A few years ago friend of a friend lit on in a house, whilst drunk, and lost a finger

 
Updating Apple , comp has slowed down, not ignoring posts, if anyone wonders where i have gone  x 

That's shocking, Summer.

I really think they should ban fireworks, except for the organised displays.

 

Goodnight Squiggle, enjoy BB. I've given up - I'm not even tempted to watch.

Hope your update installs quickly and smoothly skylark

Goodnight everyone, speak to you soon.

Half way thru itunes now Summer  Son using the phone, its wasted on me to be honest !

Aw skylark Has your son downloaded any apps for you? Sweet dreams yogi

Goodnight Yogi , hope you can shake off your cold and cough 

Yes i can if i want to, checked the account and it has gone over the internet limit, not sure why ???

Really? I wonder how much data allowance you have..? Last month I got a text saying I'd reached 80% but I'd hardly used it!

500 Summer, and its only using FB, itunes, UTube , nothing that hasnt been used before. We have had contract phones for years and savvy. But this is different ??
Anyway, have to sign out, chat tomorrow .
Sleep well, much love to all  

And when we're at home we use wifi so our allowance should only come off when we're out & about! Sweet dreams skylark I'm off to bed too, night

Goodnight Summer x 
Should we switch off the 3g/4g,does keeping it on, use up the space ? 
Talk tomorrow about it   

night yogi skylark summer and everybody

Morning xx 
Nice taking the dog out and it isnt dark  
Having a family lunch , so may not get back on till this evening.
Have a lovely day everyone  

Good morning everyone

 

Skylark, I hope you and your family have a nice lunch today

 

Yogi, I agree with you about fireworks

 

I don't have a mobile so don't know if 3G/4G being on has any effect on using up of the allowance. I'm on Virgin for my broadband and there is an allowance. I think there would only be a risk of me using it up if I downloaded say a 2 hour high def film, but that's not very likely. It would help though if there was some way of checking up how much of your allowance you had used up.

 

Cloudy and unusually mild for this time of year - it's dry  but I wouldn't rule showers out.

 

We have a really major service at church this morning. On this sunday each year we generally have an All Saints Day communion at this service which tends to be slightly more formal than other sundays, and then in the afternoon there is an All Souls Day service for those who wish to go. I don't go to the All Souls Day service as the church is generally packed and afterwards there are refreshments in the church hall, and with 200 to 300 people in the hall I would find it overwhelmingly claustrophobic. To go to just the service then go straight home would be a real downer.

 

This year the All Saints Day service will be somewhat different. Our church has for some time had links with a church in Leksand in Sweden.Today, these links are taking a major step forward as a covenant has been drawn up between the two churches and will be signed at the service. Clergy and some parishioners are coming to our church and will be part of this service. Because of the importance of this, the Bishop of Gloucester will be presiding over the service. The vicar is allowing for well over 200 people to be at the service, but I think he is being a bit optimistic as a lot of people will go to the afternoon service - I would think 100 to 150 is more likely.

Good morning everyone, very drizzly here.  EL I hope your service goes well, sounds like it will be interesting.

 

Have a good day everyone.

Good afternoon everyone

 

Squiggle, it was an interesting service and a real sense of something momenteous occurring. I had a similar sense years ago when I was at Gloucester Cathedral attending the first time there when women were able to be ordained as priests. The numbers weren't as high as the vicar had allowed for - around 100, but with the strong singing today, you could imagine that there were considerably more there. I was wrong is saying the Bishop of Gloucester was presiding, it was the retired Bishop of Warrington who now lives in the Cotswolds.

 

The service was in English, but two parts were said together in English for the English and Swedish for our visitors - the creed and this which I think you can work out what I mean.

 

Fader vår, som är i himmelen!
Helgat varde ditt namn;
tillkomme ditt rike;
ske din vilja
såsom i himmelen så ock på jorden;

vårt dagliga bröd giv oss i dag;
och förlåt oss våra skulder,
såsom ock vi förlåta dem oss skyldiga äro;
och inled oss inte i frestelse,
utan fräls oss ifrån ondo

ty riket är ditt och makten och härligheten i evighet.
Amen.

I saw another classic Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film - "Swing Time" yesterday. This one has a couple of musical numbers which many of you will recognise the music even if you've never seen the films.

 

I've had to post the first routine in two clips - the singing part followed by the dancing part. The missing seconds are where Ginger's boss sacks her, but Fred gets her rehired by proving to the boss that she is a good dance teacher.

 

And the second song:

 

There is another clip of another Fred Astaire dance routine from the film. I will post just the link rather than the clip should you decide to watch it. It is called "Bojangles of Harlem". The reason for just posting the link is that Fred Astaire has blacked up for the routine. Although this was acceptable at the time the film was made and there is nothing overtly racial about the routine, it would not be regarded as acceptable nowadays and I wish Astaire hadn't. That aside, the routine itself is outstanding and brilliantly imaginative. It's almost 8 minutes long, the first 5 minutes are very good, but then it soars into a different league.

Link to that clip

Hi everyone x
Glad the service went well, El, i can imagine it was quite an occasion. I worked out what you wrote  
Cant see the clips just now will watch them tomorrow , i keep getting a message saying flashplayer has crashed. Very annoying.
Hope the rest of you have had a good day too. i had a nice day with the family, hectic but nice. I am going to settle down now, a bit tired
Have a nice evening  

Good evening everyone.    Have had a very busy weekend but now (hopefully) back to normal.

 

I had an email from my penfriend today (she lives in Colchester, Connecticut) enclosing four photos showing a very large fall of snow over the last couple of days!!  She said last Tuesday her lawn was mowed and now she needs the snow plough out to clear the snow!!! 

 

Will catch up with you all tomorrow.  Sleep tight. 

Evening What a beautiful day! It's been warm, bright and a little breezy at times. We drove down to the north Yorkshire moors and walked a circular from Roseberry Topping to Captain Cook's monument and back, it was 10 miles exactly and the first time I've done the topping twice in one day I finished the day off with a relaxing bath while mr summer cooked his signature lamb curry dish El, your church service sounds very interesting , I'm pleased you enjoyed it and got so much out of it

*catches flight to Colchester to go build snowmen*

It feels much later, I always have trouble adjusting when they muck about with the clocks, I'm off to read, see you all in the morning

hi  inhere

 

miss yogi

El your service sounds fascinating - i have been reading a lot of Swedish /Norwegian based crime novels and find the culture really interesting

j

 

night summer skylark joyron and  squiggle .

squiggle - i know what you mean about the clocks

Squiggle I suffer too, it takes me a week to retrain myself lunch times will be especially tricky this week Sweet dreams all Ros, I hope you have a smooth day back at work tomorrow

Good morning everyone

 

Skylark, I hope that your Flashplayer starts behaving itself. Some months ago I found that the BBC iPlayer and many of the BBC video clips crashed within a couple of seconds. Youtube clips were fine, and if I downloaded a BBC program onto my computer that would work. I was unable to find out what was causing it. Then after some weeks iPlayer started working again.

 

Joyron, I had heard that some 10 inches of snow were being predicted for parts of the East coast of the States so it sounds as if the prediction was right.

 

Good Morning everyone 
Just got to the end of the Bojangles clip when flashplayer crashed again , dont know what the problem is. 
Anyway, fabulous !  Should Astaire have blackened his face ?  Probably not, but then again i am watching from todays perspective, it was very different days then. I saw it as more a tribute than any racist malice. I am not aware of anything i have read about Astaire that would suggest he was in any way a racist, he enjoyed and celebrated all types of dance. Did he ever speak of why he blackened his face ?  Cant take away the fact that his dancing was superb .

I agree about the clock change, it does take a couple of days to adjust 

Skylark, according to IMDB, "Bojangles of Harlem" was a tribute to Bill "Bojangles" Robinson who was one of the greatest black tap dancers. Fred Astaire was heavily influenced by Robinson and another black tap dancer John W Bubbles in developing his tap dancing.

 

It doesn't mention that there also may be a nod to Al Jolson, who was white but was famous for blacking up. He was famous for appearing in the first ever talkie "The Jazz Singer"in particular the final song "Mammie" where the gestures he uses are similar to those in Bojangles where Fred stretches out his arms and smiles. You can find a clip of Mammie on Youtube, but I don't like it one bit.

Good morning everyone, a very blowy day here today.

 

Its difficult for me to get worked up about people 'blacking up'.  I know some people found it very racialist but I never did.  Me and my hubby were great fans of The Black and White Minstrels, wonderful entertainment - wonderful singing and dancing, a great show.  And one of my favourite toys as a child was a golliwog.  To me it was just a toy, like a clown toy and I never associated it with black people.  There again we always had black as well as white friends and the whole concept of racial abuse never entered my mind.  Perhaps it was different in America with the segregation they had over there.  I remember being shocked when I found out about Apartheid in South Africa, an alien concept to me.

Thanks El, i was reading some of the comments on YouTube, and that point was raised about his arms etc. Also some saying that it was insulting for whites to black their face, when there were many actual black dancers who could put on shows who didnt have too. But many white folks wouldnt go to watch black people dancing but quite happy to watch white people black up and do the same thing ! That was the times then tho.........
Morning squiggle, yes we used to watch The Black and White Minstrels too, my mother loved it. My friend at school was mixed race and i remember we all wanted our skin to be like hers, even putting on dark make up ! (bought from Woolies!) We were only about 9 at the time. It was all so innocent, now that would probably be deemed racist ........

Got a Doctors appt, tiddle pip 

Good morning at last, just! I've attempted to say hello several times now but keep getting busy at work..

Good morning Summer, I hope you only get lovely customers this morning (and a few gaps in between customers for you to come and chat)

Funny you should mention Apartheid- I've only just found out what it is! the wilbur smith books I'm reading are set in Africa, and the one I've just started will cover that era when the nationalist party introduced apartheid. I thought I'd better get on google and find our more. Very shocking, I'm really pleased the world has already changed for the better regarding racism, and I hope it continues to improve & improve..

I dare say that at the time when Fred Astaire blackened his face, it would not have been perceived in the way it would now, I'm sure he meant no racism by it either, it was likely for entertainment purposes.

I haven't had the chance to pick up today's paper yet but I'm hoping to see some snow pics from America, although from radio reports, I gather it's dangerous in some parts

Around 17 inches in several states including Conneticut.

Wow Crikey! How quickly did that fall! I hope they can all cope with it, there's always some vulnerable one that struggle though I wonder if it will come our way after?