Flops' Friday mini blog

Went for a walkabout this morning:

vinyllover.jpg
 
It's got to be purple!! :D

Love the card, I saw that in the shops yesterday :lol:
 
Sorry this is a bit late Flops but good luck today I hope all goes well today, got everything crossed for you.
 
Thanks for the goodwill messages folks.

Went to Guys Hospital this afternoon, waited just a couple of minutes, saw Doc, he felt all around my head and neck area for lumps, shone torch down throat and all around mouth and pronounced he could neither see nor feel any signs of cancer.

Phew. Next appointment in 3 months.
 
Super news Sir Flopps, so glad for you that all went well today. Long may you continue to be cancer-free and healthy. :cheers::cheers:
 
1840 – Francis Chappell & Sons, London

Francis Chappell & Sons have been part of the southeast London community since 1840, when the founder, John Chappell, opened the first branch on Deptford High Street. In 1875, John’s son, Francis, joined the business and over the next 20 years they started to open other branches.
By 1905, Francis and his son, Stanley, also managed branches in Catford, Lewisham, Eltham and Brockley. Although the Brockley branch is no longer there, you can still read the name, John Chappell, on the brickwork of the building if you look diagonally across the road from the cemetery gates.
When Francis retired in 1939, Stanley’s son, Rex, joined the family business. By the time Rex retired in 1977 there were 12 branches under this name. This network continued to be developed firstly by Great Southern Group and then by Dignity. There are currently 21 branches of Francis Chappell & Sons in operation.
Click to expand...
"Dignity" huh... just goes to show that nothing is forever.

Be stout, floppy dude!
 
Now 01:45, listening to Brandenburg Concertos 1- 6 on Deutsch Gramofon vinyl recordings via Valve headphone amplifier and Sennheiser wireless 'phones and thoroughly enjoying it. All my life I thought that classical music was the preserve of Hoorays & Tabithas, Eton schoolboys, stuck up pillocks and worst of all - the music teachers I encountered at secondary school.

Add to that the plummy UK BBC service forcing that crap down my throat when I was young and it's enough to put you off for life. However, at long last I've managed to shove those preconceptions/formative opinions aside and finally, finally, really come to love some of this stuff. It's great :)

As George Michael named his best album: 'Listen without prejudice'.

I put pix up from my new camera, they're too big aren't they? Will try and reduce some and post again but don't hold your breath. The G15 is good, no doubt about it but to be perfectly honest I'm still wondering whether I should have gone for the Fuji X10 or not. The Canon G15 cost almost 4 hundred quid. Could have bought an entry level SLR for that or FX10 or, indeed, a Panasonic LX7

Hey, I AM happy with it, but doubts always linger. Good attitude or bad attitude?

I notice peeps asked for pix, I posted pix, only the lovely ladies of the forum gave comments, so the rest of you - go boil your bum :) Only kidding ;)

Still listening, this Bach geezer had a gift, he certainly did.

Thought I sold me coffin on Ebay but the buyer has not yet responded on Ebay sale, I don't think he will respond. Trouble is Ebay will charge me 10% for a sale that didn't occur and I know from past experience helluva job to get their automated service to recgnise a non-sale. Sometimes I hate Ebay.

Have now sold Projectors, speakers & CD players so deffo no more DJ-ing.

Reg Presley, lead singer of the Troggs, just died. In Spring 1966 Wild Thing was in the charts, me and about 5 mates were on the train platform at Hither Green, camping rucksacks on our back, ready to go to Sevenoaks for the weekend to camp. A few of us had little transistor radios, the iPod of the day. Whilst waiting for train on platform 3, 15 years old, Wild Thing played. Bliss. And then Monday Monday.

We arrived in Sevenoaks, walked and walked and walked, were offered the back garden of some very rich person's house to camp in (little did they know who they were offering camping space to, 6 council estate yobs from SE London) but declined and eventually camped in the dark on a motorway building site for the night.

That really is the sort of thing you don't mind doing when you're 14 or 15.

Bought Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing Transformed this evening - great fun, I lurrve them Sega things. Quite hard on normal setting (well, I had had a sherbert or 2) but piece of cake on easy setting.

In morning will order parts from Hong Kong to make phono RIAA stage, valves, nice case, regulated power supply boards, the whole bit. At least one third the price of UK commercial equivalent, must trust my soldering iron ;)

In the UK we just found one of our kings buried in a car park. You couldn't make it up, I swear.

I may go from Bach to the original Ultravox's Artificial Light, a one-time regular mainstay of Tommy Vance's Friday night rock shows on our jolly old Radio One. We shall see.

Enough late night waffle from me, fare thee well, fare thee well....
 
Glad you're enjoying your adventures into classical music Sir Floppington... there is certainly a lot of wonderful stuff just waiting to be discovered. Sometimes I listen to Classic FM which is, imho, a more "classical-virgin-friendly" station. The adverts can be a bit immersion-breaking, but it's a much friendlier-sounding station than the Beeb's Radio 3.

Aww, RIP Reg Presley, sad news about his death. The Troggs were one of my favourites and not very long ago, in a fit of nostalgia, I bought a compilation CD of their 60s hits.

Regarding big pix... well okay, yes they are a tad sizeable, but it's actually great to be able to see so much detail up-close-and-personal. For example, whenever I've seen certain shots of that "thingy" on the Thames, (all will be clear in a moment...) I've never been able to figure out what it is. Thanks to your pix, I now can see that it's a kind of huge bus-shelter.... only for boat passengers. At least, I think that's what it is. I guess the Thames would be quite a convenient way of getting around - are there such things as river taxis in London..?

Btw - when you talk about reducing their size, you probably know that "Picasa" (free) will automatically re-size a whole batch to whatever size you tell it to. It saves the originals at their original size, and it's very quick and convenient if you're in a hurry. (Naturally, other editing software is also available ;))

Yes - there was an interesting documentary on Ch4 about the discovery of Richard III's remains in a car-park-burial-site. The only thing that spoilt it a tad, was to see that woman getting a fit of the vapours every time any scientific confirmation came through, regarding the identity of the remains. Lol The experts did a great facial reconstruction from the skull. Interesting stuff.

Good luck with the eBay sale... I hope the buyer will get back to you.... or at least, that you don't get any hassle recovering your 10% if the sale doesn't happen.
:D
 
Ooh you should try listening to The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky - to borrow a description from my dad, it's the heavy metal of classical music. Have you seen Fantasia? It's the music in the dinosaur bit (albeit a heavily abridged version).

TC - I know exactly what you mean about that woman!! You could see the female doctor rolling her eyes in reaction to her weird emotional outbursts, it was so funny :lol:
 
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