It's 3.30am. In three hours I will be packing the boot of the car with some bits and pieces I picked carefully from the shop shelves yesterday. I will then drive to Little Houghgton Day Nursery near Northampton where I will hand the items over for the nursery's Christmas Raffle.
The lovely people at the nursery are organising the raffle in Rebekah's memory to support Ronald McDonald House. Beck worked at Little Houghton and loved her time there.
If you like the music go to OurRebekah's Just Giving Page and pop £2 in to support the work of Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham.
So let's play what's behind today's window.
Tomorrow we will open a new window.
Three o'clock tomorrow afternoon the boys at Hillsborough kick off against Hull City. I am working to completely update our website and have just finished the Sheffield Wednesday pages so become a BRUMIE OWL for the day and sponsor the goals the boys score for Ronald McDonald House Birmingham.
Unfortunately I will not be there, I am involved with Secklow Radio in the turning on of Christmas Lights at Stony Stratford. The weather forecast is COLD - mega cold. I am sure it will be a good event but I would not mind
swapping it for the warmth of a seat at Hillsborough !
In a bit I will e-mail the club to wish everyone well for tomorrow.
I have just searched YouTube to see if there is a Christmas version of Singing The Blues.
There isn't one.
I did not realise that Paul McCartney sang the song - it was rubbish ! Cliff and The Shaddows had their version, a bit better than Paul's..............................
Nah ! There is only one group of people who can sing this song properly - here they are !
Become a BRUMMIE OWL for tomorrow's game and sing along with them.
I had a good day yesterday, I achieved a lot but Santa is feeling a bit sad.
Yesterday the blog achieved just 123 readers, down on the previous two days. Santa is feeling a bit sad with that, he has not found his Little Helpers to deliver the gifts to Birmingham later this month.
If you did not read yesterday's blog please check it out.
See if you can help Santa and put a smile on his face.
I drove up to Wrigglies Exotioc Pets yesterday afternoon to check with Manager Ro plans for the event on Saturday 16th December. Ro and Wrigglies Exotic Pets, of course, hosted our Frog Challenge back at the end of September.
I really have so much respect for Ro, he is a young man with a passion for animals and a passion to educate us all about them.
Saturday 16th December is Wrigglies Birthday Party. From 9am to 5pm Secklow Radio Roadshow will be playing party music. OurRebekah is providing the cakes.
Mayor David and Mayoress Susan are coming. Put the date in your diary and pop by.
Today is my granddaughter Katherine's birthday. It will soon be Ro's own birthday ahead of the shop's birthday. Let's play something for them all.
I think I will download that and add it to the playlist for Saturday 16th December.
Scott, the Operations Manager for The National Trust at Stowe called me yesterday to say THANKS for the piece Tony ran on Secklow Radio last week.
He shared the link with all of his 450 staff members. Hey Tony that added a bit to your audience figures.
The day before I popped the clip on the Sheffield Wednesday Fans Facebook page. Goodness knows how many people listened from there.
Have you heard it ? Well here it is again.
I spent a lot of time yesterday organising playlists for the Secklow Radio Roadshow. I think I may be 5% of the way through the task. I want to make Red River Rock by Johnny and The Hurricanes the theme tune. Last week I paid out to buy a CD of the group's music. Within the CD there was this.
I want to play it here for Little Houghton Day Nursery. Yesterday I received a lovely e-mail from the Nursery telling me how friends there were organising a Christmas Raffle in Beck's memory for Ronald McDonald House. Rebekah worked at the nursery and just loved her time there.
I am busy rewriting the OurRebekah website. The site has this logo on every page.
Rebekah was always known as Little Miss Sunshine. I find it very hard to listen to the You Are My Sunshine song but I love the Johnny And The Hurricanes version so for everyone at Little Houghton Day Nursery I am playing it on the blog today just for you. I am playing it with love from Beck.
As I sit writing today's blog, it is now 4.31am, there are beautiful coloured lights swimming about the room. Yesterday, visiting the garden centre up the road from Wrigglies Maureen and I got a plug in light bulb that generates these lovely colours and patterns. Actually we got two.
Maureen has decided, and who am I to disagree, that I am to go back there first thing this morning and buy another SIX. We can then fill the roadshow with an amazing cascade of colour.
Next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 8am to 12 noon these lights will be flooding the West Bletchley Community Centre's Christmas Charity Shop as I test the roadshow's sound equipment.
If you are around pop in and say HI. The shop is in the community centre at the back of Whaddon Way Shops.
Groups using the centre have contributed so many, many gifts for Santa's Sleigh. Santa is looking for helpers to deliver the gifts. Yeh, you know that don't you !
Yesterday Amazon delivered a disco snow machine and today a bubble machine will be here. I rather think the little charity shop will be transformed when I descend upon it next week.
Yesterday was a good day, Santa may not agree with me. For two days running I cleared, almost, my doings list. Today, however, that doings list is three times the normal size. Let's see how I get on !
Tomorrow we open the first window in OurRebekah's advent calendar. Let's play out with the introduction to the calendar. Speak again tomorrow.
Santa wants to know what you are doing on Monday 18th December. He has asked me to write a special blog page for him today.
Before I do that I just have to tell you all that yesterday's blog hit an all-time record. No fewer than 335 people read the page. I find that so exciting. THANK YOU all for your support.
Let's have a piece of music shall we.
In two days time it will be ADVENT. Shops are selling advent calendars for children and for we grown up children. You can even buy an advent calendar for your pets. OurRebekah will be running a special Advent Calendar for families who have a child sick in hospital, for families who are staying in Ronald McDonald Houses all round the world.
This is part of our Secret Santa project. There is still room on Santa's sleigh for anyone who has not yet added a gift to do so, but without any question at all this project is already a resounding success.
So many wonderful people have carefully selected gifts of love which are soon to be loaded on Santa's Sleigh to make a pre-Christmas visit to Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham. The biggest UK house within Ronald McDonald Houses UK, this wonderful place right in the centre of Britain's Second City lovingly cares for families who have a child sick in Birmingham's Childrens' Hospital. Families come from all over the country for their little boy or little girl to receive specialist treatment in Brum.
Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham likes to call itself The House That Love Built. OurRebekah is re-branding the house THE MANSION OF LOVE.
As you walk around the house it spits love out at you from every wall in every room.
Later today Amazon is delivering a parcel to my home, it is being delivered by a carrier and I am able to track it on-line. All very sophisticated, all very efficient. However, it does not need any love to deliver this parcel does it ?
The gifts on Santa's Sleigh were purchased with love. They have all been wrapped not only in festive paper but also we love. No matter how efficient and customer focused a commercial carrier may be we can not let the gifts be delivered to Birmingham without their being taken to the families with love - OUR LOVE. We are going to turn David's car into Santa's Sleigh. We will pack the gifts into the boot and on to the back seat then point the car up the M1. We will change motorways and take the M6 to Brum then allow the Sat Nav to guide us to Ronald McDonald House. Do you think Santa has a Sat Nav on his sleigh ?
David's car has not one but two CD players. Both will be working overtime all the way on the 74 mile drive as we listen to and sing along to festive music. Route Planner on the AA website says it will take 90 minutes to complete the journey, that could be a little bit ambitious ! Better allow two hours. David will dress up as Santa and his car as Rudolph. With so many gifts of love to deliver Santa needs some helpers. Normally the car can easily fit in four passengers but with so many parcels to deliver some are going to have to sit on the seats. There will be room for two, perhaps three helpers. Would you like to be one ?
We will leave Milton Keynes aka The North Pole at eleven o'clock. That should see us at Ronald McDonald House for 1pm. The last thing we want to do is to disrupt the work of the house. We will, therefore, deliver the goods, stay long enough to be polite then be on our way. Before we head back home David wants to take his helpers out for lunch. We have another project running to support Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham. This project seeks to republish three of David's books with royalties from sales being given to the house. This project, Books4Birmingham, will be the main focus of OurRebekah between January and June next year.
One of those books is David's teenage autobiography telling of the two years he spent working in a giant Birmingham department store, Lewis's Limited. Lewis's is long gone but the building remains. On the ground floor, located right where the staff entrance was, where David and two thousand other members of staff entered and left work each day is a branch of Weatherspoons. David will take all of his helpers there for lunch. We need to be back on the road and heading south before the scary traffic starts to build up. If we can leave by half past three we should be back in Milton Keynes by five (ish). So what are you doing on Monday 18th December ? Would you like to be an OurRebekah Ambassador of Love and one of Santa's Little Helpers ? Drop David an email: dashford566@gmail.com or drop him a message on Facebook
I consider myself to be one of the luckiest people in the world. On Facebook I have 324 friends and another 126 who follow me.
But that is in Cyber Space, in the real world it is impossible to list all of my friends. If it were possible to put a monitory value on friendship, which of course it is not, I would be a multi-billionaire.
Yesterday was a day of friendship, where so many people touched me with their friendship and their love.
Two hundred and seven people read yesterday's blog. It was not the blog I intended to write. When a former Leonite colleague and friend sent me some press cuttings, Thank You Martin, of a twenty-four hour disco I ran I changed the topic of the blog.
I remember that 24 hour disco so well, so very, very well. It ran in the school's drama hall from 12 noon on the Friday to 12 noon on the Saturday. During the afternoon Maureen took Rebekah to Milton Keynes Hospital to receive the results of a blood test. She came up to the disco and we stood outside the hall as she told me Beck was suffering from kidney failure. One week later Rebekah was in Guys Hospital in London.
Yes, I remember that disco well.
A few years later I took this picture of a lifeguard truck on Malibu Beach California. That was another Leon School event, one of four study tours I organised for students in California. Nobody, but nobody organised school trips like we did !
I had driven the rented mini-bus up to Los Angeles overnight from Mexico. I was crashing out on the beach before an overnight flight home. Yesterday I received the first Christmas card of the year, it was from my oldest friend. That friend met me at Heathrow and said: You are not to worry but Rebekah had a kidney transplant yesterday. I will take you straight to the hospital.
My answer was: Can I go home and have a bath first please ?
Friendship. Isn't it an amazing thing. Is it not perhaps the greatest single element within the creation of our universe ?
Reacting to yesterday's blog Leonite Alexa posted this:
I did a 24hour disco 💃 one year. It was great fun! Gordon Sparshott you’re good on the decks I hear. You could maybe lend your old Head of Year a hand. I’m sure a handful of us Leonites could rock up in support. Hope to see you there. X
That was in response to me asking if some friends could help me with the marathon disco I am running in Asda Supermarket in January.
How many ex teachers are there who could call on help from their students of thirty years ago ? The credit is NOT mine it comes from the friendship given freely in love by some wonderful people.
Yesterday I was at a meeting organised by another Leonite friend. She is a trustee at Bletchley Youth Centre and invited me to be a part of the centre's fiftieth birthday
celebration. I am taking care of the music. I consider it such an honour to be invited to be part of this day celebrating an icon within our community. Tears came to my eyes when it was said that money from the event's tickets would be given to OurRebekah to support Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham.
Such kindness, such friendship, such love.
Leonite Rachel handed me a Secret Santa gift for the house. Ronald McDonald House Birmingham, supporting families with a child sick in Birmingham's Childrens' Hospital.
Ronald McDonald House Birmingham, the house that love built. I am doing my best to re-brand it - Ronald McDonald House Birmingham - THE MANSION OF LOVE.
When I opened my laptop after the meeting there were two e-mails from the house, one from House Manager Libby and another from House Fundraiser Bethany. Their content is personal but I will tell you every single word was packed with friendship.
During the meeting at Bletchley Youth Centre my phone rang. I am afraid I was terribly rude, I answered it. It was a call confirming Gary was able to come with me to Hillsborough on 23rd December to watch the Middlesborough game.
Back home I e-mailed Sheffield Wednesday Club Director Trevor to say we would be there and to ask if the text I had written for a match-day programme could be included in the programme for that day.
Four minutes later Trevor responded to that e-mail.
Hi David Of course, no problem at all. Hope you had a good weekend. Regards Trevor
Trevor Braithwait
Director of Communications
Sheffield Wednesday
Hillsborough S6 1 SW
How many directors of how many football clubs do you know who would do that ? I am proud to include Trevor and all at Sheffield Wednesday in my list of friends.
I did not post a lot on Facebook yesterday but I received 23 "likes", comments and "shares" One thing I did post was this. Have a listen.
One of the first things I have to do today is to answer an e-mail from friend and colleague at Secklow 105.5 regarding the station being at Stony Stratford's light switching on this Saturday. I will be there but I also have to be in Bletchley for its Christmas event. I have been asked by members of the town's council and yet another Leonite to be there. I will sort out a schedule for the day and share it on tomorrow's blog. If any Leonites are going to be about come and say HI to the old man.
When this world was created we all lined up to be handed our lot. In the line for friendship I barged my way forward and demanded an extra large helping. I am so glad I did that.
I had in my mind exactly what today's blog was going to be about. However, when I opened the laptop to begin writing there was a Facebook message from LEONITE Music teacher Martin Riddy. He had sent me some pictures from the good old days at the greatest school in Milton Keynes.
Leon School was intending to buy a school mini-bus but was a bit short of cash, £300. I organised a 24 hour disco to raise thebalance. All dancers were sponsored.
If my memory serves me correctly we did raise the £300.
I remember that disco so well. It was the first of several 24 hour dance marathons we staged.
Standing on the stage with the music are, I am sure I have this right but Leonites you will correct me if I am wrong...........................
LEFT holding the microphone is Yours Truly. Next to me is Mark Rowe, the sensible member of our team and the guy who kept everything working. Next to him with he headphones round his neck is John Chapman - DJ John who now owns KWSB Radio Clatsop in Portland Oregan.
Who was the teacher on the crutches ? Martin was that you ? I wouldn't mind betting you did not let them stop you bopping.
We had some great times didn't we ?
I proudly claim the credit for adding the word LEONITE to the English language. A former student yesterday said that Leonite sounds like a metal. IT DOES - GOLD solid gold. That is what makes up a LEONITE.
Even back then this former head of year and now the Geriatric Leonite had the philosophy that LIFE IS A DISCO - SO DANCE.
Later this morning I will be going to a meeting at Bletchley Youth Centre, a meeting set up by Trustee and Leonite Rachel. I am part of a management sub-committee planning the centre's 50th birthday party on Saturday 7th April.
I am organising the music with Mayor
David Hopkins leading the dancing. Trust me Milton Keynes's Mayor will have everyone up on their feet ! Here he is at another event I was involved in last summer. With his wife Mayoress Susan he is leading the dancing.
Mayor David attended Bletchley Youth Centre as a teenager and shares my philosophy that Life Is A Disco.
I am involved in another Disco just three weeks away.
On Saturday 16th December at Wrigglies Exotic Pets in Old Stratford I have been asked to provide the disco, OurRebekah is providing the cases as we help this amazing little shop celebrate its 3rd year of operation.
I plan to push the microphone into Mayor David's hand and have him DJ a session.
I want to invite as many LEONITES as possible to come along and join the party.
It would be great to see LEONITES at the Wrigglies Party but is is ESSENTIAL I persuade many of you to join me on Saturday 6th January.
Asda is the biggest supermarket in Milton Keynes. On that day ten thousand people and more will be passing through its doors. That day it will be launching its new green token scheme for January, February and March. Three good causes will benefit from this: OurRebekah, medical detection dogs and a breast cancer support project. I am providing the music from 8 am to 6pm - ON MY OWN !
I have this idea to ask the store if some staff members would like to have a bit of fun by coming to join The Geriatric DJ and spin some discs. Do you know what would add a special touch to the event ? A TOCH OFGOLD. If we could get the old Leon Disco team to come and help me. How about it: Peter, Paul, Mark - John it may be a bit far for you to come along but I could pipe your station live into the speakers !
Then let's get as many Leonites together as we can to lead the dancing. It will be OLD GOLD in every way.
Tell me if you can come.
Martin THANK YOU A ZILLION for those press cuttings.
In my book The Bridge House the story has reached 1950, the year in which I was born. I was Lily first grandchild.
Turning the pages back to Chapter One The Dowager Countess of Wilton has longed for a daughter and then a granddaughter but with no little girl coming into the family. As a substitute she takes Lily under her wing. The Dowager Countess died without a girl in her family.
Lily longed for a daughter but it was not to be. Three sons and then four grandsons, she must have thought she would never see a little girl.
I do not think she was disappointed when I was born, she was happy to be a grandmother but would have been delighted had I been a girl.
The Bridge House begins shortly after Lily's eleventh birthday and the death of Queen Victoria. I have another five to ten thousand words to write before the story is told to its end. That end will come in 1983 with the birth of Rebekah,the first Ashford girl to be born in one hundred years.
Lily died happy. A second Ashford girl came along before Lily passed away in 1984.
Yesterday I went to visit my own granddaughters, Katherine - Ashford girl number four and Frances, Ashford girl five.
Just like her silly old granddad Katherine loves writing stories. She will be six years old next week and even at her tender age has quite a talent for writing.
Yesterday she dressed up as a policeman, took a notepad and pencil to scribble a story about my being naughty and having to be taken to gaol.
Her sister Frances is the most formidable three year old I know. You argue with Frances at your peril. I find her so much fun and love her infant humour.
Katherine and Frances do not appear in The Bridge House, it is now thirty-three years since Lilly left this world but I am certain she looks down upon Katherine, Frances and all Ashford girls wit pride and with so much love,.
Yesterday I was wearing with pride the Milton Keynes tie Mayor David Hopkins gave to me. I took the tie off, in turn put it on each girl and took a photograph. I plan to print off copies and give them to David and his wife Susan.
The Bridge House will be published in May next year and will become one of three books from which the royalties will be given to Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham.
The other books are The Wild Adventures of Di Central Eating. A school is going to illustrate the book. There is a lot of music in the book which we plan to have the children in the school sing, record and publish on a CD.
The third book is my teenage autobiography covering the two years I spent as a management trainee in the giant Birmingham department store Lewis's Limited. On my laptop I have open the document for this story. This week I plan to print it out, go through it and prepare it for republication next year.
Lewis's Department Store in Birmingham is long gone but the building is still there. On the ground floor is a branch of Weatherspoons. I had a lovely breakfast there last week. When we launch the three books for Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham I am thinking towards to launch them in Weatherspoons.
I want to invite the headmaster of the school involved to write a foreword to The Wild Adventures of Di Central Eating, Libby - The House Manager of Ronald McDonald House Birmingham to do the same for The Bridge House and I am wondering if a member of staff from Weatherspoons would do the same for my teenage autobiography.
I have this idea.............................
I am wondering if I could get a number of friends to read a book then write a very brief review. If we could get half a dozen for each book these could appear on the back covers.
It would be particularly beautiful if some of Rebekah's friends could help in this way.
Would some of my Facebook help ?
I never stop boasting about my LEONITE friends. I would be so happy if any wished to get involved in this way. That would be very special.
I know they are both very young but would Katherine and Frances do this for Auntie Rebekah ? With a little bit of help I think they could. Certainly for Di Central Eating.
Please help me make Books4Birmingham a resounding success for Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham, a tribute to Katherine and Frances's Auntie Rebekah. The First Ashford girl to be born im one hundred years.
Yesterday the blog pulled just 73 readers. Not very good. The reason for that is simply because it was late being published - almost nine o'clock instead of its usual 5am. Many people tend to check it out first thing before they start their day. I am, therefore, keeping it here for Saturday as I would like many more people to read what I am sharing. I am spending today in Bristol visiting family. Bristol - you know the graffiti capital of the world ! I'll be back tomorrow with a new blog entry. For now I will keep this edition at the front for all who missed it. HAVE A SUPER DAY EVERYONE. This is going to be a fantastic day so let's turn up the volume and get ready to dance.
Yesterday's blog attracted 117 visitors, today will have even more. I just know it.
It is 6.42am and I am only just starting to write the blog. No I have not been lazy and been in bed. I was up at my usual time of 4am.
I have been out to meet a LEONITE, a former student Paul who begins his day, every day, at 2am !
Let me play a beautiful piece of music for Paul and indeed for everyone reading this blog. This is one of my all-time favourites.
Paul runs D E Turney Bakery with shops in Bletchley and Newport Pagnell. LEONITES do you remember how my lunch always came from the Bletchley shop ?
Turney's dates back to 1848 and is an icon in our local community. 1848 is before Paul's time and even before my time !
Paul was busy this morning baking bread, cakes and something extra special not only for his own two shops but for a number of village shops in the community roundabout Milton Keynes.
We had a great time chatting, I have been meaning to visit one of Paul's shops for ages. Now I know he sells that extra special delicacy I can assure everyone that I will be a regular customer.
What is that special delicacy ? You will have to wait until later in the blog. I 'll tell you then !
Paul has given me a collection LP records. Reading the blog he has learned of my love for vinyl. Among the collection there are some amazing records. I have just listened to The Bee Gees and am now listening to The Seekers. You know how vinyl crackles a bit ? These records play as if hey were brand new. Paul I promise you I will love this collection every bit as much as your relative did.
Later today Tony from Secklow Radio 105.5 is coming by to look at my new disco equipment. I will show him this wonderful collection of albums with a glowing pride.
LEONITES - Leon Disco.........
There are two former members of our disco team I have been trying for a while to track down. Before heading out to meet Paul one of these two actually contacted me on Facebook. Peter, do you remember how we used to hide your Sex Pistols collection of singles ? Allow me to play this for you.
Do you recognise this picture ? Of course you do. Taken at the OurRebekah Frog Challenge this is the most viewed and liked of all images in our area on Google Reviews.
Yesterday Mayor David's PA sent me an update of his diary for the coming weeks. I thought
I was a busy man, I thought I got out of bed early. Paul is half way through his morning when I awake, I wonder with a diary like he has if Mayor David Hopkins ever finds time to sleep.
Wrigglies Exotic Pets in Old Stratford hosted our Frog Challenge. On Saturday 16th December this incredible little shop is celebrating its third birthday. OurRebekah is providing the birthday cakes for the party while I will be running the disco.
Mayor David, who shares the same musical tastes as I do, will be spinning some discs and taking the DJ's microphone.
From the days of Leon Disco I am in contact with Paul, not the same Paul from the bakery, Mark - he was the sensible one in our team and John. It's a bit far for John to come to the Wrigglies disco, he lives in Portland Oregon where he owns and runs the areas's number one radio station.
I know I am supposed to be promoting SECKLOW 105.5 but do check out LEONITE John's station. It's a bit special.
Paul, Mark and now Peter who contacted me on Facebook this morning I wondered if you would like to come along and spin some discs for old times sake at that Wriggles party.
Peter when you contacted me I obviously looked at your Facebook profile. There is something special I have been trying to source for ages. Now I find you are managing director of a company that makes EXACTLY what I want. We need to talk !
Paul, Mark, John, Peter I am going to tell you something I will be explaining with a little embarrassment to Tony from Secklow radio 105.5 later today.
When I watched Tony in the studio I thought I could never master the modern technology he was using. Vinyl I could cope with, computerised cue and play I would never master. I got a superb twin deck and am building up my vinyl collection.
However, I also got a modern computer deck to back it up.
AH !
As I have been playing with both systems to run the speakers in I have found the modern equipment a lot easier to work with !
Another time and place I will be playing the music is on Saturday 7th April at Bletchley Youth Centre's 50th birthday party. ANOTHER Leonite got me into this. Rachel who is one of the centres trustees. YES, Mayor David will be there and no doubt spinning the discs. I rather think that David and his wife Susan will be leading the dancing. Milton Keynes should be proud of our Mayor and Mayoress.
One event where The Geriatric DJ will be on his own, playing music non-stop for NINE hours will be on Saturday 7th January 2018 in the entrance of Asda Supermarket, the biggest supermarket in our city.
On that day Asda is launching it next round of Green Token. Three charities take part, the winner gets £500 and the two runners up receive £200 each.
The music will be played to celebrate Asda's community involvement, greater than all the other supermarkets in the area put together, and the three good causes joining the green tokens for January, February and March.
OurRebekah is one of the three with Medical Dogs and a breast cancer support project being the other two. The disco and the music will be supporting and promoting all three.
I have a 1970's costume with a hippie shirt and flare trousers to wear. I have even ordered a wig. I already have a pair of Travolta Shades.
I wondered if any of my LEONITE friends, particularly the disco mob, would like to come along and help me. Fortunately MK Dons, whose stadium is next door, are playing away that day so we will not have to worry about the sound disrupting their play and drowning the cheers of the crowd.
I'd like to see any disco deck drown out the crowd at Sheffield Wednesday !
Club Director Trevor contacted me yesterday to ask which match-day programme I wanted my little write up to appear in. He had asked me to write the text to accompany the OurRebekah photograph taken on the pitch last Saturday.
This morning I will chat with Gary about which match we can get up to. Through the Brumie Owls project within OurRebekah we sponsor the goals the boys score for Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham.
When Trevor saw me wearing my silly hat on Saturday he said I looked like a season supporter.
I do not get to Hillsborough anywhere near as much as I should. I have this idea to develop Brummie Owls in the New Year by taking friends, LEONITES and others to watch a game. How about you coming ?
This is the text I have written for the programme:
There is more to a football team than two goal posts and a piece of grass between them. Wednesday fans will understand this. In recognition of being a happy, friendly club The Brummie Owls presented Sheffield Wednesday with two vinyl singles of the adopted anthems we all sing at Hillsborough. Sing them with pride at every game.
Sheffield Wednesday is a community club. No matter who you support I promise you if I take you to Hillsborough you will fall in love with the atmosphere there.
Yesterday I chatted on the phone with Libby, the house manager of Ronald McDonald House Birmingham who The Brummie Owls sponsorship supports. The house is known as The House That Love Built but I call it The Mansion Of Love.
Sheffield Wednesday has two adopted anthems. The first the fans sing at the start of every game is Hi Ho Silver Lining. I have nicked that and made it HI HO HOUSE THAT LOVE BUILT.
One of my books, Dickie Williams, has its central character as a football star and at the same time a pop singer. Carefully stage managed but made to look spontaneous, at the end of a game Dickie grabs the pitch announcer's microphone and launches into a post match
pop concert.
No, Trevor, I will not be nicking your pitch announcer's microphone to play music but I wouldn't mind some time being in the DJ's box when you play SINGING THE BLUES.
Three of my books are being republished in a project for Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham. The longest I am still working on, I have about another ten thousand words to write.
The Bridge House is semi-biographical and semi-fiction centred round the life and times of my grandmother, Lily. She was born in 1890 and died in 1984.
We have reached the point in the story where I am born.
When I was a student Lily, my Nan, used to give me bread pudding to take to the hall of residence as a treat. Nobody, but nobody could make bread pudding like my Nan ! (Or could they ?)
Bread pudding is a recurring theme throughout The Bridge House story.
Paul, that special product I saw in your bakery this morning was BREAD PUDDING. You probably need to up your production levels as I will be a regular visitor and customer for Turney's Bread Pudding. I have a suspicion it will be better than even my Nan's !
I am going to write your bakery into The Bridge House as I develop the bread pudding theme !
It's 8.41am and I am bringing the blog to its close. VERY LATE TODAY. I'll go back and check the text for the typo's then click to publish it.
So what piece of music am I going to use to play out ?
