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November 30 Latest thoughts from the frontline of primary education..!Since I began my year of teacher training back in September, one of the many things I have noticed is the fact that there's no such thing as a dull week when you work in a school.
For example, this week has seen me spend a considerable amount of time dressed up as none other than Paddington Bear!
But why?
Well, it had been decided by the powers-that-be in my school to make this week a South America theme week. And when myself and some of the other teachers were brainstorming ideas to tie in with this theme, one of my esteemed colleagues struck gold by recollecting the fact that Paddington - according to the story - had arrived in England as a stowaway from Peru!
"Wouldn't it be great to have someone dress up as Paddington, and then come into all the different classes to talk to the children about life in Peru?" he mused.
All eyes suddenly rested on me. And yes... next thing I knew, I found myself trawling the various fancy dress hire shops of Nottingham, looking for a suitable oufit!
Now this actually proved more difficult than I'd thought. With him being a much-loved and iconic character, I'd expected at least one of the emporiums I visited to have an off-the-peg Paddington outfit available.
But it wasn't so! Yes, the best any of them could offer was a generic bear suit.
For our grand scheme to work then, I'd have to find Paddington's blue duffle coat and red hat myself... and I only had a few days!
An email was duly rattled off to everyone I knew in Nottingham, begging anyone who had something that might pass as either of the elusive items of clothing to come forward!
And happily, my SOS was answered - with the blue duffle coat coming from, of all people, my mum!
Half an hour of swotting up on Peru and I was ready to rock'n'roll - and I duly spend big chunks of this week dropping in on various classes at the 'younger' end of the school.
Perhaps inevitably, given their age, my own class of seven and eight year-olds were slightly sceptical about the whole thing. "It's not Paddington, it's just Mr Fisher dressed up!" was the popular cry!
However, the younger children absolutely loved it!
A particular highlight was visiting the Foundation classes, where the children are only four or five years old. It was amazing to have 20 children all gazing at me in sheer awe - something I haven't quite managed yet in my ordinary guise as Mr Fisher!
That said, I couldn't actually see a whole lot of what was going on whenever I was dressed up as Paddington - as the eye holes in the bear costume's head didn't quite line up with my own peepers!
Needless to say, trying to navigate my way around classrooms - where the are always dozens of chairs and children to potentially fall over - was quite difficult!
Happily, I did manage to get through most of the week without going arse over tit - though I do feel like I've lost about two stone in sweat. It is, you will not be surprised to hear, quite warm inside a bear suit... and even warmer when you have a duffle coat over the top of it as well!
So that's been the most notable thing really that's happened at school since I last wrote an update. Generally speaking I'm still beavering away, and slowly but surely starting to do more and more actual teaching.
I've been particularly enjoying teaching maths - mainly because it's given me an opportunity to introduce the children to one of the greatest sports known to man... yes, darts!
Now this might sound like me abusing my position in order to indulge my own whims - however, there are genuinely dozens of ways in which a dartboard can be used to help children learn about different types of maths - adding, taking away, doubles, number bonds...
Of course, it's a virtual dartboard through a computer programme that I've been using... as opposed to a real one!
But nevertheless the kids love it!
All in all, I'm quite happy with how things are going. However, I do think my 'honeymoon period' is now very much over as far as my new career is concerned.
Back in September you see, I was ridiculously excited when I finally started my training.
After all, I first applied to get onto the programme that I'm on way back in October 2006 - and after going through the interview process, I found out in January 2007, while I was travelling through Australia, that I'd been successful in bagging a place.
In other words, I had a long wait a whole eight months before I could get cracking - and so when I finally started, I sailed through the first couple of months on pure adrenalin and excitement.
I couldn't quite believe I was finally underway - and would come home buzzing at the end of every day.
In recent weeks however, I feel like I've hit a bit of a wall. By and large, I'm still loving my time in school - however, I'm starting to find that teaching is no different to any job... in that you sometimes have your bad days.
And sometimes these bad days are so bad that they lead to little confidences crises - where I find myself wondering what on earth I'm doing, and whether I'm really cut out to be Mr Fisher.
I'm also starting to find that the long days at school leave me totally drained - and my social life is really suffering as a result.
I feel like I'm hardly seeing any of my friends at the moment. This is something not helped by the fact that most of my best mates live anything between 70 and 7,000 miles away - and by the weekend, I've either got too much work or am too knackered to go and visit any of them!
But hey, I'm not complaining. After all, there are always points in our life when sacrifices have to be made - and being someone who thrives on challenge, I'm determined to soldier on.
And what's more, every time an excitable little voice pipe up "Mr Fisher... are we doing darts again today?" is a reminder that it's all going to be worth it in the end..! November 20 The iPod, and how it changed my life...It's funny how our first impressions can sometimes turn out to be so, so wrong. And I don't just mean when it comes to people.
Let me give you an example.
About four years ago, I was travelling on the Tube in London - and during my journey, I found my eyes drawn to a man wearing a pair of distinctive white earphones, which were connected to a small white plastic box.
Yes, I'd already heard about them - but this was my first acual glimpse of an iPod. And immediately, I vowed to myself that I would NEVER, EVER be getting one of the damn things!
So what was the reason for this negative first impression?
Well, I suppose my judgement was partly influenced by the fair-to-middling level of technophobia that I am prone to.
But more than anything, it was the way iPod Man was posing with his new toy that made my hackles rise. The way he was strutting and preening, he may as well have been wearing a sandwich board syaing "LOOK AT ME EVERYONE, I'VE GOT AN IPOD!"
In fact, I got the feeling that the guy probably wasn't even into music - and that the only reason he'd bought an iPod was purely as a fashion accessory.
I got off the Tube sort of hoping the guy would be brutally mugged - and decided that, quite simply, iPods were for tossers.
However, a year or so later, my views changed pretty much overnight...
It happened when I was at a house party - and I found myself drunkenly chatting to this bloke called Simon, who was in charge of the music.
Simon was spinning a pretty cool selection of tunes - and with him sat by the stereo in the living room of the house where the party was taking place, I'd initially assumed that he was just playing CDs.
On closer inspection however, I realised that he actually had a iPod plugged into the stereo. And consequently, I began to see the iPod as not just a shallow fashion accessory... but also a very clever way of being able to transport pretty much your entire CD collection in a contraption no bigger than a fag packet.
What's more, Simon was kind enough to let me have a bit of a tinker with his iPod... and even for someone like me who is a self-confessed simpleton when it comes to technology, it proved incredibly easy to use.
Of course, the rest is history - yes, within months, I was a fully paid-up member of the Tossers With White Earphones brigade...
And okay - to say the iPod has changed my life is perhaps over-egging the omelette.
However, I very rarely go anywhere without it.... and it's certainly changed the way I listen to music.
But how?
Well for one, the fact that's it's so easy to skip from track to track, or even band to band, on an iPod, means that I very rarely listen to a whole album from start to finish these days. My listening choices now are much more of a mish-mash.
This is pretty much typified by the 'Recently played' list on my iPod. In terms of the last ten songs I listened to, it appears I started with the first five songs from the new Radiohead album... before heading off on an eclectic musical journey which encompassed the Arcade Fire, Aretha Franklin, Kraftwerk, Oasis and, um, Kenny Rogers!
Indeed, when listening to music - and 90% of the time, that's something I now do through my iPod - I often choose from numerous playlists that I've created to suit different moods or occasions. These playlists range from 'Sleep' - mellow tracks that I put on to go to sleep to - through to the slightly more specific 'Songs about tramps'!
All in all though, the biggest impact that iPod has had on my life is the fact that CDs have pretty much become redundant. Which is an amazing change really, as my CD collection is something I once took massive pride in!
All in all I had over 1,000 of the buggers - all, naturally, in alphabetical order! And with certain bands I was a bit of a completist, buying every album and single.
However, having uploaded all my CDs onto my iPod, the CDs themselves have long since been confined to storage boxes.
And as for buying new music - well, rather than going out and buying CDs, uploading them to my iPod, and then placing them with the rest in the storage boxes to gatherf dust, over the last couple of years I've generally been 'cutting out the middle man' (so to speak)... by simply downloading my tunes straight from the web.
In fact, CDs have become so obselete in my world that I've recently started doing something with them that I would previously have become unthinkable. Yes, I've started flogging them!
This is something I've been doing through the online retailer Amazon.co.uk. If you have an account with Amazon, you can register as a seller and start selling CDs through their second-hand marketplace.
You set your own price - and then, each time you sell a CD, Amazon simply sends you an email telling you where you need to send it!
They also take the payment for you, transferring your total 'takings' into your bank account every couple of weeks.
So far, since I registered as a seller, I've flogged around 150 CDs - with some of the rarer items netting me tidy sums of money! Which is quite handy, given how skint I am after my recent return to the poverty of student life...
Of course, it's been sad in a way to be packing certain old favourites into jiffy bags and posting them off to different locations across the UK - but ultimatey, I'm not actually losing anything. Because having uploaded the contents of the CDs to my iPod, I still have all the music.
And how great it is, thanks to the iPod, to be able to have all your music all at your disposal wherever you are.
For instance, a few months I go I was in the middle of a tedious train journey when I suddenly thought of a great song that I hadn't heard in ages.
Not solong ago, I would have had to have waited til I got home and dug out the CD. Or, more likely, the ,oment would simply haved been lost...
Thanks to my iPod though, I was able to locate the song and play it within a matter of seconds..
And if anyone thought Ilooked like a tosser with my white headphones in - well, that's a price worth paying I think..! November 17 From wobble board wonderment to Lenny from EastEnders!Well, this week will certainly go down a proud one for us Fishers - as it saw a certain member of our family take part in a successful attempt to get into the Guinness Book of Records!
And there will be no prizes for guessing who it was - yes, it was my esteemed brother Al!
Now Al works at the head office of Boots The Chemists here in Nottingham. And to raise money this year for Children in Need, one of his colleagues came up wiith the idea of trying and break an existing record.
But not just any old record!
No, for the good people of Boots, only the most ridiculous record of all would do! And that, my friends, is what led to 500 members of staff - Managing Director included! - downing tools during the middle of a Friday afternoon, trooping out into the car-park, and playing along on wobble boards to the seminal Rolf Harris hit 'Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport'!
I'm honestly not making this up!
I only wish I could have been there, as it sounded like a crazy spectacle - not least because many of the wobble board orchestra were also in fancy dress... with Al cutting an impressive figure as Chewbacca from Star Wars!
Apparently photos and videos from the afternoon are spreading like wildfire around Facebook - so any of you who are 'Facebook friends' with Al should be able to access them imminently, as he's likely to be 'tagged' in a good number of them!
Meanwhile, as well as having a right old wheeze, It's also worth pointing out that the 500 or so people who took part in breaking the wobble board record raised an absolute stack of cash through their efforts.
Which is,of course, A Good Thing - as Children in Need is a fantastic cause, and one that I like to think I've 'done my bit' towards during each of the last few years.
As most of you are probably aware, a huge chunk of the money raised by Children in Need is generated by the TV coverage - specifically, the fact that it inspires millions of of people to pick up their phones and make donations with their credit and debit cards.
These calls are answered by an army of around 3,000 volunteers working in call centres up and the country - and for the last four years, I've actually been one of these volunteers!
My involvement began back in 2003, back when I too worked at Boots.
That year, Boots allowed Children in Need free use of its call centre facilities - and also persuaded a load of staff to give up an evening to to 'man' the phones.
I was one of those who was roped in - and though we were all exhausted after working all night straight after a full day at work, it proved to be a highly enjoyable and successful night.
Boots has subsequently helped Children in Need every year. And though I left the company in early 2004, I'm still in touch with a load of people who work there... and each year they fix it for me to come back in and lend a hand on the phones!
This year it was a great laugh as always - with probably the most notable thing being the numerous live TV broadcasts that were conducted from the call centre by local BBC news throughout the evening
Now this is something that had always happened in previous years at the call centre on Children in Need night. However, this year it was much more of a distraction... because the BBC reporter fronting each of these broadcasts happened to be Des Coleman - the very bloke who used to play Lenny (of 'Huw and Lenny' fame) in EastEnders back in the 1990s!
Suffice to say, it's quite hard to concentrate on making an accurate note of callers' credit card details when an Albert Square legend keeps drifting into your peripheral vision!
I actually said as much to Des when he came round to say hello to everyone - and he did not look at all amused! Indeed, I got the impression that his EastEnders past is something he doesn't particular like having brought up!
That said though, he did seem like a real top bloke.
Wonder what the bloke who played his Walford sidekick Huw is up to these days..? November 14 An update on Rich and Ed's absurd plan for summer 2008!As anyone who knows me will testify, I'm quite an intrepid soul who's always up for a bit of an adventure. So for the last couple of years, I've been quite fascinated by the Mongol Rally.
For any of you not familiar with this event, it basically involves buying a knackered car for less than a grand, setting off in it from London... and then attempting to drive a whopping 8,000 miles, via some of the worst roads on earth, all the way to Ulaanbaatar - the capital city of Mongolia!
The rally has been running every summer for a few years now - however, I'd never really thought seriously about entering.
Not because I didn't fancy it - but more because the rally is something you really need to do as part of a team.
And to be honest, I'd never even bothered asking any of my friends if they fancied giving it a crack - simply because I'd always felt resigned to the feeling that none of them would be crazy enough!
However, I'd underestimated one particular friend - a certain Mr Edward Baker.
Ed and first met back in 1998, when we lived in the same house during our first year of university. And as far as I am aware, the two of us had never actually discussed the Mongol Rally.
Out of the blue though a few months ago, Ed sent me an email with a link to an article he'd found online about the rally - along with a suggestion that the two of us should team up and enter it in 2008!
Well... you could've knocked me down with a fookin' feather!
Naturally, as Ed and I started to tell people of our plans, the reactions from friends and family ranged from mirth to utter horror! And recent weeks have seen the two of us embroiled in numerous fevered discussions about the rally - ranging from what type of car we should acquire, all the way through to what we would do if we found ourselves held up at gunpoint by bandits when attempting to cross the wilds of Kazahkstan!
We were perhaps a tad guilty of getting a bit ahead of ourselves though in these conversations... because first thing's first, there was the small matter of actually securing one of the 200 places available for the rally!
These places were allocated in an online ballot, which took place last week. And as we stuck our names in the hat, I don't think it ever really ocurred to either of us that we might not get a place.
Clearly though, there must be more intrepid loons out there than we had bargained for - yes, we bloody ended up missing out!
Naturally, we were both a bit gutted.
However, it's not over just yet - for each year, the organisers of the rally draw up a 'reserve list' of teams who can step and replace any drop-outs.
And today, we got confirmation that we are sitting pretty in 22nd place on this reserve list!
Basically then, we need 22 of the 200 teams who were successful in bagging places to drop out sometime over the next few months. And on the basis of past form, it appears we can be quietly confident - as last year, around 50 teams apparently ended up dropping out out of all those initially allocated places.
So... that's where things are at right now for Ed and myself!
Obviously, it's not ideal being left on tenterhooks like this. It'd be much better if we knew for definite that we had a place in the rally. That way, we could start cracking on now with the million and one things we'll need to sort out - such as trying to raise as much sponsorship money as we can, and sorting out visas to allow smooth entry into all the countries we'll be needing to and pass through.
Not to mention thinking of a suitably pithy team name to have emblazoned across the bodywork of whatever car we end up using!
But hey, at least the dream is still alive...
Keep your fingers crossed for us - and watch this space for further news! November 12 Suddenly, I am back on a train chugging through Mongolia...Most of you reading this will know that I spent the first chunk of 2007 travelling around the world - armed with with just a backpack, a compass and my wits!
My adventure saw me visit some of the hottest places on earth. What's more, the timing of my trip meant that I cunningly missed out on several months of the icy British winter whilst doing so!
That, of course, was no bad thing. However, there has been a downside - namely, the fact that the recent onset of winter has come as a much bigger shock to my system than it would normally.
It's only been five months since I arrived home from my trip - yet each time I step outside into the crisp November breeze, the endless days I spent lazing on beaches in Australia feel like they couldn't possibly be further away.
In fact, my whole trip has start to feel a bit like it was just a dream.
Which is quite depressing really!
That said, one thing happened recently that brought a lot of happy memories flooding back - namely, a bit of a media frenzy surrounding some people who I was fortunate enough to meet during my trip!
Enter the Pritchard family from Wales - mum and dad Rachel and Joe, plus their three young children, Rowan, Rhys and Jenna.
Now I encountered the Pritchards during the final leg of my trip - namely, my journey from Beijing through to Moscow via the Trans-Siberian railway.
And without doubt, they were among the most interesting people I met throughout my travels - simply because they were doing pretty much what I was doing... only AS A FAMILY!
Yes, having vowed to each other that they wanted their children to actually SEE the world rather than just find out about it through books and TV, Rachel and Joe decided to take Rowan, Rhys and Jenna out of school for a year... and took off into the sunset!
Numerous countries and 60,000 miles later, they finally arrived home recently - armed with some amazing stories of all the places they'd seen.
Now cynics might say, "Well that's fair enough... but surely missing a year of school is going to have an incredibly adverse affect on the children?"
And being someone who now works in education, I guess I probably ought to be one of those cynics!
But try as I might, I just can't bring myself to feel anything other than utter admiration for Rachel and Joe. I strongly suspect that their children have gained so much more than they ever could from a year at school.
The Pritchards' story has appeared in recent weeks in newspapers including The Mirror, The Sun, The Times and The Daily Mail; while the family were also guests on TV's 'This Morning'!
You can view the Mirror's article by clicking here. You can also view a blog kept by the family during the travels by clicking here. It makes for a fascinating read...
But anyway, enough rambling from me - now my memory's been jogged, I'm off to forget about the harsh winter and gnashing of teeth by having a good nostalgic flip through my travel snaps..!
November 10 My first ever trip to watch a live boxing match!There's nothing quite like a bit of sporting success to help put the place where you live on the map.
Take, for example, my home city of Nottingham.
In the grand scheme of things, Nottingham is not that big a place. It's not even one of the ten biggest cities in England.
Yet go anywhere in the world, and tell people that you're from Nottingham, and the chances are that they will have heard of it.
Granted, this will in part be down to people being familiar with the legend of Robin Hood. But equally, global awareess of Nottingham can also be attributed to the atonishing achievements in the late 1970s and early 1980s of our premier local footy team, Nottingham Forest - who in just two years won as many European Cups as Manchester United have in the last 30.
Of course, the decades since have seen Forest's star not so much dim as crash and burn completely!
Happily though, the last couple of years have seen a new sporting hero emerge who is giving us Nottingham folk something to take pride in once again. Enter Carl 'The Cobra' Froch - a local lad who happens to be Britain's current super-middleweight boxing champion.
Now I'm not really much of a boxing fan - but nevertheless, I have been following Froch's progress over the last few years with interest.
For not only is Froch from Nottingham, he's actually from the same part of the city that I'm from! And rather than becoming a bit of a big-time Charlie as a lot of people do when they enjoy a bit of success, he's someone who still comes across as being incredibly down to earth and true to his roots.
What's more, Froch is also a big Forest fan - often entering the ring at his fights wearing a Forest shirt.
What's not to like?!
Frustratingly for Froch, he has been forced to spend much of the last year on the sidelines, recovering from a knee injury. However, last night saw him finally return to the ring to defend his title by fighting Robin Reid at Nottingham Arena. And having decided it was high-time for me to go and watch my first ever live boxing match, I decided to fork out £25 for a ticket.
There was certainly a noticable buzz around Nottingham during the days leading up to the fight, with loads of people like me who aren't normally arsed about boxing all taking an interest.
And with him being a local lad, EVERYONE in the city seems to have their own Froch story!
Mine admittedly isn't much cop really - basically, I saw him buying a massive fuck-off turkey at my local Tesco in the run-up to Christmas a couple of years ago!
My mum has a friend though who knows one of Froch's next-door neighbours - who apparently managed to piss Froch off in quite a big way by putting up a security light outside their house... which subsequently kept coming on in the middle of the night and disturbing his sleep!
Now when 12 stone of pure brawn knocks on your door to complain about something, the sensible option would surely be to just do whatever it takes to appease them... right?
Amusingly though, the neighbour was unrepentant, and simply told him to pop down to Wilko's and have a look at their range of black-out blinds!
Class...
Arriving at a busy Nottingham Arena, the first thing that struck me was the fact that the largely male crowd seemed to be made up largely of some of the hardest-looking people I've ever seen!
Normally, I'm a massive fan of 'people watching' whenever I'm at an event where there are lots of specimens in the vicinity. On this occasion though I was a bit paranoid about being caught staring at anyone... as some of the blokes present looked like they could easily arrange for me to be put in a pair of concrete boots and slung into the River Trent!
One exception however was the actor who plays Corrie dweeb Ashley, who we spotted in attendance!
But what of the actual boxing?
Well before the Froch fight, there were actually a few other fights - which is understandable really.
After all, boxing is a sport where a match could technically be over in a matter of seconds - so if you charge people to watch just the one fight, they could end up not really seeing much for their money!
The first few fights were certainly interesting - though I was a bit baffed when one fighter chose to enter the ring to the strains of a Phil Collins song!
I mean, as if that's going to strike fear into the heart of your opponent!
For the vast majority of the crowd of course, the night was obviously all about the main event. And by the time Froch emerged to take to the ring, the arena was rammed and the atmosphere was electric - with lots of songs being sung that were strangely familiar from my fortnightly trips to go and watch Forest!
Being known as The Cobra, I'd been kind of hoping that Froch would make his entrance by rising from a basket to the strains of some snake-charming music!
Alas, this didn't happen - however, he did make a swaggering entrance surrounded by a ludicrously excessive entourage. This included two shapely female cheerleaders both wearing full Forest kit... whose apppearance drew a massive prolonged cry from the crowd of "You Reds!"
Robin Reid meanwhile was roundly booed when he came out.
All a bit panto really... but very entertaining nonetheless!
After all the razmatazz, the fight got underway - and I must say, I found it incredibly absorbing. It's something that I'd never really appreciated before, but the sheer concentration required of boxers is incredible.
After all, they only have to switch off for a split second, and their opponent will have them on the floor.
As the crowd roared Froch on, some of the Nottingham-isms I heard shouted out were quite amusing. "Go on Carl. mek 'iz tabs bleed!" was my favourite!
Rather than go for an all-out assault though, Froch's approach on this occasion was quite tentative... slowly picking away at Reid's armour. It worked a treat though - after Froch had already floored him once, Reid decided to bow out at the end of round five...thus preserving The Cobra's unbeaten record!
All in all then, a really enjoyable night.
The plan now is for Froch to take the next step up and start fighting for European and world honours. And excitingly. having now proven that he can fill Nottingham Arena, it's rumoured that he may look to stage his next fight at the City Ground, home of Forest.
Let's hope he can continue his success and continue to put Nottingham in the headlines for something other than gun crime! November 04 Great eccentric people of our wonderful world...July 4th 2004 was a truly sad day for the people of Nottingham - as it was a day that saw the death of a local character who pretty much everyone in the city will remember with a great deal of affection.
Those of you who are from Nottingham will probably know straight away who I'm referring to. For the benefit of any outsiders however who may be reading though, allow me to introduce Frank Robinson... or 'Xylophone Man', as he was best known.
For many years, Frank was a regular sight on the streets of Nottingham - and he was as unique a street entertainer as you could you possibly wish to find.
Quite simply, Frank would just sit all day and thwack away at the instrument from which he got his name* - usually without ever managing to accomplish anything approaching an actual tune!
Nevertheless, his cheerful demeanour and child-like enthusiasm for 'playing' his instrument made him a legend. He even has his own entry on Wikipedia** - and if you ever happened to stumble upon him when you were having a really shit day, he'd never fail to put a smile on your face.
So why am I writing about Xylophone Man today?
Well, I think growing up in the city where Frank did his thing has played a big part in shaping my own personal outlook when it comes to other people.
Unlike a lot of folk, I am someone who has always embraced eccentricity - and idiosyncratic characters such as Frank that we get in our society have always fascinated me.
Ploughing a similar furrow to Xylophone Man is a guy up in Liverpool, who I used to see regularly during my time at university up there... who would sit on the streets strumming away on a cardboard guitar.
Further afield meanwhile, in the New Zealand capital of Wellington, there's a popular tramp known as 'Blanket Man', who got his name simply because he sits on the streets naked bar a blanket that he wears as a sort of loincloth!
I dare say that most major cities in the world have at least one character of this ilk - and I've often thought it'd make an amazing book if someone went round the world meeting them all and finding out their stories.
If any publishers reading this want to throw a load of money at me to undertake this project, then feel free to get in touch!
In the meantime -I'm pleased to report that this weekend saw me encounter another of the world's great eccentric characters... namely Norwich's very own 'Puppet Man'!
Like Xylophone Man, Puppet Man has been a mainstay on the streets of Norwich for many years, offering local people a unique brand of entertainment.
I happened to be down in Norwich for a night out to mark the birthday of my mate Rachel, who lives in the city. And knowing of my love for Xylophone Man, Rach very kindly volunteered to take me to see her local equivalent...
Now as we headed into Norwich city centre, there was no guarantee that we would actually see Puppet Man.
Some days he's there... while some days he... well, isn't!
However, a potential wasted journey into town from Rach's house was a risk I was prepared to take - and happily, we were rewarded as we walked through the strong of Saturday morning shoppers and foundour hero at what is apparently his usual spot, outside Principles.
So what does Puppet Man actually do?
Well, with the aid of a solar-powered sound system that he wheels around on an old child's buggy, Puppet Man simply stands on the street, microphone in one hand as he sings (badly) along to whatever music he fancies playing.
And in his other hand, he of course has one his vast array of puppets, which he twirls around in time with the music!
Like Xylophone Man, Puppet Man is part of local folklore. And seeing him doing his thing made my day really! If you're reading these ramblings on my blog site (www.softbulletin.co.uk), then below you will be able to see a photo of Puppet Man posing with Rach and our mate Andy...
Of course, Frank Robinson is no longer with us. But in our increasingly bland world, where so many things are generic and people feel constantly pressurised to conform, it makes me happy that there are people like Puppet Man still going strong...
* Well, what Frank played was actually a glockenspiel - but hey, let's not start getting pedantic about percussion instruments here!
** You can view this by clicking here.
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