Ding a ling...
Don't say we don't care about you. We know how much you like cycling stories. (you do, don't you??) So we've sent Chris Ledgard out on a bike to test support for the latest campaign to get all cycles fitted with bells. He's a runner, not a biker so he's having to borrow the Boss' much-loved super-duper lightweight dream machine.There may be trouble ahead. Chris wants to put a basket on the front so that he can carry his recording equipment in comfort.
Feel I need to warn you...Lissa is back this week - refreshed after a week of leave during which she claims she resisted the temptation to log in and see how we've been getting on. She promises she'll sort out the technical problems. Yeah right.
Sequin
SB1
Hooray for Lissa, welcome back.
Now when you have a few minutes we have a list of "issues" that need to be resolved...
Can we have a piccy of Chris on bike? We need something to amuse round here
hooray - no news on Blair / Brown!!
erm.... but no news on 9/11??
I'll resist saying "ya ya I'm first" cos though no comments are appearing I'm patently not the first as its been 30 mins since the blog started.
instead - any thoughts on people's memories of the event that changed the world?
SB1, but I know it won't be....
Welcome back, Lissa! We've missed you:o)
Once again, we've got a phrase (Ding-a-ling this time), that only needs a Terry Thomas or Leslie Philips type of voice to set the right sort of tone....
Oh welcome back Lissa, Hurrah! Hurrah!
Cycling stories eh? Well, I do need to get some work done...
Along with the photo of Chris on a bike can we have the pix of Eddie requested last week please?
Thank you.
Marvellous - you are here. Now I can share my bad day with you too......by being grumpy. No - I do not like bikes and they do not like me so I have much sympathy for Chris. I have also run out of excuses for avoiding the annual 26 mile and 9 pub village bike ride. I have until May. Any ideas? If I lend Chris my wicker basket will he think of one for me?
Welcome Lissa, good tan you've got...
With some talk over the weekend re Eddie, Sequin and Fig Lover, I noticed Fig's new programme has a blog. Is it silent there or has no-one commented?
(Mind you, Lissa may think that would be the very heaven, and apply be Blogger-on-chief of Sat. Live).
SB3 but I doubt it.
Whisht said:
erm.... but no news on 9/11??
PM: Breaking the news within five years of it happening...
On campanological cyclists: Don't bikes already have to have bells? I thought there was something about that in the Highway Code. Or is it enough to yell at someone for an emergency warning?
Ah...the cheery ding of a bicycle bell. This is all well and good, but I've fitted a Delta Airsound horn to my handlebars. It turns near misses into wide misses. It sounds like the Bootle fog horn at full throttle. Its loud, I mean really LOUD. It's just brilliant.
I trust Chris Ledgard will keep off the pavement?
Serious thoughts on the 9/11 event:
xx
ed
I think it was 'ding-dong' that Leslie Phillips said...
'Ding-a-ling' was, if I remember, Chuck Berry
(hmmm, that rings a bell)
welcome back Lissa, and when you have sorted out the glitches, and the requests for pix of Eddie in white tie and cequin in a ball gown and Chris on a bike, could you turn your attention to my long standing request for a pic of Rupert to throw darts at.
I do not have a bike story, but I do have a bike question, - having moved to somewhere rural last year after 20 years in a major city we treated ourselves to bikes. When did bikes get 27 gears? The last one I had had three and I had enought trouble with them.
s/b 4 - are we still playing this game or not.
I think we should cut poor Lissa some slack the first few days back.... We all know how hard it can be to have to jump straight in to firefighting after a holiday. Still, with Cap'n Seguin and First Officer Lissa both on board, we can be sure of some smooth sailing this week:)
p.s. Lissa, where's the postcard for the bloggers?
p.p.s. Aperitif, you still haven't said what this big interview is tomorrow....
Frances, you are of course right that it was Chuck Berry who sang "My Ding-a-ling". I think my parents still have a copy of it on ye olde gramaphone platter. I was just suggesting that saying it in a LP/TT style of voice is reminiscent of the early days of the blog (a couple of weeks ago!) when Eddie talked of the "fabulous ding-dong" occuring....
Great Blog.
ohhh, Harry Harrison fan, y'know what I meant....
;¬)
though must admit - even on this beautiful day I'm a bit down. I have a distinct memory of it happening as I was working at a company who had 2 floors of one of the towers. Lost hundreds of people. One woman visiting our (UK) office had only left it the night before.
I heard it whilst in a lift and then taxi via an american colleague who was being told via his mobile. I thought it was the British guys winding him up.
Initially I thought he meant a Cessna. But then he was he was talking about 2 jets and I just thought "but... it couldn't be. How could yo accidentally hit them with 2 planes..?".
I mean, this guy knew people who should've been in there. We were away from our desks so couldn't check to see what was going on.
Then our meeting was interrupted by an ashen faced guy saying we'd lost people and we just went to a bar to watch the planes over and over again.
We were all (americans and Brits) just scared of what was going to happen (and I mean Bush).
and that's it mainly. hey ho, cheery bugger ain't I?
more fun and frolics later.... watching the Fall tonight so that's gonna be a laugh!!
Fair comment, FF, and you're right about the sort of voice.
SB18
(16) Sorry for dwelling on the more trivial aspect of your post, whisht, but where are the Fall playing tonight?
Dr Hackenbush, ‘graduate’ of the Birmingham School of Medicine School.
Hmmm - quiet day at the ranch? Y'all must've had as bad a day as I have.
Perhaps sombre thoughts? Perhaps Lissa's easing herself in gently? Welcome back anyway Lissa - did your postcard go walkabout then?
SB 19
Something's definitely not right today - surely this can't be only no.18 at this time of night? And the missing posts from "Confused?..." are still missing, And I did reply about the interview (re Fearless @ no.13) early this afternoon on "Whose Friend..." but it hasn't shown up yet (general gist: sort of a job interview but not really).
Still I'm certain Lissa will have it all sorted out tomorrow, along with all the photos.
Anne (12), I'm with you on the bike gears thing. My car only has six gears so I can't imagine why a bike would need 27??? I think all cycling should be done side-saddle with a basket of groceries on the front anyway - excessive gears and lots of lycra is all just a bit too macho somehow ;)
ah, Dr Hackenbush of the Business School of....
I'm afraid I'm too knackered to give a proper account of the gig. Needless to say there was plenty of heavy 50's/ 60's riffing with 2 (yes-I-say TWO) bass players. And a lady on keyboards (I'm sure Mr. Smith will have it no other way.)
and plenty of "phhaaahhhwaaoor - wwHHAEYYah huh. a huh. I said phhhfffffaaaaYYYYer - huh" etc.
bl#*dy awesome.
They were playing at 93 Feet East in Brick Lane - nice and intimate (heaviest concentration of 30-40 year olds that venue's seen for a while!!)
think I'm goig to lie down now to the gentle strains of Big New Prinz..... ahhh.....
sb22
I have a question for the PTB.
How come a rank and file contributor here (Valery P ?) had her submission of a purple poem blocked while our beloved Captain was allowed a lenghty quote of what I can only suppose is a popular ditty?
I think we should be told (but only if it doesn't lead to a court martial).
Could submitting the poem be constued as publicising it???
Is it - perish the thought - product placement?
Oh, I dunno.
With only 22 posts so far, sb 23 but there's no fun in it
Morning all!
Well, I see it was either a quiet night, or poor Lissa is going to be stressed this morning while trying to get the system working again....
So, Aperry, a "sort of job interview but not really" eh? Well, I'll keep my fingers, toes, and eyes crossed for you:)
Did anyone else hear the weather forecast on Radio 4 this morning? Did he really say, "It will either drain or rizzle, with possible shattered scowers". It did'nt go unnoticed that the venerable John Humphrys lost the news headlines too. If you ask me, I think the station is falling apart!
btw Dr H,
the Fall are playing Cricklewood Galtymore on Thurs Friday which I think there are tickets for... with (gulp) John Cooper Clarke.
luckily instead, our support act was a guy who elicited both cheers and boos in equal measure - which is an accomplishment in itself.
ok, no more music stuff - this is a news blog after all.... (although weirdly it seems that half the people here are chatting each other up but.... maybe my imagination...)
Please could someone tell me the title of the Mark Steel prog. so many enjoyed - I can't find it on Listen Again. Thanks.
sb23
Belay the last pipe!
The Captain's reference was in an email and not for publication.
Must familiarise myself with the navigational charts.
Sorry for any inconvenience caused.
What on earth is wrong with this list at the moment? I'm with Drinks in believing that there are comments still missing from other blog entries - I was sure that confused got up to 105, but there are only 102 on there now. Perhaps I'm having a senior moment and that's all made up. But I'm struggling to believe that there have been only 22 comments on this one (igitur SB23, but I bet it's not - I could win The Game in one go! Writing "The Game" always reminds me of the much-underrated film of the same name with Michael Douglas - maybe a tad long).
Not totally surprised that Val P's poem listing should be cut - I would imagine there would be a copyright issue which is perhaps easier for us to ignore than it is for the beeb. You can find it online though.
I'm also intrigued with Drinks' big interview. Maybe it's for PM Blog Controller. Has somebodu already said that?
Oh Rufus - thanks for the support, but now look what you've been and gone and done - the ding-a-lings have disappeared..
Aperitif - good luck to you, retrospectively I guess, as you probably won't look us up till later? Looks like I may have summat similar going on tomorrow evening, we could swap notes on Tursday?
Whisht - the gig sounds a blast. There's nothing like the old smell of the thumping bass speakers is there. Nowt wrong with two bass guitarists either - the Kraken has a theory that all bass players (he is) are either immensely fat, have a weird beard or just a generally bizarre disposition and great sense of humour. Since I'm his Mum, I couldn't possibly pass judgement, nor would he want me to....
Anne- yes I have a bike and it has a bell and a basket, and 3 (count 'em) gears and a leather saddle. Looks like it's just limped off the cover of a Rural Living glossy magazine ( no names no censorship) but it's festooned in cobwebs and guano (2 swallows' nests in the garage this year), so I don't "go" it any more. Perhaps I should valet it and try it out next time another bit drops off the car?
SB 23 - patently I'm still playing :o).
Probably won't be 23 as I've had to type all this again because S.O. cleared summat on the clockwork pc while I was Road Tripping on Sunday (that's how he could get near it) and it wiped off my details, so I got the snippy return-to-your-post-you-stupid-woman-we-don't know-who-you-are message
Where is everyone today?
Wow! Lissa has managed to get all (I think) the missing posts back from this and all the pther threads. Lissa you are a STAR!
Ap, I hope it all goes well today:)
I expect so Frances, but Not sure if I can even be bothered posting any more, as this morning's effort, which I had to write a second time because S.O. cleaned up the pc and removed my contact details, and I didn't notice till it was too late and it all disappeared, hasn't come up yet, and that was hours ago! And it was really long too. Sniff.
SB24 - unless they do unearth my previous.
I'm losing the will to live............
SB34
Thanks for all the good wishes - the interview isn't until teatime and I am, allegedly, on line just to make sure I'm up to date with the latest info.
Loads of posts appeared quite quickly just now, and some missing ones returned (John H. you were right about the earlier count). I think Lissa has just about got a handle on it now - well done!
I reckon it will all be running as smoothly as a polished hoof tomorrow.
I'm going to try to do preparation now. See you all tomorrow.
Polished hoof Aperry? Shouldn't that ref be in Where's the Hole, or whatever the latest one is called? (Daren't look it up in case I lose this one).
However, THREE CHEERS FOR LISSA (still haven't got to grips with any style except capitals, so a-shouting it will have to be). Were they all under the carpet, in a kind of no-one'll notice none of these make sense if it's all nice and tidy stylie?
Sprout 27- sorry The Mark Steel prog I referred to was on TV. Being a woman y'see, I can multitask - roam around the pc and watch TV with the other eye. Dunno what it was called but it was on the other side from Newsnight. Mark Steel Show?
SB33
In a belated response to whisht (21 and 26), all the above sounds good to me. My last Fall gig was a few years ago, but the collection keeps growing.
Re 27: sprout, the Mark Steel programme was on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ2, not radio. It is called The Mark Steel Lectures, and continues Thursday, 11:20pm.
SB33? Now six hours since post 32, but I am behind hand today...
Is this thread still active