Birthday COTD

At the Vintage Fair, Carol said to come and have a cake. Then she very kindly said to choose one as a gift! A whole host of crafted beauties on her stall to choose from; I thought that this one was suitably jubilympic.
She didn't know it was my birthday today, so I said I would save it for then. Her mum said not to eat it all at once and their lovely vintage friend, Sally-Ann, politely kept her thoughts to herself!

C'mon, how cute is the face on this dolly? She was not for sale, but was there for a day out and to model headbands!

And here is the centre of the perfect plate to eat my cake off, which was a Giveaway gift from Tcakes.

Bloggers are the best!

Also, just in case some of you on foreign shores are wondering about this weird word that keeps popping up, 'jubilympics'....now you know!
It has been the one thing that has really struck a chord with me about the whole shenanigans
Jubilympics!

I will probably edit this post with better daylight photos at a later date, but just wanted to get the post up before midnight!
Z xx

OOTD/NOTD

Whaddaya mean? Too much Pimms!

Reclining in our garden after a fabulous afternoon at the Vintage Fair & Jubilee Garden Party.

I do believe there is a photo of my mum wearing this hat at the seaside in the 70s.

Jubilympic rump!

Threw my jewellery off and this is how 2 of the bracelets landed....aaaah, a heart.

The 'bettys'.

My 'homage to Jamie Reid' nail!
Jamie did all the design work for the Sex Pistols and was once married to Margi Clarke. (That was one brave man!!)

OMG! Danielle Rose.... I have a lot of practising to do!!
Zxx

Summer Lovin'

So, a little change to my header, (again)! Thought an ice-cream loving photo of me many moons ago rather befitting for this wonderful weather. Except I now really cannot cope with hot anymore. Hells Bells...aging, as much as I am happy to accept it, can be a bummer.

Looking forward to this tomorrow. Pimms AND homemade meringues, I simply could not ask for anything better! Though not actually consumed together, perhaps!

I'm thinking a red, white and blue outfit, of course! But I painted my toenails yesterday with my Christmas pressie varnish from Vix, which, although beautiful, (kept catching myself gazing at it last night!!), does not go with my colour scheme, so it may mean closed-toe footwear. But that will probably be a good idea to save my tootsies being trampled on in the rush to all those fab stalls! (Or, the Pimms stall!).

So, however you are planning to spend your weekend, have a good one!
Z xx

Night Fever - A Post from Mr B

link

The Love Apple is a wholefood cafe during the day, becoming a venue for live music in the evening.

The last time I was in Bradford, having finished the get-out from the Alhambra at about 2am, I wandered across as a near-empty disco was playing out on the dance floor in front of the stage.

I asked if it was too late to get a pot of tea. The bar staff who served salmon and cream cheese bagels at lunchtime were happy to oblige and I sat at a table with coloured lights rotating as dry ice wisped around my feet.

I could have written that "Massachusetts" by the Bee Gees was playing, but it wasn't.

When Saturday Night Fever - the musical, was being put into production for the first time, I heard that they were buying old stereos with 1970's stickers on and gently peeling them off for the show! Mrs B previously posted a clip of Arlene Phillips' "Hot Gossip" performing 'I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper'. The video clip came from The Kenny Everett Show and I remember him doing his outrageous caricature of the brothers Gibb.



Now Vinnie Jones teaches us to 'save a life', (by pressing on the sovereign), to the rhythm of 'Staying Alive'.



The lights may have sadly gone out in Massachusetts, but as I sit on the edge of disco, I raise my glass, (or teacup in this case), to the passing of another starship trooper.

Faded Glory

Quite possibly my favourite of all the tulip types, Angelique. Way past its best, but, in a way, all the more beautiful for that fact.

Endless (Donna) Summer -Mr B Guest Post

My boss said this morning, (Friday), that 1976 would not have been the same without Donna Summer.

Whenever I hear 'I Feel Love' it brings back a memory like a scene from The Twilight Zone.

I can't remember whether I was going back home from a friends' or the pub, but a thick sea mist had come in off the Solent, so as you couldn't see one side of the common to the other.
Through the damp, white-grey air came the sound of Giorgio Moroder and the voice of Donna Summer. These were the days of the ghetto blaster and it was turned up loud.

It seemed to be coming from the seafront side of the common and moving slowly away, like Sherlock Holmes crossing the moor at night in The Hound of the Baskervilles.

I felt as if I were in a disco episode of Scooby Doo.

Maybe it was the Lighthouse Keeper or the fairground owner. One thing was for sure...this pesky kid was not going to investigate.

But it sounded great.

Old Git Olympics...no offence intended!

If you thought barrel rolling was going it a bit, you won't believe this film Mr B took in Poole!

Personally, I'm more of a barrel racing kinda gal! Oh, those were the days. Never very good, but oh-so fun.

And just to clarify the previous post title, I've downloaded this.

And teriyaki chicken is my fave Subway filling. Nom nom.
Z xx

Train hard. Eat fresh.

After having travelled from Poole down to Truro, for a 2 o'clock start, come half past 5, Paul, Patch, Charlie and I wandered into Subway.

"Look at us", said Patch, "it's like 'Last of the Summer Wine'." "We didn't do too badly", I said. "Not bad for 3 1/2 hours", said Paul.

Talking about the journey up, Patch said his new car had a dashboard display to read incoming texts from his phone, with buttons on the steering wheel so as you can scroll backwards and forwards. "It found my ipad", he said, "it was in my bag and wasn't even switched on. The Bluetooth found it and it came up on the screen that these tunes were available and I thought, hang on, those are the same tunes as on my ipad. What if you were in traffic, standing at the lights, and it started to download tunes from the ipod in the car next to you?"

Paul said "Now it really does sound like 'Last of the Summer Wine', talking about the scary new technology."

"Shall we put Mr B in a barrel and roll him down a hill?" said Patch.

Hi Ho Silver!

Today is our silver 'together' anniversary!

Phew! 25 years!!!

We've covered so much in those years and I love my man as much now as then.

Happy Anniversary, Mr B.
Z xx

photo source

Haircut & Munich River Surfing

Had my hair cut really short!

Think it looks really great but not in these photos!

Had a phone call from Mr B at lunchtime. He is in Munich at the mo. They opened last night and today he had some time off. He had been told about the 'river surfers' so he pottered off to have a look. This is what he found...without the Minus 7 frostbite!

DOES ANYONE ELSE HATE THE NEW BLOGGER??? CAN I REVERT BACK TO THE OLD STYLE? I ABSOLUTEY LOATHE THIS AND CANNOT DO WHAT I WANT ie put this after the video

Edit: Many thanks to Julie from KC'sCourt and her extremely helpful and sanity-inducing post here!

A Very Patriotic Garden

 

 

 

Record Store Day

Guest Post by Mr B

A few weeks ago I had a free afternoon in London. I popped into the Gift Shop at The National Portrait Gallery, to try to get Mrs B a postcard of a BP Award entry that she liked from last year. I found a booklet of all the entries and the painting with the artists' name, to the cashier, asking if it was possible that they had a postcard. The lady was absolutely brilliant, informing me that I could get a digital print starting at A4 upwards. The BP Award pictures are only held on archive for a year, but, having phoned through, got the catalogue number and keyed it into the printer, I left with a beautiful print. Good to know.

Louis Smith's 'Holly'

I wandered up to Leicester Square tube. Stopping outside of a shop called 'Formal Wear', noting that they had a sale on. Patch had told me just the day before that he was thinking of getting a bowler hat befitting with his position as Senior Lighting Technician. A Japanese couple came out of the shop. The man was wearing, you guessed it, a bowler hat! They stopped outside of an antiquarian bookshop, looking through a box of Edwardian caricature prints; people of notoriety, politicians and the like.

I was trying to get a photograph of the bowler-hatted man by loitering behind a Faberge Egg Hunt plinth, when I gave up and spotted "101 Nights at The Roxy" in a bookshop window. I went in admiring a collection of British and American punk fanzines displayed on the wall. "They're not for sale" said the man behind the computer. I enquired as to the price of "101 Nights at The Roxy" - "£300", he said. Three hundred pounds! I can remember reading a review in a music paper when it came out. This prompted me to journey up to Tottenham Court Road, where, back in the 80s and 90s, small independent record stores lurked in a little backstreet opposite the Dominion Theatre, where back then, punk gems like flyers and posters could be found.

I was pleased to see a Davy Jones LP in the window of 'On The Beat'. I am sure that there used to be another record store almost next to this one. It was like entering a cave, with the counter at the back. There was a Cramps T-shirt on a hanger above the till and a poster of Sid Vicious eating a burger wearing a badge that said "I'm a mess". I remember taking Damian and Ian there one afternoon when Screamin' Jay Hawkins was playing in town. I bought a paperback copy of the Beatles film, 'A Hard Days Night'. When I was 2 years old, my parents took me to Dunster Station, to see the steam train that 'The Fab Four' were filming on as it passed through.
My mum told me that they held me up so as I could see over the crowd on the platform. The walls of 'On The Beat' still display old music papers. One thing that caught my eye, was 'Aladdin & His Wonderful Lamp' by Cliff Richard & The Shadows. "Do you know what this sounds like?", I asked the proprietor. "It sounds like Cliff Richard & The Shadows", he replied! "Is it possible to hear a bit?" He asked me which track I wanted, turning off the English folk music that he'd been playing. 'The Entrance of The Emperor' was first and sounded like the overture to a pantomime. The owner told me that it had been recorded as a pantomime. (1964 at The London Palladium, the same year as The Beatles filmed 'A Hard Days Night).

I don't know what prompted the conversation at work, but Chloe had asked me if I liked Glam Rock. She told me that, with her boyfriend, they had bought 2 German record players from Cash Converters. They were sold as a pair and both had something wrong. Being 'techies' she said they fixed one as soon as they got them home, selling it on eBay and covering what they had paid for both of them. The other is set up and they now have a collection of Rod Stewart, Fleetwood Mac, (Rumours), The Best of 10cc, ("I love 10cc" she said), Cat Stevens and Dark Side of the Moon which she ordered specially as it was her boyfriends' favourite. "I bet your neighbours love you" I said. Apparently the 'old lady' next door had come up to her and said "Was that Rod Stewart you were playing?", "I love Rod Stewart". "What she really meant" I said; "That Rod Stewart LP you were playing was SO loud, I could hear every word, turn it down!". It was funny hearing someone who had grown up in the CD generation telling me how the sound was so much better on vinyl.

Chloe

Back in the record store, there was a 1940s telephone for sale.

I wondered if you lifted the receiver you could hear The Big Bopper say "Hello Bay-by". Looking at the phone it was more a case of "Ring, Telephone, Ring", (The Ink Spots). Maybe, if you ran a cleaning cloth over the Aladdin/Cliff rarity as it spun on the turntable, a genie would crackle into life and appear as if by magic like The Shopkeeper in Mr Benn.

Just a minute, who's this city gent coming in?
Could it be ... Mr Benn?
No, it's just Patch in his new bowler hat!

Patch, with the 1948 London Olympics Torch.