I am currently going through the process of selling my parents flat, and sorting out all the various stuff that is in it, as they are now in a care home. One of the things that my dad has kept is his fathers’ trunk. Now, this is no normal trunk. His dad was an RSM in […]
As I write this it’s the day after the fire in Notre Dame cathedral and also ‘Holy Week’ (ie the week before Easter Sunday). Whatever your views on Notre Dame being just a building and the potential rebuild costs, it appears that there were some brave firefighters who were involved in the operation to save the […]
To quote Noddy Holder ‘It’s Chriiiiiiiiiisssssstmaaaaassss’ (nearly). One of the words used at Christmas is ‘incarnate’. That basically means in human form, made flesh. The Son of God ‘incarnates’ himself as a man. He came down to earth in human form to get alongside us, share our life and experiences, so he could help / […]
Red or white? There has been a lot of debate about the colour of poppies this year. Not sure where you stand on this issue, especially on this 100th anniversary of the end of WW1, but I would like to throw something else into the mix: red, white or …. a tomato? Now stay with […]
So just the other day I managed to scrape our immaculate 33 year old VW camper van (re-sprayed 18 months ago) down the driver’s side, pulling off the rear wheel arch in the process. The van came off worse in the contest with the rear bumper (or in fact solid steel tube) of a large […]
It was fairly early on in my Royal Naval career, my first complement job as a Petty Officer, Weapons Engineer. I was on a type 42 Destroyer, and I was the maintainer for the main computer system that drove the Weapons system and the Operations Room. It was 1983 and we were deployed down to […]
New Year. Another one. 2018. Already. Any hopes? Dreams? Challenges? Resolutions? Plans? Of course we have no idea what lies ahead, we can make plans, we can prepare for stuff but no-one actually knows for sure whether any of it will actually happen .. I am not sure how far ahead you all make plans, […]
To quote Noddy Holder ‘It’s Chriiiiiiiiiisssssstmaaaaassss’ (nearly). What are your expectations of Christmas? We very often have this lovely ‘Christmas card’ image in our mind of snow, Christmas trees, angelic children singing carols, a beautiful lunch, perfect gifts etc etc … but for most of us the reality is a bit different. The ship had […]
Last time we thought about traditions this time I am going to think a bit about routines … stuff we just do because … well … because we do. We always do. If you have been reading these blogs for a while you may remember that I like to run. I used to run a […]
As we approach Christmas, my thoughts often turn to the normal stuff we do at Christmas, what did we do last year? What did we do in 2010? 1984? What did our forebears do in 1876 .. family traditions .. love ‘em. I guess you all have some … The Royal Navy is rammed full […]
