Nwicker60
30-May-11, 08:22
Over the Ord 2
The 'fall-out' from Forres put years on me
NOW and again, those of an elderly disposition get an unwelcome reminder of their advancing years.
It happened to me, recently, not once, but twice, would you believe.
The first was the last, poignant parade of personnel from RAF Kinloss, through the street of Forres. They were exercising their traditional right, having been accorded the freedom of the town, almost 50 years ago.
You’d have thought the Morayshire town was far enough away, as to remind me of anything, but no.
I covered the freedom ceremony all those years ago, as a trainee reporter attached to the Inverness branch office of the Daily Record.
The other piece of ageism news, which added a few more gray hairs to my head was a sad one...the passing of Kathy Kirby, a pin-up pop star of the 1960s, with the bright red lip gloss.
The bouncy blond’s most memorable song, a cover version of Secret Love, released in 1963 – a couple of years after my Elgin visit- was a favourite of mine and, I’m sure, countless others. She had two top-ten hits and three other singles in the top 40.
Nicknamed “The Gold Girl of Pop”, Kathy won Top British Female Singer in a New Musical Express poll and appeared the Royal Variety Performance as well as three television series. And, while Britain hasn’t excelled in the Eurovision Song contest for a good few years, it’s worth remembering that her song,”I Belong” came second to Luxembourg in the 1965 event.
Kathy was born Kathleen O’ Rourke, in Essex, in 1938, and was convent-educated. She began her career with bandleader Bert Ambrose, who guided her career and became her manager. After he died, in 1971, her success began to dwindle.
Of her decision to retire in her early 40s, Kathy, who was 72, said: “I’d worked solidly, from the age of 16. But, for the first time in my life, I found I liked not working.”
I think I know what she meant.
WICK ACADEMY fared a sight better than Manchester United, on Saturday...slamming in five goals without reply, against Rothes.
That put their tally in the closing three games and included a double win end to the season. What a finish! Granted, Rothes are not one of the table’s top dogs, but were good enough to restrict Wick to a 1-0 win in the first leg at Harmsworth.
Coupled with the fact that the Scorries were short of a few team regulars on Saturday, and still did the business, it brooks the question-“Is there that much wrong with the team that can’t be sorted without bringing in a new manager?.”
Richard Hughes and Ian Munro thought there was, by the time they tendered their resignations after a poor season and reckoned it was time for someone else to take the reins. Could they have turned things around, given one more season? Obviously, if they don’t want the opportunity, that’s an end to the matter, but it’s been reported that Titchie has expressed an interest in giving it a go, on a solo basis.
While there are local candidates on Academy’s executive list, the club is also considering a couple from over the Ord and that could push the cost up, considerably-no mean factor in these hard times-if the whisper I am getting is accurate. I understand that one of the south socceroonies, bidding for the post, played at Scottish premier level before moving into management, so he would undoubtedly seeking a higher level of recompense, if he was offered the job.
What do you think? If you have a view on the manager issue or have heard whispers about who is bidding for the post, share it with the org’s forum fraternity.
IT seems that gossiping is good for us. According to scientific research, the human brain has evolved to thrive on tittle-tattle and the cattier the better.
The revelation comes from American researchers, who studied how much importance the brain attaches to pictures of people. The experiments were designed around a phenomenon called binocular rivalry. This is where a different image is put in front of each eye and the brain ‘sees one and then the other.
In the first experiment, 66 men and women were shown photos of people and given pieces of information about them. Some were mundane, such as, they had walked past someone on the street or had drawn the curtains in the room. Other tit-bits were positive or negative gossip, such as they had helped an elderly woman with her shopping or thrown a chair at a school friend.
The volunteers then had one of the pictures placed in view of their left or right eye and an image of a house in front of the other. Their brains processed one image and then the other and the amount of time they spend on each picture was timed. Their eyes and minds dwelt slightly longer, on the face of people embroiled in scandal. A second experiment showed this was not simply due to them remembering information about the person better, the conclusion being, the brain is naturally drawn to gossip.
I suppose, in my business, it’s good that folk gossip, but it doesn’t automatically follow that I do so myself.
By the way, did you hear about....?
IT’S heartening to see some non-fast food businesses coming into the Wick town centre.
A hardware enterprise is well settled into the vacant Victoria Wine premises, in Bridge Street and
a clothing shop is preparing to open up in the once-newsagent’s, on the corner of the same street.
NOTE: If you have a comment on any of the above, feel free to post it on the forum.
Noel
The 'fall-out' from Forres put years on me
NOW and again, those of an elderly disposition get an unwelcome reminder of their advancing years.
It happened to me, recently, not once, but twice, would you believe.
The first was the last, poignant parade of personnel from RAF Kinloss, through the street of Forres. They were exercising their traditional right, having been accorded the freedom of the town, almost 50 years ago.
You’d have thought the Morayshire town was far enough away, as to remind me of anything, but no.
I covered the freedom ceremony all those years ago, as a trainee reporter attached to the Inverness branch office of the Daily Record.
The other piece of ageism news, which added a few more gray hairs to my head was a sad one...the passing of Kathy Kirby, a pin-up pop star of the 1960s, with the bright red lip gloss.
The bouncy blond’s most memorable song, a cover version of Secret Love, released in 1963 – a couple of years after my Elgin visit- was a favourite of mine and, I’m sure, countless others. She had two top-ten hits and three other singles in the top 40.
Nicknamed “The Gold Girl of Pop”, Kathy won Top British Female Singer in a New Musical Express poll and appeared the Royal Variety Performance as well as three television series. And, while Britain hasn’t excelled in the Eurovision Song contest for a good few years, it’s worth remembering that her song,”I Belong” came second to Luxembourg in the 1965 event.
Kathy was born Kathleen O’ Rourke, in Essex, in 1938, and was convent-educated. She began her career with bandleader Bert Ambrose, who guided her career and became her manager. After he died, in 1971, her success began to dwindle.
Of her decision to retire in her early 40s, Kathy, who was 72, said: “I’d worked solidly, from the age of 16. But, for the first time in my life, I found I liked not working.”
I think I know what she meant.
WICK ACADEMY fared a sight better than Manchester United, on Saturday...slamming in five goals without reply, against Rothes.
That put their tally in the closing three games and included a double win end to the season. What a finish! Granted, Rothes are not one of the table’s top dogs, but were good enough to restrict Wick to a 1-0 win in the first leg at Harmsworth.
Coupled with the fact that the Scorries were short of a few team regulars on Saturday, and still did the business, it brooks the question-“Is there that much wrong with the team that can’t be sorted without bringing in a new manager?.”
Richard Hughes and Ian Munro thought there was, by the time they tendered their resignations after a poor season and reckoned it was time for someone else to take the reins. Could they have turned things around, given one more season? Obviously, if they don’t want the opportunity, that’s an end to the matter, but it’s been reported that Titchie has expressed an interest in giving it a go, on a solo basis.
While there are local candidates on Academy’s executive list, the club is also considering a couple from over the Ord and that could push the cost up, considerably-no mean factor in these hard times-if the whisper I am getting is accurate. I understand that one of the south socceroonies, bidding for the post, played at Scottish premier level before moving into management, so he would undoubtedly seeking a higher level of recompense, if he was offered the job.
What do you think? If you have a view on the manager issue or have heard whispers about who is bidding for the post, share it with the org’s forum fraternity.
IT seems that gossiping is good for us. According to scientific research, the human brain has evolved to thrive on tittle-tattle and the cattier the better.
The revelation comes from American researchers, who studied how much importance the brain attaches to pictures of people. The experiments were designed around a phenomenon called binocular rivalry. This is where a different image is put in front of each eye and the brain ‘sees one and then the other.
In the first experiment, 66 men and women were shown photos of people and given pieces of information about them. Some were mundane, such as, they had walked past someone on the street or had drawn the curtains in the room. Other tit-bits were positive or negative gossip, such as they had helped an elderly woman with her shopping or thrown a chair at a school friend.
The volunteers then had one of the pictures placed in view of their left or right eye and an image of a house in front of the other. Their brains processed one image and then the other and the amount of time they spend on each picture was timed. Their eyes and minds dwelt slightly longer, on the face of people embroiled in scandal. A second experiment showed this was not simply due to them remembering information about the person better, the conclusion being, the brain is naturally drawn to gossip.
I suppose, in my business, it’s good that folk gossip, but it doesn’t automatically follow that I do so myself.
By the way, did you hear about....?
IT’S heartening to see some non-fast food businesses coming into the Wick town centre.
A hardware enterprise is well settled into the vacant Victoria Wine premises, in Bridge Street and
a clothing shop is preparing to open up in the once-newsagent’s, on the corner of the same street.
NOTE: If you have a comment on any of the above, feel free to post it on the forum.
Noel