MY LIFE SO FAR - CHAPTER 4
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one , Diesel Trains have come, Electric Trains have come , Aircraft that carries 300 plus passengers all over the world on Holiday, and Business. Space travel has come they orbit the earth every hour, space craft
have gone to the Moon, and landed, space probes have landed on Mars, and now a space Telescope, known as the Hubbellscope. If some fool wants a War, well we have flying bombs, known as Cruse Missiles, that are programmed to fly to targets on there own, also guided bombs dropped from aircraft flying miles
above the earth, maybe they might think twice before trying anything, Now Supper Markets are all over the world, and plenty of food for most of the earth’s population, there are areas in some countries that are still at starvation diet, and that’s only happened because the ruler of the country will not let us in to supply food because he wants to rule the world, and Hate some other person way of life. But l think the most important changes are travel, there’s Millions of people taking holidays in other countries, learning other cultures, and eating habits this in turn l hope will bring people closer together, and maybe stop Wars or am l wishful thinking maybe ? But l am afraid, knowing mankind, some stupid clot will throw a spanner in the works, and off we go again, blasting hell out of each other, l left Palestine in 1948, and still today Arabs, and Jews can not agree, still killing each other, that’s over Fifty year's ago, so what hope is there in the middle east, it's all down to Religion, just because someone prays different, and wants to rule. l have a few years to go yet, till l reach 2001, l have just retired, and at the moment its still strange, first its a holiday with my brother in law, and Margaret, we are off to Rhodes the Greek Island the village of Peifcos next to the town of Lindos, well we arrive at our villa just like the brochure we are 50 yards from the sea, nothing in front of us only sand right to the sea the lovely blue Med, first get our bearings, the super market in the village, next good eating
places, well there’s one fifty yards away run by two brothers, and dad is the fisher man its new, and clean we will give it a try, well the service good, wine good, food very good, l think this Tavernier is going to see a lot of us in the next two weeks, we take a taxi to Lindos three miles down the road, the little streets are all Aladdin’s caves of shops, l love them, l reckon you can buy a pin to a steam engine in these little shops, now the town is an old Crusader Settlement as the Castle is on top of the hill that over looks the Town this Castle was built in the Crusader Wars funded by the Pope ,now on to Rhodes city there are two parts to this city the old, and new ,the old part is still walled in with water running through a large square in the middle, and
roads going outwards to the city walls, two roads lead to the harbour, now remember the story of Colossus the large statue that spanned the harbour, well we are off down there to see the millionaire Yachts, well they are like floating hotels,
one , Diesel Trains have come, Electric Trains have come , Aircraft that carries 300 plus passengers all over the world on Holiday, and Business. Space travel has come they orbit the earth every hour, space craft
have gone to the Moon, and landed, space probes have landed on Mars, and now a space Telescope, known as the Hubbellscope. If some fool wants a War, well we have flying bombs, known as Cruse Missiles, that are programmed to fly to targets on there own, also guided bombs dropped from aircraft flying miles
above the earth, maybe they might think twice before trying anything, Now Supper Markets are all over the world, and plenty of food for most of the earth’s population, there are areas in some countries that are still at starvation diet, and that’s only happened because the ruler of the country will not let us in to supply food because he wants to rule the world, and Hate some other person way of life. But l think the most important changes are travel, there’s Millions of people taking holidays in other countries, learning other cultures, and eating habits this in turn l hope will bring people closer together, and maybe stop Wars or am l wishful thinking maybe ? But l am afraid, knowing mankind, some stupid clot will throw a spanner in the works, and off we go again, blasting hell out of each other, l left Palestine in 1948, and still today Arabs, and Jews can not agree, still killing each other, that’s over Fifty year's ago, so what hope is there in the middle east, it's all down to Religion, just because someone prays different, and wants to rule. l have a few years to go yet, till l reach 2001, l have just retired, and at the moment its still strange, first its a holiday with my brother in law, and Margaret, we are off to Rhodes the Greek Island the village of Peifcos next to the town of Lindos, well we arrive at our villa just like the brochure we are 50 yards from the sea, nothing in front of us only sand right to the sea the lovely blue Med, first get our bearings, the super market in the village, next good eating
places, well there’s one fifty yards away run by two brothers, and dad is the fisher man its new, and clean we will give it a try, well the service good, wine good, food very good, l think this Tavernier is going to see a lot of us in the next two weeks, we take a taxi to Lindos three miles down the road, the little streets are all Aladdin’s caves of shops, l love them, l reckon you can buy a pin to a steam engine in these little shops, now the town is an old Crusader Settlement as the Castle is on top of the hill that over looks the Town this Castle was built in the Crusader Wars funded by the Pope ,now on to Rhodes city there are two parts to this city the old, and new ,the old part is still walled in with water running through a large square in the middle, and
roads going outwards to the city walls, two roads lead to the harbour, now remember the story of Colossus the large statue that spanned the harbour, well we are off down there to see the millionaire Yachts, well they are like floating hotels,
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just imagine this, two men sitting on the deck of a luxurious Yacht ,smoking Churchill Cigars a small table between them, their arms resting on the table fingers around the glasses, as we watched they emptied the glasses their hands didn’t move, a waiter come along takes the glasses from there fingers still in the same position, waiter returns puts the glasses back in there hands, and they did not have to move, only carry on drinking, l call that living, what money can buy. Well its different with us, you ask the wife to bring you a
Whisky at home, all you get is, getting idle in your old age, you want it get it, welcome to the real world maybe my life is more real, and maybe happier, at least there’s more of my kind in the world than there are of theirs. There’s so much to see on the lsland, we go back to Lindos this time l am going to walk up
to the top to see the Castle, its bloody hot, and there’s lots of climbing of stairs, and steps got my puffers out for my Angina, Derricks coming with me, the two ladies are stopping at the bottom, and drink tea, and coffee, and do some shopping, at the top its well worth the climb, l had to stop two or three times, and have a puff or two, it must be at least three houndred feet high, the views are great, and you can see miles out to sea, in the middle of the Castle is the Acropolis, its being restored, and also a W.W.II film was made here, The Guns of Naverone, a Commando squad known as Force 10 blew them up maybe true. The Grandchildren are all growing up fast, Allison, and Arnie have sold there old house, and moved in to the Fens at Seventh Drove a lovely bungalow in a half acre of land right beside a main drain with swans, and all water birds swimming past, this has only been Built two years the children are going to love this. We find out that Mary has a problem, she is loosing the use of her left hand, and her right leg the Doctor is puzzled what’s causing it, as
weeks, and months go by, its worse l am thinking the worst MS but the doctor does not think so, he sticks needles in her arm, and leg no feeling, then he ask her to squeeze his hands, with her left hand its useless, so no more to do, make an appointment at Addenbrookes for a scan head, and shoulders, its got so
bad that she drags her leg, and has a special fork to eat her food, all we can do is wait now, well in the mean time we call in to see Rosemary in the village just round the corner, before we go down to see Alison as its Emma’s birthday Monday the 13th Dec this is Sunday 12th now as we were about to leave Rosemary’s, Mary trips over the threshold, and down she go, as she fell she broke her good leg , off to Addenbrookes its a Potts Fracture both bones just above the Ankle l see the Exray the Surgeon says he will have to plate them, and that will help them to heal quicker also he is going to screw them, after all this we get the scan results, it shows a Tumour about the size of your little finger nail, its all in 3 D this new fangled thing call a scanner is brilliant, now the surgeon gives us a pep talk on what he is going to do, he is going to cut through the forth vertebrae remove a
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piece of bone then as he put it just peel off the tumour, off the spinal cord just like peeling an orange, l thought shit if the knife slips she’s paralysed from the shoulders down, but the Surgeon said it will be easy, we don’t get many of these, and it’s got to be done it will get worse ,now Mary cant raise her arm above her elbow, her right leg she drags along , so down to the operation room she goes, l am there when they bring her back to the Ward, all they keep saying to her move your foot, move your arm ,after a while l leave, l am more in the way than doing good, next day l go about dinner time one o clock, she’s sitting up in bed, the feeling is back in her hand, and leg, and in the next two days she has all her use back again, l thought (brilliant) l cried later. lt wasn’t long before she was out of bed, and walking to the toilet on her own, and only
a slight limp with the leg she broke, her arm, and hand OK but she can not get the arm to go to the back of her head yet, its early days, her grip is getting stronger every day. it’s not long before she’s home, and she is soon in the kitchen cooking again, l think she is fed up with my cooking, and perhaps my tea isn’t to her liking, l must tell you, before Mary came home, my two daughters came for a day, and Tidy the house up, as they said mum will go spare if she sees it in this mess, so l am given the big elbow to get out of the way.
At least it feels like home again with Mary around, but after putting on a brave face all this time, it court up with me l felt very low, but l can relax a little again . Now before l go any further, l must go back to when Mary came home, after her leg break , the day l am going to fetch her out of Hospital, l phone a mate of mine a expara Ted Northrop, it went like this Ted l am off to pick Mary up l am going have a bit of fun, what you doing mate, me l am taking a witches broom so she can fly home on, right mate l will be there, so in the mean time Ted, make a parachute, well we go to the Ward Nurse, now these are all wrapped up, the nurses fight to take them to Mary, on the witches broom, l wrote, can’t pick you up today, ride home on this, on Teds it read if engine fails, parachute to safety, now the ward is in uprough, then we go in to ward , it went something like this l will kill you pair of sods for this, and she still have the mementos. My grandson l am told has been initiated in to the aircraft work the old fashion way, his mum my daughter rings, and tell me ,and l laugh, that’s not funny dad, why, he has had to burn all his under cloths, that bad, yes, laugh again as l had this done to me as an apprentice, l later saw lain he said they ganged up on him four of them, well at least you can get your own back with the next lot of apprentices, l had Cart Grease ,and Red Oxide rubbed over my private parts, lain he had l think Aircraft Grease, this is a very old custom in trades the initiation from boys to men they call it. Mary is making great progress she did have a little set back the after affects of the anaesthetic, and its left her in turning her head slightly restricted, being retired l thought l would have plenty of time to do all sorts of things, but as
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the saying goes, you never new how you had time to go to work ,and that’s true with me l have a list as long as your arm of things to be done, and everyone a first ,so some will have to wait, my next job on the list is to knock down our out house at the side of the Bungalow, and build another over the kitchen door, this time with clear plastic roof, l shall be building it with random rubble blocks that l make myself, as l said earlier on Mary bought me the plastic moulds down at Chettisham, so it will be off we go again, and lain isn’t small
anymore, and will not be running through them before they are set as he did down at Chettisham. Peter, Rosemary, have bought a piece of land off, Peter,s Dad, and are renting a place in the Village at the moment till it’s built. All the time we have been married l tell people Mary is a kept woman as after about two years of married life Mary said l think we can live on your wages, that’s OK by me you have the money you know how far it will go, but that had a draw back on retirement she could not get a full pension only peanuts, now lucky l
paid in to a private pension as well as the government one, but after a get together one night, one of her so called cousins, cat jumped over the door step type, of marriage way back ,he got the full pension for his wife, her like Mary never worked after marriage, so with all the why’s, and whyfores from the pension office, they then said no she is not entitled to the full pension, we thought that was that ,until Mary saw a column in the W,I, journal about the same thing as we wrote about, we wrote again, and sent a photo copy of the W,I
journal, back came the reply yes you can have your pension in full, but we have to pay some back pay to get it, we worked it all out, and it was worth while paying the back pay, we sent the money off, then they sent us the back pay a lot more than we thought, we now tell people in the same situations what to do ,but what l can not understand is why don’t people in these offices tell you from the beginning how to get the money with out all this hassle, and putting peoples backs up, its typical of government officers they never let know what the left hand is doing from the right, Mary is now a lot happier of the out come. The young couple next door have, just had a baby boy, they already have two girls, we call her our third daughter, as she is always popping in for Mary to give her some advice or swooping gossip, l think women thrive on gossip, and
a bit of scandal, other peoples problems l don’t get involved with, and that gets me in trouble sometimes, the wife will say certain things that have happened in the village, then l will say l could have told you that weeks ago, you didn’t say anything, no it was none of my business, and then she says Oh you men you could have said, me l am not going to get the blame for scandal,( dog house again )l like to hear both sides of a story, not a one-sided afare. From the time l left the army to this day l very really wear a watch or any timepiece, in the army you are governed by time, you see sometimes life depends on timing, but in a civilised world of freedom to do as you please why should l be ruled
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by the clock , from the time l left the Army l have done most things my way , no that’s wrong ,l think l have always did things my way , come hell or high water so my Epitaph is ,( l did it my way ) ,and had very few things that didn’t go to plan, if l had a set of plans before me l would study them till l could see the finished job, l think that was vital, as then where ever l went on site l could straight away give advice, time meant nothing only to achieve a target to finish on time, l must say now l am mostly in the dog house for being late for dinner, l know l should be home on time but l meet some old mates, and we put the world to right, the morning gone, l suppose that’s what retirement is all about. in the house on the other side of me is a retired Gentleman who would make a good father Christmas, he worked for the government till his retirement,
he is a bit older than me, but full of knowledge, we often have a chin wag in putting the world to right, l also find out that he is a Quaker another type of religion, they call there selves Friendship meetings, just sitting together in silence only speak if need too, it all started around 1648 by George Fox, yes all religions are man made, l think people who read my book will get the ldear l hate religion, that’s far from the truth, l don’t hate it but l wish for once in a while they told the truth, and preached what the historians have found factual evidence of what really happened, and then people might even start to return to church. I find that my Bees are not doing too well here at Littledownham, over at Chettisham there are plenty of open grass land, and wild flowers, here its all arable land, and they spray pesticide on the crops so my poor little bees haven’t much of a chance, they bring the pesticide home to the hive, and it kills the grubs, and all the swallows have gone, the so called bearded wonders of our world, the scientists in laboratories are destroying the earth at a great speed of knots, by shifting the balance of nature. Its the same old story greed for quick money today, and to hell with tomorrow, this is world wide, what happened to proper farming when farming, and nature worked side by side, to see a field being ploughed with masses of white gulls behind it, you will be lucky to see three following the plough today. On my retirement l bought a Video Camera this is something l have always wanted as l used to have a 8mm cine camera till it broke, but now l have got my video, well there’s
a story to this camera, when l retired a customer of mine owed me a sum of money, l never thought l would ever get it, but after coming back off holiday from Rhodes there was a cheque waiting for me, so l took it to the bank, my gut feeling was this is going to bounce, but it didn’t, this money l had written off, so there’s enough for a camera, and all the gear, and four years insurance for break downs, and new for old if stolen, l am now in high tech age as there’s more gadgets, and buttons to press than a space ship, so its Holden
back to the drawing board ,and read up all about this new fangled thing, the wife said, what on earth do you want that for, well the old cine cameras have gone, and its in with these
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and l can use the film cassette over and over again ,and cut out that’s not needed , on a cine camera you had to pick your subject if you did not you wasted a lot of film , and on these video cameras you get the sound as well , l go out getting lots of local history that people pass everyday, and never see them, mainly l get the family for record, this Video Camera now goes everywhere with me, the wife has told me on several accasions where to stick my tripod(think about it). My Grandson has told me that he is going to convert Tri-Star Passenger Planes to carry cargo, this will mean that all seats, and inner furnishings removed, and larger doors put in the side for loading, also stronger bulkheads behind the pilots incase on landing the crates break loose, he said it’s a big contract for Marshall’s. We are off on holiday again this time to Spain(Torrevieja)just arrived early in the morning first job cup of tea, and sort our selves out then off to the supermarket to stock up for the week, then a bit of a rest, and out to night down the front walk in to town, we
are on the outskirts, the Med again, you cant beat it, but the Spaniards are not as friendly as the Greeks, this is my first impression, we shall see by the end of our fortnight holiday. First of all l love the heat, and the sun but , Mary it kills her so at midday Mary, Derrick, and Margaret, have siesta for a couple of hours, me l go walk about Videoing the local gardens, and history, also l go down the back streets to see how the real people live, and some come, and talk in there language, they don’t understand English, and l don’t
understand Spanish but we get by with hand movements, and drawings plus sometimes l get a cup of coffee. Now on one of my trips on a walk about things didn’t go too well, it was like this ,on my walk about over what they call the bondi (waste ground), this is open rough ground l was looking for lizards, and any wild life, l came across this walled in place, the walls are about twelve feet high, so l go looking for a gate or door or what ever, l find two gates but locked, it smells of cattle, and a big car park, yes put two and two together makes five its a Bull Ring, the name of the place should have told me straight away (Torrevieja)Torre means bull, l have the bull ring how do l get in, now lets go back to England on the Television there’s a fellow he has a show called the Cook Report, and he has slagged Bull Fighting off as a barbaric sport. I am in Spain out side a Bull Ring with a Video Camera ( Get the point ) coming towards me are some Spanish work men, l go over to them, and ask if any of them spoke English most of them did, then l ask what’s this place, a Bull
Ring one said ,then another said you from Television, no why, then it started l got the lot ,on your Television you have a man Cooke who reports things, he reported our Bull Fighting as barbaric, why he not say about your Fox Hunting, yes l understand where you are coming from, we have our sport one Bull to one Man, you have fifty hounds, onehoundred horsemen, and one poor little Fox is that not Barbaric, l agree with you, you do, yes, next l want to know when is the next Bull Fight as l have never seen one, the next one
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here in two months time , what do you do with the Bulls that are killed , they go to the Hospitals for free meat, that’s good, but they wouldn’t let me in to video so l left, it got a bit heated, the trouble is, people should put there own house in order before telling other people how to live there lives, these Television reporters could not care less, so long as they get a story, and people like me get the back lash, perhaps in time Fox hunting will be band, there are lots of more human ways to control, Foxes, l think these people who
go to hunts, and chase a small little Fox are very small minded, and most of them haven’t a clew about country life, as earlier on in my book, Grandma told them where to get off with the Stag, how far have we come in two thousand years, when the Romans used humans for Gladiators to fight to death, l am
afraid not far, man is still barbaric, even as l write this book man is still killing man, and just burying them, at least the Animals kill to eat, we don’t even eat our killings so why do it. Today we are off to a town called Orihuela on the way Derrick drives over some white strips at the side of the road they are slightly ridged, so on my side it makes my Bum tingle, he does this about every 5 miles just to keep me awake as l knodd off sometimes, the views are great out here so l am panning around with my video camera, there’s miles of
Orange, and Lemon groves we pass through little towns, and at times you think you are in cowboy country down in New Mexico, as the names are the same, here are some, Alamo, San Vera, Nevada, Granada, Al Passo, and many others that you see on cowboy films, l suppose it stems back to old days when the Spaniards went exploring in the 1400s, and the 1500s, we arrive at Orihuela in to a car park, then walk about, we haven’t a clue where the shopping centre is so we follow the crowd, its a bigger place than we thought, me its a drink first a nice cup of coffee, and a cream cake, ask the bar tender best places to go, he
gave a good direction so we ended up back at his place now that’s what l call business, but over the river from this cafe up a steep hill there looks like a monastery on top of the hill, l would like to go to the to see but time is not with us today, we want to press on through the country side ,and see more of Spain, in this place we came across a nice garden area, and the seats were made of concrete with bits of broken tiles cemented to them ,and they looked brilliant, think there were at least ten of these seats, and in these gardens
as well was a clock made the same, standing about twelve feet high, and again all bits of broken tiles stuck to it, this town looks to be very old, there look to be a castle or something like that in one of the narrow streets, anyway its time to be off, and we haven’t a clue where we are going ,first stop petrol, and its cheaper here than in England, the way we are going it looks as if we might be heading for an area like Scotland, of high hills ,and valleys of green pastures, for cattle, and that’s what we find, and the hills have big cut
out Bulls on top of them, that’s to tell us, that this is Bull breading Country side, yes, and we do see some of these
just imagine this, two men sitting on the deck of a luxurious Yacht ,smoking Churchill Cigars a small table between them, their arms resting on the table fingers around the glasses, as we watched they emptied the glasses their hands didn’t move, a waiter come along takes the glasses from there fingers still in the same position, waiter returns puts the glasses back in there hands, and they did not have to move, only carry on drinking, l call that living, what money can buy. Well its different with us, you ask the wife to bring you a
Whisky at home, all you get is, getting idle in your old age, you want it get it, welcome to the real world maybe my life is more real, and maybe happier, at least there’s more of my kind in the world than there are of theirs. There’s so much to see on the lsland, we go back to Lindos this time l am going to walk up
to the top to see the Castle, its bloody hot, and there’s lots of climbing of stairs, and steps got my puffers out for my Angina, Derricks coming with me, the two ladies are stopping at the bottom, and drink tea, and coffee, and do some shopping, at the top its well worth the climb, l had to stop two or three times, and have a puff or two, it must be at least three houndred feet high, the views are great, and you can see miles out to sea, in the middle of the Castle is the Acropolis, its being restored, and also a W.W.II film was made here, The Guns of Naverone, a Commando squad known as Force 10 blew them up maybe true. The Grandchildren are all growing up fast, Allison, and Arnie have sold there old house, and moved in to the Fens at Seventh Drove a lovely bungalow in a half acre of land right beside a main drain with swans, and all water birds swimming past, this has only been Built two years the children are going to love this. We find out that Mary has a problem, she is loosing the use of her left hand, and her right leg the Doctor is puzzled what’s causing it, as
weeks, and months go by, its worse l am thinking the worst MS but the doctor does not think so, he sticks needles in her arm, and leg no feeling, then he ask her to squeeze his hands, with her left hand its useless, so no more to do, make an appointment at Addenbrookes for a scan head, and shoulders, its got so
bad that she drags her leg, and has a special fork to eat her food, all we can do is wait now, well in the mean time we call in to see Rosemary in the village just round the corner, before we go down to see Alison as its Emma’s birthday Monday the 13th Dec this is Sunday 12th now as we were about to leave Rosemary’s, Mary trips over the threshold, and down she go, as she fell she broke her good leg , off to Addenbrookes its a Potts Fracture both bones just above the Ankle l see the Exray the Surgeon says he will have to plate them, and that will help them to heal quicker also he is going to screw them, after all this we get the scan results, it shows a Tumour about the size of your little finger nail, its all in 3 D this new fangled thing call a scanner is brilliant, now the surgeon gives us a pep talk on what he is going to do, he is going to cut through the forth vertebrae remove a
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piece of bone then as he put it just peel off the tumour, off the spinal cord just like peeling an orange, l thought shit if the knife slips she’s paralysed from the shoulders down, but the Surgeon said it will be easy, we don’t get many of these, and it’s got to be done it will get worse ,now Mary cant raise her arm above her elbow, her right leg she drags along , so down to the operation room she goes, l am there when they bring her back to the Ward, all they keep saying to her move your foot, move your arm ,after a while l leave, l am more in the way than doing good, next day l go about dinner time one o clock, she’s sitting up in bed, the feeling is back in her hand, and leg, and in the next two days she has all her use back again, l thought (brilliant) l cried later. lt wasn’t long before she was out of bed, and walking to the toilet on her own, and only
a slight limp with the leg she broke, her arm, and hand OK but she can not get the arm to go to the back of her head yet, its early days, her grip is getting stronger every day. it’s not long before she’s home, and she is soon in the kitchen cooking again, l think she is fed up with my cooking, and perhaps my tea isn’t to her liking, l must tell you, before Mary came home, my two daughters came for a day, and Tidy the house up, as they said mum will go spare if she sees it in this mess, so l am given the big elbow to get out of the way.
At least it feels like home again with Mary around, but after putting on a brave face all this time, it court up with me l felt very low, but l can relax a little again . Now before l go any further, l must go back to when Mary came home, after her leg break , the day l am going to fetch her out of Hospital, l phone a mate of mine a expara Ted Northrop, it went like this Ted l am off to pick Mary up l am going have a bit of fun, what you doing mate, me l am taking a witches broom so she can fly home on, right mate l will be there, so in the mean time Ted, make a parachute, well we go to the Ward Nurse, now these are all wrapped up, the nurses fight to take them to Mary, on the witches broom, l wrote, can’t pick you up today, ride home on this, on Teds it read if engine fails, parachute to safety, now the ward is in uprough, then we go in to ward , it went something like this l will kill you pair of sods for this, and she still have the mementos. My grandson l am told has been initiated in to the aircraft work the old fashion way, his mum my daughter rings, and tell me ,and l laugh, that’s not funny dad, why, he has had to burn all his under cloths, that bad, yes, laugh again as l had this done to me as an apprentice, l later saw lain he said they ganged up on him four of them, well at least you can get your own back with the next lot of apprentices, l had Cart Grease ,and Red Oxide rubbed over my private parts, lain he had l think Aircraft Grease, this is a very old custom in trades the initiation from boys to men they call it. Mary is making great progress she did have a little set back the after affects of the anaesthetic, and its left her in turning her head slightly restricted, being retired l thought l would have plenty of time to do all sorts of things, but as
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the saying goes, you never new how you had time to go to work ,and that’s true with me l have a list as long as your arm of things to be done, and everyone a first ,so some will have to wait, my next job on the list is to knock down our out house at the side of the Bungalow, and build another over the kitchen door, this time with clear plastic roof, l shall be building it with random rubble blocks that l make myself, as l said earlier on Mary bought me the plastic moulds down at Chettisham, so it will be off we go again, and lain isn’t small
anymore, and will not be running through them before they are set as he did down at Chettisham. Peter, Rosemary, have bought a piece of land off, Peter,s Dad, and are renting a place in the Village at the moment till it’s built. All the time we have been married l tell people Mary is a kept woman as after about two years of married life Mary said l think we can live on your wages, that’s OK by me you have the money you know how far it will go, but that had a draw back on retirement she could not get a full pension only peanuts, now lucky l
paid in to a private pension as well as the government one, but after a get together one night, one of her so called cousins, cat jumped over the door step type, of marriage way back ,he got the full pension for his wife, her like Mary never worked after marriage, so with all the why’s, and whyfores from the pension office, they then said no she is not entitled to the full pension, we thought that was that ,until Mary saw a column in the W,I, journal about the same thing as we wrote about, we wrote again, and sent a photo copy of the W,I
journal, back came the reply yes you can have your pension in full, but we have to pay some back pay to get it, we worked it all out, and it was worth while paying the back pay, we sent the money off, then they sent us the back pay a lot more than we thought, we now tell people in the same situations what to do ,but what l can not understand is why don’t people in these offices tell you from the beginning how to get the money with out all this hassle, and putting peoples backs up, its typical of government officers they never let know what the left hand is doing from the right, Mary is now a lot happier of the out come. The young couple next door have, just had a baby boy, they already have two girls, we call her our third daughter, as she is always popping in for Mary to give her some advice or swooping gossip, l think women thrive on gossip, and
a bit of scandal, other peoples problems l don’t get involved with, and that gets me in trouble sometimes, the wife will say certain things that have happened in the village, then l will say l could have told you that weeks ago, you didn’t say anything, no it was none of my business, and then she says Oh you men you could have said, me l am not going to get the blame for scandal,( dog house again )l like to hear both sides of a story, not a one-sided afare. From the time l left the army to this day l very really wear a watch or any timepiece, in the army you are governed by time, you see sometimes life depends on timing, but in a civilised world of freedom to do as you please why should l be ruled
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by the clock , from the time l left the Army l have done most things my way , no that’s wrong ,l think l have always did things my way , come hell or high water so my Epitaph is ,( l did it my way ) ,and had very few things that didn’t go to plan, if l had a set of plans before me l would study them till l could see the finished job, l think that was vital, as then where ever l went on site l could straight away give advice, time meant nothing only to achieve a target to finish on time, l must say now l am mostly in the dog house for being late for dinner, l know l should be home on time but l meet some old mates, and we put the world to right, the morning gone, l suppose that’s what retirement is all about. in the house on the other side of me is a retired Gentleman who would make a good father Christmas, he worked for the government till his retirement,
he is a bit older than me, but full of knowledge, we often have a chin wag in putting the world to right, l also find out that he is a Quaker another type of religion, they call there selves Friendship meetings, just sitting together in silence only speak if need too, it all started around 1648 by George Fox, yes all religions are man made, l think people who read my book will get the ldear l hate religion, that’s far from the truth, l don’t hate it but l wish for once in a while they told the truth, and preached what the historians have found factual evidence of what really happened, and then people might even start to return to church. I find that my Bees are not doing too well here at Littledownham, over at Chettisham there are plenty of open grass land, and wild flowers, here its all arable land, and they spray pesticide on the crops so my poor little bees haven’t much of a chance, they bring the pesticide home to the hive, and it kills the grubs, and all the swallows have gone, the so called bearded wonders of our world, the scientists in laboratories are destroying the earth at a great speed of knots, by shifting the balance of nature. Its the same old story greed for quick money today, and to hell with tomorrow, this is world wide, what happened to proper farming when farming, and nature worked side by side, to see a field being ploughed with masses of white gulls behind it, you will be lucky to see three following the plough today. On my retirement l bought a Video Camera this is something l have always wanted as l used to have a 8mm cine camera till it broke, but now l have got my video, well there’s
a story to this camera, when l retired a customer of mine owed me a sum of money, l never thought l would ever get it, but after coming back off holiday from Rhodes there was a cheque waiting for me, so l took it to the bank, my gut feeling was this is going to bounce, but it didn’t, this money l had written off, so there’s enough for a camera, and all the gear, and four years insurance for break downs, and new for old if stolen, l am now in high tech age as there’s more gadgets, and buttons to press than a space ship, so its Holden
back to the drawing board ,and read up all about this new fangled thing, the wife said, what on earth do you want that for, well the old cine cameras have gone, and its in with these
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and l can use the film cassette over and over again ,and cut out that’s not needed , on a cine camera you had to pick your subject if you did not you wasted a lot of film , and on these video cameras you get the sound as well , l go out getting lots of local history that people pass everyday, and never see them, mainly l get the family for record, this Video Camera now goes everywhere with me, the wife has told me on several accasions where to stick my tripod(think about it). My Grandson has told me that he is going to convert Tri-Star Passenger Planes to carry cargo, this will mean that all seats, and inner furnishings removed, and larger doors put in the side for loading, also stronger bulkheads behind the pilots incase on landing the crates break loose, he said it’s a big contract for Marshall’s. We are off on holiday again this time to Spain(Torrevieja)just arrived early in the morning first job cup of tea, and sort our selves out then off to the supermarket to stock up for the week, then a bit of a rest, and out to night down the front walk in to town, we
are on the outskirts, the Med again, you cant beat it, but the Spaniards are not as friendly as the Greeks, this is my first impression, we shall see by the end of our fortnight holiday. First of all l love the heat, and the sun but , Mary it kills her so at midday Mary, Derrick, and Margaret, have siesta for a couple of hours, me l go walk about Videoing the local gardens, and history, also l go down the back streets to see how the real people live, and some come, and talk in there language, they don’t understand English, and l don’t
understand Spanish but we get by with hand movements, and drawings plus sometimes l get a cup of coffee. Now on one of my trips on a walk about things didn’t go too well, it was like this ,on my walk about over what they call the bondi (waste ground), this is open rough ground l was looking for lizards, and any wild life, l came across this walled in place, the walls are about twelve feet high, so l go looking for a gate or door or what ever, l find two gates but locked, it smells of cattle, and a big car park, yes put two and two together makes five its a Bull Ring, the name of the place should have told me straight away (Torrevieja)Torre means bull, l have the bull ring how do l get in, now lets go back to England on the Television there’s a fellow he has a show called the Cook Report, and he has slagged Bull Fighting off as a barbaric sport. I am in Spain out side a Bull Ring with a Video Camera ( Get the point ) coming towards me are some Spanish work men, l go over to them, and ask if any of them spoke English most of them did, then l ask what’s this place, a Bull
Ring one said ,then another said you from Television, no why, then it started l got the lot ,on your Television you have a man Cooke who reports things, he reported our Bull Fighting as barbaric, why he not say about your Fox Hunting, yes l understand where you are coming from, we have our sport one Bull to one Man, you have fifty hounds, onehoundred horsemen, and one poor little Fox is that not Barbaric, l agree with you, you do, yes, next l want to know when is the next Bull Fight as l have never seen one, the next one
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here in two months time , what do you do with the Bulls that are killed , they go to the Hospitals for free meat, that’s good, but they wouldn’t let me in to video so l left, it got a bit heated, the trouble is, people should put there own house in order before telling other people how to live there lives, these Television reporters could not care less, so long as they get a story, and people like me get the back lash, perhaps in time Fox hunting will be band, there are lots of more human ways to control, Foxes, l think these people who
go to hunts, and chase a small little Fox are very small minded, and most of them haven’t a clew about country life, as earlier on in my book, Grandma told them where to get off with the Stag, how far have we come in two thousand years, when the Romans used humans for Gladiators to fight to death, l am
afraid not far, man is still barbaric, even as l write this book man is still killing man, and just burying them, at least the Animals kill to eat, we don’t even eat our killings so why do it. Today we are off to a town called Orihuela on the way Derrick drives over some white strips at the side of the road they are slightly ridged, so on my side it makes my Bum tingle, he does this about every 5 miles just to keep me awake as l knodd off sometimes, the views are great out here so l am panning around with my video camera, there’s miles of
Orange, and Lemon groves we pass through little towns, and at times you think you are in cowboy country down in New Mexico, as the names are the same, here are some, Alamo, San Vera, Nevada, Granada, Al Passo, and many others that you see on cowboy films, l suppose it stems back to old days when the Spaniards went exploring in the 1400s, and the 1500s, we arrive at Orihuela in to a car park, then walk about, we haven’t a clue where the shopping centre is so we follow the crowd, its a bigger place than we thought, me its a drink first a nice cup of coffee, and a cream cake, ask the bar tender best places to go, he
gave a good direction so we ended up back at his place now that’s what l call business, but over the river from this cafe up a steep hill there looks like a monastery on top of the hill, l would like to go to the to see but time is not with us today, we want to press on through the country side ,and see more of Spain, in this place we came across a nice garden area, and the seats were made of concrete with bits of broken tiles cemented to them ,and they looked brilliant, think there were at least ten of these seats, and in these gardens
as well was a clock made the same, standing about twelve feet high, and again all bits of broken tiles stuck to it, this town looks to be very old, there look to be a castle or something like that in one of the narrow streets, anyway its time to be off, and we haven’t a clue where we are going ,first stop petrol, and its cheaper here than in England, the way we are going it looks as if we might be heading for an area like Scotland, of high hills ,and valleys of green pastures, for cattle, and that’s what we find, and the hills have big cut
out Bulls on top of them, that’s to tell us, that this is Bull breading Country side, yes, and we do see some of these
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Bulls with long horns ,and to think a man goes in a ring with one of these long horned animals, now my mind is travelling at a great speed of knots. l just said l wouldn’t want one of those horns up my rectum, it sends a shudder down my spine, now a voice in the back of the car said at least the Bull couldn’t miss, then Derrick says at least he couldn’t toss you very far, thanks with friends like you lot l need no enemies, and a big laugh at my expence. We travel through the valley it’s the greenest area l have seen in Spain, the Farms are miles apart, and very few houses, after a while we turn, and head for the coastline again, as we approach the coast we come across the salt diggings, and mounds of white salt, it looks as if they flood areas then dam them off till they dry out, and the salt is then collected, and heaped up to bleach, there looks to be tons of it, l suppose it then goes off to be refined. Back at Torrevieja, change, and out for a meal at the Britannia Bar, just at bottom of our flats, now this place you can not eat what they serve you, there is so much, and the wine is good, so all in all a good night out, plus you get a Cabaret, the next day off we go to Cartagena on the way on the coast road we come across more cowboy towns, St Pedro, and Santa fee, ( l better get ma six guns on pardoner) we arrive at this town midday, shops closed from about one to four - o clock siesta time we find a coffee bar, and one shop open, and its one the women like, a To-do shop nothing over 100 Persaitas about 50p in English money, in we go first items they buy are Archimedies Whisks the ones you pump up down, it was round about a dozen they bought between them, Derrick bought a wrist watch 200 Persaiters, l said you will have to get that insured, you might get it pinched, we all had a good laugh about this watch, but he had the last laugh as it kept good time, this town was a bit of a damp squib, never mind it
was a day out in the country side, and we had a good laugh, when Derrick, and me are not having a go at each other, or having a difference of opinion As we always do, we tend to wind each other up, the trouble is he is always right, and l am never wrong, but it always end in a good laugh. Now one late afternoon
we thought we would have a walk along the beach to the next village, l have my video camera with me, well my camera got stuck to my shoulder, and could not move it, as on the beach were some nude bathers, some how you freeze but the camera keeps rolling, l was called a dirty old man by the family, l said l was
trying to film sea birds, and the rolling waves, some one said liar ,so we carried on walking to the village, and the boards were up for an open market tomorrow, now the women have decided that’s the first stop in the morning early, and who dare go against the wishes of two women, we get to this market its a small local one, then we here of one down in the town of Torrevieja, this is a big one, and there’s crowds of people, l am not sure what the women bought, but l wish we had two Donkeys to carry the items ,and l can murder,
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a cup of coffee , l am still not over the moon with the Spanish, l may have got it wrong, but to me their attitude is ,take it or leave it , it’s time for home, down to Alicanti Airport hand back the car, and board the plane home, l had not been home many days, and l get a call from The Stained Glass Museum in the
Cathedral they need another carpenter to help the one they have got, and l know this chap Ken Jefferson not as a friend but know him, so a time is arraigned to meet the Curator, but before l go l get a lecture off the wife, now be careful what you say in the Cathedral, as you are well aware of my religious views, so
it’s Holden keep your mouth shut, but l have already said to myself no Sky Pilot is going to hover me while l work, when l say Sky Pilot mean the ( clergy with dog collars back to front) this is Army slang. Well l meet this young lady the curator Mrs Susan Matthew’s, she has a mannerism of a school mistress about her, a person on top of her job, l like that straight to the point, she gives me all the does, and don’ts about the job, and also she tells me the Stained Glass Museum is nothing to do with the Cathedral it’s privately run (that’s
good no Sky Pilots breathing down my neck) you will be working with Ken, yes l do know him he’s a chippy like me, chippy what’s that, OH sorry we are both carpenters by trade, she said l would be casual that’s fine l don’t want nothing regular, the Stained Glass is on the North Transept of the Cathedral .Now first of all l now nothing about making up lead lights in Stained Glass ,the nearest to it l used to make the iron frames for them to fix too, in Churches, large Dance Halls, and Entrance Lobbies to office buildings, this job looks very interesting, what we have got to do is cut holes in the sheets of chip board, and fix the stained glass at the rear then light them up, looking at these panels, they are a work of art, l have never been so close to Stained
Glass before as mostly its about twenty feet up in a church, to see the detail close at hand, its like looking at a good painting, Ken has worked here for a long while he knows most of them by heart, one of our jobs is to make up a lot of “A” frames, as l find out that the Museum has got to move to the other side of the Cathedral to the South Transept, l look at all the Stained Glass, and fittings, l thought this is going to take a long while, all the stuff to be lowered to the floor then hoisted up the other side, but no l am told, we are putting a bridge across the Cathedral, yes, the only thing, everything has to taken over in reverse, so the first thing is it mark every joint so we will know which go where, and so forth, and l make a special four wheeled flat top trolley six inches of the ground this is to transport the fittings over the bridge, the Museum are getting builders in to do all the large amount of humping, and assembling, and as soon as it is fixed, on with the wiring for the
lights in go the stained glass panels (BINGO) all done, l could see Susan having some anxious moments, there’s a date of opening in our new location ,well we make it on time, and the doors are open for business, while all the up heaval was going on l got to know people who worked at the museum ,one outstanding character a lady from
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Soham a lovely person down to earth yes our Gill ,and she was willing to have a go at anything , we have the same sence of humour, to see the funny side of life, and l find out about Susan yes she was a teacher, but l wonder if she has sussed me yet as jobs like this, l have eaten them for breakfast, but now l do as l am
told, it’s lovely being retied no more responsibility, the buck doesn’t stop with me anymore, the trouble is when you are in charge you have to think for everyone, well it’s time for a holiday, so off we go to Hemsby haven’t been there for fifty years, it’s changed a bit but the sand dunes are still there, we go off to Yarmouth for the odd day out, and ride around the country side, and getting lost, l like that it’s great fun, we usually end up at a Pub for lunch, and Derrick always get the blame for getting us lost, you’ve got to blame someone why not the driver, and we also go down to Heacham, to see John, and Bab,s at there Mobil Home, so that’s another day gone, week over home. The old gentleman next door has died of cancer this will mean new neighbours, but to tie in with this is another story, a little lady used to visit this gentleman, over the years they had worked together, this ladies name is Doris, and that’s all l will say about her name, now this lady has a secret past, she was one of the ladies at Blexley Hall during the war who helped to break the German Code of the Enigma Machine, and to this day all she will say, yes l worked there, but l signed the Secrets Act, so l said its all been on television what you did, then she told me her main job was to send out all the
information, that was got from this machine so the forces could take appropriate action, l still see her, she is in her eighties now, what a lady one of the true Britt’s. We now have a area at the end of the glass gallery,
where we can work, and make the racks for the surplus glass storage, and easy to get at, things begin to look ship shape, but what gets me is that as soon as we start to work, and make a noise,” stop” the priest down stairs is saying a few prayers, this goes on through the day every hour, and to see the visitors
faces in the Cathedral, you can read them, we didn’t come here to be preached too, we come to look at the Architecture, and the history of the place, it would be better for them to play good church music through the speakers just as back ground music, just my point of view, there are one or two people that work in the Cathedral that l know, one especially, our brides maid in 1950, yes our lovely June, and also a great friend of ours Mary, and also over the years one or two men l have worked with, most have the same views as me, but l am doing what my wife said keep your mouth shut. Well Derrick has put plans in motion for a holiday in Spain l had said l am not going there again, but Holden you are out voted, well by chance l went to a Ghurkha Band Concert at Tattersall’s Ring at Newmarket, this was in aid of the Ghurkhas that fought in Burma during the war, and are in need of help, while there l meet a friend Eddie Cooper, now he advertise in the Dekho that’s the Far East Journal that come out once a month to us Dekho boys, Dekho means, lets
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have a look in Far East Lingo , Eddies Villa is in Torrevieja in a complex of seven Villas with a pool. Derrick signs us up ready for the off, well Rosemary my daughter has a weeks holiday due to her so she said can l come for a week, no problem we are there for two weeks anyway, we arrive at Alicante Airport in the evening, we get the car, all ready, and waiting, now the fun starts, Derrick takes a wrong turn so now we are heading in land, and not to the shore line, we see a town that we remember so a left turn, and on our way, arrive at the Villa, Bingo, just the job, first toilets, and a cupper tea, in the morning Rosemary up first, and in the pool, then a jog around the block, l think Rosemary has taken charge as when we go for a shower, the first thing she says is, don’t for get your sticky bits, well Rosemary thought she use up her holiday with the Geriatrics as she says, l think she is finding it amusing how we carry on, nothing organised, from day to day, we haven’t a clue what we will do the next day. Today we hope to head towards San Mejuel, and the open country side, well we think we are as Rosemary has the map, this driver of ours he still keep going on the edge of the road, and running over the white line that’s got bumps on, this sends a vibration feeling up my bum, he says its to keep me awake, l will get my own back sooner or later. Well we arrive in hilly country up, and down, l thought we were going to tour open country side, no says Rosemary we are going the seanic route, other wise we are lost, l wouldn’t put it like that dad, but we should have turned off a few miles back, then the sign comes up to Alicante that’s it turn here Derrick, says Rosemary l can see where we are now, you’ve got the map we all say, so we head for town, then just before the town we turn right again along the sea front road, the road we should have taken the night we came out of the airport, well we are now heading
back to the Villa, l think we must have been travelling about seven hours with stops for breaks, we are dinning out tonight at the Britannia Bar, and there’s a country and Western singer tonight, that will be a bit of fun. At the end of the week we take Rosemary back to the airport, at midday the others still have
there Siesta, and me l still go walk about meeting other people, now in this area it is all British owned villas in the complexes with there own pools, in the Pub over the road l meet some Britt’s, and they invited me to there Villa complex, just up the road so l said l would go, now my lot have got there heads down, so off l go, well before l get there what do l here being played loud, yes, Land Of Hope, and Glory, l have come for a holiday in Spain not England, this is what is happening, they are turning these places in to British Ghettos,
just like the Black people in England, they are doing it here with our culture, l See no wrong in this so long as the Britt’s when they get home don’t slag the blacks off for the same thing, l just turned round and went back to the villa . About midweek we thought we would have another day out in Orihuela ,so off we go, and do some exploring of the town, then to the cafe we have used before, and l used the toilets , unbeknown to me l dropped my passport in the toilets
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so off we go home to the Villa, but when we arrive l am minus passport, the word,( shit comes to mind) the only place l could have dropped it was in the toilets at the cafe, well passports are worth allot of money on the black market, it’s no good going to the Police they don’t want to know, so we make enquires where
the nearest British Embassy is, there’s one in Alicante but it’s not open every day, not much we can do till tomorrow, Mary’s flipped her lid, me l am not very happy, and l am not going to be stranded in Spain, me l am making plans, in my mind to go to Gibraltar (UK) SOIL, anyway in the morning we head off back to
the cafe, Derrick said everything will work out OK, l said you have more faith in human nature than l have, well we arrive at the cafe, and as soon as he sees us he reaches to the top of the till, and hand me my passport, l am very surprised, the man said it was in the toilets, l thanked him, and l gave him a good tip, we left, and headed for home to the Villa, my faith in human nature has jumped a couple of knotches, or was l lucky l met an honest man, at least l will be travelling home with the family, the feeling l got when l lost the
passport was like travelling down to S,E,A,C, the unknown l hadn’t felt like that for years. For the rest of the week it was hands on my passport, but in future l will be carrying a photo copy of my passport as l travel around. On our last night we go down to Torrevieja sea front, and promenade, the traders have set up there stalls this is about eight -o-clock at night, and there’s portrait painters, paint spray artists, fortune tellers, and circus artists, all having a great time, there’s lots of watch sellers, its more like open market at night, but tomorrow we will be on our way home. Off down to Alicante Airport hand in car now we Que. To have our passports checked to go into the departure lounge, baggage all gone through, its a good orderly Queue, till some German tourists thought other wise they thought they should be at the front, well Britts will be Britt’s as they come bargeing passed, the words were something like, and where the hell do you lot think you are going, to catch our plane ,well this is not a NAAFI Queue, Get to the back, and Queue, like the rest of us, these square heads have no manners, and don’t know the word Queue ,but if we had let these Krauts through they would have got all the best seats in the lounge, and sod the rest, like around pools they spread there towels everywhere, arrogant lot of sods. Now airports out here are not like they are in England all the way under cover to the plane, and into your seat, out here you have to cross the tarmac on foot to the plane then climb the steps to your seat, we are all boarded, and home ward bound but as we approach the Alps the pilot says look out of the starboard side windows, and see the fire work display over the Alps, the lightening was jumping across the peaks very pretty. Home ,and soon back into the normal routine of every day chores, but we have a little hiccup with Alison, and Arne there marriage is going through a little crisses at the moment, and the parents are last to know, so a few questions, and answers are needed of what’s gone wrong , we get to the problem then we can do no more , only the trained
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people can sort it out, this done all sorted back to normal l hope, but Alison has taken on a cooks job at the local Supermarket working all nights, for the shift workers, now this is against all family advice, as we pointed out the human body is not made to work nights for long periods, if it was, we would all be working nights and sleeping during the day like all nocturnal animals, no she’s going to do it, it’s more money at nights, well it wasn’t long before she’s heading for a break down, and that’s something no one is prepared for, the old
brain box plays tricks, that you know it’s not true but to convince them, you just cant, it seems no matter what you say, they turn it quickly round to make out as if you are lying. She came to us with assorts of fantasies, like Arnie was drugging her, she pulled her cigarettes to pieces looking for drugs, and he
was getting the children to turn against her, well at the finish the Doctors, gave her sick leave from work, with pills to charm her down, and the Doctor willing to listen, and in no time she turned her round , but to see a person in that state of health its a bit frightening, as a parent l felt useless l couldn’t help her, we could only be there when she called for help, The trouble is she has gone back to work, and still working nights (cooking) l wish she would change her job. There’s news at the Stain Glass Museum, that it might be
possible to get a lottery hand out, at least we are on the list, Susan our Curator is over the moon, we have already made mock ups of the fittings that we would like to have, and display more Stained Glass. There’s been some tragic news on the T,V, Princess Diana, and Dode Fayed were killed in a car crash in
France in one of the under passes, l don’t think its sunk in yet to some people, but others are already laying flowers out side Buck House ,and Clarence House, all flags at half mast, except one place Buck House as we say meaning (Buckingham Palace) the Royals are getting a roasting over this, but the Queen has not given her permission yet, at this point we can only read in to this as, after the divorcé she was no longer considered a Royal Windsor, but public pressure is mounting, it looks as if Diana meant nothing to them, she was just there to produce an Heir to the Throne then cast aside for Charles to carry on with his mistress Parker Bowls, this time the Royals have got it wrong, the public loved Diana, and all she stood for, and for the good she was doing through out the world, she always had hands on with people, something no other
Royal has ever done. Well Queenie had to come off that high stool, and give the people what they want, Standard at half mast, and a full state funeral by public demand plus a Royal Guard of Honour by a Welsh Regiment, the flowers are now spread over the parks, and gardens in places about three feet deep, this
all outweighs Winston Churchill state funeral, l am supposed to be going on holiday Saturday morning when the funeral takes place to Yarmouth l cant drive down to there in the morning, there will be no one on the roads , everyone will be watching T,V, so l have decided to watch it as well, and tape it ,
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as the Cortege walked through London streets the people were throwing flowers in front of the horses making a carpet of flowers, the Soldiers were of the Welsh Regiment that were marching either side, and people crying, some with candles, the streets were lined with thousands of people, l think a lump was in everybody’s throat. After the service the Hurst was waiting, and at very slow pace it headed for her resting place, Althorp, and still the flowers were being thrown, some blocking the drivers view, l suppose the most touching thing was Elton Johns, Candle in the Wind (good bye England’s Rose ) l think that said everything, my opinion is why the British public did all this was, for the way the Royals had treated her, cant they get it in to their thick heads yet, Cromwell beheaded Charles 1st to give the running of our country to the people, now l am not saying get rid of the Monarchy just thin them out a bit, make them earn a living, a president, me no, he could be bias to one or the other party, a King or Queen have no political say in the country, the Queen, and Prince
Philip did make a guestier to meet the people outside Buck House, it was too late the damage had been done. Well there’s allsorts of rumours going around, was this a put up job so that a Moslem could not have a toe hold in our Monarchy, as Al Fayed has been refused a British passport, and if Dode married Diana it would be a problem to refuse him of one, some are saying M.I.5 are behind it, there’s only one man that knows, and that’s the ex S.A.S body guard of Diana he is the only one to survive the crash, and the only one wearing a seat belt, he was badly injured but able to talk, but will he say the things we want to here or will he be paid off, this crash leaves allot of questions unanswered, and the truth may never be told, but Al Fayed is sending in his own investigators, one thing that’s come up, how did a Hotel chauffeur have such a
large bank balance, well l have put my views, all l can say, people in this world do have accidents, and no one brought to justice for them as, Governments from around the world will always denied any involvement, or a no need to know answer, like when l was on War crimes, least the public know the better. All the whys, and wherefore of this crash will be talked about for years to come, and maybe decades. Well we have new neighbours in Mr Masons house next door and they are going to town on it, cutting all the old trees down, land scapeing, and all new lawns, the wall that is between us is leaning badly towards there property, so l have said l will take it down, and build something much better, this is a young couple with a small baby, we now have a young couple either side, and us pensioners in the middle, l have nick named them
(neighbours from hell ), l will put you in the picture ,Bruce on one side if he sees me digging a hole in the garden, he pops his head over the fence, and says, Mary all right, yes why, OH l thought you were burying her, now Keith from the other side sees me in the garden he comes, and talks to me, stop me from working ,then goes and tell Mary that l stopped him from
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gardening, so Mary tells me off for stopping him, and he’s the one that started talking, so from now on they are my neighbours from hell. Now young Joseph next door has a water pistol, and now ,and again l get a wet ear hole, so no more to do l get one, let battle commence, yes l know l am as a bigger kid as he is,and why not. At least children keep you young at heart, and l am all for a bit of fun, but Mary the other day thought she would go vegetarian, she cooked the dinner, but the meat was still in the freezer, so the old stand by came out Bully Beef,( Army Rations Again). Before l start building the wall l have got to replace the outhouse, all cleared ,and footings in, now to start rebuilding in the blocks l have made, with clear perplex on the roof to let the light in, and Derrick fixed me up with some good doors that were thrown out at the
University, those hung we now have a useable out house, also while l am doing this l also build a B,B,Q, with a chimney, that’s all, a new block wall is on the cards, Keith get me some cement, and wall ties, that’s a big help, Keith carts the old wall away, and the earth out of the footings, level pegs put in ,and concreting of the footings begin ,wait till set, then start on the wall laying blocks, this all goes very well, and with help from the critics that pass by, and a little more help from a certain man that works for Radio Cambridgeshire he is broad casting it over the air waves that the wall can be seen from space clearer than the Great Wall of China, this Radio man is none other than Ronnie Barbour who loves to Wind people up on Radio Cambridgeshire, but he doesn't get it all his own way because we catch him as well . l now have two lovely random rubble gate posts, and matching wall with copings, its made me feel happier as the wall was leaning, and if that had fell on those children next door l would have never forgiven my self, next thing l do is tart the gate pillars up With our number let in one post, and the other my regimental cap badge, and the airborne emblem the Pegasus on the other, that's poshed them up. John ,and Barbara wants us to spend a week with them at Heacham in there Mobil home, so off we go John is mostly out at sea on his sail board when the tides right, and when he does that l go walk about with my video camera now you are going to say what is there to video at Heacham, well there is quite a lot of history down this way in the village. On one wall there’s a plaque to the men of the 1700s who struck against the Farmers for a minimum wage, and we thought
the government of today thought of it not likely it was those old Norfolk boys that started it in the 1700s the plaque is well worth reading it in the middle of the village, now also in this village is a plaque to a famous Princess in the Heacham Church, its to Princess Pocahontas 1595-1617 she was married to John Rolfe of the village who was a colonist he brought her back to from Virginia as his wife, he was about to take her back to see her people when she was bitten by a bug of some sort at one of the ports, and died before leaving England to see her Native Tribe , its well worth a visit to the Church
Bulls with long horns ,and to think a man goes in a ring with one of these long horned animals, now my mind is travelling at a great speed of knots. l just said l wouldn’t want one of those horns up my rectum, it sends a shudder down my spine, now a voice in the back of the car said at least the Bull couldn’t miss, then Derrick says at least he couldn’t toss you very far, thanks with friends like you lot l need no enemies, and a big laugh at my expence. We travel through the valley it’s the greenest area l have seen in Spain, the Farms are miles apart, and very few houses, after a while we turn, and head for the coastline again, as we approach the coast we come across the salt diggings, and mounds of white salt, it looks as if they flood areas then dam them off till they dry out, and the salt is then collected, and heaped up to bleach, there looks to be tons of it, l suppose it then goes off to be refined. Back at Torrevieja, change, and out for a meal at the Britannia Bar, just at bottom of our flats, now this place you can not eat what they serve you, there is so much, and the wine is good, so all in all a good night out, plus you get a Cabaret, the next day off we go to Cartagena on the way on the coast road we come across more cowboy towns, St Pedro, and Santa fee, ( l better get ma six guns on pardoner) we arrive at this town midday, shops closed from about one to four - o clock siesta time we find a coffee bar, and one shop open, and its one the women like, a To-do shop nothing over 100 Persaitas about 50p in English money, in we go first items they buy are Archimedies Whisks the ones you pump up down, it was round about a dozen they bought between them, Derrick bought a wrist watch 200 Persaiters, l said you will have to get that insured, you might get it pinched, we all had a good laugh about this watch, but he had the last laugh as it kept good time, this town was a bit of a damp squib, never mind it
was a day out in the country side, and we had a good laugh, when Derrick, and me are not having a go at each other, or having a difference of opinion As we always do, we tend to wind each other up, the trouble is he is always right, and l am never wrong, but it always end in a good laugh. Now one late afternoon
we thought we would have a walk along the beach to the next village, l have my video camera with me, well my camera got stuck to my shoulder, and could not move it, as on the beach were some nude bathers, some how you freeze but the camera keeps rolling, l was called a dirty old man by the family, l said l was
trying to film sea birds, and the rolling waves, some one said liar ,so we carried on walking to the village, and the boards were up for an open market tomorrow, now the women have decided that’s the first stop in the morning early, and who dare go against the wishes of two women, we get to this market its a small local one, then we here of one down in the town of Torrevieja, this is a big one, and there’s crowds of people, l am not sure what the women bought, but l wish we had two Donkeys to carry the items ,and l can murder,
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a cup of coffee , l am still not over the moon with the Spanish, l may have got it wrong, but to me their attitude is ,take it or leave it , it’s time for home, down to Alicanti Airport hand back the car, and board the plane home, l had not been home many days, and l get a call from The Stained Glass Museum in the
Cathedral they need another carpenter to help the one they have got, and l know this chap Ken Jefferson not as a friend but know him, so a time is arraigned to meet the Curator, but before l go l get a lecture off the wife, now be careful what you say in the Cathedral, as you are well aware of my religious views, so
it’s Holden keep your mouth shut, but l have already said to myself no Sky Pilot is going to hover me while l work, when l say Sky Pilot mean the ( clergy with dog collars back to front) this is Army slang. Well l meet this young lady the curator Mrs Susan Matthew’s, she has a mannerism of a school mistress about her, a person on top of her job, l like that straight to the point, she gives me all the does, and don’ts about the job, and also she tells me the Stained Glass Museum is nothing to do with the Cathedral it’s privately run (that’s
good no Sky Pilots breathing down my neck) you will be working with Ken, yes l do know him he’s a chippy like me, chippy what’s that, OH sorry we are both carpenters by trade, she said l would be casual that’s fine l don’t want nothing regular, the Stained Glass is on the North Transept of the Cathedral .Now first of all l now nothing about making up lead lights in Stained Glass ,the nearest to it l used to make the iron frames for them to fix too, in Churches, large Dance Halls, and Entrance Lobbies to office buildings, this job looks very interesting, what we have got to do is cut holes in the sheets of chip board, and fix the stained glass at the rear then light them up, looking at these panels, they are a work of art, l have never been so close to Stained
Glass before as mostly its about twenty feet up in a church, to see the detail close at hand, its like looking at a good painting, Ken has worked here for a long while he knows most of them by heart, one of our jobs is to make up a lot of “A” frames, as l find out that the Museum has got to move to the other side of the Cathedral to the South Transept, l look at all the Stained Glass, and fittings, l thought this is going to take a long while, all the stuff to be lowered to the floor then hoisted up the other side, but no l am told, we are putting a bridge across the Cathedral, yes, the only thing, everything has to taken over in reverse, so the first thing is it mark every joint so we will know which go where, and so forth, and l make a special four wheeled flat top trolley six inches of the ground this is to transport the fittings over the bridge, the Museum are getting builders in to do all the large amount of humping, and assembling, and as soon as it is fixed, on with the wiring for the
lights in go the stained glass panels (BINGO) all done, l could see Susan having some anxious moments, there’s a date of opening in our new location ,well we make it on time, and the doors are open for business, while all the up heaval was going on l got to know people who worked at the museum ,one outstanding character a lady from
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Soham a lovely person down to earth yes our Gill ,and she was willing to have a go at anything , we have the same sence of humour, to see the funny side of life, and l find out about Susan yes she was a teacher, but l wonder if she has sussed me yet as jobs like this, l have eaten them for breakfast, but now l do as l am
told, it’s lovely being retied no more responsibility, the buck doesn’t stop with me anymore, the trouble is when you are in charge you have to think for everyone, well it’s time for a holiday, so off we go to Hemsby haven’t been there for fifty years, it’s changed a bit but the sand dunes are still there, we go off to Yarmouth for the odd day out, and ride around the country side, and getting lost, l like that it’s great fun, we usually end up at a Pub for lunch, and Derrick always get the blame for getting us lost, you’ve got to blame someone why not the driver, and we also go down to Heacham, to see John, and Bab,s at there Mobil Home, so that’s another day gone, week over home. The old gentleman next door has died of cancer this will mean new neighbours, but to tie in with this is another story, a little lady used to visit this gentleman, over the years they had worked together, this ladies name is Doris, and that’s all l will say about her name, now this lady has a secret past, she was one of the ladies at Blexley Hall during the war who helped to break the German Code of the Enigma Machine, and to this day all she will say, yes l worked there, but l signed the Secrets Act, so l said its all been on television what you did, then she told me her main job was to send out all the
information, that was got from this machine so the forces could take appropriate action, l still see her, she is in her eighties now, what a lady one of the true Britt’s. We now have a area at the end of the glass gallery,
where we can work, and make the racks for the surplus glass storage, and easy to get at, things begin to look ship shape, but what gets me is that as soon as we start to work, and make a noise,” stop” the priest down stairs is saying a few prayers, this goes on through the day every hour, and to see the visitors
faces in the Cathedral, you can read them, we didn’t come here to be preached too, we come to look at the Architecture, and the history of the place, it would be better for them to play good church music through the speakers just as back ground music, just my point of view, there are one or two people that work in the Cathedral that l know, one especially, our brides maid in 1950, yes our lovely June, and also a great friend of ours Mary, and also over the years one or two men l have worked with, most have the same views as me, but l am doing what my wife said keep your mouth shut. Well Derrick has put plans in motion for a holiday in Spain l had said l am not going there again, but Holden you are out voted, well by chance l went to a Ghurkha Band Concert at Tattersall’s Ring at Newmarket, this was in aid of the Ghurkhas that fought in Burma during the war, and are in need of help, while there l meet a friend Eddie Cooper, now he advertise in the Dekho that’s the Far East Journal that come out once a month to us Dekho boys, Dekho means, lets
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have a look in Far East Lingo , Eddies Villa is in Torrevieja in a complex of seven Villas with a pool. Derrick signs us up ready for the off, well Rosemary my daughter has a weeks holiday due to her so she said can l come for a week, no problem we are there for two weeks anyway, we arrive at Alicante Airport in the evening, we get the car, all ready, and waiting, now the fun starts, Derrick takes a wrong turn so now we are heading in land, and not to the shore line, we see a town that we remember so a left turn, and on our way, arrive at the Villa, Bingo, just the job, first toilets, and a cupper tea, in the morning Rosemary up first, and in the pool, then a jog around the block, l think Rosemary has taken charge as when we go for a shower, the first thing she says is, don’t for get your sticky bits, well Rosemary thought she use up her holiday with the Geriatrics as she says, l think she is finding it amusing how we carry on, nothing organised, from day to day, we haven’t a clue what we will do the next day. Today we hope to head towards San Mejuel, and the open country side, well we think we are as Rosemary has the map, this driver of ours he still keep going on the edge of the road, and running over the white line that’s got bumps on, this sends a vibration feeling up my bum, he says its to keep me awake, l will get my own back sooner or later. Well we arrive in hilly country up, and down, l thought we were going to tour open country side, no says Rosemary we are going the seanic route, other wise we are lost, l wouldn’t put it like that dad, but we should have turned off a few miles back, then the sign comes up to Alicante that’s it turn here Derrick, says Rosemary l can see where we are now, you’ve got the map we all say, so we head for town, then just before the town we turn right again along the sea front road, the road we should have taken the night we came out of the airport, well we are now heading
back to the Villa, l think we must have been travelling about seven hours with stops for breaks, we are dinning out tonight at the Britannia Bar, and there’s a country and Western singer tonight, that will be a bit of fun. At the end of the week we take Rosemary back to the airport, at midday the others still have
there Siesta, and me l still go walk about meeting other people, now in this area it is all British owned villas in the complexes with there own pools, in the Pub over the road l meet some Britt’s, and they invited me to there Villa complex, just up the road so l said l would go, now my lot have got there heads down, so off l go, well before l get there what do l here being played loud, yes, Land Of Hope, and Glory, l have come for a holiday in Spain not England, this is what is happening, they are turning these places in to British Ghettos,
just like the Black people in England, they are doing it here with our culture, l See no wrong in this so long as the Britt’s when they get home don’t slag the blacks off for the same thing, l just turned round and went back to the villa . About midweek we thought we would have another day out in Orihuela ,so off we go, and do some exploring of the town, then to the cafe we have used before, and l used the toilets , unbeknown to me l dropped my passport in the toilets
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so off we go home to the Villa, but when we arrive l am minus passport, the word,( shit comes to mind) the only place l could have dropped it was in the toilets at the cafe, well passports are worth allot of money on the black market, it’s no good going to the Police they don’t want to know, so we make enquires where
the nearest British Embassy is, there’s one in Alicante but it’s not open every day, not much we can do till tomorrow, Mary’s flipped her lid, me l am not very happy, and l am not going to be stranded in Spain, me l am making plans, in my mind to go to Gibraltar (UK) SOIL, anyway in the morning we head off back to
the cafe, Derrick said everything will work out OK, l said you have more faith in human nature than l have, well we arrive at the cafe, and as soon as he sees us he reaches to the top of the till, and hand me my passport, l am very surprised, the man said it was in the toilets, l thanked him, and l gave him a good tip, we left, and headed for home to the Villa, my faith in human nature has jumped a couple of knotches, or was l lucky l met an honest man, at least l will be travelling home with the family, the feeling l got when l lost the
passport was like travelling down to S,E,A,C, the unknown l hadn’t felt like that for years. For the rest of the week it was hands on my passport, but in future l will be carrying a photo copy of my passport as l travel around. On our last night we go down to Torrevieja sea front, and promenade, the traders have set up there stalls this is about eight -o-clock at night, and there’s portrait painters, paint spray artists, fortune tellers, and circus artists, all having a great time, there’s lots of watch sellers, its more like open market at night, but tomorrow we will be on our way home. Off down to Alicante Airport hand in car now we Que. To have our passports checked to go into the departure lounge, baggage all gone through, its a good orderly Queue, till some German tourists thought other wise they thought they should be at the front, well Britts will be Britt’s as they come bargeing passed, the words were something like, and where the hell do you lot think you are going, to catch our plane ,well this is not a NAAFI Queue, Get to the back, and Queue, like the rest of us, these square heads have no manners, and don’t know the word Queue ,but if we had let these Krauts through they would have got all the best seats in the lounge, and sod the rest, like around pools they spread there towels everywhere, arrogant lot of sods. Now airports out here are not like they are in England all the way under cover to the plane, and into your seat, out here you have to cross the tarmac on foot to the plane then climb the steps to your seat, we are all boarded, and home ward bound but as we approach the Alps the pilot says look out of the starboard side windows, and see the fire work display over the Alps, the lightening was jumping across the peaks very pretty. Home ,and soon back into the normal routine of every day chores, but we have a little hiccup with Alison, and Arne there marriage is going through a little crisses at the moment, and the parents are last to know, so a few questions, and answers are needed of what’s gone wrong , we get to the problem then we can do no more , only the trained
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people can sort it out, this done all sorted back to normal l hope, but Alison has taken on a cooks job at the local Supermarket working all nights, for the shift workers, now this is against all family advice, as we pointed out the human body is not made to work nights for long periods, if it was, we would all be working nights and sleeping during the day like all nocturnal animals, no she’s going to do it, it’s more money at nights, well it wasn’t long before she’s heading for a break down, and that’s something no one is prepared for, the old
brain box plays tricks, that you know it’s not true but to convince them, you just cant, it seems no matter what you say, they turn it quickly round to make out as if you are lying. She came to us with assorts of fantasies, like Arnie was drugging her, she pulled her cigarettes to pieces looking for drugs, and he
was getting the children to turn against her, well at the finish the Doctors, gave her sick leave from work, with pills to charm her down, and the Doctor willing to listen, and in no time she turned her round , but to see a person in that state of health its a bit frightening, as a parent l felt useless l couldn’t help her, we could only be there when she called for help, The trouble is she has gone back to work, and still working nights (cooking) l wish she would change her job. There’s news at the Stain Glass Museum, that it might be
possible to get a lottery hand out, at least we are on the list, Susan our Curator is over the moon, we have already made mock ups of the fittings that we would like to have, and display more Stained Glass. There’s been some tragic news on the T,V, Princess Diana, and Dode Fayed were killed in a car crash in
France in one of the under passes, l don’t think its sunk in yet to some people, but others are already laying flowers out side Buck House ,and Clarence House, all flags at half mast, except one place Buck House as we say meaning (Buckingham Palace) the Royals are getting a roasting over this, but the Queen has not given her permission yet, at this point we can only read in to this as, after the divorcé she was no longer considered a Royal Windsor, but public pressure is mounting, it looks as if Diana meant nothing to them, she was just there to produce an Heir to the Throne then cast aside for Charles to carry on with his mistress Parker Bowls, this time the Royals have got it wrong, the public loved Diana, and all she stood for, and for the good she was doing through out the world, she always had hands on with people, something no other
Royal has ever done. Well Queenie had to come off that high stool, and give the people what they want, Standard at half mast, and a full state funeral by public demand plus a Royal Guard of Honour by a Welsh Regiment, the flowers are now spread over the parks, and gardens in places about three feet deep, this
all outweighs Winston Churchill state funeral, l am supposed to be going on holiday Saturday morning when the funeral takes place to Yarmouth l cant drive down to there in the morning, there will be no one on the roads , everyone will be watching T,V, so l have decided to watch it as well, and tape it ,
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as the Cortege walked through London streets the people were throwing flowers in front of the horses making a carpet of flowers, the Soldiers were of the Welsh Regiment that were marching either side, and people crying, some with candles, the streets were lined with thousands of people, l think a lump was in everybody’s throat. After the service the Hurst was waiting, and at very slow pace it headed for her resting place, Althorp, and still the flowers were being thrown, some blocking the drivers view, l suppose the most touching thing was Elton Johns, Candle in the Wind (good bye England’s Rose ) l think that said everything, my opinion is why the British public did all this was, for the way the Royals had treated her, cant they get it in to their thick heads yet, Cromwell beheaded Charles 1st to give the running of our country to the people, now l am not saying get rid of the Monarchy just thin them out a bit, make them earn a living, a president, me no, he could be bias to one or the other party, a King or Queen have no political say in the country, the Queen, and Prince
Philip did make a guestier to meet the people outside Buck House, it was too late the damage had been done. Well there’s allsorts of rumours going around, was this a put up job so that a Moslem could not have a toe hold in our Monarchy, as Al Fayed has been refused a British passport, and if Dode married Diana it would be a problem to refuse him of one, some are saying M.I.5 are behind it, there’s only one man that knows, and that’s the ex S.A.S body guard of Diana he is the only one to survive the crash, and the only one wearing a seat belt, he was badly injured but able to talk, but will he say the things we want to here or will he be paid off, this crash leaves allot of questions unanswered, and the truth may never be told, but Al Fayed is sending in his own investigators, one thing that’s come up, how did a Hotel chauffeur have such a
large bank balance, well l have put my views, all l can say, people in this world do have accidents, and no one brought to justice for them as, Governments from around the world will always denied any involvement, or a no need to know answer, like when l was on War crimes, least the public know the better. All the whys, and wherefore of this crash will be talked about for years to come, and maybe decades. Well we have new neighbours in Mr Masons house next door and they are going to town on it, cutting all the old trees down, land scapeing, and all new lawns, the wall that is between us is leaning badly towards there property, so l have said l will take it down, and build something much better, this is a young couple with a small baby, we now have a young couple either side, and us pensioners in the middle, l have nick named them
(neighbours from hell ), l will put you in the picture ,Bruce on one side if he sees me digging a hole in the garden, he pops his head over the fence, and says, Mary all right, yes why, OH l thought you were burying her, now Keith from the other side sees me in the garden he comes, and talks to me, stop me from working ,then goes and tell Mary that l stopped him from
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gardening, so Mary tells me off for stopping him, and he’s the one that started talking, so from now on they are my neighbours from hell. Now young Joseph next door has a water pistol, and now ,and again l get a wet ear hole, so no more to do l get one, let battle commence, yes l know l am as a bigger kid as he is,and why not. At least children keep you young at heart, and l am all for a bit of fun, but Mary the other day thought she would go vegetarian, she cooked the dinner, but the meat was still in the freezer, so the old stand by came out Bully Beef,( Army Rations Again). Before l start building the wall l have got to replace the outhouse, all cleared ,and footings in, now to start rebuilding in the blocks l have made, with clear perplex on the roof to let the light in, and Derrick fixed me up with some good doors that were thrown out at the
University, those hung we now have a useable out house, also while l am doing this l also build a B,B,Q, with a chimney, that’s all, a new block wall is on the cards, Keith get me some cement, and wall ties, that’s a big help, Keith carts the old wall away, and the earth out of the footings, level pegs put in ,and concreting of the footings begin ,wait till set, then start on the wall laying blocks, this all goes very well, and with help from the critics that pass by, and a little more help from a certain man that works for Radio Cambridgeshire he is broad casting it over the air waves that the wall can be seen from space clearer than the Great Wall of China, this Radio man is none other than Ronnie Barbour who loves to Wind people up on Radio Cambridgeshire, but he doesn't get it all his own way because we catch him as well . l now have two lovely random rubble gate posts, and matching wall with copings, its made me feel happier as the wall was leaning, and if that had fell on those children next door l would have never forgiven my self, next thing l do is tart the gate pillars up With our number let in one post, and the other my regimental cap badge, and the airborne emblem the Pegasus on the other, that's poshed them up. John ,and Barbara wants us to spend a week with them at Heacham in there Mobil home, so off we go John is mostly out at sea on his sail board when the tides right, and when he does that l go walk about with my video camera now you are going to say what is there to video at Heacham, well there is quite a lot of history down this way in the village. On one wall there’s a plaque to the men of the 1700s who struck against the Farmers for a minimum wage, and we thought
the government of today thought of it not likely it was those old Norfolk boys that started it in the 1700s the plaque is well worth reading it in the middle of the village, now also in this village is a plaque to a famous Princess in the Heacham Church, its to Princess Pocahontas 1595-1617 she was married to John Rolfe of the village who was a colonist he brought her back to from Virginia as his wife, he was about to take her back to see her people when she was bitten by a bug of some sort at one of the ports, and died before leaving England to see her Native Tribe , its well worth a visit to the Church
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also there are booklets of her life, l have all this on video, and walking around the village you notice that the houses here are built of red sand stone, and white lime cement joints making them all looking like Giraffes, and there’s some lovely ponds with Ducks, Geese, and Swans they all wonder around the streets of the Village of Heacham, then there’s the history of the Sea wall, the ever pounding of the North Sea, that’s always eroding it, and there’s history of the Vikings landing here, and the road known as Peddars way that
goes across country, good for hikers, and back packer's holiday. Well while we were on this holiday with John, and Babs l thought l would take a little bit of videoing inside the caravan while we were all together, well the Budgie is with them so l thought l would start with him first, now the bird has freedom to fly
around the van, but in side the cage is a life size plastic budgie for him to peck at, me l see this bird in the cage so l press record button, and away we go, what l don’t understand the budgie is not moving, so l go over to tease this bird, not a titter, l am videoing this bird, and the sound of me talking to this bird is all being recorded, then the penny drops its plastic, I must now quote from a very good comedy sitcom (l don’t believe it )yes me videoing a blasted plastic Budgie, and how do you live that down, as from now on if l say anything out of place, all l get is what do you expect from him, he doesn’t know the difference between a plastic Budgie, and a real one, (Holden ) this is going to be hard job to live this down, if ever. I have been very busy in Littledownham videoing things that have happen in the village, one event that l think was the best thing l have seen, was the planting of the trees at Pinglewood, and setting of wild flowers, this village has a lot of talent in it to create things for the future. The new Rev Mike Hughes is gathering momentum to do a face lift to the inside of the Church, with a new central heating system, moving partitions, and moving the organ for people to see, and there’s a lot more little tit bits also being done, me l am always In favour of change there has to be if the Church wants people to come to Church, there is still a roll for the Church to play in local communities for some people. At this stage l cannot see all this being done at least another three or four years to come, as money has to be raised, that doesn’t fall off Yew Trees in a Church Yard here’s also the refurbishing of the railings to front of the Church, and a new roadway in for funeral corteges, this is to remove them from stopping the traffic on a dangerous bend, just a little bit of local history ,and gossip. I
keep having a chat on Ronnie Barbour program Radio Cambridgeshire just putting my views, and like wise in the local paper, l do it to get people talking, and to air there views, Ronnie has nick named me Eddie the Goose it all started some time ago, l was at a car boot sale ,and l saw this plastic goose that light up, its really a child’s bed room night light, so one Christmas l put it out side, and light it up, now every Xmas the Children want to know when the Goose is
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is coming out to see it, so over the years other things have been added, now the front of the house is completely lit up, but when Ronnie first came this way he told people he lived in the Village of Littledownham, and was a fitness freak, now l went on the Radio, and told the listeners l could see him out of my window lifting up his dumbbells, and l said they were cotton reels on the end of knitting needles, but he to remove the cotton as he could not lift them with the cotton on, now this caused an up roar, the listeners all ringing in, and
saying at last we know the truth, so he comes back at me, and ask where l lived, l said Ely road, where, Oh l am the one that puts the goose out every year, gotcher he says, and from then on, lm Eddie the goose. Now the Parish Council called a meeting in the village for people of different clubs, and societies to air there views ,well the meeting was well supported a lot of people had there say, then it was thrown open to the floor, so l gets up, and said what is the Council going to do for the children for the Millennium, a year from now, the chairman said the Council have nothing in mind, you are on your feet Mr Holden how about organising something, the word comes to mind (shit) l am now up to my neck in it, yes l will have ago, can l come to the council for some guidance, yes we will help all we can, l now know that the man behind me who has the village at heart, my wife was from the start 100% behind me so l know when it comes to organise this event, l know l shall have her behind me that will make things a little bit easier, as she will have the
woman’s point of view, that is very important as a woman’s touch to the finer bits that us men tend to forget, the first job is to get a committee, now from the start this committee will have to be told that there’s going to be tough times ahead, and we are not always going to see eye to eye, l have lots of ldears but will l get my way, we will have to wait and See. Public meeting to be called l get the school room, Kath put an add in the parish mag ; on the day l expected a few people to turn up, but the hall was full, l put my views to the congregation, a few laughs at what l called a fun day that the children would remember, well l wanted plenty of water flying around, children’s races with mums, and dads spraying them with water out of fairy liquid bottles as run past them, then in reverse children spraying mums, and dads as they ran races, but the first ,and foremost A millennium mug for each child, and if moneys over free ice cream, and teas, drink, or a sit down bun fight. I put it back to the people, and in principle a good ldear they thought, l said shall we come back in a month, and form a committee this will give you all time to think about it, well as l finished talking a Gentleman got up and said you have them here ask for volunteers now, l did not have this in mind, l put it to the floor, l said from the beginning l did not want to be one of the three ,which was Chairman, Secretary, or Treasurer, l would be the coordinator in getting money, people to work on the day, and getting all the slips of paper to all the people with children to redidigister there children for a Mug to
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remember the Millennium of 2000 , this will mean a lot hoof work around the Villages, at the meeting l also told them why l wanted to do this, as a lad in 1935 the parents, and some business people put on a fun day for all the children of two Villages where l lived, not unlike Littledownham, and Pymoor, but that was the Silver Jubilee of King George, and Queen Mary, we all got mugs then, and l still have mine. I called for a volunteer for a chairman, and l got one, a lady l did not know, but l found out later she was the Vicars wife, well that’s a good start, but l wonder with my point of view how things will turn out, next two young ladies as secretaries to share the load , that’s a start, but l said from the start, once started no turning back because l will see it through, and who ever wants to come on the committee will at the end of this year will have learnt more, in this year than in a life time, and we will at times not agree with each other, but so long as the fun day goes ahead, and according to plan what more can the children ask for, and at end of the day we
are still talking to each other that’s all that matters. l now get introduced to the Chairman Sue Hughes the Vicars wife , well in our little chat she asked me why l was wanting to do this ,well in 1935 the Royal Silver Jubilee l had a day that l will always remember, the funny thing is our local Vicar was involved, as us local children had a sit down bun fight in his house, and after races, and lots of fun, in the evening dancing in the barn, you see its turned full circle, the vicars wife 65 years on is helping to do the same for two similar villages, but the vicarage at Norwich is now a country club, my school mate had his 25th wedding party there we have been mates since school days, l asked the vicars wife if she had done anything like this before, she said no but l know l can do it, that’s what l wanted to here, l can do it, so l said to
myself l have an anchor man that’s going to steer me as well as the rest of the committee through thick, and thin, and a parsons wife at that, this is another twist of things in my Life, now the parson's wife has opened her place for us to have meetings to get this off the ground, (do we call it fate) then l am not
superstitious . The two young secretaries, l do not think they know what they getting in too, this is going to be an eye opener for them, l am sure they will cope, but people who do not know me, l think sometimes they think l am a push over, the trouble is if l dig my heels in, sometimes sparks fly, some one has to have the finger on the button, and l don’t leave nothing to chance, when you have a hundred or so men under you, you cant, there’s always the skivers. I have the guarantee from the people at the top of there organisations that money will be available for mugs, and other things so that’s one hurdle complete, now for money for other things, well Ely District Council gave me forms for money to claim off the Lottery Millennium slush fun for events such as this, l did a little spade work on this, if it was worded properly we could be in with a
chance, this was duly handed to the committee for action, Kath Parr the Parish Mag editor
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ran me off five hundred half sheets of “A”4 size, and printed on just what l wanted for the Mums, and Dads to fill in for the children’s Mugs, and return them to the post office in the Village for collection, now in the mean time to raise more money, see my mates who have done similar things, for ldears, got what l
want thanks mates, battle stations here we go. Over the next two or three months a lot more people join our committee, and they are willing workers, that’s what we want, still Havant got a treasurer yet, someone will turn up, at the moment we have about equal of women, and men on the committee, that’s a good balance, Sue our Chairman is on the ball ,sometimes not quite forceful enough but its early days, she will toughen up as we go, for a start everything l proposed at the open meeting has been thrown out, it meant a lot of work on the day for people to organise things ,so we have gone for a fair ground type of day, where children can enjoy themselves all day, and not pay for a thing, and the mums, and dads can sit back, and watch with a pint of beer in the beer tent. Back to my little part time job at the Stained Glass its all been fully refurbished with the help of the lottery money, and up, and working also built to our profiles, l think its great, l know the Curator is over the moon with it, the new shop area is first class, it's set out like an entrance to a Museum
now, and there is more Stained Glass on display, all carpeted floors. There’s only one problem l can see is the Cathedral higharakey that impose such stupid restrictions at times ,this l have to keep mum on, but if l was in charge l think l would have to tell them to grow up, this is a different world now, where people do think for themselves, as l have said before, the Barons of yesteryear are gone, but a few try to hang on. l keep writing to the local paper, and putting my views ,and other peoples, sometimes l get slagged off, but mostly l get a good support, as l only speak the truth, my wife tells people that what l write is not necessary the view of the Holden House Hold. The Millennium Fun Day is coming along fine, l have collecting boxes in all the
shops, and pubs in the village, this is proving to be a winner, all but one shop, a fishing tackle shop , now this is a stupid confrontation, l was ordered out of his shop for no reason at all, well this is what happened, l found out in the village we were going to have a Micro Mast erected near the Church, and the School, now l know a little bit about these Masts as l have worked on them at military bases, so l get the Parish council to call an emergency meeting for all the Village to air there views on this subject, as so much has been in the
national papers about these, this mast was to be erected on land that this shop keeper was renting or loaned out to him, well the meeting was 100% in having it moved to out side the village, now my name is at the top, and another man who is Mr Tom Mott, this mast would have been at the bottom of his garden , we both
campaigned to get this stopped, we were invited to County Council meetings to put our views, in the end it went to the Minister in London, it.
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was finally stopped ,but not by us on Health grounds, but by the Conservation group, and environmental people, but we got the ball rolling, now back to this chap who band me from his shop for just trying to protect the children in the School, and his Grandchildren who go to the School, the laughs on him as it did him a lot of harm, the local radio got to know all about it, and rang him, he said everyone can now throw away there Mobil phones as they will not be able to use them, what a load of nonsense, about 50% of the village have Mobil phones, and they get good reception anywhere in the village, the local press run a good story on this, this stupid hot head of a man just said don’t come to my shop again, no big deal for me , l don’t go fishing anyway, we never said we wanted the mast band altogether, just wanted it repositioned on the out side of the village away from the children, just as a precaution of a health hazard, but now the Mast people, are saying there is no need for a mast in or out side the village, so end of story . We now have a treasurer for our Fun Day, a Magistrate J.P. well everything will be all above board with her, yes, a lady J.P. Mrs J South , well l am told she is a forceful lady, so it looks we might clash, l can stand that so long as she looks after the money l have to get in, by what my committee tells me, we will need about £ 5,000 to put this show on
for the children, money for the Millennium mugs is in hand, the Feoffees are buying them, that’s £ 1,500, and the parish council £ 500 so we are up to £ 2,000 ,now Holden l have got to see my mates in the Fens, the Farmers, well l cant name all the Farmers but everyone gave generously, and the collection boxes were always full, prizes were given through out the village, and the shops ,and businesses in Ely, our local stores gave us all the drinks for the children for free, now these people have only just taken over the shop, that
was a great big help, the local, Little Chef gave us all the tea and coffee, and plastic mugs, and many more people chipped in, and wanted to stay anonymous, thanks to everyone, we do get all the money needed, the show goes on, we get a few hick ups on the way, the Council Health, and Safety are a bit of a bind, that also get sorted, l can see my Fun Day for the children is going to be something for them to remember, with the help of a great committee, and workers behind the seens, my dream is coming true, its taken a year out of my life to Do it, and l know every house in the two villages as l have had to visit them so often, in delivering pamphlets to keep them up dated. l still keep writing to the local paper about things that l think are wrong, or right which ever the case may be, l get people coming up to me in the street, and say l like your column, or they might reply in the paper, some for me, some Against me, at least they are reading it, and talking about my comments, and l still have my say on the local radio. Now as you have gathered l am a prankster, love
having a go at the wife, its usually when she’s in the shower, l go and turn the hot water tap on in the kitchen, then there’s a scream ,ill kill you, and by the time she gets
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out of the shower, l am gone,(coward) well wouldn’t you. Now l must tell you this, one day in The Stained Glass Museum, l met some Australians, on holiday here tracing there roots, these turned out to be a bit jovial, so in l go with two left feet, you must remember a Auzzie speaks his mind, now it goes like this,
how do you like our little display, true to their lay back way, its bloody lovely mate , yes l now we do our best, but then down under you don’t have this sort of thing, well there’s bits here, and there, Oh have you been through the Cathedral yet, that’s next from here, well when you get to the bottom go to the South door, and on the wall out side there’s a sundial, put there especially for the Australians, your kidding, not me, you take a look, right we will sport, now about an hour later l am off to dinner, walking through the middle of the Cathedral l come across the Australians again they are about 15 to 20 yards away, he is shaking his fist at me, then out it comes, you Pohme bastard laughing his head off, and he said it loud, well the truth is, this sundial has a 12 a the bottom, he said l have photo of it, and you tell your mates what l said, too right cobber, we shook hands then l left he loved it, and another time, we used to have Eve in Stained Glass on display, she is nude with a serpent around her, well there was a coach load of people come to the Museum, and they were looking at her, now they are all retired Ladies and Gentleman, the comments were flying around between them, so l said she caused all the trouble in the world, and a gentleman with a broad Yorkshire accent, said, and they are still bloody well doing it, and for the next half an hour, good old English laughter, l expect if the DEAN had heard it, it would have been, that’s not appropriate for the house of God, little does he know that most people that come the Cathedral are not Church goers, they just come to look at a lovely old building. l think its time the so called men of the cloth, grew up to the year 2,000, and look at what’s going on in the world, and realise that the historians are coming up with near to the truth, than the Bible, people go to the countries on holidays, and see for them selves, and put two, and two together, education, and travel have done all this, what is preached in church, they now question as they could not before , so l say to the church change or die, a lot have made the change, and its proving a good thing, as people are going back to listen, as lively hymns are also sung with a bit of a swing to them . Get off your high horse Holden, and get on with the story, there’s a bit of my life story l have for got, so l have got to go back a few years, you see
the wife, and my self joined the Campaign Amateur Theatre Group, the wife joined to do all the wardrobe work, and me l did the building of the sets, and general dogs body work, it was great fun, we put a major show on every year, there are one or two that sticks out in my mind, first Kings Rhapsody, now us back stage crew had great fun with the Actors, in this play the King had to sign a parchment ,.these plays went on for a week ,and the last night we emptied his ink well,
also there are booklets of her life, l have all this on video, and walking around the village you notice that the houses here are built of red sand stone, and white lime cement joints making them all looking like Giraffes, and there’s some lovely ponds with Ducks, Geese, and Swans they all wonder around the streets of the Village of Heacham, then there’s the history of the Sea wall, the ever pounding of the North Sea, that’s always eroding it, and there’s history of the Vikings landing here, and the road known as Peddars way that
goes across country, good for hikers, and back packer's holiday. Well while we were on this holiday with John, and Babs l thought l would take a little bit of videoing inside the caravan while we were all together, well the Budgie is with them so l thought l would start with him first, now the bird has freedom to fly
around the van, but in side the cage is a life size plastic budgie for him to peck at, me l see this bird in the cage so l press record button, and away we go, what l don’t understand the budgie is not moving, so l go over to tease this bird, not a titter, l am videoing this bird, and the sound of me talking to this bird is all being recorded, then the penny drops its plastic, I must now quote from a very good comedy sitcom (l don’t believe it )yes me videoing a blasted plastic Budgie, and how do you live that down, as from now on if l say anything out of place, all l get is what do you expect from him, he doesn’t know the difference between a plastic Budgie, and a real one, (Holden ) this is going to be hard job to live this down, if ever. I have been very busy in Littledownham videoing things that have happen in the village, one event that l think was the best thing l have seen, was the planting of the trees at Pinglewood, and setting of wild flowers, this village has a lot of talent in it to create things for the future. The new Rev Mike Hughes is gathering momentum to do a face lift to the inside of the Church, with a new central heating system, moving partitions, and moving the organ for people to see, and there’s a lot more little tit bits also being done, me l am always In favour of change there has to be if the Church wants people to come to Church, there is still a roll for the Church to play in local communities for some people. At this stage l cannot see all this being done at least another three or four years to come, as money has to be raised, that doesn’t fall off Yew Trees in a Church Yard here’s also the refurbishing of the railings to front of the Church, and a new roadway in for funeral corteges, this is to remove them from stopping the traffic on a dangerous bend, just a little bit of local history ,and gossip. I
keep having a chat on Ronnie Barbour program Radio Cambridgeshire just putting my views, and like wise in the local paper, l do it to get people talking, and to air there views, Ronnie has nick named me Eddie the Goose it all started some time ago, l was at a car boot sale ,and l saw this plastic goose that light up, its really a child’s bed room night light, so one Christmas l put it out side, and light it up, now every Xmas the Children want to know when the Goose is
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is coming out to see it, so over the years other things have been added, now the front of the house is completely lit up, but when Ronnie first came this way he told people he lived in the Village of Littledownham, and was a fitness freak, now l went on the Radio, and told the listeners l could see him out of my window lifting up his dumbbells, and l said they were cotton reels on the end of knitting needles, but he to remove the cotton as he could not lift them with the cotton on, now this caused an up roar, the listeners all ringing in, and
saying at last we know the truth, so he comes back at me, and ask where l lived, l said Ely road, where, Oh l am the one that puts the goose out every year, gotcher he says, and from then on, lm Eddie the goose. Now the Parish Council called a meeting in the village for people of different clubs, and societies to air there views ,well the meeting was well supported a lot of people had there say, then it was thrown open to the floor, so l gets up, and said what is the Council going to do for the children for the Millennium, a year from now, the chairman said the Council have nothing in mind, you are on your feet Mr Holden how about organising something, the word comes to mind (shit) l am now up to my neck in it, yes l will have ago, can l come to the council for some guidance, yes we will help all we can, l now know that the man behind me who has the village at heart, my wife was from the start 100% behind me so l know when it comes to organise this event, l know l shall have her behind me that will make things a little bit easier, as she will have the
woman’s point of view, that is very important as a woman’s touch to the finer bits that us men tend to forget, the first job is to get a committee, now from the start this committee will have to be told that there’s going to be tough times ahead, and we are not always going to see eye to eye, l have lots of ldears but will l get my way, we will have to wait and See. Public meeting to be called l get the school room, Kath put an add in the parish mag ; on the day l expected a few people to turn up, but the hall was full, l put my views to the congregation, a few laughs at what l called a fun day that the children would remember, well l wanted plenty of water flying around, children’s races with mums, and dads spraying them with water out of fairy liquid bottles as run past them, then in reverse children spraying mums, and dads as they ran races, but the first ,and foremost A millennium mug for each child, and if moneys over free ice cream, and teas, drink, or a sit down bun fight. I put it back to the people, and in principle a good ldear they thought, l said shall we come back in a month, and form a committee this will give you all time to think about it, well as l finished talking a Gentleman got up and said you have them here ask for volunteers now, l did not have this in mind, l put it to the floor, l said from the beginning l did not want to be one of the three ,which was Chairman, Secretary, or Treasurer, l would be the coordinator in getting money, people to work on the day, and getting all the slips of paper to all the people with children to redidigister there children for a Mug to
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remember the Millennium of 2000 , this will mean a lot hoof work around the Villages, at the meeting l also told them why l wanted to do this, as a lad in 1935 the parents, and some business people put on a fun day for all the children of two Villages where l lived, not unlike Littledownham, and Pymoor, but that was the Silver Jubilee of King George, and Queen Mary, we all got mugs then, and l still have mine. I called for a volunteer for a chairman, and l got one, a lady l did not know, but l found out later she was the Vicars wife, well that’s a good start, but l wonder with my point of view how things will turn out, next two young ladies as secretaries to share the load , that’s a start, but l said from the start, once started no turning back because l will see it through, and who ever wants to come on the committee will at the end of this year will have learnt more, in this year than in a life time, and we will at times not agree with each other, but so long as the fun day goes ahead, and according to plan what more can the children ask for, and at end of the day we
are still talking to each other that’s all that matters. l now get introduced to the Chairman Sue Hughes the Vicars wife , well in our little chat she asked me why l was wanting to do this ,well in 1935 the Royal Silver Jubilee l had a day that l will always remember, the funny thing is our local Vicar was involved, as us local children had a sit down bun fight in his house, and after races, and lots of fun, in the evening dancing in the barn, you see its turned full circle, the vicars wife 65 years on is helping to do the same for two similar villages, but the vicarage at Norwich is now a country club, my school mate had his 25th wedding party there we have been mates since school days, l asked the vicars wife if she had done anything like this before, she said no but l know l can do it, that’s what l wanted to here, l can do it, so l said to
myself l have an anchor man that’s going to steer me as well as the rest of the committee through thick, and thin, and a parsons wife at that, this is another twist of things in my Life, now the parson's wife has opened her place for us to have meetings to get this off the ground, (do we call it fate) then l am not
superstitious . The two young secretaries, l do not think they know what they getting in too, this is going to be an eye opener for them, l am sure they will cope, but people who do not know me, l think sometimes they think l am a push over, the trouble is if l dig my heels in, sometimes sparks fly, some one has to have the finger on the button, and l don’t leave nothing to chance, when you have a hundred or so men under you, you cant, there’s always the skivers. I have the guarantee from the people at the top of there organisations that money will be available for mugs, and other things so that’s one hurdle complete, now for money for other things, well Ely District Council gave me forms for money to claim off the Lottery Millennium slush fun for events such as this, l did a little spade work on this, if it was worded properly we could be in with a
chance, this was duly handed to the committee for action, Kath Parr the Parish Mag editor
PAGE 212
ran me off five hundred half sheets of “A”4 size, and printed on just what l wanted for the Mums, and Dads to fill in for the children’s Mugs, and return them to the post office in the Village for collection, now in the mean time to raise more money, see my mates who have done similar things, for ldears, got what l
want thanks mates, battle stations here we go. Over the next two or three months a lot more people join our committee, and they are willing workers, that’s what we want, still Havant got a treasurer yet, someone will turn up, at the moment we have about equal of women, and men on the committee, that’s a good balance, Sue our Chairman is on the ball ,sometimes not quite forceful enough but its early days, she will toughen up as we go, for a start everything l proposed at the open meeting has been thrown out, it meant a lot of work on the day for people to organise things ,so we have gone for a fair ground type of day, where children can enjoy themselves all day, and not pay for a thing, and the mums, and dads can sit back, and watch with a pint of beer in the beer tent. Back to my little part time job at the Stained Glass its all been fully refurbished with the help of the lottery money, and up, and working also built to our profiles, l think its great, l know the Curator is over the moon with it, the new shop area is first class, it's set out like an entrance to a Museum
now, and there is more Stained Glass on display, all carpeted floors. There’s only one problem l can see is the Cathedral higharakey that impose such stupid restrictions at times ,this l have to keep mum on, but if l was in charge l think l would have to tell them to grow up, this is a different world now, where people do think for themselves, as l have said before, the Barons of yesteryear are gone, but a few try to hang on. l keep writing to the local paper, and putting my views ,and other peoples, sometimes l get slagged off, but mostly l get a good support, as l only speak the truth, my wife tells people that what l write is not necessary the view of the Holden House Hold. The Millennium Fun Day is coming along fine, l have collecting boxes in all the
shops, and pubs in the village, this is proving to be a winner, all but one shop, a fishing tackle shop , now this is a stupid confrontation, l was ordered out of his shop for no reason at all, well this is what happened, l found out in the village we were going to have a Micro Mast erected near the Church, and the School, now l know a little bit about these Masts as l have worked on them at military bases, so l get the Parish council to call an emergency meeting for all the Village to air there views on this subject, as so much has been in the
national papers about these, this mast was to be erected on land that this shop keeper was renting or loaned out to him, well the meeting was 100% in having it moved to out side the village, now my name is at the top, and another man who is Mr Tom Mott, this mast would have been at the bottom of his garden , we both
campaigned to get this stopped, we were invited to County Council meetings to put our views, in the end it went to the Minister in London, it.
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was finally stopped ,but not by us on Health grounds, but by the Conservation group, and environmental people, but we got the ball rolling, now back to this chap who band me from his shop for just trying to protect the children in the School, and his Grandchildren who go to the School, the laughs on him as it did him a lot of harm, the local radio got to know all about it, and rang him, he said everyone can now throw away there Mobil phones as they will not be able to use them, what a load of nonsense, about 50% of the village have Mobil phones, and they get good reception anywhere in the village, the local press run a good story on this, this stupid hot head of a man just said don’t come to my shop again, no big deal for me , l don’t go fishing anyway, we never said we wanted the mast band altogether, just wanted it repositioned on the out side of the village away from the children, just as a precaution of a health hazard, but now the Mast people, are saying there is no need for a mast in or out side the village, so end of story . We now have a treasurer for our Fun Day, a Magistrate J.P. well everything will be all above board with her, yes, a lady J.P. Mrs J South , well l am told she is a forceful lady, so it looks we might clash, l can stand that so long as she looks after the money l have to get in, by what my committee tells me, we will need about £ 5,000 to put this show on
for the children, money for the Millennium mugs is in hand, the Feoffees are buying them, that’s £ 1,500, and the parish council £ 500 so we are up to £ 2,000 ,now Holden l have got to see my mates in the Fens, the Farmers, well l cant name all the Farmers but everyone gave generously, and the collection boxes were always full, prizes were given through out the village, and the shops ,and businesses in Ely, our local stores gave us all the drinks for the children for free, now these people have only just taken over the shop, that
was a great big help, the local, Little Chef gave us all the tea and coffee, and plastic mugs, and many more people chipped in, and wanted to stay anonymous, thanks to everyone, we do get all the money needed, the show goes on, we get a few hick ups on the way, the Council Health, and Safety are a bit of a bind, that also get sorted, l can see my Fun Day for the children is going to be something for them to remember, with the help of a great committee, and workers behind the seens, my dream is coming true, its taken a year out of my life to Do it, and l know every house in the two villages as l have had to visit them so often, in delivering pamphlets to keep them up dated. l still keep writing to the local paper about things that l think are wrong, or right which ever the case may be, l get people coming up to me in the street, and say l like your column, or they might reply in the paper, some for me, some Against me, at least they are reading it, and talking about my comments, and l still have my say on the local radio. Now as you have gathered l am a prankster, love
having a go at the wife, its usually when she’s in the shower, l go and turn the hot water tap on in the kitchen, then there’s a scream ,ill kill you, and by the time she gets
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out of the shower, l am gone,(coward) well wouldn’t you. Now l must tell you this, one day in The Stained Glass Museum, l met some Australians, on holiday here tracing there roots, these turned out to be a bit jovial, so in l go with two left feet, you must remember a Auzzie speaks his mind, now it goes like this,
how do you like our little display, true to their lay back way, its bloody lovely mate , yes l now we do our best, but then down under you don’t have this sort of thing, well there’s bits here, and there, Oh have you been through the Cathedral yet, that’s next from here, well when you get to the bottom go to the South door, and on the wall out side there’s a sundial, put there especially for the Australians, your kidding, not me, you take a look, right we will sport, now about an hour later l am off to dinner, walking through the middle of the Cathedral l come across the Australians again they are about 15 to 20 yards away, he is shaking his fist at me, then out it comes, you Pohme bastard laughing his head off, and he said it loud, well the truth is, this sundial has a 12 a the bottom, he said l have photo of it, and you tell your mates what l said, too right cobber, we shook hands then l left he loved it, and another time, we used to have Eve in Stained Glass on display, she is nude with a serpent around her, well there was a coach load of people come to the Museum, and they were looking at her, now they are all retired Ladies and Gentleman, the comments were flying around between them, so l said she caused all the trouble in the world, and a gentleman with a broad Yorkshire accent, said, and they are still bloody well doing it, and for the next half an hour, good old English laughter, l expect if the DEAN had heard it, it would have been, that’s not appropriate for the house of God, little does he know that most people that come the Cathedral are not Church goers, they just come to look at a lovely old building. l think its time the so called men of the cloth, grew up to the year 2,000, and look at what’s going on in the world, and realise that the historians are coming up with near to the truth, than the Bible, people go to the countries on holidays, and see for them selves, and put two, and two together, education, and travel have done all this, what is preached in church, they now question as they could not before , so l say to the church change or die, a lot have made the change, and its proving a good thing, as people are going back to listen, as lively hymns are also sung with a bit of a swing to them . Get off your high horse Holden, and get on with the story, there’s a bit of my life story l have for got, so l have got to go back a few years, you see
the wife, and my self joined the Campaign Amateur Theatre Group, the wife joined to do all the wardrobe work, and me l did the building of the sets, and general dogs body work, it was great fun, we put a major show on every year, there are one or two that sticks out in my mind, first Kings Rhapsody, now us back stage crew had great fun with the Actors, in this play the King had to sign a parchment ,.these plays went on for a week ,and the last night we emptied his ink well,
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and filled it with black oil paint, well time to sign the parchment, out come a big blob of paint, the audience are now in stitches, wasn’t us it must be one of the actors. Next show South Pacific, every night the actress had to wash her hair under a make shift shower, so we built one just like in the tropics, now she always said don’t forget the warm water, this goes well till the last night then someone said cold water tonight, in goes the cold water, out comes the actress to wash her hair, then up go a big scream, its cold or words to that
affect, audience can now see the funny side, all hell breaks loose, not me its her actor mates, one more that sticks out, the Sound of Music, well we had a lot dressed as Nuns, but one Nun was a man as he had the type of voice for that roll, just immadjian this in the dressing room, Nuns, and one man as a Nun sitting in the dressing room, drinking Blue Nun wine, and smoking cigarettes, then come the wedding seen, well everything goes well till the last night, and as he takes out the ring from the little box, someone had also put in a packet of three, these duly fall to the floor, the audience never let us down that was hilarious, why is it always the back stage crew that get the blame says he (tongue in cheek ), then there was Annie Get Your Gun, now l have my revolver to make the bangs, l purchase a load of blanks for the job, Annie, and Frank
are on stage for the shoot out, l am behind the scenery so the audience can not see me, this is clay pigeon shoot out, on the word pull, two seconds later l am to fire, well everything goes well for the first few nights, then the gremlins get there way, lt was pull, two seconds, l pull the trigger, not a sausage a blank blank, l shout bang, then l pull the trigger again , off goes the next blank, but Frank has now shot his foot off, or should have as he was resting the gun on his toes, the audience never fail to see the funny side, so in the
fannarly l am duly brought on stage to be shown up, but true to the English humour they loved it, that’s my little bit of fame, but the ten years of the wife, and me doing this we loved every minute of it, l can here the wife now saying come on lets measure the inside of your leg, l have warmed the end of the tape measure, they were a great crowd of people, we gave all our spare Time to raise money for cancer, that’s where all the proceeds went. The Millennium Fun Day 2,000 is coming along nicely, a few differences of a opinion, but
that’s good, it shows that everyone is interested, we have got now a produce show, with every child in the village involved, vintage car, vintage tractors, and bygones, coming on the day for the children, Bouncy Castle, Velcro Wall, Bucking Bronco, Cocoa Nut Shies, and Air Gun Rifle Range, plus all the drinks, ice cream, and eats, all free to the children, but mum and dad will have to pay for the beer, and B,B,Q, chicken, and also the fish and chips, but the tea and coffee free, but unbeknown to them l have the Fire Service coming, l hope to get my water display, ( but my water fun didn’t happen as you see later) we are now all geared up for the day ,everyone is getting a little bit short with words as we are all up tight ,
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the nagging thing at the back of our minds is, have we missed something, l think my Elephants are back, this is a good sign, my thoughts go back to Mr Roberts the (walter mitty ), he had a saying, that goes like this,( A little worry is like a grain of sand to a Oyster, a little makes a pearl, too much kills the animal,) so a little worry does us good, Cyril and Betty looks as if the produce tent is all sown up and ready to go, judges for all the entries are in hand, Kaths cafe ( W,I ) and her staff, ready to pour the tea, the ring master Alan Freeman, and staff ready to knock in the stakes and rope off, Mr Alan White has cut the grass like a bowling green, and made available the Recreation building, health and safety Officer give it the once over, one or two
adjustments before the day, all signs painted, and ready to put in place, now its up to our Vicar, Mike Hughes to pray for a fine day, and me to get the Mayor to open the show, and get my speech ready, the Millennium Mugs have all arrived, now this was a joint project with the committee, and the head teacher
of the school to produce a design to go on the mugs, it was open to all the children of the village, of 16, and under, we had three judges for this with no involvement of our committee they were purely independent, when these are produced they will be collectors pieces to the village . Now when l stood up a year ago ,and said what are we doing for the children for the Millennium, l had a vision of a fun day, but as l see it all jellying together its a dream coming true, l haven’t mentioned all the people that are helping behind the scenes, this has been a hard thing for me to handle as all my working life l have dealt with men, this is a bit different as most are women organising the work, and if something is not up to scratch l cant swear at them like you would a man, once or twice l have nearly lost my cool, especially if something has not done, and
needs seeing too, it takes time to get back on track, so sometimes l jump in, and do it before it gets out of hand, l think sometimes l get a few backs Up, but it's done so press on. l haven’t seen the mug designs yet but l am told that there are three that they picked 1st, 2nd, 3rd, now the little girl that got first is the Granddaughter of one of the committee, she’s over the moon, its a simple design a horse on one side with the rising sun in the back ground, the other side a tractor with the rising sun, showing progress over the
Millennium, the girls name will be stamped on it, with the Feoffees charity that bought the mugs, as l have said we now have the mugs, and they are very nice, we have a little hiccup, the B,B,Q, man has got to get a trade licence for selling food, he already has a stall on Ely market selling hot dogs, and burgers, what l gather this does not permit him to sell at shows, l cant see the difference, but health and safety say different, bylaws makes the mind boggles at times, we got it sorted in the end , also we had to get a disable toilet brought in , l can go along with that , well its Friday its all systems go for Saturday 8 July 2000 ,2 pm opening , we form up about 100yds from the flat top lorry for the Grand Opening , its the
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Majorettes band in front with the Ely Mayor, Reverent Mike Hughes to his right,nand me to the left side, we board the lorry all decked out nicely, the Mayor gave a speech first then Mike gave a blessing, now me to say why l did it, seeing all those people there just waiting for a good day to start, but just for a minute l lost it, but a good cough brings you back to normal, l looked at the crowd, and saw one of my daughters who was nearly in tears as poor old Dad got lost for words for a minute, but l soon gathered myself together, and got a
lovely applause for my speech, then the little girl Helen Garrod who was picked out by a team of judges to cut the ribbon for the fun day to start, its a dull day but a hot day, so l think Rev Mike Hughes prayers worked. A program has been laid out for times for what’s happening in the main arena its a full day,
well from where l am standing the Bucking Bronco has a queue of children waiting to ride, and all the other side shows have long queues, so it looks as if we have got it right, ice creams are being licked , burgers as well going tops, Mums and Dads at the beer tent, fish and chips big queues for them, cream teas with French waitress going well, teas and coffee with Kath at the helm one lump or two, the produce show, fancy cakes, picture post cards, the tallest sun flower, all under Cyril and Betty Heaps, control, cups prizes, and certificates given out by the Mayor of Ely, at the end of the day a lot of Mums, and Dads sent their children over to me to thank me for a great day, that means more to me than a Million pounds, that hits the heart, and a lump in the throat, it made my day, and all the hard work over the past year was well worth it, just a
little child saying thanks mister for a lovely day . Now comes the job of clearing up, and getting the recreation ground back to normal, after the day was over some money still came in, but the committee decided to give it to the people that organise clubs for the children, Guides, Football juniors, The
School, Scouts, ,and one or two others, so the children will benefit from the late donations, l expect l shall be lost for a week or two, and l could not have done it without all the committee, and helpers, most of all those who gave money to make the day, and prizes for the raffles, and the competitions . While l am on about children l have for a few years now at Xmas been putting on the white beard , red trousers, red cloak, and black boots giving out presents at schools, and party’s for children, and its a rewarding thing to do, just to see the little ones faces from behind the beard, one little girl came in with a long black dress ,with sequins on it, she was 5 or 6, so l said that’s a lovely dress you have on , oh yes father Xmas l am wearing for you, now how do you cope With that, it just hit you in the right place. Well the millennium 2000 Fun Day 8th July has come and gone but not without a hick up by me , at the time l was on the mic ,on top of the lorry ,and taking the micky out of everyone , as usual, now its the tug - a- war teams to face each other Pymoor
versus Littledownham ,
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other ends of the rope, the village that twins with us is Pymoor, we always say that the people of Pymoor have web feet, it all started with a mock up flood, to evacuate the people of the village, as this village would be under water if the river banks burst, this village is below sea level, so a mock flood was organised, the code name, operation web feet, as you see its Pymoor against Littledownham, l am shouting for Downham on the mic, we can beat them they only have web feet, well everyone takes this all in good fun, except one, now you always get one with no sense of humour, and l find out they are a townie just come to live in Pymoor, well they are in for a surprise of their lives, wait till the cattle manure is spread on the land, and the chicken mulch stock piled, they will not only need web feet, but W,W,ll gas masks as well, us old boys that were born in the country, its just part of life, with any living animal what goes in at front end, must Come out the back end that’s country life. Over the years l have voiced my opinion what l think is right in the local News Paper, sometimes l get slagged off, but mostly l get good praises, and you tend to get a following, but my daughter where she works, all the women turn straight to the page of my comments, and they say your Dads in again this week, l think it goes like this, what’s the silly old fool been writing about this week, and l also go out, and give talks to different societies, all about my army life, mostly all the funny things that happened to me, this depends on the group of people's l have in front of me. Well l can say since l have been retired my life is always on the go never a dull moment, my wife says when l was at work she new where l was, but now l am out in the mornings, home for dinner then out some where in the afternoons, She says l never know where he is these days, this is some of the things that l am involved in, The Stained Glass Museum in Ely Cathedral but is private to the Cathedral, Good Companions Committee, Helping with the Parish Magazine, Doing odd jobs for my Daughters, Helping Charities , Writing to the Local Paper, Going out, and giving talks, Going out and getting local history on video camera, Father Christmas, Caller for our clubs local Bingo, and also on the committee of Local Parachute Regiment Association, and doing other little things that crop up . My wife has a list of things for me to do its down one side a door, and half way down the other side, so l am never short of work, we are going down to Heacham for a break with the wife’s brother, and his wife in there Mobil home for a week, but we often pop down there as its only an hour away from here, its usually B,B,Q, and wine all the time we are there, yes l now l videoed the plastic budgie in this Mobil home of Johns, and Barbara’s, l thought l would just mention it again,l will never live it down . Now l must tell you this , l got invited to give a talk to the ladies Tuesday Club about my Army Days , well on arrival l got introduced to them , and l look around there’s about fifty of these , recycled teenagers like myself , l started off with saying , you lot don’t look old enough to remember the war , well that did it
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for the first half -an hour l couldn’t get a word in, it was one against the other, something like this, l was riveting spitfires, l was on search lights, l was in the opps room, and so on, and its surprising what some of these ladies did, when l did get started, l went through right up to the time l was in Palestine, then one Lady said l was out there at Lydda airfield in the radio communications section, now Holden get it right as she knows as much about Palestine as you do may be more for working in communication’s, but l was out
in the field, she was stuck behind a radio, after l had said my piece, l said to her did l get it right, she said spot on, then she said l married one of the spotter plane pilots that patrolled the Med looking for Jews in boats making elegal landings, then l said did you see all the Holy places, yes she said but how can they be Holy with all the fighting going on, l said that’s my point, its up to the individual what they do with there lives, the trouble is a lot of people get brain washed in to believing , and at the end of the day all religions are man made. Its coming up to Xmas again, and the man in the red outfit, and white beard will soon be doing his rounds to children’s party’s, this year l have been interviewed on radio Cambridgeshire a few times,
sometimes on my own or with a group of people just giving my point of view or life story. Its out at Rosemary’s for Xmas day, then Alison’s Boxing day so l am told, Mary, and the family will play scrabble, and she usual wins, or it could be Peter the son-in-law, yes we are a tight nit family, we see most of them every week, Alison has just gone through a period of depression, but thanks to a good Doctor that saw her through it now she’s back to her old self again, the worst thing is, you cant help them, its not like a cut finger, you
can bandage that up, but the Old brains box it's a different matter. We now have a new member coming to the family, my grandson Iain the aircraft engineer, who is at the moment travelling the world repairing aircraft, his last assignment was in Canada, and he has met a young Lady, name of Pam, and he has brought her home for us to see her, l call her Maple leaf, she mixes in with all of us so that’s nice, but her grandparents came from Bradford when they emigrated to Canada. Derrick and Margaret have booked us all in to spend a week in the Isle of Wight, it will be fifty odd years since l was there, stationed at Albany Barracks with the Para’s it will be nice to see the Island again, l expect its changed a lot, we don’t go till September so there is about three months to go yet. Vicki and her partner Neil are in the process of buying a
house in Soham, times have changed, couples live together then get married, in my day, you got married then lived together, Vicki is a lovely girl l hope everything works out for both of them . l think old age has crept up on me at last , it takes me a while to get started in the mornings now , getting old isn’t very nice , its eye drops, to both eyes night ,and morning , two aspirin in the morning , and a pill for blood presser , night another pill and everywhere l go l have to take my spray with me ,
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as soon as l get a pain from angina l spray under my tongue, then its the hearing aids to pushed in, l said aids as l have two one to each ear, l think the firing of guns , and being blown up didn’t help, at
least l am here to tell my story, as a lot of my mates never will have the chance to write there storeys, but l must say l have had a lot of fun writing this story, and there’s been a down side as well as you remember mates that shared things with, and no longer here, but just recently l had a moral boast, as l have said l work in the The Stained Museum in Ely Cathedral, on accassions there was a fellow up a ladder or steps cleaning, the scrolls on the walls of the Cathedral, and touching them up with paint, me being cheeky, l used to say that’s up side down, or the paints the wrong colour, he would yar yar yar, and l would keep walking, never new his name, till now, it happened like this he was painting a tomb in the Cathedral of a well known Knight in Armour, of the Stewart family, and a round the bottom was his heraldry he had painted, so as l
was passing he said what do you think of that, l said its bright, then in those days they went in for reds, greens , and blues, l said when was it last painted, oh about hundred years ago, so l said that’s brightened that up for another hundred years, and we got talking, now in his speech there was a European accent, so l said where are you from, oh l am Dutch, me l just said l had been to Holland, no not Holland, Dutch east Indies, oh, and when were you there, l was born there, my father was a Sugar Cane planter in Batavia, now
Jakarta, then he told me his family were interned in the prison camps, his mother in one camp, and father in another, him, and his brother in another camp, at this time he was between eight and ten years old, and a prisoner of the Japs, now in the part of my army service l said this will come up later on in the book well it has, but as he said, all he remember that soldiers came in the camp, and took the Japs away, and were given food, then reunited with there families, as l had said my job was to get the Japs, we did see lots of
children, but other bods were to look after them, but at the time our paths must have crossed it all adds up, the name of the camps as there were three in the area, now in the chat we were having, he mentioned flying to Singapore in a Dakota from Batavia, then shipped home on the troop ship Alcantara, now this is
another thing, two years later l sail to England from Palestine on the same troop ship Alcantara, we swapped our storeys, the papers got to here about it, l am now the Knight in Shining Armour as the head lines went, now after over fifty years l am chuffed l have met a prisoner that l released from those hell holes of camps, that the Japs imprisoned people, we now have become good friends, he is also now retired . Everything fits together , he would have been about eight ,me eighteen , till Mum let the cat out the bag . This story also
went in the Cathedrals Journal it gave a larger write up in the Journal so our little story made head lines after fifty odd years ,he said the years in the interment camp broke his Mother ,and Father he said the thing
and filled it with black oil paint, well time to sign the parchment, out come a big blob of paint, the audience are now in stitches, wasn’t us it must be one of the actors. Next show South Pacific, every night the actress had to wash her hair under a make shift shower, so we built one just like in the tropics, now she always said don’t forget the warm water, this goes well till the last night then someone said cold water tonight, in goes the cold water, out comes the actress to wash her hair, then up go a big scream, its cold or words to that
affect, audience can now see the funny side, all hell breaks loose, not me its her actor mates, one more that sticks out, the Sound of Music, well we had a lot dressed as Nuns, but one Nun was a man as he had the type of voice for that roll, just immadjian this in the dressing room, Nuns, and one man as a Nun sitting in the dressing room, drinking Blue Nun wine, and smoking cigarettes, then come the wedding seen, well everything goes well till the last night, and as he takes out the ring from the little box, someone had also put in a packet of three, these duly fall to the floor, the audience never let us down that was hilarious, why is it always the back stage crew that get the blame says he (tongue in cheek ), then there was Annie Get Your Gun, now l have my revolver to make the bangs, l purchase a load of blanks for the job, Annie, and Frank
are on stage for the shoot out, l am behind the scenery so the audience can not see me, this is clay pigeon shoot out, on the word pull, two seconds later l am to fire, well everything goes well for the first few nights, then the gremlins get there way, lt was pull, two seconds, l pull the trigger, not a sausage a blank blank, l shout bang, then l pull the trigger again , off goes the next blank, but Frank has now shot his foot off, or should have as he was resting the gun on his toes, the audience never fail to see the funny side, so in the
fannarly l am duly brought on stage to be shown up, but true to the English humour they loved it, that’s my little bit of fame, but the ten years of the wife, and me doing this we loved every minute of it, l can here the wife now saying come on lets measure the inside of your leg, l have warmed the end of the tape measure, they were a great crowd of people, we gave all our spare Time to raise money for cancer, that’s where all the proceeds went. The Millennium Fun Day 2,000 is coming along nicely, a few differences of a opinion, but
that’s good, it shows that everyone is interested, we have got now a produce show, with every child in the village involved, vintage car, vintage tractors, and bygones, coming on the day for the children, Bouncy Castle, Velcro Wall, Bucking Bronco, Cocoa Nut Shies, and Air Gun Rifle Range, plus all the drinks, ice cream, and eats, all free to the children, but mum and dad will have to pay for the beer, and B,B,Q, chicken, and also the fish and chips, but the tea and coffee free, but unbeknown to them l have the Fire Service coming, l hope to get my water display, ( but my water fun didn’t happen as you see later) we are now all geared up for the day ,everyone is getting a little bit short with words as we are all up tight ,
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the nagging thing at the back of our minds is, have we missed something, l think my Elephants are back, this is a good sign, my thoughts go back to Mr Roberts the (walter mitty ), he had a saying, that goes like this,( A little worry is like a grain of sand to a Oyster, a little makes a pearl, too much kills the animal,) so a little worry does us good, Cyril and Betty looks as if the produce tent is all sown up and ready to go, judges for all the entries are in hand, Kaths cafe ( W,I ) and her staff, ready to pour the tea, the ring master Alan Freeman, and staff ready to knock in the stakes and rope off, Mr Alan White has cut the grass like a bowling green, and made available the Recreation building, health and safety Officer give it the once over, one or two
adjustments before the day, all signs painted, and ready to put in place, now its up to our Vicar, Mike Hughes to pray for a fine day, and me to get the Mayor to open the show, and get my speech ready, the Millennium Mugs have all arrived, now this was a joint project with the committee, and the head teacher
of the school to produce a design to go on the mugs, it was open to all the children of the village, of 16, and under, we had three judges for this with no involvement of our committee they were purely independent, when these are produced they will be collectors pieces to the village . Now when l stood up a year ago ,and said what are we doing for the children for the Millennium, l had a vision of a fun day, but as l see it all jellying together its a dream coming true, l haven’t mentioned all the people that are helping behind the scenes, this has been a hard thing for me to handle as all my working life l have dealt with men, this is a bit different as most are women organising the work, and if something is not up to scratch l cant swear at them like you would a man, once or twice l have nearly lost my cool, especially if something has not done, and
needs seeing too, it takes time to get back on track, so sometimes l jump in, and do it before it gets out of hand, l think sometimes l get a few backs Up, but it's done so press on. l haven’t seen the mug designs yet but l am told that there are three that they picked 1st, 2nd, 3rd, now the little girl that got first is the Granddaughter of one of the committee, she’s over the moon, its a simple design a horse on one side with the rising sun in the back ground, the other side a tractor with the rising sun, showing progress over the
Millennium, the girls name will be stamped on it, with the Feoffees charity that bought the mugs, as l have said we now have the mugs, and they are very nice, we have a little hiccup, the B,B,Q, man has got to get a trade licence for selling food, he already has a stall on Ely market selling hot dogs, and burgers, what l gather this does not permit him to sell at shows, l cant see the difference, but health and safety say different, bylaws makes the mind boggles at times, we got it sorted in the end , also we had to get a disable toilet brought in , l can go along with that , well its Friday its all systems go for Saturday 8 July 2000 ,2 pm opening , we form up about 100yds from the flat top lorry for the Grand Opening , its the
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Majorettes band in front with the Ely Mayor, Reverent Mike Hughes to his right,nand me to the left side, we board the lorry all decked out nicely, the Mayor gave a speech first then Mike gave a blessing, now me to say why l did it, seeing all those people there just waiting for a good day to start, but just for a minute l lost it, but a good cough brings you back to normal, l looked at the crowd, and saw one of my daughters who was nearly in tears as poor old Dad got lost for words for a minute, but l soon gathered myself together, and got a
lovely applause for my speech, then the little girl Helen Garrod who was picked out by a team of judges to cut the ribbon for the fun day to start, its a dull day but a hot day, so l think Rev Mike Hughes prayers worked. A program has been laid out for times for what’s happening in the main arena its a full day,
well from where l am standing the Bucking Bronco has a queue of children waiting to ride, and all the other side shows have long queues, so it looks as if we have got it right, ice creams are being licked , burgers as well going tops, Mums and Dads at the beer tent, fish and chips big queues for them, cream teas with French waitress going well, teas and coffee with Kath at the helm one lump or two, the produce show, fancy cakes, picture post cards, the tallest sun flower, all under Cyril and Betty Heaps, control, cups prizes, and certificates given out by the Mayor of Ely, at the end of the day a lot of Mums, and Dads sent their children over to me to thank me for a great day, that means more to me than a Million pounds, that hits the heart, and a lump in the throat, it made my day, and all the hard work over the past year was well worth it, just a
little child saying thanks mister for a lovely day . Now comes the job of clearing up, and getting the recreation ground back to normal, after the day was over some money still came in, but the committee decided to give it to the people that organise clubs for the children, Guides, Football juniors, The
School, Scouts, ,and one or two others, so the children will benefit from the late donations, l expect l shall be lost for a week or two, and l could not have done it without all the committee, and helpers, most of all those who gave money to make the day, and prizes for the raffles, and the competitions . While l am on about children l have for a few years now at Xmas been putting on the white beard , red trousers, red cloak, and black boots giving out presents at schools, and party’s for children, and its a rewarding thing to do, just to see the little ones faces from behind the beard, one little girl came in with a long black dress ,with sequins on it, she was 5 or 6, so l said that’s a lovely dress you have on , oh yes father Xmas l am wearing for you, now how do you cope With that, it just hit you in the right place. Well the millennium 2000 Fun Day 8th July has come and gone but not without a hick up by me , at the time l was on the mic ,on top of the lorry ,and taking the micky out of everyone , as usual, now its the tug - a- war teams to face each other Pymoor
versus Littledownham ,
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other ends of the rope, the village that twins with us is Pymoor, we always say that the people of Pymoor have web feet, it all started with a mock up flood, to evacuate the people of the village, as this village would be under water if the river banks burst, this village is below sea level, so a mock flood was organised, the code name, operation web feet, as you see its Pymoor against Littledownham, l am shouting for Downham on the mic, we can beat them they only have web feet, well everyone takes this all in good fun, except one, now you always get one with no sense of humour, and l find out they are a townie just come to live in Pymoor, well they are in for a surprise of their lives, wait till the cattle manure is spread on the land, and the chicken mulch stock piled, they will not only need web feet, but W,W,ll gas masks as well, us old boys that were born in the country, its just part of life, with any living animal what goes in at front end, must Come out the back end that’s country life. Over the years l have voiced my opinion what l think is right in the local News Paper, sometimes l get slagged off, but mostly l get good praises, and you tend to get a following, but my daughter where she works, all the women turn straight to the page of my comments, and they say your Dads in again this week, l think it goes like this, what’s the silly old fool been writing about this week, and l also go out, and give talks to different societies, all about my army life, mostly all the funny things that happened to me, this depends on the group of people's l have in front of me. Well l can say since l have been retired my life is always on the go never a dull moment, my wife says when l was at work she new where l was, but now l am out in the mornings, home for dinner then out some where in the afternoons, She says l never know where he is these days, this is some of the things that l am involved in, The Stained Glass Museum in Ely Cathedral but is private to the Cathedral, Good Companions Committee, Helping with the Parish Magazine, Doing odd jobs for my Daughters, Helping Charities , Writing to the Local Paper, Going out, and giving talks, Going out and getting local history on video camera, Father Christmas, Caller for our clubs local Bingo, and also on the committee of Local Parachute Regiment Association, and doing other little things that crop up . My wife has a list of things for me to do its down one side a door, and half way down the other side, so l am never short of work, we are going down to Heacham for a break with the wife’s brother, and his wife in there Mobil home for a week, but we often pop down there as its only an hour away from here, its usually B,B,Q, and wine all the time we are there, yes l now l videoed the plastic budgie in this Mobil home of Johns, and Barbara’s, l thought l would just mention it again,l will never live it down . Now l must tell you this , l got invited to give a talk to the ladies Tuesday Club about my Army Days , well on arrival l got introduced to them , and l look around there’s about fifty of these , recycled teenagers like myself , l started off with saying , you lot don’t look old enough to remember the war , well that did it
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for the first half -an hour l couldn’t get a word in, it was one against the other, something like this, l was riveting spitfires, l was on search lights, l was in the opps room, and so on, and its surprising what some of these ladies did, when l did get started, l went through right up to the time l was in Palestine, then one Lady said l was out there at Lydda airfield in the radio communications section, now Holden get it right as she knows as much about Palestine as you do may be more for working in communication’s, but l was out
in the field, she was stuck behind a radio, after l had said my piece, l said to her did l get it right, she said spot on, then she said l married one of the spotter plane pilots that patrolled the Med looking for Jews in boats making elegal landings, then l said did you see all the Holy places, yes she said but how can they be Holy with all the fighting going on, l said that’s my point, its up to the individual what they do with there lives, the trouble is a lot of people get brain washed in to believing , and at the end of the day all religions are man made. Its coming up to Xmas again, and the man in the red outfit, and white beard will soon be doing his rounds to children’s party’s, this year l have been interviewed on radio Cambridgeshire a few times,
sometimes on my own or with a group of people just giving my point of view or life story. Its out at Rosemary’s for Xmas day, then Alison’s Boxing day so l am told, Mary, and the family will play scrabble, and she usual wins, or it could be Peter the son-in-law, yes we are a tight nit family, we see most of them every week, Alison has just gone through a period of depression, but thanks to a good Doctor that saw her through it now she’s back to her old self again, the worst thing is, you cant help them, its not like a cut finger, you
can bandage that up, but the Old brains box it's a different matter. We now have a new member coming to the family, my grandson Iain the aircraft engineer, who is at the moment travelling the world repairing aircraft, his last assignment was in Canada, and he has met a young Lady, name of Pam, and he has brought her home for us to see her, l call her Maple leaf, she mixes in with all of us so that’s nice, but her grandparents came from Bradford when they emigrated to Canada. Derrick and Margaret have booked us all in to spend a week in the Isle of Wight, it will be fifty odd years since l was there, stationed at Albany Barracks with the Para’s it will be nice to see the Island again, l expect its changed a lot, we don’t go till September so there is about three months to go yet. Vicki and her partner Neil are in the process of buying a
house in Soham, times have changed, couples live together then get married, in my day, you got married then lived together, Vicki is a lovely girl l hope everything works out for both of them . l think old age has crept up on me at last , it takes me a while to get started in the mornings now , getting old isn’t very nice , its eye drops, to both eyes night ,and morning , two aspirin in the morning , and a pill for blood presser , night another pill and everywhere l go l have to take my spray with me ,
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as soon as l get a pain from angina l spray under my tongue, then its the hearing aids to pushed in, l said aids as l have two one to each ear, l think the firing of guns , and being blown up didn’t help, at
least l am here to tell my story, as a lot of my mates never will have the chance to write there storeys, but l must say l have had a lot of fun writing this story, and there’s been a down side as well as you remember mates that shared things with, and no longer here, but just recently l had a moral boast, as l have said l work in the The Stained Museum in Ely Cathedral, on accassions there was a fellow up a ladder or steps cleaning, the scrolls on the walls of the Cathedral, and touching them up with paint, me being cheeky, l used to say that’s up side down, or the paints the wrong colour, he would yar yar yar, and l would keep walking, never new his name, till now, it happened like this he was painting a tomb in the Cathedral of a well known Knight in Armour, of the Stewart family, and a round the bottom was his heraldry he had painted, so as l
was passing he said what do you think of that, l said its bright, then in those days they went in for reds, greens , and blues, l said when was it last painted, oh about hundred years ago, so l said that’s brightened that up for another hundred years, and we got talking, now in his speech there was a European accent, so l said where are you from, oh l am Dutch, me l just said l had been to Holland, no not Holland, Dutch east Indies, oh, and when were you there, l was born there, my father was a Sugar Cane planter in Batavia, now
Jakarta, then he told me his family were interned in the prison camps, his mother in one camp, and father in another, him, and his brother in another camp, at this time he was between eight and ten years old, and a prisoner of the Japs, now in the part of my army service l said this will come up later on in the book well it has, but as he said, all he remember that soldiers came in the camp, and took the Japs away, and were given food, then reunited with there families, as l had said my job was to get the Japs, we did see lots of
children, but other bods were to look after them, but at the time our paths must have crossed it all adds up, the name of the camps as there were three in the area, now in the chat we were having, he mentioned flying to Singapore in a Dakota from Batavia, then shipped home on the troop ship Alcantara, now this is
another thing, two years later l sail to England from Palestine on the same troop ship Alcantara, we swapped our storeys, the papers got to here about it, l am now the Knight in Shining Armour as the head lines went, now after over fifty years l am chuffed l have met a prisoner that l released from those hell holes of camps, that the Japs imprisoned people, we now have become good friends, he is also now retired . Everything fits together , he would have been about eight ,me eighteen , till Mum let the cat out the bag . This story also
went in the Cathedrals Journal it gave a larger write up in the Journal so our little story made head lines after fifty odd years ,he said the years in the interment camp broke his Mother ,and Father he said the thing
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that was very precious to him was a tin can, what l can gather it was an empty fruit tin, that was for his food for the day, and also to drink out of, but on his way home he lost it on the troop ship, that was all he had in the world, He said he still has nightmares about being in prison for nothing, so l have said write it all down on paper it might help . Vicki , and Neil have signed on the dotted line for the house, and l must say its a nice place, its been renovated from top to bottom, now granddad has been called in to remove the doors so the
carpet can be fitted, well doors off ,cut off bottoms, now Neil can help me to rehang them, this is where l have a bit of fun, now its in the evening its hot Neil just finished a days work, right he says what do you want me to do, simple job really, just hold the door up so l can get the screws back in right place, where do we start, up stairs first, first door on, second door on, now Neil is sweating the water is pouring off him, its hot isn’t it mate, Neil said yes l am soaked, well l think we our’t to do it the easy way, is there one says Neil,
yer just put a wedge under the door dead simple, you old so, and so or words to that effect, in his half English, and half Irish, Neil said hears me , sweat poring off me, and there’s an easy way, l said you have to learn the hard way first, the next job was to assemble new ceiling lights, and fix them, there are lots of little screws to put in, now Neil keeps dropping them, so after a while, l said why don’t you do it the easy way, is there one, so gave him a screwdriver that has two spring clips on just put your screw in the clips then it will not drop, now he tells me, so every time he helps me now the first thing he says, is this the easy way he’s catching on fast, this is about the end of July, next thing to be done is the TV aerial well Neil said how are
going fix this in the roof space, dead simple l said , how with all these poles, and clips, don’t need them, no, but it will not work, bet it does, oh says Neil, now l want you to go in the roof space ,and knock two nails in the rafters then tie two pieces of string to them, connect your aerial to the coaxial cable, then tie the aerial to the strings that hang down right said Neil, that done try Tele, Works perfect, Neil happy he can watch football
Saturdays now. We are now getting prepared for the holiday, me l am looking forward to it, as l said l haven’t been there for over fifty years, its going to be a long drive down there in the coach, all the people will be sizing everyone up as we will be all strangers together . Neil, and Vicki had a dinning room table given to them with six chairs they asked me if l could do something with it to make it lighter as its very dark stained, so l take (a butchers at it) look at it , l said it could be done . So it’s carry on granddad do your best, well over the next few months all complete ,l can never understand why people cover up beautiful wood grain, with dark varnish. The table is of Elm wood a lovely deep grained wood ,l scrapped the top first ,and
varnish it to a deep shine ,or in the trade a mirrow shine, Neil and Vicki are over the moon with the results so its carry on old sweat , but l must point out Vicki did come over and
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scrapped the Chairs as often as possible , and she made a good job of it as well , l have varnish some of the chairs and they have come up lovely as well , but the wood to the seats and the backs and legs are of different woods this make them look very nice. Now its off to the Isle of Wight, its nice not having to drive, just sit and enjoy it, we got on the coach at Cambridge, cases stowed away, but a hiccup, l forgot to take a hand luggage bag out of the car, so a few harsh Words for a start, but all there was left behind, was tooth paste, and odd ments they can be replaced when we get there, no big deal. We arrive, and sorted to our rooms, we are not far from the dinning hall, its in pleasant surroundings, about two minutes from the sea. We go out for a tour next day to the different towns for shopping, and sight seeing, we are going to go out everyday to some town or other place, well this day we are sightseeing the country side, and we end up at a place called Gods Hill this little village has a story to it, at the very top of the hill is a Church, and its very steep hill to climb up to the Church, the story goes like this, the villages had started to build the Church at the bottom of the hill in the village, but in the night some how the materials had mistrerilesy got to the top of the hill, this happened over a few weeks, so the villages got fed up with this, so they said if God wants the Church at the top of the hill we will build it there, so from then on it's the village of Gods Hill, nice story, now l go to the top to take a photo of the Church inside, and out, but forgotten to take the surrounding countryside. Now when l get back down, and got my self a ice-cream, l go over to the wife, and the rest as they didn’t come with me, the first thing they say, have you heard the news ,no, what news, then they broke it too me, two aircraft gone in to the twin towers in New York, two aircraft, what happened, terrorists hijacked two planes , and flew them into the towers, they are saying thousands dead, words come to my head (bloody hell) and( now my mind is saying WW III ) knowing the Yanks will not stand for that, so today September ll -
2001 the world will now Change for ever, also two more planes crashed, one into the Pentagon, the other was aborted but crashed in open country, as the passengers tried to over power them. The news that’s coming over the television, it doesn’t look real, it looks like something out of a Ski Fi movie, its hard to take on board, a Moslem by the name of Sadden Bin Laden is supposed to be behind all this, if he is, then he is crazy, must be out of his mind, to do this to the most powerful nation in the world, he has woke up a
sleeping giant, all aircraft have been grounded only military aircraft are flying, its a scary time at the moment, will the Yanks use the Nukes on this man. Our Priminester Tony Blair is off to the states so something is in the wind, it still hasn’t sunk in yet, these two towers completely destroyed , why did he order this to happen, at the moment it doesn’t make any sense . Now if it is the Moslems of a fanatical group , it might make the people of this country take notice...
that was very precious to him was a tin can, what l can gather it was an empty fruit tin, that was for his food for the day, and also to drink out of, but on his way home he lost it on the troop ship, that was all he had in the world, He said he still has nightmares about being in prison for nothing, so l have said write it all down on paper it might help . Vicki , and Neil have signed on the dotted line for the house, and l must say its a nice place, its been renovated from top to bottom, now granddad has been called in to remove the doors so the
carpet can be fitted, well doors off ,cut off bottoms, now Neil can help me to rehang them, this is where l have a bit of fun, now its in the evening its hot Neil just finished a days work, right he says what do you want me to do, simple job really, just hold the door up so l can get the screws back in right place, where do we start, up stairs first, first door on, second door on, now Neil is sweating the water is pouring off him, its hot isn’t it mate, Neil said yes l am soaked, well l think we our’t to do it the easy way, is there one says Neil,
yer just put a wedge under the door dead simple, you old so, and so or words to that effect, in his half English, and half Irish, Neil said hears me , sweat poring off me, and there’s an easy way, l said you have to learn the hard way first, the next job was to assemble new ceiling lights, and fix them, there are lots of little screws to put in, now Neil keeps dropping them, so after a while, l said why don’t you do it the easy way, is there one, so gave him a screwdriver that has two spring clips on just put your screw in the clips then it will not drop, now he tells me, so every time he helps me now the first thing he says, is this the easy way he’s catching on fast, this is about the end of July, next thing to be done is the TV aerial well Neil said how are
going fix this in the roof space, dead simple l said , how with all these poles, and clips, don’t need them, no, but it will not work, bet it does, oh says Neil, now l want you to go in the roof space ,and knock two nails in the rafters then tie two pieces of string to them, connect your aerial to the coaxial cable, then tie the aerial to the strings that hang down right said Neil, that done try Tele, Works perfect, Neil happy he can watch football
Saturdays now. We are now getting prepared for the holiday, me l am looking forward to it, as l said l haven’t been there for over fifty years, its going to be a long drive down there in the coach, all the people will be sizing everyone up as we will be all strangers together . Neil, and Vicki had a dinning room table given to them with six chairs they asked me if l could do something with it to make it lighter as its very dark stained, so l take (a butchers at it) look at it , l said it could be done . So it’s carry on granddad do your best, well over the next few months all complete ,l can never understand why people cover up beautiful wood grain, with dark varnish. The table is of Elm wood a lovely deep grained wood ,l scrapped the top first ,and
varnish it to a deep shine ,or in the trade a mirrow shine, Neil and Vicki are over the moon with the results so its carry on old sweat , but l must point out Vicki did come over and
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scrapped the Chairs as often as possible , and she made a good job of it as well , l have varnish some of the chairs and they have come up lovely as well , but the wood to the seats and the backs and legs are of different woods this make them look very nice. Now its off to the Isle of Wight, its nice not having to drive, just sit and enjoy it, we got on the coach at Cambridge, cases stowed away, but a hiccup, l forgot to take a hand luggage bag out of the car, so a few harsh Words for a start, but all there was left behind, was tooth paste, and odd ments they can be replaced when we get there, no big deal. We arrive, and sorted to our rooms, we are not far from the dinning hall, its in pleasant surroundings, about two minutes from the sea. We go out for a tour next day to the different towns for shopping, and sight seeing, we are going to go out everyday to some town or other place, well this day we are sightseeing the country side, and we end up at a place called Gods Hill this little village has a story to it, at the very top of the hill is a Church, and its very steep hill to climb up to the Church, the story goes like this, the villages had started to build the Church at the bottom of the hill in the village, but in the night some how the materials had mistrerilesy got to the top of the hill, this happened over a few weeks, so the villages got fed up with this, so they said if God wants the Church at the top of the hill we will build it there, so from then on it's the village of Gods Hill, nice story, now l go to the top to take a photo of the Church inside, and out, but forgotten to take the surrounding countryside. Now when l get back down, and got my self a ice-cream, l go over to the wife, and the rest as they didn’t come with me, the first thing they say, have you heard the news ,no, what news, then they broke it too me, two aircraft gone in to the twin towers in New York, two aircraft, what happened, terrorists hijacked two planes , and flew them into the towers, they are saying thousands dead, words come to my head (bloody hell) and( now my mind is saying WW III ) knowing the Yanks will not stand for that, so today September ll -
2001 the world will now Change for ever, also two more planes crashed, one into the Pentagon, the other was aborted but crashed in open country, as the passengers tried to over power them. The news that’s coming over the television, it doesn’t look real, it looks like something out of a Ski Fi movie, its hard to take on board, a Moslem by the name of Sadden Bin Laden is supposed to be behind all this, if he is, then he is crazy, must be out of his mind, to do this to the most powerful nation in the world, he has woke up a
sleeping giant, all aircraft have been grounded only military aircraft are flying, its a scary time at the moment, will the Yanks use the Nukes on this man. Our Priminester Tony Blair is off to the states so something is in the wind, it still hasn’t sunk in yet, these two towers completely destroyed , why did he order this to happen, at the moment it doesn’t make any sense . Now if it is the Moslems of a fanatical group , it might make the people of this country take notice...
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Will now perhaps wake up ,as l have said many times , don’t trust a person that wears a Tea Towel on his head, as we had problems in Palestine 1946 -48 ,I am now wondering how many of these Muslims that are living in England, who are fanatical ,and might do the something over here, we have let them in to this Country too easy, will people want to travel with an Arab on board, l can see big problems arising out of this, first thing that they will say, is he a hijacker, l suppose another hot head wants to rule the world, as the knews
keeps coming in all this has been organised from inside Afghanistan by the ruling party the Taliban it looks as if we are getting our troops ready to go in to Afghanistan with the Americans, the talk is that this will be a long drawn out war against terrorists, we have just been watching the news from Palestine ,and the Arabs are jumping up and down with delight that the Twin towers have collapsed killing thousands of people, the Moslem Religion Based on the Karan their Bible, its the will of Allah for this to happen, what a load of
crap, those people who did it, were brain washed by there leaders, and the Clerks that run the Mosques, and talking of Mosques, why not let us go , and bomb Mecca, why are they so against America , They are chopping of the hand that’s feeding them with all the aid they need. I can see in our cities there’s going to be problems with the Moslem population, there could be reprisals, time will tell, people who are here on holiday look very carm, and not saying much, perhaps they are thinking what l am thinking , if WWIII dose start our
grandchildren, Will be called to fight, and most of us have been through it before, and know what to expect, l hope Blair, and Bush can sort something out . Well l am on holiday, and its put a cloud over it for the moment as everyone is talking about it in a very carm way if that’s the words to use, its like the start of W.W.II , people wondering what’s going to happen next, as far as the Arab Nation goes what little trust we had in them has now gone out the window for a long time, every news time they are showing what happened, and it still don’t look real, the people who did this were mad with brain washing, what did they achieve, nothing only degrading the Arab Nation, l can now see that the world will change for ever, the Moslems are saying you can not bomb us as it will be against Islam, and Allah, me l would give the Moslems in this country an order of emergency law, toe the line in this country, or be deported or be interned till terrorism is wiped out, the same as we did in WW ll to all foreign nations, well l must get on with my holiday over here on the Isle of
Wight, off to Alum Bay to get my pretty sands of all shades of colour, then off to the glass works, the pearl factory that make pearl necklaces, and all sorts of jewellery, they all so make up freshwater pearls as well no were near the price of sea pearls, the next day l go to see the old navvy gun casements of WW I ,and WW II, still in good condition ,and also l wanted to see the radio museum but that was closed
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owing to illness .Well it looks as if we will be out to Xmas dinner again this year, as Vicki has said we are going to hers for dinner, me l love it l get waited on hand ,and foot as they say, l think she wants to let us know that she can cook. Well over the months that’s past since September 11 2001 the world has certainly changed, air travel has slumped to rock bottom, we had a phone call from Iain in Tucson Arizona, he said to travel inside America was like a taxi service, but since September 11 the airport checks are very tight, he is off to Canada for Xmas , he hopes to see us in the new year, well Xmas over, and a great time we had, one day at Vicki’s, and one day at Alison’s, so in all l love Xmas, but l think now is the time to sign off my book so far of my life, its taken me two years to do it, there are one or two items that l have purposely missed out as the people who were with me, in some cases did not want anything of what was done mentioned, even under assumed names, so l most respect there wishes, but in my summing up of what l have written its been a
great help to me, as some of the night mares have gone, as its all on paper now, for my part in the Army l had some great times with lads from all over England that l would never had met, the funny things that happened, the R,S,M or God as we would say, when on parade he would shout, and you thought he was
only shouting at you, that made you shit scared of him, l think it was worse than the enemy firing at you at times Now talking of the enemy, and when you are under fire, there’s a tremendous bond between men arise out it, something that sticks in you for ever, l cant put it in words, you look at your mate he looks at you, you are both shit scared but that look makes it seem to say l will look after you, and like wise, l have travelled at the Countries expense, seen all the places l read about at school all before the age of 21, and
travelled to as many countries large and small, looked at different ways of life, some to me would not fit in to my world of living, but l am a great believer in letting other nations live there own lives, and we do not impose our ways on them, and they don’t impose there ways on us, this l am afraid dose not always happen, the trouble is religion, they must follow our way of worship of Jesus Christ, why, they have lived happily for thousands of years with out us interfering with them, anyway religion is only Man Made, that’s all religions, you think now, can you name one that someone has not sat down, and said you follow me, l am, the right way to life, they have all said it, and wrote it down for all to read, now l am not saying you should not believe in what has been written down by these people, because there is a lot of goodness, and sense in these books ,if only people adhered to them, for some people if you get great comfort from them, l go along with that, but for me the world has moved on since they were put down on paper, looking At the world then, and look at the world now, great changes have accured, well l have said my piece , but watch out for the power of Islam the Muslim faith , it has now raised its ugly head against all of the Christian Faith, and our way of life as we new it of freedom , not having to look over your shoulder to see if a terrorist is going to blow you up and
themselves as well for the sake of ALLAH . Now l will say may your Gods go with you all . Me l will still carry on with my life, and how l want to live it , as for worshipping Idols, Icons , Statues, and Myths that’s not for me , that all happened 2000 years ago. l had to stop this book somewhere so l thought the Destruction of the Twin Towers in New York was the time ,as the world as we know it will change now forever . THE END.
Will now perhaps wake up ,as l have said many times , don’t trust a person that wears a Tea Towel on his head, as we had problems in Palestine 1946 -48 ,I am now wondering how many of these Muslims that are living in England, who are fanatical ,and might do the something over here, we have let them in to this Country too easy, will people want to travel with an Arab on board, l can see big problems arising out of this, first thing that they will say, is he a hijacker, l suppose another hot head wants to rule the world, as the knews
keeps coming in all this has been organised from inside Afghanistan by the ruling party the Taliban it looks as if we are getting our troops ready to go in to Afghanistan with the Americans, the talk is that this will be a long drawn out war against terrorists, we have just been watching the news from Palestine ,and the Arabs are jumping up and down with delight that the Twin towers have collapsed killing thousands of people, the Moslem Religion Based on the Karan their Bible, its the will of Allah for this to happen, what a load of
crap, those people who did it, were brain washed by there leaders, and the Clerks that run the Mosques, and talking of Mosques, why not let us go , and bomb Mecca, why are they so against America , They are chopping of the hand that’s feeding them with all the aid they need. I can see in our cities there’s going to be problems with the Moslem population, there could be reprisals, time will tell, people who are here on holiday look very carm, and not saying much, perhaps they are thinking what l am thinking , if WWIII dose start our
grandchildren, Will be called to fight, and most of us have been through it before, and know what to expect, l hope Blair, and Bush can sort something out . Well l am on holiday, and its put a cloud over it for the moment as everyone is talking about it in a very carm way if that’s the words to use, its like the start of W.W.II , people wondering what’s going to happen next, as far as the Arab Nation goes what little trust we had in them has now gone out the window for a long time, every news time they are showing what happened, and it still don’t look real, the people who did this were mad with brain washing, what did they achieve, nothing only degrading the Arab Nation, l can now see that the world will change for ever, the Moslems are saying you can not bomb us as it will be against Islam, and Allah, me l would give the Moslems in this country an order of emergency law, toe the line in this country, or be deported or be interned till terrorism is wiped out, the same as we did in WW ll to all foreign nations, well l must get on with my holiday over here on the Isle of
Wight, off to Alum Bay to get my pretty sands of all shades of colour, then off to the glass works, the pearl factory that make pearl necklaces, and all sorts of jewellery, they all so make up freshwater pearls as well no were near the price of sea pearls, the next day l go to see the old navvy gun casements of WW I ,and WW II, still in good condition ,and also l wanted to see the radio museum but that was closed
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owing to illness .Well it looks as if we will be out to Xmas dinner again this year, as Vicki has said we are going to hers for dinner, me l love it l get waited on hand ,and foot as they say, l think she wants to let us know that she can cook. Well over the months that’s past since September 11 2001 the world has certainly changed, air travel has slumped to rock bottom, we had a phone call from Iain in Tucson Arizona, he said to travel inside America was like a taxi service, but since September 11 the airport checks are very tight, he is off to Canada for Xmas , he hopes to see us in the new year, well Xmas over, and a great time we had, one day at Vicki’s, and one day at Alison’s, so in all l love Xmas, but l think now is the time to sign off my book so far of my life, its taken me two years to do it, there are one or two items that l have purposely missed out as the people who were with me, in some cases did not want anything of what was done mentioned, even under assumed names, so l most respect there wishes, but in my summing up of what l have written its been a
great help to me, as some of the night mares have gone, as its all on paper now, for my part in the Army l had some great times with lads from all over England that l would never had met, the funny things that happened, the R,S,M or God as we would say, when on parade he would shout, and you thought he was
only shouting at you, that made you shit scared of him, l think it was worse than the enemy firing at you at times Now talking of the enemy, and when you are under fire, there’s a tremendous bond between men arise out it, something that sticks in you for ever, l cant put it in words, you look at your mate he looks at you, you are both shit scared but that look makes it seem to say l will look after you, and like wise, l have travelled at the Countries expense, seen all the places l read about at school all before the age of 21, and
travelled to as many countries large and small, looked at different ways of life, some to me would not fit in to my world of living, but l am a great believer in letting other nations live there own lives, and we do not impose our ways on them, and they don’t impose there ways on us, this l am afraid dose not always happen, the trouble is religion, they must follow our way of worship of Jesus Christ, why, they have lived happily for thousands of years with out us interfering with them, anyway religion is only Man Made, that’s all religions, you think now, can you name one that someone has not sat down, and said you follow me, l am, the right way to life, they have all said it, and wrote it down for all to read, now l am not saying you should not believe in what has been written down by these people, because there is a lot of goodness, and sense in these books ,if only people adhered to them, for some people if you get great comfort from them, l go along with that, but for me the world has moved on since they were put down on paper, looking At the world then, and look at the world now, great changes have accured, well l have said my piece , but watch out for the power of Islam the Muslim faith , it has now raised its ugly head against all of the Christian Faith, and our way of life as we new it of freedom , not having to look over your shoulder to see if a terrorist is going to blow you up and
themselves as well for the sake of ALLAH . Now l will say may your Gods go with you all . Me l will still carry on with my life, and how l want to live it , as for worshipping Idols, Icons , Statues, and Myths that’s not for me , that all happened 2000 years ago. l had to stop this book somewhere so l thought the Destruction of the Twin Towers in New York was the time ,as the world as we know it will change now forever . THE END.
