Weekend here at last

Podga celebrates with the Navy hostages on their release from Iran - having secured lucrative tabloid paper deals for their story. (PS Spot the girlie!). (Ed. The country is safe now most of this lot are drawing their pensions!!)

A photo from podga's past here. I am guessing the girlie is standing in the middle as centre of attention?

As appears to be the norm at the moment I have been a bit on the busy side, hence nothing from Plymouth for a week!! Work is toddling on and keeping me and my colleagues well occupied - thats enough of that! The dread word is FRAIMS will mean nothing to you but I am just interested if anyone feeds that into Google and ends up here! Very expensive and what appears to be a crap not up to the job IT system just in case you were interested.

At home Val is doing wonders with the hall. I think this weekend I am going to have to get stuck in as 5 foot 4 inches doesn't reach too high, even though I did buy her a super magic ladder! The things I do for her!! She is getting all the paper off the vestibule as I type. 'Tis far more important to get the blog updated than stripping wallpaper off the wall - anyway she tells me she enjoys it!

A quick Happy birthday to Anne, my sister-in-law in sunny Aussie, for next Wednesday. I did Leon's Plaxo thing for e-mails and they sent me a reminder. How the hell they knew it was her birthday, still, modern technology eh!

As a matter of interest still waiting for Tony to post a comment just to prove he looks at this wonderful blog!

Well my friends the turnip farmer has posted another. To be fair on the poor old boy he did comment before last weekend. I just couldn't think of a decent retort to the fact that the mighty Greens are letting me down a little!! Go on Podga - go for it.
"Suffolk Sojourn 26 of 137. The weekend starts here - and did I laugh as I scrolled through your Halloween party photos - when I arrived at the one of Val - and your caption 'Val pissed'. Classic - I'm sure she wasn't really - so hurtful Paulie. Maybe Lucozade and Painkillers don't mix?Reminds me of those old days of putting an Aspirin in your bottle of Coke! The team photo's are excellent - Al looking more like Ches every day.
So, this weekends' football looms. Shall I be crowing again as the Tractor Boys triumph and the Pilgrims slip further into oblivion? As for Leons' Gunners - Man U. are closing buddy.
I've emailed you a photo from the past that came in from Spain - only 'cos I'm in it (Another gang, not as old as ours) and have suggested a caption that might swing it for you to add to the blog. (Editors Decision is Final) So - HR is legally back in the air, and you're putting aircraft spotter pics in. Right - Parachuting material incoming. Love to all ghosts and ghouls in Plymouth. Blue Skies - CT "

I reckon it must be time for me to get tea sorted. Val must be getting a bit hungry now. before I go, on the subject of birthdays. Happy 50th to Andy Parkin of FIS Plymouth fame. You don't look a day over 49 3/4 my son!

HR is back in the air

Got an e-mail from HR as he STILL hasn't managed the art of the comment yet! Not the only one is he Clare?

Thought I would share with you all. I reckon he should do a pen picture so we can all get to know him a bit more (Yes I know I know him but you may not!). And what about Blue Skies and Leon I hear you ask. Yeh, why not indeed huh?

"Hiya, the real Bob is back ! I have attached a picture of 'TZ' and the link below for you to see why. http://www.westernairthruxton.co.uk/fleet.htm
The real reason is that having been on the ground since Jan 07 I booked a check flight at Thruxton and after 35 mins circuit-bashing,which included 3 landings, I was set free !
On top of that : the aircraft in the picture was (I was told) being sold off , but she has been retained by popular demand and so I can continue to fly the most beautiful aircraft I have ever been privileged to control.
On top of that , this now means that I can continue with my solo aerobatics once I get a refresher with Bob Cole. He is an ex lightning pilot and was the CAA Test Pilot for some time.
So the one first and true love of my life (flying) is back, so I am me again!
Have fun and be good. Thanks for the funny emails at work , I enjoy them."

Now you know why I have a picture of an aeroplane on the blog!!

It is now Friday and no more work for two whole days. Val is feeling a bit better so that means she is ripping paper off the wall downstairs. How she enjoys that I will never know. I do know I can hear an awful lot of mumbling from down there!

Have a super weekend, no matter where in the world you are. Visitors feel free to comment!

Guess what we did last night

Ches, Paul and Val

Ches, Al and Val

Ches and Al looking scary ?

Mary and Val (Note Mary gave up on the teeth!)

Paul and Mary's dad (Clare's as well but she choose LA over the party!!)

Mary and cobwebs

Val pissed

Paul and Val just arrived caught not quite expecting the flash yet!!

Rocky and Mary (With teeth)

Words are unneccessary!! Look at from bottom up!

Is it only Tuesday

Faith , Al and Jaz on a pre Halloween run.

Val and Ches hiding in the kitchen.

Back to work yesterday after four lovely days off. Got back to the inevitable pile of crap. What is the point of going on leave if most of the crap is there when you get back. My colleagues should have been in till 8 at night doing "my" work - that's what I say!!!!

After the unfortunate results on Saturday I suppose the crowing just had to come from brownfingers. A whole season still to go old boy!!!

Update on Val's health. She is a bit tender today as they are trying to get her off the steroids before putting her on a different course of pills. Trouble is she is in a bit of pain and loses the use of all her joints! No, not the one's you puff on just the ones that puff up! She is downstairs watching "her boys" - Justin and the other guy on the DIY show, bombed out as she gave up and popped the pills. I think she is going to have a chat with her doc to see if anything can be done. Isn't life fun, never even thought about these problems in the "good old days". On that note Blue Skies is calling over to you Podga.

"Suffolk Sojourn 25 of 137.Now then! First of all - Pilgrims lose, Tractor Boys win. At your prompt I look at the League table as you suggested a week or two ago - and we've still got a game in hand! Early days?! Anyway - just got back from Woodstock (Oxon!), a duty welfare call to my folks for the w/e. Good food, fine wine and many family jackanories that force Bil to bed early!

Intrigued by HR's history/CV - he's got a PPL/flies too!! I had him tagged as some kind of Citizen Smith, considering the armoury details. Should be an interesting get-together when we do sort it! Wonder if my 'ol man taught him - he's still flying/teaching and displaying - at 80+. Was HR at Gutersloh, or Paderborn, with you?Anyway - Hope Val's not pushing the pain barrier too much in order to sort the Hall/Landing/Stairs etc. Everything in moderation.As for all your TV/DVD/Satellite/Phone and other technical troubleshooting stuff Paulie - Phew! We're still using the (B&W)TV I had in my room in Upwood in '72. If it ain't broke - don't fix it!! (Hands up who believes that).Love to all and Blue Skies. CTx "

HR and I met on my first posting after jolly old Upwood. We were in the instrument section at 12 Field Workshop Osnatraz (Osnabruck). What was a shiney doing in the instrument section I hear you ask. Never quite worked out that one myself, seems I had a talent for engraving. Ether that or I was just in the way elsewhere and they found a convenient hole to put me in. Anyway I was happy there as they let me take a record player into work and I used to play LP's whilst doing the engraving. Was amusing when we had parades as I had carried my LP's in a bag with me. I was never any good on the parade ground and the CSM (who was actually a bloody nice bloke) never got used to "Blue Jobs" messing up his little get togethers.

On the Hall front. Yes she (Val) is doing too much but she actually enjoys doing it, just regrets it after. Still the bits that are left are a bit too dangerous for her to do so I will probably have an earbending each weekend until the job is done. During football season as well!!

Hey, Uncle Christopher. Tell B I got the e-mail from her and I will look after the Southern half of the country for her to the best of my ability!

You lot look after yourselves, it's dangerous out there.

I am on leave

After the fun of the last week or so I am now on four days leave. Day one today and the spare bedroom got itself a clear out along with a new telly and DVD. Well not actually new, just moved from downstairs, but I haven't told the spare room that and I don't think it uses the internet so it won't get to read this.

Man utd and Arsenal both did rather well tonight. And the Mighty Greens march on, 2-1 away to Charlton.

I only opened tonight to let HR have his time in the spotlight. Off you go my Red Army friend.
"Hiya, thanks for the email and the mention. I love the one about parachuting from the Herc and the TACEVAL !
I never had the guts to jump from a serviceable aircraft but was almost the jump pilot at colerne once ! The static lines connect to the pilots` seat frame ! Not really a good idea ! The frm is on rollers ! Also cool parachuting-dude (sitting next to pilot but on floor) with back to controls can be completely oblivious to the fact that his bloody parachute is jamming the controls !
Once took a parachutist for a flight in Germany and he looked quite nervous on the way in to land; so I asked him if he was ok and he told me he was a bit scared because he usually left the plane higher up and had never come back down in one before !
I love the thought of the crisp Cornish morning though.What freedom ! I went to see Freja this morning and she was cute and wrinkly;
Glad Val's bum is better (written in a whisper)
PS: I am taking up reloading my own ammo ...so lots of scope there for blog entries !!"

My baby sister in NZ has promised to read the blog so Hi Clare. Hope Aussie wasn't too bad and the dogs have forgiven you for deserting them again!!!

Where have I been you may ask.

Where has Paul been I hear you ask. Read on to give you a flavour on my life. A little later I will hand over to our roving correspondents - but first.

On Tuesday Val rang me in work at 10.30 saying that she had an appointment with the Chest Consultant re the follow up to the “Shadow on lungs” visit last time. You may recall that the consultant said he was fairly sure there was nothing sinister but he wanted to check out with his “X-ray expert”. Val’s appointment was at midday. You can imagine what I thought. “There must be bad news as they have given her one and a half hours notice”. NHS normally takes a couple of weeks notice to hand out bad news!

Val drove into my place of work to pick me up at the agreed time of 11.00. I got into the car and casually mentioned that it was unusual for the Hospital to ring for an appointment and a short notice one at that! It appears that the appointment letter only reached our letterbox at 10.30 that morning because it had been held up in the postal dispute!!!! I was a little relieved! Anyway we went in and it was confirmed there was nothing sinister. There is something they are unsure about so Val has to go back in six months for another X-ray. This isn’t any good for my blood pressure!!!!

On Wednesday I got an e-mail from Kodak informing me that there was an updated version of my Kodak software available to download. So off I went and downloaded it. Big mistake. Wednesday night, Thursday night and Friday night were spent recovering the situation. I was getting to bed between midnight and one. My bedtime is normally between 10 and 10.30!!! I was flaming knackered come Friday. Not sure how I stayed awake in work I can tell you.

On Saturday Val and I went looking for a new phone system for home. You may, or not, be aware that she is (very slowly) doing the hall, well she wanted to move the phone. I reckon it would have cost me £80 to move the phone socket (no wires wanted showing you see so not a DIY job) and anything around the £100 mark for an electrician to put a new electric socket into the wall. All in all about £180 ish to move the phone to the other side of the door. Not a good idea from my viewpoint. Came up with a solution. A wireless phone system using one of the sockets upstairs. Val agreed so into Curry’s and Comet we went.

Eventually found the set that filled all our criteria except colour. Even Val was wearing down at this stage so, surprisingly, she gave in. £40 odd gave us a three handset wireless system. Whilst in Curry’s we decide to have a look at TV’s and DVD’s as ours has been playing up. DVD starting when it feels like it and TV slowly shadowing over.

You know I said I was knackered by Friday. Well my resistance must have been low. We came home with not only the phone set we went in for (remember I said I did it this way to save cash???) but also one 37 inch LCD TV and one DVD recorder. This was just the start of the fun.

You know when you get electrical kit the salesman says it’s easy to set up. Open the (rather thick) manual and it says just plug and play. Bollocks. All day Saturday until the now usual one in the morning and up to three this afternoon connecting and trying to work out how the bloody system works. Then after all that I had to connect Al’s Wii. You will be pleased to know that now we can see terrestrial TV one way. Cable TV via the TV and via the DVD. WE can get, what I assume is, Freeview via the TV and DVD. We can play and record DVD’s as well as recording onto the DVD hard drive. We can play with Al’s Wii. And all this is on top of the Virgin V+ system that we are used to. My only problem is remembering what set of buttons I press for whatever I want to do. I say only problem. I have to explain all this to Val yet.

After all that I had to set the bloody phones!!! They work OK but each one needs to have the phonebook put in. That is for another day as I am tech’d out.

And all this over the weekend that from an international sporting point of view wasn't the best for England. I caught the end of the rugby world cup and the last seven laps of Lewis Hamilton in Brazil. Still would just like to point out that Argyle came away with three very deserved points against Coventry. Not sure how Albion got on against, what a coincidence, Coventry.

Ah well back to work tomorrow. I am off next week from Wednesday, which is excellent as we have to change the spare bedroom around. Anyone want a double bed???? The futon is going in there along with the old TV and DVD player. Visitors will now have a place to run and hide from the chaotic state we live in.

Still, the hall is coming along nicely!!!! See the photo's above for confirmation.

Well you will be pleased to know that is it for me and now over to Blue Skies for his bit.

"Suffolk Sojourn 24 of 137.Hells Bells HR! - I had to clock overtime to get through your communique. And still no mention of the next gig with the Gibson Flying V Balalaika. You mentioned Chivenor Paulie - remember that time the trials team I was with at the time (Jun 85) flew down to you there and we spent a week jumping from high altitude onto Saunton Sands? (During some precious time off Val, you and I walked down a railway line (?) for an evening scoff at a Bernie). Anyway, we did a lot of early morning stuff before the Sqn Hawks fired up. Buddy Jim and I found ourselves at 25,000' on a beautiful but cold Devon morning - 0615, and about 21 miles upwind of Chivenor. Luckily the C130 Nav. had got his calcs well plotted - for me anyway. I arrived 31 minutes later on the beach but Jim was 3 miles short. He landed on the airfield, (with O2, full bergen eqpt including weapon) smack in front of the Hawk line up - 10 minutes after the TACEVAL siren had sounded off. He was immediately surrounded and captured by an enthusiastic bunch of young Rambo's who couldn't believe that the exercises were getting realistic at last. A coincidence, but it took us 3 hours to find him then get him out of the guardroom. Good times. Barry and Derek - are you out there? Hope Val is on the mend, and love to Chesch and Alice. Blue Skies - CT "

I remember that weekend visit very well. You (again) wanted me to jump out of a perfectly serviceable and flying aircraft. Never quite understood that as fun. It must be me because my Wing Commander at the time, one very nice bloke Chris Rowntree, wanted me to sit in a Hawk while he drove it, very low, around the West Country and through the Welsh valleys. Looking up at sheep whilst doing 400mph or whatever is another fun bit I have never come to understand.

The bit about you and Jim hitting Chivenor during TACEVAL I also remember well as I was Incident Commander just heading back to my little hidey hole when I saw the chute with the aforementioned Jim heading earthward. I too was very impressed. Even more impressed when I found out that I didn't have to deal with the situation as the guys sorted it out without me!!!

The Bernie was a rather nice castle sitting by the waters edge, Val and I often talk about the good company of that night.

Now over to HR. He e-mailed me, but as he said he hasn't got the hang of the comments facility on the blog yet I thought I would post for him. Just as a matter of interest he had sent me a message in Russian. I went back asking what it meant as my Russian is fairly rusty now the Cold War is over. Is it? No that's a question for another day! Over to you HR.

"OOPs sorry I forgot .
It said in Cyrillic (Good old Saint Cyril!) : Spaceeba Balshoi .
Spaceeba means thank you and balshoi means big.
So the Bolshoi Ballet is just " the big ballet"!!!
I changed my keyboard to allow me to write in German ,Swedish or Russian.
Sadly my two-finger typing is still crap !!
Thanks for the mention on the blog : I did not add the fact that i feel privileged to be welcome amongst all the other people there and will make an effort to meet them one day.
We should have a get together. !
PS I found myself reading about Val's Bum ! Are we allowed to talk about that and I hope it is getting better!"

Val's bum is better you will all be pleased to know. God knows what is going to happen if she ever reads this !!

Changed my mind

Well Hi there France. Hope all is well at your end. You and Estonia can have a pint on us OK lads?

Went into PC World yesterday with Al and surprised and shocked at the prices. Laptop and a wireless/Ethernet system were the targets. Think I will settle for the PC I have and a wife that is into 19th century comms. I can always pass on a message - far cheaper!!!

I reckon we will just replace the LCD telly, ours appears to have aquired a shadow. Val wants to give to to Al but I think it's a bit too big, may end up in our bedroom, then I really won't care if the soccer clashes with Coronation Dale Enders whatsit.

HR has decided that blog communication is beyond him - what is your job actually HR? Hmm.

I get these e-mails from him and he has said I can share with you all. You will now get to see the qualiyu of e-mails I have to put up with!!!! Only problem is that I can't remember what colour is Bob's. Not Brown, not blue and not orange. Might have been red for the Russian Army. Have to point out that he was going on about shooting innocent creatures in his last one to us. Pointed out that we were in the Hunt Sabateurs whilst at Chivenor and were passing his details on to ALF. May help you make a bit of sense of what follows - not much though but hopefully you'll pick up the thread as we go along! Hopefully HR will read this and introduce the characters mentioned at some point in the future. Meanwhile try and work out who is who!!
"Hiya Paul, thanks for the email and veiled threats !
Who hunts whippets anyhow ? !
The last animals I shot at walked off in disgust (cos I missed) then (when I removed the sight to mount on another rifle) the Squirrel came back and flaunted itself knowing my gun was sight-less ! The furry ,buck-toothed American descendant little (rodent!).....
It hasn`t learnt about "moderators" yet ! They are civilian name for what we know as a "silencer"......(insert evil laugh at this point which I am unable to turn into letterz!).
Wots all this about the females "ripping off the walls"? Are they ,making cheap copies or just fleecing them for extra cash? !!
I have paid attention to the round ball (used to call it "Kick-ball" when I was a kid) . That expression would upset the experts now that its is an industry ! or is that a "science"... oh well just run as far forwards as you can, and pretend to be fouled....then ... roll on floor clutching right shin (always the right one ) then get a fee kick ! Mincers !! There used to be charismatic players like Georgie Best and Bobby Moore.
Now there are long-haired shirt grabbers ( "Non contact sport ...? I know nothing Herr Refereee !!..Senor .... Iss big mistake ... I no touch him.... his leg jus brake.... honist!).
But enough of sport ... your honour..
My friends Nisse and Sussi went on to London yesterday after a short but wonderful visit.
I have not seen them since 1993 and they have since married and had twins. Nisse teaches the local childrens football team so is a fellow "kindred spirit" to you Paul.
I have been on tenter hooks hoping it would all go well and we had excellent weather and the trips out went well.
This morning I went to Surrey and collected my .22 rifle ( and the bunnz will be pleased to know that when I fitted a telescopic sight and on instinct decided to "boresight" the rifle (look down barrel from breech end and point it at something......Next look through sight and see if they agree.
Da Bunz will be happy to know that with elevation adjustment fully "UP" the sight still insisted on looking at the grass in front of the "water baby" birdbath (birdz ?....they never throw away their empty shower gel ! Bloody pidgeons !) .
The barrel meanwhile was silently lined up with its elbow !
It might have worked well at 200 mtrs but not at any other range below that !!
So have refitted the open sight and will work with that until I decide whether to give in and shim the telescopic sight!
In the morning at 0630 I am off to Christchurch (no not shooting chorists!) near Bournmouth ( no not shooting tourists!) where CGC are having an open day .
I have my membership interview , then , when they accept me , I shall be cleared to zero the Hornet and the .22 LR if I am lucky; and later we are having a 2nd Guards shooting competition with the 7.62mm Mosin Nagant rifle ( a mans rifle ! Although women did use them , and the anti-tank rifles too !).
So busy busy.
Phils girlfriend produced a baby girl called Freya , Leigh. and all is well. They went to Glasgow today to see her Dad.
He was in 16 AD Regt in NI when I was in it in 1976 ; and sadly was near Buff Miller when he was killed.
From my point of view I can understand very well how Val feels because these memories come up out of nowhere.
The bond between mum and son is the strongest I know of and never fades.Maybe letting go takes a lifetime?
Please give her my love and tell her that i am thinking of her.
I know that counts for sod all in the life of a mum who has lost someone she bore, but its as sincere and genuine as I can make it I promise.
Gail is never far from my thoughts.
The tiling was given the seal of approval by Nisse and so was the "this is where I keep my tools " area. He looked at it and smiled at the mess; I spotted the look of recognition and asked if he had the sma (mess) at home: "yeees" he said... and the smile that Sussi gave him confirmed he was telling the truth !!
As for the loo... its ace and Lee christened it by throwing up in it later the night it was installed !
He had a tummy bug your honour!
Please feel free to edit this and use any of it you wish; I amno good at getting things on the blog so I stick to emails.
Lees band QuarterBlind have an album being released in november... it is available for pre-booking thorugh Amazon now.
Its heavy metal !
I had better dash cos I have to have a bath then get some sleep.
I hope I don`t lie awake like I did last night... designing "moderators" in my mind !!!

have fun and be good.
Lets hope we beat the French."

See what I mean! At least we beat the French (and the Estonians). Ah well, bye for now.

I'm in a rush again

Been researching a wireless LAN for my place. Seems a bit complicated to me, and not that secure or reliable. Came across a Powerline Ethernet Adapter system thanks to some cracking articles on the Net. Read one guys Blog that finally pushed me in that direction.

Trying to get Val into the 21st century you see. Reckon a laptop will be easier for her to use as a mouse is virtually impossible for her to handle!

Into PC World / Comet with Al tomorrow after sorting her MP3 problem. Hope I can sort it as it was a special pressy from my mate Santa!

Blue Skies is back from his short break so a quick handover before I head downstairs for an evening of comedy. Oh yes. Good luck Englan tomorrow in both football rules games!
"Suffolk Sojourn 23 of 137. Now then! Back refreshed from the sunny climes of our counties' Eastern coastline. A good time had by my hard working better half - although blindfolded throughout (I told her we were in St Tropez).
Got to share this with you: We arrived in time for Sunday lunch - at which point a bunch of Norfolk Hoorays were settling well in the lounge, obviously onto their 3rd bottle of fizz (by the decibel level) - whilst the offspring trooped down from their rooms clutching kites, buckets and spades etc to go onto the beach (50 yds away). We had lunch, took over our room, then a long walk, nap, and eventually dressed suitably for supper. Armed with chilled Chardonnay, we sat on the sea wall and watched the sunset.
The kids were still down on the shingle, and their parentals were still in the lounge giving it hot rocks. A father then appeared at the top of the hotel steps and shouted down to his son and heir to "come up - we're going into dinner - now! Marmaduke trudged back up the beach to sit on the path in front of us, and took off his trainers and started to wring his wet socks.Father came back out, went ballistic and told him to "get some hotel slippers from the room - brat", and turned to go inside.
Marmaduke sat there - disdainfully looking at father swaying back up the steps and muttered:"Well - I might have wet socks - but at least I'm not drunk" Bil and I fell off the wall - backwards.
Anyway - Ref the Championship League Table - why should I weep? Tractor Boys have a game in hand over Pilgrims. Early days Paulie.Blue Skies "

Why do some folks have kids eh? Still got to get those three points Brownhands!!