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I'm afraid I don't but it was by no means new in 2000. It's an antique but as her house is around the same size as mine (ex local authority post war slum clearance estate terrace) she couldn't possibly fit even a baby grand into her dining/teaching space.

I only managed twenty minutes of practice last night because I got into watching something on Channel 4 called 'Cucumber' about a middle aged gay bloke in Manchester and his circle of life. So I might have a nap at the shop later if they don't keep me supplied with fresh Arabica. Then tomorrow I have yet another property repairs bloke call on me whom, according to his website is 'highley qualified'....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highley

Hope he's not Highley dangerous....

Just not Highley Qualified in Speling.

He was highley pleasant, highley reasonable and very highley efficient. Hopefully by Thursday evening I will have a leak free roof so I can start the reinsulation and plasterboarding next weekend. Now to learn how to hang a door.

Would have been so nice to have gone to church this morning, especially after what happened on Friday. Still, worse things happen at sea. There are those that are in peril on it, you know.

dave brum wrote:Would have been so nice to have gone to church this morning

Nothing stopping you except you. If you had I bet it'd have been warmer than the one I was in this morning. Thank God for fingerless gloves. Thought of you - we had Cwm Rhondda AND Blaenwern! (I love Welsh - it sends merkin spellcheckers insane...)

Gill the Piano wrote:

dave brum wrote:Would have been so nice to have gone to church this morning

Nothing stopping you except you. If you had I bet it'd have been warmer than the one I was in this morning. Thank God for fingerless gloves. Thought of you - we had Cwm Rhondda AND Blaenwern! (I love Welsh - it sends merkin spellcheckers insane...)

Two things stopping me: 1) Fanny Fosdyke. 2) My wife.

I haven't played Cwm Rhondda or Blaenwern for ages now. Well, I've had no reason to, have I? Brenin mawr, I'm still only about 70% there with my 'Evening in the Meadow' and it's my lesson with Mabel on Tuesday. There is actually a St.Davids church around 4km from us and I'll bet there'll be plenty of Welsh stuff on their patron saint service in March.

RIP Demis Roussos, on the first day of the era when it's good to be Greek once again.

dave brum wrote:Two things stopping me: 1) Fanny Fosdyke. 2) My wife.

Nope, just you.

I didn't know Denis Roussos had died...the Singing Marquee, bless him...

Gill the Piano wrote:

dave brum wrote:Two things stopping me: 1) Fanny Fosdyke. 2) My wife.

Nope, just you.

I can't possibly go on my own as she would want to come too. Which she will not as a) she cannot read the hymn books and OHP b) she cannot sing in tune c) she says if she ever sees Fanny Fosdyke she will say something very ungodly to her over her treatment of her dear loving hubby and d) she has a misanthropic streak. Even though she does actually believe in the existence of God. I've still got my email from the Bishop though!

I remember seeing Demis Roussos on TV not long after we got colour and he was wearing some really bright blue lace-up boots under his kaftan. You could see him as his agent probably put it on a 1600rpm spin instead of an 800, which made it shrink a few cms. I don't think he ever got as far as Eurovision but he would have been prime material in those boots. Then along came the Herreys from Sweden with those 10 metre high golden shoes and they won it, the jammy sods. Diggi Loo, Diggi Ley indeed! RIP Demis again.

Really struggling with 'Evening In The Meadow'. I thing this will be the first tune I've not managed to fully learn in 2 weeks in the 11 months I've been seeing Mabel. Those LH chords are really difficult and banjax me something chronic. Don't think I'll be able to play it correctly tomorrow.

That's why you have lessons...been there,done that today in my guitar lesson! You'll get there.

Well, we're just going to have to wait and see. I hit a stumbling block at Book 3 with Fanny Fosdyke in 2012 and my poor brain can't work quick enough to process all those dots, especially after it has received yet another nasty shock on Friday and the body that it governs is weary with knocking the bejabers out of our small bedroom. We're supposed to have a hole in the roof mended on Thursday morning but I've just seen the weather forecast. Snow, snow, thick thick snow. So that'll be put back yet again which means I can't put up the plasterboard I've got coming tomorrow. With my health that would take me two days plus to do as I have to keep stopping to get my breath. Balls (not you, Ed).

Just had a butchers at the church newsletter. It seems Fanny Fosdyke's husband (Frankie) is doing the New Testament reading next Sunday. I really feel for this poor man. He needs a world day of prayer for all he has to put up with.

He's not a musician incidentally, he does drama and he's training to be a teacher (that's not the reason why he needs all the prayer).

If you put 'demis roussos top of the pops' into Google Images, you will see the man himself in his blue jackboots and long johns.

There HAD to be some Youtube footage of it somewhere..... Teddy Sphericals playing the piano on LBC:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPvtWl77yF4

dave brum wrote: he's training to be a teacher (that's not the reason why he needs all the prayer).

I think it IS the reason the poor sod needs praying for, actually...it's not teaching, it's containment and crowd management these days. They ought to be given a tazer and a bullwhip when they get their shiny whistle upon qualifying.

dave brum wrote:There HAD to be some Youtube footage of it somewhere..... Teddy Sphericals playing the piano on LBC:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPvtWl77yF4

Well, much as I loathe the arrogant git I have to hand it to him; as an adult learner it is TERRIFYING to perform. But to drop it on him like that, and considering he had no music and couldn't find middle C on that horrid plastic pig, I think he did rather well, she said, grudgingly.

William Hague is also at the same grade on the piano, but there is no footage of him playing. If Nick Ferrari is reading this.....

I was really fearing my lesson today but it was over before I realised it. I had been struggling and labouring with EITM but even though I did commit a few errors, Mabs went through it with me and now I actually feel as if I WANT to get in there and tackle it for the 10th February (my next lesson). In fact when I got back I spent half an hour going over what she told me on my piano before the kettle went on. It's amazing how much easier things seem, or how buoyed up you get with enthusiasm after you have a lesson. I shall be practising EITM every time I go up to the khazi, I think....

Other main points, I'm now doing Ab major and G# minor arpeggios with both hands, which mean I am now doing all 19 of my arpeggios with both hands. Group 4 ADAD, slowly and one at a time. Theory, all OK except for mistaking 6/8 for 9/8 and no new pieces as Mabs acknowledges that things are getting harder now. She actually told me I had done really really well with EITM. Fanny Fosdyke would have scorned me.

Well F FF. You spend far too much brain space on that old bag - just let it lie. Forget her and don't even waste a braincell on her.

Fanny who?

dave brum wrote:Fanny who?

I had to get up at 0510 this morning not only because my wife has been asked to start and finish half an hour earlier today, I had to check the situation with the snow (unfortunately, it's not May yet). As far as this area is concerned, the worst will be this morning but we've only had a light dusting so far.

Still not good for the bloke I've got coming to mend the hole in my roof today. I don't see it happening which will put me back another X amount of days. I'd rather him not come than to attempt to fix it from the inside.

Are there TWO five o'clocks in a day then?
Good luck for tomorrow...

The silly bugger didn't turn up, and it was absolutely NOTHING to do with the bad weather. He told me on Saturday he'd be along to do it on Thursday (today) before I saw on the weather forecast snow and cold winds were forecast. I chased him up at lunchtime to tell him not to bother coming out as we were in the middle of a blizzard that dumped 3cm onto us, and do you know what he told me on the telephone?? He had FORGOT??? I would have appreciated a telephone call from him to tell me he couldn't come out due to the weather but it seems he'd taken another job and not told us first.

I still have a gaping hole in my roof and now I'm on to tradesman number THREE, whether he'll actually bother to return my call (depends on the weather). However, unrelated I cannot believe I've just emailed Mabel to ask her something about A Dozen a Day and sent her a link of Captain Cobblers tickling the ivories.

Saw a lovely early 70s information sign for pedestrians pointing to New Street Station, Citizens Advice Bureau and Toilets in an antique shop on the Pershore Road today. They were part of a series the Council made when the inner ring road ('Queensway') was completed and pedestrians were marshalled like sheep down dingy subways away from raised concrete highways. It would look great in your back garden, Gill!

How much? But the postage would be prohibitive and Tim the Postie might never speak to me again...

It looks like cast iron, but in terms of postage it would break the bank. Of course, you could always pop up and see it for yourself. It's on the junction of the famous Dogpool Lane, two streetname signs, both have the first 'l' scratched out.

Nah, it's forrin - we try to stick to local stuff if we can!

Some sad news, Cheltenham Piano Centre is closing down, they are having a clearance sale due to the owners retiring after 50 years. Whilst it's not as big as Vale Pianos between Pershore and Evesham or Mickleburghs, it's a great little shop with lots of pianos packed into it along with an excellent sheet music department. Another one bites the dust

http://cheltenhampianocentre.co.uk

And I hope I get some good luck this week with the darrens. I've given this person until 12 noon tomorrow to return my call, otherwise it's onto no4. I cannot now do anything else until this hole in the roof is mended and it's beginning to bug me now.

Just discovered the 48 Bach Preludes and Fugues. I can absolutely lose myself in them, and the best bit is that I've got another 46 to listen to! Why DO people listen to heavy metal and rap to get off their heads by!

Update on the darrens, no telephone calls coming in, so there'll be more going out after lunch.

Had a call from a darren in Waitrose yesterday but he couldn't come out for three weeks so he said. However I've got another one coming at lunchtime to take a butchers at my hole. Hope he keeps his appointment...

I now have the old ATV station ident jingle as a text alert tone. Everyone in the UK please text me as it'll be Crossroads Motel (which my Keep Fit instructor used to act in as a child) made in Birmingham all over again! That green woolly hat.....

I'm going to have to mend this roof myself, find out how to do it, get the bits and bobs from Wickes and blooming well do it. The darren who called on us yesterday gave us a quote of £1700 for a repoint of the tiles, including scaffolding hire (included in the price hence the expensiveness - although with all the lychens and winter ice on those tiles I refuse to get up there and do it. I repeat, it's a small hole in the roof tiles that needs to be blocked up and waterproofed.

So it's going to have to be done from inside. The first thing would be for me to get up into the loft, remove all the green goo and take some photos of the hole so at least my wife can see what the problem is and I'll be able to see from the comfort of my computer screen so I'll know what to get from Wickes.

ONE cracked roof tile. Not ten or fifteen misplaced ones. Just ONE. The cause of my wet piano last October amongst other things. Not saying darrens are cowboys or bad workmen, they should really be photographers or journalists as they excel at enlarging anything.

What a ripoff merchant... how will you fix it? Silicon?

That won't fix it as there's a gaping hole in the tile. I've come across a supply of them in Middlesborough and the bloke said he'd despatch some to me at around £3 a tile - they're very rare from Holland and they were first imported into Britain around 1955, which is the age of this house when postwar slum clearances were well under way.

But I wish this cold spell would hurry up and end as with this 42x30cm hole in my tiles, it's hellishly parky and also wet upstairs.

Have you ordered a box of them? It's a Belgian pantile - Eric says to go to a reclamation yard and buy a few. Cheaper than new.

They're Dutch, Tegelen tiles, and I've got a box of 9 coming on Tuesday. I may even be able to put it on from the inside. However should I fall off the roof, I would like to leave my piano to the pig ignorant darren who quoted me £2300 for a new roof when I asked him to quote for a broken tile replacement. I did use reclamation but Middlesborough was the only place I could find some.

Good idea to get a few extra just in case.

Well, with the 9 I can have a play around with 'em and see how they interlock before I fit them. We have some flashband which is supposed to adhere to anything, but if it doesn't take to clay I can wrap some dental floss or cotton around the tile to pull it into place. I do not want to have to get on the roof. I'm not that scared of heights but the tiles may not be able to withstand my weight. I rescued a sparrow this morning from my front bedroom that had sneaked through the hole I had left uncovered on Thursday night whilst I was cutting plywood to temporarily fill it.

Huh, I must be the ONLY unqualified builder in Britain that listens to Radio 3 whilst working!

Yet another plug for the food stores of the John Lewis Partnership. On the 13th January, four weeks ago after my piano lesson I went to Waitrose in Harborne to purchase a huge bouquet of flowers for my wife. The roses are only just beginning to dry up and the rest of the bouquet lasted well over a fortnight. Flowers from M&S have never even lasted that long!

I feel like sneaking over and getting something tomorrow after the lesson. Maybe chocolates, it is after all Valentines Day this week and Waitrose 'Seriously Creamy/Smooth/Intense/Nutty' range is really scrumptious (this is not an advert, Waitrose are NOT paying me!)

6 of my roof tiles arrived cracked so 6 more are on their way. But I have enough to do the job tomorrow so once more I'll be watertight. Then I can concentrate on the heatproofing.

Their Seriously Creamy ice cream is fabulous - I like the ginger one and the Columbian coffee ones. (We have the individual ones on sticks with chocolate outsides).

The Santa Domingo cocoa one is really chocolatey and the raspberry and clotted cream one actually tastes of real fruit and cream rather than mass produced flavouring.

There is an espresso one besides the Colombian coffee one. We had a Charlie Brigham's macaroni cheese last week that was reduced...and it was lovely. Oh, if only I was a success I would insisi on doing my shopping at Waitrose. I might even see Mabs in there!!!

Has the one in Marlow got a cafe?? I never noticed last August.

Yes, upstairs. Full of yummymummies and screaming brats, generally. With pushchairs bigger than my car - hundreds of 'em.

Not many of them in the Midlands have cafes, Harborne, Hall Green and Mere Green, all in Brum, doesn't have one, neither does Kenilworth or Droitwich. Our nearest with a cafe is Woolvramptin plus Malvern is easy to get to on the M5 from our side of town.

Today it's been Dave the Masterplaster (well, practice anyway with the compounding), Dave the Lofty Lagger and Dave the Brummie equivalent of Indiana Jones in my neighbour's shed. I was covered from head to toe in farage so I had to have a shower - then it was Dave the Cook. Now it's Dave the Pianist at long last!

Sad to hear of the death of Lesley Gore (It's My Party). I was only thinking of the version of that song that I know yesterday - that by Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin. RIP Lesley, but too young to remember her original version of Its My Party...Played piano as well:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31500422

Yes, it's a real toetapper that you can't help singing (well, wailing) along to...

Not all of the things to see in Stratford on Avon are Shakespeare related, yesterday I saw 1) a house on a Jeremy Kyle estate with all of its Christmas decorations up (including a giant 'Merry Christmas plastered on the side of it) 2) a woman at the checkout in Waitrose filling up a Fortnum and Mason 'bag for life' and (the best) 3) a black Bluthner grand that looked in very good nick with an iron frame on sale in a secondhand furniture warehouse. And I expected 'to pee or not to pee, that is the question' scrawled on a toilet wall....