Monthly Archives: Jan 2014

Songs I Love

Songs I Love: Dick Gaughan – The 51st (Highland) Division’s Farewell to Sicily

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Was this song made for the singer or was Dick Gaughan born to sing this song? The first time that I heard him sing it the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. The mix of his voice, the song itself, and his unique ability to get a bagpipe like quality out of his guitar make this something extaordinary

The late Hamish Henderson wrote the song. During the Second World War he was an intelligence officer attached to the Eighth Army, of which the 51st was a part. Following on from the desert campaign in North Africa they took part in the invasion of Sicily.
He wrote the song, while watching the troops preparing to leave the island. They were going back to the UK to prepare for the D-Day invasion. Henderson was going to Italy in part to work with the Partizans fighting Mussolini and Hitler. The pipe band were playing the tune “Farewell to the Creeks”, (a popular pipe tune written by Pipe Major James Robertson) and according to his account the words of the song came almost ready formed as he fitted them to the music. The lyrics are in a Scots dialect and slightly obscure to non-natives. Some words may even be slightly obscure to other Scots who speak a different dialect. Helpfully Dick Gaughan publishes the lyrics and a Scots-English dictionary on his website.

Dick Gaughan also recorded an earlier version on his album “Kist of Gold”

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Meccano

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Ask almost any engineer of my generation what was their favourite toy when they were growing up and the answer will invariably be Meccano. A man named Frank Hornby invented it over 100 years ago. (He was the same person who made Hornby model railways.)

It consists of re-usable plates, drilled strips, angle brackets and nuts and bolts to put your models together. Most kits also included axles, gears, pulleys and wheels so that you could make working models. With a bit of thought and ingenuity you could make some impressive models, like the one shown below.

That model was made by Timothy Edwards Click on the link to see more of his models.

meccanoMotorbike

The thing that got me started on this nostalgia trip was a T.V. programme in which James May (him from Top Gear) had a motorbike and side-car built out of Meccano and rode it round the Isle of Man TT course. It kind of puts my models of cranes and draw-bridges into the shade. Maybe I should get myself a Meccano set for my birthday this year.

This is a link to BBC iPlayer if you want to watch it James May’s Toy Stories – The Motorcycle Diary.

That link might not work if you don’t live in the UK.

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It’s a New Year

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It’s New Years Day 2014. I’m not quite sure where 2013 went, but never mind it’s time for New Years Resolutions. I find New Years resolutions quite easy. I just recycle last years failed resolutions, eat more healthily, lose some weight, try to do a bit more exercise etc. etc…. This enhances my green credentials and saves racking my brain cells too much. I have also decided that his year I should try to blog a bit more than I did last year. I think I averaged about one post a month. I probably shouldn’t set my sights too high so I’ll aim for a post per week to start with.

Inspiration can be a problem, but there is always the cycling scene to comment on. I’m sure that our government will provide cause for the occasional rant. I’ll carry on linking to YouTube clips of songs that I like and throw in the occasional review of an art exhibition. We also have the independence referendum in Scotland this year. I don’t get to vote on it (because I live in London) but I am very interested in the outcome, so I will do a series of posts on it.

New Year also involves traditions. In the johnm55 household this involves going out for a curry on New Years eve (Hogmanay for my Scottish Readers) with Mrs johnm55 and our friend Mike. We used to be joined by another couple but they have moved to place their daughter describes as “almost the middle of nowhere”, it is actually Woodbridge in Suffolk, which is a bit of a trek just for a curry. After that we come back to our place for coffee, Mike goes home to see the New Year in with his mum, Mrs johnm55 usually declares herself French for the evening and wishes me a Happy New Year at 11 o’clock and goes off to bed, leaving me nursing a Caol Ila and watching Jools Holland, to see the new year in. This year she decided to stay up and see it in with me which was nice.

We had one of these in our garden in the Solomons

The other New Year Tradition is exercise, a walk, a bike ride or a trip to the gym. The gym was closed, the wind was high enough to make bike riding unpleasant, hard work and probably downright dangerous. so that left a walk, but where. Headley Heath was ruled out on the basis that with the amount of rain we have had recently it would be more like Headley Marsh. So we decided on The RHS Gardens at Wisley because they have proper paths there. We did try, but after half an hour of battling to keep our umbrellas the right way out we gave up and went to look round the Glass House.

We decided that we would have lunch in the hope that the rain would stop or at least calm down a bit but…

From the Café window
From the Café window

So we gave up and came home.