Thoughts on Christmas and the last year

 So it is a few days after Christmas when in the grown up world the papers held under the Thirty Year Rule and a few others come out to embarrass senior politicians and their friends and talk around the Kings's New Years Honours starts leaking although you're not supposed to say a word to soul one you've had the initial letter and your reply until the official announcement is given.

We also had severe storms with rain here which worked into flooding and half the road losing power for a good number of hours.

Following events last year I started to see some people I'd know for a number of years here, renewing connections that lead to a few invites for coffee and the odd community based day trip just get a break from things apart from going out exploring which really helped with getting past some of the depression I was going through.

I did get to the first Ikklespace picnic in ages Sammy had laid on which did see things improve with me, being able to contribute more with the group and act more from the fun loving side rather than feeling a sad, lost child.

On the upside, I did redo much of my littles outfits to match more where in my head I am, however others may see it, were more of an emphasize on quality sometimes more tradition, other stuff more what modern school girls wear such as in sports wear.

I'm less interested in exact replication of a period so much as just being the little side of me taking the  benefits of the modern era, more in tune with the spirit of modern co-ed prep schools with the mix of ancient and modernity.

Not everything of the past was great although much is worth keeping if not defending.

Some of that was visible when much against the odds and with a bit of work from Jennifer and Katie I did actually get to Summer Camp where I felt the most relaxed for a long time just getting along with play, having fun and helping out a bit.

Eventually some of the clothes I'd bought for Winter 2022 camp actually got worn as some of the changes I had been going through over the last few years finally came together even if they may not be what some might as above all I just need to be me and not someone elses idea of what  littles is.

I continued to enjoy the women's soccer and their young following seeing girls going to the park for a kickabout tearing up the old gender divides.

I don't feel inclined to play by the rules of the past anymore than today's girls and that runs beyond groan up talk to littles life.

I hold with inclusiveness for all, girls and boys of all shades and tastes not being told what a girl should be or do either in the Big or Little worlds.

That's my take on this thing as show not just at Camp but the Halloween party from start to finish which I quite enjoyed not just with littles activities but socially too.

Christmas comes soon

 It's that time of the year when I take a break with everything that is on as while things have changed over the years and we do less taking presents to people nonetheless we still have people come and drop in at odd hours as suits them.

Then I have my cards and presents for people to do which all takes time and with my hands A LOT out of me as I struggle to write my name some days.

There are many fantasies people have over christmas and indeed many a tale about just how christmas turns out for naughty girls and boys from them that always want but don't give to those who are really rotten but perhaps a trip to lapland is what we're looking for.

*** WISHING ALL A WARM HAPPY CHRISTMAS ***

Getting ready for Christmas Week

This will be last full post on here until after Christmas  where I've been a bit busy writing cards and having my hair trimmed and restyled. 

Preparations for Christmas week here usually involve the traditional 14 day Radio Times that I still find easier to navigate than on screen electronic program guides apart from forgetting what I saw on screen seconds later.

Some of us read comics rather than the Economist and this year's 68 page special is one we'll be opening up to dip in and out of in what has for decades been a christmas ritual for some of us with seasonally themed cartoon strips with characters we grew up with like Dennis, Minnie and Gnasher and newer ones.

That's what the edition just after christmas as it usually pauses a week before looked like in the early 1980's before we went to full colour, glossy paper and bigger sized edition and no doubt there will be after Boxing Day edition this year to tuck into which after all the news on tv I'll be glad of.

Christmas is coming

After last weeks music post we'll start the countdown toward Christmas as I work the blogging schedule as I'm usually pretty busy but i think it should be two full posts and something on or around Christmas Day.

 At the start of last week, our Christmas tree came which in this age of elf and safety had to planted and wired by people with certificates not sophisticats lest somebody either climb up it or try stealing the bulbs whilst turned on.

The people here have a collection to  pay for the tree which is as well as we do want something like this at Christmas and keeps the lights that have to put on it.
I think every town and estate should have one.

Obviously it isn't going to be the same as Mom's not around anymore as messed up as last Christmas was with both of us very unwell although I have got The Grump tm to bring out the Christmas tree and the Nativity scene Mom and I so looked forward to setting up plus things like the milk and a Turkey have been sorted out.

It's just the memories of going around the shops looking for gifts, trying out clothes, seeing Santa Claus on the district shopping centre and walking to visit family and friends with presents and cards that I'll miss.

Teenbeat: the Mamas and the Papa's

It's almost a cliché to say the nineteen-sixties produced some of the most memorable popular music of the modern era and growing in the era afterward I was very much in that shadow cast by it cos if your folks and relations didn't have it, then often it was played on the radio.
One trend  amongst many was the fusion between folk music and the emergent rock in the middle of that decade which you see with the Byrds, Bob Dylan and naturally Simon and Garfunkel.

 

A popular sound often leads to others getting on on the genre and the other essential act you really need to listen to was the Mama's and Papa's who through a career that only spanned from nineteen sixty-five through nineteen sixty-eight, releasing seventeen 45's and five albums.

They comprised of John and Michelle Phillips, Denny Doherty  and Cass Elliot and were signed to Dunhill records in 1965 .

The combination of close harmony singing and relatively sparse instrumentation coupled with the dreamy quality of the songs lyrics is a core reason these productions stand out among many others.

Imagine not hearing such songs as Monday Monday, California Dreamin' that summarized that era, Dedicated To The One I Love, Creeque Alley and Dream A Little Dream Of Me before they made their separate ways? To anyone around it would be unthinkable and even when I was growing up, their records were always played on oldies but goldies shows on the radio which trust me I heard a lot of being ill during my childhood and reliant on the radio to cheer me up, it was was left for me to listen to.

Their have been a number of compilation albums of their music issued over the years as while there's a bit of me that loves the original studio lp jackets, in truth their always was a bit of filler on those albums and like many sixties albums seldom run much beyond a half hour or so making a well compiled compilation a sensible option.

The strength of two thousand and five's Mama's and Papa's Gold  is it offers many of the songs from the individual albums in addition to the hit 45's on two well filled compact discs avoiding the mistake of including solo recordings that featured on the nineteen ninety-one Creeque Alley package so there's a clear focus and it can act as good alternative to a full set of albums.

Best of all, this is an inexpensive double in Universal Musics Chronicles series negating any need to consider single cd sets completely.

Recommended

Winter is almost in the air

After last week's more observational ow-ish post we're back into the wild this week although you'll need your thick tights on as it's bloomin' cold at the minute as I can feel it in me bones.

 These creatures have been keeping my company  on the smallholdings I pass while out walking, trying to keep myself fit as the go "Baa" making me feel my stomach and leaving me feeling hungry

 The leaves are beginning to grow and if you look carefully there are Dandelions stillout by the base of the tree trunk.

The signs are for the Farmers Market and Unprocessed milk you can buy from the farmers gate as some people prefer it to treated milk. Personally I prefer sterilized!

The leaves be a turning colour here all crisp which makes walks in the wood so enjoyable if you don't get a dozy wasp flying out of a hedge at you which is what happened to me the other week.

You should of seen me run the other way!!!

I haven't know too many village centres were between the shops, you can see and hear that much wildlife which makes even a trip to get a bottle of milk and Allied Bakeries finest can be most pleasant.

Game over

 Everything seemed perfect.

A new life, a new school and even some new subjects to learn.

The facilities were excellent, you'd never had your own locker before

But then you realized you were in this little game

a game for littles like you

and you'd scored a six out of a hundred

and a hard spanking.

A loss

 I'm not at my best this week and in a way it goes back to the day before I went away for a few days where unbeknown to me or for that matter to all of us, a person we've known for a good number of years after a period of infection and covid had died.

Personally, I had encountered them in January of 2011 after a period of been an active member of one web site, falling out of favour with both content and especially accompanying ads, upon looking for a better site for "littles" I filled out an online application to join one they ran.

By 2013 as I became more established with that site and its members I first encountered them face to face at a party get together one person had laid on and in time I learned about their knowledge of astronomy and things connected with running websites such as coding.

Of course the big thing was the Littlest which was their love of being a little, dressing in pretty dresses not dissimilar to younger girls, their love of just playing and dolls and they often brought swings to extended get togethers that we all played on.

If you can picture a "girl" in a gingham dress not uncommon in British schools in summer just smiling as you're swaying back and forth on that swing then you'll get an idea of what the sorts of things they did meant to me.

The last time I saw them would of been this time last year at a get together as they and their partner had missed this summers.

R.I.P Debbie 

Dept of strange affairs!

It's not uncommon for me to get new records and recently I have got a few classical records after a good twenty five or so years of just getting cds that I have played.

Schroeder's sentiments in this classic Peanuts frame below do rather match my own to be honest.

Yesterday had it's own moments too. Like as some of you know I have much of my music stored on micro sd cards for my music player for use out and about or  I'm poorly which isn't exactly uncommon with me, to play via it to a small stereo in my rest room.

It saves faffing about finding the recording and putting it on a cd or turntable when I'm feeling seriously yukky.

Anyway I like the awesome Canadian group Rush, always did and had been getting the new better than regular cd High Definition downloads  my player plays extremely well and I keep a spare card with back ups of them on.

Imagine then my reaction when while changing a card and it flies through mid air and I can't see it landed!

I was tearing my hair out trying to find it last night and have only just spotted it at the very end of the room in a dark corner just visible by it's gold plated contacts where it had landed contact side up!

I can see I'm gonna have to get a changing bag to put the player in while I'm doing this so it can't travel as far!

Now just listening to Stravinsky's The Firebird Suite as I type this!

Jo and the Aunt (fiction)

Halloween is coming up and indeed I'll be away this weekend which creates all manner of blogging challenges but anyway picture the scene.

You didn't get on that well with your Aunt, perhaps she tended to remind you about your manners rather more than you cared to hear, to get into the chair properly so you din't flash your knickers or pull your falling down pereline socks for the seventh hundred time

Seeing it was halloween, you thought to yourself you'd get your own back on the Olde Witch and sneaked up on the 31st with this massive spider and put it right in her front garden knowing she goes all in a faff if she just sees a small garden spider in the bathroom.

She wakes up screaming and phones your Mom who just happened to find your tablet on the very Amazon page that carried a entry for it so she calles you down and orders you to show her the Orders page.

 

Right there in front of her it shows YOU did order it and when asked why you just have to tell the truth lest you get in even more trouble.

Your aunt is called over later on the day to witness you confess that but it wasn't all now was it?

No, while only the three of you are in, you are ordered to  bend over you mothers knee for a spanking, feeling her hand folding the back of your gymslip over your back as she begins to take a hard slipper to your bottom before inviting your aunt to pull your knickers down and spank you some more too.

This Halloween is one you'll never ever forget where you paid a high price for your naughty prank.

Tomboy Jo

There's an age-old adage, "There's more than one way to skin a cat" and that is very true when it comes into many aspects connected with age regression and the life that goes with it so I usually counsel an acceptance that there's no one magically right way to go about it.
This is especially true on the little/middle girl side where sometimes it might seem we're all frilly dresses with lashings of lace but there was a girl, very famous one who was a heroine of mine who went a whole 180 degrees the other way

 "George" from the Famous Five series actually was Georgina a girl who was very much a Tomboy, taking the lead and liking to wear less feminine girls attire to the point she did wear schoolboys shorts (although most modern versions remove this essential aspect of the storylines).

You could say she was rebelling about gender roles  and what was seen as suitable attire for girls and actually there is a fair bit of her in me that does wear shorts that aren't super pink and with curvy piping outside of my love of dresses.

I do wear the above navy tailored 'boys' shorts with my girls attire as that girl which is at times more practical and yet also does tie in with liking to present as a middle/little

This Saturday for instance I wore them with my Hello Kitty long sleeve t shirt and white frilly ankle socks outdoors walking as it was fairly warm for time of year which is pretty Tomboy.

 

 

Of course that doesn't mean I cannot and do not have pretty dollies I can play with, dressing them up and creating super girls adventures that I and they feature.

Indeed we might have that most occassions especially social ones you have me in pretty skirts and dresses with matching accessories, it's just that it isn't like that all the time.
 

Fall 2023

It won't be that long before the clocks go back, the last weekend in this month if I remember it right and no matter where you are in the UK, something is happening all around you that's pretty magical.

Playtime for me involves time out of doors, no not sitting in the garden with the Chromebook, actually going a bit further and without the all pervasive internet, walking, throwing sticks in the woods and fields here.

It's the fall and the more your outside the more you'll see although for many years I loved observing it on the inter-urban commute to work through the bus windows, wherever I work if possible I'd go into parks and gardens not just for peace and quiet but to watch it all change.

Depending on the species, the rate of which the leaves change colour and even fall off varies which used to intrigue me as a child making my way to Church around harvest time where the pavements glistened in the low sun carpeted by leaves.

Sometimes things get a bit nutty as around now, you'll see the squirrels about gathering nuts to bury them and below it appears they've arranged everything that naturally fell making a  beautiful natural collage 

It's great to be out, eyes peeled to everything happening in nature.

Comic heroine time

An odd start to the week here with various things to work through with chores and errands to run but we're getting on for just over six weeks off the seventieth  anniversary of a famous girl who I grew up with.

She came through the letterbox after some other pages devoted to Biffo the Bear and a little ten year rascal called Dennis who back then really was a menace!

She was very much my heroine always getting into trouble, thinking she'd got it sorted but the groan ups always seemed to get the upper hand which as her world like ours back then often featured a parents hand and a slipper was one we could easily relate to.

That classic cartoon was from the late Leo Baxendale drawn in the nineteen fifties when she emerged but twenty years on, things were much the same, trust me!

A bad  school report never got unpunished if they felt it was all about you and your attitudes.

Today's Minnie like the rest of society has moved on, more cheeky mischief making minx who runs rings around the groan ups than paying the price of her actions but she's still fun and a great weekly read.

One Thousand Two Hundred and One trips around the sun

Here at Joanne's Dorm we're marking an anniversary today.

You see it is our 1,201st post on the blog that was began before Tumblr was born and Instagram was thought of so this was my main platform to express myself as a person on rather than just sharing opinions around odd topics on forums.

It's a slice of life blog of a middle/little as lived and experienced so all life from adventures and interests about that life are to be found which I feel is it's strength as when you're like me you're always regressed to a point, usually requiring some oversight and so that life is in its context rather than something you might just role play at.

This blog always went into other things that run across me and this crazy life such as uniforms, identities and the swish of discipline which some of us sometimes need given we're not so reliable at being self disciplined.

One thing I have been doing for this anniversary has been tidying up some entries where say images were small being made on a ancient desktop computer and a very slow unreliable internet connection where it was type, assemble and publish before the connection went.

Today thank goodness the internet is faster and much more reliable and like many it's moved on from bulletin boards and yahoo groups to buying things online as  much as some things such as clothing I do prefer to see, handle and even try on.

One thing I have being more of is exercise and today's picture was taken recently while out doing just that in its vivid colours which the recent changes in blog layout now allow me to take full advantage of.

Happy 1,201st Anniversary!

Leather?

I once tried leather skirts but I never quite got one with them however this pleated one which doesn't look to thick or shiny, might be the sort I'd feel okay wearing although with my walking we can forget about anything outside of flat footwear.

I've never done anything open toe as I tend to catch me feet on things so it wouldn't be a good idea although I like totally get why many do in the spring and summer.

Things on my mind

The hot stuff has thankfully started to depart from here as it wasn't really helping with my problems with tickly cough stuff stuck  down my throat needing to have windows wide open but while I was going to post one thing, events change topics.

Running a website isn't for the faint hearted, especially when you realize to be really free to post around certain topics such as being adult littles you may need to host and maintain it yourself.

Recently it has come to light a person who runs a site I have an account is has a life threatening condition although it is treatable and is undergoing treatment.

Now one things we know is sometimes when a site is owned by one person arrangements are not always in place to "gift" it on to another which doesn't just mean things like servers but domain names which typically have to be renewed or otherwise they revert to whoever you got that from.

That kind of thing is why over the last few years we've lost a few sites  but rest assured that site isn't for going and touch wood, they will recover from it.

It's a good idea to hold on to the idea of thinking about and caring for those that matter to us.

Cleaning time

Funny old month isn't it?

As schools reopen for Autumn term after the wash out that was August, we actually start to get the sort of sunshine and warm temperatures we were hoping for with layers coming off and windows open while you're cooking.

There's a marathon catch up washing session planned across today following from yesterday with various towels and t shirts to go in the machine and then most likely get pegged out on the washing line to try to save using the drier.

It soon builds up which is why I'm dealing with it now.

Thoughts while on the mend

Hacked off, in a different way than perhaps you anticipated, the one word to describe how I've been feeling these last ten days or so been is feeling really rather ill with an infection that doesn't feel like leaving anytime soon.

Thus mind is more on things to keep away for more negative, depressive thoughts so I've got the radio one and am reading things like my Beano comic.

Another way is project in your mind different versions of you and perhaps assess just what you may feel about them as its so easy to get in a presentation rut.

The perils of "Ill just look at that" and....

The "and just what do you think you are doing being up and using that computer at this early hour?" look as the door just opens having heard the sound of keys being pressed and the mouse being scrolled upon a silent background.

You just cannot under estimate the capacity you have to ensure you are in no fit state to get through the days chores, drifting off to sleep in the morning by just going with the concept of just following a topic of interest thinking I'll just look at this and get back sleep and find yourself four hours later still deep mining the topic with an hour and bit spare before its time to be up feeling half asleep.

It isn't even like the childhood of the past crime of reading under covers by torchlight where soon enough you'll run out of material, the internet is just like a rabbit warren you get deeper and deeper in.
 

Summer day out

Wednesday two weeks ago was a little different for me in that rather than studying, I went out for the day not least to get away from all that stuff since the beginning of the year which I think has had something to do  me feeling generally flat.

We started out later than we were told via a somewhat odd route arriving twelve o clock so I went for a cup of tea as I was feeling a bit thirsty even though having felt a migraine coming on I had gotten through a carton of apple juice  with my tablets I take to control it.

I went with Grumpy to a restaurant s for a Haddock and chips lunch which was very tasty. I opted for the 8oz fish as that was plenty big enough for me.

I've know this place for years and while a few years back and  current owners really have brought it back as a premier restaurant getting fresh fish in and cooking to order.

In the afternoon I wandered around taking pictures, watching Codmore's traditional non pc  Punch and Judy show, shouting with the mainly young audience at naughty Mr Punch and playing on the beach. Grumpy went to groan up places and read a book.

We did have one brief heavy shower around a quarter past Three so I went into a small shopping arcade and looked at some clothes and arta & craft shops.

We went back a slightly different way via Tarvin, and Midlewich before being dropped off  just a few hundred yards from home tired but very happy from being away from stuff that takes me out littlespace.

Been away

 Things had been quiet here for two sets of reasons.

Firstly there was a big burst of activity in the last week of July that involved on the more pleasurable side a day trip out to north wales and on the other the internment of the ashes of my late mother that kind of dug up a lot of emotions from earlier in the year.

The other was with unexpectedly going away to a littles get together after the issues around bccoming seriously ill and then finding everybody else had booked themselves back in so there wasn't any chance of  attending.

The above was a rather broad impression of beach scene I painted while away this week.

The options and perils that come...

 The great thing about shorter skirts is you can experiment with how much bare leg you wish to have on display from none with tights or leggings, over the knee or thigh length socks or ankle socks all of which can send out different signals.

I don't tend to like longer skirts not least they kind of make me look a bit "too old", too died in the wool and really when I'm in a better place mentally I'm not like that being more lively or indeed playful although I can get carried away which is an occupational hazard of being a little.

Of course you still have to keep some modesty if you don't wish to hear off stage "tut-tut's" if not followed by some sort of sanction so you're holding on to the sides if it's windy and having keep you legs together and that when sitting.

On the other hand making it that I just have to might be the kind of thing some would feel was good training.

Past inspired looks

 Wasn't feeling too great to be honest today with a bit of a pain in my leg but something I have been experimenting a little with over the last nine months or so between all the craziness is wearing shorter skirts again which was something I did like around 2008 through 2013.

Back then I was mainly wearing stockings with them but this time I've being mixing thigh high socks and opaque tights (hose to those on the other side of the Atlantic) with them with t shirts or blouses.

It's probably the more minx-like side of me that just feels like coming out from time to time I guess but hey, when I go too far isn't it easier to bring me to heel?

Vacation time

It's that time of the year all ready I guess and I'm thinking back to Summer 2004 which in a way is a along time ago but is still quite vivid with me so this is what it was back then:

 
There's just something about Summer vacationing for me and after last years OCR course I'm thinking about changing work as one thing I found was I didn't feel I was part of the organization, indeed looking back on what I said to one the external course people back then  it's as if I'm very isolated and feel vulnerable.

 
One thing I want to find is where I went, cos it seems to me that I've lost something of who I am and what matters the most to me in the last ten years since I've been working for my current organization.

 
As I've always like the seaside I might just find some clues as it was always a happy place for in the past, you know, my childhood. Can it be that long ago since I saw it? 

 
It sounds silly but I have this pent up feeling inside of me that wants to play with the sand, I don't know why but I just do.

 
One girl I saw seemed so carefree the last time I was on vacation running about with her t shirt and skirt or was it one of these new Skort thingies that look like this.

They're by Gilberts I believe and girls in school I gather wear these rather than the traditional pleated Netball skirts and they have a built in undershort. It's all different from our day but time doesn't stay still does it?

A weekend away

I'm just starting on writing this, an account of sorts of how this last weekend went recovering from the excitement as well as the heat of the last few weeks

For me, time spent in little/middle headspace is time well spent simply for being me with this weekends adventure beginning with catching  the local taxi to our principal rail station.

That made sense as I had some time to kill as the bus and trains don't quite tie in so well so I though I might as well check the destination boards, confirm which platform the train is due in and get there.

My train came in five minutes late which London Northwestern don't usually but as this was the result of a Manchester train being late after a super rapid platform change to manage with my case.

Having arrived I changed into my grey pinafore dress and had a mini code and chips as it was a little late for cooking from a quality local fish and chip shop which was scrumptious.

Sunday was the day of the Ikklespace picnic as organized by the great fantastic Sammy which generally involves a lot of bring various food  such as sandwiches, pies, cake and sausage rolls together with soft drinks to a well known view in South East England to share between ourselves and teddy bears.

We flew colourful kites competing with some massive model airplanes or venue users had, ran around blowing bubbles the size of clouds on the thermals, something I just loved, building massive plushie piles sometimes over people plus one person played an acoustic guitar.

The weather was mild with a mixture of sunshine and odd cloud which meant some did get an ice cream

Just after five as people were for departing we made our way back, dropping of one of our party at their flat before heading back to South Staffordshire where we had a sausage roll and cup of tie before bed.

I was up about a quarter of eight Monday morning to catch the nine fifty-three train to my local rail station which was delayed due to incidents by a half hour before taking a taxi back home for around eleven forty in the morning.

Changed plans II

No sooner than the ink appears to have dried on last weeks entry than things appear to have gone into full reverse.

It now appears we ARE going to the Ikklespace picnic as the things around getting a connection to travel with to the venue have changed although I had said at the outset I was prepared to travel the day before if needed.

Indeed in the past that was looking at my notes, journal entries and that, it was exactly what we did and presumably for that very reason, the difficulty of getting a train that would allow me to be picked up around three hours before the start which is midday.

While due to the person not quite knowing what they were doing in the early evening getting from the station to them could involve getting a taxi rather than them picking me up things are not fully inked in, travel itself is so tickets are here albeit needing special delivery to be sure of being here before travelling.

Changed plans

Things for early next month were going to be different in that what had been an institution in the last decade that had been put on hold for personal reasons - the Ikklescape Picnic in the Home Counties - after 2017 were to resume and indeed I had expressed the view I was very much looking forward to attending.

Sundays on the railway are always a funny thing going back to and in part the reason to the days where anything beyond Monday thru Friday was seen as irregular and so people on the railways were never "rostered" just paid more to work on days off even if it was a fairly popular day for travel.

This tends to mean there are less trains running and often starting later plus engineering work tends to be scheduled just to add chaos so a train is replaced with a bus which is often slower.

Seemingly the train I was to have caught while listed in the current timetable of one operator had been changed by another after publication so rather than starting in Manchester, going to Crewe and then on towards Birmingham now went straight from Manchester, Stockport without stopping at until Stafford missing this area out completely.

Given we needed to at this event for around 1 pm and it was three hours drive just north of Birmingham, I needed to be there by no later than 10 and next train would of got their just before 11 which was far too late.

Thus I had to cancel my plans for it as there was no way an overnight stay on the Saturday would fit with someone else's arrangements.

Return to past little life?

Sunday is in this country Fathers day and usually something reminds me on a daily basis I still have one of them so I have a card and that sorted out which has been a bit of miracle given how the heat of the last few days has affected me.

The whole situation around a certain at one time frequent event, those who are involved around it and those I'd normally see in the last eighteen or so months has been messy, emotional, obtrusive even to the point I had for practical purposes resigned myself to not going or unspoken we'd rather people more like x were around or even drip fed rumours and whispering campaigns suggestion you didn't "make the grade" even if I may of said I'd love to attend.

It appears Cinders may yet be going to the ball albeit on straw mat in small space rather than a grand pumpkin pretty much on somebody else's terms but that doesn't matter at you'll be there, less "cast out".

Something of that sort could of been sorted as one place has one room that is never used for it's purpose just a dumping ground and another is so massive you'd get something like an airbed in with tens of meters spare and indeed people have put in other kind of structures and slept in them.

You are left working just why anything like that wasn't even offered given the circumstances that led to be being dropped.

It's a pleasant surprise to be back "in".

Record storage

The one thing you cannot avoid with records is they are big, the 12 inch (30 cm) diameter record normally resides in a 14 x 14 inch square sleeve of some construction or other so once you have a few you really do need to think about storage.

While you could just have them standing sandwiched between something on a carpet, trust me it doesn't take long before that straight pile starts to lean which if you have the misfortune to have any kind of heat nearby will warp your discs.

Traditionally storage tends to be some sort of variant on cubes that might hold some fifty or more discs depending on how thick the outer sleeves and the spine width might be, a big firmed fixed to the wall unit or those flight deck cases you see with locks and handles.

Another approach from the past especially when it came to 7 inch (18 cm) singles was a wire hanger with slots and that idea has come into vogue with a unit that claims to hold over 40 lps using thicker quality coat hanger wire which is coated with slots between which you place your lps.

As with compact discs, odd ball packaging such as box sets of various shapes and sizes just don't work with systems that assume regular dimensions so whatever you get you'll always have "box set corner".

If you have only a relatively small number that may be on a unit or on the floor ideally well away from radiators a unit like this one I bought from Analogue Seduction might be just the ticket to tidy them away or be a place for your most "on rotation" discs near your turntable.

Toleration: A Two way street?

 Almost the end of the month so after relaxing a bit on Monday we come to a different topic as we try to find where this blog fits in 2023.

One thing is to just talk around certain things and one is relevant as I sit typing this out upstairs and that is the attitudes of the neighbours adult children although in truth they've displayed this through most of their childhood.

I go to put on a record - yes one those big plastic things with holes on - and within minutes I am hearing loud persistent knocking from the room opposite next door where one has returned where it was not being played unduly loudly and I might add I have loud computer gaming with very strong language being used to half eleven at night from them.

At other times one as knocking in the evening or loud singing to karaoke systems and indeed on Saturday thick smoke from a B-BQ that caused us to shut every window as we were struggling to breathe.

They are it has to be said autistic - which I openly admit I am too - but this wouldn't and wasn't allowed to develop to a sense of telling everybody else where to get off while imposing your needs and impulses on others.

It just seems to me their parents take the easy way out rather than encouraging toleration and some respect for others at bed time too.

Temporary classroom

File this under unscheduled entry but I just love this picture of what would of been a Nissan Hut converted into a classroom doing craftwork with Egg boxes before the photographer took the picture. 

The girl on the immediate right has the most infectious laugh that reminded me of the many times I giggled at school.

How much one would live to be in such a setting for a few days all over again.

Mid May updates

While the weather has been better by a long shot compared with last weeks wash out, I have been spending more time out of doors just switching off from much that remains here such as the interment of my late mothers ashes whose date has yet to be arranged and pressures from some family members to control when it can be when in reality it has to fit in around when it would cause no disturbance to anyone at a burial service and when the undertaker can attend and so on.

You can't just demand a date.

The other thing is the long running business of the two FA accounts that came about because of one being at the time subject to a mega hacking of the main site necessitating the creation of brand new one as the original was unable to be restored for several months was resolved.

I decided to delete entirely the old one as in reality there was little real reason for keeping and posting two fitting in better with my attempt to  my personal needs are taken more care of than has been the case in recent years and that whole issue of how posting and blogging at various site had really taken over my life which ironically was why I had those accounts -  to share it!

Given how this has effected me, I don't find it that surprising many young people experience similar issues with social media usage and its effect on their health.