1976 - A Marvelous year.

Christmas eve 1976. The end of a year with a very long hot summer. The year I had left home after seeing all my brothers leave and then return. I had always resolved that when I left home that was it, no going back. I had joined the TA and enjoyed the weekends enormously. The year I had passed my driving test and got a battered old ex-taxi - a Cortina 1600E with a sports carb. A car I got to know intimately and spent many happy hours underneath tickling her bits to keep her going. A truly magnificent year.

I had locked the car in the company car park as I had determined I was not going to use it until after Christmas. Work closed early and on leaving the building I asked one of the girls if she was going to the pub for a Christmas drink with everyone. Although I had spoken with this girl a few times, we didn't work together and the only real conversations had been to criticise my appalling French. She had shopping to do for her Grandmother so couldn't. I persuaded her one quick drink. We went for that drink. We danced - to what I have no idea - and then she had to leave to get her shopping done. I left the pub with her amid questioning looks from some of the girls I worked with. We did that shopping and I decided that I was not letting things end there, and they would have, so I took the car from the car park - I had had about 6 vodkas at this point - and I took her home. We agreed I would pick her up for a drink later and we went down Nottingham. At the end of the evening we made another date between Christmas and New Year and sometime around the 7th January we informally got engaged. In February we broke the news to her parents and left it until March 1978 to get married.

She was and is my first serious girl friend and after 33 years and 2 lovely daughters I still believe Christmas eve to be a more special day for me on the calendar than our anniversary - 4th March.  Thank you Mary and I still love you lots.

Current Projects

It has been a manic time for me. You too? Well, of course it has because it has been the run up to Christmas. But I have been busy and started to put my bookcase together. Here we see it unglued just put together to check everything works and it seems to, although the backboards have yet to be cut to size.

All the wood involved is reclaimed wood from different people so it is of different colours and finishes. the first this is to sand off the old finishes and then we will stain it up. I would like to wax it and leave it mostly in it's original colour, but where we want it we need it to be a teaky colour, so stained it will be. Once complete it will be able to house some of my Christmas presents from kind publishers!

While I have been working on this I have also been doing a paid job of work again although only for 7 days. I was surprised at how much fun it is now. I was a little anxious having not 'worked' for 15 months and I 'retired' because it was no longer the hobby it had been. But after a 15 month break it was good and fun to be back at it and I am grateful to friends for the chance.

I now have a happy Christmas planned after which I will resume the bookcase and move on to trying to renovate a carburettor for a friend.

Life is good, don't let anyone say otherwise.