Unbelievable

A few weeks ago I went Online for a local Lady who was willing to make a pair of Bib and Brace for me. Luckily I found someone local only a few miles away, less than 4 miles and that was good.
 We conversed by e-mail and a date was set for us to meet. I marked it in my diary and thought no more about it. Then yesterday I decided to see when my next appointment at the Dental Surgery was due. I cold not believe my eyes it was the same day as I was to meet with this Lady the only difference was that my appointment was in Mablethorpe a further 5 miles away from where this Lady lived and my appointment time was 11.20.am. It had been arranged to meet this Lady at 11.00.am.
 I emailed her and told her of my predicament and suggested that if she was willing I could meet her at Noon. She contacted me and told me that this would be acceptable so hopefully all is well.
 I also went Online to look for something completely different and I noticed an address in Tuxford. It immediately bought my mind back to my early days on the Footplate on British Railways. They were happy days before I had a regular Driver I guess it would be from my age of 16 to 22 remembering I had 2 years National Service from 18 to 20 years.
 I was often on Firing duties with local goods trains, mainly Pick Ups. This consisted of dropping off empty wagons and picking up full ones from sidings. We had one job that took us to Tuxford in the Dukeries. There was a large place where wagons were selected to go to different areas and where the job consisted of when one got there we had to wait for another similar train that was heading South. It was called a change over where the crew on the South bound would take charge of our North bound and we would take over their train.
 Often we had a lot of time spare whist waiting for the change over train. I used to love it at Tuxford because there was a huge strawberry patch. It had obviously been some sort of allotment that had been left to go wild. I picked  plenty of strawberries and eventually got back home. My Mother told me that they were the best strawberries she had ever had to make jam.
 I loved these sorts of jobs. We would often be put in a siding to let the Express trains go by. Often there would be at a crossing and there would be a house, generally empty because the old crossing keeper had either left or retired. Of course there would have been a garden with fruit bushes and fruit trees. I loved going to pick gooseberries, blackcurrants a few raspberries, generally the birds ate them and in the Autumn I would go and pick apples off the trees.
 I must say that I really enjoyed those days mind you I also did similar things when not at work. I would go mushrooming in the Spring, go picking blackberries in the Summer and in the Autumn go  foraging for nuts, hazel, chestnuts and the odd walnut. Picking walnuts though made your hands look as if you had been smoking  for the outer coating used to stain your hands. Oh happy days. More soon.