I guested on someone elses blog. Wooohoo!!

Last week I was featured as pen pal of the week on the blog of that name. Thanks Julie for including me. So far I have had three people contacting me wanting to exchange letters by snail-mail, so that's great.

Also last weekend I had a wonderful time in Whitby (of Dracula fame) meeting a pen pal of mine who came over to Britain from the States. Actually it was two pen pals as they are a husband and wife and I write to both of them. It was great to meet them both. I hope that they enjoyed themselves as much as Deb and I did. Obviously I won't embarrass them by posting their names, but I believe that they have been known to stop by this blog every once in a while.

Whit Friday is fast looming so I'm going to be out with Silk Brass doing however many contests we can fit in. I missed out last year because I was down in the south of France. Which would you prefer, Tameside ? Saddleworth or the Languedoc Rousillon?

Not doing too well with this blogging.

It seems that I have, again, been neglecting my blog. In truth nothing of any great interest has occurred recently. Work has been steady, Silk Brass have been rehearsing steadily for Whit Friday and the forthcoming concert season. It's all been very quiet. C'est la vie. I just thought I'd better post something so that you know I am still here :)

Been neglecting my blog of late.

Well I'm afraid that I have been neglecting my blog of late. When I started out I wondered how long i would take before I fell off. Now we know, not very long at all.
I have had a few day's out of the country. Can you guess from the picture where I've been? If you're thinking New York City then you are wrong, I'm afraid. I was ready for a break as I had been working pretty solidly since New Year. Now it's work again until Easter. C'est la vie. (is that a clue about where I've been?)
I managed to meet up with a fairly recent pen-pal while I was away. It was good to meet up with him. I guess any such meeting can be quite awkward, but we helped each other through it. It was great to meet him.
Not much else has happened while I've been absent from my blog. The band had the area contest last month where we were placed tenth. Not the greatest of results, but that's contesting. The only opinion that counts is that of the guy who didn't have to pay to get in. C'est la vie.
Postman Pat dumped a load of mail on my doorstep while I was away, so it's going to take me a little while to get through the backlog. If you;re waiting for a letter from me I'll get there asap.
So have you guessed where I went yet? Of cours eit was Paris. The statue of liberty is on the Isle of Swans just west of the Eiffel Tower.

Contest Day - Take 1

Today is contest day. The band, Silk Brass, has been rehearsing one piece of music, "mountain Views" by Bertrand Moren, since the beginning of the year. The music lasts about 10 minutes or so. We're at the Derby contest today as next weekend sees us in Blackpool for the North West Regional competition - basically the qualifying round for the National Championships. So today is about giving the band a run out on the area test piece to make sure we're match fit. The judge will sit in a box so that he doesn't know which band is playing and he will critique each performance. The band which, in the judges opinion, gives the best performance of the test piece is the winner. Naturally there will only be one band who agree with the judge, with the other bands all being robbed. What is important about the contest is that it is the first contest with musical director, Jim Cant, back at the helm after a period of illness. Wish us luck!

Technological advances

I've had it for a while. It's been sitting on my laptop and I have done nothing with it. I didn't have anyone else to play with, really. Today was different. Today someone said "do you Skype?" I didn't even know that there was a verb "to skype". Then I remembered that an American guy ( I don't remember his name, sorry) once said "there's not a word in the English language that can't be verbed". That is a terrible thing to do to a language. So anyway Deb and I had our first real Skype video conversation with someone. Deb was well impressed.
Lettermo is continuing a pace. Deb managed to get me some of the diamond jubilee Machin stamps in town today. My usual post office didn't have them the other day when I enquired, unless I wanted to buy a presentation pack. C'est la vie.
I decided that Skyping ( is that how you say it?) is good, but it's not up there with a letter. You can't (or maybe you can) re-run a Skype conversation. But you can re-read a letter. I have been asking, recently, for advice about my filing system (sic) for my letters received. Up until recently I have been keeping them in a shoe box. Pikolinos, which is suitably cosmopolitain I thought, which Deb bought in Picardy if my memory serves me correct. Anyway the shoe box was full to bursting and I needed a new system. But I didn't know what to do. Panic! Anyway I resolved it by getting a bigger box. It's not a shoe box anymore, it's just an anonymous white storage box from Ikea. I guess it wil do the job for the time being. What next I know not.

Buying stamps and writing letters

Had a busy day today going to the post office for stamps and then writing letters. In between times I managed to fit in going to work as well. I just about managed to catch up with all my letter writing when Postman Pat came with two letters and the Postcrossing cards. I guess there's no peace for the wicked! The postie also brought my Windsors stamp presentation pack including all five stamps plus the mini sheet. I'm just waiting on the diamond jubilee presentation pack, now, together with the commemorative document.

I also received my British Philatelic Bulletin today. I'm not too excited about the forthcoming comics set but the Scottish locomotive mini sheet and the Britons of Distinction set look rather interesting. I think it's a shame, though, that the Scottish locomotives are only going to be issued as a minisheet as not many are going to be used to send letters. That is a real shame as people won;t get to see and enjoy them. People do enjoy them, I often get comments from overseas pen friends about the Royal Mail commemorative stamps that I usually afix to my outgoing post. We'll wait and see what the Dicken's they have in store for us in June.

Good mail day

Today was a good mail day. Postman Pat brought, apart form the 'phone bill, a letter from Michael in Kentucky and a letter from a brand new penpal in Wales who has kindly included me in her Month of Letters Challenge (henceforth referred to as lettermo). I also received my stationery parcel from Smythson's. Yep that's two from them recently. This time I'm replenishing supplies of the Bond Street blue which seems to be my staple stationery (see what I did there?). I'm running out of ideas for what to do with those nice blue boxes.
As my part of lettermo I sent out a letter today to someone with whom I have not, previously, corresponded. That's two new folks in as many days. I guess tomorrow is going to see me at the post office replenishing my stamp drawer. The trouble is that there are so many different rates for postage. 46p for first class, 68p for Europe (up to 20 grammes) or £1 for over that weight. 76p, £1.10 or £1.65 for the rest of the world depending on weight.