Our Phili-Pam

The chess pieces are a homemade resin moulds set. 1972, I think. One black rook has slight damage to his helmet, but after such a time it's weathered quite well I think. The moulds long gone.

My sister did the same thing but it was a more Eastern style with elephants for castles. We were all high for a week on the solvent, especially as a few needed redoing because of bubbles and one was very wonky.

I've got a new friend who has just arrived. He wants to play chess.

As long as you don't start talking clanger to him!

Awwww Philip. Does your Clanger make the noise? One of mine still does, despite being about 20 years old. None of my cuddly toys play chess though.

Hi all, I've had quite a thought provoking day today. I mentioned on our transport thread how an issue took me to UHCW, in Walsgrave. I had twenty or so minutes to wait for my return bus, so I wandered into the Arden centre (the specialist cancer treatment area) to see who I might still recognise. One member of staff greeted me with such affection. It's odd, seeing folk, that the last time that I had seen them, they were trying to keep Pam alive. That's thought provoking in itself, but it was looking at the room full of patients. That has really sunk in. Young & every age. I'm not preaching, but I'm so glad of my faith, as weak as it is, like dish water sometimes. I thought I would share that with you all, on a day when another much loved celebratory is now no longer with us. None of us know what's going to happen in the future, but until then, we pick up the pieces & carry on as best we can.

Hi all, Today, would have been my Pam's birthday, the day two years ago when she made her last earthly journey in an ambulance to UHCW, where she a couple of days later, drew her last breath at 11.25 on June the first. I'm so well. Helped by the fact that my Son & Daughter in law are living with me, having taken a fright from me being so poorly last year. To add more about how well I am just now, smacks by innuendo of my faith in God, enough said. I will do my walk exercise shortly, where I might bump into a local cafe, that I know is open, for a breaky. I'm severely restricted to no more than nine breakfasts in a week. Such tight restrictions on health grounds. Have a great day all. I hope to.

Hello, it's story time. Are you sitting comfy? I will begin Once upon a time, actually this very Saturday in 1972, I had just bought my first post-marital car, a series 5, Hillman Minx, six years old. In the afternoon, we decided to celebrate by going to the Gaumont cinema, and watching a French Film, about a French village called Clochemerle There were subtitles, it was in colour but in French language. After a meal at the Alpha, we came home with four bottles of Beaujolais. Both of us very light drinkers, we polished off a whole bottle of Beaujolais with a bite of early supper. Neither Pam or I could find our stairs. I rang Pam's mum's home to report that our stairs had been stolen. Now we did a repeat of this prank again sometime later, but on this occasion, both of us were very merry. Ok, so it wasn't very funny. That might have been the year that the Alpha restaurant closed. It was in Jordan Well, just a Nissen Hut, with a frontage. Fillet Steak as 7/-, whilst a beef curry was 4/6d. The beef curry was in-line with a corner shop Vesta packet curry.

Philip. I've only ever been close to drunk twice in my life. The first was at my 21st birthday party pub crawl. Despite dangerous levels of booze, we walked so far and danced so much, that by the time we got to the nightclub on our last stop, I was almost sober again. Part way through the crawl, we were climbing down a flight massive stone steps in a blizzard and one of our party took a photo. With the bulb of the camera triggered I could suddenly see the steps. I was about to shout 'keep on flashing and then we can all see' when I realised it sounded a bit rude. I spent the rest of the evening giggling at a joke nobody knew about. Convincing them that I was very drunk indeed. Had I been totally sober, I'd have gone ahead and said it.

Hi Phil. Who was Old Mr. Draper?

Hi Andrew, I knew the man who worked in the Establishment Office for Coventry City Council, as well as a man who worked for Courtaulds Engineering. I also knew a lady who ran a Wedding Boutique business in Coventry & Birmingham. Some of the family youngsters went to King Henry, but that was after my time. Does that make sense & is that enough?

Hi Phil Makes sense. Courtaulds Engineering is my dad and wedding boutique my mum. My grandad ran Draper & Sons Butcher's shop on Hen Lane corner and in the 70's my dad had a wallpaper & paint business next door. My two brothers went to Henry ~ me, Kennedy. Thanks for the reply.

Thank you for that Andrew, I had forgotten about the butchery. That's a hairdressers now. The decorating shop became a successful cafe & cooked food delivery business, until a Covid death ended that. I'm waiting in home this morning for another of your family delights, that used to be a Friday, but is now a Monday. IT'S RINGTONS DELIVERY DAY. Best wishes.

An early morning duty has caused an outbreak at Gregg's

I was up early for a quick Lidl. Scored me some schnitzel and rösti. Mmmmmmm.