Saturday, December 23, 2006

Shot scot

I have just been turned on to this newspaper thanks to Richard and having done the haggis hunt proceeded to the news headlines. Check this out - I mean, how unlucky can you get? That cleaner nearly HAD 'dunroamin' !
'No action taken' - What!! Having a loaded gun in your hotel room is OK then...!
Obviously the police at Bonar Bridge are kept very busy....

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Progress??

When I started this blogging lark it was all very easy once I'd set up my template - I'd click on the link for 'blog' or 'dashboard' and there I was. Then THEY said 'Go to the new format - beta blogger - it's a lot better and easier ---- Ha Bloody Ha!!!
It's a nightmare - what a pig's ear - each time I go to 'Dashboard' I have to sign in with my blogger stuff, THEN sign into my Google account and each time I tick the 'remember me' box but it never does (remember me). The only good thing about it is that my usernames and passwords are now firmly imprinted into my ageing and very limited memory.
What was wrong with the old blogger - it seems to have worked for many people for a long time.

There is an old adage - IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT

Frustrated of Devon..................

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Totty

I woke up this morning with a song running around my head. This is a not uncommon experience for me - working on my own most of the time I tend to get lost in my own thoughts and tunes in particular can get locked in and in some cases, drive me nuts.
Anyroadup this song just came out of the blue. I haven't thought about it, or sung it, in years.

Strange that!

I should explain that I was a very active semi-pro folk singer in the '60s and '70s (I may well write about this in more detail later) and I heard this song while visiting Ewan McColl's 'Singer's Club' round about '65/'66. It was written and sung by a young chap whos name escapes me except he was a 'John' - I apologise to him for this, as where possible, I like to give credit where it is due.
It is unusual in that it is written almost entirely in cockney rhyming slang - which should prove a challenge for my overseas readers, if not some of those at home!

So...here are the lyrics(I actually have a recording of me singing it but fortunately for the world I don't know how to post it!)
Totty

As she walked along the street, on ‘er little plates of meat
And the summer sun was shinin’ on ‘er golden barnet fair.
Bright as angels in the skies were ‘er two blue mutton pies,
In me east and west old Cupid shot a dart and left it there.

She’d a grecian I suppose and of ‘ampstead ‘eath two rows
In ‘er sunny south they glistened like two glittering strings of pearls.
Down upon me bread and cheese did I fall and murmer ‘Please
Be me storm and strife, Dear Totty, oh you loveliest of girls.’

Then a bow-wow by ‘er side, who ‘till then ‘ad stood and tried
A jenny lee to banish, wot was on ‘is jonah’s whale.
Gave an ‘ydrophobia bark, she said ‘Wot a noah’s ark’
And right through me rank and riches did me cribbage pegs assail.

‘Ere the bulldog I could stop, she ‘ad called a ginger pop
Who said ‘Wot the ‘enery melville do you think you’re doin’ ‘ere?’
And I ‘eard as orf I slunk, ‘Ere that feller’s jumbo’s trunk!’
And the walter joyce was Totty wiv ‘er golden barnet fair.
Everybody got that?......

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Sunday, December 10, 2006

Rain

No not the Somerset Maugham story/play, just the weather.

It's all getting rather tiresome. I have two active, healthy teenage sons who create vast amounts of washing in no time at all. Being (or at least attempting to be) a moderately 'green' person (you wouldn't believe the time I spend organising my recycling) I chose not to get a washer/drier - instead I rely on a clothesline and an airier over the Rayburn. Also I hate ironing and a good, dry, windy day takes care of most of the creases - but this bloody weather is just awful. For god's sake it's like April - sun, shower, wind, shower and then RAIN. I'm getting quite paranoid about it. When it's fine and dry in the morning I feel quite guilty putting washing on, knowing quite well that it will cloud over and start to rain the moment I leave the house having put the washing on the line.
Yes it's all MY fault - sorry about that. I'm pretty certain that the tornado in London wasn't down to me - I can't be THAT important to Murphy, surely....
To add insult to injury - having been extraordinarily busy of late, I found myself with a 'day off' today - wow, what to do! - I quite fancied going to see a Rory Gallagher tribute band called 'Sinnerboy' who are playing (as I write) in Poole - 120 miles away. I was up for the drive - no problem to me - I'm used to that what with all the gigging I do - but the weather is diabolical and I just can't face a 2 1/2 hour drive in gales of wind and driving rain. So no gig. I feel deflated and pissed off.
It's December, for Christ's sake. At least, when I was young, it had the decency to snow - you knew where you were with that!
It must be global warming, caused by all those washer/driers!!!

There, I feel better now, even if I must be the saddest person in Devon.....


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