I read today about how Nick Griffin the leader of The British National Party was forced to abandon a news and press conference being held outside Parliament on College Green as protesters disrupted the event and at one point, as Mr Griffin was being led away, he was attacked by one of the protesters throwing an egg at him.
Now I do not think it matters if you like or dislike Mr Griffin as a person, it does not matter if you like or dislike the policies he puts forward and supports and it does not matter if you support or not The British National Party, for Mr Griffin to be forced to abandon a press conference in this way by a group of protesters is fundamentally wrong if not possibly even unlawful.
The British National Party is a recognised political party within the British political system. The BNP puts forward candidates to stand as councillors in local elections as it puts forward candidates to stand as prospective Members of Parliament and it also puts forward candidates to stand as prospective Members of the European Parliament. The BNP does all these things legally and lawfully, there may be some faction of the population who do not like it but it is legal and lawful.
In the recent elections to elect members to 'represent us' within the European Parliament The British National Party won two seats, Nick Griffin himself was elected for the North West region and Andrew Brons for Yorkshire and Humber regions. Both Mr Griffin and Mr Brons were elected under the laid down procedures, they won their seats as a direct result of a democratic, free, legal and lawful election. Enough people within these two regions freely and voluntarily attended their nominated Polling Station, they were allowed to vote by legally being on the electoral roll and they freely choose from all the options open to them on the voting paper to place a cross against the BNP candidate.
Both Griffin and Brons were Democratically and Lawfully elected to serve as Members of the European Parliament.
Now of course there is also a case to say that in this country individuals and groups are 'generally' allowed to make public protest providing of course that any public protest is carried out within the terms of the law, it is lawful and it is peaceful. Peaceful of course does not have to mean silent and any protesters may be within reason as vocal as they wish, providing being vocal does not contravene the Terrorism Act, generally peaceful protest is understood to be non violent.
The group that attended and forcibly disrupted the press conference being given by Nick Griffin today have called themselves Unite Against Fascism and if many of the newspaper reports are anything to go by this group are supported by many MP's from the mainstream parties including the Tory leader David Cameron. Of course it is the right of Unite Against Fascism to attend and 'peaceful' protest against Mr Griffin as an individual, as leader of the BNP, the BNP as a political party or in fact anything else they wish to protest about. What they can not do is to physically assault Mr Griffin or anyone else which is what they did do. A tourist it is reported was innocently caught up in the melee, suffered injury and had to be treated in an ambulance.
Mr Weyman Bennett who is the national secretary of Unite Against Fascism is reported as saying " The majority of the people did not vote for the BNP, they did not vote at all". Well Mr Bennett the very sad news for you is that in fact sufficient people did in fact vote for the BNP in both the North West and Yorkshire and Humber regions to return two BNP candidates as MEPs and if you like it or not that was done democratically and legally. I might hope that the innocent tourist caught up in this is able to obtain the address of Mr Bennett so he or she may consider taking legal action to sue him for any injury received.
If anyone acted unlawfully today it was Unite Against Fascism.
Mr Bennett is in my opinion a fool. He and his unruly mob of protesters had the opportunity today to make their points in front of the nations press, they had the opportunity to ask Mr Griffin some very searching and difficult questions that may have allowed them as a group to score some political points against Mr Griffin and the BNP. They had the element of surprise on their side but what did we the watching public see ? an unruly mob of yobs pushing shouting and throwing eggs.
In the eyes of the media Mr Bennett, and perhaps with some of the public, I would say Mr Griffin and the BNP hold the morale high ground over this and they know you are coming next time so you have even lost the element of surprise.
I would also ask Mr Bennett, do you think that the actions of your group will stop the BNP giving news or press conferences, no, of course not, all that will happen now is that they will give their news and press conferences to the media behind closed doors and the media will publish and report the results so you have gained nothing at all. Even the Prime Minister gives his daily and weekly press conference behind closed doors before an invited group of media, so you may even have given Mr Griffin and his party some credibility, however small.
Yes Mr Bennett in my opinion your are indeed a fool.
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
Sunday, 7 June 2009
Sixty Five Years On.
I don't suppose that I could have let this week pass without some comment, however small, about the 65th Anniversary of the D Day Landings in Normandy on the 6th June 1944. Much has already been told over the years about the events of that day from both sides of the conflict, books have been written, films made and stories told.
Despite the undoubted and equal heroism of both the attackers and the defenders and the gains and losses of that and the following days weeks and months there is another side to those events that seem, for whatever reason, get omitted.
Amid the flag waving cheering laughing happy crowds of French civilians that we usually see in the newsreels or we are told about that eventually greeted the so called liberators it would appear that not all was as we are led to believe. Far from being universally welcomed many troops that eventually made it off the beaches and moved inland over the following days moving from village to village and town to town, were met with open hostility. The reason for this is that many of the towns and villages in Normandy in general and in the vicinity of the landings in particular had been very heavily bombed and in some cases literally obliterated.
During the 6th June alone it is estimated that about 3,000 French civilians were killed as a result of the beach assaults or airborne landings either perhaps by the many sea and air bombardments prior to the landings or by sheltering in buildings within the immediate areas along the beaches or just by stray and accidental gunfire and explosives. In the period from mid June to about early September is also estimated that something like another 20,000 French civilians were killed, again for no other real reason than simply just being in the way. Toward the end of the Normandy campaign when the Germans were trapped in what has come to be known as the 'Falaise Pocket' so heavy was the allies shelling that barely a building was left standing.
It is not that this destruction and loss of life is not known about rather it just seems to be swept aside when the story of D Day is re-told.
A recently published book on the subject of the liberation, The Bitter Road to Freedom by W Hitchcock, cites a memory by [ex] Corporal L Roker who served with the Highland Light Infantry, Roker remembers, "It was rather a shock to find we were not welcomed ecstatically as liberators by the local people as we had been told we should be............they saw us as the bringers of death and destruction" and Ivor Astley of the 43rd Wessex Division remembers the locals being sullen and silent........."If we expected to be welcomed we certainly failed to find it".
There are villages in Normandy that until very recently have deliberately shunned and refused to go along with any celebrations associated with the 6th June because the memories were difficult. But in general, France has by and large gone along with the accepted version of the landings and their aftermath, that of a joyful liberation for which the country is eternally grateful.
For many from all sides of the conflict this year will be the last time they return to visit the beaches the towns and villages and of course the cemeteries to say hello again to friends lost so long ago. Many of those who survive and who were there on that day in history are now well into their eighties and time is against them. They will go home and hang up their smart blazers they will put away their medals and they will sit and reflect about the time sixty five years ago when they were part of the largest amphibious landings in military history.
Despite the undoubted and equal heroism of both the attackers and the defenders and the gains and losses of that and the following days weeks and months there is another side to those events that seem, for whatever reason, get omitted.
Amid the flag waving cheering laughing happy crowds of French civilians that we usually see in the newsreels or we are told about that eventually greeted the so called liberators it would appear that not all was as we are led to believe. Far from being universally welcomed many troops that eventually made it off the beaches and moved inland over the following days moving from village to village and town to town, were met with open hostility. The reason for this is that many of the towns and villages in Normandy in general and in the vicinity of the landings in particular had been very heavily bombed and in some cases literally obliterated.
During the 6th June alone it is estimated that about 3,000 French civilians were killed as a result of the beach assaults or airborne landings either perhaps by the many sea and air bombardments prior to the landings or by sheltering in buildings within the immediate areas along the beaches or just by stray and accidental gunfire and explosives. In the period from mid June to about early September is also estimated that something like another 20,000 French civilians were killed, again for no other real reason than simply just being in the way. Toward the end of the Normandy campaign when the Germans were trapped in what has come to be known as the 'Falaise Pocket' so heavy was the allies shelling that barely a building was left standing.
It is not that this destruction and loss of life is not known about rather it just seems to be swept aside when the story of D Day is re-told.
A recently published book on the subject of the liberation, The Bitter Road to Freedom by W Hitchcock, cites a memory by [ex] Corporal L Roker who served with the Highland Light Infantry, Roker remembers, "It was rather a shock to find we were not welcomed ecstatically as liberators by the local people as we had been told we should be............they saw us as the bringers of death and destruction" and Ivor Astley of the 43rd Wessex Division remembers the locals being sullen and silent........."If we expected to be welcomed we certainly failed to find it".
There are villages in Normandy that until very recently have deliberately shunned and refused to go along with any celebrations associated with the 6th June because the memories were difficult. But in general, France has by and large gone along with the accepted version of the landings and their aftermath, that of a joyful liberation for which the country is eternally grateful.
For many from all sides of the conflict this year will be the last time they return to visit the beaches the towns and villages and of course the cemeteries to say hello again to friends lost so long ago. Many of those who survive and who were there on that day in history are now well into their eighties and time is against them. They will go home and hang up their smart blazers they will put away their medals and they will sit and reflect about the time sixty five years ago when they were part of the largest amphibious landings in military history.
Monday, 1 June 2009
Titanic to Concorde
I read the other day about the death at the age of 97 of Elizabeth Gladys Millvina Dean. Millvina as she preferred to be known was the last living survivor from the sinking of the RMS Titanic which occurred during the night of 14 /15th April 1912.
The Dean family, consisting of parents Bertram and Georgette and elder brother Bertram had boarded RMS Titanic at Southampton and were en route for what they thought of as a 'Better Life' in Wichita Kansas where Bertram Dean had family and he had planned to open a tobacco shop.
Millvina was only eight or nine weeks old at the time of the sinking and as she explained many times in interviews that she was too small to be fitted into a life jacket and so was placed in a sack and lowered over the side of the ship into a waiting life boat with her mother and brother. Her father remained on board and he did not survive, if his body was one of those later recovered then it was never identified. Though Georgette Dean's first plans after rescue were to continue to America to fulfill her husbands dream the family returned to England in May 1912.
Despite the ordeal of the sinking the Dean family went on to live a long and happy life. Georgette died in 1975 aged 96 and Bertram died on the 14th April 1992 80 years to the day of the sinking aged 81.
I remember my [paternal] Grandmother often talking about the RMS Titanic whenever she could gain an audience of one or more. She was born on the 4th December 1886 and was 26 years old and married at the time of the sinking. She and my Grandfather, [a Norwegian] merchant seaman, Conrad Theodore Olsen, lived in Liverpool the home port of RMS Titanic.
The story according to Grandma was that Grandfather had just paid off from a ship in Glasgow and returned home Liverpool. After a day or so at home a friend of Grandfather called at the house at 6 Horatio Street to ask if he wanted to sign up for a trip to America, the local White Star Line agency office in Liverpool was trying to make up a shortage of merchant seaman for a ship laying at Southampton. Grandfather declined the offer apparently because he wished to stay a little longer at home before looking for the next job which he hoped might be out of Liverpool. His friend and some others took the job and according to Grandma the ship was the RMS Titanic, so it appears according to Grandma's tale, that the wish of Grandfather to stay a little longer at home saved him from going down with the Titanic.
Now if this story, which was recounted on what seems alomst like a weekly basis, is true or not I don't know. I never knew my Grandfather he died or otherwise went missing long before my father, who like Grandfather was a merchant seaman and also named Conrad Theodore, met and married my mother. In fact Grandfather is a slight mystery because at some point Grandma changed the family name from Olsen back to her maiden name.
I remember in 1969, sitting with Grandma, who was then aged 83, and watching on television Neil Armstrong stepping with one small step for man onto the surface of the moon. I asked Grandma what she thought of it all, there was a slight pause and she replied that she was 17 years old when 'those two Americans' [the Wright brothers] managed to fly their heavier than air machine and now here she was watching television, that had not even been invented in the accepted form we know it, until she was 39 years old, watching man land on the moon.
She had now seen the full history of aviation in her lifetime, from the Wright brothers in 1903 to Armstrong landing on the moon in 1969. In fact by the time of her death in the early part of 1979 aged 93 Concorde had been flying commercial daily flights at faster than the speed of sound for three years.
Millvina it occurs to me also had been old enough to see the whole vista of aviation unfolding on the world, though powered flight had advanced by the time she was born in 1912 she certainly lived to see space travel and beyond Concorde flying faster than the speed of sound. They are now a lost generation, Millvina and my Grandma, they saw and experienced so much in one lifetime much more than any of us alive today will ever hope to experience but the one thing they both have in common is the RMS Titanic.
The Dean family, consisting of parents Bertram and Georgette and elder brother Bertram had boarded RMS Titanic at Southampton and were en route for what they thought of as a 'Better Life' in Wichita Kansas where Bertram Dean had family and he had planned to open a tobacco shop.
Millvina was only eight or nine weeks old at the time of the sinking and as she explained many times in interviews that she was too small to be fitted into a life jacket and so was placed in a sack and lowered over the side of the ship into a waiting life boat with her mother and brother. Her father remained on board and he did not survive, if his body was one of those later recovered then it was never identified. Though Georgette Dean's first plans after rescue were to continue to America to fulfill her husbands dream the family returned to England in May 1912.
Despite the ordeal of the sinking the Dean family went on to live a long and happy life. Georgette died in 1975 aged 96 and Bertram died on the 14th April 1992 80 years to the day of the sinking aged 81.
I remember my [paternal] Grandmother often talking about the RMS Titanic whenever she could gain an audience of one or more. She was born on the 4th December 1886 and was 26 years old and married at the time of the sinking. She and my Grandfather, [a Norwegian] merchant seaman, Conrad Theodore Olsen, lived in Liverpool the home port of RMS Titanic.
The story according to Grandma was that Grandfather had just paid off from a ship in Glasgow and returned home Liverpool. After a day or so at home a friend of Grandfather called at the house at 6 Horatio Street to ask if he wanted to sign up for a trip to America, the local White Star Line agency office in Liverpool was trying to make up a shortage of merchant seaman for a ship laying at Southampton. Grandfather declined the offer apparently because he wished to stay a little longer at home before looking for the next job which he hoped might be out of Liverpool. His friend and some others took the job and according to Grandma the ship was the RMS Titanic, so it appears according to Grandma's tale, that the wish of Grandfather to stay a little longer at home saved him from going down with the Titanic.
Now if this story, which was recounted on what seems alomst like a weekly basis, is true or not I don't know. I never knew my Grandfather he died or otherwise went missing long before my father, who like Grandfather was a merchant seaman and also named Conrad Theodore, met and married my mother. In fact Grandfather is a slight mystery because at some point Grandma changed the family name from Olsen back to her maiden name.
I remember in 1969, sitting with Grandma, who was then aged 83, and watching on television Neil Armstrong stepping with one small step for man onto the surface of the moon. I asked Grandma what she thought of it all, there was a slight pause and she replied that she was 17 years old when 'those two Americans' [the Wright brothers] managed to fly their heavier than air machine and now here she was watching television, that had not even been invented in the accepted form we know it, until she was 39 years old, watching man land on the moon.
She had now seen the full history of aviation in her lifetime, from the Wright brothers in 1903 to Armstrong landing on the moon in 1969. In fact by the time of her death in the early part of 1979 aged 93 Concorde had been flying commercial daily flights at faster than the speed of sound for three years.
Millvina it occurs to me also had been old enough to see the whole vista of aviation unfolding on the world, though powered flight had advanced by the time she was born in 1912 she certainly lived to see space travel and beyond Concorde flying faster than the speed of sound. They are now a lost generation, Millvina and my Grandma, they saw and experienced so much in one lifetime much more than any of us alive today will ever hope to experience but the one thing they both have in common is the RMS Titanic.
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
But I don't have an Anorak
Having spent time recently updating my train and railway database information from various notebooks and occasionally the odd scrap of paper onto my laptop computer, in a moment of nostalgia I started to look back over the years at all the data I had accumulated and wondered if I could remember why or even when it was that I became a train spotter or as others may sometimes define it, an Anorak.
I grew up in Kent, a part of the country that was served by that division of the Southern Railway that ran from London down to the South East with the London Terminus being Waterloo and Charing Cross, or to be more geographically correct they are the other way around, and at the other end to such places as Ashford, Chatham Hastings and Folkstone, part of the line in fact now covered by High Speed One for the London - Channel Tunnel and Paris or Brussels. The playground of the school I attended during those pre eleven plus and more importantly pre Beeching days, backed onto a part of the railway line that formed sections of the goods yard for Tonbridge Station, the only barrier between our playground and us infants and the goods yard being a single chain link fence about three feet high.
It did not take long for some of us boys to realise that if we stood at the fence during playtime and waved at the drivers and firemen on the engines, as they moved into or out of the goods yard, as often as not they would wave back and some would even sound the whistle as in clouds of dirty black steam they shunted past us. So it was only a very short progression from this to some of us starting to note the engine numbers and later the engine types down in pages torn from the back of our school exercise books.
I am not sure exactly when how or even by whom it was decided to organise a more formal group, it may have been Phil Walker, who later went on to work for British Railway as a station porter at Tonbridge, but a group was formed and we called ourselves I now recall, somewhat grandly, The Tonbridge Spotters. So it was that some 52 years ago now I first officially changed from a boy who occasionally waved at passing trains to become a fully fledged member of The Tonbridge Spotters, a group of like minded schoolboys, and more importantly friends, when we all failed the eleven plus exams and collectively left primary school and headed off to the local secondary modern, were to stay together until 1964 when we all left school aged 15 and went to make our own way in the world.
We as a group seemed to vary in membership numbers over the years, some would leave the group and some would join as we all ventured unsteadily through the onset of puberty, discovering the opposite sex and being teenagers during the swinging sixties. The one common bond and interest being trains. The Tonbridge Spotters outings were confined mainly to weekends, school holidays or vary occasionally those long warm summer evenings, but outings we did have and perhaps by today's standards they may not have been very adventurous they were enjoyable.
The outings were often planned during school dinner times in a corner of the bike shed or if raining in the school library and with what we thought to be military precision. They varied from sometimes nothing more simple than all meeting up at Tonbridge station, buying a platform ticket, or sometimes not buying a platform ticket, and spending the day sat at the end of a platform pencil and notebook in hand. Occasionally though the outings saw us range further afield, sometimes we would ride our bikes to some distant station and very occasionally, when our pocket money would allow, we would travel to London to spend a day around some of the engine sheds like Nine Elms, sadly now long gone and the area is a housing estate.
One abiding memory I have to this day of those adventures was the snacks or lunch packs our mothers would prepare for us. Without fail and to a boy they would consist of a couple of sandwiches wrapped in greaseproof paper the fillings would invariably be either cheese, spam, paste or egg. Also included would be, if lucky, a bag of crisps, Smiths with the small blue bag of salt, in those far off days crisps did not come in flavours just plain, if crisps were not included then perhaps a hard boiled egg would be added, this would be accompanied by a thermos flask of tea to wash it all down, the whole epicurean delight being carried in a duffle bag over the shoulder, I wonder now if they still make duffle bags.
Even as comparatively young as we were we always adopted the practice of opening all our sandwich boxes and laying them before us and by sharing we told ourselves that it helped maintain a varied diet. From time to time mishaps occurred, occasionally and without thinking one of us would drop our bag to the ground and then hear a slight clinking sound as the glass inner liner of the thermos flask shattered and the unfortunate individual watched as slowly the brown hot liquid seeped out of the bag to form a puddle on the ground, normally this was greeted by a roar of laughter from the rest of us but we would always end up sharing so the worst thing that would happen was that the individual would have to go home and face his mum and own up that he had broken yet another thermos flask. When this happened to me, as it did from time to time, I was always given the lecture about carelessness, and asked in a very stern voice did I know how much these things cost and just to teach me a lesson my pocket money would be diverted the very next week to offset the cost of a replacement. It never was and by the next weeks outing of The Tonbridge Spotters I would always have a new flask for carrying my tea.
Of all of the locomotive types or Class as they are correctly known that populated the Southern Railway during those days we members of The Tonbridge Spotters were impressed that we had our own locomotive class. The Southern Railway V [Schools] Class which was loosely based upon combination of both the Nelson and King Artur Class it was to be the last purpose built heavy express steam locomotive to be designed with a wheel arrangement of 4-4-0. The Schools were designed for no other reason than to run on the Southern Railway where the tunnels were narrow and the turntables at the engine sheds particularly between Tonbridge and Hastings were small, the Schools, I remember we had decided, were our locomotive.
A total of forty of these engines were built between 1930 and 35 and though formerly titled as V Class 4-4-0 they gained their name of Schools Class due to all being named after Public Schools. The Class started to be withdrawn from 1963 and by 1964 they had all gone from public mainline use. Of the forty built only three now remain in private ownership and in preservation, 30925 Cheltenham is owned by the National Railway Collection, 30928 is currently located as a static display at Sheffield Park and the last 30926 Repton is the only Schools Class at present still running and carrying fare paying passengers, this on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.
I live now in the North East, however I am I suppose still a member of The Tonbridge Spotters, I do not ever recall us being formally disbanded we just left school and went our own way, perhaps who knows I may be the sole remaining member of The Tonbridge Spotters. I see now by referring to my various notes and records that though I have seen 30926 Repton many times the first recorded spotting by me was at Ashford on 26 August 1957 and the last time I saw her was 1 July 2008 when I travelled as a passenger on her from Grosmont to Pickering on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway whilst on a day visit, an interval of 51 years.
Tempus Fugit
Tempus Fugit………it certainly has.
I could say that I have been very busy, of course I have, I could say that there has been more important things that kept me away from the Blog, of course there has been, and I could say I have been lazy which is more likely to be the truth, so lazy it is.
So much has happened since the last entry, Christmas for example has been and gone.
The world has gone into a financial free fall that started off in
We have been to
The news over the last few weeks has been about that many of our Members of Parliament have been found out with their collective hand in the in the taxpayers till. If this should come as a surprise to some or not I am unsure, not perhaps that these people have been found out but rather that the public has now discovered that it has been going on for so long and certainly extends back long before this present Government.
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
Holidays
I have not been lazy rather I have been away on holiday.
I think I have become the sort of person, when it comes to a holiday that is, that some years ago I might have accused others as being unimaginative. Throughout the year I do attempt to vary the locations to which I travel for the several holidays that I am now lucky enough to enjoy, and I have for the last five years visited Cornwall for at least one of those holidays. Not just to Cornwall as a county but to the same apartment in the same small seaside town and how very enjoyable it all is.
I must confess that I came to Cornwall late in life and I only discovered both the town and the apartments I stay at by accident; it was whilst talking to a work colleague that first made me start to think about Cornwall as a holiday destination. He had spent many of his holidays in Cornwall during the previous years and I had begun to think that if Cornwall had been a good enough destination for my colleague over that period of time then it may also be good enough for me. I reasoned that whilst I still enjoyed the prospect of travelling abroad I was beginning to question why I was often paying more to the aircraft companies for the fare just to travel to my chosen overseas destination than I was paying for the holiday itself when I got there.
Additionally I was also becoming weary of queuing at airports in either the early hours of the morning or what seemed to be the middle of the night just to fill aircraft seats that suited the airline company but often not me.
Cornwall is an enjoyable place to holiday, it is the simplicity of it all that somehow appeals to me, and it reminds me a little of the many seaside holidays to which I was taken on whilst a child by my parents. Several of them may be listed as the classic British seaside holiday resorts such as Blackpool, Skegness, Rhyl, Ayr and Brighton to name but a few, and mostly spent at a Butlins Holiday Camp.
These holidays were always fun, the sun always shone, though in truth it may not have done. The beaches were always covered in clean golden sand, though in the case of Skegness and Brighton certainly that could not have been the case as the beaches in these two resorts have pebbles on the them. The sea always seemed to be a clear azure blue, but in most cases that would not have been the case either, the North Sea for example is a muddy brown colour, but these are at least my memories whilst a boy on his childhood seaside holidays growing up in the mid fifties.
However, I do really enjoy Cornwall, the light is brighter and because of this, many famous artists such as Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson made it their home. Many of the resorts on what is referred to as the North Coast, though to say this is strictly incorrect as the coastlines on the Cornish peninsular are geographically West or East, are internationally famous for surfing. The sea really is an azure blue and the sand on the beaches really is golden in colour. The attitude and general lifestyle of those lucky enough to live there and to those like me lucky enough to holiday there is so relaxed and so calming.
I think I have become the sort of person, when it comes to a holiday that is, that some years ago I might have accused others as being unimaginative. Throughout the year I do attempt to vary the locations to which I travel for the several holidays that I am now lucky enough to enjoy, and I have for the last five years visited Cornwall for at least one of those holidays. Not just to Cornwall as a county but to the same apartment in the same small seaside town and how very enjoyable it all is.
I must confess that I came to Cornwall late in life and I only discovered both the town and the apartments I stay at by accident; it was whilst talking to a work colleague that first made me start to think about Cornwall as a holiday destination. He had spent many of his holidays in Cornwall during the previous years and I had begun to think that if Cornwall had been a good enough destination for my colleague over that period of time then it may also be good enough for me. I reasoned that whilst I still enjoyed the prospect of travelling abroad I was beginning to question why I was often paying more to the aircraft companies for the fare just to travel to my chosen overseas destination than I was paying for the holiday itself when I got there.
Additionally I was also becoming weary of queuing at airports in either the early hours of the morning or what seemed to be the middle of the night just to fill aircraft seats that suited the airline company but often not me.
Cornwall is an enjoyable place to holiday, it is the simplicity of it all that somehow appeals to me, and it reminds me a little of the many seaside holidays to which I was taken on whilst a child by my parents. Several of them may be listed as the classic British seaside holiday resorts such as Blackpool, Skegness, Rhyl, Ayr and Brighton to name but a few, and mostly spent at a Butlins Holiday Camp.
These holidays were always fun, the sun always shone, though in truth it may not have done. The beaches were always covered in clean golden sand, though in the case of Skegness and Brighton certainly that could not have been the case as the beaches in these two resorts have pebbles on the them. The sea always seemed to be a clear azure blue, but in most cases that would not have been the case either, the North Sea for example is a muddy brown colour, but these are at least my memories whilst a boy on his childhood seaside holidays growing up in the mid fifties.
However, I do really enjoy Cornwall, the light is brighter and because of this, many famous artists such as Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson made it their home. Many of the resorts on what is referred to as the North Coast, though to say this is strictly incorrect as the coastlines on the Cornish peninsular are geographically West or East, are internationally famous for surfing. The sea really is an azure blue and the sand on the beaches really is golden in colour. The attitude and general lifestyle of those lucky enough to live there and to those like me lucky enough to holiday there is so relaxed and so calming.
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
Computor Flight Simulator
I am an Flight Simulator Pilot with over two thousand hours of flight time on the Microsoft series of Flight Simulator over the last nineteen years or so, though I don’t bother to count hours any more. After a hard day at my real job or when I have a spare half hour or so I load up the programme, slip on the headset lower the lights and get ready for some relaxation, but I am getting slightly ahead of myself, let me take you back to how it all started.
My uncle flew Gliders into Arnhem as part of Operation Market Garden on the night of 17th September 1944. He had been a Sergeant in the Royal Engineers when a year earlier in 1943 he saw a notice asking for volunteers to train as Glider Pilots in the newly formed Glider Pilot Regiment, he volunteered, passed the course and transferred to the new Regiment, and so it was that on a cloudy Sunday night the 17th September he crashed landed [all Gliders by default crash land] his Horsa MK 1 Glider carrying troops of the British Parachute Regiment into a dark field in Holland. He was later one of the lucky ones who acted as a guide to get the troops out to the Rhine where they were brought back across the river over a period of two nights by small boats.
After the war ended he remained in the Army and when the Glider Pilot Regiment was disbanded and the new Army Air Corps was formed he transferred and at first flew Chipmunk and Auster then later Beaver fixed wing and then converting to Helicopters, Scout and the Sioux. He retired from military service in 1970 his last active post being Officer Commanding Flying Wing at the Army Air Corps Centre at Middle Wallop. It was as a direct result of listening to him telling me lots of stories whilst I was growing up that introduced my interest in flying and later when like him I chose the Army as a career I too learnt to fly.
My first Flight Simulator was version 4 of the Microsoft series released in 1989. This consisting of a split screen on your monitor the top half attempting to provide a representation of the view/scenery and the bottom half the cockpit instrumentation. Of course by what we now think of as acceptable it was more than a little basic, but back then when it was all new and running on 8 Bit computers it was nothing short of revolutionary. Many happy hours were spent flying around a very blank and bare landscape trying to apply very basic navigation, the scenery only coming back to life again when nearing a major airport. I stayed true with FS4 until the release of MSFS 95 in 1996.
MSFS 95 had much better graphics [well I thought so anyway] and it was a much more slicker product, for the first time, well for me anyway, the pilot could chose between about 6 aircraft types and again the sim pilot now was able, in theory anyway, able to plan a flight from A to B and fly it, agreed the scenery at times was basic and the sim pilot was required to still have a fairly good imagination, but it was at the time a great product that was until the mould was broken by a company called Eidos Looking Glass Technologies.
In 1997 I was reading a computer magazine and noticed an article about a new type of flight simulator called Flight Unlimited II, this was in fact the second one in the series by this developer, but for some reason the first one had passed me by. However the article gave a web link where the reader could download a demo of the new simulator, which I did and I was absolutely blown away. The graphics were out of this world, the sim had a choice of aircraft type, it had a dynamic weather system, and it featured AI aircraft and an active and working ATC system, goodbye MS 95 hello FU II. I had to wait a couple of weeks before the whole game had been released in the UK but I rushed off to the shop and bought a copy. As I sat at home installing the game onto my computer I just hoped that my 8Mb of Ram was enough to cope with the huge jump in technology that was about to hit it, however I need not of worried, the 8 Mb ran it with no problems at all, I have to laugh now writing this, I have aircraft installed on my system now that are more than 8 Mb.
FU II also did something else for me. One day I was reading a flight sim web site when I saw a mention for a VA for FU II, I did not know what a VA was so I read on. It seems that a chap called Fred Brubaker had formed a fictional flying company based on the FU II simulator based at Half Moon Bay [KHAF]. He was inviting anyone to join and promised to provide virtual general cargo and pax runs in return for virtual pay, the company was called Bay Area Charter. When we think today of all the many VAs there are to cover every taste in the FS world Fred was years ahead of his time. He developed Bay Area Charter into a working company he invented stories to intertwine in between the flying, he had a web page with a pilot roster, everyone got paid at the end of the month, and he devised a flight brokerage where you could buy your own aircraft from the company, thereby allowing a bit more profit on earnings than hire a company aircraft from Fred where he took a cut. Some pilots would be invited by Fred to earn a little more by flying some ‘special jobs’. It was not long before Bay Area Charter had a following of about 30 pilots and I am sure many of us really thought that we were real pilots and that Bay Area Charter really did exist, that is how professional Fred was. Sadly however the end had to come, the bubble burst when Fred announced without any warning that he was closing up shop and he did just that, he shut the web site down within 24 hours and that was that.
Well not quite, three pilots from BAC me, Richard and a lady called Shawn decided BAC should not just die, but there was not a lot we could do about it, or was there. After a furious flurry of e mails between the three of us Shawn just said ‘Why don’t we set up our own VA still based on FU II but moving on a little from BAC’, why not indeed agreed Richard and I, so we did. The new company was called Pier Glass Aviation and moved its FBO from Half Moon Bay to San Jose International. We got all the other BAC pilots to move with us, Richard who worked in IT put a web page together, I wrote a set of assignments and put the roster and wages page together and Shawn wrote the background story that Fred had been dealing with the Mafia and forgetting to inform the IRS about some [or most] of BAC earnings and so had been arrested one dark night. In an attempt to salvage their property the BAC pilots turned up at Half Moon Bay before the Police and FBI could get there, they collected anything of any use or value and flew whatever aircraft they could out of Half Moon Bay into San Jose and painted all the aircraft markings out.
So it was that PGA took to the virtual skies.
PGA answered to nobody, they paid no bills no taxes, and they stole from everyone except themselves and lived by the motto ‘If your paying we are flying’. There was no such thing as bad weather or unserviceable aircraft, you flew or answered to ‘The Boss’, if you flew [which was wise to do so when told] you got paid and a monthly share of the goods which was mostly booze stolen from some cargo run or other.
It soon became clear to us at PGA that FU II was far to limiting in terms of area and so after a discussion we agreed to change to MSFS 98 and 2000 that had been released in 1997 and 1999, by changing back to MSFS the whole world opened up to PGA and for some years the VA flourished, like all VAs some members left and some new members joined. It came to the point however that we could not write enough assignments and so changed to a random number generator similar to the type of thing that is used on ‘War Gaming’ to provide an assignment and the level of pay. Sadly however this proved to be the start of the end for PGA. It was not a popular choice and pilots found it hard to invent funny stories about their flights when the assignment had been selected for them on the basis of a number generator. Over the next year or so pilots drifted away until PGA consisted of about three or four regulars, and mostly it has ground itself into the ground. PGA still lives on, the web site is still there, I have a look from time to time by all is silent there now.
So here I was just about to change from MSFS 2000 to MSFS 2002 but I soon grew bored with flying on my own again however good 2002 and its third party following was, I for one needed a direction, I needed a VA. Like most things I was browsing a few web pages when I found Solent Airlines, a UK Southampton based [though later moving to Southend] VA flying a mixture of Prop and Jet short to medium flight pax and freight. Solent was a formal airline, no pay, no stealing lying or cheating, the pilot bid for a flight flew it and had their hours recorded. It sounds dull after BAC and PGA but it wasn’t, for some reason the formal structure was fun and it had a great and lively forum and everyone got on together. Solent went from strength to strength, we all flew when we could and all being UK based we all met in the evenings on the forum and had a chat with each other, it really was good. Like most thing in the FS world the day came when Bob and Julie who ran Solent decided to close it down, their two daughters then becoming teenagers needed a little more Mum and Dad time and so sadly Solent Airlines closed just as I changed from MSFS 2002 to 2004 my current simulator.
Here I was back to flying on my own, it was okay for while but while I was enjoying 2004 but it soon became clear to me that however good MSFS is and despite the advance from Version 4 to 2004 I need some friends. I was one evening looking for a good helicopter and was browsing the Hovercontrol web site when I started to read the forums a post caught my eye about some VA that paid you [the pilot] money, dear me I thought we were doing that way back in BAC not very original is it I thought but for some reason I read on, it intrigued me, maybe it might interest me I thought, I made a note of the web address and moved on to another post.. It was some hours later when I thought about seeing what this Sweet Shell was about so I cut and paste the web address and sat there as the page loaded.
I looked around as much as I could, I read some of the posts that were open to me without becoming a member, what a set of oddballs I thought, hey these guys are off the wall, half of them are obsessed with naked woman the other half……………well I dare not think what the other half were like……………. I sat back in my chair and laughed, this is the biggest set of pirates I had met since PGA days I must have some of this, these guys really know how to enjoy themselves.
I signed up and put my first post on the forum and waited, then I got some replies hey I was welcomed into the fold, these guys were normal, that was blow, still who cares the point is everyone is part of the fun, everyone is equal, we are all part of a family and that family is Sweet Shells the biggest group of Hippy Sky Truckers around and we are proud of it. We like our flying, we like our woman naked and we like our booze.
So here I am almost 60 years old mixing on equal terms with guys half my age [or less] with something we all enjoy and have in common Flight Simulation.
My uncle flew Gliders into Arnhem as part of Operation Market Garden on the night of 17th September 1944. He had been a Sergeant in the Royal Engineers when a year earlier in 1943 he saw a notice asking for volunteers to train as Glider Pilots in the newly formed Glider Pilot Regiment, he volunteered, passed the course and transferred to the new Regiment, and so it was that on a cloudy Sunday night the 17th September he crashed landed [all Gliders by default crash land] his Horsa MK 1 Glider carrying troops of the British Parachute Regiment into a dark field in Holland. He was later one of the lucky ones who acted as a guide to get the troops out to the Rhine where they were brought back across the river over a period of two nights by small boats.
After the war ended he remained in the Army and when the Glider Pilot Regiment was disbanded and the new Army Air Corps was formed he transferred and at first flew Chipmunk and Auster then later Beaver fixed wing and then converting to Helicopters, Scout and the Sioux. He retired from military service in 1970 his last active post being Officer Commanding Flying Wing at the Army Air Corps Centre at Middle Wallop. It was as a direct result of listening to him telling me lots of stories whilst I was growing up that introduced my interest in flying and later when like him I chose the Army as a career I too learnt to fly.
My first Flight Simulator was version 4 of the Microsoft series released in 1989. This consisting of a split screen on your monitor the top half attempting to provide a representation of the view/scenery and the bottom half the cockpit instrumentation. Of course by what we now think of as acceptable it was more than a little basic, but back then when it was all new and running on 8 Bit computers it was nothing short of revolutionary. Many happy hours were spent flying around a very blank and bare landscape trying to apply very basic navigation, the scenery only coming back to life again when nearing a major airport. I stayed true with FS4 until the release of MSFS 95 in 1996.
MSFS 95 had much better graphics [well I thought so anyway] and it was a much more slicker product, for the first time, well for me anyway, the pilot could chose between about 6 aircraft types and again the sim pilot now was able, in theory anyway, able to plan a flight from A to B and fly it, agreed the scenery at times was basic and the sim pilot was required to still have a fairly good imagination, but it was at the time a great product that was until the mould was broken by a company called Eidos Looking Glass Technologies.
In 1997 I was reading a computer magazine and noticed an article about a new type of flight simulator called Flight Unlimited II, this was in fact the second one in the series by this developer, but for some reason the first one had passed me by. However the article gave a web link where the reader could download a demo of the new simulator, which I did and I was absolutely blown away. The graphics were out of this world, the sim had a choice of aircraft type, it had a dynamic weather system, and it featured AI aircraft and an active and working ATC system, goodbye MS 95 hello FU II. I had to wait a couple of weeks before the whole game had been released in the UK but I rushed off to the shop and bought a copy. As I sat at home installing the game onto my computer I just hoped that my 8Mb of Ram was enough to cope with the huge jump in technology that was about to hit it, however I need not of worried, the 8 Mb ran it with no problems at all, I have to laugh now writing this, I have aircraft installed on my system now that are more than 8 Mb.
FU II also did something else for me. One day I was reading a flight sim web site when I saw a mention for a VA for FU II, I did not know what a VA was so I read on. It seems that a chap called Fred Brubaker had formed a fictional flying company based on the FU II simulator based at Half Moon Bay [KHAF]. He was inviting anyone to join and promised to provide virtual general cargo and pax runs in return for virtual pay, the company was called Bay Area Charter. When we think today of all the many VAs there are to cover every taste in the FS world Fred was years ahead of his time. He developed Bay Area Charter into a working company he invented stories to intertwine in between the flying, he had a web page with a pilot roster, everyone got paid at the end of the month, and he devised a flight brokerage where you could buy your own aircraft from the company, thereby allowing a bit more profit on earnings than hire a company aircraft from Fred where he took a cut. Some pilots would be invited by Fred to earn a little more by flying some ‘special jobs’. It was not long before Bay Area Charter had a following of about 30 pilots and I am sure many of us really thought that we were real pilots and that Bay Area Charter really did exist, that is how professional Fred was. Sadly however the end had to come, the bubble burst when Fred announced without any warning that he was closing up shop and he did just that, he shut the web site down within 24 hours and that was that.
Well not quite, three pilots from BAC me, Richard and a lady called Shawn decided BAC should not just die, but there was not a lot we could do about it, or was there. After a furious flurry of e mails between the three of us Shawn just said ‘Why don’t we set up our own VA still based on FU II but moving on a little from BAC’, why not indeed agreed Richard and I, so we did. The new company was called Pier Glass Aviation and moved its FBO from Half Moon Bay to San Jose International. We got all the other BAC pilots to move with us, Richard who worked in IT put a web page together, I wrote a set of assignments and put the roster and wages page together and Shawn wrote the background story that Fred had been dealing with the Mafia and forgetting to inform the IRS about some [or most] of BAC earnings and so had been arrested one dark night. In an attempt to salvage their property the BAC pilots turned up at Half Moon Bay before the Police and FBI could get there, they collected anything of any use or value and flew whatever aircraft they could out of Half Moon Bay into San Jose and painted all the aircraft markings out.
So it was that PGA took to the virtual skies.
PGA answered to nobody, they paid no bills no taxes, and they stole from everyone except themselves and lived by the motto ‘If your paying we are flying’. There was no such thing as bad weather or unserviceable aircraft, you flew or answered to ‘The Boss’, if you flew [which was wise to do so when told] you got paid and a monthly share of the goods which was mostly booze stolen from some cargo run or other.
It soon became clear to us at PGA that FU II was far to limiting in terms of area and so after a discussion we agreed to change to MSFS 98 and 2000 that had been released in 1997 and 1999, by changing back to MSFS the whole world opened up to PGA and for some years the VA flourished, like all VAs some members left and some new members joined. It came to the point however that we could not write enough assignments and so changed to a random number generator similar to the type of thing that is used on ‘War Gaming’ to provide an assignment and the level of pay. Sadly however this proved to be the start of the end for PGA. It was not a popular choice and pilots found it hard to invent funny stories about their flights when the assignment had been selected for them on the basis of a number generator. Over the next year or so pilots drifted away until PGA consisted of about three or four regulars, and mostly it has ground itself into the ground. PGA still lives on, the web site is still there, I have a look from time to time by all is silent there now.
So here I was just about to change from MSFS 2000 to MSFS 2002 but I soon grew bored with flying on my own again however good 2002 and its third party following was, I for one needed a direction, I needed a VA. Like most things I was browsing a few web pages when I found Solent Airlines, a UK Southampton based [though later moving to Southend] VA flying a mixture of Prop and Jet short to medium flight pax and freight. Solent was a formal airline, no pay, no stealing lying or cheating, the pilot bid for a flight flew it and had their hours recorded. It sounds dull after BAC and PGA but it wasn’t, for some reason the formal structure was fun and it had a great and lively forum and everyone got on together. Solent went from strength to strength, we all flew when we could and all being UK based we all met in the evenings on the forum and had a chat with each other, it really was good. Like most thing in the FS world the day came when Bob and Julie who ran Solent decided to close it down, their two daughters then becoming teenagers needed a little more Mum and Dad time and so sadly Solent Airlines closed just as I changed from MSFS 2002 to 2004 my current simulator.
Here I was back to flying on my own, it was okay for while but while I was enjoying 2004 but it soon became clear to me that however good MSFS is and despite the advance from Version 4 to 2004 I need some friends. I was one evening looking for a good helicopter and was browsing the Hovercontrol web site when I started to read the forums a post caught my eye about some VA that paid you [the pilot] money, dear me I thought we were doing that way back in BAC not very original is it I thought but for some reason I read on, it intrigued me, maybe it might interest me I thought, I made a note of the web address and moved on to another post.. It was some hours later when I thought about seeing what this Sweet Shell was about so I cut and paste the web address and sat there as the page loaded.
I looked around as much as I could, I read some of the posts that were open to me without becoming a member, what a set of oddballs I thought, hey these guys are off the wall, half of them are obsessed with naked woman the other half……………well I dare not think what the other half were like……………. I sat back in my chair and laughed, this is the biggest set of pirates I had met since PGA days I must have some of this, these guys really know how to enjoy themselves.
I signed up and put my first post on the forum and waited, then I got some replies hey I was welcomed into the fold, these guys were normal, that was blow, still who cares the point is everyone is part of the fun, everyone is equal, we are all part of a family and that family is Sweet Shells the biggest group of Hippy Sky Truckers around and we are proud of it. We like our flying, we like our woman naked and we like our booze.
So here I am almost 60 years old mixing on equal terms with guys half my age [or less] with something we all enjoy and have in common Flight Simulation.
Saturday, 6 September 2008
Catching Up
Well time again allows me to add yet another piece of literary ramblings to my slowly evolving Blog.
Heather has been and gone and the four of us [to include our spouses of course] had a very enjoyable evening together. Heather bought some family photos for us all to look at and even after all these years and when you have reached the age that you begin to think there is not much family history that is unknown, I was very surprised to be presented with a photo of my grandmother, taken to our best collective guess we think sometime around the early or mid twenties, of her and some others [who sadly we are unable to identify] as being a passenger on the Queen Mary. A lot of talking about various relations, cousins, mothers, aunts and grand parents and it seems now that every sentence or part of the conversation began............... "Do you remember.................or.........When you went in the door the room on the right"............
This was followed by a meal at the Hamilton Russell Inn where Heather and her husband Les were very impressed by the home made steak and kidney pudding, mash and accompanied by what is known these days in the restaurant trade as seasonal vegetables. I was able to give Heather a copy of John [Jack] Lyons’ [her grandfather] Army service papers showing details of his service from being a member of the 3rd Suffolk Battalion Militia in 1900 to enlisting as a regular in 1902 into the Army Service Corps and his eventual discharge late in 1919. It contains some very interesting reading and some very valuable information and Heather has now discovered for the first time, thirty seven years after his death at the ripe old age of eighty six, that he had tattoos, and who said genealogy was not interesting.
I collected the new car on Monday 1st September to coincide with the issue of the new registration number. We had started to look around for a new car about three months ago. After much time spent on the internet looking at various models we had by early August whittled the choice down to two main contenders and we then proceeded to arrange a test drive of each.
Our requirements in any car are primarily that of reasonable fuel consumption, not I should hasten to add because I have some overwhelming urge to save the planet, rather that I am careful where money is concerned and I have always demanded good value for my money in all things and do not see why I should own a car that would not deliver at least mid thirties to low forties miles per gallon. After a test drive in each it bought us to a stalemate, we liked both vehicles and each met many of our requirements, though each had their own good and bad points, on balance each was a car we were happy to own, it all now came down to costs.
The first dealer offered a fair price for trade in of our old car and then did very little else to persuade us to purchase a new car from him, to be fair there was after a lot of haggling a small reduction in the list price but hardly what in hindsight I might call a deal breaker. We visited the second dealership the same afternoon and were very impressed to find that almost immediately we were offered a price reduction off the list price, this added to about the same offer for trade in made this car a good deal. I was just about to agree to the deal and shake hands when I must have sounded a little hesitant and the dealer then added a further reduction off the list price. We signed and agreed the deal straight away before the dealer changed his mind, we agreed the colour and delivery date and that was that.
I have had the car now for five days and I have say I like it, there are some very quirky items that I am still coming to terms with like auto rain sensing wipers and auto lights, that come on when the ambient light gets low and turn off when it brightens up, but I think it is fun.
Heather has been and gone and the four of us [to include our spouses of course] had a very enjoyable evening together. Heather bought some family photos for us all to look at and even after all these years and when you have reached the age that you begin to think there is not much family history that is unknown, I was very surprised to be presented with a photo of my grandmother, taken to our best collective guess we think sometime around the early or mid twenties, of her and some others [who sadly we are unable to identify] as being a passenger on the Queen Mary. A lot of talking about various relations, cousins, mothers, aunts and grand parents and it seems now that every sentence or part of the conversation began............... "Do you remember.................or.........When you went in the door the room on the right"............
This was followed by a meal at the Hamilton Russell Inn where Heather and her husband Les were very impressed by the home made steak and kidney pudding, mash and accompanied by what is known these days in the restaurant trade as seasonal vegetables. I was able to give Heather a copy of John [Jack] Lyons’ [her grandfather] Army service papers showing details of his service from being a member of the 3rd Suffolk Battalion Militia in 1900 to enlisting as a regular in 1902 into the Army Service Corps and his eventual discharge late in 1919. It contains some very interesting reading and some very valuable information and Heather has now discovered for the first time, thirty seven years after his death at the ripe old age of eighty six, that he had tattoos, and who said genealogy was not interesting.
I collected the new car on Monday 1st September to coincide with the issue of the new registration number. We had started to look around for a new car about three months ago. After much time spent on the internet looking at various models we had by early August whittled the choice down to two main contenders and we then proceeded to arrange a test drive of each.
Our requirements in any car are primarily that of reasonable fuel consumption, not I should hasten to add because I have some overwhelming urge to save the planet, rather that I am careful where money is concerned and I have always demanded good value for my money in all things and do not see why I should own a car that would not deliver at least mid thirties to low forties miles per gallon. After a test drive in each it bought us to a stalemate, we liked both vehicles and each met many of our requirements, though each had their own good and bad points, on balance each was a car we were happy to own, it all now came down to costs.
The first dealer offered a fair price for trade in of our old car and then did very little else to persuade us to purchase a new car from him, to be fair there was after a lot of haggling a small reduction in the list price but hardly what in hindsight I might call a deal breaker. We visited the second dealership the same afternoon and were very impressed to find that almost immediately we were offered a price reduction off the list price, this added to about the same offer for trade in made this car a good deal. I was just about to agree to the deal and shake hands when I must have sounded a little hesitant and the dealer then added a further reduction off the list price. We signed and agreed the deal straight away before the dealer changed his mind, we agreed the colour and delivery date and that was that.
I have had the car now for five days and I have say I like it, there are some very quirky items that I am still coming to terms with like auto rain sensing wipers and auto lights, that come on when the ambient light gets low and turn off when it brightens up, but I think it is fun.
Friday, 29 August 2008
Genealogy, it is only history.
I am undertaking research into my family tree. This is not a new venture rather something I and my daughter have been steadily and methodically plodding away at for a couple of years now. I think I remember reading somewhere that the research of genealogy is the single largest interest group on the internet.
I have often been questioned why are we doing this to which my stock and often glib answer is why not, but the real reason I think is that it is a combination of two parts, firstly to find out who our family ancestors were, where they lived what employments did they have and secondly to record whilst recent events are still fresh in our minds who we are, where we live and what we did, for generations of our family yet to come. It is perhaps no more that an exercise in research and historical record gathering and recording events up to date for future generations.
We have during our spasmodic research so far been able to trace our maternal / maternal and the maternal / paternal line back to the mid 1700’s. In addition there have been interesting diversions and offshoots with my son in law whose family is traced back to the mid 1700’s and my daughter in law who so far has recorded her family back to the mid 1800’s. Yes it is certainly true to say that what started as ‘our family tree’ has happily extended side branches and is now forming a truly extended and in the case of my daughter in law who extends into Eastern Europe, a truly international tree.
It is human nature I expect for anyone engaged in this type of project to hope to find a direct link to a noble or regal family line, if not a close second would be to find some notorious criminal or murderer, I have to report so far we have found neither. However that is not to say that we have found nothing of interest that raised an eyebrow. There is, for example, on my maternal / paternal side, Thomas James Edwards [born 14 March 1815 died 29 January 1875] who married twice, firstly Elizabeth Banks [born 1815] of whom little is known and secondly Fanny Jefferies [born 1835 died 1898]. Thomas was by trade and profession what was called a Modeller and Plasterer; he designed, made and crafted ornate plaster ceiling and wall mouldings. Of the various obituaries to him the Southampton Times dated 6 February 1875 mentions that his talent and the purity of his taste and the excellence of all his ornamentations was much in demand. He was called to produce his work at Buckingham Palace, Osborne House, the summer residence of Queen Victoria, and some other principle residences particularly those of Lord Portman, Earl Rivers and the Earl of Portsmouth.
This genealogical adventure has also made it possible for us to reacquaint ourselves with distant relations, not the sort that you had forgotten about or those you did not know even existed but the type that you send a Christmas card to each year with the vague promise that ‘we should meet up again soon’. Next week my second cousin Heather, her Grandmother and my Grandmother are sisters, my Mother and her Mother were cousins and we share a common Great Grand Father Arthur J French, is coming to visit. We will catch up on old times we have planned a meal we will compare photograph albums and we will try and remember the last time we met more than fifty years ago.
I have often been questioned why are we doing this to which my stock and often glib answer is why not, but the real reason I think is that it is a combination of two parts, firstly to find out who our family ancestors were, where they lived what employments did they have and secondly to record whilst recent events are still fresh in our minds who we are, where we live and what we did, for generations of our family yet to come. It is perhaps no more that an exercise in research and historical record gathering and recording events up to date for future generations.
We have during our spasmodic research so far been able to trace our maternal / maternal and the maternal / paternal line back to the mid 1700’s. In addition there have been interesting diversions and offshoots with my son in law whose family is traced back to the mid 1700’s and my daughter in law who so far has recorded her family back to the mid 1800’s. Yes it is certainly true to say that what started as ‘our family tree’ has happily extended side branches and is now forming a truly extended and in the case of my daughter in law who extends into Eastern Europe, a truly international tree.
It is human nature I expect for anyone engaged in this type of project to hope to find a direct link to a noble or regal family line, if not a close second would be to find some notorious criminal or murderer, I have to report so far we have found neither. However that is not to say that we have found nothing of interest that raised an eyebrow. There is, for example, on my maternal / paternal side, Thomas James Edwards [born 14 March 1815 died 29 January 1875] who married twice, firstly Elizabeth Banks [born 1815] of whom little is known and secondly Fanny Jefferies [born 1835 died 1898]. Thomas was by trade and profession what was called a Modeller and Plasterer; he designed, made and crafted ornate plaster ceiling and wall mouldings. Of the various obituaries to him the Southampton Times dated 6 February 1875 mentions that his talent and the purity of his taste and the excellence of all his ornamentations was much in demand. He was called to produce his work at Buckingham Palace, Osborne House, the summer residence of Queen Victoria, and some other principle residences particularly those of Lord Portman, Earl Rivers and the Earl of Portsmouth.
This genealogical adventure has also made it possible for us to reacquaint ourselves with distant relations, not the sort that you had forgotten about or those you did not know even existed but the type that you send a Christmas card to each year with the vague promise that ‘we should meet up again soon’. Next week my second cousin Heather, her Grandmother and my Grandmother are sisters, my Mother and her Mother were cousins and we share a common Great Grand Father Arthur J French, is coming to visit. We will catch up on old times we have planned a meal we will compare photograph albums and we will try and remember the last time we met more than fifty years ago.
Wednesday, 27 August 2008
Another Birthday
Yesterday was my birthday; I am now officially one year older and have taken yet another faltering step toward my bus pass, retirement, pension and ultimately death.
I am never sure if we should feel any different when it is our birthday, should by being a year older than you were yesterday, or in my case the day before, make us feel older, and if so how exactly do we do that ? Feeling older surely is a gradual process and not at all the same as getting older. The fact that I am no longer able to run as fast as I once could when I was a teenager, for example, is perhaps a mote point when I now find it difficult to run at all and perhaps now see no good reason to do so, why run my mind questions, there is no sense in it. But does this mean that this now enforced inability to run with any sense of purpose is a case of getting older or feeling older, perhaps it may be both.
When I stand now in front of the mirror I see staring wistfully back at me a slightly overweight slightly haggard looking man well past his prime with a slightly bulging stomach and hair growing out of his nose and ears. What I feel inside when I stare into that mirror is that I am transported back more than forty five years to a fifteen year old schoolboy with more than a twinkle of mischief in his eyes, a thirst for adventure and a hunger for life. A boy who grew up in what now seems to be those black and white days of the fifties and sixties, a boy who witnessed before him the change of an established society, a boy who became part of that change and embraced it wholeheartedly. There is a proclamation that states, that if you remember the sixties then you were not there, well I do remember the sixties and I was most definitely there and what fun it was.
Is it always the case that many look back and tell everyone who might stay long enough to listen about how good it was back in the old days, do they really mean that, was it really so good back then, when ever then was of course. I find myself doing that, I often now sound like my father when I now tell my grown up children about how it was much better when I was a teenager than it is today for teenagers, I see my children rolling their eyes heavenwards just as I did so all those years ago. Of course it was not better then; modern society and modern technology make life today so much easier and so much more comfortable and much more exciting. But then I also remember that it is my generation [generally speaking] those like me who grew up in the fifties and sixties that have invented, devised adapted, updated and brought this modern technology we have today to the masses and think they have done so not out of necessity but out of learning.
I am of the group in my generation that grew up pre decimalisation, pre calculators, and computers, pre colour television and pre space travel but also of that group who were the first to miss National Service, my group of my generation grew up on the cusp of social reform and I am glad of that. The writer Alan Bennett mentions about his own growing up in Leeds during the forties and fifties [though he did not miss National Service] that his education was free, though perhaps not free but owing as it had been paid for by that generation before him that did not have it and they had in kind paid for it. Like Alan Bennett my education was free and I am glad of it though sadly and as I know to my own cost much of it is not free today.
Our children and grandchildren today do have things [though not as much as we think] that are free, it is their right, though free to them today but paid for by us yesterday.
And so here I am another year older, another birthday come and gone, and so statistically and legally I am one year older however I am inside still that fifteen year old kid I always think I am and when I close my eyes for a moment in my mind it is still 1964.
I am never sure if we should feel any different when it is our birthday, should by being a year older than you were yesterday, or in my case the day before, make us feel older, and if so how exactly do we do that ? Feeling older surely is a gradual process and not at all the same as getting older. The fact that I am no longer able to run as fast as I once could when I was a teenager, for example, is perhaps a mote point when I now find it difficult to run at all and perhaps now see no good reason to do so, why run my mind questions, there is no sense in it. But does this mean that this now enforced inability to run with any sense of purpose is a case of getting older or feeling older, perhaps it may be both.
When I stand now in front of the mirror I see staring wistfully back at me a slightly overweight slightly haggard looking man well past his prime with a slightly bulging stomach and hair growing out of his nose and ears. What I feel inside when I stare into that mirror is that I am transported back more than forty five years to a fifteen year old schoolboy with more than a twinkle of mischief in his eyes, a thirst for adventure and a hunger for life. A boy who grew up in what now seems to be those black and white days of the fifties and sixties, a boy who witnessed before him the change of an established society, a boy who became part of that change and embraced it wholeheartedly. There is a proclamation that states, that if you remember the sixties then you were not there, well I do remember the sixties and I was most definitely there and what fun it was.
Is it always the case that many look back and tell everyone who might stay long enough to listen about how good it was back in the old days, do they really mean that, was it really so good back then, when ever then was of course. I find myself doing that, I often now sound like my father when I now tell my grown up children about how it was much better when I was a teenager than it is today for teenagers, I see my children rolling their eyes heavenwards just as I did so all those years ago. Of course it was not better then; modern society and modern technology make life today so much easier and so much more comfortable and much more exciting. But then I also remember that it is my generation [generally speaking] those like me who grew up in the fifties and sixties that have invented, devised adapted, updated and brought this modern technology we have today to the masses and think they have done so not out of necessity but out of learning.
I am of the group in my generation that grew up pre decimalisation, pre calculators, and computers, pre colour television and pre space travel but also of that group who were the first to miss National Service, my group of my generation grew up on the cusp of social reform and I am glad of that. The writer Alan Bennett mentions about his own growing up in Leeds during the forties and fifties [though he did not miss National Service] that his education was free, though perhaps not free but owing as it had been paid for by that generation before him that did not have it and they had in kind paid for it. Like Alan Bennett my education was free and I am glad of it though sadly and as I know to my own cost much of it is not free today.
Our children and grandchildren today do have things [though not as much as we think] that are free, it is their right, though free to them today but paid for by us yesterday.
And so here I am another year older, another birthday come and gone, and so statistically and legally I am one year older however I am inside still that fifteen year old kid I always think I am and when I close my eyes for a moment in my mind it is still 1964.
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
Baseball and the Cleveland Indians
Yet another win for the Cleveland Indians though as seems to be their habit of late they had to take the slightly difficult route to success.
Playing away to the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park Detroit the Tigers took the early lead with one run in the first innings. Cleveland replied with two runs one each in the 2nd and 3rd to take the lead 2-1. Detroit then scored again with one run in the 5th and again in the 7th at the Indians scored one in the 8th, the score was tied at 3-3.
Into overtime and the 9th innings produced no runs for either team. The Indians take the batting for the start of the 10th and after a pitching change by the Tigers from Fernando Rodney to Casey Fossum; Grady Sizemore comes into bat and is caught at short stop by Edgar Renteria. The Tigers change pitcher again and Gary Glover replaces Casey Fossum. Cleveland’s second bat for the 10th is Franklin Gutierrez who then promptly hits a home run to make the score 4-3. It then takes on an air of excitement to see if the Indians can improve and score again or if not hold off the Tigers.
Of the remaining Indian bats, Ben Francisco is caught at centre field by Curtis Granderson, Jhonny Peralta takes a single on a line drive to left field and then Shin-Soo Choo gets it all wrong again by grounding out and allowing second base to throw to first base and its three out. Luckily for Cleveland and thanks to some accurate fielding Detroit is unable to score and the final score is Cleveland Indians 4 Detroit Tigers 3, another close match and an exciting finish.
This win over Detroit now give the Cleveland Indians their 8th straight win in a row however due to their very poor overall performance during most of this season they still remain in fourth place behind Detroit and above Kansas City in the American League Central Division.
However a report on this game cannot pass without mention of the hero of the team Grady Sizemore. Grady hit two home runs during the game and in doing so became only the fourteenth man in the American League history to put together a 30-30 season, that is to say 30 Home Runs and 30 Stolen Bases in a season, the last to do it was Alfonso Soriano in 2005 playing for the Texas Rangers. In fact Sizemore hit his second home run during the 3rd innings to give him a total of 31 home runs and he had before starting the game already scored on 34 stolen bases. Grady is only the second Cleveland Indians player to reach this milestone the first being Joe Carter in 1987.
Playing away to the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park Detroit the Tigers took the early lead with one run in the first innings. Cleveland replied with two runs one each in the 2nd and 3rd to take the lead 2-1. Detroit then scored again with one run in the 5th and again in the 7th at the Indians scored one in the 8th, the score was tied at 3-3.
Into overtime and the 9th innings produced no runs for either team. The Indians take the batting for the start of the 10th and after a pitching change by the Tigers from Fernando Rodney to Casey Fossum; Grady Sizemore comes into bat and is caught at short stop by Edgar Renteria. The Tigers change pitcher again and Gary Glover replaces Casey Fossum. Cleveland’s second bat for the 10th is Franklin Gutierrez who then promptly hits a home run to make the score 4-3. It then takes on an air of excitement to see if the Indians can improve and score again or if not hold off the Tigers.
Of the remaining Indian bats, Ben Francisco is caught at centre field by Curtis Granderson, Jhonny Peralta takes a single on a line drive to left field and then Shin-Soo Choo gets it all wrong again by grounding out and allowing second base to throw to first base and its three out. Luckily for Cleveland and thanks to some accurate fielding Detroit is unable to score and the final score is Cleveland Indians 4 Detroit Tigers 3, another close match and an exciting finish.
This win over Detroit now give the Cleveland Indians their 8th straight win in a row however due to their very poor overall performance during most of this season they still remain in fourth place behind Detroit and above Kansas City in the American League Central Division.
However a report on this game cannot pass without mention of the hero of the team Grady Sizemore. Grady hit two home runs during the game and in doing so became only the fourteenth man in the American League history to put together a 30-30 season, that is to say 30 Home Runs and 30 Stolen Bases in a season, the last to do it was Alfonso Soriano in 2005 playing for the Texas Rangers. In fact Sizemore hit his second home run during the 3rd innings to give him a total of 31 home runs and he had before starting the game already scored on 34 stolen bases. Grady is only the second Cleveland Indians player to reach this milestone the first being Joe Carter in 1987.
Monday, 25 August 2008
It seems a good idea
Most people that I am aquatinted with now appear to publish their thoughts, ideas or just the routine day to day ramblings of their lives in a Web Blog.
I had often wondered what they see in the need to bare their souls, if indeed they do, to the public gaze and perhaps comment.
So it is with some slight trepidation that I now step forward to experience life on the Web, what should I talk about? what should I discuss? who knows perhaps just life as I see it.
It just seemed like a good idea to me at the time.
I had often wondered what they see in the need to bare their souls, if indeed they do, to the public gaze and perhaps comment.
So it is with some slight trepidation that I now step forward to experience life on the Web, what should I talk about? what should I discuss? who knows perhaps just life as I see it.
It just seemed like a good idea to me at the time.
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