A super day was had

Val waiting to be fed!!

Ches and Al after the pressie opening.

Val with my only rival.

Al and Santa

Holly, really pleased with this part of her pressie!

In fact she was so happy we took another! She cheered up for the bones!!!

Christmas at 122. A lovely day was had. Doctor Who was a treat and Mamma Mia went down well as well, much to my surprise I must admit.

The Mighty Green Army topped it all off in our Boxing day match. Plymouth Argyle 2 Southampton 0 for those of you that haven't checked the score.

Have a great 2009 one and all.

Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year

A Happy Christmas and wonderful New Year to all.

Just thought you may like to see a picture we had taken in work.

The latest "fad" in there is "LEAN". As you may see from the photo, most inappropriate for some of us!!!

You lot have a cracker!!!!

Santa spotted!!

Santa was spotted at St George's School today. He was there for the Christmas Fayre.

Unfortunately, because of Health and Safety, the sleigh wasn't permitted to land with the Rheindeer in the school grounds.

Luckily the Royal Marine Commando's were able to get permission for the sleigh to land at a military base. They have a helicopter landing pad and the Rheindeer were able to land there. This meant, of course, that Santa then had to walk to the school.

Again the Marines stepped in and provided transport and an escort to get Santa to his Grotto.

The children were taken out of class and met Santa and his escort. A good time was had by all.

C & B + dogs on their way home

Here we all are at Glynn's 50th

Sisters are doing it for themselves

All the gals out a dancing

No - not Cheryl's!! She just can't let an opportunity to grab a little one go!

Here we are at Silv and George's. Val is getting a bit of a flutter - hit the following day.

Al in her favourite item of clothing.

Suprising what you find in the West Country. Just glad they were behind bars!

Especially this one!

Brass rubbing time.

Not sure if she just stepped in something. But when she finds out I have put this one out!!!!

Spot the babies - all together now ...AAhhhhh!

Al trying to blend in

Me on hols in the summer

Got Al to take a photo as we have so few of just Val and I. I always seem to be taking them.

Fast asleep!

The first winner of the St George's Player of the week trophy.

My baby sister, Clare, decided some time ago to get hitched to a Kiwi and move to the great outdoors. From London to a hill.

Time goes on and priorities get amended. They are keeping their eco friendly place in NZ and moving back to Blighty. If you want to hire a spot to get away from it all I can suggest a super one! But C & B are coming to UK along with two dogs. We had a get together a couple of months ago that I videod as I thought it could possibly be the last time we would all be in the room together. Shows how you can never tell what happens next.

We are all happy that they are settling here. Al, who is very family orientated, is over the moon.

It should be nice. They can move in a couple of streets away and we will probably have less contact than we do now!!! Until they get the Internet sorted of course. Come on Mary get connected to the web!!!

I promised some photo's last blog so hope you are happy with the ones above - I hope they have come out OK as I am writing this before trying to post them! Here goes.

It worked! Bye for now and feel free to comment.

Where does time go

Very aware that there has been very little on this blog of late. I, like many of you I assume, just have no idea where the time goes.

I hear about time rich and time poor people, also asset rich and asset poor people. I can't work out how I manage the trick of being time poor and asset poor!!!

Top news from sunny Plymouth is that Al did her 11 plus mock exam and came 56 out of 159. We were chuffed to bits as she has put a lot of work into the whole exercise. She is aware that she has to keep up the pressure and try her hardest in the actual exam next year.

Ches and Al have done the rounds and have settled for the choice of 1. Plymouth High
2. Eggbuckland college 3. Sir John Hunt sports college. It is so much harder nowadays, when we were kids there was the 11 plus, if you passed you went Grammar school. If you failed you went to the Secondary school that covered where you lived. Even when Ches and Emmy were going to school we were basically told where they would go by the local education authority. How times change.

Al loved the three schools above when they went on their open days, especially the science labs - which surprised us somewhat as she has never really shown an interest in science. She was bubbling with enthusiasm when telling us about holding a heart in her hand and watching lungs work!!

On Saturday Al and I out to the home of the mighty Greens as we took our place amongst the Green Army. 4-0 thrashing of Sheffield Wednesday. Their manager was an unhappy fellow, understandable really, yes his team played some pretty football but they have to learn to do it a bit closer to the opponents goal. We were happy for them to play in the middle of the park as long as they wanted.

On a very sad note Luke McCormick, our ex keeper, was sent down for drink driving. 7 years for killing 2 kids. So many lives ruined by an incredible piece of stupidity. Why do people still think they can drink and then get behind the steering wheel of a car? Our thoughts go to the family that has lost two kids and have a father in a wheelchair. And Luke's family must be going through hell as well. No winners when drink is mixed with driving.

On that note I think I will sign off. I promise I will be back sooner. Got loads of photos to put on. You lot look after yourselves.

It's Sunday again!

OK then, where has the weekend gone. I am getting fed up with whoever is in charge up there. I reckon one weekend day is worth about two thirds of a working day.

I know Steven H is a Brit and is pretty smart re time and dimensions and things - but why use us in this cosmic experiment.

I just want a weekend day to be equal in time to a workday. Not a lot to ask from the Universe. Is it?

Yesterday, another example of the Universe getting on my back. I used to be a season ticket holder watching the mighty Greens. Then this chap, Dan the man, came in and bought the Club. To him season ticket holders were the worst in the world. I stuck with the team through all the down times - there were many.

One day I thought, what the hell - I am not enjoying this so I stopped going. From that point on Argyle went from strength to strength. They improved on their position year on year. Last year we finished 10th in the Championship.

Alice, my Granddaughter, has now become interested in football. We have been to a few games over the last couple of years and she has gone on and on about a season ticket. I finally gave in and we now have tickets for the Family enclosure.

Since we purchased our tickets, Argyle have failed to win a match. Do you think I ought to contact Luggy and point this out to him. Maybe they will pay me not to go? Yesterday was pretty low. We lost 2-1 against Norwich. It could have been 5-1 as they hit the crossbar three times and had a goal disallowed.

Luggy is a good manager but why did we play two wingers with no height in the middle? Fallon, tall and good in the air (when he is on his game) was on the bench. Our midfield decided not to turn up and out Central defenders caught the disease. They are normally reliable, but yesterday - all over the shop.

Watford on Tuesday night. Just hope our players introduce themselves to each other on the way up as yesterday they seemed complete strangers.

Ah well. HR has dropped us an e-mail so it is time to get off football. Wonder what he will talk about?

"Hi Dude,it is good to see the blog up and running again.Hope the ipod is going OK?

I promise I will write about something other than guns next time.

Got a visitor coming over soon and that will give me something to report.

On a different note (dinnnngggg....) I had a surprise last week ....when I ended up on local radio ! Graham Seaman (?) was presenting on BBC Wiltshire Sound and was commenting on squiffy images on his binos. He asked anyone who could explain it to call in ; so when I got to work I did and they put me on the air !

After a short chat about collimation we finished and all seemed fine. Then yesterday a lady called Melanie (who answers the phone when you call in) called me back and said that the producer had said that I come over well on air and to feel free to call in again if I wished !! What a lovely compliment ?

We had a brief chat because she asked me about my background and all in all I felt it went well. I think Melanie goes on air too cos they have somebody they call "Mel".

Back here at home all plods on as normal though I must confess to having destroyed Devizes` one and only Rain Forest yesterday. ...................I cut the grass on the back garden ("lawn" would be too kind a description).

I decided it needed doing when last weekend a Puma flew in and dropped off some Gurkhas on Jungle-Warfare Training! ( Note: a Puma is a "Non-Chipmunk").

I had better trot ; I am polishing some cartridges in a vibrating thing (full of corn-husks) ready to reload tomorrow. Take care and be good."

So we have a budding superstar reporting for us from sunny Wiltshire. Tune in guys and listen to the pearls of wisdom!

And I know what a Puma is. A big cat thing, didn't realise they flew though. Must be bloody dangerous in the jungle with those things crapping from a great height!

Talking about pearls of wisdom - time for a cuppa!!

Look after yourselves out there eh.

Time is just slipping through my fingers

Been a bit naughty and not visiting this blog to update on the goings on at 122 recently.

I think not having a push from Blue Skies may be part of the reason. The other is that I just don't seem to have any time nowadays. I am not saying I don't get any downtime because I do. It's just that it seems to be filled!

I am still loading my CD collection on to the PC then on to iPod. I have loaded all the albums and am now into complilations, of which there are a few! Over 8800 tracks on the iPod now and still have a bit of space to spare.

Tonight I am putting the Brit Awards 1994 on. The way I have the albums organuised is one entry per CD. The compilations have one entry per track. So I have to change each track listing. A time consuming exercise!

Also on to series four in the Babylon 5 series. Have the lot on DVD and had forgotten how good the show was. At least one programme a night is the aim - not always acheived! But wirth the attempt. One Sci fi show I thought was super but can't seem to find on a region 2 playable DVD is "Space Above and Beyond", can get it on region 1 but not 2. Wonder why. It was brilliant.

Ches and Al around to sleep tonight as their car started smoking and is now in the garage for repair. Ches needs the car to stay in work. Public transport travel is a non starter, she is on duty tomorrow from 07.45 so it is easier for her to operate from here. Her work is walking distance tomorrow. Makes sense all around. Not sure how much the repair is going to be but she expects a bit of a dent in the old finance area.

Just watched the England game. Just glad we got three points and no silly bookings. Hard one comes on Wednesday.

Just as a matter of interest my Dad has gone to Switzerland with sissy Clare. At one stage he would never leave these shores (with one fairly major exception in the 40's), now at 83 he is catching up with our European neighbours! Ah well.

Uncle Robert, the Red Peril, has e-mailed his latest ramblings. I thought you would like to hear what he has been up to recently as he too has been a bit silent. Bring it on HR.

"Meanwhile (see the pics) I have fitted the PE scope to the Soviet Mosin Nagant rifle and stripped off the shellac preservative they put on all their 'Mob Stock'.

I fed the wood with Danish oil and then applied finishing wax so that the wood seems to come alive again and the laminates have a translucent lustre where the appearance changes as the light falling on it changes ( ie : when you move the rifle around).

Instead of the flat, plastic texture of a hard laquer , the oiled wood is almost like skin and has a wonderful tactile quality. It smells ace too !

I learned skills to apply elsewhere too : whilst applying the Danish oil (from Focus, and made by Ronseal!) I put about an egg cup-full in one of those plastic spheres that come attached to washing-liquid containers. I half-filled a plastic cup with boiled water and sat the ball in the cup so the oil was warmed.

Then poured small amounts into my hand so that I could massage it into the wood of the rifle ( this is the recommended technique). Of course it occurred to me that this could be applied elsewhere.... and would remove the 'temperature-shock' factor when applied to a human body !!Are you with me on this>?

Those plastic cups and the little white balls are an absolute godsend!!

I went on a trip to Bisley at the weekend (Tidworth Gun Club had to cancel a booking at Bulford MoD range so booked a couple of slots at Bisley). In the morning, the range we used was one called "Short Siberia" (which I felt was appropriate), and I was able to check the zeroing on the newly-finished Mosin Nagant and PE scope at 200mtrs.

Then after lunch the club had booked a couple of lanes on "Century" range (its originally had 100 lanes) but that is out to 600 mtrs (or maybe yds!).

I was chuffed because to me Bisley was like Wimbledon is to tennis (as it is really) and quite daunting. I was quite nervous about going there at all. But I found it very pleasant.

The atmosphere is great and the architecture almost "Colonial"! They rent out lanes on the ranges during the day and one can phone and book a lane for a morning for between £18 and £28 depending on the high or low season.

Seems a lot but it should be useful and a good break from work ! "

Well thanks to HR. If any of you out there in blog land want to add a comment then feel free. I will then add your comment to the next post.

Time to go and sort the Brit Awards CD so night night to you all.

Tony, hope all is well and you are reading this!!!

Back to work

This is my second attempt to write this posting this evening. Not sure what happened to the other one, I think Google was having a bit of trouble.

I have to keep this short as I am pushed for time, even more so now.

Even less time as Cheryl has just rung up about their cat, billy. She was going to take him to the vet's hospital as he has a sore foot and green gunge in the eyes. He was so poorly he fought the box to get out and is now prancing around trying to go out hunting! Green gunge gone.

Cats are cats, he has been in for a couple of days and is now stir crazy! She is going to let him out into the woods in the valley. He will be out all night and probably most of tomorrow now!

Well, now back to this posting. The Gods seem to want it finished quickly - or not at all. So last attempt. The photos above are ones taken during my birthday party. Not often do we get together, but Clare is over from NZ so advantage was taken.

Val, Ches, Al, my dad, sister Mary, sister Clare and friend Lin all feature somewhere above. Oops nearly forgot. And me.

No more risks being taken I am calling it a night and getting ready for New Tricks.

Bye for now, hope next time will not be as long a gap!!

Back to work

Ah well. All good things come to an end so they say. I returned to work today after practicing for my retirement for the past three weeks.

During my leave I had a Birthday that marks my three years to retirement point. Well, to part time work actually if I can. But end of full time anyway!

We had a super break. Weather was a but on the wet side, but who cares when one is home in the bosom of one's family?

Had a bit of a do, arranged by my loving family, to celebrate birthday. Photo's as above.

Most of the time, when out, the camcorder was taken. So have a few movies to show should you ever pop in!

Unfortunately still as busy as ever, all the things I promised myself to do painting wise in the house failed due to the constant state of waterlogged pitch!!

Well the photo's above are not going to happen. No idea why but I can't get a connection to upload them. I will try again later. In the meantime, sorry for short posting but catch you again soon.

Blue Skies

For those of you that got to read the words of wisdom (?) from Blue Skies I am afraid we have received some bad news. Below is an extract from an e-mail we have received from his brother.

"I am very sorry to have to inform you that Chris passed away peacefully on the morning of 9th July 2008 with his family around him at home. We are all obviously devastated and shocked at how quick things have happened. We are all trying to be strong for each other at this very sad time.

I would be grateful if anyone could pass on the tragic news to those who knew him that are not included in this email.

The funeral service is taking place at the Church where Chris & Belinda were married - St Peter's Church, Moulton, Suffolk at 3pm on Friday, 18th July 2008. Everyone is welcome, and those who would like to attend in uniform the family would be very proud and touched if they did. There will be an announcement in the Telegraph on Saturday regarding the service."

I am sure you join us in sending our love to B, Sarah and the family.

Al's life

I have decided that my life is boring compared to Al's.

I want to be 10 again, they have far more fun at school than I ever did!

As reported before, the week before last was on the moors. Photos above to give you a taste of the chaos.

Last week it was sports day, it was lovely to see a none PC sports day. Parents and grandparents took their cameras and camcorders along, we had proper races in which one kid or team won, one came second and one came third. The rest were not placed but congratulated for their efforts.

We actually had one race in which one little girl was dramatically outclassed by the others. Did she stop, did she hell. She ran on doing the last lap by herself. She was shattered but was not about to give up. She crossed the line to an almighty cheer from everyone. Even the weather was good to us. A cracking day. Photo's above.

Last Friday Al's class went down to the sea and spent an afternoon on a research vessel. They got to handle all sorts of creatures and had the crew giving them info. Al reckons she held a shark in her hands, we reckon a catfish/dogfish some sort of member of the shark family a couple of feet long. But you never know I suppose it could have been a friendly shark!

The school is presenting a production of "Wind in the Willows", this will be held in the Globe Theatre. A Victorian theatre, probably one of the best kept in the country. Not bad for a small primary school really is it? All the kids take part in some way or other and I assume that, as usual, it will be packed. Tickets are already restricted to two per child per show (two shows).

My memories of primary school was getting thrashed with a rubber dagger by Sister Kevin!!!

Now after a bit of a time away it is the red man himself - over to HR

"Hi all and sorry I have been quiet.

Thanks for the space on the blog and yup I am mad as a hatter.That makes me fit in beautifully with most people I meet ! The degree of madness is all that varies ! Then of course we have people like Mugabe to look up to as an alternative !?! I think I would rather be me.

Her at home the decorating and tiling have continued in a state of not going any further yet ! I will sort my finances and then ask somebody who is skilled and fast in these things to sort it out!

All this stuff with the guns may seem weird but it is worth remembering that it is giving me a chance to do several things: one is to pursue a hobby I have longed to do since I was a child. The other is to rekindle my love for engineering. Lets face it -that is what I love to do-make things, solve problems.

This hobby is giving me the chance to test myself and to learn. It gives me the opportunity to meet people with lots of experience. I am happy !

At work things are ticking over and I would like to move on. I am surrounded by VMs ! (Vehicle Mechanics).

I will close cos the PC is being a Rs !"

I heard from Sissy Clare and she will be home in Blighty for a few weeks come August, be nice to see her again and catch up face to face!

Time to go as Val has nearly been soaped out and we can continue with the Auf Wiedersehen Pet DVD's. A nice way to round off the day.

Blue Skies - where are you??? Your fan base is crying out!

PS. Val cooked a couple of cakes over the weekend - lovely. It's only been 40 years 5 months in the waiting!