Rub-a-dub-dub. Two in a Tub,

.

Hose pipe bans again?

It must be that time of the year I guess.

We are continually told that it is due to lack of rainfall, but I recon it is more likely due to an increase in the population, especially here in the south east of England. I expect we will all be asked, in a week or two, to ‘share a bath’ or more likely ‘share a shower’.

.

.

There is actually a ‘Share a Shower’ campaign with Facebook pages. (whatever that means?).

Way back in the ‘good old days’, sharing baths and using second-hand bath water was quite normal. In the late 40’s, early 50’s most people were a bit hard up and it cost quite a few bob to use the immersion heater to fill a bath. Friday night was bath night and us three boys all piled in together. I was the eldest and as I grew larger there was not room for three so my two brothers were washed first and I had their second hand water!

The Great Western Railway had an engine named “The Knight of the Bath”.

This was always nicknamed “Friday Night” by the engine drivers.

So where is all this leading?

.

.

Well, I was going to do a post on ‘Bubbles’ as in ‘I’m forever blowing bubbles’ but found I had already done one here.

.

.

Two and a half years ago! How time flies.

You see, on sorting out all my old photos I had come across a picture of a wee carving I had done of a seahorse. It was done in about 1976 and I gave it away to my then ‘girl of the month’ who thought it really nice. It didn’t have a stand and she asked it I could make one with the words ’Oh Bubbles’ on the base.

The things us chaps have to do to keep you ladies happy.

.

.

I was glad I found the picture - it brought back happy memories.

And there were even more memories of those days as I sorted out my collection of old LP’s. To make more room, I am gradually converting them to CD’s and giving the old records to the charity shops (and brothers to sell on eBay).

Some of these discs haven’t been ’given a spin’ for thirty years, but of course sounded as good as new. The one that did make me smile and gave me the idea for todays wee video was Meri Wilson singing ’Rub-a-dub-dub, two in a tub’.

.

.

See, there were even water shortages way back in 1977.

As children the words used to be along the lines of -

“Rub-a-dub-dub,

Three men in a tub,

And who do you think they be?

The butcher, the baker,

The candlestick-maker,

All put out to sea.”

So, here we go, for your entertainment and maybe approval, Meri Wilson singing ’Rub-a-dub-dub’.

Any resemblance to Uncle B in the following is pure coincidence.

(Oh yes, and no blowing it up to full size for a better view!)

.

.

He,he,he.

.

Post Early for Christmas

.

For the first time, 

I've managed to be ahead of things this year. 

I have in the past always underestimated the time available leading up to Christmas, but not this time. 

I bought my M&S Christmas pudding in November (long sell-by date), 

even a hunk of cake and mince pies are all safely gathered in!

.

.

I buy M&S because this is one time of the year, 

when it is good to have something really nice.

And.....this year, I wrote all my cards early 

and posted them all off last Thursday.

Years ago I would buy an assorted box of 30 cards, 

but always noticed that I ended up with about half a dozen left which, to be honest, I wouldn’t have sent to my Mother-in-Law!…..No, no, no, sorry. I meant worst enemy.

Either the picture on the front was a bit naff or the words inside a bit sloppy. Sometimes both.

.

.

I now buy Charity packs of six,  or sometimes ten, 

with identical pictures and words.

After all, if they are going to different address, who is to know?

What did amaze me this year was the breakdown of where all this money goes.

In my case, the largest ‘Christmas donation’ was not to charity, 

but to the Royal Mail.

30p for a 2nd class stamp and 39p for a First class. 

I don’t see the need for a First class stamp, 

as long as you remember to allow enough time. 

.

.

But as Pam Ayres says - “you may want to impress you friends”.

Hundredweights of Christmas cards,

Went flying through the post,

With First Class postage stamps on those,

You had to flatter most.

Within a million kitchens,

Mince pies were being made,

On everybody’s radio,

“White Christmas”, it was played.

I read somewhere that “Dreaming of a White Christmas” 

was now considered racist!

It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest, 

as we now seem to have everything we do monitored.

.

.

Oh may thy Christmas happy be,

And naught but joy appear,

Is now the wish I send to thee,

And all I love most dear.

Anyway back to the cards. 

At what point does a Christmas card become charitable? 

When 100% of the card price goes to charity? 

Or just 70%... or 50%? 

.

.

Guess again. 

According to the Charities Advisory Trust (CAT), 

some retailers selling charity Christmas cards are passing on as little as 1.1% of the card price to the charity mentioned on the back.

Online shops were identified as the worst offenders with over a quarter of internet retailers giving less than 2% to charity. 

.

.

The CAT found that many high-street stores had improved since last year. 

Most now gave at least 10% to charity. 

Waterstones, Marks and Spencer and Debenhams now donate 20%, 

while John Lewis gives 25%.

I’m afraid I can’t afford to buy by cards from any of those four. 

I better not say how much I paid for my cards - my friends and relations might be reading this! 

What I do know, 

is that my chosen charity got the smallest slice of the cake.

.

.

Simple daisies I have sent thee,

But they have a golden eye,

And they ever look to Heaven

Even ‘neath a wintry sky.

By now all friends and family will have received theirs, 

and now all that remains is to send Christmas Greetings to all my blogger friends and pals.

These greetings are in alphabetical order  (Sorry Zoe!), 

and I hope I have not left too many out. 

(I did worry about this actually and worse still, since uploading onto YT have remembered a few names I should have included.)

I’m sorry about this - I must be getting old and forgetful. It was an accident, I didn’t mean to miss out anyone. 

We are all friends here.

So to ALL my blogging friends -
(plays full screen - I hope)

.

.

See you all next year.

Cheers....Bernard and Wesley. xx

.

A Day by the River. (Again)

.

Today is the day of Cookham Regatta.

I was there last year as a spectator,

and did my usual 'write-up'.

Now, as I'm very busy this morning, I am going to cheat again,

and repeat last years 'do' for any who missed it.

- + -

From where I sit, prodding at this keyboard with one finger, I can look out across the Thames and up the hill on the opposite side. That is Winter Hill and is in Berkshire.

Up on top of this hill is Cookham Dean. On the eastern approach to the hill, is Cookham Rise and finally, down at river level is Cookham Village where I once lived.

Years ago it was quite a round trip to either Marlow bridge or Cookham bridge to get across to Winter Hill. Today we have a footbridge added to the side of the old Great Western Railway Bridge.

Saturday found me crossing here on the way to ‘suss out’ the goings on at Cookham Regatta. As I crossed I managed to catch the ‘ Magna-Carta’, a floating hotel, on it’s way upstream from London to Henley. A week on here will put you back a ‘pretty penny’ but for some reason seems to be priced in American dollars!

.

.

Here’s a holiday for you Jan?

I have walked the tow path to Cookham many, many times over the last forty odd years and gazed at the expensive mansions back on the Buckinghamshire side.

.

.

A favourite of mine - the Thames Slipper launch.

This regatta thing was all a bit of fun really,

mainly larking about in rafts, canoes and things called ‘Dragon Boats’.

.

.

I have to admit I was not greatly enthused,

so I sought out the beer tent,

and then went in search of some old friends.

.

.

I met up also with two friend from my ‘working’ days, Chris with one of his old Wolseley‘s and Howard who had brought along a couple of his vintage motorbikes.

There was a very good turn out of vintage vehicles considering it was called a Regatta.

The one that really caught my eye - and camera - was this huge American automobile!

.

.

Complete with an American style snack.

.

.

Later in the afternoon was the usual ‘Duck Race’.

£5 a ticket - £100 First prize.

Loads of yellow plastic ducks thrown in the river at the start.

First past the post takes the money.

A slight snag this year.

.

.

A narrow-boat decides to do a run through and sets the ducks all amok!

No, they didn’t have a re-start.

And if you had spare £20, you could ‘splash out’ on a nicely carved wooden one.

.

.

To finish, another of my favourite Thames boats - a wooden skiff.

I have rowed many miles up and down the river in one of these.

.

.

- + -

And there is of course, my YouTube bit -

"Down beside the Riverside".

.

- + -

And what shall I be doing this year?

Well, celebrating my 'nth' Birthday -

by - Playing there!

.

Must go and load up the organ.

The Regatta awaits,

the Beer Tent is ready,

and the beer is getting warm!

.

"If I had a Talking Picture"

.

.

When I first started blogging - I only did ‘text‘.

I didn’t own a digital camera you see,

but after a while I did manage to use my printer/scanner

and upload my first images.

What a difference -

‘A picture paints a thousand words’ they say, and so it did.

Having failed English Language (O level) at school three times,

this introduction of pictures came to my rescue,

and I didn’t have to write as much.

Well, it was about two years ago that I thought about trying video clips.

I thought you needed a video camera

and fancy editing software to get started.

.

.

It must have been last year,

I discovered my digital camera took ‘moving pictures’,

provided you had enough memory in the camera.

Thirty frames a second soon gobbles up a few Mbytes.

‘Discovered’ is perhaps not quite the right word,

as I knew about it when I bought the camera,

it was that I just never tried it out and additionally,

to make it more difficult,

all the instructions were provided on a CD rather than a ‘real’ document.

So I did try a short clip of still pictures first, -

at a Steam rally - and used blogger to upload it.

tracker-bar.blogspot.com/2010/10/medley-of-summer-days-out.html

Since then I have done short movies of the cats but no headers or music.

monkey-organ.blogspot.com/2010/10/two-overnight-movie-stars.html

monkey-organ.blogspot.com/2011/02/yesterdays-birthday-boy.html

So I dabbled with the Vista version of ‘Windows Movie Maker’.

This is how I produced the slideshows for the last two posts.

(There are now four up on YouTube, by the way.)

I’m sure you can tell that I’m no expert,

but you have to start somewhere and the best way is to ’suck it and see’. You will make mistakes and you will learn from it.

I didn’t sit down with the User Guide open alongside,

it was more a case of “I wonder what this does?“

and then finding out!

Helen asked me for a Movie Maker tutorial, no doubt she is planning to entertain us with a slideshow of her English holiday perhaps. I gather she took hundreds of photographs whilst over here this May.

So I will describe what I did.

I am not an expert and I’m sure there are better ways of doing things - and I’m sure there are probably help videos up on YouTube although I haven’t checked.

I am doing a write up over on the my other blog for any interested.

here:-

tracker-bar.blogspot.com/2011/07/using-vista-movie-maker.html

This means I can carry on here with my usual ramblings later.

.

"And Nice and Round and Fat."

.

My word, I've been busy this week!

It was Prestwood Steam Rally this weekend just gone,

and boy was it hot.

I'm glad I wasn't driving or stoking those traction engines.

I was going to post up a few pics for you,

but as I went last year and the year before,

and

did blogs about them both.....

.....it was very difficult to find something

new and interesting.

However, following on from my last post,

and reading how much you liked the Amersham 'Movie',

I thought I would have another go.

In my music collection, I have loads of 'Comedy Songs',

and I have always fancied having a go

at putting a few pictures along with the tune.

So, here is my first go.

.

.

"The Marrow Song."

Now I have to admit,

it was impossible to get loads of pictures of Marrows,

(unless I went to Welshpool)

without the whole thing becoming a wee bit boring.

So, using editors licence,

I have included a few extra 'Beauties'!

(Like all my videos it should

enlarge to full screen if you like.)

"Oh! What a Beauty"

.

.

As the much missed Fred Dibnah would have said :-

"Did ye like that?"

.

Sunny Days in Old Amersham

.

Wow! We've certainly had some heat around these parts.

We've also had our fair helping of rain.

But in between the "Sunshine and showers",

I managed a trip to Amersham to listen to "Bands in the Park".

I've blogged about it before but this time,

I though I would add a bit of music and,

in response to a request from Molly,

'pop something up' on YouTube.

.

.

This is of course a 'mixed bag' of pictures,

taken on many different visits.

(You need about 36 photos to fill 3 minutes)

I hope you approve?

I'm no expert at this video lark.

By the way, it plays well in 'Full Screen' mode.

.

"A Christmas Kaleidoscope."

.

Well friends, another year has nearly gone,

and so, here is my little offering for Christmas Eve.

I hope you like it.

It is up on YouTube here, if you want to see a larger version.

Hazel was sorry about the spelling mistake (at the end) -

but she said her paws were cold,

after being forced out into the snow for a 'photo shoot'!

She said the proof-readers should have corrected it,

but they seemed to have had a bit too much Christmas cheer!. :)

.

.

With love from Hazel, Wesley and Bernard.

We hope you all have a very nice Christmas

and wish you all the best for 2011.

.

"Winkles and Watercress"

.

“Sunday’s a day for an up-river splash.”

This is the fist line of an old song sung by Hetty King called -

“Down Beside the Riverside.”

I just love the words to these old songs. I have searched for the lyrics on the web, but with no success. I have a recording, but not the time, to write them all out.

She sings of ‘naughty goings on’ and of taking a picnic with -

“Winkles and watercress, custard and cake.“

There was a time, years ago, when I would go to Uxbridge on a Saturday for a bit of shopping and a rake around the old bookshops and the market.

In this old market was a fishmonger called Joe Forbes, and in addition to wet fish, he sold whelks, jellied eels and winkles. A pint of winkles was always bought for Sunday teatime the following day. Excellent with watercress and brown crusty bread.

.

.

For those not ‘in the know’, winkles are a small snail like shellfish, which feeds on seaweed on British coasts. On removal from rock or weed place in clean water for about 12 hours to allow grit, sand and salt to be removed, then place them in boiling water for about 10 minutes. The meat can then be removed from the shell using a pin; the whole creature inside is edible except for a small plate like structure at the front of the shell opening.

Of course, the ones from Joe had already been soaked and boiled, although in some places you can still buy them fresh.

But back to my song.

As you know, I have been having a go at getting some sound on my blog. Not only organ music, but also a few sounds from my old record collection. I have bought a vinyl to CD converter and have made a start at transferring songs to my PC.

.

.

Rather than just play a tune, I have been making up slide-shows using a few of the hundreds of photos I have taken over the years.

Because blogger limits the playing time to about a minute, I have had to have a go at uploading to YouTube.

Yes, last night I finally got my first attempt, up and running.

A teeny, weeny bit fast I thought, but

it has to keep in time with music - and fill 2min 56sec.

See what you think…..and listen to the words as you go.

.

.

If you enjoyed it?.......I may get a few 'Thumbs up'?

You can view a better quality picture here

on YouTube.

.