It's a Sunday!

It's Sunday - so instead of a post on practice & procedure in the Washminster legislatures; or a Revision article for law or politics; I am going to write something on a leisure activity. "Six Days shalt thou Labour..." - a good prescription for a healthy body and mind!

As long term readers of this blog will know (and all previous posts can be accessed - back to the first post in March 2007 - either through the search engine - or by using the list in the Blog Archive) - I particularly enjoy watching American Football; listening to jazz; reading French (yes, for relaxation!!! - I find I enjoy it more than reading English - probably because I can't go into 'speed-reading mode'); watching or listening to political comedy; learning about history or just walking or cycling.

With the end of the summer holidays (last Monday was the final bank holiday until Christmas - and schools return this week) - there's lots of ways to relax.

Jazz Matters returns to the Stables in Milton Keynes. Once a month there is a live jazz session - and twice a month a talk (with music). Dame Cleo Laine will be the next guest in the "Desert Island Discs (without the island)" series on October 2nd - for more details press here. We are very privileged in Milton Keynes to have a series of walks organised. Great for health, but also good fun and you get to learn lots (history; natural history; more about our City). Further details here.

The NFL (American Football) season kicks of this week. There are lots of websites giving further information. My favourites are NFL and of course the site of the Washington Redskins. Britbowl is only a couple of weeks away, at Crystal Place - there is a facebook group. In October there will be an NFL match played at Wembley - Tampa Bay Buccaneers play the Chicago Bears on October 23rd. More info here.

For something lighter - type in "political humour" into "Search this Blog" - and see my previous posts.

What Day is it?

The last few days seem to have merged with each other. My first post on election day was written before I set out to deliver the last few leaflets. Later posts came from the committee rooms on "Coffee Hall", an estate in Milton Keynes, where I was based for the 15 hours that the polling stations were open.

I went straight from there to the count at Milton Keynes Stadium. It was a long night - and I only got to leave at 8am (Friday). I was back for 9am to be ready for the start of counting in the local elections.

It's a pity that the cameras can't record what happens as the count is proceeding. Staff (many of whom will have been working at polling stations from before 7am) first open the ballot boxes and sort the ballot papers into bundles of 25. This is known as verification. Ballot Papers which have been put in the wrong boxes have to be taken out. (There were two ballot boxes at each polling station - one for the parliamentary and one for the council - but some people didn't separate the papers as requested). Postal votes also had to be added in. Then the number of ballot papers needed to be reconciled with the number of ballot papers given out. On the other sides of the tables representatives of the candidates sat. At this stage most were noting the way people had voted. For each box opened it was possible to "sample" the votes - I was noting how the votes were cast by threes - so if I noted 2 Conservative & 1 Labour - I noted that on a printed sheet. the next sample might show 1 Lib-Dem 2 Labour - and so on. By the time the box had been emptied, I had a fair sample showing how the votes were distributed. So we knew fairly early on what the likely result would be.

Only when the verification had been completed could the counting begin. The unsorted bundles of 25 were now sorted into piles for each candidate. The party observers were watching to see that no votes accidently ended up in the wrong piles - and that when these were counted there were 25 in each new bundle.

Finally the votes were added up - and finally a result was announced.

During the night, the political staff would pop out for a break and to watch the national results coming in. It can be an emotional time - as one learns of the loss of personal friends.

Now the focus has moved to the national scene. I arrived home a little after 2pm on Friday. I had a nap of about 20 minutes - but spent the rest of the time watching the news channels (and prepping for a live-to-air interview I was due to do after 5pm. I finally went to bed about 9.30pm. On Saturday I bought a huge bundle of newspapers - and spent some time watching the TV - but joined my daughter for a relaxing morning in central Milton Keynes (and a couple of coffees at Starbucks as we read and discussed the results). I had another snooze in the afternoon - then lots of chats with friends over the telephone.

Today I am relaxing. In a few minutes I will head off for the Stables at Wavendon, for Jazz Matters. Then Milton Keynes City Pathfinders will be playing American Football in Bletchley. Tomorrow it's back to work - and I hope that the regular pattern of Washminster posts will resume - but who knows what the next few days will bring?

I often put up news stories on Twitter and Facebook.

The Sir John Dankworth Story

Another superb 'Jazz Matters' yesterday morning at The Stables. Peter Vacher gave a presentation on the life and work of Sir John Dankworth. He began by playing "Three Blind Mice", the chart-topping piece which involves variations on the famous childrens' song. I particularly liked the way that Peter Vacher illustrated the way that Sir John's music developed and the sheer range of his abilities.

The transtlantic influence was discussed. Sir John was a clarinetist before (and after) taking up the Saxophone. Benny Goodman was a key influence. Mr Vacher described how Laurie Morgan brought back 78s of 'be-bop jazz' from New York - and shared them with budding British jazz musicians such as Johnny Dankworth and Ronnie Scott. British be-bop then developed. In the late 1940s Johnny Dankworth was one of the jazz musicians who played on the transatlantic liners. They would perform on the crossings (all styles of music, not just jazz) - and then head for the jazz clubs in New York where the leaders of the be-bop movement, such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, were performing. Mr Vacher illustrated with recordings of Sir John how he both learned from these masters and developed his own style.

The presentation finished with the theme from "Tomorrow's World" - composed and performed by Sir John Dankworth.

The Stables

This morning, at the Stables in Wavendon, I enjoyed listening to a presentation (with some great music) - with contributions from the "audience" - about the original Stables. It was presented by Brian Whitehead who was involved in recordings made there.

This month has been one of reminiscences - as we have mourned the death, and celebrated the life of Sir John Dankworth. The Stables are adjacent to the home of Sir John and his wife, Dame Cleo Laine. They were the moving spirits behind setting up what has become one of the top ten music venues in the UK. As well as jazz - the 350 or so concerts a year include all types of music and also a fair range of comedians.

During the first half of this mornings presentation the 'old' Stables were described and the theme of the music played was "Mostly Home Grown" performers. The second half's theme was "the transatlantic stars".

The current Stables is a modern building with a decent sized auditorium, but the 'old' Stables was just that - a converted stables. During the Second War War it was used as a nuts and bolts factory - and local rumour has it that these were produced for the work going on at Bletchley Park.

"Jazz Matters" are held on Sunday mornings in "Stage 2" - where the outside wall is original - and the interior stands where the foyer of the 'old' Stables were. Sir John Dankworth started these Sunday morning sessions - and he attended and participated in almost every one when he was in the country. Many of the regulars have been coming for many years, though I've only been attending frequently for the last 12 months or so. Further details are available here. Tickets can be purchased at The Stables website.