I went to Grantham today and my Sisters gave me some old stuff that they had found whilst clearing out my late Mother's things. They had always intended to wait at least 5 years before they did this. Anyway this old photo was taken while I was in Hong Kong. It was a portrait photo that my Mother had asked me to have. What it entailed was that a studio photo was taken then it was then tinted and made to look professional. I would be no older than 19 years of age.

 

The photo above was taken at school. It was the norm that photos least once a year as to keep some sort of record as most parents didn't have a was 13 or 14 at the  time this photo was taken. I am having great difficulty in getting this typing to be neat. It seems to have a mind of it's own. I wish I knew just how all this worked as it would make my life so much easier. Still I keep trying, whether I will ever master it is almost certainly a negative. One thing is for sure I don't like giving up. More soon.                                                                                                        

Spring?

Although the strong to gale force easterly winds have caused some damage, we have been spared the heavy snow that has fallen in many parts of the Country.
 My best Pal who called last Tuesday went back home, well I say he went but he told me that he would be going back the next morning.
 It was a couple of days later that we had snow. As he lives in Derbyshire he would have had much more snow than we had here.
 I did ring my Sister up in Grantham on Saturday and she told me that it was snowing hard and had been snowing from 6.00am. It is mt intention to try to get over there later this week. Whether I will depends on the weather.
 recently there was a programme celebrating the steam engine Flying Scotsman. As I worked on the Railway and Flying Scotsman was based at Grantham in the 1950s when I was a young cleaner I decided to record it on my hard disc.
  I watched it last night with nostalgia. I did not know that until the Empire Exhibition in the 1920s that the steam engine had no  name and it was named after "The Flying Scotsman". This was a daily run from King's Cross to Edinburgh leaving at 10.00am. each day. It only stopped at Grantham and Newcastle, this was change steam engines and crew.
It originally arrived at Grantham at Noon but when I started it arrived at 11.45am. This actually turned out to be the normal time for running an express train from Kings Cross to Grantham. In the 50s and 60s the time for most expresses was that. It was 105 miles from King's Cross to Grantham, hence it was an average of 60mph. There were of course some restrictions. Going through Peterborough Station was a speed limit of 20mph because of the severe bends. Now of course it is all different, the platforms have been altered and straightened.
 I was informed by a fellow footplateman that the fastest train from King's Cross stopping at Grantham was called "The White Rose" 105 miles in 100 minutes. Not bad for the late 50s. Now of course, the electric trains do the journey in 1hour 20 minutes. Mind you, where we had 13 coaches on the new trains have a maximum of 9. I guess that is progress. More soon.

We must not complain

The budget today gave no huge surprises but spare a thought for those Cypriots. The EEC decided that all Bank deposits would have a levy of some of their savings. Thank goodness though the Government rejected the proposals. this though threw up more trouble because the Banks were closed. I must say that many folks would be struggling because the Banks have been closed since last Friday and it has been suggested that they will remain closed until at least next Tuesday, I wonder what would happen here if a similar situation arose. I guess there would be civil unrest.
 On Monday my mate and I went out on a mission. I decided that I would use my car and it was proposed that he would drive. When I arrived at his home he asked me if I was insured for any driver. I told him I was not. As he has only a motorcycle he is not insured to drive any car. He can drive his Partner's car as she has him on her policy.
 It was no big deal so I drove. One thing was sure I would find out just how much the mpg would be and there would be no excuse as it would be me driving. My mate found the cheapest fuel for the motor so I calculated the mpg and it was around 63mpg. A little disappointing but as I only do short journeys I suppose that was to be expected. Upon returning my car was filled up again and when I got home I checked the fuel and distance and worked it out. To my surprise I found that the mpg worked out at over 75mpg. I certainly didn't economise at all and on the motorways I was doing around 70mph.
 As I said my mate found the cheapest garage to fill up my car. Believe it or not, fuel, I have a diesel car, is here at 149.9p a litre. There it was 142.9p a litre. 7p difference, that equates to well over 30p a gallon dearer here. Scandalous, I don't know why fuel can not be more equal throughout the country as it is grossly unfair to penalise us motorists who need a motor living in the country. More soon.

Sad

My Sister rung me up at the week end and she gave me some sad information. My Cousin has passed away, he was about 6 months younger.
 As children we used to play together, he lived about 8 doors away so it was easy to contact each other.
 I guess this would be in our infancy, I should think it would be when we were about 9 or 10, certainly no older as in early 1947 we moved to another house and from then on we didn't see much of each other.
 We would go conkering sweet chestnutting, walnutting as well and mushrooming and blackberrying. We knew where every walnut tree was also where the chestnut wood was and gathering conkers was great fun.
 What we did though was to create our own game of cricket. It must me remembered that it was in 1946 /7 so nothing was available.
 My Cousin would find a thick piece of willow and whittle it down to some sort of shape of a bat. I, for my part made some pads out of some bathroom mat which was very thick. I also made it a must that I would look for the wooden balls, the ones that folks threw at the local fair to hit a coconut. They were a perfect size for us young lads. I tried to get as many as I could but to be honest I never managed to get sufficient to last the summer months. We had much fun though. I wonder if youngsters would believe  what we did but it is true.
 My Aunt, who was my Father,s Sister was not quite as houseproud as my Mother was. In those days, everyone had a scrubbed table in their kitchen. They looked good, I presume they were made of pine and when scrubbed the look of them was fantastic. My Aunt had one just like we had only it had, what I thought was a fancy edge to it.
 One day I asked my Mother why we didn't have a table like Aunty M. She queried my question so I told her that hers had a dark fancy edge to her table and ours was just plain.
 She grinned and told me that the dark edges were in fact cigarette burns. Obviously her and her husband put the cigarettes on the table to do something and would forget about them. What surprised me was that the entire table was covered with cigarette burn marks.
 The other 2 things which surprised me was that there was an alcove which had a curtain covering it and there were dozens of pairs of shoes, it was  something to watch somebody try to get a matching pair. Also there was no part of any window ledge that was not damaged by  a pen knife slicing bits of wood off. However they were happy days, a thing that the youngsters of today will never have the pleasure of. Catching a bus to the country and then going to find the fruits of the early Autumn. What memories. More soon.

Getting worse

My arithmetic is getting worse. yesterday I wrote that with damson stones having 5 would work out a rich man and I said 10 would do the same. of course it wouldn't there were a categories so to get to a rich man the second time would mean one would have to collect 13 stones. That is now sorted.
 I know I am up from the country. That is what my Mother used to say to people who wasn't aware of the daily goings on. Well I am definitely one of those.
 I have seen people go into the Post Office and while I was waiting to collect my pension some people would go to the counter and ask for several numbers.
 Well the other day I had cause to go to a shop and while the transaction was being processed I had to wait for several minutes. to be honest, I quite enjoyed every minute there, almost every customer 2was happy and talkative despite the dreadful weather. Anyway this woman came in and we passed pleasantries and she asked the lady behind the counter for  numbers 2 4 7 and 9. The assistant just said "The usual is it". The lady just concurred. When the assistant passed the cards over I could see what they were. I just said to the woman that I had no idea as to what folks were doing. I had seen people ask for these numbers or a few would point to the place where they wished the ticket to be taken from. The woman was quite talkative and explained all to me. She also told me that she bought them regular but theses last couple of weeks had won next to nothing. before that she told me she did very well. She then told me that what she did was to get home, check to see if she had won anything. Then would collect her winnings when she got hard up.. She was very pleased to give me all the information and seemed  happy to give me the information. She was rather surprised though that I knew nothing of the system. I guess I live a very sheltered life. More soon.

A delay

Last night I was about to go online and write a few lines when the phone rang. It was my Best Pal who has a caravan at a site nearby. He wanted to know what the weather was like as the site opens this week end. Well I think it is this week end. I told him that the winds were gale force off the sea and it was bitter cold, I told him that this year we have not had one day where the temperature had exceeded 7c. I can't remember the last time that I had no daffodils out by the middle of March and the weather men are suggesting that there is no real improvement for the next week or so. I suppose Spring will eventually arrive.
 It was seeing fruit, well damsons to be honest that took me back to the days when we were all at home 6 of us 4 children and parents.
 My Mother would make a damson pie in a pie dish. What she used to keep the pastry away from the damsons was an old fish paste jar. These stood about 3" high and it was placed in the centre of the pie dish and held the pastry up.
 The most exciting part of the pie was counting the stone from the damsons. My Mother would often state the two sayings. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief. She would tell us that if we had the stones that counted to the professions then that would be what we would turn out to be. How we loved to get 5 stones or 10 then it would mean we would be rich when we grew up.
My Mother used to also quote the other saying. This year, Next year, Sometime, Never. This was supposed to be when one was to marry.
 Isn't it funny how ones mind travels back to ones childhood. More soon.

Blood Test

Early this morning I went for a blood test. I was somewhat surprised to find no cars and when I entered the surgery waiting room it was almost empty.
 I seemed to wait for ages so when I young worker there came out of the office I asked her if my Nurse was ill because I had been waiting over 20 minutes. She came back and told me that the Nurse would be with me soon.
 Sure enough I was called in to her office and I asked her what was wrong. She told me that she was struggling with the new computer software and if she had known it would have taken that long would have done it later. I told her I had began to worry as there was nobody about much.
 With this she told me that it was the new system that was now in position. She saw I was looking rather puzzled so she explained what this entailed.
 Now before one can see a Doctor, one has first to ring the reception and then the details are given to a Doctor. He will contact you and discuss your needs. This may be a consultancy in the Medical Centre or perhaps sent to see a Nurse or perhaps a diagnosis would be given over the phone.
 She told me that my blood tests would continue as normal but the Nurse practitioner who is in charge of Diabetes and all relevant things will no longer visit my Medical Centre but be stationed another 8 miles away.
 she then took me out to see the receptionist and asked if she had any leaflets explaining what was happening, there was a very small leaflet which was given to me.
 What the Nurse said to me was that the main reason for this system being used was to stop patients wasting G.Ps time on trivial matters. So much for the National Health serving the general public.
 By the way, today has once again been dreadful with  the weather being more like November than March. Mist and drizzle A.M. and it is sytill cold. The forecast is for no improvement for the next few days. More soon.

Weather

Apart from last Saturday which was nice and sunny but cold the weather has been poor. Today was supposed to be fine, sunn6y and warm. not a bit of it here. I woke to find it very foggy and frosty. The fog lifted a little around 8.30am but as I had to go to the dentist at 11.10am I didn't take a lot of notice but as I got ready to go out about 10.30am the fog was once again thickening up. I arrived at my Dental surgeon at 11.10am and duly had a routine inspection. £17.50 for less than 5 minutes in the chair and they say the National Health is losing money. Upon leaving I called to get a little food and made my way back home. Main headlights were on most cars and I noticed that the outside temperature according to my motor was just 3c. This was about 11.30am. The weather didn't improve much at all and as it grew dark it seemed to get ever foggier. They say that the weather will break down and get unsettled I am waiting for this because it can't be much worse than it has been this year so far.
 Yesterday I had a man call to see me about some work I wanted to have done. He told me during a lot of talk that he had looked for a daffodil  for St. David's Day. He was Welsh I think by his accent. he told me that he normally could pinch(yes pinch) a daffodil  but this year he hasn't seen a daffodil in flower at all so far.
 I asked him if he had noticed the fields of Winter Wheat. He told me he had. To be honest it is a long time since I have seen such a poor looking crop. If things don't soon pick up, once again we will be in serious trouble with food costs.
 My snowdrops are now just in flower, they should have been more or less done by now.
 The weather man is just on about the differing temperatures. Here in Lincolnshire and parts of Yorkshire had a dreadful day but London had a fantastic day and many parts had a lovely day. Maybe it will be our turn before too long to have some warm weather. We are certainly due for some.
 Finally my Dental Surgeon remarked that this winter had been a bad one. Not for the volume of snow, last year he was blocked in for a couple of days. This year he told me the icy roads were a big problem. He also agredd with me that the farmers fields of Wheat were looking very poor indeed. More soon.