my music memories, 1970s ...

Which waveband was your family radio tuned to?

In our home it was Radio One on 247, playing all day, every day. Remember Junior Choice with Ed 'Stewpot' Stewart, Noel Edmonds on the Breakfast Show, David 'Kid' Jensen and Dave Lee Travis, the Hairy Cornflake! Mike Read, Peter Powell and Simon Bates' Our Tune?

Remember the portable cassette recorder, and recording the Top Forty on a Sunday afternoon, stop/starting at the beginning and end of every tune. Losing your favourite tape when it got all caught up and tangled around the spools!

Remember the music centre, in trendy plastic casing! When songs were cut on vinyl, singles played on forty five and albums on thirty three.



Remember the Disco 45 songbook, with all the latest lyrics? Look at the price, 5p! I bought every copy, from Issue No 1 until the time came when it was taken off the shelves. Then one day I lost my marbles and binned them, every single one of them!



I also remember buying the Words songbook at an increased price of 15p, well, inflation was a big thing in the 1970s! At the time when a David Bowie calendar shared my bedroom wall with The Police!



I really liked the magazine Smash Hits, my collection starting from Number 1 to whatever number it was when it dawned on me where would I find the space for another copy?

I'd love to get to hear any music memories from your childhood, or who you had plastered to your bedroom wall during your teenage years!

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Phishing, don't get caught ...

I know many of you out there have a webshop attached to your blog, or make purchases from the internet.

A message for anyone who uses Paypal as a form of sending and receiving payment, is to be aware of an e-mail which has recently come to the surface.

Today, I looked into a recent message to my web address which somehow slipped through the net of our internet security, with an attachment download to fill in sensitive information, saying it was necessary to restore my Paypal account access, threatening a shutdown of my account if they received no reply.

Even though it appeared credible, there was just something, well, fishy about it!

Phishing is a form of web forgery designed to steal your identity, usually for financial gain.

One of the most common 'phishing' scams involves sending a fraudulent e-mail that appears to be from a trusted company or brand. This e-mail then directs you to a fake version of a well-known website and records any information you enter, such as your password, financial details and more.

Remember, Paypal will never e-mail you asking for your:

Credit or debit card numbers
Bank account numbers
Driving licence numbers
E-mail addresses
Passwords
Your full name
Postal address
An e-mail from Paypal will never contain an attachment

Paypal will only ever ask you to enter personal details on the secure Paypal website, after you have safely logged in to your Paypal account.

Parts of this post may appear witty, but to be caught out is really no joke. Your identity can be left open to every degree of fraudster.

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Bondi to Coogee coastal walk, NSW, aus ...

The walk takes about two hours, the most part along the cliff face of the Pacific Ocean, passing six beaches and bays.

We had to do it a bit different and took it in reverse, from Coogee to Bondi!



The name Coogee is said to have been taken from a local aboriginal word 'koojah' which means smelly place, referring to the large amount of seaweed washed up on the beach.

A bit unfair I thought, the beach had a niceness about it, and on first impressions I preferred it to Bondi where we'd visited a few years back.

A flock of seagulls!

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Like me you really don't need to be superfit to do this walk, but if you don't want to end up looking like a tomato, or feeling like a dehydrated prune, on a hot day it's essential to wear a hat, long sleeves and carry plenty of water.

In an emergency there are pit-stops along the way, and we stopped in a bowling club where after signing in, I swiftly downed half of shandy, and the OH a pint of Tooheys!

The Rocks!

Finding ourselves starting to sizzle in the mid-day sun, where only mad dogs and Englishmen go, we didn't get to complete the walk and decided our best bet was to catch the bus from Bronte beach back to the shade of the city, to cool off!

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Click on link for more Watery Wednesday

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Cradle Mountain, Tas, Aus ...

The views on the road down to Cradle Mountain in the Lake St Clair National Park in Tasmania were breathtaking.

Being windy, and all up hill and down dale, there was no use for cruise control on our automatic car!



On arrival we decided on taking on one of the more difficult walks up to Crater Peak, over steep terrain exposed to the elements. They weren't wrong, we just about experienced four seasons in one day with gusty winds, blazing sunshine and light showers!



A bright buttercup-like flower.

A pretty pink alpine.

For an artistic slant on this post I took this photo on an angle! I quite like it.

A paper-like white flower.

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A creamy-white alpine.

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Concentration is the key on this trek as rocks are sharp and jagged.

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On our descent we witnessed a man carrying a huge rucksack on his back lose his balance, resulting in him toppling backwards consequenting in a badly gashed arm, and I'd imagine several bruises to boot and a very hurt pride.

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We both breathed a sigh of relief at not having to use first aid, or attempt to summons the mountain rescue!

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This was a difficult walk for me, but to see the stunning views of the beautiful lakes below, made all the suffering worthwhile.

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Not returning the way we came, we took a detour, and at the end of our walk six long hours later, I was pretty much finished!

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Click on link for more Scenic Sunday

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the Twelve Apostles, Vic, Aus ...

Spectacular limestone stacks that have formed over twenty million years.



Erosion has created fascinating gorges and shapes in the nearby cliffs.



Originally the site was called the Sow and Piglets!



When you see the rugged cliffs and rocks jutting up from the sea, you can understand how the region came to be named the Shipwreck Coast.

Click on link for more Watery Wednesday

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Christmas in February giveaway ...

Would anyone like a chance of winning a copy of the Hamlyn all colour cookbook 200 Christmas recipes?

When I came across it I liked the photography and clear instructions, so much so I bought myself a copy, a copy for two friends of mine, and also a copy for you.

I was going to leave the draw open whilst away on holiday, but just didn't get the chance to get onto my blog before we left.

We spent Christmas Day in Hong Kong stopping over for re-fuelling, the plane that is, although we were given a makeshift festive meal on our flight, which was small but tasty all the same.

Just leave a comment telling me what you chose to have for your festive meal on Christmas day, and I shall enter your name into the draw.

I shall leave the draw open until midnight February 27th, and welcome comments from the UK and overseas. Note recipes are in imperial and metric measurements, and not in cups!

I hope you enter, as it really is a lovely little book.

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Sydney, NSW, Aus ...

Having arrived on Boxing Day to cloudy, blackened sky and the next day torrential rain, we spent the first leg of our trip visiting the surrounding suburbs and foreshores of Sydney using the city ferries.

It's a great way of getting around and for unlimited, value for money travel on public transport, it's a good idea to buy a green travel ticket when you arrive.

Dubbed the 'old coat hanger' you can pretty much see every angle of the Sydney Harbour Bridge from a ferry.

The bridge has such a dominating presence that on most days wherever we happened to be, my eye would always be drawn to it.

It takes on an odd dreamlike quality.

Click on link for more Scenic Sunday

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... just come from a land down under

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I've just got back from spending five weeks in Australia!

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Just like this cute and cuddly koala with his/her tasty eucalyptus leaves, it won't be long until I am chewing over your latest posts.

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Do bear with me though. I have a lot of catching up to do, laundry included!

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Christmas wishes just for you ...

and a Happy New Year too!

See you again in 2010!

Louise x

a Christmas sing-a-long song ...

Which is/are your favourite Christmas tune(s)?



Every year I find myself singing along to the video of Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy when it makes an annual appearance on the music channels.

It's from Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas, a 1977 television special.

If you want to join in with this classic Bing and Bowie mash-up, click on the song title above.
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the Ring, a weekend walk ...

Chanctonbury Ring (known as Chanklebury in Sussex dialect) dates back to the Bronze Age, and later in history a small Iron Age hillfort was built on the site. Romans came and built a temple, and in the reign of Elizabeth 1st, a beacon was placed on the crest to warn of the approach of the Spanish Armada.
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Beech trees planted on the site by Charles Goring in 1760 are a prominent landmark. The Great Storm of 1987 brought much damage, and now stands a shadow of its former self.



After many weeks of torrential rain, on the first stage of our walk we had a great time slip-sliding along a very boggy track, ankle deep in mud. There's terrific views of the surrounding countryside from here, and you can see Rock Mill from through these trees. You then enter into dense woodland ascending as you go, still slippery with piles of leaf litter, and damp moss underfoot.



Much folklore surrounds. Sleep under the trees for one night to increase fertility.



Run around the clump of trees seven times anti-clockwise, and the devil will appear offering a bowl of soup in exchange for your soul.



Recite a Midsummers Nights Dream at Summer Solstice, and magic little people will appear.



At this stage, 783ft above sea level with no protection from the elements, we were uplifted by the force of the wind. Exhilerating it was to blow away the cobwebs spun after yet another manic week at work. Apart from a few spits and spots we escaped the worse of the weather, and could see rain over many parts of West Sussex, and if you look closely you can see the end of a rainbow too.



Working up a gentle canter, it's now downhill all the way, with great views of the sea below.

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The South Downs Way is an area of outstanding natural beauty and is soon to become a National Park.

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It's important to have time to yourself, peace and quiet, and only towards the end of our walk did we start to meet with cyclists and dog walkers.

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Being chalk downland, it's slippery when wet, like an ice rink. A few years back this was the very spot were I came down to earth with a great bump!

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A moonlight walk sounds interesting. With much rumour of the supernatural frequenting this area, go at your peril!

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the comfort of strangers ...

There are many definitions for the word stranger, one being 'any person whom one does not know'.

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I hope you don't mind me calling you a stranger, but I sort of know you and I sort of don't.

I like the fact I have virtual friends.

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Part of the fun is to build up a picture of just how you might look. Skinny, well built, short, tall, young, old ... not once have I ever got it right.

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Part of the fun is to discover the personality you have, by the style in which you write and in what you write about ... finding we can be very much alike.

After reading about my postcard collection, and knowing I was feeling a bit down in the dumps, Sarah from The World of Twiggypeasticks e-mailed me these sweet Mabel Lucie Attwell compilations, accompanied by a smile and friendship.

Sarah's thoughtfulness made my day.

A big thank you to those who left kind words on my Mum post. I lost count of how many howls I had during the day, but there were many.

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Your thoughtfulness made my day.

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These are just a few of the reasons why I won't give up on my blog ... not just yet anyway.

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seventy ...

I love this photo of my Mum, recently rediscovered whilst sorting through a box of old photos.

She looks happy.

My Mum lost her battle with cancer at the age of 62, today would have been her 70th birthday.

I try to imagine how she'd look?
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