Suzanne Vega meets Louisianna

I am sitting In the morning
At the diner On the corner
I am waiting At the counter
For the man To pour the coffee
And he fills it Only halfway
And beforeI even argue
He is looking Out the window
At somebodyComing in

"It is alwaysNice to see you"
Says the man Behind the counter
To the womanWho has come in
She is shaking Her umbrella
And I look The other way
As they are kissing
Their hellos I'm pretending
Not to see them
InsteadI pour the milk

I open Up the paper
There's a story Of an actor
Who had died While he was drinking
It was no oneI had heard of
And I'm turning To the horoscope
And looking For the funnies
When I'm feeling Someone watching me
And soI raise my head

There's a woman On the outside
Looking inside Does she see me?
No she does not Really see me
Cause she sees Her own reflection
And I'm trying Not to notice
That she's hitching Up her skirt
And while she's Straightening her stockings
Her hair Has gotten wet

Oh, this rain It will continue Through the morning
As I'm listening
To the bells Of the cathedral I am thinking Of your voice...

And of the midnight picnic
Once upon a time Before the rain began...

I finish up my coffee It's time to catch the train

You Are My Sunshine
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away

The other nite, dear,
As I lay sleeping
I dreamed I held you in my arms.
When I awoke, dear,
I was mistaken
And I hung my head and cried.


You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmx6KxBsLCU&feature=related
No point really....just liked the juxtaposition...so there!

iPod Mania

You see I didn't realise that I needed an iPod. I was guilty of looking down my nose at the silly people who cut themselves off from life, earphones in situ, and failing to relate to the world around them. Also I'm a technophobe about some things. So there's my Daughter, buying me a Christmas present (well combined birthday and Christmas present) and it's a 3rd generation iPod Nano. It's brilliant. I'm converted. Not only have I put all my record collection (sorry CD collection) on it but I've got photo's and videos and notes and all sorts. Forgive me for gushing but I am 55 and consider such things only slightly short of black magic. But the best thing is iTunes. All the songs I've ever wanted in one place. Don't have to buy the whole album for just one song - can buy individual tracks! Wow! and then there are all the freebies (even Sarah didn't know about the free audiobooks on podcasts, free nostalgia radio, ghost stories, rugby podcasts, friday night BBC comedy programmes and lots more. I searched 'The Battle of Waterloo' and 'Agincourt' and came up with free podcast accounts of the battles. There are even

free walking guides around London and free guides to the major art galleries and museums. Just download and walk.S'brilliant.

And I can listen to Maddy Prior in the bath on my docking station.......aaaaah luxury

Zimbabwe

This week Zimbabwe will see elections. If you have any doubt about the need for regime change you should go to http://www.gillian-plowman.co.uk/
Go to 'plays' and then scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the link to the play 'Boniface and Me' Then listen..............

Coincidences do happen

Browsing the antiques fair in Benson, I found the chap on the left. I was intrigued, never having seen one of these items before. I found this unnatractive gentleman fascinating in design and had not a clue what it was for. The vendor told me it was a turn of the century porcelain matchstriker which, she felt, was manufactured in Germany. You can strike a match on the roughened base. A cigarrette can be put in the mouth and smoke will eminate from the holes in the ears. An interesting piece of Tobbacciana (? spelling). I bought it for £30 and that was that.
A couple of weeks later I was at a bric a brac sale in Hampshire and was astonished to find the other chap (the one with the moustache). The guy let me have it for £15 - he hadn't know it's provenance but his wife had told him it was a match striker. So I thought there may be a set of these waiting to be collected. So I did a bit of research and found a couple pictures, below, of similar objects made by Schafer and Vater.

Schafer & Vater Porcelain Factory was located in Volkstedt Rudolstadt, Thuringa Germany. Gustav Schafer and Gunther Vater wanted to produce high quality porcelain and founded the Schafer & Vater Porcelain Factory. Schafer & Vater Porcelain Factory purchased the List Porcelain Factory at Neuhaus in 1896. Schafer & Vater Porcelain Factory produced a wide range of hard paste porcelain such as figurines, and dolls' heads. Schafer & Vater Porcelain Factory also produced soft paste porcelain in bisque items. Majolica and Jasperware were other produce lines. They had become so successful that their unique and fanciful wares were picked up by the Sears Roebuck catalogue and became available all across America by 1910.Schafer and Vater succeeded because they made the kinds things few other companies would even attempt to make, interesting products of broad popular appeal, and they made them artfully.
The company had started by making doll heads, but Schafer&Vater had more adult products in mind — fun items involving sex and liquor.Their line of nudes and bathing beauties was more comical than naughty( go to : http://www.onr.com/user/bblady/schafer.html ), and their figural liquor bottles were designed to make cocktail time fun. These were most popular in the 1920s.
Schafer and Vater made decorative bisque and majolica wares, not so much to imitate the companies that made these things, but to put their own interpretation on them.One type of ware S&V dared to put its own interpretation on was Wedgwood’s jasperware, the finely ground stoneware that resembles porcelain bisque, stained with a colorful dye and decorated with white cameos in relief.
Wedgwood is always signed, so those pieces without a signature might well be S&V. Probably not be as valuable as Wedgwood, but still very collectible. Collectors like S&V jasperware for its thick, creamy cameos and romantic motifs. Wedgwood’s cameos are a bit flatter and the motifs are classical.
The best S&V wares were made between 1900 and the 1930s.A few teapots were produced by the company and are extremely hard to find and rare. Schafer & Vater Porcelain Factory produced many figural liquor bottles for distribution by pubs.Paul Schafer had taken over from his father in 1913. He working alongside Gunther Vater built up a successful workforce of around 200 people, using 3 kilns. The factory was destroyed by fire in 1918. A new factory was built to resume production. The firm closed in 1962 and it is reported that in 1972 the East German government assumed full control of the vacant factory and their records and moulds were destroyed.

Same as mine but different song

Will try to find more!!!

February and March

January was a bit of a dead loss. Miserable and I became 55 ! February was better with Sarah and James planning for their marriage in December and John and Ruth moving into their new house. Did I mention I'm going to be a grandfather!!!

Ruth and Laura constructing Ikea furniture. I supervised (well, just held a bit of wood actually). Oh yes, forgot to mention that this is the first photo of Ruth as a pregnant person!!!!! We have seen the scans (on a DVD) and the baby was very lively. Due in September.

Jenny and I have been walking bits of the Thames path. She has got the fitness bug and is walking miles. This is the lock near Henley. (by the way did I say I am going to be a Grandfather!!!!)

Benson and Wallingford

Flat Four Weekend at Willen. Notable for the fact that I beat Simon at Chess (for the first time).




Probably forgot to mention it but I'm going to be a Grandfather!

Family Christmas

Christmas Eve and the customary Goring Torchlight Procession. Jenny and I have been going for 11 years now. This year Sarah and James brought Jim and Cynthia (James' Mum and Dad) and John and Ruth invited Ian and Laura (Ruth's little sister and her partner) and some other friends so it was a great night. By the way my photo's all came out black so I've appropriated this photo from another blog which belongs to an artist and author called Sarah Laurence. I urge you to look at her blog and web site.

http://sarahlaurence.com/blog/labels/pubs.html

THEN PRESENT OPENING






and the traditional walk to feed the ducks at Goring Lock
Other stuff? Jenny and I went, with the staff from work, to Jongleurs in Oxford. John,Pat,Jean and I saw Ian Mckellen's King Lear (great night) whilst Ruth and Jenny preferred to stay at home.

Oh yes my future son in law (James aka The Bean)


I find this quite disturbing!!!!















We all went to see 'Billy Elliot' (again) on the 28th and went with Sue and Andy to 'Mamma Mia'. Oh yes, I was given an iPod, by Sarah, more of that later.

So then there was December

Flat Four Christmas at the Royal Albert Hall, thanks to Philip and Daryl.

Lazy Blogitis

Ah man! The days have gone since September and I have suffered from such an attack of chronic laziness and acute apathy. My weight has increased and my life is drifting. This is a first step to change that around. So an update to what's been goin' on. Work mainly! Time to retire, but I'm 55 and no retirement in sight. My research project faltered because of the pedantic nature of the legal profession. This has been resolved, as of last Thursday, so I'm feeling much more positive now.

September - Newbury Show (with Stephen)
Waddesdon Manor (with Sue)

Then a weekend with Flat Four in Weston Super Mare and the RAFTA project. Lovely theatre and a lively production

A November Sunday at Blenheim with Aunt Ruth

October and Dad's birthday. Bought him a bird table so he could enjoy the birds outside his living room window. I constructed it without the aid of instructions as that would be an affront to my masculinity. It fell over.