Recent content by Big Gee

Way, way back in the early Fifties when we lived on The Broadway, an elderly man knocked the door one morning to ask Mom if she'd like him to Cardinal Red the doorstep for a few pence! So he did, and did a few more houses along the way...and was never seen again after that. There was also a...

Talking Pictures TV is on Channel 81 and shows (mostly) British films from the past 85 years (seriously). A lot of them really aren't worth watching, but recently they've shown a couple of the old Jimmy Edwards flicks which are still funny, and a lot of wartime and post-war action films with...

Most TV is indeed crap, pardon the expression, but last night I watched 'Rambo - First Blood' which I haven't seen for years. My wife saw what I was watching, and snorted her derision. However, in five minutes we were both gawping at it in silence. A totally unreal and barmy film but great...

It was me who wrote about the 'girl I later married', but she worked at Dudley's Furnishings and I met her in the late summer of 1968 when she came into the sports shop. Our first 'date' was lunch at the little cafe on the same side of Soho Road, just past the Town Hall buildings. I can't recall...

The Barrell - that was the pub I used occasionally. Not The Bull. G

Lisle 'Toffee' Sharp was far and away my favourite teacher at GD. 90% of my dear classmates were bored stiff with English and English Lit, but it was my favourite subject. I always got good marks off Toffee for my essays, and he really tried to encourage me to take up a career in something like...

ASparks - I remember your shop. If I remember correctly, I think I bought something, a shirt maybe, from the men's outfitters. I never even went into the Frighted Horse, but if I fancied a swift half at lunchtime I went to the pub further up Soho Road from your shop. Was it The Bull? G

ASparks, where did you work? The girl I later married worked in accounts at Dudley's Furnishings, and I spent probably the worst year of my life 'managing' the sports shop near The Frighted Horse pub. Most of that year I spent looking for a proper job, which I eventually did and got out of the...

Just saw on the box that Boris has been tested positive for COVID! True democracy at work! G

I agree - there certainly were some duff teachers at GD, but I expect the same went for most other secondary schools. Certain teachers, once they had picked out who the 'brain-boxes' were, concentrated only on them, and the rest of us - me included - received little or no attention. I suppose at...

I have the film on DVD - like most cinematic productions of fantasy fiction it goes over the top. None of the characters were really how I imagined them from reading the book. There was an earlier, semi-cartoon film of LOTR which was made in the 1970's, and this was even worse - more of a...

Ian Hislop, in 'Olden Days' last night, was in Tolkienland. Which, in Tolkien's day, was almost totally rural - but not now. Interestingly, Sarehole Mill, which Tolkien described as the Mill in Hobbiton in Lord Of The Rings, was anything but agricultural. I've lost count of the number of times...

I just had an e-mail claiming to be from HM Customs & Excise telling me that my 'Government Gateway account has been created'. Ooooh, lovely. They go on to tell me that, despite letters to me being ignored, I am still owed a tidy sum in overpaid tax dating back to 2018. Ooooooh, even lovelier...

Lady P, years since I visited Brookvale Park - it looks good! However, I think the Govt has said that elderies in 'self-isolation' can still go out for a walk, so long as they don't get close-up to other people. I hope this is correct, as my wife and I - weather permitting - are hoping to go...

I believe the Chinese recently announced that there have been no further domestic cases of COVID diagnosed for 3 days. If true - and I sincerely hope it is - this may be just the teensiest-weensiest first glimmer of light at the end of the long and very dark tunnel. G