Christmas 2023

As mentioned the christmas entry is a duo-post because in reality what it is about is the same on both this blog and the other.

Christmas got made after the messy one of 2022 and this years events that impacted many of the rituals as you notice that missing face, the usual conversation around wrapping, card writing and the like.

So it was different but with some certainties which showed in presents.

Somethings are repeats from original childhood such as the Dandy annual or reprints from classic Beano and Dandy comic strips making perfect since in the world of this short trousered little boy.

Today's Beano is almost a magazine comic mash up with much in the modern child's world where for some of us including children comics that just humour still cut it so rather than getting this years Beano annual I had the Christmas Special, a good representation of the modern Beano.

We wrote about the cd version of enlarged classic Beatles 1962-1966 compilation but I had from Dad the record version which has the extra tracks on a third disc.

I had this compilation of Erasure that covers all their hits and is fairly up to date too. 

I bought the singles but never got an album until this was obtained from Mr Claus.

Classical music is something I like and as I had been getting some brand new records I was given a copy of this classic 1970 account on vinyl.

Books did feature too with this look at the life of Biddy Baxter who was the origiinal Blue Peter producer by Richard Marston.

I tend to forget things so this very vintage Winnie the Pooh A5 dairy will no doubt prove most useful to note visits and things to remember to do

I had some money and vouchers for the New Year but while it was difficult emotionally I was glad we had Christmas again.

The Christmas break

 This is being put together at the weekend as that's very much when with me things drop off as Christmas comes into its own with places to go and people to see before the day itself starts which is normally when they'd be a post as Christmas Day this year falls on a Monday.

From memory we were strongly encouraged to sing without an electrical amplification, projecting our voices when not singing our own versions of "Jingle Bells, Robin Smells Batman fly away" and "When shephards washed their socks by night".

Santa was about on his sleigh last night ho-ho-hoeing to carols and modern christmas classics going from house to house and that's more the side of Christmas I enjoy the most

Christmas with me has always been a boys thing and no doubt if you were to drop in I'd be looking very much like these boys having just the same sort of christmas as any bio-boy which suits me right down to the ground.

Tanks to everyone enjoying the forum.

******HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!******

Christmas in comicland

We're almost at the final post before Crimbo which will be a "duo post" as that much will be happening here there simply won't be time to post immediately before then and believe or not those of us who run blogs and a forum do need time to pause.

Things that I'll be dipping into between things will include this years Beano Christmas Special, a 68 page special christmas themed edition that isn't included in your regular subscription but if you joined the new Dennis & Gnasher Fan club is included in the £20 per year subscription to that.

Meanwhile in  a ghoulish land what is now the monthly December edition is given over to Christmas with Christmas storylines featuring all our favourite characters and readers letters.

There will no doubt be a special reversed Christmas/New Year edition of Phoenix arriving soon too.

R.I.P Denny Laine (Wings)

Born 29 October 1944, Denny Laine's death was announced early on the week on Monday 5 December in Naples, Florida, U.S.A. 

Denny was a founding member of the group The Moody Blues from 1964 where they score a massive world-wide hit with Go Now until late 1966 where faced with declining sales the group decided to embark upon a mixture of progressive rock and orchestration.

After a period in groups such as Ginger Baker's Army, Denny joined a then little know group called Wings formed by Paul and Linda McCartney to continue in music without all the baggage of being a "Beatle" who had a lot of hit singles  like Let 'Em In and albums such as Band On The Run and London Town.

After some disagreements in 1981 he left to persue his own musical interests.

The reason this entry exists isn't just a rest in peace post but because the records he was involved in were very much records I loved as a kid in the 70's playing for enjoyment often tied to memories of situations and events of that time.

For instance this record, which I still have, is a massive part of all my Christmas's from when I bought it while visiting my late Nan in December 1977 from the districts main record shop whose lyrics and bagpipe playing by the pipers evoke the feel of being together celebrating as one.

Its other side as it was technically a  double 'A' side was the rocking Girls School which was a delight who thought Paul McCartney had forgot how to rock, preferring to write "silly love songs".

This still from the video shown on the late Michael Parkinsons show before being on Top Of The Pops evoke so many memories and emotions for me with Denny on the left.

For me Christmas without Mull Of Kintyre is unthinkable.

Rest in peace Denny.

Upgrading the sound from records

I generally don't talk purely about objects on this blog but I have the odd time talked a little around my stereo system and the last time I wrote a piece was in January this year when I talked about the Tangent II VHF FM/DAB+ tuner.

Today I'm talking about a phono stage at which point you'll say and what is that?

Mounted in your record deck is a cartridge that put simply converts the ups and downs of how the groove on the record is cut to a low level electrical voltage, much lower than a regular amplifier circuit can use to fill your room with sound.

It will also sound tinny with little bass even if you tried to turn the volume on it right up because to make the music fit on the record when it is cut they take out the bass and boost the high notes to reduce any noise.

A phono stage is an additional circuit that boosts the level so an amplifier can reproduce it as well as any line level source such as a tuner or compact disc player and restore the bass and treble levels to how they were in the original recording.

In the heyday of records amplifiers often had that circuit built into them and the shoe box shaped record player you had did too but in the age of the compact disc many took them out.

Even when they were fitted, they tended to be good enough to give good sound to get you going but being designed to a price didn't reveal everything your record deck and cartridge was capable of.

That is where the stand alone Phono Stage comes in, bypassing that being connected to the amplifier via a line input and improve on sound apart from being kept away from any electric noise from the amplifiers mains circuit.

The built in stage in my Rotel amplifier tends to be be a bit noisy with hiss so I always used an external phono stage.

I had that Rotel unit for a good number of years but while it was very good, my system had improved and it was getting in the way of what it was capable of.

That is where the Pro-ject DS3 B comes in which offers better facilities for the more expensive moving coil cartridges to get the best sound from them and even on regular moving magnet one such as my Ortofon Concorde 30 with its fine line nude stylus has the ability via the loading settings to tweek the sound to its best

There is a subsonic filter which reduced by some 18 decibles at 20hz the effects of any warps on records while leaving the music intact.

Users of Moving coil cartridges wired in balenced mode on their turntables have the option of balenced inputs to reduce noise pick up on long cable runs and more expensive amplifiers that used balenced inputs can be wired in that way for similar benefits.

It does take traditional unbalenced RCA inputs with a grounding tag (Brit Eng: Earthing) and with the left and right channel circuits being seperate for the best stereo the inputs and outputs are symetical in layout.

There is a silver version available  and from the inside you will notice there are no intergrated circuits amplifying but instead a very high quality circuit with transistors and top quality components instead based on the high end and super expensive RS2 phono stage.

What you do get with this is a extremely high standard of reproduction from your records with no noise and lots of subtle details when the music gets busy coming their clearly.

Comparing my original 1986 Talk Talk's The Colour Of Spring cd and original UK record, the record offers superior low level detail with lots of space between the different instruments and vocals leaping at you from beyond the speakers.

It is simply stunning for the money.

400th post

 Yes that number does just happen to be quite true on this blog as we have indeed reached the 400th post.

The blog apparently started in 2008 which seems a good many years ago being based around photography into which we moved into other areas over the years just a couple of years after being on Friends Reunited when I was looking for a digital replacement for a note pad that in an increasingly internet based world I could post a link to.

Friends Reunited after being messed about came to an end and with it my involvement with any kind of social media as a site that dealt with connections from school and college worked better for me for having spaces to talk about those times.

That was it until I came to Tumblr in April of 2018 where I found people who were into past boyhoods and even as I did as reticent as I was about posting all over the place about it, actually feeling and acting more as that very much schoolboy like figure.

There were a couple of other places like asb.net and the short trousers for schoolboys Misterpoll poll where I talked a fair bit about it before venturing forth with a one of kind forum I set up just for good natured past and present schoolboy chat and reminiences with nothing that is seen as adult content on them.

As issues upon issues abounded on Tumblr, the Misterpoll poll with topics had its own one off problems and people got despersed, we took off, even meeting up.

I found over covid I could just be little boy me and even be accepted for it in the community, others found their ways of doing this which in turn inspired others to give it a go.

From that small acorn in 2008 a grew little tree grew where people could just be their little selves.

Memories

Well this week we're one off the "big one" being typed on Thursday with temperatures around 4.5 degrees c with some wind chill having been out in my short trousers and dufflecoat this morning to the local store.

Just being out like that bring back so much the memories of being out to play or if like this morning going to school which needless to say I actually past mine enroute as the sounds, smells and sights bring it all back.

One thing that also brings back memories are books and while this blog is less an article on a book or series never mind that of any other material item you'd care to mention, this kind of book does bring back memories as not only would of borrowed it but building a music library was a part of my boyhood experiences.

Doing something like that involved doing some research into composers I did enjoy so you'd borrow recording or listen to them on the radio, and then look at books such as that for a good recording at a price I could afford.

Being a boy and not really able do many odd jobs for money given my disabilities meant more reliance of your pocket money, learn to spot the bargains.

To get a copy of such a book isn't just useful from the point of view of rebuilding a bit of the collection where because of only fairly small scale issue of new classical records you may need to look at older used copies but actually reminds you of when you got some of the others.

Some of the skills I learned while doing that stood me in good stead in world of adult work.

A penny for the guy

There's a few things going on here such as sorting bits of the old record collection out but that does rather take me back to the period where just a week or so before we'd be doing other things.

I can't speak for anyone else but in this district we always made a guy up from bits of wood, straw and old clothes and go calling "Penny for the guy?" although in that era we'd be hoping for rather more than literally a penny given the crazy inflation we lived through back then.

You'd get all sorts of reactions from "what are those meddling kids up to?" to those who appreciated the effort we put into it and would gives us money rather than threatening to call the police on us, not that later on we realized we were doing nothing illegal.

You still see some about but between concerns about stranger danger and changing times it's nothing compared to how it was when I were a lad.

Saving the Ticket Office

This week we return to the big train set that runs the length of the Country having been along it last week.

As you might recall there was a call to shut the ticket offices, the places as the name suggests you buy tickets from on railway station concourse from the overwhelming majority of stations mainly to save money.

Part of the arguement was only around twelve percent or a tadge above that of all tickets sold are from ticket offices.

Many of us as children recall lining up with our parents as they'd buy their tickets on the day trips and that we went on at a counter like this one pictured below.

Back then, that was pretty much it and obviously a bit older as I went to college as smaller stations had the staff reduced or eliminated, you encountered the new fangled ticket machine installed.

In the more recent era we've seen they ability to book tickets online which initially was still on paper tickets which I'd have to say is a boon to me personally and the E-Ticket which is sent to your smartphone  and can be read by ticket barriers and conductors both of which have proved quite popular.

There was a short three week consultation which was extended which showed widespread opposoition to the plans.

Part of reason was some people simply cannot use or access ticket machines or smartphone delivered E-tickets because of visual disabilities, issues with dexterity while others pointed out often the cheapest fares just were not on the ticket machines.

The proposals would of made independent travel impossible for some and more costly for others.

The other issue is it isn't unknown for a train to be cancelled or running late which may mean you require assistance in finding an alternative route or reworking any connections which ticket office staff knowing their way around these things can help with.

That's something with my disabilities I do need.

A connected matter is you feel more secure when there are staff about able to intervene if incidents break out as while it doesn't fit that strong independent disabled person idea that is projected we are more at risk from assaults and abuse from others and this applies to other groups too.

It seems going by Wednesday's announcement this won't be going ahead anytime soon although  I expect some changes like merging ticket office duties with passenger assistance and some attention being paid to the positioning and ticketing options available from machines.

Sometimes we do need people rather more than machines.

Desktop memories

 

Hello There.

This isn't coming from a Commodore 64 as much as loved the one I had way back in 1985 with a printer and the tape drive although I late got the floppy drive for it which was way more reliable for loading programs.

Sadly it was way too early to come up with a CD-Rom which would of been the ultimate being easy to press for programs to be loaded up.

I did use it for games and word processing rather than using a Petite typewriter I'd been donated way back when from a female cousin.

My C64 came with some Adrian Mole goodies tying in the the series shown here on Central Televison of Sue Townsend's iconic tale of being a teenage boy in the early 80's (and beyond) which referenced the cultural landscape we grew up in.

Being 1985 there was no question of viewing on Channel 8 from Lichfield as the 405 line VHF service was switched off for good in the first few days of January that year so the indoor ten element aerial and booster was pointed towards Fenton to watch on my portable tv.

For music shows I'd sometimes plug the headphone output into my stereo although I prefered to watch them on the main set downstairs in colour.

65 Years of Blue Peter

Somethings are just constants in your life such as having a daily newspaper, listening to the news bulletin but how many tv shows have you watched for decades which included the period this massive Bush TV125 "dual standard" 405 and 625 line black and white tv was in the lounge?

Well actually it wasn't quite black and white more a bluey white for those of us who remember that era well.

In October 1958 the children's tv magazine show Blue Peter started originally for 15 minutes going up to a half hour not that I was around in 1958 but as soon as was able to take in what was going on, I started watching it with my siblings and it's continued ever since.

Of course over the years things have changed such as presenting styles, adventures and makes are more subject to "health and safety" than they were when I was younger and BBC programming cuts have cut the episodes per week down to one although there is internet content on the CBBC website that tops up the show.

Last Friday the sixty-fifth anniversary was marked - you might recall the entry on here for the sixtieth - so former presenters Matt Baker, Lindsey Russell and Radzi returned as the show took a look at past episodes and presenters although ideally a little more time was needed for that bit.

Abby and Joel, the current presenters, took part in a white water rafting challenge and Radzi had one to do as well.

There was a pancake make Matt, Radzi and Lindsey did that involved tossing them that had a few hair raising moments.

Henry the dog was discretely ushured out the way for the presentation and cutting of the birthday cake with candles on.

His Royal Highness Prince William was interviewed in the Blue Peter garden about his work for the environment and climate change encouraging projects using technology to reduce our impact in practical ways on the planet.

He also co-presented the post wall, a long standing feature of the show where viewers draw, write and make things that are posted the pick of which which are displayed and can gain you a iconic "regular" Blue Peter Badge whose theme this week was the environment.

All in all I felt the edition was enough to make marking this event memorable which it deserved.

Sorting through past effects and that

Another week on the and not just talking about innate objects blog as that's the thing with it not least with with its origins, the way the old photography blog forms a part of this even if chunks of photography today tend to be more on the scouting and related blog.

Part of this week has been devoted to cleaning up a bundle of long lost classical records that were found in Mum's room filed in almost Vogan style behind a chest and covered over to put anyone off the scent from the time there were issues with the roofing and associated leaks.

I'm also starting to think more about how that that intergrates to the reminder dealing with things such as recordings of the same works and also beyond what I mentioned on the other blog on Monday with new recordings but adding the odd period recording.

The other side of things is really more around how you're seen like I went to put out the Garden/Foodwaste bin around the time school ends so you go out and coming back the grand parent of child comes past with a seven year old girl who spots you.

They live just next door!

You are in your primary friendly poloshirt, grey short school short trousers and grey school socks as he nods to you knowing you're Dad's son helping out, are wondering how he'd explain this "big boy" that doesn't look anything like him to the girl and who knows roughly how old dad is to do a rough and ready calculation to what age you might be.

Pretty much everybody here is used to it as much as at weekends and school hols I alter presention to align more with what bio-boys would wear who generally speaking can't wait to be out of uniform unless we're looking more at "sunday best" type situation

That's the reality of this life when you're not in the closet: You own it.
 

Getting our trains back

We've occasionally talked about trains on this blog but as the big money sink that was HS2 had the section from Brum via Crewe to Manchester axed by an announcement by the Prime Minister at the ruling Conservative and Unionist conference on Wednesday a series of other projects have been given their go ahead using some £36bn that otherwise sould of been spent on it.

One bugbear here was how the town of Leek at the footslope of the Peak District had its rail connections removed in the Beeching era of the 1960's meaning what would of been a twenty minute train journey to Stoke was for many over an hour in the car or by bus and in the winter you can add heavy snow to the timing.

 Much of the track bed and indeed sections of track still remain although the station at Leek was demolished in 1970 and a supermarket built upon it and in this photo you can see the track at Endon in the North-east of Greater Stoke on Trent along the approach to Werrington as the land climbs upwards along many ridges.

There is a steering group backed by Stoke on Trent city council and the Staffordshire Moorlands D.C working on the proposals to restore this much needed link.

For me it would mean that within a mile walk I could catch the train from my local station on the East Midands Railway to Stoke and transfer to it saving a long journey by bus or car.

So long Mwaksy

It's that cycle I've been going through for a long time and that younger fans often appear to dread as they form attachments to particular presenters as if their world is about to end and that is Blue Peter presenter 39 announced on Friday September 15th she would be leaving at the end of the month.

Mwaksy Mudenda joined the longstanding show on May 14th 2020 which was a very difficult time not just for children as we were in middle of the Covid Pandemic with schools, recreationial  facilities shut but even restictions on when and how often you could play.

If that wasn't enough the show itself couldn't take place within the studio with a lot of restrictions on any outdoor recorded segments so it was she burst into our living rooms from her own.

Like many she also tested positive and had to stay home.

The main challenge was helping children cope with the disruption, maintaining social connections and showing what you could do to keep positive, trying out new skills and sports even in an era of social distancing,

In that her zest for life, resourcefulness and tendency to break out into song aided by her personal Christian faith helped a great deal.

Makes were something she excelled in such as cooking meals, learning how to be Chocolater and she did take part in a Doctor Who stage show playing a Dalek.

She learned British Sign Language and joined a sign choir signing away to hymns.

A special "looking back" show will be aired tonight on CBBC looking at her three years and One hundred and twenty four days tenure.

While at times she may by older standards appeared to on the edge of getting a bit carried away she provided what the core audience needed at that time and I wish her all the best in her future endeavours.

Smol updates

This Friday we look at a few things as one recovers.

The Adventures of Winnie The Pooh and Christopher Robin always held a fascination for me an recently there has been some news around that.

Winnie-the-Pooh: Tales from the Forest, a brand-new sequel is to be published by HarperCollins’ imprint Farshore on September 28.

Author Jane Riordan was inspired to introduce the little dog Carmen after discovering that Winnie-the-Pooh author A.A. Milne had taken a toy dog mascot called Carmen with him to the trenches in the First World War. 

In a rediscovered article from the Sunday Express in 1966, Daphne Milne, A.A. Milne’s wife, said: "My husband took a toy mascot, a dog called Carmen, to look after him in the First World War. He was saved from the Somme by trench fever.

"He wrote to say that Carmen had found a French germ in the trench and blown it on to him. Four years after that Christopher Robin was born."

WW1 had its challenges and to me this seems like a well thought through way of adding interest and making a connection between all that that conflict bought and the world A. A. Milne brought to life to inspire children.

Another is CITV, which was the children's arm of ITV that morphed into a seperate children's channel on the post digital tv switchover period has ceased to be with the majority of its content being put onto streamed services and a limited so-called Linear channel aka a run of programming in real time on ITV X within its own content.

ITV cite the popularity of streaming which is a more modern replacement for setting up the video cassette record to "tape" shows to watch when it suited us but I feel putting more children's content which prior to all this ITV had been opting out of despite the Public Broadcaster obligations on the main ITV 1 channel instead of the repetative adult series during the day would of been a better idea to try to bring audiences together.

Daytime adult tv is frankly a wasteland of quiz shows, makeovers and endless babbling by people who don't know terribly much.

Thoughts and recollections of Autumn term

At least it has actually cooled down this week although with heavy rain apart from maigraine issues I didn't get out as much as much as I wished unfortunately so there's been a bit more washing as I don't know about you but I don't like damp feeling stuff next to my body.

There's been the usual fuss around school uniform, for instance a 12 year old at Acedemy in this district was put in detention for turning up in tailored school shorts but told "he" could wear a skirt instead if he was hot as that was "uniform".

Yes in otherwords it's okay to wear something associated with the other sexes uniform than something linked to your own sex!

At least on this estate for infants and juniors we're not that stupid and actually I have seen more boys in proper school shorts, admittedly longer than those I current have on reflecting the length I wore when I attended the same school but at least they're wearing them.

Perhaps someone has realized it's cheaper to put plasters on knees than try to patch up longs damaged in a game of footy at recess or missing aim when playing scraping knee against tarmac and anyway isn't it better for them to be active playing anyway?

I've enjoyed the Now Yearbook 1973 - a feature was on Monday's "other" blog - taking me back to that time where we were at the old Victorian building for the last full academic year September 1973 through to July of 1974 when we moved into the Twentieth century with a new building with much more modern facilities like a kitchen!

It was the last Autumn of the curse of the bell tower wasps as running low on sugar they'd come out after us and our snacks usually in the infant playground where I'd help out with playground activities for the younger school members.

We left the wasps behind upon moving thank goodness.

Seeing the way out of the woods

 It hasn't been the best three weeks or so being reallty rather poorly trying to get through it while carrying on with things that need to be done at home and elsewhere such as on the forum, blogs and tumblr which on a number of days were put a bit of a backburner as I was well short of spoons.

I am starting to recover with the infection clear and the nasty deep cough slowly but surely starting to go away which given some of my medical issues has always been a long winded affair. 

Support, love and yes, prayer have all being of great use and comfort in getting through this and all being well by a couple of weeks it'll all be over with for good.

This weekend should see Monday's blog being worked on which will be a bit lengthy as the subject of it is already here and enjoyed.

Being a warm dry week I've been out working on my breathing to further aid recover.

The airplane returns

Tomorrow should see the great off even with a load of stuff to get through current conditions as fresh air probably will do more good for me than what passes for fresh air here.

It's a badly kept secret that bands such as the Byrds, Country Joe & the Fish and Jefferson Airplane were the first anything like serious music interests I had and over the years I have put together full selections mainly on compact disc with the odd legacy vinyl compilations.

The second Airplane album was the one that saw Grace Slick join the band bring with her a couple of songs from previous band the Great Society and that album wasn't just top five but for many remains THE album that sums up the Summer Of Love.

By that point what was the norm in the US until late 1967/8 having stereo and mono versions had moved to just the stereo version kept on catalogue and the stereo version of this album doesn't just have different versions  that for the two singles don't relate to what was hits played on radio but had a lot of reverb added - cave worthy amounts in places.

While a reissue on record had restored this version, splitting it between four 45 rpm sides was tedious to me and recently I did manage to get a sealed copy of the deleted super audio cd too.

This apart from not having that echy feel also sounds smoother.

For me there's nothing that matches hearing the mono Somebody To Love and White Rabbit.

Everything starts somewhere and this is their debut album with the original lead vocalist Signe Andersson with the classic Blues From a Airplane, Come Up The Years and Marty Balin's It's No Secret.

As the rear jacket correctly stated it was indeed a "jet age sound" and this 2005 edition reinstated one song removed in its entirity by RCA Records over concerns during that 1966 drugs clamp down in California that refenced to "trip" would fall foul radio stations and senators and the edits to another in their original mono forms.

In 1967 the Airplane were on a high old time having two iconic top five singles and a top selling album so given an advance and paid studio time time spent three months working on something with absolutely no consideration for commercial success or appeal whatsoever and with Grace Slick pratcising singing Armadillo scat style just cos she liked that.

Ron Cobb's artwork shows a vintage late nineteenth century San Fransisco townhouse flying over the wasteful consumer society while on the left that is the rear of he jacket by the pile of waste it says "Every litter hurts" sourround by U.S. Law enforcement aeroplanes after drugs, a comment on the rality of those times.

The songs are arranged into suites and this does feature The Ballad of You, Me & Pooneil, Wild Tyme and Young Girl Sunday Blues  apart from having a high old time at the recording console A Small Package of Value Will Come to You, Shortly freak out.

It arguably is the least compromised album ever issued by them and as left field as this album is in places it is my personal favourite.

This Sundazed edition presents it in mono where most copies sold were stereo and there are mix and track segue differences apart the top and bottom strips missing from original UK pressings being present here.

I replaced my stereo UK copy for this as it sounds so much fuller.

Inspiration

It's been a very much a read a comic between listening to music week with being rather poorly here as we move very much into the Bank Holiday weekend with this weeks Match of the Day Magazine here together with the Beano which in edition 4,200 shares a common topic.

The Bash Street Kids look at inspiration in the Holiday Club from Leah Williamson, the Lioness's star looking at when you appear to be a bit different from others, for her being a girl who like to play football was it, having self belief and putting in the hard work to make your dream, a reality.

Interestling rather than just leaving at a girls can be whatever they wish to be level, which is quite true the story flips it around to Freddy saying he loves to dance although he looks different than most dancers.

It's quite an important point that everyone has the right to be their true selves and follow what interests them when comes to hobbies and interests boys as well as girls.
 

Radio Pasts into Present

One was reminded this week of the past with a few more things emerging from Mum's room and oddly enough the Womens World Cup in football, a game she was an avid fan and uniquely for the period even played with her brother, now deceased, and the boys he was best friends with.

Back then if you wanted to find out what was on the radio or television you bought a weekly listings magazine you looked up the day and all then then broadcast stations.

Many had very vivid colour front covers and it's fair to say I can recall all of these and more and although today people use on screen guides, internet listings and the like you can still get the Radio Times just with less unique regional editions.

Mum did like the radio, especially local radio and when I was younger I did listen a lot to it at home and in the dorm so again you'd look up the listings for shows at this time of year the details of the evenings Proms concerts on Radio Three of the works performed that night.

Strangly enough I did like shows like Sing Something Simple, Charlie Chesters Soapbox and Richard Baker's 100 Best Tunes apart from much of output of Radio Three for classical and Radio One for current pop music

Apart from having a big mains only stereo with a record player, I did have a variety of portable radios cos the beauty of Radio was you could take it anywhere and be drawn into the programming and in the main they were fairly traditional sets.

Recently I did buy a new one but actually its pedigree is almost as old as me for being based on a nineteen seventies  set by Roberts called the Rambler which was a a relatively short wooden sided portable with a carrying handle designed to give a similar quality as their bigger sets but easier to pack with you.

Very dorm friendly I might add.

The current one keeps much of the looks from the outside but its internal gubbins are very modern which means from the outside a traditional tuning scale that had a pointer that moved showing what you were listing to no longer exists.

Instead with have a display that shows the station name.

When off it shows the time - and the display can be dimmed - and on VHF/FM while tuning the frequency.

It has just VHF/FM where most national and local stations are to be found and VHF band III Digital Audio Broadcasting (aka Dab) where many national stations that aren't on VHF/FM such as BBC Radio Six are.

You can have up to ten presets per waveband.

It has a single speaker but the headphone output is stereo as is the Aux input and Blue Tooth and while there is a version with two speakers I felt the extra 2.3 cms in length wasn't at typical distances going to give much stereo effect given how close each speaker was.

It runs of C cells or mains via a detachable mains unit.

There's just something simple and transporting back into the past of just pressing that on/off button and listening to its full sound.

Replacements for Autumn

 It's rather a warm start to the day, quite a bit better in some respects from when I was away and this week I'm looking more towards Autumn and assessing the stuff I got as clothes obviously do wear over time and so you do need to replace things from time to time.

According to my notes the last pair of trainers I bought was in the Autumn of 2011, as we were coming out of Covid and not long after going away for the first time since lockdown to The Lakes as my older pair had become somewhat worn in that period not being helped by my walking gait being affected by having a week left side, wearing one side rather more than the other especially around the heels.

My current pair are starting to show signs of that wear although they've done a lot better than much of my footwear past and present on that score and so I got a pair of Adidas Juniors Tensaur Sport 2.0 CF K Hook & Loop School Shoes in black as they look hard wearing and fasten with velcro.

Winter for me always brings challenges with gripping in the season of ice and snow before the twist and turns of our pavements that making walking hard going are taken into account fo starting the season with a brand new pair of trainers with excelent grip is a must.

Given the odd pair of these traditional argyle patterned socks have lost one  of a pair in the wash over the years I bought a pack of three as being made from wool, they do keep your legs and feet very warm in winter whatever the length of your short trousers.

That was the week that was

 

Well okay it is Friday today so just what is going on here as the forum members may of noticed I was away for a short while last week and as this was typed I'd only just come back?

The first thing is of course sorting out the washing as being active you certainly get through rather a lot which if it didn't aquire a grass stain or two, might of picked up things from what we were making apart obviously from needing freshing up which as good as stuff like Lynx deodorent  is at keeping damp spots from forming, you still add a bit of a smell after a day to your t shirts and what nots.

Then there is dealing with any post that may of come which with me included two cds one being a recent speciality issue of a Bill Wither's album and one's Commando, Beano and Phoenix comics as I have subscriptions to them.

There should be coming on Thursday some lp record inner sleeves as I had noticed as getting getting through a number to the point restocking made sense and given I could get 24 delivery I got that done late Wednesday as there's no sense in ordering anything big if you aren't going to be home.

Normal service will be resumed on the blogs next week but that's where we're this week.

A day trip

 

We were away on a day trip this week to Llandudno, Wales for the first time in a good while following the disruption of the Pandemic in 2020 where with different parts of the UK under different regimes habits were disrupted.

We were a bit late in arriving thanks to odd route decision and the first habit change was in getting a meal where the usual haunt of Tribells was given a miss as reports suggested the quality had dropped off so we went to a cafe/restaurant on Mostyn Street near the former M&S shop for cod, chips and Mushy peas.

Given how long I had gone without food it really was a must and it did not disappoint  being in thin non greasy batter with plenty of superior pure fish rather than the reconsituted sort served quite warm with a huge pot of tea.

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

I did get to see the promenade  and pier with the gift shop no longer with us but with the boat trip excursions around the coatsline still running, busy as ever.

We took a better route back thank goodness in the light rain of the late afternoon.

Fixed!

Although the weather has been pretty abysmal here with heavy rain, hailstones and very early more like spring cool temperatures of late limiting opportunities to be out I am making progress on one aim over the last year or so.

A running issue in this house has been how when the gas central heating was put in that has created issues when it comes to where furniture can be put in in some rooms even the piping has created issues because they run warm even with the floorboards over them.

This over a period created some issues with my record collection with a small number developing quite noticible warps where the storage units crossed over piping set below not always helped by the storage area failing to keep discs upright at 90 degress.

Having sorted storage out more that left these discs and so I've been replacing the most affected, more difficult to play for the warp catching the underside of the cartridge or causing the arm to move up and down a lot.

We've almost completed that task this week where the replacement copy - by no means cheap at all of The SMiLE Sessions - which for good measure an individual also left a tear in the rear sleeve having had an accident I wasn't told of arrived on Wednesday and was stored well clear of any hazards.

I can now relax a bit having dealt with that damage.