Category Archives: Music

…in the last week, just been too busy to write anything!

Last Thursday the first venue of the tour was announced – Shawn will be playing at the Bloomsbury Theater in London on the day that her new album (These Four Walls) is released in the UK (September 18th). There’s more dates planned for November which will hopefully be a bit nearer.

On Friday three birth certificates arrived in the post – I’d sent for them a few weeks ago but hadn’t actually thought about them until they arrived. We’re just about back to the start of Civil Registration in 1837 on most branches of the family tree but there’s still a few gaps to fill in, and these certificates completed three of them.

Thomas Wood and Ellen Knowles married in 1875 and their son William Wood was my mum’s paternal grandfather, and whilst we had their father’s names from the marriage certificate we had no idea about their mother’s names – two of my great-great-great-grandmother’s. Ellen’s birth certificate show’s her mother to be Ann Ireland, whilst Thomas’ certificate show’s his mother as Sarah Lightfoot – both new family names in the tree and something to seach for on the early censuses (all now online at Ancestry.co.uk).

The third certificate was for Martha Cross – the mother of my mum’s maternal grandmother (if you follow that!). She was born in 1840 so we really are at the limit of Civil Registration with this one, but it’s confirmed her mother as Ellen Wrench – we already knew her married name, but not her maiden name so we’ll have to delve into the Parish records in Plumley (Cheshire) to find out any more about the Wrench family!

Saturday was certainly the weather for a game of cricket, and we we’re playing against Kelburne at Whitehaugh in a 50 over game. We lost the toss and had to bowl first but restricted them to just 176-7 of their 50 overs – I even got a bowl this time and finished wicketless but with respectable figures of 9-4-17-0. In reply we knocked off the runs for the loss of just one wicket with over 10 overs to spare – didn’t even get my pads on never mind a bat.

Sunday was the Nick Jr Roadshow at Victoria Park in Glasgow, and we had tickets for the afternoon session so the three of us headed up with Audrey and Heather (Alan was on duty so missed out!). There was a stage show with Fifi, Dora, Pablo and Sporticus (to name but four) and separate areas for most of their favourite shows including a Thomas the Tank Engine Bouncy Castle – we just about had to drag Megan and Heather away as they were closing up for the day.

I’ve been down at Alderley Edge this week for a team meeting, so that was the first long run for the new car and it passed the test with flying colours – the climate control was just what the doctored order given the weather, and looks like i’m still getting around 32mpg (much the same as the last one). Park’s have just phoned to say the iPod adaptor has finally arrived too – although they can’t fit it until next Friday (well they could have done it next Wednesday but I need the car then!).

Picked up the new Paul Simon album (Surprise) on the way down as it’s been well reviewed and I must say it’s growing on me. I’m not a big fan of his solo stuff, but this is a bit of change of style – it’s been produced (and in some cases co-written) with Brian Eno so there’s a few more synths than you would normally expect, and it’s all the better for it. Well worth a listen I’d say!

And finally Virgin have upgraded our broadband to 8mbps – nearly three months after they promised too. I found the DSL ZoneUK site a week or two ago – it uses google maps to work out how far you are from your exchange. It’s pretty neat and it suggested we should expect around 5mbps given the distance to the exchange which is up in the village. At the moment we seem to be getting about 4.9mbps from our connection according to the speed test at ADSLGuide – so that seems to be about right…