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Getting an email from the Bishop of Birmingham, David Urquhart.

Blimey, you do move in elevated circles, cherub!

Because he cares. And with the shock the both of us have sustained in recent weeks, we need all the caring voices we can galvanise.

On Saturday, it would have been a month, and I'm just starting to get over it. But Teresa cannot, it's brought on a dreadful cold, persistent low mood and a plethora of womens problems.

But in the fashion of the title of this thread we saw my old health trainer in the waiting room....and although we'rte off his books now he's going to send us some stuff in relation to our new predicament. He cares too, like Bishop David.

Applying for 2 more jobs, and getting up to the end of the 3rd line of my HW piece, Puppets Complaint. Which contains dotted quaver and 2 demisemiquaver combos rather than dotted quaver and (1) semiquaver.

Losing yet another kg. Weight now 103.5kg. My ideal weight for a male of my height and age is around the mid 80s, but I'd be happy with double figures, which I should reach in January. It certainly i good to get into old T-shirts/jeans again.

Finishing my ATOS benefits questionnaire after three days. I still have to proofread it, collect up all the evidence scan and post it so it should reach them before the end of December. But I can do all that later after I've had a nice cup of tea. My right hand is really sore from all that writing!

Too much typing!

Don't know how you can type with all those rings on anyway!!!

Taking down the decorations. I really do not know why they were put up in the first place, it was just what my wife wanted but the place looks so clean and tidy now. Oh and seeing that this weekend the sun will set in Birmingham after 1600, meaning lengthening evenings (although the sun will not begin to rise later until January)

I get SAD but in my case I hate summer. Long days are horrible to me!

Gill the Piano wrote:I get SAD but in my case I hate summer. Long days are horrible to me!

Aah summer and the signs thereof, the fan constantly on in the bedroom, lying on top of the bed at 3am nude, not having to wear a coat indoors during the day, temperature not falling below 20 in the lounge, carrying a towel round my neck, fish jumping, cotton is high etc. You must get Summertime Affective Disorder then. I get SAD in the summer too, well if you consider a BRITISH summer....dull days etc.

Getting an email from Mabel asking how I am and to say thank you for her Chrissie present. I got her a DVD of Thomas Trotter (who's the Birmingham City Organist) playing the organ at St.Laurence's Parish Church in Ludlow, Shropshire. I picked it up about two weeks before Black Thursday, around the same time I tidied up the tea cosy.

Nailing a job interview for next Monday (had to buy myself a new Peckham for it!)

Good luck for the interview...got a whistle to go with the Peckham?

I have a matching Dicky (Dirt, not Bow).

Finishing Improve Your Sight Reading Pre-Grade 1 for the very LAST time. I shall never need that book again, now it's the blue 'un (Grade 1).

Well done - onwards and upwards!

Maybe Nicolini can have the IYSR pre grade 1 if she wants it?

A lovely afternoon walking around the city centre, the fact that it wasn't too manic made it lovely.

Get the crates of Tetley ready. Back with Mabel the Piano next Tuesday afternoon. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

X 1.000,000,000,000

dave brum wrote:A lovely afternoon walking around the city centre, the fact that it wasn't too manic made it lovely.

Shop browsing is soooooooooooooooo much nicer when the weasels are back at school!

Well, it wasn't manic yesterday but it will be next Christmas and sale time as the biggest John Lewis outside London will be here, along with a more than doubled Harvey Nicks, a new shopping mall above a refurbished New Street Station:

www.newstreetnewstart.co.uk

www.grandcentralbirmingham.com

http://www.mailboxlife.com/the-new-mailbox/

Oh and there will be trams running across Colmore Square, Bull Street and Corporation Street:

http://balfourbeattymidlandmetro.blogspot.co.uk

and did I mention the biggest regeneration project since the Bullring in 2000-2003 which would affect the Christmas Market and (more importantly) the Crafts market:

www.paradisebirmingham.co.uk

Seeing the grave of the great David Barby, which is only metres from where my father in law is buried.

Who, the antiques expert you mean?

Yes, that's him, from Rugby - who passed away in July 12. He's all over the old repeats of Flog It and the Antiques Road Trip, amongst others of that ilk. He was also a Tory councillor in Rugby.

Good morning, United Kingdom!!

Maybe there should be a future tense version of this thread. In which case, an appointment with a high class laydee in Bournville at 3.15 that will make me very happy.

#jesuismabel (sharp, not hashtag)

Happy playing! O, a bit late...anyway I'm sure you enjoyed your piano lesson.

You bet yer boots I did Gill! Though you should see what she's given me for homework. Talk about pushing me out of the comfort zone, this will be the farthest I've ever ventured from it! It is called 'An Evening In The Meadow'. It's Russian but it sounds quintisentially British.

It was so nice to see Mabel after I thought I would never see her again short of a miracle. I didn't get a chance to play my St.Mabel hymn tune. But I did burst into an impromptu rendition of 'For Mash Get Smash'.

Oh she was wearing a ring on the fourth finger of her left hand. Mabel never wears jewellery (or jewelry if you are reading this in the USA). I did ask her if her and her cariad had become engaged but she said no, it was bought her as a Christmas present by him. I will take that with a big pinch of salt.....

I've booked for the 27th. She had Isis after me.

Winter fuel bill early. Estimated at around £356 give or take a few quid, they estimated it not me so it's quite a reliable source. That's actually less than I envisaged, around £407 was my initial calculation given last year's was £343 and the annual price rise.

Switching your things off rather than leaving them on standby makes a hell of a difference.

This actually made me happy last week so I'm a bit late here. Finding out my piano teacher shops at Waitrose

Why would that make you happy...?

Gill the Piano wrote:Why would that make you happy...?

,

Supposedly, it's the hallmark of niceness and poshness - however that is not strictly true. I am neither nice nor posh and I enjoy a visit to my local branches of the Rose (in Harborne B17 and Hall Green B28). I even have the audacity to buy the GUARDIAN in there!!! (they don't sell the Morning Star...)

Mabel is nice and she lives in a posh house, however I'm not sure if she is posh. She has a medium Black Country accent!!!

Picking up a cracking Naxos album of Debussy piano music in a charity shop for £1.99 that I've already had a listen to.

dave brum wrote:

Gill the Piano wrote:Why would that make you happy...?

,
Supposedly, it's the hallmark of niceness and poshness - however that is not strictly true.

Have you visited the splendid website 'Overheard In Waitrose'? Fabulous...

Yes I have. Essential Waitrose Ironing Water. How did the Victorian middle classes keep their shirts and doublets nice and smooth without it!

I had an impromptu visit to Waitrose this evening and I lost a £5 note in there.

dave brum wrote:Yes I have. Essential Waitrose Ironing Water. How did the Victorian middle classes keep their shirts and doublets nice and smooth without it!

They used essential kitchen tapwater...or yard pump water. B*gger about the fiver...

I was going to get some of their lovely ice cream yesterday but I had to take my neighbour to her health centre which is 5 mins from Waitrose...and I had no idea how long she'd be in there, or what the traffic would be like.....it was slap bang in the middle of the rush hour. Saw the ironing water but that branch (Harborne) doesn't sell doughnuts.

Another Waitrose, this time at Lichfield. Have you ever noticed as you enter a Waitrose store there's this smell of strong coffee that wafts over the foyer and a large chunk of the store?

After seeing these in the paper today, Waitrose should launch a major store opening programme in, and maybe even move its head office to, the Second City:

http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/busines ... ns-8577358

Ordering a box of my roof tiles for £52 for delivery on Tuesday, and getting my hole bunged up properly with a piece of plywood cut to size with a heavy duty debris sack stapled to it on 3 sides but not on the 4th side so the rainwater can run down onto the tiles and not into my roofspace. Hope it works, it should do until Wednesday morning when I can replace the tile (not Tuesday afternoon as it's ). And also hearing the whole of Sheherazade on Radio 3 this afternoon whilst sat in heavy school run traffic.

Getting an emaiol (as they say in Doodleeay) from Waitrose customer service with regard to their Black Cherry and Lemon ice cream in their seriously creamy range. All their other flavours I have tried but it seems both of these flavours contain alcohol, which not only is haram, it is a poisonous substance.

Well I like it!

So does Fanny Fosdyke by all accounts judging from what she has been writing on Facebook back in the day when I tried it (just to prove how unnecessary social media is). But that can only be expected from the musical director of a church that holds Christmas carol services in public houses. The church where my shop is helps homeless and poor people in its patch stay AWAY from the perils of alcoholism. Irony.

WILL YOU STOPPIT!!!!

Sorry. But that person. She has such a lot to answer for. I could be talking about H.M Queen Margaret I there but it just so happens I ain't this time. I am so cross about it because I feel that justice has not been done plus I cannot forgive and forget this particular instance.

Beginning learning 'Soldiers' March', the penultimate tune from CTM 1. Still an issue with the messages from the brain to the fingers but the ones going from the eyes to the brain with the dot patterns are okay. Repeated practice will solve the problem as it has done so with the other tunes in the book.

Yep, slow steady repetitive practice. Which is the best way, I keep telling myself while swearing at the guitar.

Which is what I'm doing with my Evening In The Meadow ready for my piano lesson with A.....erm Mabel tomorrow at 3.15 post meridiem.

Watching a very young Lenny Henry in 'The Fosters' from 1976. My earliest memory of old Lenchops was in Tiswas so I had absolutely no idea he was on our screens before that.

I don't remember The Fosters - what was it?