friends

A great renewing friendships from the days when we all worked so hard for the British Steel Corporation!!
Back in September Paul came over from Munich to visit and a fun time was had by all.

One of the days saw us visiting Kelham Island

and we found a secret new pub about to open . . .

then spotted the very spot on the Don where Paul had sailed by on a raft in one of the infamous Rag Boat Races back in the early 70s

time for that coffee and rhubarb and custard cake . . .

and a nostalitc wander around Sheffield

 then the evening meet up with the old Cybor gang - first stop the Kelham Island Tav

 final stop fab dinner at the Milestone

and if you're wondering what they all looked like back then - I'll try and do another post on life at Cybor House some time.

For now, I think this song it says it all!  Happy times.
Click below and enjoy:

in the melting shop

Image courtesy of http://www.gramophone.co.uk

Two standing ovations tonight at Magna for Richard Hawley, playing with the BBC Phil

LIsten to this little clip

Amazing night and Jarvis there to introduce his mate

Be on BBC 6 music to listen to for a week (til Saturday 15th September) - click here

More about Richard and his amazing Sheffield pedigree here 

and though I was probably the only one in the audience not familiar with The Ocean (from Coles Corner), the requested encore, I was bowled over and here it is 

Fantastic night - and big thank you to Janet and Kathryn for the tickets - felt extra special being on my first guest list!!

First review in is from Sarah Lay - and her experience pretty much matches ours - outsanding!!

Oh - and the melting shop - this is Magna back in the day:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-13049591

and we'll all go together

SATURDAY 28 April 2012 - Six Set Sail for Mull

Just got back from the most amazing week on the Isle of Mull with five fabulous friends and I'm going to attempt to tell the tale of our adventures over the next few blog posts.

Suffice to say there was a lot of crying (with laughter), sunshine, sea air, good food and rare sightings and if I manage to hone down my 647 photos to a few shots, I should be able to give you a flavour of the week.

Oban and Mull were the hottest and dryest places in the British Isles last week - creeping up past 19degC while the rest of the UK was under severe weather warnings and flood alerts.  Of course, as we sat picnicing beside babbling burns in the sun or dipping the toes of our boots into the blue Atlantic Ocean on white sunny sands, we did give a thought to the poor folk down south . . .

Here's the first voyage - Oban to Craignure, which got me to thinking how it's easy to forget that we live on a series of islands anyway - the British Isles, and how seafaring was a way of life for most in the past and for many still today.

Snippets of songs were springing to mind at this stage,  "One Friday morn when we set sail, our ship not far from the land . .  . "  though we didn't espy any fair young maids with combs or glasses in their hand.  Manuscript (click here) for enthusiasts to sing along.

and here's the magical Shoals of Herring to listen to by Ewan McColl - I had this on my holiday playlist for the journey north:

as well as Neil Young's Crickle Creek Ferry:

no more musical diversons - to get back to our own ferry journey, here are the some pics as our bonny boat sped over the sea to Mull:

It was just fabulous wall to wall scenery of mountains and still waters only disturbed into gentle wave patterns by the boat

 

 

and finally we glide into Craignure harbour:

To be continued as we disembark and drive across Mull . . . . .  Click here to read on

and once upon a time