I always like to make a fuss of my Jean on her birthday so today I treated her to dinner at Dans Le Noir in Clerkenwell Green. The clue to this posting lies in the restaurant's name; when you eat you are, quite literally, in the dark.
Because Dans Le Noir is a blind restaurant. As well as providing some great food, it is a place with a purpose. It gives customers a chance to confront head on one of our greatest fears, that of losing our sight.
Upon arrival, we were asked…
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Added by ALAN HORNE on September 30, 2009 at 22:30 —
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....part 2...
Andrew Loog Oldham said that getting ripped off (by the industry) was your entrance fee to the music business of the sixties, so get over it. He’s right and things have not changed. We are very over it, but nonetheless aware of who the biggest bootleggers around are. It’s not the filesharers. Personally, we’ve always loved bootlegs. Even when Edwyn was really skint at the fag end of the eighties, I remember being in Camden market and seeing some tapes of a couple of his…
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Added by Administrator on September 30, 2009 at 20:42 —
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I lost it a bit today when I read this...The Air Statement
So this is what I wrote on their website...
I am Edwyn Colllins manager. Let me tell you a story. At the beginning of this year I noticed that Edwyn’s myspace had gone bit wonky and I tried to upload the tracks back on to the music player. His most famous track, which he owns the copyright in, as he does for most of the music he’s recorded in his life (preferring to go it alone than have his music trapped “in perpetuity”…
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Added by Administrator on September 30, 2009 at 20:41 —
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Hi Edwyn
I was going through an old box of tapes and came across a radio session you did for a show called Earshot in 1992. I think the show was for BBC radio Scotland but was also broadcast to the nation on Radio five in it's early days when they played music in the evening. The session was to promote the release of Ostrich Churchyard & you performed a wonderful acoustic session of three songs, Consolation Prize, Graciously and Felicity. Between songs you were interviewed by the…
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Added by shaun taylor on September 29, 2009 at 21:16 —
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hello to everyone, Me and a few friends are going to the show at the Deaf Institute. I have to say that I visited this venue for the first time alast week and was most impressed. I think the wallpaper will appeal to Edwyn as will the the gigantic glitter ball- biggest in Manchester apparently. Yowsa Yowsa Yowsa!
Added by acf wilson on September 28, 2009 at 16:45 —
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Our day began with breakfast, followed by the task of cleaning numerous bowel evacuations from various birds off the roof of the car. "A charming way to start your day", you might think, but you have to bear in mind one thing - we were staying at the Hermitage Bed and Breakfast in Totland, Isle of Wight.
David and Jane Blake's establishment is an absolute peach of a find. In fact, to refer to it as their establishment is doing them a disservice. What I should really say is that it is…
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Added by ALAN HORNE on September 27, 2009 at 22:30 —
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Our Thirteenth Day
June 19th
The fine weather conditions remained so we had a shore day. We had rather a long diary to write but we wrote it with a will. We then went to the Ingersley bathing hut and spent a wonderful morning swimming, sunbathing and sandbuilding.
The afternoon was spent again on the shore, after having brought presents to take home.
We had a lovely shore picnic. Mr Johnson kindly provided bread and butter, jam and cakes and we all had a…
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Added by ALAN HORNE on September 27, 2009 at 10:30 —
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We left the car behind today and took the coastal footpath to Alum Bay. The route took us over Headon Warren, an open heathland once used as a warren, where rabbits were farmed for food and fur. Before then, around 5,000 years ago, the resident Neolithic people deforested the area and used it as grazing land for their cattle. Now, the area is still the domain of the rabbit; although we never actually saw any (all probably hiding from the dogs that were being walked on this gloriously sunny…
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Added by ALAN HORNE on September 26, 2009 at 23:00 —
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Our Eleventh Day
June 17th
We commenced the day with diary writing but by 10.00am we were on our way to Osborne House in a motorcoach. On our way we stopped at Whippingham Church where we saw a most beautiful reredo (a screen or decoration behind the altar in a church, usually depicting religious iconography or images), Queen Victoria’s blue chair and the window with a figure of Elizabeth.
At Osborne House, a guide showed us round the wonderful Durbar Room which…
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Added by ALAN HORNE on September 26, 2009 at 10:30 —
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Our gamble with a British holiday in late September has paid off. Another glorious day on the Isle of Wight.
We hit the road early and took the Newport-bound B3399 to Calbourne and the charmingly named Winkle Street. The B3399 is part of the Needles to Newport road system dissecting the island from West to East. We barely saw another car as we tore our way through the Island's heartland.
Winkle Street is a little gem of a scene. A row of quaint cottages nestled alongside a…
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Added by ALAN HORNE on September 25, 2009 at 22:00 —
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Our Eighth Day
June 14th
As the morning was fine we took an advantage it to go to St Boniface Down. We started very early, walked by the old Church and turned off on to the Downs following the Bridal Path to Wroxall Downs. We found out by experiment with the thermometer that “altitude effects temperature.” We went on climbing the Down until we got to practically the highest point. Here we noticed our direction and could clearly see the coastal plain. We descended the…
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Added by ALAN HORNE on September 25, 2009 at 11:00 —
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What a pleasure to wake up to glorious sunshine and the promise of it remaining that way for the day! We were breakfasted and out on time and a perfect day was on the cards. We drove from Totland, southwards on the coastal road taking in Compton Bay, Brightstone Bay, Chale Bay and Niton, We paused for photos and to admire the views before heading north to Godshill. Leaving the main roads and heading up the back roadss to Godshill was like slowly going back in time, and arriving in Godshill was…
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Added by ALAN HORNE on September 24, 2009 at 23:21 —
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Our Fifth Day
June 11th
We began our day by recalling the experiences of yesterday, and entering them in our diaries. This was followed by a visit to the beach, where we donned our costumes. Mrs Chapman took a squad for drill, while Miss Ellis took dancing. We then had our second swimming lesson and quite a few girls learnt to float. On our way to the road we meet Mr Johnson and his party of boys from Crowland Road School. They had to walk in from Niton where they were…
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Added by ALAN HORNE on September 24, 2009 at 10:00 —
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Grace,
John and Lucy Bannerman were the parents of a number of children: John, William, Thomas, Barbara, Ann, Mary [Edwyn's line], Margaret [my line], Hannah and Eliza.
I was given a good start by Jean Bambrick, descended from Eliza, who had papers written by Edwyn's grandfather Stewart Mackintosh, and have since done a lot of work myself.
The origins of John bannerman are not clear, and all I know is that Lucy Murray was daughter of one of several brothers who had had land…
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Added by Shane on September 24, 2009 at 7:02 —
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They say it's a small world. This morning, over breakfast, this assumption was put to the test. We bumped into Rob, an old work colleague of mine. Small world? Well, I guess. Two people who shared a workplace for a few years ten years ago; never really knew each other but had a few mutual friends; who live only a few miles away from each other now find themselves in the position where they have come to a bed and breakfast on the westerly tip of the Isle of Wight for the right to share in an…
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Added by ALAN HORNE on September 23, 2009 at 22:26 —
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any clues as to why I can't load a photo for my profile (apart from user error of course!)? I've browsed, selecteded a photo and OK'd, but nothing happens. Any advice would be appreciated.
Added by Andy Smith on September 23, 2009 at 22:04 —
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Hi Grace and Edwyn,
I've been following Edwyn's progress ever since I discovered that he and I are both descended from John Bannerman and Lucy Murray.
I was interested to read that Edwyn has a picture of Mary Bannerman in Helmsdale. I remember decades ago my parents went searching for a picture supposedly in a hotel [?] in Helmsdale that they believed was of Margaret [Peggy] Bannerman, Mary's sister.
Would it be at all possible for someone to take a photograph of the picture as…
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Added by Shane on September 23, 2009 at 19:42 —
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Our Third Day
June 9th
We spent the morning in walking to Culver Cliff – partly by the Cliff Road and partly by the sea shore. We passed through Sandown and saw Brading nestling in a gap.
Scarlet Pimpernel had its weather eye open and the promise of a fine day was fulfilled. The afternoon was spent in writing letters, after which to our regret, Miss Smith left us to return to Tottenham.
Mr Johnson kindly provided us with a picnic tea in the garden,…
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Added by ALAN HORNE on September 23, 2009 at 10:00 —
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Our first act this morning was to spread both a little joy and a little pain. Jean drove the car from the garage around to the front of the flat and as we loaded the car with our bags, she told me how the men who were currently laying tarmac in the street had proven themselves immovable as she was attempting to negotiate herself around some of their bags and equipment that lay strewn in the road. She said they half-heartedly moved some stuff to allow her through but, in her words, “they didn't…
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Added by ALAN HORNE on September 22, 2009 at 20:59 —
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Dearest Grace and Edwyn,I missed out on the recent gig at Mono,discovered about it after the event.
How did the evening unfold?I have felt compelled to get in touch having recently read Grace's wonderful book 'Falling And Laughing-The Restoration Of Edwyn Collins'(to give it its full title!)The book has really struck a chord with me,I have to say.In fact I reckon that a great many passages within it are very significant for my own circumstances,and perhaps for many other folk.
I had a…
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Added by ralph mccann on September 22, 2009 at 14:51 —
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