Andy's Craft Corner: "Hello Mudduh..."

Friday, 2 September 2016

"Hello Mudduh..."

"...Hello Fadduh" A great little ditty from Allan Sherman, remembered very fondly being played on many a Junior Choice with Tony Blackburn and Arnold the Dog, something I used to listen to right up until I joined the Royal Air Force at the grand old age of 16 and a half (I was still a baby!).

Good morning Gentle Reader,
why so nostalgic I hear you ask? Short answer, no clue! just woke up like this and I've spent the last day and a half living in my own past, something I have found in equal measures both scary and fun. I think it really started on Facebook where so many of my old muckers are doing a 22 day, 22 press-up challenge for all the ex-serving and current members of all the UK Armed Forces personnel suffering from P.T.S.D. (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), something which has left a lot of returning Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen feeling isolated and unable to express themselves to anyone, especially their nearest and dearest. As I am sure you can imagine, this is not something to be taken lightly (especially for members of the Army who seem to suffer the most, what with them serving on the front!), but for years both the MOD (Ministry of Defence) and even more distressingly, some quarters of the Medical Profession distanced themselves from this horrific disorder, even going so far as to say it didn't exist. Thankfully we now live in more enlightened times and there is a lot of help being offered to those who need it.
Please look around facebook, find someone doing the challenge and show them your support, thank you in advance Gentle Reader.

Another reason I could be feeling so nostalgic is the music I have been buying on iTunes. I wanted to download "For America" by Red Box, a track (and unfortunately, a band) nobody heard of, even in the 80's. They only had two hits and I didn't even expect to find it on iTunes, but there it was, a track off their debut album "The Circle and the Square" which I used to have on sweet, sweet vinyl. So I got that and at the bottom of the page were a load more artists and songs being recommended for me, among which was Level 42 and "The Sun Goes Down (Living It Up)" which took me to Hazell Dean's "Wherever I Go, Whatever I Do" (don't mock, I loved this track when it first came out!), this went to New Musik, then Dollar, The Rubettes, Fox, Slik and a few others, such a lovely trip down memory lane and it didn't cost a fortune with most of the songs only being 59p.
I highly recommend you give it a go, think of an old song you want but never got around to buying, download it from iTunes and see where their recommendations take you, I had a blast!
And so to this weeks cards from the Club Kenny K and Challenge #16, the theme of which is always "Anything Goes". It runs from the 1-14th September and the only rule you really have to stick to is that you must use either Free with the Club Newsletter image "Mad Mummy" (above, check out the inside of my card. I never do this and I think it looks lush, I will definitely have another go!) or the $1 Club Deal image of "La Spyda" (which is the lady on the right, below).

So go for it, make your craziest Halloween card (or another theme if you can think of anything, I couldn't which is why you have 2 Halloween cards!!). This is not a theme I would usually go for, this country is still quite new to celebrating the holiday and already I can see it turning into Christmas Part 2, let's see how much we can spend, just to impress our friends! I sincerely think it is only a matter of time before someone starts celebrating Thanksgiving and we all end up joining in. Whatever the US does we follow politely in their footsteps, taking up disgusting things like 'Black Friday', something so heinous it just ended up as a total show of greed, Walmart/ASDA are responsible for bringing it over here but they had the good sense to limit the amount of people they let in on the second year, what a shame none of the other retailers thought to do the same!