Resting Bear edition

Pawley (tm)? I, Theodore The Bear, got covered in nasty wet stuff  a few weeks back and my owner had to carefully wash and clean me up. Do you know what it feels like to have stuff land above you head soaking your arms right through? Gives me the shivers to tell you the truth but anyway Jo sorted me out and let's me sleep on the bed though today she's put the spare overs and that on. I've never see her friends bear never mind had tea with them.(sigh)
I have a few companions that I want Jo to show you at some time.
BFN, everyone. Theodore

Just a few words from me, the one who has this blog to say I hope everyone including LBA who flow in from the States @GT.to who is going to camp has a great time and the weather is kind for you all.
I'm still resting the throat taking lozengers and the like to sooth it here after it went within  an hour at work on Monday which as my role involves talking to people face to face is a bit of a blow.
Thanks to everyone in 'chat' for their sympathies and concern,
Hugs, Jo.

Fresh start

Well I've finally done it.
I have joined girltalk.to for some girltalk because my inner child side isn't going way so repressing it isn't going to work as I just feel shut down and sad. For a period I did try to let more of it out but this was before I had the internet never mind knew what the words were to describe what I felt. and when I did find some places they were so 'adult content'  orientated  I don't feel I belonged there.
 At least at Girl Talk.to forums, I'm with those who truly understand how I feel which believe you me is a relief as so many people just do not understand.
While there I came to learn of a movie that apparently I'd missed out onthat was actually up my street as film for children and family viewing called Nanny McPhee, the kind of film set in house with lots of children I hadn't seen for years.
Watching it made me feel good because a part of me came back alive - my inner child - and it wants to live on.

Time for the OJays

Whoo-woo another new entry about music!
The OJays have a long history but it wasn't until Gambol and Huff produces take them into their Philadelphia International label in the early 1970's that they broke big and it was around that era that I first got to hear of them being played on the metropolitan radio stations managing to make a big enough antenna for my radio to pull these stations.
Strangely enough one source of hearing them was the journey to school as one of the drivers who took me always had their stuff plus a shedfull of other acts on that label playing out of his car stereo.
Several things hit you of which the first was the production being sparse allowing the musicianship to rise and the vocals to come through clearly.
The second was the arrangements with a strong jazz influence and finally them words - the OJays famously had had 'a message in our music' talking about the state of society - family breakdown, integrity, backstabbers, racism, the importance of love and so on in what in other respects was a cynical no future era. In the OJay's world you could rise above what maybe holding you down.
I was late into getting anything buy the OJays on compact disc and the first title I did get was "Collectors Items" originally released on lp in 1977 which is a collection of special mixes of their earlier songs. Shortly afterwards in the States a number of their early albums got issued by Sony legacy but these were very hard to find and in fact I've only just completed my set with the Backstabbers, Ship Ahoy and Survival studio albums plus the Live In London album issued in 1974.
In late 1998 it was announced that WestSide were to re-issue all their post 1976 albums in the UK the following year and in that period I bought each issue as soon as it came out.
They came in the form of either 2 albums on a single cd or three on 2 cds with one album kind of split between the discs which wasn't ideal but they had very good notes about what was happening with the band, all the singles issued with their 'b' sides and so on.
There were all re-released by Edsel in 2004 in the much better 2 album on one cd format.

The Tyger

Here is a favourite poem of mine written by William Blake called The Tyger:

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Season's greetings

It's fast approaching Christmas here where apart from reading the Nativity story we're going to busy with writing our Christmas Cards, visiting our friends and generally preparing for Christmas Day itself so we'll be taking a break here on the World of Joanne Chan  until the New Year.
Our blog is like us unapologetically Junior minded steeped in life and likes of being a Junior even if by our age we are older than our years and that is and was what we're about our child-like innocence.
So with all that we'd like to wish you a very happy Christmas and New Year.

Time for a story

Not that long the little saint nick comes, eh and I'm thinking  back to the Christmas's of the past and the presents I'd of wanted to have been given.
I loved reading although it's something I'm not even now particularly good at and so I's of gotten a  few books.

 

Now that's more the kind of book, a collection of short stories you can just dip into whenever you have a few minutes spare and as it happens I have a copy of this because although when I was a bit older and we were moving about Mommy tossed aside stuff including books she thought I grew out of, this one came with me in the toybox no doubt wrapped in wallpaper that we were expected to put over to protect our books so no one knew what it was!

The front cover makes me so happy with its carefree images of junior life although I only briefly had a dog and well you don't run around with your cat on a lead now do you?

Also back then we weren't big on 'Brands' with their logo's spluttered on garments like some walking advertising hoarding.

Joggers Jo

In the dim and distant past before this blog was formally started some years ago I often thought about what go in it but really it's anything connected about me, how I live and present.

 You see I do have some Tomboyish traits and for a good period about five years after I left school I did enjoying wearing track suit bottoms a lot with either t shirts, sweatshirts and a baseball jacket which in that period became almost an iconic image of me.
Generally it was Puma's that I wore with matching trainers and the only trend I did resist was the whole 'popper' phase where they'd be all down the legs which didn't appear to make any sense to me.Like why would you need to unpop your legs?