Christmas 2022

Okay Christmas entry here we come as I woke up super excited and put on white shirt, blue and  white tie, grey jumper with blue trim, grey shorts and grey with blue bands sock to go to my parents for the day.

Yes really!

There will be a full entry on this at some point but basically it is the four cd book form set of songs from 1980-84 Now didn't include the the individual yearbooks and extra volumes.

We'll see in late January/February where the series goes having issued the Extras set for 1985.

Call Rupert the Bear an addiction going well into boyhood, a name some used to describe my dress style back then and this is this years Rupert annual with a nexture of reprints and fresh material that makes me feel great.

This is card wrappers worth of books starting with this years Beano annual which like the comic is firmly set in the modern day even if some characters we grew up remain as does Bash Street School.

Then we have the Dandy Annual, the comic outside of the Summer Special no longer exists so we have fresh stories based on our favourites such as Korky the Cat, Winker Watson, the Jocks And The Geordies, Keyhole Kate and Desperate Dan.

The modern world is around them but things are more as they were. Love it!

Then we have the compilation with the theme Things That Go Bump In the Night which draws from old stories from the Beano, Dandy and others in the old D C Thompson stable around that theme which pulls you into the past well.

I enjoy this series of compilations a lot for that.

I'll splice an entry in for this which was a Big Present, a three lp version that takes three concerts from San Francisco's Fillmore undertaken in 1997 by Tom Petty that go beyond the greatest hits and the new album but into songs from artists such as the Byrds and Grateful Dead that aren't in their recorded catalogue otherwise and in any event were some the best concerts the band ever did 

I liked Duran Duran a lot and have a many albums of thiers but this only came out last record store day comprising of a whole show from 1982 on the Rio tour with the band on fire.

(Come Up See Me) Make Me Smile was issued in 1984 as the b side of the Reflex (remix) single.

There was a dvd and cd set issued several years back but this is the first time its been on lp record.

Christopher Robin and Winnie The Pooh are heros and this is my new diary.

I had some money and vouchers besides this plus some grey and blue socks.

A Pause for Christmas

Christmas is almost here dispite the odd unexpected challenge here and there this year which was different to what we had experienced last year never mind the dark isolation we all went through in twenty twenty trying to manage Covid.

Supply chain issues coupled with industrial dispute have made trying to sort out presents, get cards sent to people we don't see often, try to get the basics of a traditional Christmas Day dinner in or booked for those who like to go out with family for a meal.

As difficult in some respects as the year has been, we'll have a Christmas, the time spent with and communicating with our families and friends enjoying each others company.

As I pause this blog to try to get some of the spade work to make that magic happen this year I wish you all a very happy christmas  and all the best for twenty twenty three.

We should resume at some point after boxing day, probably a DuoPost tm with the other blog before we start a New Year in the forever a boy world That Uniformed Schoolboy inhabits.

A week and a day to go

Cor, it's really cold, has been pretty much Thursday with temperatures down as much as minus ten degrees c so the long thick layers have had to come out to try to survive these untypical conditions.

Certainly the coldest I can recall here in the Midlands in my lifetime and having lost four lads in Solihull at the start of the week coupled with reports of others doing the same at nearby Westport Lake in this district, please stay off iced over lakes and the like.

Hyperthermia kills.

I mean I'm typing this with my gloves on even it's that cold!

Apart from Sunday's excitement as Santa made his appearence here, something else that marks this time of year has made its appearence too.

Rather like Summer, the beano produces a special christmas themed edition involving all its cast of legendary characters with a common story running complete with sheet of stickers you can peel off and use.

As ever there are quize's, jokes and puzzles to read and have a go at beyond the regular editions we get including the Christmas Eve one with sixty eight pages in full colour.

In a year that has had its own challenges, having  comics is a real joy.

The community tree paid for by us, the residents by donations is up,much appreciated and used for carol singing and illuminated for good measure.

Just eight nights to go!

Stepping into Advent edition

 We're between the football action with the match with France this weekend a sensational win on Sunday against Senegal by three goals to nil which was just great given how good their players were.

The weeks are moving ahead as we count them down towards Christmas with the advent calander which ended up being ordered as the local shop was out of the one I wanted and talking of which a few things ordered for Christmas have yet to arrive.

Last Friday's Blue Peter showed how to make Christmas cards and the famed Blue Peter Advent display was out that I recall from my earliest days of watching the show as a child which was good to see again.

At least on Monday the Christmas edition of Monster Fun, the bi-monthly comic arrived with it's christmas themed ghoulish stories including a one page story based upon a idea submitted by a young reader.

Tuesday with temperatures at one point being minus one degree, I did have my thick woollen slipper socks on designed to keep your feet as warm as toast as much as I was in my three inch inside leg shorts as ever.

We did have a few problems on the forum in middle of last week ith posts not taking and images not loading but they appear to be fixed now.

The Roar of the Lions

 

If you haven't noticed there is quite a loud noise about at the moment on the tv and the radio that is very hard to escape from, taking up chunks of The News and perhaps excessively the morning breakfast shows almost as if there's little else to talk about.

The men's football World Cup with things on the pitch and much wrapped around politics outside of it.

It's probably true much of the country is in need of good cheer what with strikes galore - so 1973 it hurts - shortages in the shops, and the whole business around rising food, fuel and housing costs and maybe that's where the intensity is coming from.

Things seem to be going well for England since qualifying with a 6-2 win against Iran and a draw with the U.S.A. where the game the World plays is becoming much more popular which as much as I love Ice Hockey and Baseball is just great.

There was a match on Tuesday that did divide the UK, something I can understand given my boarding school was in the Marches, had a sizable chunk of Welsh staff and I was iniated in Welsh Culture too although my family are very much Midlanders. 

Well after a fairly evenly matched first half, England came ALIVE with two goals from Marcus Rashford and one from Phil Foden victory was assured.

Cymru did very well to get into the competition after just over a half century absence with a side of great players helping to spread the awareness of Wales being distinct home nation of the UK but the superior playing of England showed.

Let the battle to move towards the play offs begin!