Category — Fun things

Norman White

“So, do you work for Biddles full time?” I asked the chap with the bottle of wine in his hand.

“Actually I own the company,” he replied, and smiled.

Covered in confusion, I said, “That’s a conversation stopper.” But, of course, it wasn’t. And the boat kept on sailing down river.

Erica and I were guests at Norman White’s retirement party on a Salters boat on the Thames yesterday evening. Norman is a long-standing and excellent rep for Biddles, one of the UK’s leading book manufacturers, and George Ronald Publisher Ltd was one of his accounts for many years.

Norman is “old school” in all the right ways: dedicated to service, with many years of hands-on experience in different aspects of print and publishing, warm-hearted and very helpful.

Even though it was Erica who was dealing with Norman, I always used to look forward to his visits to our home in Abingdon, which doubled as George Ronald’s office until we moved to Welwyn. A cup of coffee, some banter, and discussion about developments in print and publishing lightened the day.

And Norman was also very fond of Emma (our late-lamented Border Collie), as she was of him.

So last evening we floated down the Thames from Folly Bridge in Oxford as far as the Radley School boat houses to the sound of a trad jazz band (with a Sousaphone) to celebrate Norman’s years with Biddles.

It was a lovely evening - and there was a great spirit amongst the Biddles current and former staff.

Technorati Tags: Biddles, Thames, Salters, retirement

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Crowds around the fancy dress parade, in important part of Welwyn’s family fun day

Welwyn Festival is an annual week of fun, education and entertainment in the small Hertfordshire town of Welwyn (not to be mistaken for the neighbouring newcomer town of Welwyn Garden City). The festival climaxes with a family fun day on Singlers Marsh at the bottom of the town.

The Welwyn Baha’i community’s contribution to the fun day was a display, a peace tree, and drumming/body percussion sessions led by Dan Tully.

The drumming drew plenty of people, some to have a go, some just to watch. Others studied our Bahá’í display and took some of our leaflets.

The fun day is a very English-village thing. There’s a fancy dress parade that walks along the main street and comes to the field, where the Mayor of Welwyn Hatfield hands out prizes for the best groups and individuals. Hoards of small children dressed as Elvis chatter excitedly. There’s even one bewildered-looking child dressed as Humpty Dumpty sitting on his wall.

Scouts and Cubs and Brownies carry their flags, and a Royal British Legion youth band from Bodicote (Bodicote in Oxfordshire, the man on the tannoy keeps reminding us, not Codicote, which is Welwyn’s neighbouring village) march up and counter-march while playing ever so slightly out of tune.

I have to say I do wonder what prompts these kids to dress up in military-style uniforms on a hot afternoon to do something that is no doubt the cause of derision amongst some of their contemporaries.

The Mayor of Welwyn Hatfield in his mayoral chain, sending a text from his mobile.

The afternoon finishes with a tug o’ war.

You can see plenty more pictures from the afternoon here.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, Welwyn Festival, drumming

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My daughter-in-law just sent me this. It’s doing the rounds on the internet. Why does it work? Something to do with pattern recognition from minimal cues?

Only great minds can read this.

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. Its ttollay ture! i cdnuolt blveiee taht you cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht you wree rdanieg. Tihs is the phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

If you can raed tihs forwrad it on to see who else you konw wtih a hgue brian.

Technorati Tags: brainteaser, spelling, reading