Baseball

Ball games are something I'm very interested in and I'd of loved to have played baseball as a kid like Ryo Hayakawa seen in this image in an all girls team

This was from the 1998 anime series Princess Nine which is hard to find new of which my copy has a rather awkward segmented box to get the discs out.

Spirited Away

One thing I enjoy is animation and this anime from 2001 is one that I recently watched.

The story is centred on Chihiro, a headstrong 10 year old girl who is very unhappy that her family are relocating and so she'd have new friends.
Making their way toward the new home, her father takes a detour to explore a mysterious tunnel in the woods while on what is the other side there appears to be a deserted theme park but is actually a ghostly town.
Without realizing it they have strayed into the Land of the Spirits, a world of dreamy scenery that is inhabited by ancient gods and magical beings ruled over by the sorceress, Yubaba.
Chihiro's parents are held hostage and with Yubaba set on enslaving them forever, she must use all her energy to survive in her new strange environment.
Aided by Haku, a young brave spirit, she is forced to overcome her fears joining an epic battle for her family's freedom.

I hugely enjoyed watching this which won the 2003 Oscar for the best animated film which in the opinion of many has set a new benchmark in animation.

Tag altered in 2017 for blu ray version.

Satchels

One thing I remember very much from Junior school was having a traditional leather satchel with a pocket at the front to put your name and class on. We used to it carry anything such as books we needed for class in as we had a separate bag for our PE and Swimming stuff.
Rather like with the wooden pencil case I had I felt really proud of it, taking care to keep it in good condition.

Journalling, me and this blog

It's the end of the month, that period between All Souls Day and Guy Fawkes Night that always was a big thing as a child and even as far as law itself might go as much I'm hardly grown up, since formal adulthood  I still look very much to.

It tends to lead to reflective thoughts  but they way you work though those things has changed from the days people encouraged us to keep diaries which always ended up more like to-do lists with me rather than aids to processing my emotions.

Journalling is really where it's all at and is very much encouraged in North America.

Basically you just pour out what's happened and how you feel into a book so unlike a diary you're not at the tyranny of preset dates so you can date and finish any on thing as it happens.

Some girls put a to do list entry in but I'd soon keep that to either a diary or a side page just as a reminder in case it clutters your mind and distracts you from pouring out.

In a lot of ways this Blog is really a journal but in the digital age where I offload, talk though and cry about things on my mind which really the opposite of how being brought up as a boy you're taught - it's all all bury,shut down and carry in - and apart from all the presenting stuff I written about that's something else I can't do cos I'm a girl really.

.

I am emotional, I feel, and physically show it.

I need hugs, I need to cry, I offer others a shoulder to cry on.

That's where I and this blog am headed.

Choo choo's Pt.2

Another place we visited a few times in the 1970's was the Vale of the Rheidol which is a steam train line running from the Welsh university town of Aberystwyth to the Devils Bridge some 12 miles downline.
I'm sure the engine we went on was called Owen Glendwr who I think was something of a hero to the Welsh fighting English occupation of their Country.

 The countryside in that part of Wales is very mountainous and really beautiful.

B is for berries

One nice thing about where we live is we live in the countryside with woodland so you sure notice the seasons and as we're well in the fall the berries are out on my trees so here'sa a little picture of them.

Hits!

Into October and the start of a new entry I'll add to over time.

The Hits Album otherwise know as The Hits was a series of albums in a similar vain to the Now series started in 1984 by CBS and WEA records in the UK that run to ten numbered editions, then had a few restarts and eventually fizzled out by the naughties.

Both CBS and Warner (WEA) had contributed tracks to the Now series but generally they didn't not include US acts possibly for contractual reasons and sought to capitalize on the UK markets fascination with compilations of chart hits by establishing their own series.

My brother bought a few of the earlier ones that I taped and to which the recordings have long gone and I bought Hits 8 and 9 myself at the time as there was very little overlap between them and the NOW series.The cassettes of the first three versions had the main artwork on a double case to the left and a list of artists feature toward the right as the lps used pictures that would not of worked scaled down.

What I am doing is slowly restoring some of those HITS albums I had on tape aiming to complete the series to HITS 9 making entries about each volume on this page as I go along.

HITS1. In part a Greatest Hits of 1984 but with other songs added like Alphaville's Big In Japan.

HITS2 . This two disc set is in some respects a Now4B as a number of tracks that came out on the Now Dance album at the same time in 12" versions appear here in their standard mixes with all the main chart hits added such as Close (To The Edit), I Want To Know What Love is, 1999, A New England and Since Yesterday amongst others.

HITS3 Hits from the tail end of 1985 including several number ones this always was one of the strongest ones in the series

HITS4 A selection of hits from early 1986 from the likes of the Bangles, Madonna, Pet Shop Boys (single mix of West End Girls) and The Damned

HITS5: Taking in the later half of '86 we're treated to such gems as You Can Call Me Al, Walk Like An Egyptian, Thorn In My Side, Anotherloverholeinyohead, Rage Hard and Julian Cope's classic World Shut Your Mouth

I have the single cd version too.

HITS6 Hits from spring of 1987 which I own the cd version of notable for the only cd with the single remix of Madonna's Isla Bonita and added the double lp.

HITS7 Less hit laden but with a good number of memorable songs like You Win Again, the counter part to NOW 10 and both were double cd issues.

This one covered chart hits in the second half of 1987 by Prince and Fleetwood Mac as well as being the first to come out on double compact disc which is what my brother bought and I later picked up a used copy.

HITS8 A selection of hits from the Summer of '88 when Acid House was all the rave which I own the cd version of

HITS9 Hits from the second half of 1988 and a counterfoil to NOW 13 with more big hits and also runs like Bros's Cat Among the Pigeons and A-ha's You Are The One which originally I bought on lp but now have the cd version.