I lied!

Yesterday I left a comment on JD’s (I do Things) post about chocolate. I said I hadn’t eaten chocolate in years…. ok, I’ve just realised…. maybe it wasn’t a lie after all. I didn’t say I was never going to eat chocolate again did I?

Right, it all changes now. I didn’t lie. I’m as honest as the day is long. Hmmm, as the days fly by at the speed of light for me, now that I’m on the downward slope of life, what does that say about my honesty?

Back to the subject of chocolate. JD did tell me to go and buy myself some chocolate so, as I had her permission, I don’t feel too bad about this. Look what I got today. You see the one all poised ready? It only stayed poised long enough for me to put my camera down….. It’s gone!

I also said I didn’t eat cream and these are full of fresh cream. Oh, by the way. Do you see the boring looking custard tarts in the back of the photo?….no chocolate…. no cream. They are for Mo ;O)

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I am a very happy bunny today.

Can you see any difference in my blog design?

When I designed my blogs I used a web design programme, which was great for the designing part, but didn’t produce the best code in the world.   It left me with lots of problems to overcome, and lots of fiddling about every time I added a widget!   The worst problem was the method used to upload my template.  I had to copy and paste the code.  This, of course meant that I lost all of my widgets and had to start from scratch!

I am here to tell you, that it’s all in the past now.  A very lovely – and clever person has rescued me from my nightmare.  Ana of Chica & Pumuckl is starting a new blog for Blogger template designs, and I can strongly recommend her!

My design was not the easiest template in the world to replicate, as it was not a straightforward header, but she has managed to follow my design perfectly.  Except for a deliberate alteration, made by me, it is identical.

Well done Ana and thank you, thank you, thank you!

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I used to socialize in the west end of London when I was young. The place where it was all happening, the place to be. Shopping in Biba’s boutique, having my hair done at Vidal Sassoon, hanging out in Carnaby Street.

On the 5th July 1969 we were hanging out near Hyde Park and someone said. “The Rolling Stones are performing in the park, shall we go?” We took a leisurely stroll to the park, where thousands of people were enjoying the music, that was cutting through the usual silence of the park. We listened for a while and then strolled off somewhere else. It was a lovely time to be young. We didn’t worry about anything in those days – just doing whatever we felt like, whenever we felt like it.

August 2006 a friend telephoned and asked “Do you like the Rolling Stones?” Do I like the Rolling Stones?!! Strange question, I thought, but told her I did. “I thought you would. I have four free tickets, would you and Mo like to come with me? It’s this Sunday” I bit her hand off, right down the phone!

We made our way to the Stadium where the concert was taking place, not knowing what to expect. I had been to lots of concerts in the seventies but they were all ‘Folk’ music. I had never been to a ‘Rock’ concert before, and certainly not in recent years.

Eventually the Stones made their entrance. They knew how to make an entrance! With Mick Jagger strutting his stuff like a young man, and Keith Richards playing a mean guitar, the concert got underway. Half way through the concert, the heavens opened and we sat, drenched, trying to cover three bodies with one plastic mac, draped over our heads. We didn’t care one bit! They came right out into the audience, on a moving stage, and sang some of their oldies. The familiar ‘Honky Tonk Woman’ had the whole stadium singing along, and lots of people up dancing – including us!

Check this video out, you can see the rain! Watching this video clip makes me want to be there again.

Almost forty years on, and they were unbelievably great. Better than the first time I saw them, by far! The special effects were amazing!

I’ve seen them twice now. Once in my twenties, in the sixties, and then in my sixties in the twenties! Both times for free. Cool or what?

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I have decided to blog about something completely different.

I used to make puppets! 

Yes me, and my niece Sindie, made puppets and sold them from the web.   Sindie used to make and sew all the skins and I used to build them.  It was hard work.  I always ached after a three or four hour stint.  Then I would look at our latest creation and it was worth it.

It all started because Mo and I ran a puppet theatre and put shows on around the country.  Sindie was also a puppeteer with us.  We felt we could probably make better puppets so we gave it a go. 

One day I received a phone call, and was gob smacked to hear it was a programmer of a TV station.  They said that they had heard of our puppet theatre and would we like to do something for kids TV.  We, of course, said yes. 

What I hadn’t realized was that they just meant one performance.  Meanwhile we had gone off on a tangent and come up with our idea.  Actually it had been something that we had been working towards from day one really.  They thought our idea was very original and asked if we would write a thirteen part TV series.

I couldn’t believe it all of my dreams coming together – Scriptwriting, song writing and music, and I was actually going to direct it.  Me! Directing a TV programme!

Thirteen parts were written, along with thirteen songs.  We created the characters for it, along with merchandising for each character.  I recorded all the backing tracks.   It took best part of a year to do.

We had the contract, just waiting for our signature, and a sponsor in the US.  This was so exciting!

You know when you get that gut feeling that something isn’t quite right?  Well we had that, so we didn’t sign the contract, we just held on to it.  The programmer wasn’t pushing us for it so we waited.   We didn’t have to wait too long before discovering that the programmer had left the company amidst a court battle.  It seems, we were right not to sign.

That was about three years ago, and our lovely puppet characters lay in plastic bags in a cupboard.

We came so close to a dream.

I haven’t posted pictures of our TV characters – just in case ;O)

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Back in the 60’s, I worked in central London. Not far from all the law courts, and right next to Bow Street Police Station. On the flip side, I was surrounded by all the major theatres and immediately across the road was the back entrance of The Drury Lane Theatre. It was a good place to work, and there was always something interesting going on, and someone famous to see.

One morning, our usual office routine was disturbed when the door opened and two policemen came in. Strange how uniformed police and firemen always look larger than life when they enter a room. After exchanging a few words with the manager, they came over to me, and a couple of other girls and asked if we would assist them in an identity parade. We said we would, and they lead us out of our building and into Bow Street Police Station.

We were getting nervous as we stood in the lift that was taking us up to the room. This was the first time any of us had been in a police station, let alone Bow Street! We were giggling a little too much, the kind of giggling that nerves cause. We were told that we must not giggle when in the line up. As if!

We, along with several other girls, were led into a room and told to stand in line, which we did. He told us that someone would walk up and down the line and then touch the person that they recognized, on the shoulder. I was wondering when they would bring the suspect in, when the door opened and a policeman and young girl came into the room.

She didn’t look much like a criminal, I thought, which shows you how naive we were in those days. She walked slowly up the line, and I realized that this wasn’t the suspect, but the witness. Where was the suspect then? Having reached the end of the line, she turned and came back. Her hand came out as she came toward me and my stomach lurched. I didn’t feel her hand on my shoulder…..it wasn’t on my shoulder, but the shoulder next to mine. What relief!

Later I was told that the suspects get to choose where in the line they want to stand, and she had made sure she stood next to me because I looked like her. This is meant to confuse the witness.

It broke the monotony of a typical working day.

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I found this meme on Kathy’s blog ‘The Junk Drawer’ and just had to have a go at it.

The Concept:

This Meme is all about the Mosaic Collage that you are about to build by answering the questions in this meme by using pictures! So here we go:

1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Google Image Search or some type of search engine for pictures.

2. Using only the first page of results, pick one image. You can’t search forever for a certain image.

3. Copy and paste each in any program that you can creat a mosaic of the pictures in.

You can post them 3 X 4 or 4 X 3.

The questions:

1. What is your first name?… Babs

2. What is your favorite food?… Macaroni Cheese.

3. What high school did you go to?… St William of York School It was a ‘Secondary Modern’ school – UK school system.

4. What is your favorite color? … Green – well that’s what I always say when asked, but I like most colours equally. Each has it’s own scrummyness for me.

5. Who is your celebrity crush?… Paul O’Grady. I know what you all think ha ha! I don’t have a crush on anybody so I put him in aas an alternative. I love his total ‘couldn’t care less’ and WYSIWYG attitude

6. What is your favorite drink?… Tea. I’ve drunk most things, including all sorts of alcohol, but over the years I have totally gone off alcohol and now drink tea and some soft drinks.

7. What is your dream vacation?… Singapore. Well, it was when I was younger, and most of the world hadn’t been spoiled by tourism. Now days I don’t have the yearning to travel very far.

8. What is your favorite dessert?…treacle Pudding. Actually, lets get it right… Treacle pudding with hot custard, ice cream and topped off with whipped cream!

9. What do you want to be when you grow up?… A Film Director. I think maybe I won’t do much growing up any more, which makes it a bit of a “If I had my time to live over” thing.

10. What do you love most in life?… Freedom. On a more serious note. We are slowly losing our freedom again, particularly our freedom of speech, so I treasure my freedom to make my own choices, and say whatever I want – at least to those that I know and trust.

11. What is one word that describes you?… Nutty. Need I say more?

12. What is your blog name?… Beetle-Blog

Anybody who wants to do this meme, feel free.

Credits for image sources: Babs, Macaroni Cheese, St William of York, Green, Paul O’Grady, Tea, Singapore, Treacle Pudding, Film Director, Freedom, Nutty, Beetle-Blog is me ;O)

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I’m going to have a good old moan today!

My last post was welcoming our summer right? It was a good summer, not the summer of ‘69, but a good summer.

Notice the past tense used in the previous sentence. Yes, it was deliberate. Just four days later, with the temperature slowly dropping by the hour, it is a cool 15c (59F). It is cloudy and raining and I’m sitting here in three layers of clothing, which includes a fleece jacket, just to keep from shivering off my seat!

Why am I sitting in a fleece jacket instead of Just putting the heating on? Well, just to make things even worse, our central heating died on us this year. We have been told that we must have the complete system replaced. That lovely bit of news means all the floor boards must come up, in every room. Of course that also means all the fitted carpets must be lifted too. The thing I’m dreading the most, is all the eight legged creatures that will start the long trek out of the darkness and into our living areas. This will be a time of fear for me, with eyes darting around all night long, jumping at every little shadow and screaming at tiny dust bunnies! If we’re really lucky we may have it done before the winter sets in.

Back to the summer. I definitely remember much warmer summers where, in general, you could be confident that it would be dry and warm for long periods of time. Now, it seems, we are blessed if we get two or three warm, dry days on the trot. Where, oh where are our summers?

Just so I can wallow in my misery, what temperature is it where you are today?

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I have been tagged by Drowsey Monkey for this meme. I have to list six quirky things about myself. Here goes, and I hope you’re not too put off by them ;O)

Here are the Rules:
1. Link the person(s) who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

My list
1. I have sudden bursts of silly, spacky dancing for no reason, or sudden bursts of loud, operatic singing! Is that quirky enough?

2. I talk with my hands, apparently. I took note of this last night and – yes, it’s true!

3. I’ve been told that I lift my left leg up and down when playing my guitar, and that it looks – cute?

4. I never read instructions. The only exception to this is when trying to put flat pack furniture together – those instructions are always wrong anyway, and I could draw them up much better ;O)

5. I have a ‘thing’ about teeth and examine everybody’s teeth on TV. I can definitely tell who has had cosmetic dentistry, and usually ruined their teeth! Of course I verbalize my views all the time.

6. I never go to bed before 3am, unless I had no sleep the night before……then maybe 2am.

These were fairly easy to think of so I guess that probably means that I must have lots more, not so obvious, quirks.

Now I think I will be even more quirky and tag some kitties for this – and it is optional.

I tag:

Daisy
Sassy
JB
Samantha
Maggy & Zoey

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