14 December 2025
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Keswick Booked

The Keswick Convention is very unusual compared to other Bible weeks and similar events I am familiar with in that you don’t have to book a ticket. No reinforced paper wristbands or waving your hands in the air as you go through the gates for Keswick delegates. They do pay attention to security, with bag searches on entry, but you don’t have to pay for the event (donations, of course, gratefully received).

What you do need to do is sort out your own accommodation. There are some camping options but, anecdotally, the warm and dry weather we enjoyed in 2024 is not typical so we decided to go for a self-catering apartment again. I’m glad we looked this afternoon! Probably not helped by the fact we’re going in early August (week 3 has the ‘unconventional’ arts theme I enjoyed so much last time), there was nothing cheap left in the nearby area and most options were rather too expensive. We managed to find only 2-3 vaguely affordable options close enough to make for an easy walk in. In fact, the one we’ve booked is just over the other side of the River Greta from the main event. It should be a good base both to enjoy the events and to explore the town a bit more than we managed when we were based in Portinscale (a pleasant 20 minute walk away in good weather).

I think it should be an excellent home from home for the week but, if we decide to go again in 2027, we’ll probably try to get that sorted as soon as the dates are announced and not leave it to a mere eight months before the convention!

13 December 2025
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Singaround Songs – 13 Dec 2025

We were a little low in numbers at the sing around, which meant each turn came around a little quicker than normal. Coupled with the fact I’d been busy all yesterday and this morning, it meant I was little less prepared than I’d prefer. Hurrah for an iPad full of songs!

I took my double bass but the first song I contributed, Frederick Silver’s The Twelve Days After Christmas, was mainly done by singing with very minimal bass support. I’ve got a nice chordal accompaniment for electric bass but it is mainly double and triple stops around the octave position so more of a stretch on the upright. As it came round again, I went for another one led mainly on the vocals, While Shepherds Watched to the original CRANBROOK tune (also known as the tune for Ilkley Moor Baht ‘at).

On my next go, I decided to offer up Rocking Around the Christmas Tree. However, I could only find versions from a couple of ukulele songbooks in a different key to where I’m used to singing it. The key was okay – dropped from C to G, I was in the crooning part of my range – but I’m sure there was a wrong chord in the bridge section.

On round four (and five and six) I stepped off the Christmas track. My fourth offering was the very unseasonal Wayfarin’ Stranger. I made a false start and had to stop and play a snatch of the melody to get back into the right track but, once I’m going, it suits my voice well (as long as I’m in D minor). Number 5 was Down in the Hole by Tom Waits, another gospel blues but much more up tempo and a chance to lean into percussive playing with lots of bounce, ghost notes and other additions.

Finally, I offered Bring Me Sunshine. Is it a tune for winter? To be fair, today has been quite bright but we could all do with a bit more sunshine at this time of year.

12 December 2025
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Oaks 2025

Tonight was the Charnwood Symphonic Wind Orchestra’s annual gig at St James the Greater, Oaks in Charnwood. It has become a bit of a fixture both for us and for them, including an obligatory version of The Twelve Days of Christmas where all the audience join in with gusto. One more CSWO gig to come next Thursday and that’s my band work for the year done.

My next musical outing is to Mo’s sing-around tomorrow afternoon and that’s one I plan to take the double bass to. Probably time to get to bed and catch up on my beauty sleep!

11 December 2025
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Conditional Rows in MS Access

Earlier this week, I discovered how to format a whole row in Microsoft Excel based on the value of one of its component cells. Then yesterday I tried to apply this to Access and it became clear that the conditional formatting options in the database lag a little behind its spreadsheet cousin. There’s no such thing as applying formatting based on a formula.

However, this was a good opportunity to apply some programmer’s thinking. You can’t colour the background but you can colour a data-holding field. Furthermore, you can get that data field to pick a colour based on the value in another field in the same record. What I realised was that I could create an “unbound” field, resize it to cover the whole area, send it to sit at the back of the stack of fields and colour that.

C’est voila! I can now create the same visual effect as in Excel, even if the route to get there is somewhat different.

10 December 2025
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Bath Olivers – attempt #1

If you know what Bath Oliver biscuits have looked like for the last fifty or so years, it isn’t like this. I followed the recipe from last week’s post and I got disks that were thicker, more coloured and without the snap I was expecting. Furthermore the pastry was very stiff and very hard to roll out to thickness.

Failure? I think I can mark this down as a First Attempt In Learning and I’ve got some ideas for another go. Firstly, not all of my choices were optimal. I ran out of time on day one, so I ended up putting the dough in the fridge overnight which may have inhibited the yeast (although it had at least the specified hour and still felt stiff before I did so). I also cooked the disks at the same time as baking some potatoes, which might have been a misguided bit of multi-tasking. Compared to the recipe I noted down, I combined all the dry ingredients with the butter so I didn’t give the yeast a head start with sugar in the milk… although the quick bake yeast I used shouldn’t need it.

For round two, I think I might reduce the volume of flour and possibly increase the the milk (or even try to get the yeast very active in an additional, slightly sugared water mix). I don’t want it as wet as a bread dough but I do want it easier to roll. If I’m still on the stiff side, I may also consider bringing the pasta machine into play. I don’t use it very much but it applies mechanical advantage to the process of creating an even sheet of pastry.

My rolling pin rings worked fairly well to get the dough to “pound coin” thickness but, since I got a degree of rise (yeast firing off under heat, giving some good internal striations) I probably need to get my rounds starting thinner. I reckon 1.5mm might be a reasonable target – if I print off some more guides, I can roll it with the pasta machine but use the rolling pin to check it has reached my intended thickness. I’ll also try reducing the cooking heat a bit further – I’m aiming more for drying out the biscuits (snap!) than giving them colour.

So changes to make and I don’t think I succeeded in making a good facsimile of Bath Olivers as commercially produced. On the other hand, I did get some delicious rounds that have a creamy taste, almost work as biscuits and probably would go very well with port and stilton. Let’s see if round two is Perhaps A Small Success.

9 December 2025
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Conditional Rows

For a long time I’ve been aware of – and often used – Microsoft Excel’s conditional formatting feature. It is in easy reach on the Home ribbon and allows you to do things like highlight cells that contain a particular value or even to apply a graduated colour scale, allowing you to visually interpret the balance of high, medium and low scores. What I didn’t know how to do, until today, was to highlight whole rows based on the value in a given column.

You start by selecting the overall range you are applying the formatting to. In my case, it was a large table with about 15 columns and approaching 3,000 rows, structured as an Excel table. I don’t know if the formatting is clever enough to work out that it is aimed at a table but, in this case, the data set is now fixed so I’ll leave that for future investigation.

You then pick the option where you highlight rows using a formula. A suitable formula would be something like =$C2="Upgraded". That would look for any row where the content of column C matches the value. I think the number is irrelevant as long as it falls within the specified range. You can then apply a suitable set of formatting commands – for my upgraded machines, I gave them a green background.

I’m expecting that this will keep the formatting consistent. Previously, the colours I had been using often got mixed up as a updated sections of the data (for example filling a consistent department name across a filtered range) and, although the data itself was fine, the colours weren’t. Since the colouration is now derived directly from the data, this should keep things in order and I can think of a number of other situations where this will be very handy.

8 December 2025
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Today’s favourite Scrabble combo

Jane and I were round at a neighbour’s tonight for a game of Scrabble. I don’t think it was my highest score but my favourite combination was getting GLORY and LO (intersecting on the L), a good pair of words for the Advent season!

7 December 2025
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Power!

If I’d realised I’d be standing next to a double wall socket last night, I could have saved the weight of lugging my battery pack along. Still, better safe than sorry – with 16 musicians crammed in upstairs at the Needle and Pin last night I’d have been a bit stuck if I hadn’t had the socket right behind me.

Excellent gig by the way and the “Twelve Days After Christmas” song I contributed as a solo piece went down very well. For most audiences, the combination of the familiar with a sardonic twist is a safe bet for a crowd pleaser. The group I played with (Ho Ho Ho – a subset of the various Charnwood Concert Bands) is already booked in for the same venue in early December next year… a sure sign of a successful result.

6 December 2025
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A Two Gig Day

After last night’s successful gig in the familiar environs of Thorpe Acre church, it was time for something a bit different this morning. I joined a small subset of the Charnwood Concert Bands’ membership and spent a couple of hours busking outside The Range. Money was raised towards band funds and a cancer charity and it went pretty well although I realised there were a number of pieces I should have transposed down for easier reading on the tuba.

Tuba was the instrument I took with me for this one although I still had to nip home after the first set for my battery pack. Instead of needing power for an amp, I spotted that the cold weather was causing my iPad’s battery to drop a lot faster than normal and, since I rely on that for my scores, that was important to rectify! I also hadn’t realised how much water would build up inside the first valve. After about an hour and a half, I began to hear gurgling and I was surprised by how much gushed out when I opened the release key!

That was my first time playing Christmas carols in public on tuba in a small ensemble. This evening, with yet another subset of the bands, will be a bit more familiar. I’ll have my electric bass, we’ll be in a pub (The Needle and Pin on The Rushes) and I’m stepping forward with a solo as part of the second half. Been there and done that kind of thing many times before although not with such a wind and brass heavy group.

Time to have some tea, get dressed up and head out.

5 December 2025
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Thorpe Acre Christmas Concert 2025

Today I’ve been gearing up for this evening’s gig with the Charnwood Concert Band at All Saints church, Thorpe Acre (ASTAD). It starts at 7:30pm – free entry with donations requested. That includes a bit of practise and also some messing around to figure out which effects I might want to draw on in the little solo spot I get.

I think that’s in hand, so time to dress up smartly in concert blacks and head over to set up in place.

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