|
![]() |
||||
Ah well,sport,eh? Now there's a story! I went to a very VERY strict boarding school when I passed my 11+ and until I was 16 I represented the school, and the county (Lincolnshire) juniors at cross country. I was very good! Then I rebelled against all the school stood for i.e. Church three times on a Sunday, daily beatings by the older boys, no contact with the outside world etc. (I could write a book) and ran away overnight to Portsmouth; and joined the RN - and as I was only sixteen, I was sent to HMS Ganges for a year. Everyone found it quite harsh, but after boarding school, I found it a doddle. Which brings me on to the reason for this dit. After a while at Ganges, I started receiving duty free cigarettes, and took up smoking in a serious way....and that was the end of running for me.....and then of course at eighteen the tot came along. I'm talking 1958-59 here, and the good old RN did their best to ruin your health. Glad to hear that some resisted, and carried on being sporting! |
|||||
![]() |
|
![]() |
||||
Hallo my grand old mate Spud, have decided to revisit the Guestbook pages after a wee while away. Firstly, I received your chopper trying to land in a so called "difficult sea" which took me straight back to my days on the Dalrymple on the dreaded Rockall/Malin run up to survey the continental shelf from Bear island to the Bay of Biscay along with Lt Cdr Dick Dodwell, Jesus did it bring back memories, i think I was sick for the first week onboard!! Bloody awful weather and it was in July!!! |
|||||
![]() |
|
![]() |
||||
Well Ken fancy remembering that true I had forgotten that, as I was a Goalkeeper I suppose diving was part of my game, I still have the scars playing for the Birmingham forgot my knee pads, when I figure out my printer I will send you a Photo of me in goal when at Arbroath. made it for the Navy agaist Nato land forces in Italy but only on for a while really to short. loved Cricket.played for local teams after leaving the Navy. |
|||||
![]() |
|
![]() |
||||
Johnny, don't know about your football prowess but I do remember you and I playing cricket for the Air department at Culdrose and you taking one of the most superb catches I have ever seen at any level of cricket. |
|||||
![]() |
|
![]() |
||||
I would like echo the comments made by Spud it is quite amazing just how many past Mets they have amassed in my own time in the Navy I think less than twenty have crossed my path. Partly because my course consisted of me and partly because I was with Asweps on more than one occasion. |
|||||
![]() |
|
![]() |
||||
2012 Reunion (next week) numbers not meeting expectation (for reasons that can be discussed later). I want to use this dit to give support to Charlie and his team's efforts over the years for the setting-up , admin, then admin and admin and re-design and redesign to expand capacity, of site (at no cost to us) - all effort to present our popular site which encourages the current banter, encouraging membership (and the possibility of regenerating the old 'banter site' which the Sec has on disc) and to entice more of our un-exposed, undeclared, shy, (all you need-to-do is say you were a MET and press enter) or 'lost and found' Given we have a non-fee membership site I'm sending Charlie £10 to support the site - it needs it - I think I have had much more than a tenners value from the site in recent years JW's current flood of memories are an example of the 'added value'to our lives (Not to mention Ray Brooker's and others very clear memories way back in Jurasic days)(Wish George Blu could be with us more often he is 'shirley' the BOSON PARTICLE to fill in any gaps. Hope we survive and enjoy the interaction! |
|||||
![]() ![]() |
|
![]() |
||||
I agree with Ken at Admiralty we were in the Heart of of the heart of theatre and club land my first digs were at Pimlico. in Admiralty we never saw our uniform. Ken with his Mod Style and pointy shoes and me with my take on of a Tony Curtis |
|||||
![]() |
|
![]() |
||||
Frank, what you have to realise is that all of these revelations of boozing with the stars and shady West End restaurants were all part of "the swinging sixties" experience which we all enjoyed courtesy of the First Sea Lord. |
|||||
![]() |
|
![]() |
||||
OMG I seem to have taken a very sheltered and darkened (miners strike power cuts) life at Northwood in the early '70s unlike earlier past times in Whitehall interested in learning more in case I need to take a career change.... |
|||||
![]() |
|
![]() |
||||
At ChrisHolmes' Debenhams in the West End '64 I was employed at £2 pd off watch to help MR Pratt who had made a pratt of himself and was working off a debt TO THE COMPANY in such late life- He was a very old gent - well over 70 - and he was in charge of the 'returns' - He - We had access to the 'delivery' side of the business as reflected in JW's entry and as an insider i know there was a liberal use of the companies parcel post. Mr Pratt taught me to ASSESS the fraud and the (very few) genuine malfunctions in a garment - tools were .... Magnifying glass to determine the 'wear' on the button holes -THEY WERE ALWAYS WORN MORE THAN ONCE THEY WERE LIKE A FORREST UNDER THAT MICROSCOPE - AND THE STRETCH MARKES ! And then the 'stretch' on the buttock and arse lining - which no matter how FEW times it had been worn it showed, in the ironing out the lady had simply historically recorded her activity. END I wish I could have added ---------- Madam YOU ARE NOT A SIZE TWELVE - YOPU ARE A COMFORTABLE 14 -= ENJOY AND PLEASE STOP HARASSING YOUR HUSBAND - HE DOES NOT KNOWTHE DIFFERENCE ! This is SPUD ..... ASLEEP _ YET _ WHY NOT !!!!!! The main commercial and later military code I learned from Debenhams was the established code used by the company to reflect the 'cost-price' of - say a coat, to one of their stores - this information was shown on the price tag on the shop floor in casual writing - it made no sence to the buying public. The code which represents a run of digits from 1 to 10 is contained within one word - which has no repeated letter - I give you CORNFLAKES as an exapmle - At Debenhams the cost-price code on the lable of a coat being sold lets say in my day for (1966).... say £12 (£11.99) in the shop the lable was td/6 - breakdown of the code - 39/6 (£1 19 and 6) The Debenham code was METHODICAL ! hence td/6 (39/6) .YOU ...still awake ..... ?? Me - wonderin'wot that code was called - RAMROD APPOLOGIES TO MY READERS - MUCH SEARCHING FOR RAMROD MUCH JOY IN REMEMBERING. Later in my aviation life in the Andrew I had to rely heavily on RAMROD codes - BUT UNBELIEVABLE THERE ARE THOUSANDS - simple CORNFLAKES eg and etc. |
|||||
![]() ![]() |