TXR248 now over

Well, a few days ago I sent off the second (and last) piece of work demanded of me as part of TXR248. This marks the first time since about 2001 that I've actually completed a course that I signed up to do, and though it all got done at the last minute, it all did get done, and I think it was of reasonable quality, which is several long steps up from what's happened previously. Now only BM240, T306, L204 and AT308 to go....

Update: final grade of 63%, a fairly solid 2:1.

Red Dog Green Dog and Primaeval at Cannings Court Farm

It was a long drive down to Cannings Court Farm in Dorset, and it had been dark for an hour by the time I got there - having found first Salisbury, then a very slow A-road, and then a T-junction marked as a bend in the road on my 2007 map. But it was wonderful once I got there! I'd seen Red Dog Green Dog at St Chartier in 2005 and again in 2007, both times providing wonderful dancing, and Primaeval, the second band, came highly recommended by Michael and Andy, who also mentioned how fantastic the venue was. And it really is!

Towersey Village Festival 2007

Towersey was great fun, especially Monday night, when I got dressed up in my pink shirt, glowsticks and home-made shirts for Tickled Pink, and got some of the best ceilidh dancing of the weekend in. Great, sweaty fun, a fantastic band, and a whole room of people determined to get as much fun out of every dance as possible. Other highlights were Hotel Palindrone on Sunday night, with four fantastic musicians, me managing to lead a line doing something resembling the kost ar'choad, and the lead guy pulling out first a set of two very long pipes that he played simultaneously and made these incredible strange Scandinavian harmonies on, and then going all Hendrix with his bagpipes later on. Him going down on his knees, pulling the mike with him and playing the bagpipes one-handed really was something to be seen.

Ah yes, home-made t-shirts. Very much a collaborative effort between Fiona and me, the product of several lunchtimes of work, I present to you the transfers what I made for Tickled Pink.



I particularly like "i likes ur volume can has it loudr" - and go here if your reaction is 'cats? cutesy text? what?'.

The weather was excellent, I saw some old friends, got to camp out with Gordon Potts and Diane Moody (who brought a fridge, a carpet and a gazebo in their Transit van, all three highly useful), Fee Lock (who made an astoundingly good curry on Sunday night, and supplied Marks & Spencers voiceover material), Jane (who needed to bring nothing else to be welcome), Steve (who brought coffee beans and a grinder), Martin Kiff (who brought prodigious dancing skills), and Fiona and Drak (who brought glowsticks. Lots of glowsticks).

Monday night was also distinguished by the costumes for the Demon Barbers concert - they played as the Demon Barbies, and the theme was, indeed, Demons and Barbies. Which was fair enough, and there were some fun ones - lots of blokes in drag, etc, etc, but I did think the S&M theme went some way too far. I'm glad I went to Tickled Pink!

Old email addresses

Having just been told that my GMX email address, which I used for years, is now inactive, here's a list of email addresses I used until I found the magic of Gmail. Neither of which I now check, but which, perhaps, people who I knew some time ago may google out of idle curiosity!

motmot@hotmail.com

tomrichards@gmx.net

If you have found me in this way, leave a comment or email me!

The full Turkish

I feel like the hand towels they give you in aircraft - synthetic, smooth and lemon-smelling. Why is this? Read on....