RIP Freddie Starr

[Bob G]

I'm still testing the boundaries of the 45T crane thread. Nice as it is I want to know what it comes as...I want an SR black variant and there is no info on that on the Osborns website.

How's that for scope creep?

[emjaybee]

I'm sit on the sofa with a cat called Chaos.






Your move.

[Bob G]

Cat friends are great.

My 19 yo cat is called Dylan Thomas, a scraggy deaf grey tabby and my best friend other than my wife of course.

This thread has morphed well off track by now In more than one direction! But do we care?

[emjaybee]

Chaos is now 16yrs old, black and gorgeous. She had a sister called Mayhem. It was shortly after we got them that the wife informed me i wouldn't be allowed to name any future animals. We got them at about 5 weeks old as feral kittens, from the local vets. Due to their very young age they bonded very closely with the wife and I. We lost Mayhem to a car at three years old.

We also have a white and tabby called Penfold who we got five years ago as an 8 week old kitten from the Blue Cross. To date, he alone has done approximately £500 worth of damage to the house contents.

The wife knows better than to ask me to choose between her and the cats, in the same way that I wouldn't be stupid enough to ask her to choose between me or her horses.

Do you ever have the conversation of 'what would you save in a fire'?

I answered; the cats, my firearms, my trains, my laptop.

She said "what about me?"

I said "I'd like to think you'd know to get out of a burning house!"

She's off to Windsor horse trials tomorrow with my blessing. I You could do with some "me" time I said.

Ain't marriage grand.

[Bob G]

I'd save my back up hard drives which has all my business on it.
That comes on holiday with us too. Although it is also in the cloud.
Everything else is replaceable or has legs to get out.

Back to Freddie Starr (in a way), we were watching TOTP1978 last night, and working out which of the artists were still alive.

We also thought how slim everyone was in the 1970s.

[emjaybee]

Ah, the good old days, when youth entertainment consisted of Pans People and Legs & Co!

Slim? Well, most high streets then were full of (shock, horror) shops, rather than deep fried chicken, kebab and pizza shops, plus kids had to walk everywhere as parents had the balls to say, "you want to go, get yourself there." My parents rarely ferried me anywhere, I had to get on my bike, literally, and cycle 40 minutes to my girlfriends house.

It is scarey how much top talent we have lost in the last few years, I dunno, maybe it's just me not feeling immortal anymore so I notice these things.

I do try and take any opportunity that comes along these days, the way the world is you never know what the future holds. Hence I'm hopefully of to Le Mans next month, last year of the LMP cars.

[Bealman]

It gets a bit like that.

My two months in hospital, 5 op's and being in crutches still has made me quite aware of me own mortality.

Anyway, I never saw or was aware of this guy, obviously after my deportation on the convict ship (if NewportNobby is to be believed), but he seems to have been popular.

[emjaybee]

@Bealman you REALLY need to look him up on YouTube!

[Bealman]

Ok, will do! 

[emjaybee]

Please try to avoid eating or drinking whilst watching, it's a choking hazard. His speed up/slow down sketch, Parkinson show with Ali, and his appearances on Des O'Connor are the best ones.

[Bealman]

Thanks!

You're obviously a big fan.

[Bob G]

maybe it's just me not feeling immortal anymore so I notice these things.

We just buried my mum-in-law (91) and moved my mum to a home nearby, rather than try to travel for 3h+ to visit her.
Now we can visit her just to see her rather than visit just to fix things that have broken in the house, or take her to hospital.
We must still be grieving as I just cant get interested in my work at the moment. Work just doesnt seem important (except perhaps as a revenue earning process).

Bob

[Bob G]

My parents rarely ferried me anywhere, I had to get on my bike, literally, and cycle 40 minutes to my girlfriends house.

We only got a phone when I went to Uni.
We only got a car at home when I went to Uni.
So much of what was a luxury then is now a necessity.
I used to cycle everywhere, on a Raleigh Wayfarer 3 speed. Even round Wales for 2 weeks on a sponsored cycle for BHF. One of my mates who did that trip with me died 2 years ago from cancer. He was a GP too.

I now try to live for the moment - but i'm never going to be described as Happy go Lucky!

[broadsword]

His version of " The Great Pretender" was  probably the best. Better than
the original ,Platters?

[emjaybee]

91 is a good effort. It's good that your mum is being accomodating. My wifes Aunt is NOT. I'd rather not say any more on that as it's my wife's last remaining relative. Family deaths always seem to make you think, nature of the beast I suppose. In the last five years I've lost my grandfather at 93, an Uncle at 61, my best friends wife at 53, and a close friend who taught me to shoot and whose daughter was one of our bridesmaids took his own life in his early 60's a year ago. The last one really shook me, and I'm still struggling to come to terms with that one.

Back on a lighter note, as a child I can remember my father calling the operator on Christmas day, from the one and only phone in the hallway, to ask them to put a call through to our relatives in Northern Ireland, then it'd be hurried chat's by my mum and grandmother as it'd cost a fortune!

My first bike was made by my grandfather out of bits, my second one was second-hand through the local rag and my third was my dad's old racing bike (which he actually raced - Reynolds frame!) which I refurbished.