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Finding my way in the world of 1940's England... 2026 4 15

Most Public School boys born in England, aged 7 or 8, when they are torn away from the comforts of their parents' homes understand that one day they may be destined to become Prime Ministers, especially if the school in question is the No 1, most prestigious, that of Eton where our first son was born (in the Canadian Red Cross Hospital, a million miles away from its school, lol). At that age and beyond I was still content to play out in my free time so long as I knew where my Mam was. My primary and secondary school subjects of History (in-one-ear out-the-other) English (full of exceptions to rules) French (not quite double Dutch) were happily to a large extent left behind when I succeeded in getting into the local Technical School, aged 13, when for the following 2 years it instructed in half day segments of Woodwork, Metalwork and Draughtsmanship I had no further interest in pursuing. Leaving Mathematics and the Sciences as something that I could pursue further, and which led to...
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As Dad didn't return from WW II our Mam became my hero 2026 4 13

He was an idealist: WW II against Hitler's Germany was his second war. He had wanted to fight for the Spanish against General Franko in 1938 the year my elder brother was born, when Alice our mother told him: That's alright Jim but don't come back here which, apparently, changed his mind. In 1941 with his second son arrived already 26th November 1939 Hitler's war in Germany was different, for he volunteered as a Royal Marine Engineer/Commando, and was despatched to Scotland to build listening huts for the WRENS on the island of Bencula in the Outer Hebrides in 1943. This was shortly after our sister Marion was conceived, when his family of 3 visited him in Oban, in the January, to be born on leave in the October, on the 14th, when I accompanied him to visit his mother and sister in Fallowfield, Manchester where I was born. From his letters home I still have in my possession, to a lesser or greater extent, after our mother edited some of them out, he died 4th August 19...
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Remembering my brother's friend Higgi 60 yrs on... 2026 4 12

What brought back this memory was another friend of both my brother and me in the person of Brian Bailey, Brian Fredrick Bailey to give him his full title but affectionately known as Joe for much of his adult life who, unlike Jim my brother and I, didn't live much beyond his 60th birthday, dying as he did in 1962, shortly after my heart attack that same year. Higgi on the other hand would with difficulty be claimed as a true friend, although for my part we did some noteable rock climbs together in the Peak District, which included the "Dove Dale" outcrop, around that time together, and when Joe and my brother Jim turned round during our first ascent of Beinn Nevis, Britain's highest mountain, it was Higgi who continued to partner me on our continuing ascent for a short distance further, until, unfortunately the conditions were becoming total "White Out", and we were aware that on its north side the mountain had precipitous cliffs, when we turned round too. ...
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My father chose to fight for his country 2026 4 10

which is to say he needn't have volunteered, aged 35, with a wife and two young boys, aged 2 and 3, his father Catholic Irish, his mother of Orange Order Northern Irish extraction, and he already working in a job which was vital for the UK's war against Hitler's Germany. Suffice then to say he volunteered because of a misplaced idealism: all his younger brothers-in-law had already joined up: Frank Wall serving in Italy, Eddie, my wife's elder sibling, elsewhere over seas, young George in Egypt, only the older Bob, in the same age group, remaining home not yet called up because of his similar age, or possibly a year older? But 4 years on, en route to the Japanese theatre of war, stationed in Canberra Australia, and presumably deemed to being A1, in health, before his embarcation, he had contracted Leukemia, which swept him away in record time, of only a few weeks or months, certainly not a time measured in years. As a budding Chemist, by profession, I thought he may h...
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Sitting here looking out over our East facing garden 2026 4 8

and I am wondering how many more springs can I expect to be able to do this? The latest thing is is our house worthy to continue living in it, and/or how much will the cost be to put things right again? Not that I per se have any bigger problems for it is not my health that is adversely affected but the health of my wife! She complains that there is something in the house which detracts from her feeling comfortable in it. Last week we had her cleaner visit just before Easter in readiness for our Easter guests who stayed over Saturday night to leave on Easter Sunday. So i took the opportunity to bounce the idea off her a lady by the name of Johanna. Happily she remarked that she couldn't smell mold anywhere but thought that maybe in the bathroom area approached through a vestible (foyer or artic entry) from our Patio entrance, which leads into a hallway before the bathroom-cum-Sauna area, and a guest bedroom, located in our garage, where she thought she could sense increased h...
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Growing old gracefully..? 26 4 2

Not always so easy in this messed up world... Take for example Mr D.J. Trump aged 79 or 80 the least qualified of all the presidential candidates it seems to me certainly during my life-time hell bent on changing the world to his prescriptions? Him backed or blackmailed by the Zios of the Middle East, thinking they can bring about regime change in Iran "2 weeeks away from developing nuclear armaments" this last 20 years, whilst my friend, a Persian these last 30 + years, is siding with them, and I'm losing my temper with him, not because I support the Islamic Revolution of 1979, which took over his country, which I don't, but because it is one of the few countries that has supported the Palestinian ppl, in resisting the Genocide being conducted by "The State of Isreal" murdering the women and children since 7th October 2023, with apparent impunity as far as the majority of Western Powers are concerned. Noteable exceptions Spain, Sweden and Norway, amongst...
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The Double Whammy of an MI followed by t Unprintable..? 2026 3 31

Believing these past 24 years almost that I got to draw the long straw my brother J the shorter one like our Da before us who regretfully died 1945 8 4 from Leukemia in Canburra OZ en route to the Japanese theatre of War... My elder brother J junior always for as far as I can remember being diagnosed with a myloma which for most of his soon to be 88 yrs has been in remission. Getting instead my MI at 62 on 6th April a few days short of 24 yrs ago after my father's male antecedents his dad dying in what i presumed to be a coronary event aged between 50 and 52, when my father was 8 yrs old, and famously declared "Now my Mam won't have to buy him any more beer", an Irishman who's own father came from Dublin, an RC presumably, whilst his own mother's father also hailed from the emerald isle, from Clonas in t west of County Monaghan, bordering Donegal, an Orangeman for his sins, when normally never the twain shall meet. But suffice to say it was my grandfather...
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