27 Jul 2010 1:33 AM

Hi there to everybody on 'overs,'

Sometimes, when you find something that is fantastic, you feel like sharing the information. 

I have been on youtube and found, which I have saved of favourites, Tracy Chapman and Pavarotti singing Baby Can I Hold You,  the very last duet chord sends a shiver up my spine. 

My second choice, for today, is Long Cool Woman In a Black Dress by the Hollies.  The introductory guitar 'rift' is one of the best I have heard in a long time.

If you chose to have a look on youtube, I hope you enjoy the music as much as I am doing.

By for now,

John.

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22 Jul 2010 11:25 PM

Last week was the final rehearsal for a one hour's sing in front of a new audience. 

The programme we were to use consisted of 'The Bare Necessities, I Have Dream, Fields of Gold, The World In Union, The Sunset Poem, The Music's Always There With You, You Raise Me Up, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, You'll Never Walk alone, Kwmbayah and Let There Be Peace On Earth.

Everybody, in the choir, were looking forward to the forthcoming event and, in my case, I kept awakening, during the night, with the tunes on my mind.  I suppose I was subconsciously trying to iron out the minor mistakes I felt I had been making in rehearsals. 

I always feel the need to try and do my best and not stand out from the baritones close to where I am standing and, on this occasion, I felt the need to rehearse on my own at home.

Things went well until the day before the sing and, as is usual with me, the nerves kicked in.  Different people are affected in different ways and, as I was to find out later, many of my singing friends went through a series of events before they were able to face up to getting onto the stage.

To take the venue off my mind, although I had taken the liberty of having a short hair cut a few days before the event, I 'spit and polished' my shoes a couple of times and buffed and buffed the shoes until I could see my face in the reflection.

Out came the uniform, pressed to perfection, and the white shirt I was going to put on. 

About one hour before it was time to set off, all my clothing and belongings were laid out on the bed in redness for the time I was to get into the car and go to the sing. 
 
We were told it would be best to arrive at the venue at about quarter past the hour before we were to take the stage.  I set off earlier than I thought I should and arrived at the venue about fifteen minutes before I was told to be there and when I tried to get into the car park I noted it was full. 

A few hundred yards up the road, from where I should have been singing, there was a public house (Inn) and I asked the barmaid if she minded if I used the pub's car park for a couple of hours; to my surprise, the young lady seemed to be delighted by my request and off I went to the place I should have been going to.

When I entered the W.M's C. (Working Men's Club) I soon found the area we were all going to gather to have our pre sing warm up.  The sing running order, with a few last minute changes, was handed round and we all set out our music so that the audience would not be annoyed by any adverse page changing while trying to find music that was not in order.

We were all lined up and given our places to stand and then, to my surprise, we were told there was not enough time to have our pre sing warm up due to the ladies section, the audience, wishing to have a game of Bingo at 3 'O' clock.
'What a cheek.' I thought.

The room we leave all our personal possessions, while we are singing, is, as a matter of courtesy, locked up while we are on stage but, on this occasion, I later learned that this was not the case and, after the sing, people were playing Pool where my belongings were but there is more.
 
The choir, for there did not seem to be a lot of room for the 50 or more singers, were soon in full voice and I tried to lift myself to meet the occasion.  The audience, all ladies except for one man, seemed to be subdued when we had finished our first song and I tried to find a smiling face to look at but I could not find one.

As the show continued, we began to get hotter and hotter until beads of sweat were falling down our faces and, at one point; I wondered if I was going to get through the session without fainting from heat exhaustion.

I tried to forget that I was too hot and carefully watched our conductor for cues into some of the choruses but, like many of my friends, I began to make small mistakes as we tried to survive the heat.

For the first time, I received the look I thought I would never get from our choir master as he stared at me and pointed to his eye to inform me that I was not watching for his cues.  I felt bad and deflated by this and, from that moment on, my enthusiasm seemed to drift but I pulled on all my reserves and out came the notes as they were supposed to be sung.

Eventually, the show came to an end and the lone man stood up to address the choir for coming.

Standing from a seating position that looked like he had his nose in a book he simply said. 

'Thank you for coming.'

Instantly, he sat down again.

I looked at my friends, either side of me, and I could see, from the way they were looking at me, that they were as surprised as I was by the 'nonplussed'care free attitude of the man.

Usually, when we go to one of these sings, we are offered a cup of tea but not today and we all filed out of the half open exit door as soon as it was possible.

I stood back, to let one of the female singers go out of the door before me and, as I looked at her hot and sticky face I said. 
'I am glad to be going out into cooler air for it is boiling hot in here isn't it?'

The lady nodded, in the affirmative, and then said 'Not half.' Meaning she was in agreement to my statement.

At this point, one of the club's lady committee members said.  'We turned the 'air con' off for one of the members complained she could feel a draft.

I have heard stories, from people that 'tread the boards,' and although I believed what they had to say, at the time, I can now empathise with them. 

By for now,

John.
     
 

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20 Jul 2010 12:50 AM

Ice cream in the freezer.

Today, in sweltering heat, I opened the freezer compartment of the fridge and pulled out a plastic box of ice cream.  Instead of making a scoop of the cream, in a dish, I decided to cut out a thin wafer and blocked the treat with wafer biscuit slices.

Later, my wife followed suit and when she had finished licking out the sticky and sweet cream, she told me she used to be, as a child, fascinated to watch the ice cream man prepare a wafer from a rectangular piece of metal we now know as being a mould. 

He took the creamed delicacy out of his cold compartment and did this by scooping it up on a wooden spoon.  When the rectangular mould was full, he took a straight edge and took the excess ice cream off the top of the mould. 

I could picture, in my mind's eye, my wife-as a small child-looking up at the ice cream man while he presented the cold cream into the mould.  Knowing her, as I do, for she has always been inquisitive, she would probably have her small hands on the shop counter and possibly her nose too as she looked up waiting to be served.

At this point, I jokingly said, 'it is good to know you are a country girl and not a city girl by being fascinated by an ice cream man's actions as he worked his magic for a child's treat.'

She laughed and then brought me down to earth for she said, and I had forgotten, that she watched the ice cream man squeeze out the ice cream wafer onto grease proof paper because she could never have one.  The wafer was more expensive than an ice cream cone and cones were the only treats we were able to have.

Unlike today, if there were any extras they were charged for and there were few people around to be able to have extras unless they were on holiday.

How things have changed!

From that conversation, I began to think back to the times, just after the Second World War, when food was still rationed.

I was only a small boy but I remember listening to elders' tales and of the times when the local police used to go to farms and find out where animals were; especially pigs for it was illegal to kill them yourself and the animals had to be taken away to be 'put down.'

Things were still so bad that we were all lucky to be able to have jam and bread for our breakfasts. 

To my surprise, the food rationing was not the same all over the country for I was told that one of my parents' friends went to work in London and, in the place she was staying, her breakfast was lashings of bacon and eggs. Although her mouth watered, at the sight of the feast, her conscience got the better of her. 

On her first holiday break, when she went home, the young lady's mum could not believe that her daughter was being fed so well and, no doubt, she would see a difference in her daughter's weight for, like everybody of those times, fat people were 'far and few between,' as they say in these parts .

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7 Jul 2010 11:35 PM

For about six years, I have tried to get to grips painting a decent rose and, for once, I think I am somewhere close to getting the quality I am looking for.

John.

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6 Jul 2010 1:09 AM

On Sunday morning, when I was going to make the bed, I noticed one of the divan drawers was protruding slightly.  Being the person I am, for I did not want anybody to catch their ankle on the drawer, I decided to investigate.

Try as I would, I could not get the wooden section out and decided to enlist my wife's help; something that I do not like doing for she has her way of doing things and they are not the same as mine. 

With the two of us pushing and shoving, the unit would not move and it was clear to me that drastic measures were soon needed.  Inch by inch, we managed to get the drawer out enough to be able to take out some of the clothing and, when as much weight was out of the storage compartment as possible, we managed to pull the stowage unit out of its usual sitting positoin and eventually the small compartment came out of its fixings.

Close investigation told me that the runner, the drawer slides on, had buckled and needed replacing. 

This bed had only been replaced a while a go, just outside the guarantee time, and, for some reason, I had decided to keep the drawer runners off the old bed so there should not be a reason why I could not replace old with new.

Crawling inside the small hole, to get the furthest hug in its location, was like a large man getting into a small manhole; not an easy task.  Still, after lots of effort, the task was done but, yes you have guessed it, the drawer still would not go into the location settings. 

This time, as the two of us struggled to get the drawer out again, there were lots of sighs, tuts and, dare I say, other words too until we were able to get the drawer out again.

I took more time to look round the inside of the diven and noticed that there were only hugs where the drawer runners were placed, the rest of the bed was stapled together and half of the staples were not in their location places properly.  I dare not imagine what the inside of the structure would have looked like had we purchased the cheaper version.

Now with a torch in my hand, I had a good look round and noted that one of the pieces of wood, where the drawer runners were fastened, had split.  My guess is that the wood was split when it left the factory for a new hole had been drilled, for the drawer runner to fit on, but this hug was out of sight. 

I could not replace the wood, for the piece was the width of the double bed, so I had no choice but to try and make a safe repair.

I sealed the crack with a wood glue, lucky I had some in the shed, fitted a piece of wood, to act as a wedge-to squeze the cracked wood grain together-and left the task in the hope that the glue had done its job when returning after Sunday dinner.

Luckily, my task at sealing the wood, had done what I wanted but, just to make sure, I put in few staples of my own.  The drawer now works a treat, I hope I am not speaking too soon here, but I wonder if the same problem may arise again.

From start to finish, although the task does not sound a complex one, I was working from about 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. although I did break off for my meal.

I am pleased I can still do these tasks but how annoying that something like this should happen when almost new.

Grumble over.

By for now,

John.   

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