The last days of the Summer Vacation play out

A matter of a couple of weekdays before school resumes so you might as well enjoy the weather and perish the thought the sun before the long slog and sorting things to take with you although school supplies are a certainty as is today a mobile phone of some description as much as I recall the red or later grey phone boxes and the pay phone in our boarding school for phoning home once a week.

I'd never say I was or even today am anything like a great artist, but I do like to draw a bit when I'm physically up to it and the ability to take a few reference pictures on your phone and work with them at hand certainly saves waiting a day or to get your prints back and painting at home.

Unexpected things that happened this week included the stylus suspension sagging that works with the cartridge in my stereo's turntable so I needed to order up another which don't come cheap and fit that while I wait on a audiophile lp to come in the post.

Something else that was ordered but has arrived is this Japanese promotional single with a four sided promotional postcard cover for Yesterday Hero, the Vander/Young composition back on this copy by Rock 'N' Roller where the U.S and Canadian had My Lisa as the b side

Strangely enough here in the U.K. we didn't get this as a single in 1976 only the non album Love Me Like I Love You and cover of Dusty Springfield's I Only Want To Be With You  that peaked at numbers 4 and 8 respectively in the U.K. singles charts.

Back to school Friday

This week it must be said wasn't a great one when it comes to my health having been pretty poorly over a few days and we're only just getting back in the swing of things here.
It's also the time my head goes flying back to the past because when you're like me it's always thinking as if you are in that time so all the back to school promotions when life was rather more like this.

Yes that time you were dragged around the stationery shop for new geometry sets, pencil cases, felt tip pens for writing Carol luvs Simon in embarrassing places and notebooks although schools SHOULD supply exercise books or loose paper for folders.

You thought Minnie was bad, some of my exploits were legendary!

It was always fun to compare your mates pencil case and contents with everybody else's although while you could get a variety of pencil cases back in the day, the contents were generally unbranded and pretty boring.

These days branding gets everywhere as with this Dennis and Gnasher set, although Hello Kitty and Winnie The Pooh are super popular with it being on pencils and erasers (we used to call them Rubbers but American's use that for something very different so global brands don't use our English terms).

Then of course there was that most popular outing to the Uniform shop to try your schools official uniform on and get any alterations such as taking up hems and arm lengths arranged.

While some talk about making it cheaper personally I'd sooner up the quality so it really does last employing British workers rather than children in sweatshops in South-east Asia who work over 12 hours a  day in poor conditions even if it meant every parent was given a voucher to redeem part of the cost.

Something that is well made can easily be handed down if needed and looks smarter when worn which does matter.

Now to put mine on!

Yes this blogger has Learning Disabilities

It's right to leave some space when looking at online self diagnosis tools as conditions do overlap not least ADHD, Autism and Dyslexia but to be honest so much of that rings true with me so apart from not having diagnosed Autism because it presents in less stereotypical ways and I'm damn good at masking there's an over 90% chance I'm ADHD.

Just taking the last frame I often have that working or blogging to the point in I effect I throw a dice with options and just do something now rather than remain stuck weighing things up to the point actually I've achieved...nothing.

There's something deeply ironically in learning more about your disabilities and managing them from younger people when you're an adult little but in my day there was official denial, mislabelling and prejudice and if they did accept something it was mask, mask, mask.

Just coming out and saying "My name Is Jo and I have learning disabilities" is darn relief.