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Wrigglefingers

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Everything posted by Wrigglefingers

  1. Sometimes, when I'm feeling mischievous, I slide my index fingers into the thumbstraps to play. I couldn't say it actually achieved anything constructive but the sense of sheer naughtiness is just hugely refreshing. Back to front is good too. But then it's good for many things! Jill
  2. Yes! me too please! Can it be in half term for some of us hard working teachers? (October 21ish) Jill
  3. My 1892 Edeophone gets very sullen and stroppy on misty moisty mornings in Bath but has usually returns to her usual good temper by the afternoon. It may just be my hearing though..... Jill
  4. Nice lampshade, Stuart. It's good to see that even when posing with a melodeon you retain your sense of style! Jill
  5. Yup! I'll be there from Friday. I've booked late into DT's classical session and AA's Northumbrian tunes next day and as a consequence, I've really struggled to find somewhere to stay. I ended up with a choice of either a B&B 14 miles away or the Travel Lodge in Swindon before I found I was losing the will to live or ring around anymore, so I've decided to kip out in the back of my van. Come and join me to see how many box players we can squeeze in for the squeeze-in record for a Citroen Berlingo Box! And yes Nanette, the music is sent out a few weeks before the weekend, I think it's done to scare us all silly (certainly worked with me); my music's arrived and so I'm sweating just a little to get my fingers round (any of) it. See you all on Friday down the Court, Jill
  6. Dave, Sadly, I can't answer your question; I'm still too stunned to ask. I could ask Astro if he'd care to repeat the experiment but he now runs when he sees the Edeophone. Second, my playing is so poor I could capsize most enterprises! (Insert Star Trek joke of choice.) Regards, Jill (PS will you be at Witney?)
  7. I knew (when I finally arrived at the campsite) by the looks on their faces that my daughter and partner had a guilty secret. They were so pleased with it they had to tell me; they'd tested the slope for the tent by trying to roll my Edeophone along the ground. I spent the rest of the holiday trying to capsize his boat by way of revenge...... Apparently they got the idea when I put my 'tina on a chair and it rolled off and landed on a sleeping cat. Jill
  8. Clearly a quality instrument, Chris, at least compared to the woodblocks. How would you feel about adding some red and yellow ribbons to act as a neckstrap and play in Bath this weekend with Mr Wilkins'? Beers are on me if you do! Jill
  9. Rose Tremain's newish novel, Colour, set in the NZ goldfields 1865 has a concertina playing at the hotel where the married couple conjoin unsatisfactorily. Very depressing. Incidentally Chinewrde is the old name for Kenilworth in Warwickshire and they have a very fine North-West morris side (no concertina players though). See you at Warwick and Sidmouth from today - happy holidays start here! Jill
  10. I prefer sweet chili sauce with mine, but hell are they chewy! The only question is; what's the best drink to go with them? Jill
  11. Jim Many thanks! - you are a love and the drinks are obviously on me next time. Elly says she should have known better than to leave the job in the hands of an obvious idiot (me) and could you possibly give me Google lessons? Jill
  12. I've got this tune floating round my head (and I'm tunelessly humming bits of it even now - an earworm we call them in my family). I think it's quite well-known but I can't track either the words or the notes down at all as I've probably not got the title right either. Elly would like to sing it properly and is regarding my inability to find it with increasing exasperation. The chorus first line is ... "well, it's braw sailin' on the sea, when wind and weather's fair ...." and that's all I can remember - it's probably Scottish or Gaelic in origin. If anyone can help, you may restore the modicum of respect that my daughter once had for me! Thanks, Jill
  13. Nancy Kerr and James Fagan do a very lively version that I think is on one of their CDs; I've forgotten which one, but I'll find the reference tomorrow. Jill
  14. Jenny C's is black, newly restored and plays beautifully even in my hands. Jill (Couldn't say whether it's ebony or not, I'll ask her next practice)
  15. Hello John, Your enquiry really needs to be on the buy and sell forum, but that aside, you should get an fair answer from somebody on the C.net. I'm not an expert but plenty of C.netters are. It'll probably be difficult to value without it being seen and played though. Have you considered asking Chris to take the box back? I don't know what his policy would be on eBay sales, but he's always been very fair with others and I've bought both my instruments from him and been very pleased with them. On both occasions he's made it clear that he'd pay me what I'd paid if they didn't suit, although I didn't buy through eBay but at Witney. Beyond that, three things occur to me, first, you could trade to find a box that did suit you (and Chris and others have plenty to choose from) and second, you could ask for the bellows to be softened if they're really stiff. There may be a price difference, but it really seems a shame not to enjoy playing a better instrument even though you may feel that your playing isn't up to it yet. I traded a similar Lachanal last September for an Edeophone although in truth my playing wasn't up to it at all. All I can say is that I noticed a significant difference in my playing almost immediately and I've made enormous progress since. A third and much slower option might be to ask another player to play your bellows in for you as, in my experience they do get softer as you play. After all, and at the risk of upsetting nearly everybody here, bellows are consumables (expensive but still consumables!). If you're still determined to sell, you can post on the B & S board and pay Paul Schwarz a small contribution through Paypal when you find a buyer. There's a note to that effect at the head of the board. Good luck, Jill PS If you look at Chris Timson's Concertina FAQ there are lots of other contacts to try for help.
  16. Of course you could always view the results as a guest and then vote! I'm a once-a-day lurker....... (any more and I get over-excited ) Jill
  17. Hey Stuart! I think I vaguely remember the gig (although not getting home or other stuff) I just failed my viva and was too drunk to move. Happy days (you've just plugged a gaping hole in my memory bank) ...... Jill (I knew I seen you before Hawkwood this year and probably explains why I still haven't got my PhD!)
  18. Brings a whole new meaning to the expression 'squeezing the leather ferret'! Jill Edited because, sadly, I'm neither punctuation literate or elegant either!
  19. Hello Bill It's a tricky one. I'm in the same position as yourself. I bought mine about eighteen months ago and it's become horribly apparent my significant other really hates the sound too - as does my daughter and the cats. They usually indicate their disapproval by slamming doors or simply telling me to shut up (and that's just the cats). Mark will even walk up three flights of stairs to my loft workshop to demand silence. I was banished to the shed long ago with my bombarde and I fear it's not long before I'm out there with my box in the boxes. I've tried all sorts of music but it probably doesn't help that I can't play well nor remember a tune. Random twiddling (an essential part of my practice routine) is met with shouting. It's particularly grieving as I feel I've offered nothing but support to French Horn playing by Elly and Mark starting to play a very cheap Chinese fiddle. The conclusion I've come to is that I love my concertina too much to mind and take myself off to somewhere where they can't hear me. (Inside the car during a traffic jam is a particular favourite of mine with the added bonus of being a long way away from the fiddle.) Moreover, when my students suggest I should get out more, I just point out that I do rather a lot! Good Luck Jill PS I did try a large notice on the door with 'Love me, love my box' but it drew all manner of unseemly suggestions when we had visitors.
  20. Hello Sandy Many thanks for your posts. Please remember that we see only UK only listings here in England unless we request for worldwide listings so we may not be comparing like with like. I am sure you are right when you give the details that you do. My point was that suspected scammers have caused a collapse in confidence in selling and buying these machines in England through eBay. In short there's no trust in the listings. If you would like to see what we see here in England for the machines I mentioned use the eBay.co.uk listings for Bernina. Moreover, a current scam machine was still listed this afternoon under Husqvarna with an appropriate response by one of our "watchers". I'd like to draw a line under this now because I don't want to spend time incessantly trying to justify my position on this. It's simply my understanding and one that I hold with a number of other professional embroiderers in my field. We take action through our own networks because it's important that we protect the naive and unwary (mostly our students) from the unprincipled as far as we are able. Regards Jill
  21. Is that why some concertinas have a patch of velcro on both ends?
  22. Thanks Chris As I surveyed the forest of flags waiting to collect their children in the carpark after school today I realised there was a direct correlation with intelligence (lack thereof) too. (with apologies to Al - just as well it got lost!) J
  23. Any chance we can persuade Jim to come to Sidmouth? That should slow him down a bit. Jill
  24. For interest, Just before Easter every computerised high-level sewing machine (Husqvarna, Bernina, Pfaff etc) offered on Ebay was suspected by the local embroidery and quilting community to be fraudulent. Confidence in this sector of eBay is very low and as a result there are very few machines currently offered at present as bidders remain deeply sceptical. Certainly prices achieved by genuine sellers are very low in comparison to last year. I reached a figure of 70% by the simple expedient of looking back through my saved records and counting over a 2:1 ratio suspected fraud to suspected genuine sale. This is what a scam sewing machine sale looks like press here This machine should sell for in excess of 3500 pounds new. There are three completed suspected scam sales showing on Ebay for 850, 330 and 310 pounds respectively. The knock-on effect of this is that this machine and others like it have had their resale values destroyed on eBay and in other markets. I'm not suggesting that the resale market for concertinas would be affected in the same way, but I'm sure that the market could be distorted without effective control and the ensuing loss of confidence. I've never been convinced by the argument that eBay is a totally free market and that it should be allowed to operate as such. It seems to me that it is frequently manipulated by others and that as regular users and observers of the system we can demand that it is effectively regulated to prevent the unwary or the unwise being ripped off. If that demand is not met then I feel that we should take such action as we see necessary. It took our embroidery group two months to obtain the contact form to report such scams and our emails are frequently unanswered even when we group together and bombard eBay with complaints. It doesn't raise your confidence much. Regards Jill
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