Wednesday 11 October 2017

Doing The Lambeth Walk.

If there is one thing I detest more than someone who says he works in marketing, and goodness knows how much I despise the cash cow rustlers, it is a GEEK !

Yesterday Microsoft hijacked my laptop with its geek-driven sad, pathetic down grading updates !  No doubt you are all too familiar with the problem.

These downgrades screwed up Facebook, thank you to friends who helped me put the settings back to normal. This morning Google Analytics, which I use to track our website's performance, was showing a record number of visitors over the past 24 hours yet the graph was flat lining.

If there is one thing more pathetic than  a geek it is a geek who says he is a marketing expert !

Anyway......................

I spent yesterday afternoon at Stowe Gardens near Buckingham brainstorming with The National Trust's Operations Manager the way our Gala Disco Party will work.

I would not have a clue how to run a bar but the event needs a bar. The National Trust so kindly took on the responsibility for running this.

We went inside the building we plan to use for the party. The outside looks grand but the interior took my breath away.

It was trying to share these pictures on Facebook yesterday evening that made me realise the geeks had screwed up my page settings.

So friends here they are.


The room was cold and empty yesterday but as I stood there, imagining three hundred people dancing to the music my heart beat faster and faster.


I am itching to tell you who our guest of honour is going to be but until I receive official conformation I dare not say a word.


So now the planning begins. Tinking is to have everything worked out by the end of the year then to formally open the guest list.



Friends and supporters can add themselves in NOW if they wish. Joe Public and the corporate junkies will have to wait until the end of the year. BUT EVERYONE put the date in your diary - SUNDAY 13th May 2018 - OurRebekah's Gala Disco Party. NOBODY but NOBODY has ever held a disco quite like this will be.

I guess we are still basking in the success of The Frog Challenge then on Sunday we have our Big Fun Run which before anyone puts a trainer on their foot has raised in excess of one thousand pounds. These events and the gala disco party have set the bar high, very high. Planning the next challenge yesterday I had to factor in ways to maintain the standard.
As well as having a childhood fear of frogs, a phobia which is now cured, I can not do tall buildings. The ACROPHOBIC CHALLENGE is not yet part of the website but have a look at the draft.


See what you think. Comments welcome.

I have to run this by our very special friends at Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham and Ronald McDonald House in Bristol, get their approval and then start to make all of this happen for The New Year.

Signatures on our Brummie Owl card to go with the Sheffield Wednesday presentation are filling the white space interior. I will bring this card to the Fun Run on Sunday to ask all of our runners to sign it.  The card can then pass round Ronald McDonald Houses.

I wanted to wrap the text round the card picture here on the blog but those damn geeks have screwed the page formatting up !


On Saturday the boys are playing away at Bolton. Will you sponsor the goals they score for Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham ? Just go to www.or-sheffieldwednesday.com and become a BRUMMIE OWL for the game. 



Meet one of my ancestors.


Geeks were not invented in his day ! Those damn geeks who are still screwing up this page's formatting. William was a landscape painter. No marketing cash-cow cattle rustler was needed when this work of William's came up for auction a couple of years ago.


William and this painting appear in my book THE BRIDGE HOUSE. No, this is not the bridge as in The Bridge House. Bit of poetic licence there.

The Bridge House is the name of my grandmother Lily's childhood home in the village of Madeley. She was born there and grew up there before moving to Birmingham at the outbreak of World War One.

The Bridge House is the story of my grandmother's life and the times she lived in. I have written the first three of five chapters and plan to publish it on 19th May 2018, the anniversary of Rebekah's passing. All royalties from the book will be given to Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham.

I have temporarily stopped writing while I edit the text I have so far composed. There are a higher than usual number of typos to clean out and I feel some small sub plots need to be woven in.

I am coming towards the end of editing Chapter One. I then want to show it to friends and invite comments. No obligation but friends can encourage my writing by sponsoring me with small gifts to Ronald McDonald House Birmingham.

Lily, nor her fiance Henry, knew painter William Ashford but I have woven him into the story. A little bit of fiction.


I am not going here to give you a link to the chapter even if you can find it via the website, I will wait until I have that first chapter fully edited.

Lily and Henry did not get married, or did they ?  You will have to wait until the very end of the book to find out !

A while ago I visited Ronald McDonald House Evelina in London. Leaving the house I made my way to Berkeley Square where I sat and soaked up the atmosphere.

The song A nightingale Sang in Berkely Square was a hit at the time of Chapter Three in the book. Editing Chapter One and slipping in a sub plot I have I have brought it into Chapter One BEFORE the song made it famous.



Photographs in this video are those I took during that visit to Berkeley Square.

We will not be playing that song at our Gala Disco Party but we WILL be playing this.


The Lambeth Walk plays a large part in Chapter Three.

Last Sunday was my Mother's 90th birthday. She used to play The Lambeth Walk on the piano. I have brought that into Chapter Three of The Bridge House.

No my mother will not be coming to the Gala Disco Party and most certainly she will not be dancing The Lambeth Walk. I will be at the party and YES I think I will dance The Lambeth Walk myself - get your cameras at the ready !

The Lambeth Walk and that nightingale were morale booting efforts. Somebody put the music to some German footage, I have edited it a bit to produce this.



OH YES, that appears in The Bridge House as well.

And with that I think I will shut up and end today's blog.









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