The Skater's Waltz

 Some aspects of your life are influenced by your disabilities and how they run across your childhood and for me using a wheelchair some of the time did influence those things you remember and wheelchair dancing was one thing I did every week 

That could factor into other things such as school plays and performances for Christmas's of which apart from the difficulties of learning your lines when you're dyslexic  but I had to dance in my wheelchair to Waldtuefel's Skater's Waltz during it in front of everyone which was nerve-wracking  but fun.

There are of course many recordings of that work but this was the one I had and still have bought as kid used but in lovely condition that has many of his waltzes played by a shorter selection from the Philharmonia Orchestra in the mid 1950's originally issued in mono only and this stereo edition dates from April 1965.

The playing fully realizes the sweeping movement leaving one in awe.

Sorting out Parks in the COVID-19 era

Living through this Coronavirus (COVID-19) emergency is throwing up fresh questions and challenges, one being when is the earliest we can consider a alteration in the current locked down state which the Government is looking at as I type this from my room as we're still off school.

The other came very much into focus last weekend where a combination of it being both sunny and warm lead to situations where some parks and beauty spots were so full that the two metre distancing rule couldn't be met.

That meant they were closed or that people were ordered to disperse. 

It had to be said this was mainly in the larger cities and that it was a huge issue in London where a good number of people  do not have gardens and many be in tower blocks with little more than a small balcony.

This means that for those especially with children there isn't anywhere for them to have a runaround and exercise because communal facilities are so small you couldn't keep kids apart.

The other thing is that period of exercise is up to an hour and as one distraught London parent put it by the time I've walked to the park with my son arriving by the gate, we have to turn back to go home cos it's taken half an hour.

It's also the case some come early and claim spots for picnics which are discouraged as it leads to more people being sat right next to others.

I don't think not manning the parks, leavng unsatisfactory situations to develop to the point the local police have to step in really is the answer for places like London.

Children above all need fresh air and open spaces and as Margaret Hodge, a London MP said maybe we need to look at some sort of limiting to ensure most children do get a fair chance for say an hour at the park.

It may mean something liked timed ticketed entry with staff who might be volunteers to see to it people keep with in that as well as taking into account how long it takes to get to the nearest park before counting the hour of exercise.

The same people can deal with hogging spots and hours of picnicking which take away much needed space to play safely.

Simply threatening to shut down parks altogether as the Health Secretary appeared to suggest  last Sunday doesn't seem to be an intelligent response to a very real concern. 

The non academic things we learn in school

There are things I could talk about easily but they aren't in any way resolved apart from much of what is referred to isn't clearly fact so rather late in the day I decided to write this.

I was looking for something similar but more your boarding school boy as you see I had this image in my head of "Boris the Bold" leading on with the entire forms tuck box  saying "This could be jolly handy later on in my life".

In a way while we do have the ability to change, much of who we are is well established by the time we've left school that there is a lot to said for looking at the kinds of opportunities that can help people develop life skills while at it rather just a preoccupation with the academic as much as I don't give anyone who  doesn't value that an easy ride at all.

It may be something like being the Captain of a sports team or say running a club during recess, getting others involved, showing how to do things more effectively or fixing the competitions or presentation for say parents day.

These kinds of things do actually help like for example in my school we had a after school time gym class a friend run, taking the contributions, setting out equipment and exercises.
They were hardly well off, frankly my family was more well off than hers but she did an excellent job of it and so she had something to say about herself for when she left school because she demonstrated skills and abilities that people especially employers are looking for.

She really impressed me and within our school she wasn't alone either.

One thing I tend to think is having either all girl or boy settings means it is more likely everyone will take those opportunities sensing they need to be done rather than just assuming "The girls will do that" or "we'll leave that to the boys of form V" because they will need to take ownership apart from making each group more in tune with what its members want as trying to run something coe-od doesn't always work well.

Summer memories

As this is being typed up, the weather is in a dryish spot compared to much of week that's been anything but reminding me more of one family holiday when it rained for nearly all the time we were way to the point we HAD to leave as where we were staying was flooded out.

One memory of that era in the summer was playing out which didn't just include the park which was prone to flooding too but of woodland and not untypically for this district the local canals where we'd watch the narrow boats coming in, chat with people and offer to help for a bit of extra pocket money operating the lock gates.
At that point there were two locks as thanks to salt mining subsidence which is a major problem around these parts a Steel Lock was made and installed in 1958 to get around the effects of subsidence on the conventional lock which was quite notable in England but sadly it proved to be both hard to work and unreliable.
Eventually it was taken out of commission by the then British Waterways Board, the government department responsible for canals and associated infrastructure  but that didn't stop it being a magnet to local children which after a number of incidents lead to it being be demolished.
Looking to the far right, you can just make out the ridge where a prominent folly in North Staffordshire can be found.

Ready to return

We're working in Firefox this week from the Windows Laptop as Pale Moon is having issues that makes it unreliable on Google's sites and touch and go on Tumblr too so I'm kind of hoping to see a bug fix this week.

 There's little escaping it from the press advertisements, the notices in uniform shops and increasingly offers from both online retailers plus certain supermarkets, the New Term is upon us.
In my world I'll be returning come September in grey as I have had a grey school jumper with a V neck which after all this medical stuff since July has preoccupied my time apart from how it's left me.
It should go well with my grey, green and black pleated skirts although unlike her in the picture I don't own a traditional leather satchel and indeed remember them fading out for briefcases or hold alls.
The worst thing you could ever have for carrying books in was the Duffle Bag which easily distorted and rubbed the corners of text books to the point some schools prohibited them for the damage they could cause.
The trouble was of course they were really intended for sports kit being made from a canvas material and not books so had no corners just a long tube shape with a drawstring that pulled the top closed.
Anyway I have my music ready to take away with sorted so bye for now!

Dealing with how we and or friends may of been treated

The origins of prejudice can be many-fold as those of us who have faced it and even perhaps unthinkingly acted upon it can certainly vouch for.
Sometimes it is a prevailing view that we are brought up with such as to see those who don't share the same religious beliefs we do as a threat, to view those of certain ethnic minorities as lesser, almost children limited by design in ability or to see those with disabilities as a drain on society.
As repugnant as each and all of those opinions are the bigger thing tends to be what it is that people do with them as if merely having an prejudiced point of view were a crime I dare say most of us would be paying for it in one way or another.
Sometimes were bear one less than something we co-opted from others so much as it is the result of drawing the wrong conclusions from something that was real that involved us such as the bullying and physical assaults I experienced from 'normal' kids at junior school where amongst other things I was being falsly accuse of damaging school property by a known school bully and every other child refused to speak out even though I could not myself. In the end one girl did and was ostracized for a period for it.
It could be the verbal assaults and insults you may get from others for things you simply cannot help in the street or online.
It would be easy for me to form the view that those of you who are not disabled cannot be trusted to treat me with respect and to hide away fearful of what an encounter might bring given how those experiences (and others) left me.
The thing is I'd then be treating you little different, forever suspecting you, keeping you away, persuading others to join in cos that's what prejudice is like: it removes the individuals personality and identity and replaces one based upon an encounter with one or more others who share something in common with them and convicts them upon this collective image you have formed.
Sometimes too  a person having done something really hurtful may begin to see just how that impacted on another and yet it would be easy yet again to refuse to forgive them personally and any group you associated their actions with.
Circumstances bring us together albeit a chance encounter on the street or as one social media site or forum closes and we move to another.
How are we going to treat our new friends and neighbours?
   

Thoughts around learning

There's nothing quite so stereotypical British as national panics best talked over tea and a common one is around educational standards although it could be argued part of this reflects the debate around learning and retaining facts over looking things up and following a process.
My feelings are more that you do need a knowledge base so you know  8 x 8 is 64 and The Great Fire of London did take place in 1666 so you can both know off the bat if something is 'wrong' and work efficiently. It is hard to progress when you haven't mastered the basics as like a good number of dyslexic people I know only to well which was a reason I ended up resuming studying a while ago.

Much of this chart from a UK national newspaper is familiar in that what I was expected in my class when I was educated strongly aligned with that common during in the 1950's and following reforms, changed.  My feeling is what happened has been less is required to be known and over a longer period which shows up when international comparisons are made.
It's hard to believe that in that time children are less capable of learning even if we are more enlightened around the things that can making learning more harder for some and prepared to assist more.
It may be how we teach that needs to be addressed apart from having the kind of classroom I had when the teacher just walked in with the texts needed, you got up to greet them and from that point on you were expected to sit still and pay attention rather than dealing with messing about with cellphones and the like.

Mozart Masterworks 1991 revisited

Last time we had a "syncro-post" on this blog which I hope you all enjoyed but today's post will be the complimentary post for a post on the other blog looking at classical music which was something I did blog a bit about on That Boarding School Girl because it was a childhood and school centred experience that included a woodwind group and lessons in music appreciation.
In 1991, to mark the 200th anniversary of the death of Mozart, the record label Deutsche  Grammophon at the time one of the leading labels issuing classical music, instituted a 25 compact disc series entitled Mozart Masterpieces that picked what they regarded as the most essential Mozart compositions in performances they regarded as being desirable all in what was a budget price which from recollection was around £5.49 per disc available separately or as a complete set. 
When compact discs first came out typically we paid £12.99 or more  and by around 1987 mid price discs often more generous when it came to content when it came to classical ones came out around the £7.50-7.99 mark so to have all these recordings at a low unit price really was a bargain for someone who only had a few recordings and many of them on tape or record.

There were however a few for various reasons I didn't get such as the recording of Symphonies 40 and 41 by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado that it was generally scarcely skated the surface of what was in the score to which I bought the mid 60's recordings by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra  conducted by Karl Bohm instead and there was this one that I had the 1976 Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra recording by Karl Bohm I bought in July 1987 when it came out on the new Deutsche Grammophon "Galleria" series  with the Posthorn Serenade.
I thought it was time to revisit this series that was the core of Mozart collection and track down a copy for the 1960's recordings the Berlin Philharmonic did of this and two other works under the larger than life conductor Herbert von Karajan.
That copy of Bohm's conducting Symphony No.31,40  and 41 on DG "Privelige" was the first I replaced.

Part of the reason was I added the nineties DG "Galleria" of symphonies 25, 29 and 31 was to expand the range of symphony recordings  which did bring about duplication with symphony 31  and this double cd is not only remastered for better sound but adds symphonies 35, 36, 38 and 39 as the original Mozart Masterpieces cd DG 429 802-2 with symphonies 38 and 39 conducted by Herbert von Karajan had gone missing.

This took in his recordings of the late symphonies in their entirity that many hold to be superior to his nineteen eighties digital remakes with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

I did buy the Melos performed String Quartets disc but I bought later on a 6 cd set of the main String Quartets performed by the Amadeus Quartet at which point this single disc disappeared for some reason or other so I've picked up a replacement so I can enjoy their account of these two works.

This disc played by Pollini was in the set I bought as DG 429 812-2 with a rather generic embossed Mozart head on a piano image using the cd stampers of the mid to late 1980's cd issue but was re-remastered in 2011 in DG's "The Originals" series.
The remaster has given it a smoother less harsh sound that also feels more full and spacious than the original so has replaced it.
As well, it restores the original 1976 lp front cover which is much more attractive as art to look at featuring conductor,pianist and orchestra. 

Also included in the series was Géza Anda's recordings of his Piano Concertos 19 and 26 which for some reason I never bought although I did get a different recording of no 27 than the one in  this cd set which were from a complete series of them that currently are in a 8 cd set that I hope to get at some point being one the finest ever issued.
While the cover on my copy has the label "Privilege" not "Resonance" in the same font) it is from the very same stamper used for it so it is technically identical.

This was the 8 cd set that eventually I bought remastered compared with the early single cd for more firmer sound. It's just a pity copies of the original lp front covers were not included in the booklet.
This series was the first one I followed rather had bought for me, providing an opportunity to replace a number of works I had on much played records and tapes, making available what had in some instances been full price discs cheaply such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Anne-Sophie Mutter recordings of the 3rd and 5th violin  concertos and the first time some recordings previously issued on tape and lp record came out on cd.
Revisiting it, playing some of the original purchases and these others I missed  brings back many happy memories that lead to the establishment of considerable collection of favourite works by many composers on compact disc and its higher quality form, the super audio cd.

As well I did get a complete set of recording of Mozart's violin sonatas that originally came out as separate cds at this time cheaply comprising of excellent all digital recordings to go alongside the collection.

Caro's three in one catch up post

Happy Dominion/Canada Day folks! 150 years-way to go,eh?
Following on from last weeks 100% political post which was so old school when it comes to this blogs history, we have made some sort of progress with the Conservatives and the DUP agreeing to the supply agreement so it's likely the Queen's Speech will be carried and a number of actions in it supported although it should be recognized this is no formal coalition so expect a few bumps along the way.
Connected with that the UK Government has set out ideas around how it sees the protection of EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens in the EU human rights to be protected and while there is more common ground than one might think, there are differences around if full EU Rights should remain the UK where it doesn't apply them for its own and who should be the final arbitrator in the case of a dispute, the UK Supreme Court or the European Court of Justice? They may need to be a halfway house.

Moving beyond that which as we addressed last year, for this blog to go forward I need to be able to talk about parts of my life that moved centre stage to it since the blog was started, I do take part in a Little's Chat night and we talked about children's television and in particular how the recent death of Brian Cant who narrated the Camberwick Green,  Trumpton,and Chigley trilogy of cartoons set in Trumptonshire in the nineteen sixties (repeated into the nineteen-seventies) and also was a present on the Play away and Play school programs for young children left us.
These shows were a part of our childhood and many of us felt close to their stars.
Finally and something I hadn't spoken much of on this blog, I have been reading a lot around "Crossdreaming" as that applies to those of us who are transgendered, such as Felix Conrad's publications, the Transcend and Crossdreamers websites CrossDreamers .
I find much of what is said there speaks more to me than mainstream transgender narratives not least the thorny debates between those  who see transsexuality as a totally separate thing and those of us who see it as a part of a wider continuum of gender identity and roles.

Minnie the Mix and Leo Baxendale

On Thursday it was announced that Leo Baxendale, cartoonist at the Beano comic creator of Minnie The Minnie had died.

 
The Beano was something of institution, a handed down traditional rite of Britishers and for some from British families overseas too for its mixture of comics whose situations were truly only in your imaginations and some such as The Bash Street Kids and my heroine Minnie The Minx based upon our times at school and at home capturing just what it was our lives more more like as school children especially in the pre-internet era.

 
Minnie was very much the tomboy, not one for endless playing with toys and dolls but at the centre of all physical activities being very much the equal of any boy when it came to her strength, resourcefulness and daring-do being the Tam-o shantered and skirted equivalent of Dennis the Menace and just like him, running rings around Mom and Dad.

Here's a more recent strip, showing just how she plays pranks on girls the equal of what any boy would do.

Of course as in real life her pranks and at times outright naughtiness would catch up with her especially in pre 1990's editions as the authority figures in her life would discipline her.

This was something we'd all empathize with in an era would we'd get the same in our own lives and this interconnection between the lives we led and its portrayal in books, comics and other media was very strong which is why the death of the creator of big chunk of childhood leisure time is so keenly missed.
R.I.P Leo.

Post 600

Teddy Bears were always a big big part of me, associating them very much with comfort and emotional stability not just as huggable items although god knows I could use a hug or two at times but also as playthings, in imaginative play.
I'd have them set out as a family unit, interacting with each other doing things like looking after the younger members or even taking afternoon tea together, exchanging small talk,  taking turns.
My childhood was messed up for situations in my family as much as my disabilities and how people at times treated me because of it, casting me out.
That's why I feel this younger side of me needs to be let out.

Christmas edition

Compared with last year never mind the year before where I just at my wits end not being able get going, this year I'm well ahead of the curve having got my Christmas Cards all written out and nearly all the presents in ready to be wrapped then placed into bags for delivery.
While I do know about a few of mine, I still have that love for the mystery present you open, being in awe that to me a childhood Christmas had rather than just being given stuff you know all about and the only thing special is "can't be played with until December 25th".
It's that child-like side of me that loves this time of year and the surprise gifts from those that care the most about you.
Happy Christmas folks.

Think Pink

The Pink Panther was a childhood favourite of mine both in the Cartoons made during the sixties that I saw as a child and also the Peter  Blake directed movies staring Peter Sellers as the hapless inspector on the case.
I collected a lot of merchandise as a child such as plushies, notepads, toys and calendars and bought Pink Panther themed bubble bath so you could say it was an obsession of mine.

School uniforms and I

It's never not been really here on this blog even when I first started after the trial run on Friends Reunited just hinted it with the odd word here and deliberate omission there of why it was even if on the odd website or two it was overtly mentioned.

Following what actually happened to me around late 2005 through 2007 when due to 'adult commitments' that I just could not cope with  and also going way back into my late teens when I first felt strongly this regressive side of me, I started spending time in school type uniforms while recovering, making up a structured day because I began to realize I needed the security of a fixed structure like I had in school to cope with day to day living, having a time for activities and proper breaks.
I also found part of the age regression in me did relate to having a longing to wear such a uniform obviously not in public because I felt more 'me' in it and the ritual of putting it on to work in helped as emotionally I was a mess because it not only settled me but also helped in being more disciplined in the use of my time.
In 2016 I can publicly come out and say that here. 

The end of play?

One thing a good number of people in my neighbourhood have remarked upon is the quietness of the sidewalk during the local school half-term break this year with seldom a child been seen out of doors in the park, on the sidewalk nor the local stores on their own.
This is particularly noticeable around of the Senior School age group and a number of parents put it to me that there children preferred to play games and socialize online even when they only be a few blocks away to physically venturing out to perform some shared activity together.
I just can't help but wonder how this is likely to effect how as grown ups they will relate to one another in the work place and the wider community, never mind any effects on their health.

May edition

Recent events have caused me to recall what was a fixture of this time of year when I was growing up, the annual May Day Parade, sometimes broadcast live from Moscow.

The event itself divided me in that as spectacular, it never failed to deliver from the marching of the military, the split second synchronization of the young adults  who did gymnastic events and procession of armoury to Red Square. On the other hand the political repression, the subverting of much of Eastern Europe  to it's economic and military requirements  and so on was something I found disagreeable as much as the general idea of treating people as equals and providing free education, health and social care is something I supported strongly.

C60, C90, C120 Go!

Ever remember what we did pre iTunes when it came to getting and playing our music? Well one thing I remember doing was making up tapes sometimes 'mix tapes' with various tracks sometimes whole albums for playing back elsewhere.

This was one machine I had in high school for it as it was both a home stereo cassette recorder you used with your stereo unit and also a self contained mono player you could take away with you without any mains to play back your tapes on.
There were a great many different lengths of tape that offered different playing times per side of the dual sided cassette but generally I stuck to 60 and 90 minute lengths as they covered most needs and tended to be more reliable as longer tapes would be thin being more prone to wear or even jamming up. Cleaning up after  a jammed tape in the unit wasn't funny!

That's what the tapes looked like , this one plays for forty-five minutes per side and is one of the higher quality type II sorts that  I used a lot of back then although I started out using the cheaper regular type I TDK D ones as the really cheap tapes the drugstores stocked didn't sound so good and were not reliable.
That machine also had a stereo headphone socket so you could use like a 'Walkman' although Walkmen were smaller if no less chubbier to start with, more of use on the bus or train where space is at a premium.
I kept this until I got a proper Hifi deck and separate walkman in the early 80's

What a feeling!

Okay, so I'm a little late with posting this week but given how long it's bin since I first set my eyes on this it don't matter.
Summer '83 for me is wrapped up with seeing Flashdance, the movie several times and an infatuation with the songs featured.
I've had this 12 single since it first came out but there's a pressing fault actually several such as  being off centre, a pressed mark at the end of the track and so on.

Finally I've gotten a replacement copy!
In my opinion this was one of last truly great 12" remixes  totally transforming the song.

That was the original Chromedioxide pre-recorded tape of the soundtrack album I bought back then that sounded pretty amazing for a tape back then that by the late 80's had gotten worn out so I bought the cd version that remains one of the best sounding early cds.

Giles

Thinking a bit back to when some us grew up,  one of things I loved were Cartoon strips usually printed in the newspapers and then issues in the form of a collection of some 12 months or so. One famous series I recall was the Britisher Giles's done for the Daily Express which usually came with a colour cover and an introduction from a notable personality of the day.
The early 1970's in the UK were a time of unrest in labour relations, unstable politics and unprecedented terrorism and this is a favourite cartoon of that era.

Here we have the school pupils on strike, proudly displaying their banners passing a major employer as  the Chairman instructs his secretary to note the ringleaders so they can be "blacked" (denied employment) should they apply in the future.  Although it's a cartoon, such Blacklisting was endemic in the construction industry until recently where long lists of names were found stored for this purpose.

We have it taped!

How we stored music certainly has changed over the decades and this came back to me a few days ago
When I was little to store music you used a machine using magnetic tape and back then it was on reels of different sizes as well as lengths and the very first machine I had was a small portable recorder that took up to 3 and a quarter inch reels which were popular for taking out in the summer or sending voice recordings thru the mail with. Radio Shack did the tapes with mailers too.
It wasn't long though that I wanted something capable of better sound using a faster speed and necessitating larger reels so I acquired this:

Made by Tandberg of Norway, it was a part tube, part solid-state stereo recorder with a built in speaker for portable use that took the larger 7 inch reels.
For music I generally used the 19.1 cms (7 1/2 inches per second) speed setting for quality and as was my want this was a 'twin track' machine using just two tracks to record in stereo meaning you only could record on one side of the tape just like professional machines in studios do.
For the technically minded it gave you less noise, less bleedover between the tracks and critically made editing using a splicing block complete with splicing tape easy as you'd cut at 90 degrees without affecting anything else on the tape.
You set the record level using the ganged control of the  far left toward the front checking with the 'magic eye' indicators above the 'Stereo' logo they were not distorting.
I recorded radio concerts getting otherwise not on album performances as well as putting my favourite lps on tape to help preserve them from wear and damage by either two or four pawed life forms. I was using this until February 1997 when because of my severe disabilities, I was no longer able to use it and bought a digital MiniDisc recorder. 
Back then it was fairly easy to get tape and typically I paid around £5.99 for a 2,400 ft reel of Maxell UD that gave me an hours recording time at 7 1/2 I.P.S. in stereo where as today Maxell no longer make reels of tape and the limited numbers of people that do only supply the professional users such as studios charging over £20 per reel.