Graeme LF 🇺🇦

Brinsley Schwarz - (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace Love And Understanding ... youtu.be/X78DnuKXoRE?si… via @YouTube In view of events everywhere at present…have a peaceful day, dear folks on here. X

Just for fun, every #MollieSugden end-title caption as #MrsSlocombe from #AreYouBeingServed - with the movie version of the theme tune by #RonnieHazlehurst. 📺🎶💗

Our London Marathon choir of 10 is now a choir of two - thanks to Scope's actions. If you enjoying singing and can be in south east London tomorrow morning, please get in touch. Ironically (some might say) we are an inclusive group. No previous choir experience needed. All the songs are well known and we provide lyric books (so you don't need to be able to read music). We're a 'pop up' choir - so are well used to singers rocking up and joining us on the day. If you enjoy singing in the shower/car you're in. No politics - just fun, singing and encouraging the runners. janet@janetmurray.co.uk or DM if you can help.

I’m in my happy place. A warm enough evening, a nice Chenin Blanc, and superb music and books. Earth has not anything to show more fair. @JemRoberts @mrianleslie @AliceSaraOtt

@GrahamBoardman2 @bluebirdk7 @johnthebikeman Available from Spar.

@graemelf1 @bluebirdk7 @johnthebikeman Water “Break” Ale

With most of their project cancelled or failed fortunes squandered, the village furious & only days to go, the best reassuring content they can offer is a bottle of beer? Doesn't bode well.

@bluebirdk7 @GrahamBoardman2 @johnthebikeman ‘I’ve got the Booze up’.

@GrahamBoardman2 @johnthebikeman Or Ye Olde Broken Floor

@jan_murray Snap. I didn’t finish my music A-level at a sneery public school where I never fitted in (poor working-class lad) and retook my exams at the local tech, where they didn’t do the subject. Did English at uni. Head of music heard me play and said they could have got around that…🙄

This row over five funded places at the Royal Academy of Music - reserved for state school pupils to “widen access”- definitely resonated with me. Because I had a place to study music at 18 - with practical tuition at the Academy. And I bottled it. Mainly because, as a working-class, state-educated kid- largely self-taught, only starting lessons in my teens - I felt completely out of my depth. At an audition at the Birmingham Conservatoire, I met two students from Chetham's School of Music who said they were using it as “practice” for Oxbridge. That level of confidence - and entitlement - felt worlds apart from my state school. Where I’d been lucky enough to get free lessons and instrument hire, after the director of the local music service heard me play at a primary school recorder festival and spotted something in me. He arranged for me to have free lessons and instrumental hire on an orchestral instrument. So I'd be able to play in the district and country orchestras. I had to learn the clarinet rather than the flute (which I wanted) because it was the only instrument available. That was in the 90s. From what I can see, those kinds of opportunities barely exist now. When my daughter was at school, music education had largely become the odd term of “creative arts.” So yes - I understand the intention behind the scheme. But focusing on five places at the end of the pipeline misses the point. Even with the support I had, by 18 I already knew I couldn’t compete. One moment sums it up. A wealthy friend lent me a clarinet when my music service one was on its last legs - an incredibly kind gesture, I thought. But when I returned it, he demanded to know why I hadn’t had it “serviced.” I didn’t even know that was a thing. And there’s no way I could have asked my parents for that kind of money - especially without warning. Then there was the moment that finished me off. I was chosen to play a solo at a prestigious county concert. Afterwards a young musician came up and said: “I’m better than you. I should have been chosen.” And she was. People often remarked on my musicality - but I knew I lacked the technical polish. I knew then that being surrounded by musicians like that at degree level would crush what little musical confidence I had. So I walked away - and studied English instead. That’s the real gap. Not just money - but knowledge, expectations, ease. If we’re serious about access to music, it’s not about who gets the final five places. It’s about who gets the years of tuition, support - and quiet confidence - needed to believe they belong there in the first place.

@jet2tweets This is reassuring, and thank you for your prompt reply, but I'm an inveterate worrier - would the reason for the cancellation be classed as force majeur, and therefore not subject to refunds should the worst happen? Sorry to mither...

@graemelf1 We appreciate that there has been a lot of reporting in recent weeks about fuel supply. Rest assured we remain in continual contact with our fuel suppliers. Based on this, we see no reason why our scheduled flights and holidays won't go ahead as normal. ^ Gemma

@jet2tweets Hi there! Looking forward to our trip to Crete in August, but am worried about the news regarding possible jet fuel shortages. Would a cancellation by Jet2 under these circumstances be classified as an indirect result of an act of war or force majeur? Thanks - Graeme

@bluebirdk7 You bloody what?!? 🤬🤯

They've cut out load-bearing structure & damaged the floors trying to fit a stock Orph' 101 that we told them repeatedly wouldn't fit. Then They've tried to cover it up. It's heritage crime. Damage caused by flagrant disregard of experts. They're not getting away with it.

@BraxM @EricIdle @RadioTimes Saddleback, saddleback.

Rutland revisited... There was another chance to see the output of Britain's smallest network #OTD 50 years ago. The inspired creation of @EricIdle, Rutland Weekend Television began with an overexcited announcer, as you can imagine, and some absolute Gibberish. @RadioTimes

@BBCArchive Gerald Priestland. What a lovely manner and delivery.

#OnThisDay 1964: A major power cut across parts of London meant that the launch of new channel BBC Two didn't go quite as planned. Gerald Priestland bravely took to the air, reading a news bulletin from the BBC Two studio - the only programme broadcast on the channel that day.

@ClarksonsFarm1 Nightly.

Who else thinks that family dinners at the table are still important?

@davemorrissey64 @angiesliverpool Started reading this last night, and got to bed at 2am - unputdownable.

Just when you think you’ve read it all this comes along. Totally brilliant, insightful and very moving.

@johndredge I have It’s Prof Again on VHS. Superb.

Just imagine: Charlie vs Brut on the 1974 dancefloor. #PongContest

@_MikeMcCartney_ I Leica lot.

Sonny suggested I try the new Leica ap….what dya think ?

@Paytress Glorious. Am I alone in preferring the studio LP rather than the live one?

Looks an absolute must.

@PhilipSerrell @bluebirdk7 There’s a nice starting point…

And not just toys - this is the steering wheel from Donald Campbell's K7 Bluebird

@BraxM @RadioTimes I used to see him all the time at Wigan Tech. He was a brilliant Dame in the Wigan Borough pantos each year.

Happy heavenly hundredth... Colin Bean, who played Private Sponge in #DadsArmy, was born #OTD in 1926. He appeared in the majority of episodes, including the first and last, and worked his way from the back row to the front. Photos by Don Smith for @RadioTimes in 1968 and 1977.

@66Steph82 3 kilo tub's worth, but that's normal for Wednesday.