The Sound of Music

Just a quickie from me today. (Phew! I hear you cry). I’m thinking sounds, I’m thinking radio plays and imaginative producers, I’m feeling inspired by a conversation about apples…One of our colleagues here at BioRegional was involved in a live audience recording of apple-crunching at the Barbican. This sound then became part of a tune by a musician called Matthew Herbert. That reminded me of the Star Wars exhibition I went to see in Bradford where they disclosed the secrets of some of the Star Wars sounds. (Don’t read on if you’d prefer to remain in thrall of the force…) Did you know that the noise of the light sabres was made by swinging a microphone behind a telly to pick up the feedback which then became the sound we learned to love…and to fear…

Have you got any secrets about sound?

Love from Steph and The laundry

I have been trying to learn how to knit recently and have been mainly constructing small squares of striped material. Although useless in more ways than you can imagine, the dream that one day that I might actually make something beautiful keeps me going. Some of the stuff I indulge my imagination in are tales of yore - women weaving their life stories into stunning silk whose gleam and (woolly?) perfection make the sun itself envious…Anyhoo, then I remembered the tale of Rumplestiltskin and thought I’d share it with you. A good fairy tale can remind us all that dwarves, pixies and goblins can be ruthless in their business and mustn’t be messed with.  (more…)

After getting a rather touching blog comment from a certain Blarg who’s cat is (incidentally) called Laundry (see http://www.flickr.com/photos/blargblarg/2285206534/ for a pic) it got us Laundrettes thinking about other people and animals in our lives with funny names by coincidence. (more…)

Greetings!  With this email I am going to introduce myself, Steph – new member of the Launderettes, to you, our lovely and supportive Laundry customers (your reputations precede you, it seems!), with a certain panache, verve and jingle jangle of accompaniment, so here we go…  (more…)

Last week we had a flurry of pigness.  First, Philippa’s pink milkshake bottle pig, then told us about the Pig of Happiness (how apt), then I remembered Apple Pigs, one of my fav children’s books. (more…)

Leap years are there because our calendar is squiffy. Years aren’t actually 365 days long, but rather 365.2422 and so if we didn’t insert the odd day here and there throughout the years, over time we’d end up out of sink with the seasons and eventually might be able barbeque Christmas dinner. I think I might have over simplified this a bit, but I want to get on to the interesting leap year facts… (more…)

I have always, always wondered about how bread and butter got invented, but never really discussed it with anyone, it just remained this magical, impossible problem that archaeology forgot, that is until the weekend when I found out the ANSWER!  There is an answer. (more…)

I saw my friend last night and he was showing off his freebie from London Fashion Week…it included L’Oreal make you hair sleek stuff, L’Oreal nude lipstick, a L’Oreal lip gloss (the one with the ‘heart’ shaped applicator, I think it’s endorsed by Scarlet Johansson) and a Penelope Cruz make up set. Wow, what a good selection for a man?!

(more…)

Me and my close personal friend had an argument this week about who was better.

Not at anything in particular, just categorically better.  It came out of a discussion in which I got the feeling I was being patronised!.

I said, “Can I just ask? You think you are better than me at thinking don’t you?”.
He said…..”yes”. (more…)

I’ve been writing these emails for ages, but am not sure how many people I’ve mentioned the

I can see a blue shape, I can see your future and it will be filled with other people’s dirty Laundry.

Thanks to Dominic for the pic which is on our flikr account to the right (scroooll), reminding us that he is not a recycling psychic.

My great grandmother Emma French was a romany gypsy, and she has passed on very mild psychic powers to me. (more…)

We don’t like to nag you at the Laundry; we prefer gentle persuasion by making recycling cheap, easy, fun, good, clean and other one syllable words.

We do like the Nag. (more…)

Red sky at night shepherds’ delight (makes my think of pink angel’s delight desert). Red sky in the morning, sailors’ warning. What a beauty of a morning it was too- well time will tell us if today’s pink curdled clouds lead to torrential rain and storms or blue, blue skies till the evening draws in.

Superstition meshes quite well the warped laws of reason I had as a kid

(more…)

Once you get it you never forget. Learning in the first place, though, was one of those things as a kid I just couldn’t seem to master. The four-wheels afforded by stabilisers made sense- no leap of faith was required to keep the balance. And unless you hammered it over some rocky terrain (the veritable rally-course that was the road in the front of my house) there wasn’t any real danger of a grazed knee or anything like that. (more…)

Going up
• Hot chocolate for breakfast
• My green t-shirt (not literally)
• Not-watching-television-so-you-don’t-accidentally-see-a-promo-for-the-last-serires-of-the-Sopranoes-the-greatest-television-series-in-history-thereby-ruining-the-plot-which-you-don’t-want-because-you-are-trying-to-start-from-the-beginning-watching-them-in-order-from-your-unnamed-postal-DVD-service
• Pelicans
• Laundry blue

Going down
• Unnamed rail enquiry services
• Eating solids for breakfast
• Parrots
• Thinking-it’s-ok-to-sing-in-the-street-while-alone-because-it’s-London-and-anonymous-and-everyone-will-just-think-you-are-a-loony-and-ignore-you-and-you’re-fine-with-that
• My blue T-shirt
• Laundry white