Where Has The Week Gone?

Sunday has rushed around so fast,

on to our lunch, a read and a sherry, 

before a bowl of mussels in a white wine sauce, 

excuse fingers!

we followed that with a roast pork lunch, with gravy for Diana,

sans gravy for myself,

'Cheers!', 

we rounded off the meal with a rhubarb crumble with ice cream and custard, 

delicious, after which we had a afternoon with Columbo, in the evening a film, 

Passchendaele, a really enjoyable movie, albeit the subject, the First World War at Flanders, was anything but for those involved, it did indeed show the horrors of trench fighting in WWI, brutal, but compelling watching, 

after which a Kenny Everett Video Show, this one with David Essex, we followed that with a Benny Hill,

 rounding off our evening with one from It Ain't Half Hot Mum, after which we were off to bed.

I Am Not A Great Fan Of BMW Motorcycles,

but this one caught my eye, 

photographs Roughchild, the bike is a rebuilt 1974 BMW R90, the engine received a full rebuild, with the case blasted with glass media and then cleaned in an ultrasonic tank, Nikasil cylinders were employed and house a set of new 1000cc pistons, while the cylinder heads were totally rebuilt, given a new valve train, and treated to a twin-plug conversion, the gearbox has also been fully rebuilt, with a longer 5th gear for reduced RPM at cruising speeds,

featuring all of the best of the best, the rear end features a set of Ohlins fully adjustable shocks, with blacked-out progressive rate springs,

utilising a custom set of triple clamps allows for the fitment of a set of USD Ohlins forks, and finished in black, this allows for the fitment of radial-mounted callipers, and it doesn’t get much better than a pair of Brembo monoblocks clamping a large set of discs,

the motorcycle is finished in Irish Green, to see more of this and other machines from the Roughchild stable have a look here, would I like it? you bet!

I Had No Idea,

so many songs I like and enjoy were at some times banned, 

I know of course about Lola, sung by The Kinks which was banned by Auntie BBC, (who else?), the reason? The phrase “Coca-Cola” was used in the radio version. Ray Davies, the lead singer, had to fly from New York to London to sing the radio edit so that the song could be broadcast and it is now “cherry cola” how pathetic the ban seemed both then and now, especially with so many brands being featured on sitcoms and films, but back to other banned songs, here are a few that have been banned, one of my favorite Christmas songs,

 “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” by Jimmy Boyd, In 1952, the song reached number one on the Billboard charts, the singer was just 13 years old, Jimmy Boyd, who sang the lyrics to the beautiful holiday tune, unbelievably the Catholic Church attacked the song for equating sensuality and Christmas, the ban was taken up by several radio stations, and here are a few more, this is a small list that I have made,

“Louie Louie” by The Kingsmen

“Wake Up Little Susie” by The Everly Brothers

“Physical” by Olivia Newton-John

“Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” by The Shirelles

“Greased Lightning” by John Travolta

“Love Game” by Lady Gaga

“Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead” by The Wizard of Oz

“Jackie” by Scott Walker

 and unbelievably “Puff the Magic Dragon” by Peter, Paul and Mary,

to see why these and many, many more were banned have a look here.

After Diana Had Left For Work,

in the morning,

Robbie called back, we found that the blockage in our shower was not inside but outside, a downpipe had become blocked and was stopping the flow of waste water,

 

although wire was on top of the downpipe we thought that somehow a bird or leaves was causing the blockage, 

but it was not, after up and down stairs a few times filling the sink and releasing the water, and using the garden hose the culprit was finally found, about 10" of the 4" wide pipe was totally blocked by a huge growth of moss, problem solved it was back upstairs to have the new shower chrome flexible pipe fitted, then another big job, the yearly service of our boiler, Robbie did not leave until 7.30 in the evening, 

next time for my sherry and evening read,

before my starter of smoked mackerel,

time to tuck in,

for my main course a huge steak and ale pie, 

'Cheers!', then a real treat, the Last Night of the Proms, apart from the rousing Proud to be British ending, Sir Stephen Hough made a stunning encore with his reedition of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious on the piano, you can listen to some of it here, what a performance! 

after which I watched  Exodus: Gods and Kings, great special effects, at the end of which Diana arrived home, it was by now late so a quick coffee and a chat and with the end of that we were off to bed.

Lets Start Sunday,

with something bright, light and sunny,

all photographs Dulux, the company Dulux have named a "uplifting" bright yellow colour called True Joy as its Colour of the Year for 2025,

Dulux worked with trend forecast researchers Colour Futures to choose the 2025 Colour of the Year,

Dulux's Colour of the Year for 2023 was a pale yellow named Wild Wonder and for 2024, the brand chose a soft pink colour called Sweet Embrace, so paint out and start painting to get ready for next spring!

Yard, Feet Or Inches,

on the other hand meters, centimetres or millimetres, 

photographs York Press/SWNS well what ever you use it is a pity the bus company in York did not have a ruler, above is the problem, a low bridge, so what did First Bus do? they ordered a fleet that was a part of a £105 million scheme to introduce electric buses and what did they fail to do? measure the buses! I kid you not! First Bus, which operates across Britain is introducing the e-buses as part of a drive to lower harmful emissions by 2035,

Holgate ward councillor Kallum Taylor told the Mail: "It's farcical that Leeman Road has lost another bus service, that tunnel is well known as being a problem. A double decker bus hit it a few years ago and the whole upper deck got torn off, 'I am not sure how First went about their decision, I do not know if they checked the height of the single deckers and thought it was worth the hit and I do not know if they did not check, and they have now realized they have got a problem now they have the buses", I guess a re-route is in order, a First York spokesperson said: 'The changes we introduced in June included a re-route and extension of the 59 service and a new 10L to mitigate alteration to the 10 service in this area, 'We are discussing options to resolve the 59 stopping situation with the transport team at City of York Council and expect to provide an update in the coming weeks.' Meanwhile their customers, the paying public now have no service where there was one, the full article is here.

The Latest Update On Grahams Car,

that was stolen yesterday morning,  

this is his actual car, 

taken at one of the many car shows he goes to, 

his car was stolen at about 9.30 yesterday morning, 2 guys with a angle grinder each and a car transporter showed up at the garage he keeps his car in, they cut through both padlocks on the door and then smashed the central lock and loaded the car up on the transporter and away they went, as it happens one of the residents nearby remember a part of the car transporters number plate, but investigations by the police revelled it was a fake number for the vehicle, so if you should see VYJ 396 anywhere please get in touch with myself or the police, such a shame it has been Graham's pride and joy for 10 or so years, but it appears nowadays you can not have anything nice without it being stolen.

As It Was Diana's Day Off,

first thing we were up and out, 

into a cold day, autumn appears to be here, 

clear blue skies, 

off of the bus in Bromley, Diana wanted to go window shopping,

past the Partridge, Diana went shopping whilst I popped into the bank, I had called Robbie to remedy a couple of things in the bathroom, firstly our shower was not draining properly, despite using bottles of Mr. Muscle to clear it, the drain needed a severe professional talking to, also our mixer tap in the shower was failing to deliver hot water, the shower was warm but not hot, so a new mixer tap was needed, finally the central heating boiler in the kitchen was displaying a 'Service Required' message, so that was also on Robbie's list, cash collected and I was on my way, 

past Primark, I was on a mission, I had said that I would bring a few songs that I have to Thailand and give them to Doc. Jeff, when we meet up there, so I needed to buy a blank CD to put them on, easier said than done,  

I passed the haberdashery in Market Square, 

and some of the Friday market stalls,

looking colourful in the morning sun,

handbags anyone?

I was tempted at the fishmongers stall,

when I saw pots of cockles and whelks, 

and these, 

Cromer crabs, 

as well as a few other fish, but I resisted, 

into W H Smith's, where I was sort of successful, I only wanted one CD, so I thought I would have to buy a pack of say 5, but they only had packs of 25 at a ridiculous price, so that was it, the hunt was on for a pack of 5 CD's,

I passed Lidl where I will be calling into later, 

several shops later including HMV

and CEX, Poundland and a few shops selling computer and telephone accessories it was obvious, I was dealing with a extinct technology, I had already looked on the Internet, a pack of 5 CD's was £3.95, plus £1.95 postage, so I guess I will buy them on the net, but then I thought about buying a memory stick, 

again a total lack of memory sticks until I went back into one of the shops I had be to before that repaired telephones and sold bits and pieces, and there it was, the salesman brought me a 4 GB stick, at £10.00, well the cheaper option was the CD's so I said no, after explaining I would just be giving it away, £8.00 came the reply, I started to walk out of the shop, £6.00 came the distant reply, and fainter "yours for a fiver!" it is great when you really do not want something at a price so you just walk away, anyway at a £5.00 it was a cheaper option that buying the CD's off of the Internet, I made my way past the Churchill Theatre, 

and saw these bamboos for sale, they were the black bamboos I like so much, 

as they grow older the stems turn to a rich black colour, at £20.00 each, I thought that reasonable compared to prices I had seen elsewhere, after which I called into Lidl, a couple of bottles of sherry for myself and some wine for Duncan for next weeks visit, shopping over we had arranged to meet in The Greyhound for a bite to eat, 

'Cheers!',

Diana went with a pizza, 

scampi and chips for myself, the bill came to £22.00 including Diana's coke, arriving home Robbie called round, good and bad news, the mixer was easily changed over, but after investigating the blockage for the shower it was outside of the building, a ladder which Robbie did not have on board was needed, so he will call back next week with a ladder, hopefully clear the blockage and service the boiler, the mixer came to £100.00, good job I went to the bank as I do not normally carry that amount of cash,

in the evening I was out to meet Steve in Penge, 

at the Moon & Stars,

Steve decided to try 2 different beers, I stuck with my tipple, a San Miguel with a dash of lime juice,

we rounded off the evening with a dark stout for Steve, and a large Kraken for myself, after saying our goodbyes we made a move for our homes, arriving home Diana was already in bed, I was just in time for a Have I Got A Bit More News For You, before I too was off to bed.