The Chronicles of Marit 2015 – Week 12

The Chronicles of Marit 2015 – Week 13

Week 13 shows the ‘event’ that happened to me that week… I published this post on a Friday morning, talking about the Bay City Rollers and later in the afternoon I received a message from Twitter… now that is not uncommon as I receive emails from Twitter on a regular base (you know, messages like “you may know these persons on Twitter” or “this-and-that person is now following you on Twitter”) but this one was rather special as it says: “Les McKeown is now following you on Twitter”….. WHAAATTT???

Les McKeown… lead singer of the Bay City Rollers, hero from my youth… really? Is he following me on Twitter? And is this the ‘real’ Les McKeown anyway or just another evildoer, tweeting under a famous-person’s name?

So I called my beloved to my computer and asked him to investigate this Twitter-person. My beloved is a magician you know… So he did his thing (checking IP addresses and stuff) and came with the final answer: IT.IS.THE.REAL.LESLIE.MCKEOWN

I felt like a teenager again, did a happy dance and spend the rest of the Friday-evening with a big grin on my face, calling from time to time into the air (and to my beloved) “HEY, you know what? LES is following me on Twitter!”

Now this was a few weeks ago but typing this blogpost, I am again smiling.

OK.. some of you may not be familiar with the Bay City Rollers… after all, it was ‘a long time ago and far, far away’… so here’s a link to their biggest hit (at least in the Netherlands that was) S.A.T.U.R.D.A.Y.night

Do you ever feel like a 12-year old again? When? What triggered the feeling?
Let me know, and have a great day: Keep on Rollin’ 😉

Isn’t it funny how a somewhat trivial note, written in a blogpost, is able to evoke blogreaders’ memories which – in their turn – evoke memories in me. I love these kind of sudden connections!

Last week, I said something about ‘BCR’ and how you have to be of a ‘certain age’ to know what this means. Gill responded with this comment: “[…] I also know what BCR stands for and that’s because I must confess to having a picture of me in the tartan gear […] Gill x #50” 

Now, for those who don’t know what this is all about… BCR stands for Bay City Rollers, a Scottish boy band from the seventies. Here’s a picture of the guys…

Now you immediately understand what Gill meant with “tartan gear” and where the title of this blogpost comes from…

So… after reading Gill’s comment, I visited her blog and said that I wanted to see prove 😉

Gill, being a sport, published the photo on her blog HERE but of course, in return asked for a photo of ME in Roller gear… Ha, now this is going to be a special “Studio Tale Tartan Style” today….!

I must confess right away: I do not have a  photo of myself wearing tartan gear – shame on me! I did have pants with tartan piping and I hand stitched tartan fabric on my jeans jacket – there was no Internet in those days and Roller merchandising didn’t reach the Netherlands so fans had to alter or make their own ‘Roller gear’ – and I really don’t know why I never had my photo taken… my best friends (two sisters) and I took photos of each other all the time, so why not in our ‘BCR-uniforms’???

Yes, my two best friends were Rollerfans too, and the three of us spend many afternoon in our teenage rooms, listening to the music, swooning over every photo, collecting everything for our scrapbooks and dreaming of trips to Scotland. The oldest sister, Lena, is still my best friend (since primary school!) and in 2006, she and I finally made a trip to Edinburgh. It was one of the best trips I ever made, this so-called ‘Bay City Roller Memorial Journey’. We both made a scrapbook about our trip and here’s us in the Fall of 2006, showing our scrap albums (I’m the one with the glasses, on the right)

Sooo… when I saw Gill comment on my blog at the end of the day yesterday saying that she published a photo on her blog – I took my old scrap album and flipped through the pages. It was still there this morning, on my desk, so I took a photo and decided to dedicate this woyww-post to tartan, the BCR and the fun memories.

Here’s the photo of my desk

WOYWW #198

(WOYWW stands for What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday – click the link to go to Julia’s blog to find the info and the list of woyww-participants)

Next is a spread about the most funny memory I have of our 3-day trip to Edinburgh: one evening, Lena and I were on our way back to the hotel and walked through a neighbourhood just outside the city centre. For some reason, a mailbox on a flat building caught my eye and I saw the name Wood listed. “Look who lives here” I said, making a joke to my friend. “Oh my, Tam Paton” she says… pointing out the name Paton on the mailbox. We looked at each other and burst out laughing. We couldn’t stop. We were in stitches. For a moment, we played with the idea to ring the bell to see if it would really be Woody or Tam, answering the door – but we didn’t dare to do that after all. So we made a photo of the mailbox instead. HMPFFF… mind you, we were both in our forties… and we could barely walk to the hotel. Every time we looked at each other, we burst out laughing again. That is how you act when you were Rollerfan – and friends for life.

So here’s a special ‘Golden oldie’ layout today

Look who lives here!

After our trip to Scotland I decided I needed a Roller-sweater so in the fall I knitted one. My mom – yes, she remembers my ‘Bay City Roller phase’ clearly – found fitting shoes and bought them as a present. So now I have a photo of myself in ‘Tartan gear’ after all… Here’s for you Gill

…

It was fun to think back and revive those days.. I hope you too liked my ‘memory blogpost’ today.

… and remember
KEEP ON ROLLIN’ 😀

This is Freewheelin’ Friday ‘I lost count of the number”
and there’s certainly not much freewheelin’ for me today!
I worked all day, and am facing another busy weekend.
Aaaaarghhh… I do miss my journals, my paint and I especially
miss FREE TIME. I miss the days on which I got up early, knowing
that I had all the time of the world to spend with my art journals.
I must abide by a minute here and there to add something to my
art journal pages – but that’s the philosophy behind ‘art journal every day’
isn’t it? That is exactly what I’m doing these days – work hard during the day,
and play with my art journal pages for a few minutes in between diner and
fave tv-shows/bed.

In those ‘lost minutes’ I did manage to get something done though,
so I’m glad to announce that I can show you 2 (yes, TWO) list pages today.

List #25 – Thing’s I’d rather be doing right now

I jotted this list down one evening at the beginning of the week, just after
I saw a music documentary on tv. (Now that I think of it – I can’t even
remember what it was about, or which day it was! I’m getting old… eeeckkkk…
or maybe stress takes its toll?)

Anyway, that’s where the ‘take a plane’ part comes from.
As you know, I don’t like to travel but that night, I suddenly felt an itch and
thought that it would be so much fun to fly to the US with my beloved, sit in
a bar (is it allowed to smoke in bars in the US? That’s something I need to
know!) and hear a band play! It may never come this far, but I find consolation
in the fact that we possess tickets to the Eels concert in June! There will be
no traveling involved – it’s nearby and we can get there by bike!
I will be there with my beloved and son, and I’m soooo looking forward to it!
It has been ages since I went to a concert! (over 10 years now – or more?!

List #28 – Places I’ve been

The prompt for list #28 said ‘Vacations to take’ but – as I stated above –
I don’t like going on vacation and I certainly don’t plan vacations or
– god forbid – make lists about it! So I turned the prompt around,
and listed the places I have been on vacation ‘back in the days’.
It’s hard to read, because I didn’t want to spoil the fabulous photo
(from a street in Calcutta. The photo comes from an old National
Geographic magazine). I used transparent stickers for the title, they
totally blend into the background, and I wrote the places on tracing
paper – which is also a bit transparent.
Here’s where I’ve been on vacation:

• Belgium (numerous times! As a child as well as an adult.
  It’s a neighbour country of the Netherlands, and from
  where I live it’s only half an hour drive to get to the border.
  I remember several vacations spend in ‘de Ardennen’ – in
  the south-east of Belgium)

• Germany (sometime in the eighties. I didn’t go there for long
  vacations, but I remember some day-trips with my former
  partner. Germany is another neighbour-country)

• Luxembourg (in the seventies when I was a child.
  Luxembourg is a very small country – enclosed by Germany,
  Belgium & France. I’ve been there in my teens with my parents.
  Sweet memories!)

• France (many times in all stages of my life!
  Which Dutchie hasn’t spend at least one vacation in France?)

• England (if you’re not a European, you will think that ‘England,
  Wales and Scotland are the same’ but it isn’t!!! The combination
  is called ‘Great Brittain’ but the regions are quite different from
  each other!!! I went on holiday to England – the east coast and
  London – with baby Nout and his father, so it must have been in 1992)

• Wales (I fell in love with this region the very first time I came there!
  I think the first time was in 1993. I persuaded my partner to go there
  again the next year – and I visited the house where Dylan Thomas lived,
  the places he wrote about and even his grave! I still have the necklace
  I bought in the town he lived. It has a pendant with an old, Celtic rune.
  That pendant holds a long story… maybe I’ll tell you sometime.)

• Scotland (the summer of 2006 – Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-lie –
  Remember Lena???!!! Yes, ofcourse you do!
  Lena and I went to Edingburgh for a ‘Bay City Memorial Vacation’.
  We are friends since childhood and our love for the BCR was a BIG thing
  we had in common in our teens. I hardly believe you will be 50 years old
  soon, Lena 😉 Oh boy, we were Bay City Roller FANS in capitals!
  This vacation was one of the best!!! I still can’t help but smile, when I
  think back on it! )

• Curacao (1983. My former husband – yes, I was married once – worked
  in the Navy and was stationed on Curacao for 9 months. I visited him
  and we had a month vacation together.)

• Spain (1985 – I went to Barcelona on a school-trip when I was in
  artschool. I went back to Spain a year later on a road trip.)

• India (1989 and 1991. I traveled South India the first time and went to
  North India the second time together with my partner as backpackers.
  Both vacations were 6 weeks. )

And here ends my trip down memory lane.
It’s time for me to cook diner!
Enjoy your weekend sweet friends, see you next week!