Rainy recollections

You know what it did yesterday after a dry couple of days don't you? Bloomin well started raining again which put pay to the idea of going to the playground yesterday yo go on the swings which is what I love doing.

The Beano did arrive through the letterbox as last week we marked the arrival fully formed of Rodger The Dodger some sixty nine years ago not that I was around at the start when I first started having it together with strips like Little Plum, Tom, Dick and Sally plus Lord Snooty and Pals which aren't around anymore.

The well read will view this scene where Dennis and Gnasher get to be maids for Walter as payback for the menacing the pair of them did to Walter and his "Softies" mates over the years and their refined manners.

Bullying is never right.

The Pink Panther Show on tv and its spin offs was always a big thing with me as our pink feline friend outwitted everyone to fill the world wirh Pantherly Pride and ensuring everything was in the pink.

These 1981 stickers were just a part of what some of us bought and applied liberally to anything within reach not least any folders that just looked so plain boring at the time or to my parents dismay, walls near the light switches.

Just what did you do back then?

Mid month damp round up

Another week of weird weather here such as near tornado winds early monday morning with thunder and lightning mixed into it which woke me up a few times and not great for going beyong the gate either.

So that meant reading a few comics that had come across the weekend and in the instance of The Beano the joke page with its corny kidtastic jokes.

And the neighbourhood cats came around so you find yourself talking with them, getting down to cat level although I don't feel I could make a home for one with I'm not too good and would neighbours to look after one when I'm away like the other week.

I've been cleaning a couple of  of 12" singles  from the early 80's and putting them in innersleeves to keep dust out and avoid the rough card insides marking them and  playing a few albums by Fleetwood Mac and Dire Straits.

We've had a couple of new sign ups at the forum too which is nice.

Easter themed fun

 Easter again I hear you ask?

Well that was last weekend with all the bloomin' chaos of hastily rearranged train journeys, meet ups and all that and even would the drivers turn out on Sunday to drive the services offered.

Fortunately I did get away, a day later and was about get straight off the train, across the station concourse to the taxi rank in minutes ready for socializing playing games, thankfully not croquet or cricket but I did knock all the cans over!

An easter egg hunt was held which was fun as the eggs were literally everywhere, in the undergrowth, in trees and even sheds but least I found some.

The were easter related quizes and yarns being delivered until everyone fell sleep, talking of which I nearly fell of the chair being that tired head first but at least I didn't quite manage that!!!

We had planned on going for short hike along a disused railay line but conditions were too soft underfoot even for the most able never mind wibbly-wobberly me  so we walk to the venue for lunch which was excellent before making my way back in time for tea.

Rambling Easter thoughts

 

Well this being done on the chromebook because for some strange reason from time to time the bigger laptop likes to just switch off without warning and the battery holds 94% charge which may not be brilliant but is adequate as it's mainly used off the mains.

I've been reading at a slow comfortable pace the recent Codename Warlord compilation with all the stories written for the weekly Commando magazines this century with the first few done for the Watlord Comic itself way back in September 1974 where it really shook up the world of boys adventure comics with its graphics.

Yesterday I was playing a record not uncommon here a new and surprisingly inexpensive copy of Bookends by Simon and Garfunkel which although that album came out in 1968 when I was still just in single digits, was full of songs were grew up listening to as much as did to Top 40 pop hits on Radio One on 247 and buying them.

There's plenty of the original singles here well stored and the thing in many ways is they all connect to that overall sense of that boyhood I am very much in the mindset of today.

That boy had Easter Eggs although I discovered diary milk  chocolate often lead to maigraines and if you ate say a whole small bar then I was out of commission in bed with a bucket by me in case of being sick so I usually try to ensure I get white.

While that's very sweet and you have to mind your blood sugars I can better tolerate white chocolate and that's what I've been eating this easter weekend and the years rolled back.

Gratitude

This is a little late coming out today not least for me feeling pretty tired yesterday and as it will become apparent, not around to write it either.

Yesterday was different for it was one of a number of days my Aunt s and an Uncle would meet up for food and talking about things in general that goes back a good number of years following the  sad loss of a number of members and the feeling we needed to do *something* to keep in touch beyond a phone call or Facebook messaging.

Those were in the days when Mum was very much alive and with us and there was for a period a bit of pause when whe died and all the funeral stuff was being worked through.

Back then it was more a thing I knew of as it was just that group and didn't include me which wasn't an issue - sometimes your parents need spaces from you - but following the resumption, they decided to invite me to attend.

My Aunt knew a bit about my more adult boy side - not the whole nine yards -  when she came few years back with my oldest cousin to which we'd attend lots of parties and that together and they'd discovered this "boy" in shirt and short trousers at home with everyone else well in and okay with it.

Indeed that was how I was at the funeral itself even .

But anyway when it came attending these events not least with that Uncle I hadn't seen for a while that was very much how I presented.

Yesterday we were  supposed to had attended a venue inside the large and much loved as a boy park in the district centre for the North of this city region with it's boating like, playgrounds, gardens and bowling green but my Aunt had forgotten one thing.

Easter Hols. And in the immediate city area, they take their Easter Hols a week before in this part they do so there you are with lots of kids walking around and the menu was changed to more Children's Favourites no doubt with idesa that Grand parents looking after children whose parents work would at least ensure they'd get a decent warm meal.

It wouldn't of mattered for me - sausage,egg and chips is right up my alley - but they wanted something more *adult* so we wet off for the Chatterley Whitfield, name after the area the coal mine (one a good number round here) had been.

We settled on a mass order of Fish and Chips with mushy peas which I added choco fudge cake and ice cream which went well although the place was full and with...children!

Indeed one young child was having a birthday dinner and inevitably there was more background noise.

We talked and talked which really was the kind of point really and then I was presented with a box of chocolates for Easter by my aunt which felt more of a nod to boyhood easters to which I thanked her for  before we went back to her place.

That place has memories such as those cousins, their late father whose presence loomed and the many things that happened as they all sat on chairs and I was on a pouf at near floor level which of course was just how it was as the grown ups always had seats and we didn't enjoying a drink before setting off.

It feels so...different. To be returned in a setting that might of been decades ago but yet in some many ways one that felt so right for me.

Resting up time

 

Today is what would of been Mum's birthday.

I may be off to the Barber's in a bit but I'm having to be careful as my knees ache a lot a little above them hurts too as I was struggling to get about on monday having been out for a stroll a long the towpaths which in the stretch I was on was gravel over the mud of which there had been a lot at the weekend.

I had been out at the weekend to the park but even there after the heavy downpours not only was the playing field all muddy so you sank in it, even the pathways had about two inches of waterover the and mud that had ran on from the adjacent grass so thick I almost went flying in landing head first.

The better stuff of sorts has been its been warmer around thirteen to sixteen degrees c so actually for a few days I've just been able to be out with a jersey on, leaving off a coat completely.

On updates and stuff

 

Today is officially a very wet day having been woken up twice by it and with reports of torrential rain in nearby Biddulph so I'm half expecting to see more pictures of my brothers smallholding with flooded fields by days end.

This of course means I won't be going anywhere soon having been soaked just taking the recycling out ready for the refuse service tomorrow so it's a matter of getting things done that you can today and possibly into tomorrow.

One thing I've been working on is tidying up the main blog which goes all the way back to the earliest years of blogging which is something I tend to do from time to time for a variety of reasons such as having additional information or insights into a topic than at the time I made the post where there is otherwise little reason to make a new post.

These also include some music based entries where the actual records have changed over the years as either I have found better originals or as been the case in the last year or so, actually new superior so-called "audiophile" editions have come out and those old ones replaced entirely.

So the image and where appropriate the text gets altered with a suitable comment added to indicate the last update.

Another thing I try to do is correct spelling or the odd typo which as person with both dyxlexia and damaged paws that mean I don't always strike all the intended  keys or tremoring so a letter doubles which is frustrating to say the least.