The Great Ukulele Orchestra...

As any teenager these days, I dabble in a bit of Ukulele playing. Now as I am an a Level musician, people seem to expect that I am very good at this. The truth is, I am not.

So when a friend suggested to me, shall we do a ukulele thing with one of our other friends, for the last ever summer concert, I obligingly said yes. On the one condition that my bit wasn't too hard to play.

Now considering that out concert in on tuesday, I really haven't left myself very much practicing time. So when he brings round the music to a rehearsal we had for this, and I can't play any of it, this concerns me.

However, we bashed through it, and I got a lot of it wrong, and they tried o show me, and I still got it wrong, but we got there in the end I think, and I hope too! We have 3 days to get it right before we are to perform and we are making good progress.

It just goes to show I think that anything really is possible when you put your mind to it, maybe a little tangled and struggled and messy, but you will get there in the end! I will o out on tuesday night and play as well as I can play it. I don't think you can let things you can't do stop you from doing things that you want to do!

Thanks for reading,

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

July/ August Minor Matters Has Arrived!

When the post came through the letterbox this morning I was very excited to see that the July/ August edition of the Morris Minor Owners Club Bimonthly magasine has been issued!

I am especially excited for this issue for 2 reasons. Firstly the National Rally at Cornbury Park took place the other weekend and the magasine was packed full of stories and reviews from that, which were really great to read and relive the moment.

Also, as happens every year, a group of Morris Minor owners hop on a ferry across the channel and drive round France for a week. This is something which always catches my attention and is something that I would really like to do next year, so I was looking forward to reading all about it this year, to get excited for next and try and gain some sneaky peaks at where they might be staying next year.

This is something that has become a well established tradition within the owners club and is something that is really a social highlight of the Owners Club calender. This, to ordinary folk, really will epitomise their distaste for classic car owners: Boring, old and sad. True, ture and true.

But I am proud to call myself one, not least because it is a sense of belonging that owning a classic car brings. There are not many times these days when another motorist will stop and help you if you are broken down, but Morris Minor Owners always do that. It is a recognised thing from one owner to another to pip the horn and wave like a mad-man, or maybe in a slightly more toned down way if there is a girfriend present in the car, and it is something which we call all relate to other people with.

It may seem all weird and creepy and like an old man's club, but really, it is just the same as any football club or social event that happens down the pub. And it is for that reason that I love owning a Morris Minor. Not only can I take pride in what I drive, but I can be part of something that I enjoy. And that is the fun of the Minor.

Thanks for reading!

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

The Sun Is Shining...

There ain't a cloud in sigh, it's stopped raining wehey hey, It's a beautiful new day...

Sorry, excuse me, I got a bit carried away of the whole Mr Blue Sky. 

I have to admit, because I am about 50 years older than I actually am (mind officially boggled) I don't really like the sun, or any heat. So this unmitigated outbreak of sunshine is not entirely welcomed by me.

However, even though I now have sunburn on my neck, legs and feet (which really hurts by the way, not a good idea) I am quite enjoying it. I think it puts everybody in a really happy mood and the makes life a lot more enjoyable.

I have also been able to get lot's done. I feel in a way more productive. Not only have I revarnished the car, but I have been asking a podcast with the Year 6s at the local primary school as part of a music project, which has been really good and productive and creative, and I have also been enjoying bike rides and little job around and about.

I mean don't get me wrong, I love the winter, the crisp cold of a bleak winter's morning, however in the summer there is almost a complete change in atmosphere of the entire population.

Not only that, but it means BBQs, salads and ice cold beers are a lot more regular and fre flowing, which is never a bad thing. It is strange in a way to think that our diet can change so much between seasons just because of the weather.

I watched a program the other night about supermarkets, and they can predict sales to a very accurate percentage based on a long range weather forecast. I mean that is mad right?

So here is to hopefully a reasonably decent summer this year, let's hope it doesnt turn out as wet and miserable as usual!

Thanks for reading.

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Alrewas Radio Update 10/7/13

Seeing as we lie only 14 days from the launch of Alrewas Radio's summer 2013, I thought I better bring you right up to date with what is going on.

As of the 24th of July you will be able to listen live to the wonderful Alrewas Radio between the hours of 10am-5pm at tinyurl.com/alrewasradio to a great variety of music and chat with local presenters and artists alongside the Alrewas Canal and Music Festival 2013. This is something we have been planning for a while and something that all the guys at Alrewas Radio are really looking forward to it.

The schedule is as follows: 
Broadcasting from the Wednesday 24th July - Sunday 28th July:

James Richardson starts the morning 10-11 with his brunch show, a great way to start off the day on the Alrewas Radio Barge, with lots of special guests popping in for a hongover recovery bacon sarnie and a shower.

Tom and Jamie then take over from 11-1pm with returning features such as Barge of No Barge, as well as some interviews with local artists and organisers of the Alrewas Barge Fest, and hopefully talking to a spokesperson from the Neighbourhood Plan going on in the village at the minute.

Then it is over to Rob to take you through lunch, with some light and relaxing tunes while you enjoy your Hog Roast or your chips or a great british pup lunch, maybe some award winning sausages and pork pie from Peter Coates Butchers.

Dan and James Ruttley, the terrible 2, will be progressing on into the afternoon, 2-3pm. They are new presenters to Alrewas Radio and great things to expect from them.

Tom Leedham, and old favourite, 3-4pm, returning with the Tom Leedham Show, aptly names because his name is Tom Leedham and he is doing a show.

Rounded off untill 5pm with Tom and James, with the decades show, a feature that was part of Alrewas Radio Summer 2012 as part of the 4th Alrewas Arts Festival. Taking a slightly different stance this time, looking for some really good tunes and hopefully some special guests too!

So that is how the Alrewas Radio Canal and Music Festival Station is shaping up, and it is certainly something that we are all really looking forward to and we hope you are too!

After that, as the summer gets properly underway, we are looking to do a week of Radio, to introduce lots of new presenters and also to establish some new tech that we are hoping to invest in, and train everybody on how to use that. It should be a great opportunity for new people from in and around the village to get involved and we hope to encourage a lot of talent there is in the village to participate in something in the community.

Thanks for reading.

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Follow Alrewas Radio on twitter: @AlrewasRadio

My Advancing DIY Skills

With all this free time and all these things that I want to get done on my car, over the past 6 months I have been trying to make myself a more manly man. Being able to fix things is the forefront of this really. This I have tried to apply throughout my entire life, at home, on my car, at work, at school, being a more mature and a more practical kinda guy.

I suppose it is all part of the search that every 18 year old goes through on their road to university and the real world, to develop and mature and become an independent person in their own right, with their own skills, talents, personality and qualities. In a wishy-washy sense that I dislike so much, it is finding yourself.

I digress, as per normal, from the main point I was talking about. Being practical. It started with the car really, realising that classic cars don't look after themselves and having to learn about it to really understand when things go wrong. I have tried in the past to be a bit more practical, and to be honest, I did do quite a good job. My first ever woodwork/ DIY task was to build a run for the chikens in the garden. I did everything, from designing the frames to choosing the screws to laying the block paving base. I have to say for myself, that even the door of the chicken run fits better than the gate Dad made!

I proved to myself that I had the capacity to be able to do stuff, albeit with guidance from my "Bodgit And Scarper" grandad (as all grandads have to be) and it is from this that I have found inspiration to start revarnishing the woodwork on my car.

I also spent an entire week, getting up early and starting with a cup of tea in hand to redecorate a 2 bedroom cottage in North Yorkshire from top to bottom: wallpapering walls, painting ceilings, repairing window frames, weeding and decluttering outside. It was a great achievement at the end of the week for all of us who got stuck in, and I think this satisfaction is something that young people often overlook when doing things in their free time, but it really is worth it in the end.

And I suppose that is what maturity is to me: realising that short-term loss is very much long-term gain, and putting a lot of hard work will give you much more staisfaction in the end, as apposed to gaming and things like that, that provide instant gratification, but you never really achieve anything by it. The next step on from this of course is being able to apply this, and that is what I am currently working on. I tend to get bored of things very easily, but this time I am not going to get distracted or anything like that.

All the woodwork on my car is almost all revarnished and looking as beautiful as ever, and Alrewas Radio looms. This is something that I am definitely going to throw myself at and really see it through to the bitter end, even if it kills me, which it very much might do...

Thanks for reading.

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

9/7/13: Moggy Update

Despite my slightly off-putting start yesturday morning, I have soldiered on today, sanding and varnishing the back and the other side of my car to yesturday, meaning that I only have 1 more bit, and load of coats of varnish, to finish the job.

This is a prospect that excvites me greatly as I am not ery good at finishing a job, so the idea of actually getting there is great! I have also had a lot of fun doing it today. There is something quite theraputic about it, and I now feel a lot closer to the car, I feel like I should be taking a bit more care when driving and looking after it. This is all good stuff.

I have also been thinking a lot about what Ishould be doing as the next steps with the car too. I know I need to do the wheels, and I would really like to build a caravan or a trailer of some sort, but it is what and how that is puzzling me. I quite like the idea of a teardrop trailer, yet I also like the idea of it looking a little bit like a chicken run, seeing as the car has been a farm runaround for a large part of its life. 

However thinking into the long term, I thought about the wood and the bodywork. The trouble is, to replace all the wood and respray the bodywork, it seems to me like you take away all the character of the car. That little bit of a scratch adn a dent here and there tells a story of the cars working past, and the discolouration in the wood adds to the authenticity of the car. In fact, I think I will preserve the little scratches and lumps and bumps, it is a part of the cars heritage and that is something I should be proud to be driving round in.

So really the work on my part is going to be in making the car look as wacky as I can: roof racks; suitcases and picnic hampers; floral galands and dreamcatchers; things like number plates, wheel trims and seat covers; and finally trailers and other addons.

I defintely feel the need for another post about the trailer. Imagine how cool it would be to drive around towing a little chicken run, which is actually a fully operating caravanette, with bed, cooker, storage and even some little gadgets and stuff!

Thanks for reading!

Moggy Update 8/7/13

I thought, after a hard morning's labour, I would fill you in as to my progress today. It has been, well, frustrating. It started off really well, with a tour of Burton Industrial Park to find Screwfix, Wickes and B and Q, to source some wood filler for me and a massive tarporlin for my friend Freddo, who decided the lovely weather was a calling for a giant makeshift water-slide.

We returned, laden with the requested items, plus a MacDonalds snack wrap each, and set to work. First we scraped off the middle beam of the wood frame, thinking it would be the easiest. Then we flicked out all the little flaky bits of wood filler, and revealed the problem... A massive amount of rot...

We scraped out so much rotten wood and rubber, that my drive is now a sea of it. The issue that we have is that we have to now put the metal beading that holds in the windows back in place. The next issue.

Sealant doesn't work, wood filler doesn't work, glue gun doesn't work, not even supper glue works. If I wasn't so skint I would be buying a whole new bit of wood, along with a couple of strips of the metal beading so that it would all fit nicely together.

The trouble with fixing something is that if you don't know how it works, you can't really fix it. This is something that me and freddo found out. Not only this, but neither of us knew how to do anything.

To give us one piece of credit for ingenuity, and persavereance would be a kind thing to do. 2 18 year olds, of the hottest day of the year, stood on my drive holding a piece of metal next to a piece of wood, hoping that it would just kind of fuse together maybe...

I am starting to think the project of building a carvan before the end of the summer may be a step to far in my DIY skills.

Not to worry, dad is on his way home. Dad's fix everything!

Thanks for reading.

Please follow me on twitter: @peachy146