Poohsticks

Nice stream nearby where Kirri and Matti spent an afternoon clearing weeds to make the water flow better under a bridge and chased sticks or whatever they could find that floated.

Technology to the rescue

Although there has been something quite pleasant about not having any form of telephone that worked here, and having to stand at a certain spot in a field to call anyone was fine on sunny days, the recent tendency of showers to start just as I go out to do so has persuaded me that something had to be done.

My Skype phone arrived today. £9.95 from Serif's Gadget Store and of reasonable design compared to some bricks I've seen, appropriately enough in a DIY store, it worked as soon as it was plugged in and I'd registered. That enables anyone with a Skype phone to call me for free and I can call anywhere without having to put my wellies on. Bliss.

With the addition of their SkypeIn service, people without Skype can call too. The number's 0208 133 4333 which is almost memorable. My Skype ID is andrewx.com if you're interested.

Gmail's chat facility has also proved really simple and a nice way to communicate for free with a couple of people who have it. In fact, I prefer that in many ways but maybe that's just because I'm always happy to hear from the people concerned.

So, as long as my computer's switched on and the internet's working I should be contactable again.

5 August 2007 The Day After the Night Before

Rob tidies up after the Paddock Party.

Paddock Party 4

Here we go again. Saladeers, well saladettes mostly now, and the usual questions like"what shall we do if it rains?" (Answer: "Dunno. Probably, make a run for the nearset teent like last time.") "What are we doing about diversity?" (Answer: letting people from Pattishall come) and "How much should we charge for children?" (Answer: £100 - that should put off the annoying dim ones who can't read the signs that say KEEP OFF THE GRASS).

News of developments + pics of some of the committee either deliberating or comparing lawn mowers will be featured here in due course. [The ruder ones may be on Shed Monthly.]

Read the minutes of the Paddock Party Committee Meeting here and wish us all the best of luck. We're going to need it!

So Much For Mary - the track

Here's a link to the track.

Here I am

So Much For Mary

I've got it. Heard this track by Jon as a teenager in June 1967. Loved it. Never managed to get a copy on tape and haven't been able to track it down anywhere ever since. 40 years on, courtesy of the remarkable Oldies Project, I now have a good quality recording and will probably play it all evening non-stop!

This has been a sort of lifetime ambition and achieving it is a quite amazing feeling that's as difficult to describe as it may be for most of you to appreciate.

The only search results I could come up with were, in fact, links to a Radio London BigL chart that the Oldies Project people had published. I thought that was all it would be, but that was nice and enough to make me glad that it wasn't something I'd imagined! To then realise that the charts were played every Sunday, and that the 11 June 1967 chart would be played today and that I could record it, knowing that it would be played, was just wonderful. (Otherwise I could have found myself listening to the shows with the mouse hovering over the recording button for weeks, months on end, and still not getting it.)

So everything stopped at 11am today and even an earthquake wouldn't have budged me. I took a chance that the internet connection would hold up. It did. They repeat the show on Wednesday so there'd have been a couple more chances coming up but I'm so, so pleased to have got it first time, now safely filed away in My Music. I'll put a copy on-line shortly so you can hear what has driven me mad over all those years.

I feel absolutely brilliant.