Annuals

Long,warm week here a one item is delayed as it went "up north" with little real reason and so has make its way towards me with some rerouting which is annoying but what can you do?

Been working on tidying a few things up here betwen the heat  and one thing there's a fair few of is books, specifically annuals of various kinds.

We usually kept our eye peeled and ears opened for any advance information that years annuals and back when I was a younger child such an adverisement and an order form were fairly common in publications your parents, relatives and that saw plus often the catalogue companies carried a number so together with a new school jumper you might of recievd a copy of the Tiger annual for the upcoming year.

There are a number of cubs annuals here, some officially endorsed others not and today they remain popular with people so go to any "antique" or auction house and you'll see them and f course on Ebay you'll find a load listed too.

Part of the reason is they do take people back to that time in their lives (some of us haven't left it!), others may be replacing copies lost or taken away as they got older and it was felt they didn't need them anymore.

Condition plays a part, spines on book can and do get damaged by tiny, excited hands, bindings get a bit worn and dust jackets at least a little feathered at the corners but I'm relaxed over much of this cos while I did take reasonable care of books, for me the fact it was owned and loved matters a lot.

So long as its not falling apart and is at least a "good reading copy" I'm fine.

Annuals despite all the digital world are still around although scouting and girl guides ones have stopped this century.

Weekends, steam and risks

 Friday, for most of us the last day of the school week and the start of the weekend, so you'd make your way back posing by the door before setting off.

Then weekends could mean doing other things that were messy, smelly and rather fun like using Oxford commas (lol) thanks to the wonders of Meths!

Turn of the decades me had a little steam engine that run on Meths as for that matter did my History teacher, P.O.C. who even showed one one day when we had a few spare moments and didn't mind going a bit off subject although he did put the link between steam and the industrial revolution in it must be said.

I enjoyed the smell of the thing although when I used it, I certainly wasn't in "sunday best", seeing puffing away and back then nobody raised an eyebrow at being handling meths and lighting it at the age of 15.

Given some my mates were smokers at that age perhaps we had experience of handling stuff current generations perhaps might lack.

It's like Bunsen burners back then we knew how to handle them and lighting up but not a few schols don't do that sort of hands on sort of science terrified about health and safety today but really the best way to be safe is to learn first hand how to handle things.

Performing a real "risk assessment" and handling ready for the real world.

Of bears and things

 Not feeling that great today I'm afraid so I'm upstairs and resting which kind of takes me on to something that is very much a part of this life.

Perhaps for some the last memory you might of had of handling a teddy bear might of been toward the last days of your schooling when it may of been your teams mascot.

I can recall being seen with a teddy much above thirteen was seen as a a wee bit embarrassing if you were a boy especially if you were sharing spaces such as a dorm or a tent camping.

I was never really like that at home although they could only be the odd one on a shelf at home and not seen to be had been played with although I'd hid the odd small one in my room to put by the pillow at night.

You really wanted him always with you like taking him out but unlike girls who get away with cute stuffy backpacks we never could once we started to be seen as  "big boys" not least cos teddy is the one thing you could tell your secrets to and just listen.

Although he's a bit dear at some £116.99 wouldn't you want a schoolboy  teddy with his very own satchel and gift of a cone of sweets for your class?

Reflections on Fridays in the past

Friday's eh?

Crackerjack from the past, today the one slot for Blue Peter we all had our "must see" television programs on that day which was the gateway to The Weekend where school lessons stopped for two whole days, weekly boarders went home and the rest of us may of gone on a excursion.

That was always the thing about weekends beyond World Of Sport and the Final Results on Grandstand with the teleprinter final results soming through at the bottom of the screen plus Match Of The Day if we got permission to be up late on Saturday.

Having come home by bus or train uniform was off which was as well as although it was smart you may well of stood out in your immediate district garnering some attention.

Girls seemed to come from another planet and not always that very demure having been chased from one end of the high street to the other in my teens by a gaggle thereof.

No sooner that you'd got used to that and been in Church where all the grown ups would be asking you how you were and how it was going  you'd be preparing  for the cycle to continue.

Rock 'N' Roll Music

Not generally something we'd post on here but it does have a few things beyond just a object post.

The first thing was as a twelve year old I saw retail starting to change from lots of little stores to bigger stores and just a couple of miles away a Hypermarket, a massive sell everything store popularized in France.

While there I saw a new rather shiny double lp during a period where following the charts and following more the Bay City Rollers and Abba I saw the number of reissued Beatles singles and heard them on the radio as they'd charted.

That was one of the first albums I had as in the main I bought singles and albums tended to be things people brought me.

It was an unusual album in that it wasn't just a compilation of hits, something I was to get the next year, but of more rocking tracks from their albums.

The cover remains controversial for having a rather tacky 50's American Diner theme which was quite removed from what the group were about and what actually existed in the UK at the time.

An offer by John Lennon to submit better artwork was rejected and the three other former beatles objected to it too.

What was good about is it was the first time in this country the four tracks of the Long Tall Sally EP were available in stereo together with I'm Down from the b side of the Help single and Bad Boy previously issued on a 1966 compilation but originally on the Capitol album Beatles VI in a single package.

Amazingly that record still exists in the collection some fourty eight years on although I was able to replaced the jacket that had got a little worn over the years recently from much handling and feline curiosity.

I had a great time sat just like that twelve year old with his comic listening to it this week.

Comic Elections and stuff

 

Well if you walked past your form master they may of muttered something about General Election in the last day or so of which we won't say much here and less on the forum but you might of recalled elections from your school days.

Until recent years here, for instance the estate infant/junior school was used as a polling station for the taking of votes.

Your school may taught something about the history of voting in the UK (or wherever you live), they way it is done and why exercising your vote matters.

In doing so they may of held various elections, perhaps a students council or for form representatives to certain activities or even a mock general election when people would stand as political candidates, producing a manifesto, making a rosette, writing and delivering a speech.

My school did that and I stood and won!

It missed the sudden announcement Wednesday but just maybe the Election might be referenced in an upcoming edition?

Parties and intriguing thoughts

It's been an odd week with a few familar faces on the forum emerge and for that matter a few issues popping up but as we make our way towards the old Whit Holiday and the end of Summer Term my thoughts are going backwards to the time I had a 126 "Instamatic" camera that tended to come out for parties and the hols.

Things were sort of straightforward for things like "Me on the Beach " or The Pier at Blackpool as there was enough sunlight usually but indoors?

Unlike later 35mm compact cameras you had this silly flash cub that you had to move around every.single. time. you wanted to take a picture indoors and after the fourth, then you had to change it!

The faff from doing that at parties in the early 70's remains lodged in me but there are other things that come into mind.

My family are very much products of the West Midlands not least the Marches just by the border with Wales, Wrexham and the North Wales coast are more familiar to me than the cities of Manchester, Liverpool and York in the North.

Like a good few others go back to the Middle Ages and the family line takes you to Normandy, France not that I'd start claiming to be French, with a strong Staffordshire accent and a tendency to to think in our own dialect first and then translate to Standard English it would hardly be convincing.

No, what I can remember thinking about around 1972-74 was more what if I could wear a Kilt as back then if you raided anything from the girls dress up box you'd get teased a lot so you often thought "what does it feel like" if you had *anything* like a skirt on not that you'd ever ask a girl that. Too rude!

Not being Scottish there wasn't just one you could borrow from a relative or the prospect of there being a wedding that might give you an excuse to dress up in a kilt.

Think I just might give that a go as much as I like my grey period length school shorts and turn over top socks as I think a kilt belongs just as much on me.

Rudi and the Crime of the Century

 Something a little different this week that goes back to what inspires this blog childhood anf also ties in little to mention else where to 1974 and Now Yearbook' 74 cos that was when this record came out.

I originally had this on a UK A&M 8 Track tape which did sound very good in the way back then cassettes didn't always and records were no use in our car.

Supertramp's second album, examines many things but one area that comes up is school where Rudi, the central character becomes increasingly isolated in class, the playground which has real playground "play" recorded and used to transport you to his world as he moves into the grown up world which he feels ill unable to understand.

It was one the first things I experienced that matched my feelings not everything was okay in our school world - Roger Walters lyrics in "The Wall" was another some five years later and I saw them perform much of this album in a BBC "Sight & Sound in Concert special.

This Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs record version came out 1979, pressed very late 1978 actually, as one of those "audiophile" issues where a regular album is cut and pressed without some of limitations that make playing on chepaer systems okay but can rob the music of the dynamics and extended bass and treble by the late Stan Ricker.

On this the music cames to life magically and moves you even more.

Thoughts around just being me

So it is another Month already as fed up as I am with all this rain and wind we've had for most of this year we are heading into the summer and on Wednesday temperatures were up to about 18 degrees c so I was able to leave off wearing a coat completely and just have a fairly plain baseball cap on as walking past school with traditional school cap would really stick out.

In the time I've just come out being ALB/ASB publically one thing I've always taken a bit of thought over are what are the limits to acceptance or at least toleration when it comes to being "on the street", walking by and into shops, passing parks and the like as for one thing most certainly from their teens upwards if anything want to be seen as a bit older than they might be or at least as their age group and while we'd all agree we're just NOT, some people have this notion anyone who looks like a child, is looking to harm one.

And in their world 2+2=5.

Recently I overheard a bit of a conversation two boys were having talking about how they felt if they'd of been the subject of it, they'd be embarressed to dress the way that person did.

Most of us can recall from our teens the various groups and sub cults our friends were into and how they went beyond things like music, literature and film tastes to dressing in a particular style from often darkly dressed goths, the punks that terrified my parents when they saw a few of my school mates outside school and New Romantics with long hair over one eye, colourful outfits and make up (and that was just the boys!).

All stood out from the conventions of t shirts, jeans or chinos and trainers most were encouraged to wear beyond school or work, often the butt of ill thought out comments and preconcieved attitudes and assumptions.

Did looking out of sync with that really phaze (pardon the odd americanism) them as they ventured forth on the street just being themselves eyond just keeping themselves safe?

Hardly.

The adjective embarrassed means "A person who is embarrassed feels shy, ashamed, or guilty about something" and most of us can think of things that we may of felt embarrassed about such as going to a store with friends and not having enough money on to pay for something or taking part in school play rehearsal only to have your trousers fall down as where they'd been taken up to fit clearly wasn't enough and you're in the spotlight with just a pair of dark tights on between you, your mates and the spotlight.

You definately wanted the ground to swallow you up after that!

Do I feel ashamed, guilty or shy about being a little adult boy?

No, because fundermentally I cannot help being very much in the mindset of someone who from a mainstream point of view hasn't grown up, who does have little in common with the interests and obessions of "grown ups" even if I know of them.

It's hardly voluntary or an act.

Does dressing more inline with that of actual boys nearly all the time leave me feeling ashamed as I walk into the corner store with my short trousers and usually turn over top socks on, catching a bus into town and the like?

The short answer is no, because I look like I am and I feel even though like actual boys I have options so when it's a weekend I may wear boys sports or casual wear as they would unless it was a more formal occassion.

I do "read the room" when it comes to passing places where children (and parents such as at dropping off times) might be enmass, not wear school uniform in the park when children would be there (and they'd not be either) because all children do attempt to do the same too as much as you are being you to both ensure no one feels akward and alarm bells are not triggered.

It's nothing to do with my own feeling ashamed at all as that still a little boy in the room, out on the streets.

I don't feel guilty for being me, it's not kink based scene or a kind of a punishment I have to endure in public nor am I causing harm.

I am being just me.

Of gardens and animals

 

The last week of this month,what?

Well contrary to what your bones may of been telling you it is actually spring as yet again it's started to rain as I type this Thursday morning after a more spring-like day before with the sun very much on your legs.

There always appeared to me a difference between the gardens we had in the three houses I allegedly grew up in and that of other boys you knew and even that of your extended family in that was there less formal planted areas with specific plants and flowers that were seasonal.

The garden shown is more like like that of my much missed grandads, an unsual for the area long rear garden in the middle of a terrace that as raised from the rear of the property it was he'd made dedicated corners that we played in.

As much as we got to anything like that were roses on side panel, planters dotted about and the pyracantha I inisisted upon having that the birds love.

The one thing I didn't do a lot of was play with dogs chiefly down to us only having a dog for an extremely short period and that relatives didn't visit with dogs much and never in the garden.

The dog playing and walking bit was exercising our science teachers dog at boarding school in all weathers from the grounds and having a pass out to a nearby field along a narrow path I was trusted with.

Although our cats did go outdoors, they were always on leads during the spring and summer as they were not semi-feral.

Pawsing for rest

It's Friday so we're back.

It's been a bit of an odd week here recovering as sadly one does from pretty severe miagraines from the weekend that at one stage I thought I'd end up missing my life long favourite program as the light from the tv screen badly affects me when I'm like that.

There was even a conincidence of sorts where  Abby, one of the three BP Presenters and wheelchair user started having issues with her left wrist which you do use turning your wheels as she was preparing for the challenge of "running" the London Marathon in a sports wheelchair adn it urned out after a MRI Scan she'd damaged it and so needed to recover.

That sadly means she can't do that challenge.

Well my left wrist was playing up with very swollen tendons that left me in excusating agony when doing things like washing up, locking up for good measure so I needed to rest hence having to take things steady online as well as in the real world.

That's how these things just pan out I'm afraid.

Great conductors: William Steinberg

After last weekends adventure, we take a look at a new box set of cds.

This week a special four compact disc set was issued.

William Steinberg was one of America's finest conductors, making recordings for Capitol-Emi,Command and RCA Victor but whose career co-incided with a drop in record label interest in recording American orchestras so were overlooked at the time.

Including 'vital and inspiring performances', this set features William Steinberg conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which includes some of his 'best entries in his discography, and the finest recordings of the works'. 

Mendelssohn's own orchestration of the 'Scherzo' from his 'Octet' and Stravinsky's 'Scherzo fantastique' and 'Scherzo à la russe', coupled on CD 3 with formidable virtuoso renderings of orchestral showpieces by Dukas, Richard Strauss and Saint-Saëns, were originally prepared for release on LP LSC-3155 but remained unpublished - until now. 

All recordings in the set have been newly transferred and remastered.

After these were recorded, the orchestra signed a contract to record for DG, one of Europes leading classical labels and made a serie sof well respected performances that I do own on compact disc.

Drama

 I won't be around that much this weekend which is why things are just a little rushed as things involve a very early by my standards start and we have eaten all the eggs here, a slow process given the need to be mindful of miagraines and an intake of higher than normal sugar levels.

Looking over one site which I won't name, the attempt to assist a girl to rejoin a site was frustrating for their inability to comprehend that when a site makes itself practically invisable to all be registered, logged in members then you can't google to see how it looks and that an instruction to email the site at ----@-----.com and include some detail about you and preferred username means you cannot register via anything on site.

Is that the best way to balence keeping people clear of trolls and unwarrented attention on the one hand and get new members?

Probably not as some sites manage a overview of the forum that does't allow you to see posts on sub forums so things are kept confidential and equally while the site colour scheme isn't disablity friendly for having small text and white backrounds, there's nothing I can do about that.

Just somebody decided to make the layout appear uber pretty rather than accessible to all in the way one music site at least allows me to change text backrground colour and size to make it easy for me to read.

They were just getting snarkier and snarkier so when they said it had been settled for them, I just left them pretty much with it.

I like to be friendly, I'm that kind of a boy but I really don't need that grief any more than those who don't see past reminsciences as being a part of the regressive experience even if you don't just want to see only that on a site.

Good Friday edition

 Gawd almighty, does it ever stop raining here?

Yes, the rain rather woke me up this morning so I'll need to get a nap in later on I guess but we are entering Easter which for me at least does bring back memories of things like making easter bonnets and cards.

For reasons best known to them in charge we didn't do Easter Egg hunts when armed with a set of clues you run around like a maniac trying to hind said eggs hiding, in, under or over things and you get to keep them!

There is a box of chocolates from my Aunt here I can chomp through and a couple of eggs although being me I do have to be mindful that dark chocolate is a maigraine trigger having had sadly some bad childhood memories of eating them and being out of commission for a few days.

Happy Easter

R.I.P. Steve Harley

Last weekend it was announced one Steve Harley, a musician whose wongs I grew up with died aged 73.

Steve had been activity musically be it recording or performing live from the start and ineed up to November last year had been touring when it was announced he was putting that on hold while he was being treated for cancer.

While some starts have brief period of fame followed by a greater period outside of the business or moving elsewhere in the entertainment industry, that wasn't him.

I was buying new recordings by him in the 80's as much as the likes of Radio One treated him as a has been.

Stephen Malcolm Ronald Nice, known by his stage name Steve Harley, was an English singer-songwriter and frontman of the glam rock group Cockney Rebel. He had six UK hit singles with the band in the mid-1970s, including "Judy Teen", "Mr. Soft", and the number one "Make Me Smile".

That album, originally issued in 1980 and compiled under the great Colin Milesremains the perfect compilation covering all three periods of Cockney Rebel the band that backed him and to which famously he was something of a perfectionist of when it came to their backing.

It covered everything from the earliest singles like the other worldy Sebastian from 1973 to his last single of 1979 taking in the big sellers like Mr. Soft, Judy Teen here in its singles version, and his inspired remake of Here Comes The Sun from 1976 which was an early EMI 12" single.

That was reissued in EMI Records Fame mid price series in 1982 but keeping the original vinyl cutting by Harry T Moss at Abbey Road, one of the finest in the business of cutting records and that is my copy.

I played this on Wednesday thinking about that music, part of the great soundtrack of the mid 70's childhood we had.

Junior music lessons

For some us, a abiding memory of  primary education was music and especially that of boys (and girls) practising their discant recorder scales whenever they had the opportunity before attempting to give a performance either at assembly or for some school event parents were expected to attend.

There is nothing like the sound a group of children attempting play in unison, not even the UK's secret weapon, the Bagpipe, comes close to installing a response either appreciative or "not that "beeping" thing.

Of course the key to playing is knowing where and how to form all the notes so you aren't having to hunt for them and judging just what is sufficent blowing without overdriving it so you have that pleasant airey sound.

They just left me to the triangle and Xylophone for some strange reason that rather escapes me now although I most certainly could keep good time, coming in at the right moment.

 

The things that happen...

Well it is two days on from the main event which'll be on the other blog on Monday but it's also two and bit days on from something else that is affecting me presently.

For as many years I can remember I have had, some might say suffered from, severe miagraines which are sadly nothing like headaches, much more intense and don't just go away with with a tablet.

They have a tendency to cut into everything you might of being planning to do often with little warning from things you might of wanted an excuse  from like games class to things you were really looking forward to such as a trip out, a play date or a party.

They also have before now cut into birthdays too which is really rotten taken the shine of it even if you have managed to be up  having had a number I've been in bed instead and that sadly is what happened this time around just like a bolt out of the blue.

I made being up and just about managing a birthday meal but really way way out of things with perhap the best consolation being I was properly dressed in smart schoolboy uniform and that point of view being a bit more me that things were at times in the past where internal feelings and external presentations didn't align.

Plus this year there was space for the cards in the front window and presents including chocolate were out more.

All being well I'll catch up on my comic reading by later on today and mark Mothering Sunday in some way as obviously she's no longer physically there.

Bearable times move forward

Week started off with the much needed repairing of our pavements which of necessity did place restrictions on going with tape in front of all the houses which now have less twists and turns and much improved grip having tested them making my way out towards the playground.

Much has started to come out such as cherry blossoms, daffidils while towards the woods you can see many birds such as magpies about and if you really lucky the squirrels out exploring. 

Preporations, not least the odd thing for next Wednesday are starting to come together given that with everything that happened last year there was scant interest in marking ones birthday with the house feestooned still with funeral cards and arrangements being made so in a number of ways it was unbirthday with nothing special happening.

While that loss is still keenly felt, all being well something should happen this year and one hopes for another in the 70's Now Yearbooks to announced for end March, early April as that series progresses capturing whole years well.

A few thoughts from last week

Yes it's yet another wet week as I can hear the rain pounding on my bedroom window here as I recover from this cold I got last week.

Now it was dry then so I was able to go out for a fair walk and enjoy being out in the secluded grounds as the bulbs were starting to poke their way through the soil and even saw a squirrel one afternoon going from tree to tree.

Their were shades of the school project in arts and crafts, drawing, colouring and cutting things out to make a Viking Long Boat and some baking too.

There was however one thing that really caught my eye in the rather long games room in the wings of the building that lit up my eyes.

One of my constant sources of entertaiment in the long winter evenings at boarding school stood in the common room  and that was our Subbuteo set that allowed you to play football on a table top between your favourite teams.

As it happened that was just what was set up where I stayed so all those thoughts from just after getting your homework done and spending an hour or so with your mates came back so I just played and played it.

It were magical as you pulled your plays back and turned them to animate the ball as traversed the ground, doing a spot of defending or, better still, scoring a goal and then adjusting the scoreboard at the sides.

Boyhood's good enough to stay in, I say.

Billy Joel issues a New Record!

I've only just arrived late yesterday so there won't be a big post, expect on on the other blog, Monday but coming soon is this single only some seventeen years in the making from the last time Billy issued anything and having heard this on Boom Radio I ordered this.

This is a very limited edition vinyl single - I prefer them to single downloads - issued on February 2nd.

There's a signed insert and a number allocated to your own copy where it'll stay in my collection of records.

The off edition

 I'm getting ready to go away for a few days so apart from the usual thing around packing ones bags, check lists, take outs as you find there's no room for some cherished thing and sorting one's transport out there's the stuff you don't see.

That includes taking care of the blogs while I'm away by setting up posts to auto publish although they might be a odd gap around Wednesday before picking up from where I left things.

It'll be a very little affair although there's a few things I'm doing which require a bit of responsibility on my part like a quiz and the odd chore that makes all of this possible.

It's been ages since I had a table light like this and to be honest I'd just love one.

Before I forget it was announced earlier in the week we lost the actor Ian Lavender who was born in south Birmingham aged 77.

He stared in many shows and tv series most notably in the WW2 "home guard" situation comedy Dad's Army as Private Pike, the young and at times immature member of the platoon we all loved watching as boys.

Toodle pips.

Inspiration along the way

Just working on this while spinning a record 

Well it is a fresh month which brings with it fresh challenges and experiences such as being away late  next week where there will tea parties, games and catching up with things from late last year if we're not defeated by the weather.

It may well be more like that if some of the forecasters are right but so long as trains run you can always find ways of having fun even in snow.

The week end leads into the first anniversary of Mum's death last year and all the changes that have come with it and I'm bound to add challenges too but Winnie is onto something with some great advice as we can't bend the day ahead or change how the day before was  but we can find what is good in the space between.

The start point of the current stereo

Rolling back the years as I've been playing a couple of records that took me back to when the forerunner of the present stereo system came in ending the classic tubed equipment made its way to the original shed in 1989.

Reasons included limited use with inputs that didn't work well with modern sources requiring many boxes and input expanders to get somewhere plus at least one needed some serous work in its control unit with component failures and the like.

This, the Rotel RA313 circa 1978 was found at a Ham Radio rally on a bring and buy stereo in good condition with the original manual that I thought would do the trick.

Apart from having inputs for my record deck with its Stanton 500EE moving magnet cartridge and tuner, there was The Great Aux which I could easily use with my first cd player a small Toshiba.

I also was running a cassette deck and Tandberg series 6 open reel deck and this had built in switching for both including copying both ways without having to unplug things.

One of first jobs was playing my cds of Now 15 and 15 blasting out Queen's I Want It All and Neneh Cherry's Kisses On The Wind and playing I Want That Man by Deborah Harry from vinyl single and frequent playing of Belinda Carlisle's Runaway Horses album.

It sounded great and was a whole lot more fun to just listen to things aided when I eventually got the matching Tuner for Radios 1,2 and 3 in stereo as by that point Radio One had gone to full time stereo rather than fading low fi medium wave only the summer before.

And the records played were the lp versions of those cds that rounded off my Now lp collection ready for the release of Now Yearbook 1990 next month on vinyl that had so many of my favourites of that year.

While the present system has better sounding sources I remain intrigued just how it might of handled them although like my current amplifier the record input was a bit noisy and had I of kept it I might of bypassed it with an external unit.

Shini is the Blue Peter 43rd presenter!

 

It has been announced who the 43rd Blue Peter presenter will be.

Shini Muthukrishnan, pictured left, aged 22 from Stafford, will go live for her first show on CBBC at 17:00 GMT on Friday.

She will co-host the world’s longest-running children’s TV programme alongside Abby Cook, Joel Mawhinney and BP pet, Henry the dog.

Blue Peter will be the first TV presenting role for Ms Muthukrishnan whose lockdown videos on TikTok celebrated her British, Indian and Malaysian heritage.

Ms Muthukrishnan, who played badminton for Staffordshire county, recently graduated from King's College London where she studied philosophy, politics and economics.

She said: “Being part of the Blue Peter team is such a surreal and exciting feeling.

“I have really fond memories of Blue Peter. As a kid, I looked up to Helen Skelton, she seemed fearless on screen. She took on incredible challenges with such a headstrong attitude that made me think 'I can be fearless too'.”

Her first challenge will involve taking part in aircraft aerobatics while also on the live show, she will also be attempting to bathe Henry the dog and cook up a tasty treat.

Blue Peter editor Ellen Evans asked about her qualities said "Shini is an exciting new talent, who impressed us with her adventurous spirit, sense of humour, determination and aspiration to have a positive impact on kids’ lives.”

As a Staffordshire resident and West Midlander, I'm delighted.

A week of activity

 Things that I have been working on this week include arrangements for going away next month from a bit of thought about what to wear as there was some talk about making a boat and taking it on water which might prove interesting as I'm not that able at staying upright and getting inside without at least some assistance as my left side is a somewhat weak and probably would be better of using walking aids and a wheelchair sometimes.

It's just when you're unable to drive you can't easily use trains carrying all that plus your case with you and getting on and off unaided.

An other element is preparing a quiz cos you cannot go to an event unless you're paying someone to put things without people being prepared to organize them themselves and that takes you into bringing what you need to undertake it.

For me that meant compiling the questions, checking the answers and printing a quiz sheet so people can just work through and place their answers on the sheet for marking and selecting suitable prizes.

New Year radio updates

We begin our first twenty twenty-four entry looking at updated things and one comes out of the airwaves, literally

Much trumpeted from the last half of twenty twenty-three was the announcement the classical pops station, Classic FM established in nineteen ninety-two would be changing the system it uses on Band III Dab radio from the original Dab system to Dab+ which is used by much of continenental europe.

In simple terms it offers high quality sound by using a more efficient coding system which means it can sound clearer and yet use less space than the old method and that was changed from 128 kilobits in Joint Stereo Dab to 64 kilo bites descrete stereo Dab+ on January second.

It does sound clearer but in the awful weather we've been having in the West Midlands over the last few days it showed another advantage which is the old standard would break up with loud "chirping" sound with the slightest signal drop, Dab+ is more resilant just fading before coming back and able to "run on" for longer when faced with intermittant rain fade.

Other stations owned by the same group had upgrades to their sound quality as capacity on the Block that transmits a group together, which is an issue on Dab nationally, had been freed up.

Most modern radios can handle Dab+ such as my Roberts Portable downstairs with its telescopic antenna so it's a win win all around and it's just a pity the BBC don't move over to it too.

We've gained a few more local stations such as one for the Churnet Valley and Moorlands FM covering the Leek area