Dickory dickory dobbits.

 Dickory dickory dobbits.

I'm the man from Murray Roberts.

I'll deliver your grog,

You can drink like a hog,

I'm the man from Murray Roberts.

[slowly] Man.......from........Mur...ray......Rob...erts.

That's a song I wrote in the 1970s while driving a little truck with booze on the back.

I thought that the boys would like that bit of nostalgia.

Okay, back to 2025.

I liked those words from Morgan Freeman that Robert wrote on his latest blog. 

Robert hits the big 70 in three weeks. This coming week Peter will turn about 83 - I know he's much older than me. I'm in a blogging community with two old boys!

In line with what Morgan said (see Robert's latest post - you can use our LINKS service), I don't have to worry what people think of my playing anymore. I'll keep my bass playing up with occasional practice, but I'm going to concentrate on my solo (unaccompanied) violin pieces. Why? Because it is a fun and interesting journey and I don't have to rely on anyone else. Obviously, I'll do other gigs that come my way. The thing about playing unaccompanied is that you need to think like a jazz guitarist. You need to drop in chords and little runs on the right occasion, but you must never forget about the melody. 

I think that this post needs some pictures. Let's have a look.

Toilet Roll App.

3P 1966

Well, that's about it for today.

Ciao tutti.

Fame has arrived at my doorstep!

Well, it arrived on my phone really.

It appears that I'm about to become famous in the Nui.

I got a phone call around 5pm last night. At first, I thought it might be a scam. It turned out to be a lady ringing from the Wainuiomata Community Hub. She said that she wanted to interview me because I am the only known living relative of Richard Prouse who has a park named after him in the Nui.

Richard Prouse Park, Wainuiomata.

She had talked to an ex-student who is now on the council and has done a lot of good work in the Nui. She had seen me playing the Last Post on ANZAC Day. She said she is one of the organisers now. She said that she really loved my playing. For the last few years my name has appeared on the ANZAC Day programme as, "Bugle: Richard Prouse." She wanted to video interview me for their Facebook site 'Love Wainuiomata',

I replied honestly, "I have no idea if I'm related to Richard Prouse, though it is possible he could be some distant relative. My name is spelt with a 'w', though I have heard that, in the old days, there were lots of misspellings. When I was teaching at the high school they always spelt my name with a 'u' when they sent me emails. Actually, it was quite handy because I could easily spot my school emails. For years I played on ANZAC Day and didn't appear on the programme. When I was eventually added, I decided not to bother pointing out their spelling mistake. It didn't seem important. I'm used to seeing my name spelt that way here over the last twenty years."

She was still keen to interview me because I'm pretty well known for playing The Last Post and for having worked at the high school for twenty years.

So, at midday today, I'm booked in for a video interview.

This won't make me world famous, but it'll probably make me more famous than Peter and Robert. I know that Peter will want to get his photo taken with the park sign! Robert might do something with AI. He might show me dressed as a white Jesus on his blog. Hey, maybe I shouldn't have put that idea in his head!

I'm expanding my solo (unaccompanied) violin repertoire to six tunes and I eventually hope to get it to ten. The two tunes I'm adding are Oh Lady Be Good and Nature Boy. The only downside is that I now have three tunes in D minor, but this will be less important when I get to ten tunes. The reality is that the best chance I have to play these days is by going to open mic nights. Playing unaccompanied means that I don't have to rely on anyone to back me. At the moment I have two of my tunes and four 'standards', as we call them in jazz. I might aim to get to five originals and five standards. 

Well, that's enough for this morning.

Ciao persone sconosciute.