Ooh, I did a lovely further retort, but the computer said no and it’s out in the ether, lets try and remember it.
Now don’t get me wrong, I loved my parents and uncles with a great passion, and still do, what’s left of them, but I have to say that respect was well beaten into you, and this was fairly general, liberal parents were treated with disdain and suspiscion by all sides, kids as well as parents, not that there were many of them about.
Now my parents were not well off, but tried to do everything for us, it must have been a nightmare affording those days out and fantastic Christmas presents, but we were kept well in hand, to the extent that fear could take over, a cane was kept next to the gas cooker, it was never used, but the suggestion was always there.
In my case, this had the opposite affect, I wouldn’t say where I was going or what I had been up to, this attitude persists today, fortunately, my missus is well aware of it.
To quote an example.
Some gits had lit a fire in our favourite play area, Jacko’s Holler, a former, overgrown claypit.
My mate and I were well used to this, isolated the fire and saved the day, I returned home triumphant and smelling of smoke, but was given a good thrashing from my mother because of a minute burn on my jumper.
Worse than that, she got hold of my teacher the next day and we were dragged in front of the class, humiliated and threatened with prosecution, for doing nothing but help out.
Whats interesting is that the next time it happened, we went round to a mates house who was the only person with a phone, and who happened to have a liberal mum, she called the fire brigade, only to find that the fires were being deliberately lit by a gang from the railways, so we were once again threatened with prosecution, wasting time etc etc by the powers that be, except that she threatened them with legal action, not setting a good example to well intentioned kids etc.
After that, I never told any adults anything, and that just creates a back drop of suspicion on both sides.
It’s been interesting in latter years, revealing to my parents what my brother and I got up to, especially with regard to him, as they thought that the sun shone out of his backside, not, to me he was and remains the greatest older brother you could possibly have, though he reckons not to remember half of what he did, and you could write a book about that, hmmmmmm, sorry John.

To sum up, I have a son and stepson of 21 and 13, they have never been threatened parently, only talked to sensibly and openely, they live in the modern world for all it’s sins, but they are the most fantastic kids going, not only that, they really love each other too.

It’s not all roses in the past, live in the present please and work it out.

Just Google Falkland Islands Wrecks and you’ll see what I mean, this is where the SS Great Britain came from, and look at her now.

Barry, I sympathise, considering the nautical heritage of this great nation, there are few historic survivors of our past and this is a disaster on the highest scale. If you look at the various ariel photos of the scene the whole hull seems to have warped in the middle to me.
If some sick b###### have done this, and are caught, may I suggest that they are dealt with in a Whicker Man set up on Greenwich park.

Whats next, the Victory, that would burn nice wouldn’t it you sickoes.

Yes, I remember those days, and much further back, when trainers were called plimsolls and only available in black, when a foot of snow was a dissapointment, and there was only one TV channel that took a break between the end of kids telly and the later, adult stuff, like Charlie Drake.

I lived on the edge of a city, the countryside was a superb mix of agriculture and our beginning to decay industrial heritage, it was superb, feeding cows, building dens out of straw bales, fishing in the derelict canal, sliding down slagheaps on bits of corrugated iron, watching them detonate cliffs in the quarry then rummaging amongst the gelignite boxes hoping to find a stick left. I could go on, but it wasn’t all sweetness and light.

We used to get gangs of Teddy Boys, rampaging up the canal banks armed with air rifles and shooting at anything that moved, throwing their cans of Long Life beer all over the place.
We used to get constantly harangued by peaodophiles, which we were pretty wise to, but didn’t tell our parents about in case we were banned from going out.
After one particular incident, we did come clean, but the fat sweating constable that eventually arrived on his push bike after an hour didn’t exactly inspire confidence.
There was another gang that made porno movies in the woods, that tried to threaten us to keep away, but we knew the woods better than them and got some interesting and enlightening views, do couples really do that?
There were nasty battles between gangs from different housing estates, once resulting from some poor kid being tied to the railway lines and left.
There were always fires being lit out in the countryside, burning our play areas, however, if you reported it, the powers that be always treated us kids with great suspicion, so in the end it was never worth it, I got sick of being threatened with prosecution by a stream of fire chiefs and police inspectors, all for trying to help.
Do you want me to go on?

Cutty Sark Fire (Merged)

Not aviation I know, but the fire on the Cutty Sark looks disastrous, just a bit of information for our world wide friends who may not know.
See General Discussion for more details.
Sorry mods, I thought that it was such an important heritage issue that people ought to know, I find it heartbreaking myself, especially when the authorities are already hinting at arson.

As I suspected, the masts, rigging and all the internal fittings have been removed, they are saying that it will therefore be rebuilt.
My concern however is with the structural integrity of the cast iron hull, I suspect that it’s warped to hell.
It may be cheaper to bring back one of those delicious hulks abandoned at the Falkland Islands and restore that instead.

Sundays update

I was just about to report when Mr Cuckoo landed in the tree at the bottom of the garden and started his stuff, I think it was Mr as he was brown. Ever heard a Cuckoo from only a few feet away, they are really loud, quite amazing really.
Some taddies have developed back legs, but the growth of the fish has amazed me, hope they aren’t young carp.
We have a bit of a problem here. At the back of the garden we have a lovely wilderness going down to the river.
Unfortunately, some evil nasty threatening junky youths have set up base camp down there and have started to trash the place, I got the police down last week, but they are still there.
Fortunately, as I take the dogs down there alot, they seem to have formed a sort of relationship with me, but thats as far as it goes.
I have a cunning plan involving dog s###, cooking oil and petrol.
Watch this space.

I had vowed to go to every DX event this year, but Canberra apart, this line up doesn’t particularly inspire me, especially after the epic events of 2 weeks ago, which have had a great influence on the way I feel about it.
I’m surprised that considering the Falklands 25 theme, that there is no Harrier of any description, would have been nice to see one viffing round the Cranberry.
However, to be fair, it looks like a good do for the public and it’s a fabulous morning down this part of the world, so have a great time everyone who goes, I’m sure it will be packed out.
For the first time ever, I’m considering going to Southend next weekend, it used to clash with the Hall and Finchingfield Fete, so I never had the opportunity to make it, I imagine it’s pretty difficult to get near the place, and I haven’t been to Southend for years either, whats the crack?
On a different note, wasn’t the live TV coverage of The Reds flying over Wembley Stadium pretty pathetic, Nil Point BBC, and whose great idea was it to have Sarah Brightman attempting to sing with the great Lesley Garrett, how embarrasing, even I didn’t need a book for the bloody words.