The Christmas Pause

 Well, the M21 has had some more classical music loaded to it, a tape that just wouldn't repair got slung and most of Christmas has been taken care of even with unexpected interruptions along the way.

I don't know about you but I get super excited Christmas morning almost as much as I did when officially I was much younger thinking about what I might have, what we'll play with first and all of that even though some things are of course no more.

Thus it is time to pause this blog in the last few days of Christmas as people visit and last minute touches are made as things get busy and why not with such a scene as this.

Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas and all the best for 2026

It's coming...

 

Well, I'm not in the best of shape with a very bad back brought on by standing for too long for a much delayed bus so am on painkillers and bed rest while I recover but we are getting closer to that day having written a few cards and organized presents bar one which I'll do shortly.

Tree and Nativity seen is out.

This time of year tends to see carol singing and and many Mr Claus's about in the bigger stores - how come he manages all that I have no idea - and in many areas a float comes around your estate which might be by your local Round Table raising funds for charity or your Scout or Girl Guiding unit.

This should be happening on Sunday here.

Moving to end of Term

It's not quite Christmas according to a song playing on the radio which to be honest it can't be from the last regular one of 2022, things are a bit a bit low key indeed I've only just get started writing a few cards.

An added thing this year has been the computer change with lots of restoring and getting programs back on that unlike in the past aren't on discs to just load in with product codes but need downloading.

This time of year usually takes me back to school activities like the many plays and pantos I took a part in be it a a non speaking part or speaking and having to learn the words to songs to sing on stage to an audience of vistors, staff, younger children and obviously parents including your own.

You sorted out ways of memorizing your lines and stage directions, learned to hold you head high as you forgot them had ahem "wardrobe malfunctions" during practise sessions and finally did it well.

We had the Crimbo Party  and Dinner where we tried to be a be a bit more grown up even through we were still on fruit juice with our sandwiches and Xmas Puddings that still contained a six pence before health and safety stepped in saying we might swallow them.

Finally we had the Xmas Assembly with its readings and carols  followed by announcements of which the last was to be good and help at home.

Next week should be the last "proper" entry before Christmas Day where I take a bit of a pause.

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.

Just William at Christmas

 The week has been something of a rollercoaster emotionally after a difficult month that did eventually see me complete reading a short collection of stories I had started around Christmas when I quite poorly.

Christmas is a funny time of year with expectations sky high, especially if you're a child served at times with crushed dreams and funny things just happening and in the World of Richmal Crompton's most perfect homage to ten, eleven year old boys and their lives, William brings forth much hilarious misunderstandings, idealism runs riot with the sense of belong that comes from being a part of, even the head of a Gang, The Outlaws.

This unlike some of my favourite boys stories isn't a vintage original - no first editions here I'm afraid - but a really nice 1995 bound edition with a dust jacket that pulls these Christmas stories into one enjoyable read,

The illustrations often showing the social world of the well to do world of nineteen twenties and thirties families and their less well off neighbours in their striking differences, bring the stories to life.

Re-reading these stories, laughing out loud at William's escapades really helped.

Pooh bear got that right!

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.

Christmas Day Edition

This year Christmas is a little near normal even if it was a close run thing just a fortnight ago so so long as we take care we're having one this time that does including seeing a few people.

I'm a adult little boy so Christmas is always Smol, very much like it was as a child  cos in the end I'm still more like that.

The Beano has been a staple of my life from original boyhood, still reading it today but I prefer to read older annuals such as this which no doubt I had and promptly got tossed away a few years later, while having the current Christmas 68 page special for the comic as it is today.

The Dandy is no longer published as a weekly comic as much as I'd love to see a monthly or bi monthly edition published so we make do with a Summer Special and this, 2022's annual with many of the characters from the past in new adventures.

From the sixtieth anniversary of the Beano and Dandy, D C Thomson have produced a number of specials and themed annual compilations from the vaults showcasing cartoonists and characters and this is their latest looking at art and craft based classic cartoon strips from the past.

That Korky strip which I think was in a annual originally is a lovely touch.

Rupert is an institution and this is a mixture of reprints from past annuals and new stories for twenty twenty two.

Four Swedes and no broccoli reunited this year for a last album  very much in the style of their 80's albums with no concessions to current trends and this was the lp version I had for Christmas for my collection. I quite like it.

Interestingly there was a pre-recorded cassette version issued too!

Main present this year was a Hornby OO gauge British Rail Class 3F "Jinty" 0-6-0 Tank locomotive to go on the layout which was used by in great boxed condition

That mirrors one of the first Christmas presents I had which was a plastic trainset with locomotive coaches 

I had some money to spend when I next get away and some replacement polo shirts.

The Pause before Xmas edition

It was a more agreeable week in so far as weather went from the previous weeks gales and very cold conditions so as I've been recovering from a poorly spell at least I had been able to out, obviously taking precautions to take in how Christmas here is.

There were some interesting sculpture's about in peoples gardens, a bit less plastic, perhaps being a reflection of the better position variant aside we are in compared to last year.

Santa needs a helper and here he is although it is unfortunate the Gas Meter is a bit intrusive on this property.

The Christmas edition of the Beano dated 17 December with supplement and poster is here as is the Christmas Phoenix plus obviously Decembers Match of the Day, Animal Planet and Adventuremax+ to read between visits and going on errands like we do.

Things aren't much different from when that Scorcher! and Score! was published although that was one I only saw at school in the comic box for wet dinner times that we'd share out between us.

Yesterday was the Blue Peter Crimbo special, which is something I always looked forward to ever since the nineteen seventies.

This blog will be taking a pause until just after Christmas when there will be a Christmas special probably shared with the other blog.

The last order of business here is to wish you all a Happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year.

Regards, Chris.

Christmas Day Edition

It's nearly another year in the history of this blog and as today is Christmas day like last year we are having synchronized entries on the blogs ready cooked like our turkey is ready for lunch with my parents and my presents are with them.

The one thing is they are all connected very much to my little side, the side that remains very much a boy and to be truthful Christmas for me is a boys affair - mine.

I'm in my V neck jersey with matching banded turn over long socks from Mr Prendergast's store white shirt, tie and grey shorts just like that boy from my past.

For all of the things that have been happening this week my focus is very much upon having christmas as that boy knowing of but not being driven by events, just playing which I saw many children doing earlier in the week.

They have been opened across the morning and I've just got around to posting a bit about them as with the present pandemic we're not expecting any visitors for drinks and snacks.

This year I had the vintage Legoland set 653 which makes an ambulance helicopter to go with new and old lego sets I've had for the last two Christmas's.

As well, I had the vintage Legoland 691 rescue helicopter kit both of which were issued in 1974 and were things I would of had then and indeed I did have lego then bought me.

These two helicopters expand the playability of my lego by adding kits that I can play with from my own era.

Back in 1974 I did have an Action Man, actually I had a handful of action men with many accessories such as uniforms, vehicles, weaponry and equipment that I loved to play with and I have talked about on the blog a few times.

They were sadly casualties of casting away to relatives children when my parents felt at fifteen I no longer wanted them which wasn't true cos I was still playing with them.

Recently a limited edition range of new "classic" Action Man figures were issued and this year for christmas I actually have a new one to treasure.

As many of you know, this boy is passionate about footie and so in something that was affected very much by Covid, I had the Match annual looking at this last year in the game in the UK across Europe and the classic football annual now published by Nationwide full of facts and figures for the current season.

Rupert the Bear is celebrating his 100th birthday this year so I had this most useful calendar

plus...

The 100th anniversary Rupert annual with classic stories from Nutwood to read across the year.

 

The Dandy is no longer published today weekly as it was when I was first young but D C Thomson do publish a Summer Special and a Annual with some newly drawn stories from the cartoon strips I loved as a boy.

This years annual which I had is shown with Desperate Dan carrying the weight of the Dandy.

Annuals were always a big thing with me and apart from the Dandy's I also had the Beano's but the modern Beano is of necessity different to suit today's children and that world so I didn't have this years but the Christmas 68 page Special edition which is enough to give me that feel of Christmas in Beanotown on top of the regular comic.

Some of the best of the past years Beano and Dandy cartoon strips is to be found in this years "Classic" Beano and The Dandy themed special compilations, this year devoted to the late Dudley D Watkins.

With the Beano, outside of the original annuals of the period I was first young, they take me back me to those days for being clearly set in the era so to read this years is to feel I was reading those comics and annuals all over again.

Scouting is covered on another blog in much more detail but this year I did have a most useful hardback book.

Let's say Scouting and all it means has been at the core of much of my life this year and it'll be of great use to me.

Finally I did a record that only recently was issued which contains many of the hits I can remember from original boyhood Christmas's including Merry Xmas Everybody, the number 1 Christmas hit of 1973

A Selection Box, not quite the classic packaging but pretty much the sort of thing I had back then.

I'll write something up after boxing day looking back over the year, what it has meant to me but until then I hope you've had a great enjoyable Christmas and wish you all a happy new year.

Pause for Christmas Edition 2020

Today we are but a week away from Christmas which we will be marking with a pause after watching yesterday's Blue Peter special edition as I gear up helping my family make Christmas what it is as much as they help make very much a boys christmas for me, free of adult stuff.

Christmas is after all very much a time for boys and girls and those of us in that kind of space rather than people who don't see that magic, who don't  love the rituals  adoring the decorations, something that really came over to me when a week ago I went into town for the first time in nearly nine months seeing them and the market store traders decked with christmas goods.

Memories of childhood christmases just overwhelmed me emotionally walking around looking at them.

Next week there will be a Christmas  Day special post on this blog a bit later on but as of today I'll be taking a break from the likes of Tumblr and ASB.

It remains to me to wish everyone and their families following this blog a Happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year

The sights and sounds of Christmas

As we're all too well aware, things haven't been as you normally would of expected thanks to Covid and yet we're only two weeks away from Christmas so while I have been about I noticed a good number of decorations both indoors and out.

Here we have a penguin and a snowman out with a traditional wreath.

Traditional imitation Candy Canes were in much evidence here apart from a good deal of illuminated objectives,

Here Mr. Claus is joined by a reindeer sadly not red nosed but delightfully posed.

Trees of various sizes remain popular with people since the days of Victoria and Albert and this is a small one suited to properties with limited garden space, modestly decorated.

Christmas sure hasn't been cancelled this year!

Advent time

That's it, this week where Adventure Box Max's December edition arrived in its envelope on Monday means only one thing.

No, not gripping stories, cartoon strips and facts although they are in there but rather that as we've entered December we're on the countdown to that most marvellous time of year for boys of all ages - Crimbo! 

Well on Blue Peter last Thursday they may of made their own Advent Calendar from cardboard, used card tubes and crepe paper before adding the treats for each day but my folks bought me this ready made one to nom my way through, one day at a time!

You push open each door to reveal the wrapped chocolate.

A boyhood tradition carried out each year without fail.

On this weeks show they showed you how to make your very own Christmas Cards which was fun.