THE BELLS ..... THE BELLS ..........

I guess we all have good things and bad things about where we live. One of the lovely things about where our house is, is that it's a stones throw away from the 600 year old C of E church, built between 1418-1448,  with evidence of an older church on the same site, dedicated to St John the Baptist. 

The bells ring out every Sunday and for every wedding { if the happy couple have paid for bells !!! } We also hear them a few evenings a week when they practice and they are rung whenever there is a significant celebration. 

I took the above little video at 9.45 a.m this morning, the bells calling people to the Holy Eucharist service { you have to have the volumne up high to hear the bells ! }. I know a bit about the church, not because we go but because our son was a choir boy there. I think I might have told you this but, when he was seven, he came out of school saying the choirmaster had visited asking boys if they would like to join the choir { it was all boys then but they have girls now } and he said he did !!! He went on to get his grades in singing, then a degree in music and now works in the music industry..... he was born with the music gene !

Our garden is going over now but it did look nice in the Spring and Summer !!! 

XXXX

THE ART TEACHER ..........

Following on from my last post, I was reminded of a memory of my school days. 

My favourite subject was Art at school. I think that I was reasonably good at it { I did get A Level Art a year early } so, as an eleven year old starting Senior School, I was looking forward to my Art classes. 

I went to a very academic school where Art was thought to be the Devil Incarnate. It was a large Grammar School with over a thousand pupils and there were only two Art teachers. Mr. C. was our art teacher for the first five years .{ I'm not sure of the protocol of naming people { even though I'm sure he is dead by now } so I will refer to him as Mr. C.} He was a short, portly man who, to an eleven year old, seemed pretty old but he was probably in his late forties. He had a moustache, wore a threadbare tweed jacket with leather elbow patches, stained trousers { relevant !!! } half concealed by his chalk soiled black gown. His crowning glory was a comb-over of a few greasy hairs. 

Embarking on the art assignment he had given us, we would all be at our desks, busily attempting to produce something equal to Rembrandt. After ten minutes into the class, Mr. C. would rise from his desk at the front of the class and begin to walk around the desks to scrutinise our work. All of the girls knew what was coming ...... he would come up to us in turn, look at our work and offer advice, putting his arm around and over our shoulders and then, he would touch us up ! He did it to all of the girls. He never went any further { well, not to me or my friends } . It was just part of our school life and we all used to tell him to 'get off ' and would laugh about him after class. It didn't affect me in anyway apart from us schoolgirls laughing about him and calling him a dirty old man, but can you imagine what would happen to him nowadays ? .... and rightly so. None of us ever reported him, we just brushed it off. 

It was that thought of, if we reported him, it was his word against ours and no-one ever believed a schoolgirl over a teacher so it just wasn't worth it. I still see a friend who was with me at school and we often reminisce about pervy Mr.C. 

I wonder what happened to him and if he ever paid for his misdemeanours ? 

We did have the other Art teacher in the sixth form but he was useless ! My school didn't pull the stops out when it came to Art ! My friend, who failed her 11 plus, went to a brand new Secondary Modern school which had the best art department and art teachers and she went onto Art School and became a wonderful potter and Art teacher.

I think I might have done better to have failed my 11 plus ! { although, I did have a very good education apart from the art }

XXXX

SEX EDUCATION IN THE 60's ..........

When I started Senior School, the girls in the first year were given a book to take home and read. The other day I was trying to remember what it was called. I thought it was something like ' The Facts of Life ' but thought I'd google it. I couldn't find the one we were given but the following popped up ! 

Scroll past the first picture as it's hard to read. 

It's clearer in the next two photographs.

😱

XXXX

STUFF !!! ...........

BT shut me out of my emails a few weeks ago ....... I have been with BT for 50 years and have always had broadband and email with them. I rang them { and, surprisingly enough was first in the queue }. A very nice lady apologised and sorted it out. Then, it happened the next day, then the next and then the next ! Finally that was sorted. While I was onto her I said that I felt it was time to get rid of the landline. Then, looking at my bill, I was paying £25 a month for TNT Sports which we never use as all of the Sport is on our Sky Glass. She got rid of that. She then said that they have amalgamated with EE and would I like to have my mobile with them  .....I informed her that I was already with EE ..... she then proceeded to get my EE mobile bill down. Then I was told that BT will eventually only deal with businesses so I should go with EE for my Broadband and have their new ' all singing, all dancing ' new fibre broadband. OK, I said..........

A lovey Outreach man came and set it all up with my old BT broadband router and then, they sent me the above ! I connected it all up but they hadn't sent me a booster to put at the back of the house so, after yet another phone call, they sent me one. Throughout all of this process I must have been on the phone for over fifteen hours ! Nobody gave me an account number { as I am now with EE } or how I would pay so more hours on the phone. I received the booster and thought I just plugged it in like I did with the BT one ....... no, it all has to be paired. I like to think, for an old person, I'm not too bad with technology but, nobody tells you anything ! That was sorted but it kept dropping out { which NEVER happened with BT ! } More phone calls later it is all working { fingers crossed }. They also said it would be super fast ..... I have never had any problems with speed and this doesn't seem any faster ! Here's hoping I don't have to go through that again and waste nearly a whole day of my life on the phone ! 

On a lighter note, our son took our granddaughter to see Taylor Swift on the last night at Wembley. I don't know many Taylor Swift songs but, seeing some of the clips, the show looked amazing ...... I would have liked to have gone ..... I won't tell you how much our son paid for the tickets !!!!!!

One more thing ..... as some of you know, our son works in the music business ..... I think he was musical in the womb ! He likes all sorts of music from Classical to heavy metal. They all came to us on Fathers Day but he left around 5.00 pm as he was going to a gig in Islington with friends. Do you know who he went to see ? A Heavy Metal Band called ..... wait for it  .....

' Dying Fetus ' 

Lovely.  

XXXX

BAD LUCK COMES IN THREES !!! ..........

They say that bad things come in threes .....

First I found a dead one of these little creatures floating in our water butt ..... we seem to have loads more squirrels in the past few years ...... have you seen more ?

Then I decided to plant this clematis that I had just bought when, getting it gently out of the pot, I broke the prolific, growing stem off !!! .....

..... and then, to cap it all, we now need a new boiler 😱. When we had the new kitchen done, I asked the builder if we should have a new boiler as that would be a good time to do it. " No " he said. A year on, the boiler has had it and it's all a bit of an upheaval in our lovely new kitchen. All will be well though as it's only wood and a bit of paint to make it all good again. There goes a few more thousand out of the pot !!!

I don't think I will be putting a bet on the Grand National !!!  

XXXX

73 TODAY 😱😱😱 ..........

Good Grief ..... how did I get this old ? 

73 is pretty old isn't it ? Actually, it's very old !

I know everyone says it but I am still about thirty inside !

Anyway, it is far better than the alternative 

I am going to get down with the kids and watch Saltburn ..... have any of you seen it ? I've seen so many clips that I feel as if I've watched it !

Anyway, Happy Birthday to me and I hope to see you here on my 74th { with a few posts in between }  !!!

🥳🥳🥳🥳

XXXX