Jill Sparrow

Beekay gets everywhere!

Perhaps our police force is going the same way as Russia's (if the BBC News website is to be believed). Don't turn up for murder, rape, robbery, etc, no matter how many times they're called but call the beloved leader anything from a bandit to a crock of unmentionable and you'll be summarily arrested and locked up for 15+ years.

Well, I only just qualified for a COVID jab. The lady in front of me was 92.

You're a brave lad, CT. I had my COVID booster on Tuesday at Boots. The lady who administered the jab did my last one. She's brilliant. Didn't feel a thing and no side effects at all. I'm struck by how many people are saying they haven't received an invitation this time. In fact, the only person I know who did receive an invitation a couple of weeks ago says it came from his GP in sunny Bulwell!

Bury him at the foot of it. It's a pity it didn't fall on him when he cut it down.

Part of Goose Fair went to set up in Ilkeston after it was dismantled on the Forest. I went to a series of meetings there in October some years ago. They went on all day and when I finally emerged after 5pm, the streets were full of roundabouts and sideshows. Much of the area was closed to traffic and I had a hell of a time trying to find my way out.

Apparently, he did a year of classical training at the London Guildhall School of Music. He'd have needed grade VIII theory to get in there so, yes, he'd have a reasonable grasp of chord structure.

A Whiter Shade of Pale has specific references to works by J S Bach: Wachet Auf! and the Air from the suite in D. I'd never heard of Homburg but just had a quick listen. The chord structures being played by the piano are a class above the usual tonic-dominant-tonic found in pop music. Someone in the group understands dominant sevenths and even inversions. Quite interesting if you ignore the melody. I know nothing about the group but perhaps someone had been trained in harmony?

Did she tell you that you thought clairvoyance was a complete load of rubbish? My mother had a visit from a Gipsy at Goose Fair 1957. Must have caught mum on the hop because she wouldn't normally have answered the door. Mum was quite obviously pregnant with yours truly. The Gipsy told her the child was a girl ( 50% chance of being right there anyway). My mother already had a daughter, said the gypsy. Correct. She was at school. My mother would never have a son. Correct, she never did. I would have dark, curly hair (mum was blonde so no clues there). I would be very cl

As a schoolgirl, walking to Manning on the Thursday morning, you could smell Goose Fair roughly when you reached Radford Road. A unique admixture of fried onions, sweet candyfloss and diesel. From the Manning side of Radford Road, the fortune telling Gipsy Rose Lees were scuttling around the booths they'd set up on the forecourts of some of the large houses approaching Noel Street. The rest of them were doing the rounds of houses with baskets of clothes pegs and flowers fashioned from pink loo paper.

My cats generally prefer biscuits but I limit them due to high fat content and uncertainty about how much water the cat drinks. They are fed good quality wet food plus a lesser quantity of biscuits with fish as a treat. The hedgehogs are also fed cat food which they seem to enjoy. There's never any waste.

Perhaps the same applied to their mother's language when sewing? I remember basting stitches, though I'm no needlewoman.

A friend of mine used to do two days a week (in an anonymous industrial unit in sunny Bulwell) for some petfood company which involved assessing cat food by its appearance and smell. None of the tins/pouches bore any trace of the brand. She had to take a comprehensive written test prior to selection for the job. None of those who assessed the food was allowed to take any home for their cat to try! It's the obvious way to find out how appealing it is. Most cats would probably prefer minced mouse or fricassee of Roland rat to fillet of salmon with broccoli. The problem is that thei

That's them. The unlucky b*ggers got the Arctic convoys. My father got the tropics: Australia included. He always was a jammy s*d. Had a good war, if there is such a contradiction in terms, apart from dengue fever and dysentery!

Oh no. My father was a born atheist. He would have nothing to do with church, no matter how remotely connected. He was married in a church but, given the incoherent mutterings he indulged in every time the subject was mentioned, I suspect he thought better of it with hindsight. One of the reasons he opted to join DEMS during the war was because he didn't like being forced to attend Sunday religious gatherings aboard RN ships.

My father was a sea scout ....in Beeston!!

Dad was also quick to point out mistaken references to ships as "boats". Ships carry boats, he would say. Submarines, however, are "boats". All very confusing and I used to get it wrong on purpose to wind him up!

How refreshing to hear someone refer correctly to the Union Flag. It's only a Jack when flown on board ship...as my father (who served in the Navy) was frequently pointing out.

Charles...ah yes. He was the little lad whose image appeared on National Savings Stamps when I was a child and his sister, Anne, appeared on those stamps of a slightly lesser value. I wonder what happened to those children? My mother could never get used to Charles being Prince of Wales. To her, that was always Edward, later Duke of Windsor. I suppose, it's what you've grown up with.

Bring back Izal. You could write your will on that while you were perched on the loo!

I find the whole thing confusing. Charles, to me, will always be Prince of Wales and Elizabeth II will always be the Queen. Philip will always be Duke of Edinburgh. I suppose it's because most of us have never known anything else. If anyone mentions King Charles, in my mind, I see the tryptich portrait of Charles I.

Alfreton Wilko's is already closed. It will become Poundland later in the year.

I saw a hog tonight, eating the food but more often than not I don't see them. They tend not to stick to a routine. I'm sure your hog is ok. Don't worry.

That's ok. Beekay was around so you're not all that old!

Thanks @Hey Arnold. I've sent her an email.