Spooky weekend

 

We're kind of getting ready to be off later on today for a Halloween meet and party so between wen dealing with the unexpected this week I've been sorting out my costume, other clothing like proper traditional little boy shirt, tie and short trousers for a meal and things to bring for party food.

Having a good number ghoulish bats isn't a bad idea either to hide amongst the trees or in old garden sheds for treasure hunts and the odd giant spider.

There are lots of decorations up around here as I noticed going out across the week and I'm sure a ghoulish time will be had.

Blown away

 

Strong winds send everything in the air, caps, leaves you name it and we've certainly had a few of them of late as I noticed on Tuesday when whole sections of pavement were taken up with broken branches and trees making my way back home from having my Covid Booster.

Given how the weather was at the weekend I'd decided the best bet was to stay in read the weeks comics which also made sense given I was recovering from this virial infaction and got any chores done like taking things out to the bins out of the way.

I did watch the final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year which is comprises of a series of rounds where each performer choses works to showcase an element of the abilities and are judged by three judges leading to an eventual winner.

This year it was a Canadian pianist studying in the U.K. who gave a dazzling performance of the Russian composer Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto and so during the week I was listening to set of Beethoven's Piano Concertos on record that I've always admired while the booster symptoms slowly faded away.

Thirty One years of Numskulls

After a short trip out wednesday which helped after weeks being locked in we return to staples of sorts.

The Beano remains something of a childhood focus that has run throughout myself being the only comic continiously in production still we are marking an anniversary  this week.

Starting on 16th October 1993, a new comic strip was added to the Beano as it went A4 sized from it's old smaller exercise book sized semi colour self as the connection between iconic series like Dennis moved into multimedia.

The series was called Numskulls after the little people that live in your head and the adventures they had through the individual children they live in and has proved to be quite enduring even in an era of new series and added characters as in the Bash Street Kids.

Catching up in '87

Well it  is Friday and we're slowly recovering here after playing catch up for most of this week catching up with things that had to be put rather on hold last week as I wasn't really up to doing much at all to be honest.

Most of the things around the Now Yearbook series are on the other blog for a very good reason but as explained there because of the series of cds I bought back then really I had little reason for getting most of the late 80's ones.

The late eighties were interseting for me as I went from post to post with gaps when systems supposed to help just tied me in knots as I watched Network 7, Blue Peter, followed the 1987 General Election, Tomorrow's World and Brookside.

Tastes rather like me hadn't really changed from the early 80's and even beyond.

Musically while the scene was evolving with more attention being played to club related styles and associated artists much of what I had loved for a long time was still on the charts as difficult as it was to begin to start a cd collection while still buying new records and oddly enough tapes that year although the big back catalogue news was the Beatles albums coming out on cd.

The compilations series Now and Hits were out on cd in 1987 but their first two releases, Now 9 and Hits 6 only came out on single cds although the record and tape versions were doubles and in a way while much of the main Now Yearbook wasn't needed I felt this extra bit did offer some of the missing material.

By 1988 both series were committed to double cd issues and it wasn't until 1991 that I said "Goodbye" to them just buying albums by artists I loved.

Day off

 

While normally I'd be thinking back to ones school days, watching the procession past the house along the very route you walked all those years ago, today's a bit different.

Sat here I'm thinking more of the days I didn't get there which might of been things like the many hospital appointments having my disabilities brought for examinations and the like, miagraines of which I had a good many and the usual childhood viruses.

Colds were not uncommon and sometimes it would be the phone call from school, as I got older checking someone would be at home and making my own way or typically it would develop overnight and so Mum would ring in your absence.

This morning I just like I was being kept home sneezing away, on the cough mixture and limsips.

Moving on

 

As you may of guessed or perhaps might of directly experienced it's a very wet day rather like the weekend gone minus the storms so I'm stuck here, eating a banana.

One thing over the time as we get towards Christmas and with it the anniversary of period Mum became very unwell is in the literal sense, picking up all the pieces because unlike the heavy magazine and tv push on minimalism, having little more than the clothes you usually wear, just the furniture and fittings you need Mum was the more the opposite.

She had wardrobes full and beyond say her books which were quite considerable set out on shelves, she was heavily into cutting articles out of magazines and newspapers, even saving whole pull sections and part works on themes that interested her.

Some had been moved out of her room by Dad but left very much as is so yesterday I worked through some and removed a chunk that were not really connected with her while keeping such as features on aircraft she'd help build, her interest in football such that of her last programs for matches she attended and moved books that were just left strewn downstairs into the vacated spots to both tidy things up and in a obvious way move things on rather than leaving the placing looking more like a well preserved shrine

Personally I feel that's really rather more what she'd of wanted, life going on and the life of house reflecting that as much as you hold on to some effects as much as the memories.

Computer use, engagement and manners

Certain parts of the internet are going into overdrive regarding a certain beatles box set release that I'm undecided if we'll review here or elsewhere, that's not really what we'll be dealing with as such this topsy turvey weatherwise week.

Yes there is more to life than them but really it was way internet behaviour shows itself of which discussion about that and another topic that's really more the topic.

One being the topic of different times - some things are seen as normal the past that may not be the lack of connectedness in the world such as popular culture took longer to travel around the time so film titles, record releases and the like varied for good local reasons in much the same way our schools and how they dealt with us has changed with some things thank goodness  are gone and others  now present causing modern concerns.

Younger members posting lacked - and failed to look into - why that all happened even though there's a whole industry writing books plus a good few websites that cover those points.

They just had a view everything is as it is now in a way that, for instance when I was in school studying say history or discussing topics we were always made aware of differences in what was seen as accepted at the time and the issues people were grappling with.

Like the Reformation was as much about religion as diplomacy and politics with plotting and counter plotting that individuals might find themselves in the middle of.

The other was what I'd call the drive by post where a person posts a question and is heard of no more with no thanks or further questions to gain clarification leading to a resolution of he question.

It's left in mid air with those who replied feeling used or toyed with where we were expected to engage having asked the question and thank them for their contributions.

That was really the way these posts left me thinking and very much why I'm typing this here.