Christmas edition

 The pause begins here, as type this I've had my first Christmas period visit of the season with all that involves like, quick tidying up spells, plushing up the cushions and getting the tea set up ready to go.

Outside of this I won't be around much at the weekend as I'll be seeing friends before we move into Christmas week.

With that I'll wish you all a Very Happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year.

Resets and cussing

Slowly making our way to the big day with Mr. Claus doing his rounds locally on Sunday and the first wave of Christmas Cards and we are getting used to this new laptop although there's still a bit setting up and restoring programs to be done.

The dorm was very much where I did most of learning about handling situations, dealing with other boys learning "the rules" and by a term or two we'd pretty much got things sorted, who was getting a  wash first, that the last one to bed turned the lights out and not waking others up if you needed the toilet overnight.

We also sorted when someone needed a "Talking to" and when we'd involve the adults although we never left any boy harmed or took pleasure from violence, indeed that did and still does worry me about the darkness of the emotions of ANY boy who holds with that.

It just isn't remotely healthy.

The topic of photographs is a recurring one on the forum where the whole environment around photo usage has changed so much from those days where by birth age we were younger as indeed has the medium from film to digitized images that are posted and exchanged as files.

Changing attitudes to certain topics such as the portrayal of other cultures, the more entrenched notion of consent to images being taken and posted and corporal punishment  being hinted at cause issues as much as my liberal attitude is one of respecting the law as it applies to minors and being mindful of how things appear on public sites.

Thus while as far as I'm concerned c.p. between consenting legal adults is fine and is no source of shame, nonetheless you cannot put imagery on a general interest site that allows lots of groups that may include groups for children to belong even it might be just a hint of an impliment in the hands of either the one administering or the one being punished.

So if you do, then we need to remove it but a more suitable picture for your topic would be fine so long as all involved consent to its use.

Advent

 

A bit of a way from the usual look with a more casual grey short trousers look although they're typically longer than some of us are used to with trainers which I do wear fair bit out of doors when exploring, reserving dress shoes for more formal occassions.

I'm a more t shirt and sports shorts sort when it comes to purely casual playing sort of boy which is probably tied into my childhood and the battle for shorts back then. 

It's Advent and the calendar is up suitably child-like as Crimbo is just that experience for me free from anything really grown up and that's so much better than trying to fake adulthood.

Might as well watch some classic cartoons while I'm at it.

Tales from the cold

Phew Aren't you glad last week is all over with from the snow to the minus four temperatures overnight that saw me in bed socks ?

We're slowly updating the electric oil filled radiators on temperature and time controls as the gas boiler is not working and it's scarcely worth doing much with all the talk of shunting you on Heat Pumps and old systems being written off.

I did have a few cds to entertain myself with and actually I found a bundle stashed by the cd player upstairs as I tend to be downstairs more since Mum's death and that's where the main hifi set up is so I give them a quick clean with IPA as markes and airborn stuff soon settle on them and stored them down here.

The Beatles discs came, two are with Mr. S. Claus late of the North Pole as they're for Crimbo and the other three are in the main collection that has The Beatles in Mono set of 10 mono lp's from 2014, I put the cats on cheaper food to pay for and a mixture of 1970's, 80's UK stereo editions and a couple of the 2012 stereo remasters where I thought they had something to offer.

There is a small portion of American discs of that handfull of titles I do like for their different selections often adding singles which the UK albums as a rule did not but having sorted the collection out in the 2000's, I can't see it changing much.

These new mono version do sound great and there is something for hearing the early recordings with the sound coming in just one direction rather than being at the extreme left and right.

Back when officially I was a boy, rather than someone who has not left being one, I did have things aranged that with the tube (Brit Eng: Valved) monoblock pair of power amplifiers and pre-amp I coud actually switch off one side and direct anything in mono to just one loudspeaker at the far end of the room for a more authentic single point sound.

These day's you're lucky if a preamp or intergrated amplifer even has a mono button to reduce the impact of any slight wear or crackles on older mono records.

Winter is here

Winter is almost upon us, the Annuals are out in the shops for those of us that recieving them at Christmas is boyhood ritual we've kept with for all our lives, the Christmas Trees will be arriving in our town and village squares with illuminations and guess what happened?

Photo credit W-T-O at UR Forum/A.I. 

It snowed late Monday night here - believe earlier in the East Midlands - and kept up Tuesday morning as I was out attending the bins given our collection day this year is Wednesday as I decided it was sensible to move them earlier ready for kerbside collection.

I couldn't resist gathering the snow from the top of the bin a good one and half to to two inches up and throwning snowballs as the children were getting ready to walk to school in their thick coats and wellies.

Yes, this weather brings out the eternal boy in short trousers doing boyish things!

I also trimmed the size of the cds a bit as some new compilations came and I ordered up some special wallets that hold all the cd book and rears plus the disc taking up much less space from Slim Disc in Telford, Shropshire.

vv

Reminders

Strange things do happen like for instance last week I recieved a stuff A5 envelope from D C Thomson, the publisher of the Beano which turned out to be the 68 page Christmas special which is odd as I had only a fortnight before a pack of this years Annual and the very same special.

That comes as part of the Beano Fan Club a collection of goodies delivered to your door with a membership pack and welcome letter.

Mine was close to renewal so I got a reminder email with a link but there's no one shot renewal only a recurring subscription via a direct debit so Ijusr bought another year.

We'll see if we get a whole new membership or not!

The 1979 rebellion

Somehow after this weekend I feel about talking about one of the more important years in all of this life after playing games and that and really it was around the time I started getting back to being me.

The year had began as Rat Trap started it's climb down the charts, the pounding Y.M.C.A. was right at the top and I had on paper at least advanced two years on from formally being a teenager and music was a massive interest of mine to the point that record was a Birthday Present earlier in 1979.

The thing around that teenage period was that peoples idea of what you "really" were started to change, they tended to see you as less of that boy, being more serious, engaged with your O level studies at school, the many nudges around girls and careers to the point you felt you were pushed down one route.

But in lots of other ways things were similar like you read comics rather than life style or current affairs magazines, the very same ones you had when you were seen as that boy and you watched children's tv mostly.

As it was I was still being spanked (not that I minded, wordy lectures just confused the hell out of me so a sore bottom worked better at getting the point over) very much a child so it was a bit confusing really.

"It'll never happen" - I just love that Toots playing with her dolls or Teacher selling off his canes (as some of us ahem "know" ours didn't sell them off....) but there's a frame missing from that  and it should feature Dennis with a caption saying "He'll never get over ten" which would of been very apt for me.

Beyond the world of dressing you like a mini Dad and pushing you into men's spots really I just hated that whole thing because simply nine times out of ten I didn't feel teenaged at all - hardly having a teenaged life as such - just pushed into tight clammy denim jeans when not at school and as punk was in its ascendency 1979 was the year this battle came to its head so by the Summer hols I demanded (gosh!) shorts in public going around outdoor markets as the previous year I did still have a couple of pairs from two year before that fitted and I had had a growth spurt since then.

While I didn't gain what really wanted - tailored short trousers aka "School Shorts" - I did win having bought for me short sports shorts and an understanding that unless we were going anywhere that needed formal attire, I was to be dressed in shorts.

I looked like that one and half or two inch seems even!

That to me when the slow start towards extended boyhood just respecting the existance of legal age and any conseqences and I started then to look into getting new formal short trousers as the formal school days edged out.

Looks and plays

 Well I'm a little pressured for time this week as I should be away for a few days holding sparklers and doing spooky things  so I need to sort stuff out for that - more smart casual little boy of the late 70's - rather than full school uniform or anything super modern while dealing a few things arriving.

Really that's the kind of look I go for, a modern version of what I wore back then interecting with members of the public like picking up me parcels at the door.

I was looking for a better copy of this classic 1985 Xmas compilation that misses all those so-so 90's and 2000's xmas songs as my copy was a bit the worse for wear and it arrived just needing a good clean  and the record itself going in a new inner sleeve to keep it clean.

Just the Xmas hits I grew up with, actually two more than the next years cd version!, ready for the Christmas season to toss on to the turntable for a retro crimbo.

Calming your mind

Let's face it, it can be a very noisy, distracting old world out there not least for those of us who are autistic to the point it drives us cranky but while are some things others can do to reduce these things that leace us unsettled (and it may even help them) what about those situations we aren't in control of what is winding us up?

This is a useful little chart of steps we can take in that situation to get back some control of our emotions so while we may not be able to prevent the situations existing, we do have choices about responding from cutting ourselves of from them to doing something we can be more involved in so our responses are better and we have a better day.
 

Ten-Four You Copy?

It's amazing just what a good number of decades can do when we moved from the era of the red or grey phonebox on every other street corner or set by prominent buildings such as post offices or community halls to having everything at the end of a wafer thin device at the end of your hand.

Amazingly it is 43 years in the uk that Citizen's Band radio was legalized after a few years of wide spread illegal use, protests and marches whose banners made little sense to those who weren't into radio.

I had one and did operate illegally in my mid teens which bearing in mind dad's work was a bit akward to say the least as he knew people who looked into complaints about illegal usage but in a way it was the internet of it's day where you' put a out a call "For a copy" and you'd move to another channel for a conversation generally with other boys and girls about various interests and places you might meet up at.

While it was never really a part of what the hobby was supposed to be about I did work a couple of stations in Italy who were using really high power although I almost got outed when my transmission interferred with my older brother's tape recorder playback putting a loud hum and click on it.

In time I got one of the new "approved" hand held transmitter recievers and used that during the winter months after school  for several years.

Today with your smartphone, the world is your oyster pretty much.

Reading while recovering

Well we're still working through this period so mind does need to be kept a bit occupied of sorts which does take us into this weeks entry.

For some strange reason around the summer, I noticed my subscription to AdventureBoxMax seemed to got a bit messed up as one issued didn't arrive but then sometimes the odd issue is  bi monthly.

That run on for a bit that having triple checked all my emails I found no "Your subscription is ending" one I hunted online to the France based publishers website and redid it.

What I loved about was it had a short story, cartoons and various facts and games in a single package.

Fortunately it arrived in time to be read during this recovering period.

Also this months Monster Fun, now monthly arrived themed around Halloween which was a lot of fun

I also tidied up my comic rack  after the excesses of the Summer Hols.

Recovering boy

Well this week isn't a great one with contracting flu like symptoms so I've a rather sore throat, blocked up tubes and sneezing a fair bit, feeling generally rather groggy which is rather annoying to say the least,

That means more sedentary indoor activities like reading this months Monster Fun which came through the letter box yesterday with its new ghoulish Punk Rock band cartoon strip series which is quite a hoot apart from the Phoenix and Beano, sole survivor of the comics we read as boys.

It kind of remainded me a bit of my junior school days where I tended to pick any and all infections going aided in the last year by a new building with aior conditioning which acted like a great bug speader picking up, warming and transmitting it across every classroom.

That tended to result in me having a few days off every school term beyond the usual chicken pox and that where I'd be parked in bed with the radio on, usally BBC Radio 1 or 3 for the Lunchtime Concert unless I was allowed to come downstairs for Newsround and Childrens tv for a bit before tea time.

There are times when you'd sooner have those routines not least being cared for when unwell 

Online becomes off

Here we go after a rough few days, catching up and all of that.

Last week saw an announcement I was rather pleased to read about that covers part of this district which I feel matters and that is concerning the use, some might say misuse, of the Smartphone  by boys and girls at school and beyond.

The first thing was once social media site decided to have special rules and settings for those sixteen and under that include settings only a parent can adjust by default to limit what can be seen  and ensure parents who often are the ones buying the phone and it's mobile connection are aware of what they're up to.

As we weren't allowed in Adult Magazine and Sex shops at fourteen and often our folks were told if we'd been seen up to no good I agree totally even if more could be done.

It's a start.

The other is some local Academy Schools are are on the list to ban phone from being used in school grounds beyond a very narrow exemption list such was where such a phone is used to monitor Blood Sugar levels for a diabetic.

They will be handed in on arrival given some children may need them in the Phonebox free era we are in if they become unwell or need to contact home or school urgently and handed back at the end of school.

That should stop the continous low level distruption in the classroom from phones "going off", sharing content, attempting to film teachers, fellow pupils and the 50+ alerts the modern childs during school time.

Just imagine it a recess where you have to talk or play rather than doing the socially isolated zombie thing staring into the phone not actually getting a break from work!

Where schools have tried this it has transformed things for the good although like any addiction (and sadly it IS) the "cold turkey" period can be bit rough .

As much as I'd of loved to had had the internet at high school for keeping in touch and researching things I'm glad I didn't feel obliged to spend every other minute at home and at school focussed on social media  just having a kick about or playing Chess at the club Andy and I run instead.

Picture taking

Things that started in boyhood included photography mainly driven from seeing how pictures reminded me of times in the past and the need, the desire even to freeze that moment although it took a while to get a camera of my own.

I do have on another blog a bit more around photography mainly around the gear I bought around the early 1990's so tends to take more of technical take rather than practical or uses of approach as gear is a means very much to an end.

While I didn't have a camera like these boys are getting to grips with using - and don't get me started about burying "stuff" in menus you really need - I did borrow Dad's then Olympus Om2sp and a few lenses which usually result a few crash courses on getting the "right" settings - and the importance of focusing as many of the cameras I had as a youngster were either prefixed designed to be sharp enough with a fairly wide set of distances or automatic focus in which instance it set itself (in theory at least).

In the main I was more centred on getting good pictures of places I was at rather than things around composing a picture and achieving certain effects so the ability to quickly set it and take the picture counted for more.

Essentially I wanted higher quality pictures of the sort I'd normally take although later on I did follow a training course in taking more control and learning how to use the camera to take pictures as I wished them to be, learning about getting softer backgrounds, taking better pictures of waterfalls, making better use of flash to deal with wide contrasts and so on.

Photography is a school subject with examinations - I remember seeing 'O' level photography as a subject you could take in your options - although as with mosts arts subjects getting a name, exhibiting and being seen counts for almost as much as your qualifications.

There are badges in Scouts and Guides too you can earn for it.

R.I.P. Brian Trueman

On Tuesday September 3rd, we lost Brian Truman, aged 92, who wrote Dangermouse, Count Duckula its spin off series, Jamie and the Magic Torch, Cockleshell Bay plus Chorlton and the Wheelies all of which were amongst our favourite cartoons growing up.

He also presented Children's Hour, Clitheroe Kid, Scene at 6.30, Granada Reports, Brass Tacks and the much missed Screen Test that mixed quizes on current children's films with features on making your own short films.

Of those shows, Danger Mouse, whose main characters were voiced by Only Fools and Horses star David Jason and Carry On star Terry Scott, was perhaps the most famous.

Jason played the fearless hero, self-titled the "world's greatest secret agent", while Scott starred as his hapless sidekick, Penfold.

Trueman contributed to 79 episodes of the original Danger Mouse series, according to his IMDb page.

The original show ran from 1981 to 1992 and was brought back by the BBC from 2015 to 2019.

He was also credited for writing 11 episodes of the cartoon Count Duckula, tht was a spin off from Danger Mouse which followed the adventures of a vegetarian vampire obsessed with fame and wealth.

Count Duckula aired from 6 September 1988 to 16 February 1993 across four series; in all, 65 episodes were made, each about 22 minutes long.

All have been released on DVD in the UK, while only the first series has been released in North America.

The Magic Ball, Jamie and the Magic Torch  and Chorlton & The Wheelies.

He will be sadly missed by many of us.

Autumn term starts here!

 

When you see this ones Alma Mater will have returned to start the Autumn Term and indeed on Tuesday morning I saw Reception and the First Year infants filing past the front door enroute, the very route I took myself.

One thing I will say for the local boys there is I did see them about during the Summer Hols, just playing, going off on their bicycles having a kick about in groups of five or six being active in the fresh air having fun, staying safe.

When one reads of how some even Junior children don't feel safe in their own communities or where the influence of the Smartphone has crept into even their world in a way beyond what we'd of imagined then that's just fantastic.

It is possible to have the sort of fun we had.

Talking of fun, I will be away at the weekend with a good number of people here that know me so appearence will be toned down a little but it will be little-ish on a seaside resort reconnecting with all the fun I loved doing that as a kid

The mid 80's and moving back in time

From where all of this life came is by no means a bad question to ask when you think about it.

Some clearly was routed in the period of official childhood, the memories of what you did, how things and indeed how you looked plus as I got into into my early teens I did start regressing not that it was a word I knew then.

We've looked at bits from the past on this blog  but the next phase started a few years later and it's that we'll talk about this week.

The mid nineteen eighties were quite an important point in modern British history as institutions changed, and there was much bitter conflict not least here in the North Staffordshire coalfield that has only recently began to heal.

By this period, I was out of school  and its routines and in the world of work after a period of stops and starts getting a job which was difficult back then but it was the first indication that really I was growing apart from my peers who were thinking more about things like savings, getting into things like marriage and they seemed to see each other as adults.

I just didn't feel remotely that way.

While many of my age then went on Club 18-30 holidays, I was still on hols with Mum and Dad looking superficially in my teens visiting places together, spending hours on the beach exploring  and even making sandcastles.

Things like scouting  still had an appeal as much as I knew in my head there was no way I could drop right back to where I felt I belonged and indeed as I found a good decade and a bit later in another context I couldn't stop myself from involuntarily dropping into that child so really it wouldn't of worked out well to had got an adult role either.

At home one brother had got married and left and another was going through a period of girlfriends who needless to say came over from time to time so stuff at home was changing from when I was i my last year of school.

I did start exploring and revisiting the places nearby where I played and met up with as that young boy with a view to at least acknowleging the pull all of that had over me even if they like time itself had moved on.

Given how things turned out in 1980 where some of my old cubs stuff got removed, I knew I had to be careful about how often I'd attempt to dress more as I saw myself as clearly Mum felt then you didn't "need" them and seemed to more into trying to make me look look like a pint sized dad even if what was within was anything but.

I did work on trying to get a more younger look by stealth,  helped by fitting more in bigger teens clothing as my body shape wasn't as well developed as most adults and indeed my arms remain no wider than a child's even now.

I just knew I needed to look more as I saw me even if of necessity the more schoolboyish look had to be hidden.

What I learned over the years

To be honest I've been still mulling over really  the emotional impact of being among people I knew specifically those I knew as either children or adults at school at Mr Cowe's funeral last Tuesday and really what I've learned over all those years.

There are some reflections I do feel the need to talk about about on here one is learning to be grateful for what people freely do for you such as the time seeing I was struggling at one railway station, a couple kindly offered to help carry my luggage and even checked when I got to the end of the stairwell I was all right who I no idea of. I thanked them profusely for caring so much and acting on it.

Then's there is the ability, however difficult I find it with being autistic to go to people I don't know, ask  if I may sit next to them and strike up a conversation about a common person in our lives, which I have got better at.

There's the people who kept an eye on me as I was feeling a little homesick where I stayed away several times, spending time with and the friend who knowing the sort of fiction I like, gave me a cherished book from their collection which they sure didn't have to and to which I didn't expect at all after giving them a action figure I thought they'd love.

You also recall how it was your friends dreamed of being things like racing drivers, football players and train drivers but settled later in life for something more mundane but worthwhile while, you just wanting to be around doing a "Good turn" got the role to do just that, caring for your community.

Then there is a friend of mine who kindly put me up, offering a cooked meal and a lift to the train coming back completely out of the blue, seeing I was on the right platform for my train to come in. Even when I found I simply could not eat the whole of their home made and cooked meal rather than just saying it was very nice-and it was was absolutely lovely- from nowhere I found myself apologizing to them for not finishing my meal clearly feeling contrite.

These acts of kindness really moved me but whereas in the past I'd of blocked out my emotions I thanked them properly for all those things they did not have to do,that I have no right to expect nor demand expressing my gratitude, revealing my sense of being humbled openly.

It also reminded me of the distance I had travelled from that young boy in reception class being cared for both in class and with being played with by older children at breaktimes, trying to make sense of it all to being able to play a big part in the wider community because they cared to help you that over time understand more of what and how this community thing worked and what caring really means.

There was time several years back when I was away with friends that while a few people needed a reminder to tidy up and put their plates in the dishwasher, I did not and indeed that I had was held up as an example for others to follow.

I think the one thing I can take away from this period is while I may still have some distance to go and the potential to relapse, the event did show I had moved on over the years, being responsible and how I'm being helped to change is really helping me.  

A loss from the past

 Things that happen while you're away can include the latest goings on in your immediate area or some item you ordered having arrived but for me including reading in the local newspaper of the death of a former junior classmates parent, aged 91.

Now ordinarily that is bad news and I had aged parents but having "lost" mum early last year brings that rather forward but Alison lost her mum some five years back in 2019 and mum did attend that rather packed funeral service.

Thus she's at the point if having lost both her parents which I would imagine brings things back for her and for me reminds me the clock is ticking away too with dad.

So at a stroke two prominent community members, one being a stewart of local Girl Guides, the in the Royal British Legion are now gone.

Yesterday I attended the funeral service here to both remember what George did and to support her and her brother as we all looked out for and helped each other back then in the playground the best we could.

This included his role in starting the youth brass band, his personal life on an Estate Lodge in Aberdeenshire where an interest in agriculture engineering was formed at an early age and his time in National Service spent in Japan, Korea and Egypt.

I met with Stephen who joined when I did but took a couple of years out as he moved to a nearby town and attended school for period there before returning, talking about those days

Those bonds while added to by high school and employment, remain and for me the promise then is one you keep now.

Mithersome week

 

We're back to what passes as normal on here after last weeks excursions and all that not being too happy as having got a not that easy to find version of one Rolling Stones album yesterday, my concentration just lapsed for a split second and before you know it one record comes flying out of its inner sleeve and in the the attempt to avoid it hitting the floor I get hold of it and it runs right across a finger nail and places a audible scratch across Track one, Side three, Happy.

Well I ain't!

It's the trouble when you're being mithered things that really there's little you can do but the way it is being put over is like their on the edge of getting emotional, you're feeling obliged to try to fix it so your mind is occupied subconsciously by that.

Then there was one ordered, prepared for dispatch and then your told that in plain terms they don't think the quality is good enough to send to you so you're dealing with cancellations and attempting a re-order with someone else.

I did get around to putting some things out for a cancer charity collection that a month before most of the things were not collected.

Why I just understand really.

Summer Hols

There's really little point looking for me this week in all the usual places as I'm not there as this warm week I am away in the Lake District on ones hols of sorts.

Hols in the past tended to be pretty much family affairs, even the odd time with grand parents when I'd wear leisure shorts as short as and the same sort of cut as these most of the time.

You might say length was't really a thing with me but breathability and feeling the fresh air all around me!

They will be games like rounders, makes, treasure hunts and that, more like a summer camp for children and I'll be dressed as theboy I am which works a treat.

I'll have my comics with me, the way it always used to be to share with others.

Have fun this week and I'll be back next week....

Weird stories by weirder people

 

The most extraordinary of searches produces a result that makes little sense, even beggars belief in its scattergun approach exploring something they didn't understand feeling it was "ikky" and yet in so many ways they could not be more wrong,

Indeed they could of got the definative answer if you take them at their own words.

A search around littles lead to a ten page MumsNet story in a AIBUsection, that being the net mummies abbreviation for Am I Being Unreasonable that talks about how recently (Post was Early Dec 2023) they had discovered somebody they had known well for a long time was:

Called themselves a "Little"

Attended a get together with like minded  where

Did arts and crafts

Played childrens games, did jigsaws

Dressed as a child

Were read stories as a group in a storytime

Person who read it thought was part of a kink event

In response to a question said "Were not aware they had any contact with children"

They now feel disgusted by that person, believe they sexualizing childhood and refuse to have anything to do with them.

The way they described the event the person attended seemed to be on the face of it extremely familiar incuding how it was stressed it was non sexual.

Well I'll be damned if I can think of anyone old enough to be on MumsNet I know or knew well but a few basic things come into all this.

There was no evidence on the post of however it was of anything sexual or kink related beyond the term Little and Littles which is used by parents too.

All the unearthing digging deep didn't connect that person to what they saw plus different people do different things and everything was lawful.

Some littles may have sex but given that's in their own bedrooms that's no different than any kind of sex really.

Sex is a fine thing for those old enough (in law)  if they wish just don't push it on people, involve minors or do it in public spaces.

The individual if they really knew the person quite well could of talked to them about their interests but elected not to prefering to soil by association their reputation

You generally won't find anyone in kink who considers connecting actual kids to kink or directly involving them - it's a sure fire way to get booted from that scene,

The more disturbing aspect of this post was just how misguided and extreme their feelings were on what at the end of the day is re-enactment,role play or age regression that caused and causes no harm to minors at all.

With that I will be at a meet next week!

Blow them and their twisted little minds!!!!

Wait in the study!

 Well apart from the little matter of England losing the Euros which is a shame something else happened on Sunday here.

The replacement cassette machine for the faulty one arrived well packaged in a big thankfully not that heavy box thanks to Royal Mail.

Connected around this is the vexted question of what to record onto as the high street is very different than even the start of this century nevermind cassette's heyday of the 80's up to the mid 90's when there were shops that sold blank tapes and quite a variety of different ones available.

A common idea - I'd call it a romance - is the notion of putting an album on a period tape as if you had it back then but this notion has its risks and issues.

That is tape I recall from 1971/2 and the first shoe box cassette record I had then and budget tapes back then were noisy and limited in fidelity and indeed even the big brands of the day such as Philips, TDK and EMI were a good way removed from what they achieved by 1978/9.

Thus using a 1971 tape to put your James Taylor and Carly Simon albums on really wouldn't sound good as even when new they weren't good and tapes are subject to varying levels of deterioration.

As it was the new machine dual capstan mechanism objected to the stiffness of a otherwise well look after TDK SA tape from 1977 and chewed it out!

And that's really the thing, the "knock it on the head" moment about that period tape business, it's not practical.

You can find still a good amount of tape from the early 80's to around the turn of century which provided it hasn't been in damp shed or o.ven like loft still is pretty good that I have a good amount in stock of.

But what about actual new, still being made tape?

Well actually some is being made completly from scratch, not using big "pancakes" of new old stock tape in the United States and in France.

Recording The Masters make studio quality open reel tape for studios that still record on tape and a sideline of that has been making brand new cassette blanks based on old BASF LN formulations and they can be recommended as while not cheap it will work perfectly and do sound better than post 2000 budget tape such as Maxell UR (the 90's UR wasn't bad) and chinese made brands you see on Ebay and Amazon.

They will play on anything.

Initially only made in C60 lengths last a half hour per side, they have commenced making C90's , the length we often used for either putting two records on or making our our compilations in the last 18 months or so.

The idea of making or remaking your favourite tapes and enjoying playing them is great but when old tapes may be in a poor state (and not that great even new) I feel it's best to use newer if not new tapes whither or not you have a reconditioned and serviced machine like me or one of the new Teac decks.

450th post with a few faults

Well that election is over with with decisive, clear victory even if it was the most flattest set of campaigns I can recall with only Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davies stunts livening things up.

At least in this country we can get votes counted by the next day coupled with any transition of power from one government to another smoothly.

It's an interesting week as in drips and drabs bits arrive to install a new cassette deck in the spare room system as the original is having a ton of issues with the leaf switches which are all interlinked sending differing voltages to a controller to do things like select play or record and select the noise reduction.

Some things don't come on when pressed and sometimes selecting play puts it into record.

As well, I'm going to look at my Sony TC-D5M portable as the dc input for its seperate power unit seems to have an intermittant power connection.

We're marking what is around the 450th post on this blog this week from those heady days eight years ago when this rambling thoughts blog where if I wanted to journal feelings and emotions that didn't always tie up with the other blogs with their own narrower themes.

This also sometimes acts as an overflow too when there's more than what would neatly fit into the others on our weekly post cycle.

That '74 feeling again

 

The more or less four yearly competition to see who makes the most rashes promises to run the government is in its final stages although a common response is to "stick it to the man" as people are fed up people promising what they don't (and maybe) can't deliver and not really answering the question when it comes how they they will pay for things.

Dad was saying he thought it might be as close as it was in 1974.

Crumbs! I remember the chaotic period only too well.

There were better memories of then though as a original ten year old and that was of watching a series of five minute cartoons by the Wombles who became a pop group and environmental champions too.

This very limited record came the other week.

It's basically a Greatest Hits album with all your favourite singles in there chronological order of release as issued on CBS Records over here with the Wellington solo track, and exclusive US single and the version of The Wombling Song used in the film Wombling Free in 1977.

That means such classics as Super Womble, Wombling Merry Christmas and Remember You're a Womble are gathered up with a essay and picture on the inner sleeve to be played and enjoyed the way we did back then.

Listening to that was pretty enjoyable as we seem to be going through another colder damp spell.

Paws and Posts

Couple of things really this week as I'm melting a bit in the heat.

First a friend recently aquired a kitten after a period of being catless and is getting grips with such things as wanting to spend time cupboards and bedrooms and dealing with a kitten that very much knows what its favourite brand of cat meat is and who makes, turning its nose up at anything that's sub par.

While none of my cats ever were adopted or cats for rehoming, I recall the hair tearing out moments around finding out what it did like and then dealing with things like the make going out of stock in our shops with the cat defiant to the last over what constitutes "good tasting" food.

The other thing is more forum centred and it is please don't take images of minors and by either photoshopping or adding commentary link them to things that whatever you may feel about the activity or interest are seen as very much kink or otherwise sexual in nature.

We do get a fair chunk of "lurkers" plus being totally open to the public anyone from "Plod" to an actual child being able to peep in so linking kiddies to kink really is a bad idea unless you seriously want to lose the forum and leave ME with knocks on the door interviewed under caution.

If we tell about what you posted, for heaven's sake do show some understand of WHY what you posted was not acceptable and ARE prepared to keep within the rules.

 

Of velvet and its allure

Bit of a damp coolish day as I type this and I'm think a bit of older classic ways of dressing  such as cord shorts which were preffered in some Prep schools for being more hard wearing but also fitted in with Play, something you might change into after lessons or upon coming home and guzzling some pop.

That was more like the kind of thing and a year a half back I had commisioned although mine were more 5 inch inside leg which was a bit longe than what was normal when I was around twelve.

Practical and hard wearing.

For some reason Velvet and even colours associated with velvet tend to have a image problem in the UK being looked on as either namby-pamby, old-fashioned or shades of "Little Lord Fauntleroy but it need not be.

For instance you could have olive or gold velvet short trousers which with draw string and generous pockets does lend itself as much for play except of the roughest kind as just casual attire.

Browns do work too and this more traditional dress cut styled pair might well work  as would dark blue and what is wrong with shorter inside legs so long as they're decent .

Teemed with suitable socks which I know white historically had an image issue but does go well why shouldn't the modern adult little boy not wear something like this if that is him?

Play and little boy reading

The week after all the D-Day stuff and as I'm typing this out weather appears to be very much all over the place as I headed out into the park during a sunnier dry spell in the proceedings.

Uniform continues to be a topic but another kind of uniform tends I feel to forgotten about and that what we wear for play as we didn't spend all our time sat in school as much as you might of felt that by Friday morning.

Unlike today where there's a massive market of casual branded clothing for life beyond school back then it was second bests and maybe the odd t shirt as schools then didn't accept them as uniform

Thus I was out in short charcoal short trousers and a red top and grey socks very much a seventies little boy.

Moving on, while on the other blog and the odd time here I've talked about reading  I do sit in a streamed children's reading session where books from peoples childhood are read and people do chat between and we finished one book on Sunday.

Although Enid Blyton was and remains all over children's literature in the UK, it remains a adult game to find every ism and -obic in all she wrote which reflected the world a child back then lived in when often little was meant and let's be honest how will today's children's favourites be seen in eighty or more years hence?

Her more recent publishers have had chunks rewritten to fit various agendas but when we read Noddy And Tessie Bear this didn't have references to gollies, and Noddy having a spanking removed.

After all it was written in 1952 and such things existed as indeed for me they did in 1972!

A bit like the comics we loved such as the Beano, everything is set in children's world - instead of Beanotown we have Toytown where things mirror in a way the world you are in - with the pleasures and disapointments of everyday life.

The story concerns a  playful adventure gone awrywith Noddy and Tessie not realizing what was about to happen unto it's too late and the consequences.

It was fun and I was able to get a fairly early copy free from alterations for my own story book collection as I read Noddy but was seldom bought any and those I'd of had were, like my childhood toys often handed to others on the basis "You a big boy now, you don't need them".