Wednesday 9 July 2014

Here Is The News #1

So yep, you may or may not have noticed that the weekly Wednesday feature on this 'ere blog - The Midweek Hop - has gone.

Both me and Andrew enjoyed putting together three themed retro songs each week but I know they were the least read posts and after having done it for almost 18 months, we ended up thinking of the same songs we'd already used for other weeks.

So we decided to retire that idea in favour of something else but if you ever fancy a bit of 50s and 60s music, all the Midweek Hop posts can be found by clicking 'Jukebox Music' in the tab just below the header.


Instead, I'm going to do something that I like reading on other people's blogs - basically a list of links to stuff, which could be absolutely anything at all (although I have tried to loosely categorise it).

Shamelessly inspired by Michelle's Best of the Blogosphere, Angela's Friday Favourites, Leona's Wednesday Loves, Bonjour Blogger's Saturday Summary, Becky's Friday Favourites, Laura's Two Weeks Notice series, Em's Highlights of the Week and probably a lot more besides (if you do a round up post and I haven't listed you, let me know and I'll pop you in) :-)


Here is the News




Blogland Brilliance

It's certainly been a week for engagements in blogworld - Rhiannon over at The Sparkly Panda, Sally over at Queenie and the Dew and Carrie over at Wish Wish Wish all are now sporting beaming smiles and glittering rings. Pop over and wish them all congratulations!

Bonjour Blogger has helpfully put together this nifty little guide - How to Delete the Background in Images - something which I wish I'd know when setting up my header last summer (the amount of time I wasted snipping out that smiley little duck from one of my photos!)

Holly June has posted some fascinating and disturbing shots from her visit to the deserted Scottish village of Polphail - I've been to Scotland quite a lot but I've never heard of this place.

 
 
Currently Coveting

This gorgeous Lady V London Red Hepburn Dress reduced from £40 to £28 in their sale (this might have just slipped into my basket...)

As well as one or two (okay then, three) new dresses from Asda - they've just launched a range of £10 dresses and for only £32 I picked up this Heart Print Dress, this Floral Sundress and this Floral Print Sundress.

These fabulous biscuit cutters from Not on the High Street for only £6. I don't really need any more biscuit cutters (I barely get round to using the ones I do have) but these are certainly very Alice in Wonderland-esque!

 

Exciting Events

Bristol Old Vic's autumn theatre season went on sale this week - my pick of the line-up is definitely Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and Other Love Songs) by Kneehigh Theatre Company (although I am biased having been a Kneehigh fan for 18 years) and also the Bristol Old Vic's Christmas show, Swallows and Amazons which returns after a sell-out season a few years ago.
Dead Dog runs from 8th to 25th October and Swallows and Amazons runs from 27th November to 17th January.

Kneehigh's 'Dead Dog' show also opened a couple of weeks ago in Liverpool to rave reviews (5* from The Stage) and there's a fab trailer online as well.


Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and other love songs) - Official Promo from WeAreKneehigh on Vimeo.


Last month I spotted that Jane from over at Is That You Darling had gone on a tour of BBC Broadcasting House in London. I didn't even know they did tours but I've just booked tickets for it on my birthday in December so thanks Jane for the heads-up!

Everyone's favourite vintage fairground family, Carters Steam Fair have just announced that they'll be in Bath's Royal Victoria Park at the start of August from 2nd to 10th August. They're well worth a visit!



Interesting Info

We went to Weymouth on Monday for a day out and stumbled across a charity shop which housed a lovely little café in the back. We had tea and a toastie for less than £10 and very tasty it was as well. If you're down that way, it's the PAWS Café in the Weymouth and Portland Animal Welfare Society shop in St Thomas Street.

Last week, I discovered that one of my favourite TV shows from the 1990s (which has never ever been released on DVD, boo) - Psychos - is actually available on 4od! It's set in a Glasgow psychiatric ward following the antics of the staff including one larger than life character, Dr Danny Nash (who I quite fancied at the age of 15) who has more to his background that you first think.

These book benches in central London are a brilliant idea! I hope it'll become a little bit like the Gromits in Bristol last summer and people will go 'bench-hunting' :-) I particularly like the Peter Pan and Samuel Pepys ones.

My workplace's infamous Bath Uni Duck managed to grace the pages of The Guardian newspaper last week donning his very own mortarboard ready for our degree ceremonies.



Life Lessons

Interestingly in Bristol, there's a place that'll recycle video tapes for you. Environmental Media Solutions recycles not just tapes but also CDs, cassettes, floppy discs and various other outdated media. You can take them to the depot directly or you can send them by courier. We've got quite a few we don't know what to do with so I think we'll store them up and next time we're heading into Bristol we'll pop them in the back of the car.

On Channel 4 last night was the new series of Kirstie Allsopp's Fill Your House for Free. It's quite interesting to watch (although she does sometimes get a tad annoying) - the only downside to the show is how easy they make it look to find all the stuff, there's never anything that good on my local Freecycle!



Musical Magic

The current song by the Kaiser Chiefs (Meanwhile Up in Heaven) was shot over at Carters Steam Fair back in May. I quite like it, very vintage and a bit steampunk-ish in parts and the song isn't half bad either.




Another new favourite song is eez-eh by Kasabian - it was one of the best performances at Glastonbury the other week, the atmosphere was just electric and the crowd absolutely loved it.




And lastly, I must have been living under a rock somewhere for the last decade, how have I managed to miss Arcade Fire? I mean, I'd heard of them but didn't really know much of their music. After their amazing set at Glastonbury though, I've been listening to all their stuff on Spotify and they're pretty darn fabulous.
Only about 7 years late to the party then!





 
Have you spotted anything interesting this week?
 
 
 
PS. Bonus points to you if you spotted the obvious ELO reference :-) 

7 comments:

  1. £10 dresses you say? Almost as exciting as Fill Your House For Free- I didn't know it was back on! I agree about the fact it's much less applicable where I live too- no-one round here throws away cool old leather chairs. Even broken ones go for £200.

    I like this post idea- but it might be worth you turning off the copywrite permissions on your text- otherwise readers can't open the links in new windows- anything I click replaces the window of your blog post. Xxx

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    1. Ooh thanks for the reminder, I hadn't realised the copywrite thing was still working (I switched it on last year when I first started blogging) - hopefully all the links should work okay now :-)
      I like Fill your House but they don't seem to realise that real life isn't all filled with free stuff on people's doorsteps - good things on Freecycle are few and far between! :-) xxx

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  2. I do love a good round up, nose-tastic!
    Hadnt seen the book benches before but AMAZING and I'm a bit jealous of your Beeb tour. Pictures please when the time comes.
    M x

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    1. Definitely! I'll try and take loads over the whole weekend in December! :-) xx

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  3. Ooh some interesting links - thanks!

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