My daughter returned from an InterRailing tour of Eastern Europe recently and brought back this photo of the Nortel office in Bratislava.
I wonder what would happen if you rang the doorbell?
Now, my vague recollection of “Nortel Logo History” leads me to believe that the logo shown on the door in Bratislava was launched in 1995; timed with the company’s 100th anniversary and under the leadership of Paul Stern (gulp…) and the re-branding from “Northern Telecom”.
I also recall that the logo was very short-lived as a Canadian (?) company called “Ortel” seemed to have a problem with it. It very quickly changed to incorporate the words “Northern Telecom” beneath the “Nortel”.
So – anyone in Bratislava in 1995 and would care to comment on why a 15 year old logo adorns the door of an office?
Why “Arnie”. Long story. Both my kids play brass instruments so the dog (apparently) had to be named after a brass composer, a British brass composer. Sir Malcolm Arnold got the nod so here is “Arnold” or “Arnie” as the kids dubbed him – because he was hunky (like Schwarzenegger)
Here he is at 9 weeks old.
…and at 1 year old with his soulmate (and room-mate) Hedera (more later)
For a while we had three Springers: Rosie (14) on the left and the brother/sister pair of Bramley (now with the Mother-in-Law) and Arnie on the right.
This is Arnie after he disgraced himself with the cat-flap. When he was little he used it as a door and followed the two cats in and out – at 2 years old he was a bit big…
After impaling himself on a steel reinforcing spike on a building site (he was chasing a rabbit), here he is looking much the worse for wear and sorry for himself.
Heddy is a ginger tom. Originally we had two cats; Holly and Hedera (only the vet got the joke – they were both Christmas kittens. Look it up…)
Heddy is now 13 but still thinks he’s a dog (or is it Arnie that thinks he’s a cat?)
Further to my other posts on here about SE London’s favourite low brass ensemble (Tuba Quartet!), the guys played a lunchtime concert at Oxford Street’s Regent Hall last Friday, which resulted in the following review in The Bandsman magazine. Not a mag that I read frequently I must admit – but nice to be recognised in the press.
There’s a copy of the review on YouTuba’s website here.
Here they are drumming up a bit of support – playing “William Tell Overture” in Oxford Street!
This is a fairly shameless post to promote my son Chris’ band “YouTuba” who have just released their first commercial CD.
Chris has been a brass player since he was about 8 years old, when he joined Berkshire Maestros and took up the tenor horn. A tenor horn is half a tuba (ie if you unraveled it, the pipework would be half that of a tuba) and as such, plays an octave higher than a tuba. It is also small enough for an 8 year old with a mouthpiece and required playing pressure more akin to that of an 8 year old.
As Chris was practicing his grade 1 scales, he could hear our next door neighbour playing the Star Wars theme on his tuba. At that point Chris decided that he wanted to be a tuba player!
A few years (and a few grades) later finds him at Trinity College of Music in London studying a B.Mus. (Hons) with a primary study in Tuba (secondary study was voice – he was always a good singer and had voice tuition at the Royal Opera House during his first year)
In 2006, he formed YouTuba as a vehicle to enter the prestigious Philip Jones Brass Ensemble competition and in 2008 were awarded first prize. The first low brass group to do so. Their repertoire was a mixture of classical and chamber music, together with modern jazz and their own compositions and arrangements. They used this rather cool logo (seen it somewhere before?)
Here they are receiving their prize (pictured with Rex Richardson)
With their new-found fame, YouTuba took some timely legal advice and decided to ditch the familiar logo and design their own:
Since then, the guys have played all over the UK, guested with various brass bands, played charity concerts with the Salvation Army and enthused schoolchildren in SE London via South London Music Trust
Individual tracks are available to purchase via Facebook/iTunes
Update 29-Jan-10: YouTuba perform Carnival CD in Oxford Street!
Further to the post on here about SE London’s favourite low brass ensemble (Tuba Quartet!), the guys played a lunchtime concert at Oxford Street’s Regent Hall last Friday, which resulted in the following review in The Bandsman magazine. Not a mag that I read frequently I must admit – but nice to be recognised in the press.
There’s a copy of the review on YouTuba’s website here.
Here they are playing “William Tell Overture” in Oxford Street before the gig:
I am feeling unbearably smug this afternoon as have just returned from the National Blood Transfusion Service (www.blood.co.uk) session and was warmly congratulated on reaching 75 donations!
I started when I was 18 at Uni; it was all a bit of a dare – nobody dared to say they weren’t up for it. I’ve been going ever since: once every 6 months for years (missed a few 🙁 ) – nowadays of course, they book you in by computer once every 16 weeks!
Anyway – I’ve got my badge and am going to feel good about it all day…
I went to see Roger Waters at the O2 on Monday night (19th May). If you’ve not been to the O2, it seats 24,000 and is a bit like an indoor football stadium. Even so, the concert was so LOUD that it actually hurt at times (maybe I’m just more susceptible to certain frequencies – must be an age thing)
The concert finished at about 11pm, we walked back to Chris’ place in Greenwich (walked right past AllBike Spares as it happens) which is where I’d left the bike.
It was one of those sunny but cold days. I had taken all my “winter” kit; HG jacket and quilted trousers, neck tube etc BUT FORGOT my winter gloves. It’s a while since I’ve ridden a bike without heated grips and I’d forgotten just how miserable it is riding with frozen fingers. By the time I reached Clacket Lane Services on the M25 my fingers were numb and hurting. The fuel light came on at Leatherhead so I went down the A24 (towards Box Hill) and stopped at the petrol station there. My fingers were so cold that I couldn’t get my credit card out!
So Monday I drove around the entire length of the M25, home (Wokingham) to work (St Albans), work to Greenwich and Greenwich back to home.
The concert? I’d forgotten just how much egotistical, political, self-centred crap that Waters put out in the 80’s. The second half was brilliant (DSOTM + encores) and probably worth the ticket price on its own.
I decided to stop mucking around with FrontPage and get some fun php webtools installed on the site. This is the WordPress Blog application, you’ll also see that the Guestbook has at last been installed properly and is open for comments!
If you watch this site you will know that our lovely BMW K100RS has been sold. Today, while waiting for the money to clear in the bank I changed the oil and fitted the luggage. I’ll try and get a picture of the bike with the luggage fitted over the weekend and post it here. The bike is off to sunny Fife in the near future.
]
