Now that is a loss, Mark Lamarr has left Radio 2. His three hour God's Jukebox was an absolute joy, who else would almost play country hit ♫Don't the girls all get prettier about closing time♫
tu 7 Sep 2010
Some five years ago ex-US airman and ex-Framlingham resident Chris Gray first contacted us and has since become a chum on the bulletin board. Chris served in Viet Nam and back in July his baby brother Andy, who has served in Iraq, was deployed to south west Asia as a Command Master Chief in the naval reserve. Stay safe Andy, those girls need their daddy.
sa 24 Jul 2010
Wednesday and Big Al the Light Monkey (that's his mum herwithabrainetc hovering) graduated from Nottingham Uni. Bruce Welch of The Shadows (or was it The Beatles?) was sufficiently desperate to be on ntc that he crashed the snap, and again and again ... sad. The official Big Al graduation pic.
fr 2 Jul 2010
The three weeks of le Tour de France start tomorrow. Certainly at some point Brit and sprinter Mark Cavendish will at least wear the green jersey and who knows what Brad Wiggins can do.
tu 8 Jun 2010
Adam Wolley is in Botswana and the only cash dispenser for several 100 miles won't cough up.
we 19 May 2010
Framlingham Australia may be a lot smaller than Framlingham Suffolk but 18 year old Tanaya Harradine-Atkinson has been selected for a national netball team.
we 12 May 2010
Crikey, missing Stradbroke teenager Rachel Fisk has turned up in Aberdeen!
Saxtead boy and Earl Soham Vic barman Adam Wolley is cycling from London to Capetown to support the Malaria Consortium. In Rwanda he now has more than 20 stitches in his face and mouth after going through a car's rear windscreen.
we 14 Apr 2010
Jenny in Earl Soham has pointed out that Adam Wolley from Saxtead is doing a bit of a bike ride to support the Malaria Consortium ... as a matter of fact a bike ride from a large town near Chelmsford to Cape Town ... and on his own ... and he's got as far as Kenya.
mo 18 Jan 2010
As is the way the signs for the Chelmsford Riverside Centre come and go but we did find it and inside an encouragingly good turn out of all ages and all abilities for the Triple Sword Roller Girls. The gentle voiced ... more at roller derby
sa 14 Nov 2009
Prompted by Alice Russell appearing in Edinburgh it would seem Scots think Framlingham isn't a real place (we too have our doubts sometimes) ... a sort of Brigadoon perhaps?
su 1 Nov 2009
John Self was a Framlingham shopkeeper and photographer at the beginning of last century. Thanks to Fred Barnes we now know of these three JF cards showing Ashtead in Surrey.
Ashtead Park Boat House, the card was posted from Ashtead to an Ashtead address about five minutes walk away from this scene on 5 September 1908 at 9.00am, almost certainly it would have been delivered the same day - all for an old ha'penny! The boathouse has gone but the pond has recently been cleaned out by a local angling society. To my shame, I have never visited the pond despite living in Ashtead for 62 years.
Ashtead Park is an impressive house now used as the City of London Freemans School. It has been extended and modernised but this view is still easy to recognise (I passed it only this morning) and the grass at the front is used by the school as a sports field. Fred Barnes
tu 22 Sep 2009
After a bit of a dash down the A14 last night we discovered that Adolf Hitler: My part In His Downfall is a highly polished musical comedy based on Spike Milligan's war memoirs. We particularly enjoyed the acapella Sheik of Araby, were gratified to see Watch The Birdie (from 1940s film Hellzapoppin) get a little outing and pleased with ourselves for recognising Bohemian Rhapsody in the show stopping Tommy Trinder routine until afterwards company manager Bryan Paterson said to us "Yes, of course":) Sholto Morgan spends most of his time on stage as Spike with his shirt tail hanging out and wild hair but cleaned up nicely for a drink in the bar afterwards. When we left the fire appliances that had been outside during the intermission had gone and bits of the A14 were closed overnight for resurfacing. The show's on all week at the Cambridge Arts Theatre.
Here's a clever little beast, a double A battery that recharges itself from a usb port. Like the fact that the cap has a less likely to break floppy hinge, relevant at over five quid a pop.
fr 24 Apr 2009
Fancy some satirical punk third wave feminism? (That's how Wikipedia describes roller derby but then we didn't have to repeat it did we?) The Triple Sword Roller Girls are looking for more skaters to join them. (More pix soon ... honest.)
fr 24 Apr 2009
I'm in Cardiff home of Torchwood. Didn't realize it was a documentary. Ivan Brackenbury
we 11 Feb 2009
Blossom Dearie (astoundingly it was her real name) has died aged 82. I'm hip but not weird, you will notice I don't wear a beard
su 1 Feb 2009
Persepolisdidn't win yesterday's BBC4 world cinema award ... incomprehensible.
tu 27 Jan 2009
In Stonham Aspel last month police recovered more than 300 items stolen from the Leiston, Ipswich, Stratford St Mary and Essex areas over the past couple of years. They include furniture, paintings, ornaments, silverware, jewellery, framed film posters, a folding bicycle, several old style gramophones, a CB radio and more. To help identify the stolen goods there is the hotline 01986 835319 and they will be available to view by appointment early next month.
we 24 Dec 2008
The last five minutes of this morning's Radio 3 breakfast show had a totally mad (and we do mean tote-er-lee) bit of Mozart. By the way have you noticed that the volume control on the Beeb's iPlayer goes up to 11? What a tribute.
mo 22 Dec 2008
Things we learnt travelling on the A12 and A3 this weekend include:
1. The toilets in the refurbished BP garage on the southbound A12 near Witham are already a tip. 2. The toilets in the Starbucks near Guildford aren't a tip but the floor is pretty soggy. 3. By a pedestrian crossing on the giant roundabout at the junction of the M25 and the A3 there's a newly built mounting block.
fr 25 Jul 2008
If your care to schlep down the A14 next month you can see the eternally young and adopted Ipswich boy Geno Washington in a Cambridge tent.
we 23 Jul 2008
You still need a dog licence in Ireland and the Isle of Man.
we 4 Jun 2008
Here's the Crab and Winkle's Andrew Stannard singing at last year's Norfolk?! Show the song The Singing Postman Allan Smethurst would have written Now Yer Atta Smoke Outsoide.
sa 5 Apr 2008
If like us you get pleasure from very clever humour in slightly questionable taste then Ivan Brackenbury's Hospital Radio Show is at the Norwich Arts Centre Thursday week. Disease Hour captures all the fun and excitement you'd expect from being ill in hospital with games, giveaways, requests and Ivan's special blend of music and chat.
we 26 Mar 2008
Feel a bit wussy pointing out last week the few inches of water near Blaxhall whilst in Batesville, Arkansas north of Mazda they had this ... nice to see that Arkies get their priorities right though.
sa 2 Feb 2008
♫Elvis isn't dead, cos I heard him on the radio♫ Scouting For Girls are at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in April for by today's standards a not excessive fourteen quid, well they are only a three piece. Is it us but more than a hint of Supertramp?
mo 21 Jan 2008
What with Balamory and Lazy Town we would have thought Bob The Builder is a bit passé but he's going out on the road this summer with a suitably environmental message about teamwork. With tickets at a mere £15.00-£21.50 you can see him at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in the middle of June.
tu 18 Dec 2007
The BBC World Service beams its Hausa language service from Ascension Island a thousand miles to west Africa. Every week 25 million Nigerians listen to it, primarily on Chinese made shortwave radios that cost about a pound.
su 30 Sep 2007
An Alert Card to help people with autism will be launched tomorrow by The Essex Autistic Society in association with the Essex and Suffolk police forces. The need for the card was identified after several incidents highlighted the difficulty people with autism can face when dealing with the police and other emergency services.
mo 24 Sep 2007
The wee sweetie on the left here is Chris Lane Gray's seven year old niece Katrina kicking off her season somewhere near Monticello, Arkansas. Maybe starting this young is why our American erhm ... cousins knocked our ladies out of the world cup Saturday!
sa 27 Jan 2007
Framlingham in Oz has been having its own problems.
we 10 Jul 2002
Excused des' dinners because of the Tour de France
Hopefully nobody turned up. Virtual luncher Clive, who is domiciled in northern France, popped down the road and saw it pass. It's one of the nice things about Le Tour, given enough time it comes to you ... and last I heard David Millar had worn the white jersey both by right and default AND won a stage! (first excused subsequent lunchprevious lunch)