Kicking it down the yard

The cooler spell returns here after the last ten days or so so we're not flagging - well apart from the consequences of being up to see Austria win Eurovision 2025 although I wasn't viewing so much as I find flashing lights make me very ill - so we'll be tuned in by the time I have written this for this years WSL FA Cup between Chelsea and Manchester United.

Let's say that's what I follow, had been much good on my feet I'd of been down to the park to play just like modern girls in these parts do and that's what I love about today whereas if you'd of asked for a game back in the day you'd of been told "Girls can't play football" which was a nonsense but was all about keeping advantages for boys and men.

Of course it could work the other way and that was wrong too.

If you have the ability and are prepared to put the effort in, why shouldn't you follow what interests you just because someone has sex based issues?

Anyway Chelsea won 3-0! Way to go.

Those missed first time around...

1986 was the year of the National Garden Festival at Etruria not far from here down the A500 "D" Road, it was just over two and half years since the launch of ILR radio here with Signal Radio based in Shelton where before I listened mainly to Beacon Radio based in Tettenhall, Wolverhampton who played more contemporary music than the local BBC station and had specialist shows covering a variety of music.

It was a rather mixed era when came to music formats as I had cubes of records, shelves of tapes and the first few of what was to become a large cd library and there was no real order as to which artists or titles were in any.

Getting anything resembling that was to take years. 

The Pet Shop Boys had come to my attention the year before via a track on a music magazine free flexidisc that featured a track by them and a compilation cassette and by the time I was inclined to buy their first album, Please, I'd gotten a cd player and so what was originally planned as a XDR tm tape purchase  became the cd bought from John Menzies in Newcastle Under Lyme.

Unlike some artists I didn't get the vinyl singles so recently I picked up the original UK lp version so I can play Opportunities, West End Girls and Love Comes Quickly on the much improved vinyl set up.

I did get Actually direct on cd although I had to save up for it as I was a bit short on money at the time but the album art just works better in lp size jackets.

This was the home of It's A Sin, What Have I Done To Deserve This that featured Dusty Springfield and Rent to which I had the Smash Hits posts with lyrics of.

There was a special imported version that had the 12" of Always On My Mind you could get but as didn't get around to it, the regular UK vinyl will suffice and in any event sounds just great.

Although Actually is an all digital recording the vinyl edition does sound fuller on my system to the cd.

October 1988 saw a kind of six track extended mix album, almost but not quite a collection of 12" singles that had an alternate mix of Always On Your Mind, Domino Dancing that I saw the promotion film of in surround sound at the old Cannon Cinema in the city centre and It's Alright which was remixed for single release in 1989.

As with Actually this was bought original straight to cd in a two for twenty pounds new release offer but this sounds really expansive on record form.

Enter May, server down

Another month and we're in late Spring with last week being jolly hot until friday so layers were off, much liquid consumed and windows opened here.

It was an odd week for Fur Affinity as it was down with technical issues and is currently down as they need to reinstall the database and doing that checking everything is as it should be is taking time but is best done properly.

That of course meant no journals with blog links on site and comments, one reason I hung around Discord more than usual apart from concerns about one persons welfare.

 

Discourse around what girls *should* wear especially in regressive/re-enactment  contexts do really try my patience, especially of the "everything should be like it was xx years ago" nature cos there were very good reasons why we progressed as I recall female staff demanding the right to wear trousers at school and to basically do whatever you personally liked rather than saying in effect "Can I do this as a girl?".

So today we wear what we feel comfortable in, we work in fields that match our abilities not gender expectations and play whatever games or take part in sporting endeavours we wish and that's how I approach things personally.

You can understand people not being personally comfortable with some sorts of presentation when may remind them of things best forgotten but as someone whoes worst enemies tended to wear grey skirts and white socks I sometimes wonder if they consider how I might feel when they're being somewhat prescriptive about what to wear.

 Given like most girls today I've embraced change and like football for females it was hardly surprising that in my uniform are big girls sports shorts, designed for females fitting very well.

The world I'm around may be in 2025 even when my head is still in the 70's and 80's but I'm a modern girl at heart with a much fuller notion of what a girl is than some others.

Easter Party 2025

 

No, he wasn't caught on the hop this year just that Easter was a week later when we all got together after arriving on Friday having gotten a taxi and caught the train down so I would be less rushed which also had the benefit of enjoying a fish and part battered chip meal was people talked.

Saturday was the start of events proper and I was up just after six, possibly the earliest cos I go by British Cat Time - when you can see things you get moving - so after the last person arrived we started with an Easter Egg Hunt which the first step was to assemble your basket and having done that I found seven of them hidden all over the place.

We then retired for home made burgers with onion that we ate outside that were most scrumptious .

We then had to throw a bean bag at the rabbit to score points which wasn't my strong point  before the egg and spoon race which you could I was more slow and steady before the outdoor darts which I wasn't too bad at  

Then each time had to retrieve a deck using a pole with chain but it soon transpired the chain was too long and heavy although one person did seem to develop a knack for it.

Then we had Tin Can Alley where one team member managed get a ball through the centre of the tins leaving those around the edges in a perfect inverted V shape and I knocked most of them off which was something!

We were treated to small creme eggs and a gingerbread bunny.

We then enjoyed an enjoyable bring a long a few things buffet  which I had B-B que chicken, pork pie salad and sausage roll before playing Easter bingo  and Family Favourites.

After much talk we got to sleep - for me opposite the fire - just before midnight and I was up for oatcakes and bacon before we went to the local pub for a meal which for me was a turkey roast and sticky toffee treacle pudding.

After that we made our ways home with Debbie kindly providing three of us a lift to the station.

Thanks to Jennifer for organizing the party and everyone contributing to a highly enjoyable event.

Easter week

It's Easter which beyond my staples of reading the Easter Story (you can't have Christmas without Easter theologically) and observance does involve Easter fun and games which you may of done either in your family or with other groups.

 In Girlguiding you can do a lot from egg hunts, making cards and making toys and maybe attending an Easter service.

 These days you can get colourful bags to take to your egg hunts!

There was two eggs here one from Dad and the other from one of adoptive Aunts which as I type this will be hatched and broken into.

White chocolate while a bit sickly doesn't bother me so much with the dreaded headaches and that so I tend to go with that having "lost" many a easter or christmas to that in the past.

Happy Easter
 

Ravel at the piano...

It's a sunny glorious afternoon as I type this with Easter Cards arriving before said bunny arrives later on in the week but apart from setting up the new portable radio something else arrived to keep my mind of the crazy world we're living in.

There are whole sets of the orchestral works of the French composer, Ravel, but not a complete set of his solo piano works including a couple of compositions first discovered in the 1970's but last week a really complete set came out on the Essex, U.K. label Chandos.

This is really well performed on a Yamaha piano with a specialist team to keep it in perfect tune in what is a two cd set priced as a single full price set with excellent high resolution digital recording although the disc is in regular cd format (and also available on HD Download).

Given my soft spot for solo piano works this is very much appreciated.

Plushies at lunch time

After last weekends activity and some follow up stuff like sorting the Outbound ticket for Easter's get together we're taking things a bit steadily and resting the paw after mentioning it to one person this week and combing my dollies hair a bit as they soon get tangled (and that's not as good as the movie!).

One great thing about small plushies is you can indulge your inner little girl side with cuteness without taking up loads of space and the other is they fit well between the sheets when you need something to hug at night.

People have been talking a bit this week about school dinners (din-dins to me) which varied a fair bit as at school one, they were brought part cooked and reheated so fleshy things like fish tended to be a bit dry and we carried them to a table in a community centre.

School number two was a lot better as we had somewhere to sit in school, cleared tables, and generally one or two of us would be given the food in order and then serve the children on tables first on real plates. I liked the fish cakes and semolina pudding and jam.

School three was similar except you ate at tables in a hall and there exceptions for diabetics and certain religious customs  and was first place I encountered Manchester Tart.

I still have cravings for school dinners.