Courier pigeon

Great excitement at Troy Towers this morning. The long-awaited double CD entitled Bird Songs and Calls of Britain and Northern Europe with accompanying field guide by Geoff Sample arrived by courier. Rock on!

I wasn’t aware that blackbirds could mimic sounds like starlings do, but there’s one that sits on top of the house opposite who has distinctive catchphrase which makes me smile. It sounds like “Bring a stool, bring a stool.” (…or possibly “bloke’s a fool, bloke’s a fool”)

Anyway, I shall add the songbird running order to my iPod alongside Gerry O’Connor’s banjo lessons.

God that’s so difficult my brain is bleeding. My poor, tortured banjo teacher came out with a great one liner this afternoon after tolertating my persistent inability to follow a simple beat. “If you hit the wrong note it’s jazz but if you get the wrong tempo it’s Jayzus Christ!”

I also had a rather amusing Two Ronnies moment when I was trying to get new kitchen doors. I’d just been through all the permutations of size, packs, style, colour, hinges et al when it came to handles. “What kind d’you want?” asked the assistant in curt Barkeresque fashion. “Not really sure, what kind have you got?” I asked innocently. She ran through a list of about 15 styles like a train stop announcement, suggesting she had been through the routine a million times. “Well, let me see. Plain bow foot please,” answers I.

“Aint got ‘em,” comes the repost.