London’s Calling...........Best of British St George’s Day gig

 Jon-Paul Bradshaw raised the roof, shook the ground and shattered the windows

(metaphorically of course) at his Best of British gig at the Princess in Maybury last night. In a fabulous salute to the last five decades of British music, he rocked the pub for St. George’s day.

Once again displaying an amazing vocal range, Jon-Paul, sporting a fabulous British flag on his shirt, took us backwards and forwards through the decades from the 60’s to the present with a well chosen selection of songs from the great, the good and the popular. The choice of music included song from The Jam, Madness, The Style Council, Oasis, The Who, The Clash, The Rolling Stones, The Verve, George Michael, Rod Stewart, Duran Duran,  Stereophonics, Adam and the Ants, Tears For Fears the Foundations, Take That and many more.

We were all delighted with Jon-Paul’s rendition of Re-light my Fire accompanied with a tongue in cheek copy of the Take That moves. This, along with the comedic changing of some of the lyrics and the odd cheeky comment to the crowd showed off Jon-Paul’s ability to interact with the crowd as well as being a brilliant singer.

The songs from Madness even had the men strutting their stuff on the dance floor and that is a rarity in most pubs.  Men and women in their 40’s and 50’s can still rock the dance floor and the Princess was certainly rocking last night as the years rolled back and the memories flooded, fuelled by JP’s top rate performance.

Once again the atmosphere was fun, fast and fabulously energetic, sprinkled with laughter and top songs sung by our very own Jon-Paul Bradshaw. Anyone in the Woking area should come along to the gigs as they are a wonderful opportunity to see some home grown talent. JP also gigs in other areas, see below for information.

For information about upcoming gigs  and the different shows he does, go to Jon-Paul's website  www.jpbradshaw.com.

Dear diary........amusing anecdotes from my life.

Hello lovely people.  I am just introducing a new idea to my blog. I will be doing pieces from time to time entitled Dear Diary. These pieces will all be true and hopefully amusing things that have happened in my life. Some may also just highlight the eccentricities of my mind. J There will be some old and some more recent. I am writing them in a diary format as if I had written them at the time.

The first ones are here for you to enjoy. They are together as they are two incidents of a similar nature and both funny. (Well I think so)

Dear Diary..... (2014 I think)

I had a little kitchen fire today but nothing to worry about. No one was hurt in the process and the only thing that really suffered was my new oven gloves which got a little singed. I have to say that I have been making raspberry buns since the age of 10 when we made them in home economics. Today I made them exactly the same as usual and used the nice new baking parchment I had bought.

About a minute or two into the cooking time, just as I was washing up, I could suddenly smell burning. I opened the oven door to be greeted by both trays of buns on fire. Grabbing the oven gloves I pulled out both trays and put the fire out with a tea towel. All was good and I managed to rescue a lot of the buns. I then transferred them to greased trays and put them back as I realised that the baking parchment may be the problem.

At this point you may be wondering what was funny. Well, The fire was in a circle round each of the trays and as I was putting out the flames a little voice in my head was singing “Ring of fire” by Johnny Cash, it was as much as I could do to stop myself downing my fire fighting implements and doing a little song and dance round the kitchen.

                                              

Dear Diary.....  (Sometime in 1992)

A slight error in the cooking process occurred today when I was making dinner. Now in my defence it was rather late as my dinner companion did not arrive until 9.30pm and my cooking skills are usually quite good.

I made the lamb steaks, peas and mashed potato and arranged them all beautifully on plates then mixed and poured on the gravy. As the gravy hit the plate a moment of sheer horror and the smell of coffee hit my brain. Yes, I had made a jug of coffee not gravy.

My instant reaction was to grab the meat off the plates in a bid to salvage some of the meal. I then started laughing as I realised the total stupidity of what I had done (I believe I was over tired too)

Sadly my dinner companion was not amused and I ended up cooking the whole thing again, but I was having a quiet chuckle to myself while I cooked.

Swapping clothes, raising money and a hint of romance

A couple of weeks ago I spent a very enjoyable evening at a welcoming, well organised charity fashion swap.

The general premise of the evening was that you could take clothes you no longer wore and swap them for other people’s unwanted items.  We all have clothes we are fed up with, are too big or too small or we just no longer like. A clothes swap is a perfect way to clear your wardrobe, add new pieces and help raise money for a very worthwhile charity.

There was a very fun, relaxed atmosphere and everyone was trusted to hang up their clothes and swap for the same number they had donated. If you wanted more clothes than you had donated you could also donate financially. The £10 paid on the door and the money raised from refreshments went towards the charity, as did a fee for anyone setting up a stall.  (There were several make up stalls, handmade cards and manicures and pedicures on offer.)

A raffle with donated prizes was also good for raising money and two of Sarah Parry’s children did a sterling job of pulling the tickets and managing the rowdy crowd. (Women with raffle tickets clutched firmly in their hands, eyes on the prize, are a hard crowd to control!)

Cancer Research UK, a hugely important charity, was the recipient of the money made at the clothes swap and donated through Mandy Mole’s Just Giving page in memory of her best friend Sarah Parry.

Sarah died at the age of 44 after a battle with breast cancer. She left behind her husband Phil and their four lovely, funny, confident children. Her best friend, Mandy helped to look after Sarah’s children, supported Phil and has tirelessly raised money for cancer research.

Mandy, Sarah and Phil had been friends and neighbours for many years and their children had grown up together, been on holiday together and shared many happy events.  After her divorce in 2011 Sarah and Phil supported Mandy even though they had their own tragedy unfolding behind the scenes.  Mandy was with Sarah and Phil in the hospice for Sarah’s final days.

Previously, in 2010, Mandy had survived skin cancer and started to raise money for cancer research as she was extremely grateful for having been able to survive this awful disease and for her mother having also battled with, and won, against uterine cancer.

In a bid to raises their spirits Mandy and Phil went, as friends, to Phoenix and Las Vegas on holiday and returned a couple.  Mandy was the perfect person to continue helping raise Sarah’s four children as she had always been part of her life. Having met the fantastic four I have to say that Sarah, Phil and Mandy have done a fabulous job.

While battling with cancer Sarah and her 3 daughters worked through and got their black belts in karate. Their little brother is now working towards his. To have that bond with their Mum must be a fantastic feeling and memories to treasure forever.

If you want to donate to the Just Giving page for Sarah Parry this is the link:

https://www.justgiving.com/blackbeltsarah

I will be publicising any future fund raising events and hope you will attend as many as you can.  Having helped my Dad battle with cancer and survive, I know that no one is immune to this dreadful disease. Some people have had their own struggles and others have had someone close to them, but we all know one or more people who have been there.

Blog news 28.03.2016

Blog news

Just a quick note to say that I have added a "popular posts" section at the side of the blog above the blog archive. This shows the most popular posts in order of the most of views.

So far my two Filofax posts have been the most popular followed by my two gig reviews. I do follow the number of views as it shows if what I have written has been interesting or not.

The popular posts along with the search bar and the blog archive should all be helpful in navigating round my blog.

So grab a coffee and search the blog for something that interests you and, as always, comments can be made via email etc.

xx

My strange fascination with rooftops

My strange fascination with rooftops

I am not sure when I first realised how interesting rooftops were but I was definitely a child. I could spend hours endlessly gazing out at the rooftops of the houses opposite and the tall chimney at the factory down the road. I liked the pavements when they were dark and rain was glistening in the light from the street lamps and watching people and cars go by, but the rooftops seemed the most interesting.

I do remember rooftops being mentioned in JM Barrie’s Peter Pan and we had a lovely illustrated copy of the book so there may have been a link there. I think it is quite possible, as a child, to imagine a whole mysterious world existing above the houses, shops and factories.

As I have got older I have gained an interest in architecture and the shape of buildings. White buildings, symmetrical buildings and buildings with interesting features interest me and, of course, rooftops.

The painter Christopher Wood painted a picture, in 1930, entitled “The Zebra and the Parachute” which had a very interesting white building in the background. This painting is not only quite surreal but is my favourite painting and it sparked several dreams about white buildings. Ironically it has no rooftops, just a weird collection of levels.

While sitting upstairs in Cafe Nero writing and enjoying a coffee, I realised that you could see the rooftops in the town. This is the older part of town and so much more interesting. While the big glass wall of the Peacocks Centre looks appealing, it does not have the charm of the older buildings and their eclectic mix of decades.

As the town has been developed over the years the mix of old, newer and newest buildings has merged into an interesting mix of architectural styles. The oldest rooftops are more traditional, more triangular with normal slates and sash windows in the attic rooms. You can also see the very square flat roofed buildings of the 70’s that actually look dingier than their older neighbours but have that very decade specific look about them.

The rise and fall of the different heights of rooftops with all the different ages of building and type of roofs make you wonder what building each one is for. Who lives there, what they do, does each window show a different world. Who lives and works in these buildings where the rooftops meet? Are they happy or sad or just existing? Some are offices, some are flats, some are small businesses and some do not reveal what they are. There are fire exits and railings, attics, scaffolding, decorated window surrounds, plain windows and various window adornments. Some buildings are clean, some dirty, some slates need replacing; some are a hotch potch of repairs, some painted, some unpainted.

As you daydream you can wonder if there is another world above the rooftops, hidden away above the streets in all the nooks and crannies and secret parts. A world of mystery, smoke and street lights; the old world which JM Barrie wrote about in a modern age perhaps.

In Barbara Vine’s book Grasshopper there is a lot of rooftop running and, with her brilliant flare for the unusual characters of this world, a very “other world” atmosphere to the characters lives. This is also how I imagine the secret lives of those who could, in a surreal existence, live among the chimney pots, slated roofs, hidden alcoves and fire escapes of the elevated world above our streets.

Going back to our roots

Going Back To Our Roots

We were certainly taken back to our roots at the Princess in Maybury on Saturday the 27^th Feb when the very talented Jon-Paul Bradshaw once again sung the roof off with his fantastic Teenage Kicks show.

For nearly three hours Jon-Paul sung, danced and joked his way through his own amazing renditions of songs by The Jam, The Specials, Human League, Soft Cell, The Clash, Style Council, UB40, Squeeze, Madness and many more legends from our youth.

Jon-Paul’s show proved, once again what a versatile and flawless performer he is. A perfect performance of music and laughter delivered with incredible energy and passion and a huge smile.

To hold a crowd on his own for almost three hours shows what a consummate professional JP is. The ease at which he delivered his show displays a true love of his craft and a passion for entertaining.

Jon-Paul extended his performance as we were rather reluctant to let him stop and kept asking for one more song. Paul Weller’s English Rose was sung straight from the heart  and old Jam and Style Council favourites had everyone singing along and dancing like we were teenagers again.

For information about upcoming gigs  and the different shows he does, go to Jon-Paul's website  www.jpbradshaw.com.

Blog news 08.02.2016

Good evening lovely people. I have to apologise for my lack of posts recently. I have been a little busy and need to catch up with all my unfinished pieces.

As always any feedback from my posts can be sent via Facebook messenger if you are on my fb or via my email at

sarawilliams21@hotmail.co.uk

Thank you for all the fabulous comments I have had so far, new posts are coming soon. J