother.

We hopped back into the bear-mobile and headed to Hay-on-Wye, home of book shops

It hadn't rained yet in Hay when we arrived, but it was overcast. We parked at a car park with very scenic views, which would have been better without the low cloud.

I really enjoyed wandering around and we popped into a couple of the book shops, which were the sort of places I thought only existed in books and films. I found a Paul Theroux novel that I haven't previously read, which I purchased for the princely sum of £2.95. Also bought some very good fudge before heading back to our digs via the Black Mountains (impressive even through the drizzle that accompanied us all the way back to Gloucestershire), Abergavenny and Monmouth.

Friday 16 October 2009.

Sir Bruin favoured a visit to Clearwell Caves and a fine choice it was. We spent a brilliant hour-and-a-half wandering about these former iron mines, travelling to 100 feet underground.

When we returned to ground level, the sun had come out. We drove around the Forest of Dean for a while and then headed back towards the Wye. We visited a butterfly zoo at Symonds Yat West.

After scoffing a cream tea, we drove around some more in the late afternoon sunshine and parked up briefly at Lydbrook for one last look at the beautiful River Wye.

Turn on, re-tune, turn off again

2009-10-01T19:36:00.010+01:00

So did you all remember to re tune your digital televisions and digi boxes yesterday?

Sir Bruin's mother called late on Monday evening in a state of alarm. She'd heard she needed to re tune her television on Wednesday and didn't know how to do it. Sir Bruin would have to come and sort it out for her. Sir Bruin pointed out that she doesn't have a digital receiver and that was the end of that conversation.

So, we re tuned our digital television. We gained a couple of new crappy digital channels that we didn't especially want and lost channel 5. The freeview signal on the East Coast is not good and which channels you can receive in Ipswich varies tremendously. One of my work colleagues, who lives only 15 minutes walk away, can't get a signal at all. We live on a hill (which I assume is what makes the difference) and we can get a signal, but not all the channels. In fact, of the five terrestrial channels, we can only receive BBC1 and BBC2 on digital so if we want to watch itv1, Chanel 4 or Five, we have to switch back to the old analogue signal (which is due to be turned off in two years time).

Most of the digital only channels that we can receive (with the notable exception of BBC4) broadcast very little that we want to watch.

Not that we watch much television anyway these days, being tragically addicted to Farmville.

Virtual Liz down on the virtual farm.

I probably still watch enough telly to annoy my readers with a TV review of the year come December though. Assuming that we haven't been re tuned to the point where we can't get any channels at all.

Roll up, roll up! Get your heritage here!

2009-09-13T16:19:00.010+01:00

Every year, something called "Heritage Open Days" happens and most years I completely miss it. This year, however, I was tipped off by a woman who can only be described as my mother and who Sir Bruin has taken to addressing as Granny Weatherwax. She doesn't seem to mind.

English Heritage has taken over the organisation of this event (aided and abetted by local organisations like the Ipswich Society), so the publicity is better than it used to be and I even managed to get my hands on a leaflet this year telling me which buildings in Ipswich and the surrounding area were open to view over the weekend. We were entertaining Sir Bruin's Number 3 son yesterday, so that rather ruled out any heritage or culture but today we have been checking out places that the public cannot normally gain access to.

The Willis Building has not previously been part of this event and when we dropped by there this morning, it was turning into quite a popular attraction. Built in the early 1970s and designed by Norman Foster Associates, this unusual, heart-shaped building was listed in 1991 and at that time was the 'youngest' building ever to receive a grade 1 listing.

I moved to Suffolk in the late 1980s and I've always thought this a very attractive and distinctive modern building. It was top of my list of places to visit today, partly because I wanted to visit the fabled grass roof and take some photos.

My photographic efforts all day were hampered by the fact that the weather was grey and overcast. This is annoying because it was gorgeous and sunny Saturday. There aren't many opportunities to get up high and look at the Ipswich skyline, so I snapped away despite the cloud cover and have been busy with Picture Project adjusting the brightness on my photos.

Above is a view of buildings at the junction of Princes Street and Museum Street.

Views along the roof terrace towards Princes Street / Franciscan Way Roundabout

Looking back towards Museum Street and the town centre.

Towards the Waterfront area, with the distinctive grey and white of the UCS Waterfront Building.

This is me standing on the roof of the Willis Building. Yes, that is really a roof.

After we'd had a good wander around the roof area, we went back into the building and looked at some photographs of the construction site, circa 1972. Inside, the Willis Building still feels very new. I work in a brand new building which has been open for less than two months, and yet somehow the Willis Building on Friars Street feels more modern.

We had a tour around the office area that was once a swimming pool. The swimming pool is still there, underneath the office floor (you can see down into it through an occasional glass panel in the floor) and could, in theory, be reinstated. The depth of certain parts of the pool are still marked on the columns. They closed it some years ago due to high maintenance costs. The chap showing us around was of the opinion that, were it still available, the pool would be much better used today because everyone is so much more health and fitness conscious than they were in the 70s and 80s.

After thoroughly exploring the Willis Building, I treated Sir Bruin to lunch at Mizu Noodle Bar. On our way back to the car, we popped into another building that was open as part of the Heritage Weekend. The Unitarian Meeting House, also on Friars Street, was built at the very end of the 17th century. From the outside, it is an unassuming building which, apart from a slight lean to some of it's walls, gives little indication of the fact that it is over 300 years old. Inside, it is really rather lovely:

The photo above was taken inside the Unitarian Meeting House. The chandelier and box pews are original fittings from 1699.

There were more than 20 buildings in Ipswich that were open to the public this weekend, but we only visited 3 in Ipswich plus 1 other, which I shall come to in a moment. The last place in town we called at was the Old Custom House on Key Street. This building dates from the middle of the 18th century but only a very small part of it was open. There was a display about Maritime History run by the Ipswich Maritime Trust, but that was about it.

So, we piled into the Bear-mobile and headed out to Freston. I have visited Freston Tower before, as part of this heritage weekend about 5 years ago. Sir Bruin hadn't seen it though, and it is worth a look if only for it's lovely setting on the banks of the River Orwell.

Freston Tower.

Freston Tower was built in the 1570s, although no one really knows why or what for. It is six stories high, but so narrow that there is only one room on each floor. One local legend suggests the tower was built as a place of study for Ellen Latimer, daughter of Lord De Freston and that she studied a different subject on each floor, finishing with astronomy at the top. However, this seems unlikely given that the Landmark Trust, who now look after the building, suggest that its construction took place after the land it stands was sold by Christopher Latimer to one Thomas Gooding.

The stairs inside are incredibly narrow. As it is now let as holiday accommodation, each floor now has a different use (kitchen, bathroom above, bedroom above that etc). The views from the top are lovely, although when you are my height (5' 3") it is difficult to see over the walls.

View of the River Orwell taken from the top of Freston Tower, looking up river towards Ipswich.

It's so nice to be able to do stuff like this on your own doorstep at virtually no cost. A big hurrah for the people who organise it.

The Littlest Things

2009-08-20T19:30:00.006+01:00

I have often complained on the pages of this blog about the muppets I have to speak to on the telephone at work. However, this afternoon I spoke to a woman who, despite the fact that the information I gave her was not entirely what she wanted to hear, still ended the call by saying "I am very grateful for the help you've given me". Doesn't that sort of thing just make your day?!

There isn't much to smile about in my job at this time of the year so a bit of politeness goes a very long way with me.

On the subject of little things, I find myself strangely addicted to Farmville on Facebook. Anyone want to be my neighbour?

At the end of my last post, I promised photos from a busy weekend. We went racing at Newmarket on Saturday and Sir Bruin's photos are so much better than mine that you will have to read all about that here. We were so tired on Sunday that we cancelled our plans and spent the day chilling out at home and in the garden. You will be relieved to learn that I didn't take any photos of us doing nothing.

Rumours of my death have been greatly exagerated

2009-08-10T20:21:00.008+01:00

Where on earth have I been lately then?

Well, I'll tell you.

I've been to Cambridge and taken a trip along the Cam in a punt.

Bridge of Sighs

A bridge near St John's college.

Kings College.

I have also assited Sir Bruin in the erection of a new shed in my back garden. Demolishing and removing the old one took the best part of three days.

These are the instructions that came with the new shed. They said it would take 2 people 2 to 3 hours to assemble the shed.

My arse!

Thirty pages of instructions + seventy different parts + nuts, bolts and screws does not equal three hours.

It took longer than that to build the wooden base and get to this stage:

At the end of day one, we had all the walls up but no roof. And we had a sustained some injuries.

Metal sheds are sharp!

After another half day of work, we were pleased with the finished article.

Then I went back to work. Work is odder than usual because we have moved into a new building. Parts of said new building are not finished. I am working in a building site. I want to be on holiday again.

I did go to the seaside on Saturday. It was lovely.

Auntie Liz and Baby Bear enjoy the sand at Southwold.

I'm busy again next weekend, so expect more photos!

Scenic Suffolk. Again.

2009-07-31T21:23:00.015+01:00

Remember this?

What do you mean no? It appeared on this very blog mere months ago (February). As a sequel to Walberswick in the winter, here it is in the summer:

Much better. I do like the summer time.

I've been on annual leave this week. I thought "let's stay at home and have a nice lazy week" and then I thought "why not demolish the 70-year-old shed at the bottom of my garden and put up a new one". Sigh. For some reason, I thought that operation shed would only take up a couple of days. Emptying the old one, taking half the contents to the tip, knocking it down, carting it all away etc, etc took nearly three whole days and involved 7 trips to the dump. I might regale you with further tales of the shed saga at a later date (if we ever finish building the new one). In the meantime, I shall fill my blog with the usual mix of waffle and digital photos.

The Baby Bear is coming to visit next weekend (yay!), so as we had a couple of precious free days between demolishing old shed and the arrival of its replacement, Sir Bruin suggested we travel a bit further up the coast on Wednesday in search of a sandy beach that we might take our visitors to.

First we went to Dunwich.

Inadequate quantities of sand, but very nice fish and chips for lunch. We walked a little way along the beach and indulged Errol The Sheep with a photo shoot.

We took some other photos too, not involving toy sheep.

I like the rather bleak quality that the beach at Dunwich has. I also like the view of Sizewell Power Station further along the coast.

Having established that Dunwich probably isn't the right beach for a one-year-old, we journeyed a little further along the coast to Walberswick.

Row-boat ferry crossing the River Blyth at Walberswick.

I love Walberswick. The village centre is a bit posh and trendy but the beach and river are wonderfully old fashioned. There are no amusements other than enjoying the sun, sea, sand and wind. Proper children play at Walberswick. They fly kites and ride bicycles and don't care that it's blowing a gale and the water is freezing. When Baby Bear is older, Sir Bruin is going to take him crabbing at Walberswick.

Crabbing at Walberswick.

Southwold Lighthouse from Walberswick side of the River Blyth.

The sand dunes at Walberswick

view up the River Blyth at Walberswick

Anyway, there may be sand dunes at Walberswick, but the beach is still mainly shingle. So, having strolled up the river on one side and back on the other and admired the view in a rather stiff breeze, we got back into the Bear-mobile and headed along to Southwold.

Southwold's iconic lighthouse viewed from the pier.

Waves crashing on the beach at Southwold.

Southwold pier viewed from the beach. The sandy beach!

The wind had got up a bit by the time we got to Southwold. The pier was restored 5 or 6 years ago and this was the first time Sir Bruin had seen it so we took a very bracing stroll to the end and visited some of the high class tat emporiums along it's length (where we purchased cherries in chocolate - yum!).

We had a quick look at the beach and yes, it has sand! So, providing there is sunshine next weekend, we have located a sandy beach suitable for a very small boy (and a somewhat over-excited auntie) to go paddling.

Sir Bruin and I were going to stroll around a little more, but the wind was reaching gale-force proportions by this time and the sky was black so we decided to head for home. We got back to the car just as the rain started.

It was a lovely day. The sort of day out that I'd planned to have several of this week.

The moral of this story is, don't plan DIY jobs for your summer holidays!

Sunny Sunday Sounds

2009-07-06T20:47:00.012+01:00

Having nothing better to do on a sunny Sunday afternoon, Sir Bruin and I ambled along to Christchurch Park in Ipswich for the 18th Ipswich Music Day. This is a free event and part of the rather splendid IP-Art Festival, that runs for a month each year. The music day may have been running for 18 years, but this is only the second time I’ve been. Last year, it rained and we came away after about three hours. This year, however, the sun shone and we stayed until the early evening (it’s all finished by 8 o’clock – you can’t party all night that close to people’s houses).

We wandered around rather aimlessly with our programme for a while. We paused for a song or two by the CSV & ICRfm Stage where The Jacob Trio were playing. They were a very good blues band and very young too. However, we only paused there briefly as we were heading towards The Evening Star stage in the hope of catching Livewire. Livewire’s blub in the programme described their music as “greasy rock ‘n’ roll", which sounded right up our street. However, by the time we made it to the far side of the park, they were on their last song. Based on that last song, I would say they sounded like a cross between ZZ Top and Queens of the Stone Age. We liked them. I have tried to find them on t’internet, but there are rather a lot of bands going by that name and none of them seemed to be these guys.

It being lunch time, we nipped and bought ourselves all manner of yummy Mexican themed grub from the Chilli Gone Barmy van (is that plug worth an free fajita, do you think?) and then returned to The Evening Star stage for The Empires, who were every bit as good as the food. They are a very young local rock band who mostly played their own stuff but they did throw in a (very good) cover of Led Zep’s “Rock and Roll”. Their blurb in the programme referred to “crunch chords and retro-soaked guitar lines” – yeah, I’d go with that. They reminded me a bit of The Black Crows and the lead singer could certainly give the likes of Chris Robinson a run for his money (Sir Bruin thought they sounded like Split Enz). My favourite band of the day (given that I’m an old fart, that’s probably the kiss of death for them – sorry boys!)

Music fans sunning themselves near The Evening Star Stage. Picture courtesy of Sir Bruin.

We also enjoyed Hayze, who popped up on The Evening Star stage around 4pm. This band have been together for around eight years and have played with a number of established bands, including The Stranglers and The Bluetones. I can’t think of anyone to compare them too actually, so they must have just been themselves. Perhaps a slight hint of Oasis in the guitar sound? Have a listen to them on Myspace and make up your own mind.

After Hayze, we went to get ourselves some more drinks and to sample some fruit fritters from a stall called Audrey’s Delights. Audrey was very charming and her banana fritters with melted chocolate were gorgeous (the apple with toffee sauce weren't too shabby either!)

We spent the remainder of the afternoon by The BBC Radio Suffolk Stage listening to a couple of covers bands. Picture House have, according to the programme, been described as “The Marks and Spencer of covers bands”, so I was expecting them to be a bit staid, but they played mostly indie-style stuff, treating us to tunes made famous by the likes of The Pigeon Detectives, Kings of Leon, Paulo Nutini and (unfortunately) Snow Patrol (I know I’m probably the only person in Great Britain who thinks that ‘Chasing Cars’ is a shit song, but I’m entitled to my opinion).

And finally, the last band on stage were Soul Kitchen. Described in the programme as “East Anglia’s ultimate party band” they delivered an hour and twenty-minutes of toe-tapping favourites in a soul stylee. They repertoire was “Blues Brothers” meets “The Commitments” and they were great fun.

Small Bear getting into the soul groove with the aid of a Large Bear's hat.

Much partying goes on in front of the BBC Radio Suffolk Stage (hastily assembled on the back of a borrowed truck) to the sounds of Soul Kitchen.

It was good to end with some stuff you can jig about too and familiar old songs. The Empires still get my vote as band of the day though.