Well! it's seven days since the "Great Disaster" and I've managed to input around 70 CD's and the information that goes with them, back on to the CD catalogue file. It's pretty slow and boring work, but my two finger typing is speeding up rapidly, and also becoming far more accurate as well!
I've just been on Wife in the North's Blog, and I was delighted to see that she has allowed (nay, encouraged!) her three children to take part in a mini "Great North Run." Rod and Pat phoned us up after they returned from their efforts in the run.They hope to have raised £1,000 for Cancer Support!
I've also had a look at Whitestuff and see that the White family have returned from their exciting excursion to Butlins at Skegness. Reading between the lines it seems that little has changed - it's still Hi de Hi campers and all the redcoats wearing permanent smiles. Maybe the sites are a little more upmarket, but from what they used to be it would be nearly impossible to go downmarket!!
Not long now before we de-camp to the Isle of Arran and also just north of Bamburgh for a holiday. In previous years we have usually got away for the last two complete weeks in September, but this year we have had to hold fire, as I have had so many weddings to play for. Don't let anybody tell you that weddings are going out of fashion. By the end of the year I will have played for approximately 47 of them!
Friday 24 September 2010
Friday 17 September 2010
A Warning to Those Who Don't Back Up!
I (obviously) have a computer - indeed I have had one for approximately sixteen years, and during that time I have never managed to lose any information from it.
But yesterday BIG TIME DISASTER.
I was in my CD Catalogue File, and for some reason lots of the fields had overprinted the space where information was stored whilst I was in Form View, making it difficult to read. No problem I thought. I have had this happen before. Simply go into form design and erase the overprinted fields. This I duly did, but somewhere along the lines about a thousand pieces of information were lost on 1,000 CD's. I had hit the "accept change" and inadvertantly it had erased all the aforementuioned records.
The annoying thing is that I have an 8GB pen drive, which did have all this information on it. Note I say DID HAVE. I had taken the lot off the pen drive to copy some photographs so that I could have them processed onto A3 sheets for my Bride's Father's Speech!
I now know what I will be doing over the long, dark, winter evenings - replacing all this information and making sure that I back it up!!!
But yesterday BIG TIME DISASTER.
I was in my CD Catalogue File, and for some reason lots of the fields had overprinted the space where information was stored whilst I was in Form View, making it difficult to read. No problem I thought. I have had this happen before. Simply go into form design and erase the overprinted fields. This I duly did, but somewhere along the lines about a thousand pieces of information were lost on 1,000 CD's. I had hit the "accept change" and inadvertantly it had erased all the aforementuioned records.
The annoying thing is that I have an 8GB pen drive, which did have all this information on it. Note I say DID HAVE. I had taken the lot off the pen drive to copy some photographs so that I could have them processed onto A3 sheets for my Bride's Father's Speech!
I now know what I will be doing over the long, dark, winter evenings - replacing all this information and making sure that I back it up!!!
Sunday 12 September 2010
Record Breaking Bride
During my time as an organist I have played for hundreds (and I do mean hundreds) of weddings.
Early on in my organists career I remember when if you got married before April 6th you could claim a vast amount of tax back, consequently the Saturday before 6th April was a very popular time for weddings!
I recall one such Saturday when I had five weddings to play for, each one on the hour, commencing with the first wedding at 11.00 am. The vicar who had arranged all the weddings met each of the couples, and stressed how important it was that each wedding (and more particularly each Bride) was on time. He knew that one of the couples getting married were Jamaican's, and time to them seemed to be unimportant, so he said, If you are more than 30 minutes late you will have to wait until the last wedding is concluded before I will be able to marry you!
Their wedding was scheduled for 1.00pm, and the bride failed to arrive until 1.35! so, true to his word, the vicar told them that they would have to wait until all the other couples had been married, explaining that it was impossible to conduct a wedding service in 25 minutes flat!
The couple, and all their guests sat through the two following weddings, happily joining in the singing of the hymns, and were duly married at around 4.00pm!
This little story (which happens to be true) is a rather long winded way of getting round to what happened to me with two weddings I had to play for on Saturday last.
The first wedding was scheduled for 11.00 am and the following wedding for 1.00 pm. The first Bride didn't arrive in church until 11.56 am, (a record for lateness for all the weddings I have ever played) and because she was so late the wedding service was cut to an absolute minimum. One hymn was completely omitted, all the introductory sentences were omitted and there was no sermon or prayers. All in all the service took a record breaking 21 minutes! Before the service ended people were trying to get into church for the second wedding. The arrival time for the bride at this wedding was only marginally better - she was 34 minutes late!
In both cases there had been no hold up with traffic, or any particular reason for the lateness of the brides!
Early on in my organists career I remember when if you got married before April 6th you could claim a vast amount of tax back, consequently the Saturday before 6th April was a very popular time for weddings!
I recall one such Saturday when I had five weddings to play for, each one on the hour, commencing with the first wedding at 11.00 am. The vicar who had arranged all the weddings met each of the couples, and stressed how important it was that each wedding (and more particularly each Bride) was on time. He knew that one of the couples getting married were Jamaican's, and time to them seemed to be unimportant, so he said, If you are more than 30 minutes late you will have to wait until the last wedding is concluded before I will be able to marry you!
Their wedding was scheduled for 1.00pm, and the bride failed to arrive until 1.35! so, true to his word, the vicar told them that they would have to wait until all the other couples had been married, explaining that it was impossible to conduct a wedding service in 25 minutes flat!
The couple, and all their guests sat through the two following weddings, happily joining in the singing of the hymns, and were duly married at around 4.00pm!
This little story (which happens to be true) is a rather long winded way of getting round to what happened to me with two weddings I had to play for on Saturday last.
The first wedding was scheduled for 11.00 am and the following wedding for 1.00 pm. The first Bride didn't arrive in church until 11.56 am, (a record for lateness for all the weddings I have ever played) and because she was so late the wedding service was cut to an absolute minimum. One hymn was completely omitted, all the introductory sentences were omitted and there was no sermon or prayers. All in all the service took a record breaking 21 minutes! Before the service ended people were trying to get into church for the second wedding. The arrival time for the bride at this wedding was only marginally better - she was 34 minutes late!
In both cases there had been no hold up with traffic, or any particular reason for the lateness of the brides!
Saturday 11 September 2010
Back to School Week
It has been "Back to School Week" for many of the school children around here. Tom started a few days earlier than Mollie. To the non involved person it is more than obvious that the chidren are back at school. You only have to look at the sudden increase in traffic between 7.30 - 9.00 to know that the schools are open again!
The Aire valley becomes clogged with parents and children hurtling lemming like, towards their respective schools. A journey which took minutes suddenly seems to take hours! Impatient motorists hurtle around the area like maniacs.
With the start of school comes the return to the normal everday events in my life. Monday saw the re start of practices for Eldwick & Gilstead Male Voice Choir, Tuesday I was "back in school" playing the piano for singing, Wednesday I would normally have been up at the TIC, but other events got priority, Thursday church choir practices resumed, and fortunately Friday was reltively quiet.
In and amongst all this I had a funeral to play for on Thursday, and another funeral to play for on Friday, as well as two weddings to play for today.
The highlight of the week was a viewing of Hannah and Ben's "Official Wedding Photographs" - some 500+ of them. Matt & his assistant Sarah had done a superb job, and making a choice from 500+ is going to be very difficult. I don't think they produce Wedding Albums large enough to hold 500 photographs!
Three weeks today we should be on the Isle of Arran, staying at our usual Studio Flat in Lamlash, then the week after we should be in Waren Mill, just north of Bamburgh, again staying at Cove Cottage. I must say that the holidays can not come fast enough. I seem to have spent more time at church this last year than I have ever done. (There will have been seven weddings this month and I will have played for about 44 by the end of the year!)
The Aire valley becomes clogged with parents and children hurtling lemming like, towards their respective schools. A journey which took minutes suddenly seems to take hours! Impatient motorists hurtle around the area like maniacs.
With the start of school comes the return to the normal everday events in my life. Monday saw the re start of practices for Eldwick & Gilstead Male Voice Choir, Tuesday I was "back in school" playing the piano for singing, Wednesday I would normally have been up at the TIC, but other events got priority, Thursday church choir practices resumed, and fortunately Friday was reltively quiet.
In and amongst all this I had a funeral to play for on Thursday, and another funeral to play for on Friday, as well as two weddings to play for today.
The highlight of the week was a viewing of Hannah and Ben's "Official Wedding Photographs" - some 500+ of them. Matt & his assistant Sarah had done a superb job, and making a choice from 500+ is going to be very difficult. I don't think they produce Wedding Albums large enough to hold 500 photographs!
Three weeks today we should be on the Isle of Arran, staying at our usual Studio Flat in Lamlash, then the week after we should be in Waren Mill, just north of Bamburgh, again staying at Cove Cottage. I must say that the holidays can not come fast enough. I seem to have spent more time at church this last year than I have ever done. (There will have been seven weddings this month and I will have played for about 44 by the end of the year!)
Sunday 5 September 2010
Mollie & Tom's Sleepover
On Saturday evening we had Mollie and Tom sleeping over at our house. Rachel & Gary were going out to friends and were not expecting to get back home until the early hours of the next morning!
Rachel assured us that Mollie would be able to assist in cleaning, polishing or whatever. Tom took himself off into the lounge and got himself involved in"Connect Four" and various other games.
Meanwhile Mollie was anxious to show us her prowess in the kitchen, and volunteered to cook some ham and cheese omlettes for tea.
Ruby kept a watchful eye on the proceedings, in the hope that she might get some of the food that was being prepared!
Tea was very tasty, and Ruby managed to beg the odd bit of food as well!
Rachel assured us that Mollie would be able to assist in cleaning, polishing or whatever. Tom took himself off into the lounge and got himself involved in"Connect Four" and various other games.
Meanwhile Mollie was anxious to show us her prowess in the kitchen, and volunteered to cook some ham and cheese omlettes for tea. 
Ruby kept a watchful eye on the proceedings, in the hope that she might get some of the food that was being prepared!
Tea was very tasty, and Ruby managed to beg the odd bit of food as well!
Saturday 4 September 2010
Wind Down from the Wedding
For a couple of weeks, up to Saturday 14th August life had become very hectic and exciting. Time seemed to implode, and instead of having hours to do things in it felt like we only had minutes. As the Big Day drew nearer time also seemed to speed up, so that the things we had planned to do, and which we felt we had plenty of time to do them in suddenly seemed to require more time!
Suffice it to say that the great day dawned with no major hiccups, but, as most people who have had to arrange a wedding will tell you, the time immediately after a wedding leaves you feeling somewhat deflated.
It was for this reason that I suggested to the Lady of the Manor that we should go off for a couple of days, and we spent two very enjoyable days in Masham.
Today we got round to returning the underskirt which Lulu Brown's Bridal Shop in Clitheroe had lent for the wedding. We could have posted it back, but the weather being so fine all week we used it as an excuse to take a trip to Clitheroe.
After having a meal in Molly's, and looking round the local shops, we decided to move on to the little village of Sabden. The route from Clitheroe to Sabden takes you over some moors, and before you drop down into the village there are some lovely walks on the moors. Having taken Ruby with us, it only seemed fair that she had a walk there. So here are a few photos of Ruby and Dot on Sabden Moor.
Sabden Moor - the village is just off to the right in a valley
The tiny white dot in the centre is Dot!
Getting nearer!
Nearly back
Having a breather.
Suffice it to say that the great day dawned with no major hiccups, but, as most people who have had to arrange a wedding will tell you, the time immediately after a wedding leaves you feeling somewhat deflated.
It was for this reason that I suggested to the Lady of the Manor that we should go off for a couple of days, and we spent two very enjoyable days in Masham.
Today we got round to returning the underskirt which Lulu Brown's Bridal Shop in Clitheroe had lent for the wedding. We could have posted it back, but the weather being so fine all week we used it as an excuse to take a trip to Clitheroe.
After having a meal in Molly's, and looking round the local shops, we decided to move on to the little village of Sabden. The route from Clitheroe to Sabden takes you over some moors, and before you drop down into the village there are some lovely walks on the moors. Having taken Ruby with us, it only seemed fair that she had a walk there. So here are a few photos of Ruby and Dot on Sabden Moor.
Sabden Moor - the village is just off to the right in a valley
The tiny white dot in the centre is Dot!
Getting nearer!
Nearly back
Having a breather.
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