Judely's Jottings
Serendipitous bits and pieces from a middle aged music addict with a butterfly mind...
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Old Folk
Last week I happened to be leafing through the local paper when I came across an ad for a folk concert at The Rock @ Maltby. Now I used to go to folk clubs a lot when I was younger - like many people of my age, I first encountered live music this way in the 1960s, when almost every pub held a folk night of some description. I carried on going to folk clubs and concerts when I became a student, and when I was first married, but folk music became less popular and the clubs gradually died out, and once the kids came along we just stopped going to proper concerts as we didn’t have the time or the money. During those years we saw loads of live bands - traditional Celtic music like The Chieftans, The Boys from the Lough, The Dubliners and the Clancy Brothers; folk -rock from Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and Lindisfarne as well as acoustic singers like Robin Williamson, Shirley Collins,Bert Jansch and John Renbourn.
One of the concerts that I had particularly enjoyed was by Roy Bailey and Leon Rosselson, and I even bought their album, although I hadn’t listened to it for ages as it was on vinyl - (it was 30 years ago!) and I haven’t got round to transferring it to CD.
Anyway, it seems that Roy Bailey is still recording and singing live even though he’s now in his seventies and as he was playing at Maltby last Friday night we decided to go. It was a great evening, and we both really enjoyed ourselves.
The support act was a young Scottish American singer/songwriter called David Ferrard.
He finished his set with this song which he sang as a duet with Roy
Then Roy did two sets with a small break in between. He was just as good as I remembered, with plenty of amusing banter and he had everyone joining in the choruses.
One of the songs he played was about a local man called David Miedzianik. David was a pupil at the school where my husband used to teach and was always an outsider - he was eventually diagnosed as being severely autistic, but by then it was too late to help him and he used to spend his time wandering about town, wearing a grey duffel coat, trying to strike up conversations with strangers who usually ignored him or told him to go away. I’ve known him for years - he used to come into the Museum where I used to work, and would always come over to talk, as he recognised me and knew I wouldn’t shout at him. David loved music and poetry, and eventually published his own poems and an autobiography which has made him quite famous. He is “Dylan’s No 1 Fan” and his dearest wish was for Bob Dylan to write a song for him. Of course, this never happened, but a local folk singer, Ray Hearne, did write a song for David, and Roy sang it for us. I haven’t seen David around for a while - he has been in and out of the local psychiatric hospital since his mother died and last time I heard he was following Dylan around in France. I hope he’s OK.
Here’s Roy Bailey singing “A Song For David”.
Leon Rosselson and Roy Bailey - The Ant and the Grasshopper (via jwbos1388)
Went to see Roy Bailey last Friday night at Maltby - brilliant evening!
I am feeling very pleased with myself!
The TV died a couple of days ago - Instead of calling out the TV repairman I thought I’d have a go myself, and eventually discovered that aerial wasn’t working. The fitting on the end of the coax cable had worn through the wire and the connexion had failed.
I had never wired one of these up before but I managed to find some instructions and now it works again!
Official Video Bluebirds Flying High
Makes 32 dumplings
Put together into a large bowl and mix well:
- 1 pound sea bass or other mild white fish fillets, finely chopped, or a combination of fish, shrimp, and scallops, finely chopped, or ground pork
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger (about a 2-inch piece)
- 2 tablespoons minced cilantro
- 2 tablespoons minced scallion
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
- salt and Black Pepper to taste
Have ready:
32 round wonton wrappers
Place a wonton wrapper on a work surface and place 1 tablespoon filling in the center. Pick the wrapper up so that it partially surrounds the filling, pleating the edges of the wrapper so that it resembles a cup, the filing should be exposed at the top and level with the wrapper. Tap the dumpling against the work surface to flatten the bottom. Place on a plate and repeat with the remaining wrappers and filling. Place half the dumplings, without touching each other, in an oiled steamer basket. Bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a large pot, put the basket on top, cover, and cook 10 minutes, or until dumplings are cooked through. Remove to a plate and keep warm. Cook the remaining dumplings in the same way.Serve hot with:
- Soy sauce
- Thai Hot sauce
- Chilli Sauce
Energy Saving
I am usually the last to go to bed and the first one up in the morning, but the other morning I had an unaccustomed lie in. I came down to find my hubby in an extremely bad mood. He had spent over an hour trying to fix our microwave, which still refused to work, even though he had checked the socket, changed the fuse several times, rewired the plug and sworn at it very loudly!
He didn’t have time for any breakfast before he left to go to work.
The microwave has an extension lead. The extension lead has an off switch. As I am trying very hard to cut down on wasted electricity from things left on standby, I have started switching everything off before I go to bed… perhaps I should have mentioned it!
I did eventually confess (after I had cooked him his tea!) ..
He got his own back though - by pointing out that the reason I had overslept was because I had been reading in bed.
And that I had fallen asleep with the light on!
EARTHQUAKE!
The first time in ages I decide to have an early night and I get woken up at 1am by the whole house rocking violently from side to side! 
I don’t remember hearing any noise, in fact afterwards it was deathly quiet but I have been told that there was quite a lot, so that may be what woke me up. I certainly felt it - it was as though the bed was bouncing.
I lay there for a short while in the dark trying to decide whether I was, in fact, awake, and having realised that I was, and having discounted ghosts, high winds and indigestion, I realised it was possibly an earthquake and put the bedside light on to check whether the cracks in the bedroom ceiling had got any bigger (they hadn’t) My next thought was that if it really was an earthquake then it would almost certainly be reported the following day so I had better remember the time.
I got up and had a walk around but I couldn’t see any damage. There didn’t seem to be any alarms going off, and by this time I was beginning to wonder if I had imagined the whole thing, so I went back to bed.
Hubby slept through the lot!
(The last time the earth shook like that I was in our downstairs loo (after that the phrase “bowel movement” took on a whole new perspective! 
)
