Nothing ever stays the same, does it, even when you're using one of the real basics of everyday life, like a plain old-fashioned computer. Which is such a pity for an old stick-in-the-mud like Yours Truly!
Take me - please haha! I use the same handful of computer programs every day and I know where to move the mouse to on the page and click on what I want without needing to think about it, which is why it's so annoying when some clever-dick programmer decides to give a fresh new "look" to some well-loved software so that all of a sudden one morning I find myself clicking on somewhere I don't want to go.
It's total madness !!!!
yes it's me again! But this time notice how my simple-hearted
pleasure rapidly disappears when I realise that some clever-dick
software guy has changed one of my 5 or so go-to favourite programs
Even a favourite chocolate-bar machine can't be relied on to have the same selection as last time, these days, so if you're not thinking when you select, say, your favourite A7 tray, you can get an unpleasant surprise.
I read this story the other day in our local news hereabouts [source: Onion News (West Worcestershire):
Fascinating stuff, isn't it! But change is part of life, isn't it, and we've just got to "roll with the punches" these days.
And today - Sunday July 7th - is certainly a day of unexpected occurrences for me and my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois, that's for sure!
It all started yesterday when Lois went with our daughter Sarah and her twins on a trip to town to the County Library and then on to the Malvern Food Festival. They saw some woman's "Ukrainian dumplings" - I wish I'd seen those yum yum! - and they also attended a rain-affected demonstration on Indian curries, and a bunch of other things.
flashback to yesterday: Lois, Sarah and the twins attend
a rain-affected Malvern Food Festival near the town centre
However, despite all the food on display, Lois, Sarah and the twins spectacularly failed to buy anything to eat themselves, because all the food on sale there was "way too expensive", and the result was that they came home about 3pm having picked up, on the way home, a couple of tins of hot dogs, which they proceeded to heat up.
What madness! And with the predictable effect on Lois's digestion that she doesn't sleep well overnight, and today's plans for Sunday have to be ditched. Poor Lois! Sarah and the twins still stay with us till lunchtime, but then, about 12:30 pm, they disappear off back to their home in Alcester.
all plans for today ditched, Sarah and the twins stay with us
till lunchtime, before driving home to Alcester
13:00 All is not lost, however, because during our record 3 hours in bed this afternoon (!), Lois shows me some of the things she did get hold of yesterday, including these 2 fascinating library books about the history of Malvern, the town we downsized to about 20 months ago.
Who knew that Malvern was once the UK's answer to "Woodstock" - the iconic "peace and love" music festival held at Yasgur's Farm in Bethel, New York State, back in those happy-hippy-days of 1969?
And by coincidence there's a story about this on the Worcester News website today, by their ace cub-reporter Mike Pryce, simply because it's the 50th anniversary of one of these event, which is a nice surprise:
Pryce writes,
"It was
aimed at being the [UK] version of America’s Woodstock and the 1974 event, 50
years ago to the month, certainly followed the template, because it poured with
rain."Nevertheless the county’s
hippies turned up to sit on the sodden grass with their ponchos and, rather
less cool, umbrellas and nod their heads to the music of half a dozen bands. Organisers of outdoor
events always roll the dice with the British weather, and that year,
unfortunately, they lost.
flashback to 1969, when 400,000 people attended
a Peace, Love and Music festival at Yasgur's Farm, New York State
"[The iconic 1969] "Woodstock" [Festival],
held at Yasgur's Farm in New York State over three days in August, 1969 drew
400,000 people, when the organisers had aimed for 150,000 in their wildest
dreams, and [it] set the scene for what was to follow all over the world. On a
smaller scale, naturally.
"In Worcestershire we are
usually a little behind the curve and it was not until a Saturday in August,
1972 [that] free, open air rock festivals arrived here, courtesy of a group of friends
who hung out at Malvern Youth Centre and went to the town’s Winter Gardens to
shake their hair to bands like Barclay James Harvest and Mott the Hoople.
"Among them
were Don Palmer, Rich Evans, Chris Reagan and Jon Fulcher.
"A few years ago I
interviewed Jon and he told me: “We worked out an ideal site on Malvern Link
Common, where there is a natural amphitheatre caused by the lie of the ground.
Public toilets were also nearby – or there were then, they’ve since been
knocked down – so we wouldn’t have to worry about that.”
"Amazingly
the habitually strait-laced Malvern Hills Conservators (now Malvern Hills
Trust) gave the go-ahead and with support from Malvern Festival Theatre, which
loaned its generator, and a hire firm in Ledbury, which supplied another one
free, power to the stage was sorted.
flashback to the early 1970's: the Malvern Peace Love & Music
Festival, the UK's answer to "Woodstock"
"Fulcher added, 'Scaffolding and planks for
the stage came from a Malvern builder, but the lads had to design and build it
themselves with the help of some mates.'"
What a crazy country we live in !!!!
I can't see it ever would have worked, myself. Here's the iconic "Woodstock Anthem" song, adapted with apologies to Canadian-American songwriter Joni Mitchell:
Naaaahhhhh, wouldn't ever have worked, would it! Be honest haha !!!!!!
20:00 We go to bed on a film Lois has always wanted to see, but for numerous reasons (mainly my urgings probably, I'm not a big fan of musicals (!)) she hasn't had the chance to see until tonight - the film version of the musical Hairspray, being shown tonight on ITV2:
If you haven't seen Hairspray and are thinking about maybe seeing it, it's great fun. It's one of those musicals where the songs are instantly enjoyable without being at all memorable, so don't watch it if you're looking for classic songs - a bit like a lot of musicals, e.g. Les Miserables, Starlight Express etc, examples are legion, all with pretty much no songs to remember them by.
It catches Baltimore in the early 1960's - a city Lois and I know a little bit about, having lived in Maryland 1982-85. The 1960's were a time when racial integration was being touted by progressive-minded citizens as "the next big thing".
And the film is really incredibly amusing in a satirical way, targeting the then matter-of-fact segregation of all local events: even the popular local teenage music show in the film, which has the occasional "Negro Day", as a change from its normal "whites only" show. Black presenters, black singers, black teens in the audience, dancing etc. What a crazy world we all lived in, back in those far-off days !!!!!
And the sponsors for Negro Day are different from the normal sponsors - this is how presenter Maybelline goes to the commercial break.
It's all the most tremendous fun !!!!
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment