When I reached my secondary school, I joined the school stamp club. Not because I was particularly interested in stamps, but I think it gained me an early lunch pass on the day the club met, and that was a valuable commodity to have! It also entitled me to go on the annual outing to the coin and stamp fair at York racecourse, held every January. Once again, this wasn't the real attraction, rather the chance to explore the city of York, and with friends- we were allowed, from the age of 12, to go off in groups, into York, and be back at the coach at 5pm- you could never do that these days!

These visits, I remember, armed with my cold turkey sandwiches (yes, Christmas leftovers went a long way!) allowed me to explore the National Railway Museum, the Castle Museum, the Ghostly tours of haunted York, even the excitement of the newly opened Jorvik Viking museum, complete with authentic smells. However there were two places that captured my imagination- the Minster, and Banks music shop. Our English teacher and philately supremo would offer to give guided tours of the minster to those boys who opted to be culture vultures (rather than the others who would explore all sorts of unusual places and come back on the return coach burning joss sticks- that's what they claimed, anyway); though incense of the ecclesiastical variety was not on the Minster menu in those days, I suspect, I could simply marvel at the sheer scale of the building; at that time of my life, it would have been the largest building I had ever been in. Often full of scaffolding at the time, and this was well before the 1984 fire, I remember the stained glass particularly, as well as the crypt. Sadly the return coach journey meant that we could not stay for Evensong, but I would remedy this in later years with day trips with friends from University in Durham down the east coast main line; it was certainly a formative influence in my interests in church and cathedral music.

Banks Music shop was the other favourite haunt, in its old headquarters on the corner of Stonegate. In a shop full of character on several floors, with staircases everywhere, tiny little rooms overflowing with boxes of music like the very best second-hand bookshop, I soon discovered that I could spend much time (and much money) within its walls. The staff at the time seemed to remind me somewhat of 'Are You Being Served?' as they were all real characters but the very best sort of 'old-time' sales personnel, knowledgeable and at the same time characters!

Trips to Banks and the Minster and York continued annually on the occasion of the coin and stamp fair, and subsequently more regularly on excursions by train from Durham; the Minster suffered its terrible fire in 1984, and the following years of restoration, and Banks closed down all the rickety little staircase rooms and consolidated choral music into one very pleasant room on the first floor, with chairs and lots of room to browse. In 1985, the shop relocated, much to my sadness, to a nearby site in Lendal (where it is to this day)- a rather larger space, but more lacking in character.

My visits to York have become much more infrequent in recent years, especially since moving to the Midlands, but I have tried to pop into Banks and the Minster whenever I have been passing. This year I decided to pay a visit as I hadn't been in a few years, and stayed in York to allow me to attend Evensong, which was very well sung by the Minster Girls' choir, a group that certainly wasn't in existence or even contemplated in the 1970s, though I reckon that some of the lay clerks have been in the choir at least 25 years if not longer- some faces seem familiar! I could also spend some time (and money) in Banks, adding to the sizeable collection of sheet music that I have amassed on previous visits, but on this occasion being able to claim justifiably that it was for professional evaluation purposes! The shop now appears to be under the 'Musicroom.com' banner, a sign of the times perhaps, but at least it retains its traditional name. There has clearly been a major refit in recent years, and the shop is all the smarter for it, though the basement and ground floor are mainly for instruments, the CDs are now relegated upstairs (another sign of the times, and, sadly, I saw a CD that looked interesting for £15.99, checked my iPhone and found I could download it for £7.99) alongside the sheet music; I reckon this department is still the jewel in Banks' crown, and one of the biggest, if not the biggest, selection of sheet music in the country. One of the newer sales staff asked if I was looking for anything in particular; “No”, I replied, “which is why I've come- to browse and explore, as I know I will make some discoveries”. I was delighted to see that one of the sales staff that I remember back from my first visits all those years ago is still there, knowledgeable as ever, and even just about remembered my face- he must have been the junior back then but is now surely the longest serving on the staff- apart from one of the other sheet music faces, now retired, but who comes in some afternoons to help stock the shelves- old habits die hard!

Whilst in York, stimulated by my conversation with him and memories of York in the 1970s, I later recalled a visual image of a music shop of my youth, but could not remember if it was Banks or not- my image of the shop might or might not have been Banks Stonegate- it might have been SPCK, but it was irritating me- I remember a downstairs hymnbook department, amongst other things; unfortunately I was unable to get an answer to my question, as when I popped back the next day, the member of staff was not present- never mind, it set going in my mind some very happy memories of making musical discoveries!

The snowfall in the early hours of Thursday 5th February was well worth capturing in this timelapse film (nb no sound).


5th February 2009 Timelapse from rogbi200 on Vimeo.

A post New-Year break in Paris, flying between Birmingham and Paris CDG with CityJet/Air France. Despite delays caused by snow the previous day, the visibility on the return flight was excellent and the route passed plenty of familiar places, especially on the direct approach into Birmingham.

Courtesy of Wordle and Tweetstats, here is a "cloud" of some of the words most commonly used since I started 'tweeting' properly back in October.

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A playlist for Advent and Christmas...

Every once in a while I complile an iTunes playlist to try and explore and listen to some of the tracks in my iTunes library that would otherwise just languish there unheard. I have been using LastFM as a service, but recently came across iLike.com that allows me to share these playlists.

Below is the November playlist, ranging from All Saints' Day through to Christ the King. Advent and Christmas will be featured in December.

I've been using the online notebook service Evernote since I came across a useful application for the iPhone in the summer that synchronises notes between desktop and phone quickly.

The latest version allows notebooks to be published, so my first attempt is the 'cookery' notebook, with clippings of a number of recipes that I stumbled upon and wished to save.