Getting on a bit – General Waffle!

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Ah ha, music to my ears -so-to-speak. The man’s going to waffle.🎶👂

Staying tuned…

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

My better half says I’m the king of waffle ,hopefully not too incoherent 😂

 

(split off from Wattle build topic – Colin)

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi All,

Oh no !! Am I one of the youngest in the group ??  Only 69 next week 🙂

At least I know Ashley is younger than me !!

Regards  Ray

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

Your just a mere sprogg Ray. Still age is just a state of mind ,

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Sorry Ray, I’m 67 next month, a mere boy!

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

You youngsters have a way to go yet!!!

Jim ( 82 )

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Long day for me and Mrs B. Just got home from holiday in Greece. Up a at 6am their time and home 15 hours later. Taxi+ferry Poros-Piraeus +taxi to Athens Airport +plane to Heathrow + M25 and A3 and country roads home to Surrey in our car. At 76 and 74 we are finding the travel hassle increasingly hard going. Air travel just seems to get worse and worse. minimal legroom and now they are ripping out toilets to get more seats in. Getting old is no joke.

Great view from hotel in Poros though.

Colin

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

Colin , know what your saying . When you get to let’s say a certain age you need a holiday to recover from the holiday you’ve just had. Fortunately we live in a country where the weather is mostly sunny and the lifestyle is great .

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

After a lifetime of travelling to and from ships around the world, if I never see another airport again it will be too soon.

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi All,

I’m lucky enough to get away twice a year to foreign parts this year Lanzarote in January and Mallorca in June 🙂

I must be the sad one who makes lists of models to build and I cant wait to get back in the workshop !!

5 1/2 hour drive to Wales tomorrow use it or lose it 🙂

Regards Ray

[Ray Wood 3]

On Ray Wood 3 Said:

 

5 1/2 hour drive to Wales tomorrow use it or lose it 🙂

 

 

I shudder to think what you are referring to!  🙂

[John W EParticipant @johnwe]

After reading the postings, I do feel like one of the gang at ’69’ years of age.   Sadly, though, I cannot fly anymore due to my lung condition.  So I do spend many a holiday here in the UK.  I have just come back from the South West for 2 weeks holiday and a bit of time was spent at Yeovil air museum – excellent place.  We were going to go back to Bovington Tank museum but the weather suddently turned like it is here often in the North East – it was torrential rain.   Hope to get back to the South West soon though.

Hey ho, back to my modelling.

John

 

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Interesting John.  I remember as a teenager working in a local model shop on Saturdays, when youngsters used to do Saturday jobs, and seeing a new Airfix kit on the rack of plastic bags.  I asked the boss what on earth it was and he informed me that is was the new vertical take off aircraft prototype, the P1127 Kestrel.  I read in a recent Airfix book that the original bagged Airfix kit is now worth around £100.00 and I still have two of them.  Airfix have just released it again this year so i couldn’t resist and bought another two of them.  One day I will get around to building them!  Nice shot of it, do you have any others?

Yeovil is quite a stretch from the North East, you must like driving!

Apologies to Mick, I think we’re taking his new build post into the weeds!  Maybe Colin can split this chat off into a new thread?

(done, now under ‘Getting on a bit – General waffle’ in Soapbox – Colin)

[John W EParticipant @johnwe]

sadly no more pictures of the Kestrel; but next time hopefully I will get some.

One good thing about having a son who can drive is – that – he doesn’t mind driving long distances whilst I sit back and enjoy – although – having said that I was watching some of the idiots on the roads these days and I am glad I don’t do the long distance drives as much as I used too.

It used to take about 7 hours to get to Devon from Newcastle – now its about 9 hours if the traffic is heavy.  As soon as you hit Bristol it seems all hell is let loose 🙂 .   Worth it though.

john

 

 

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

I have always loved driving but I fear our generation has seen the best of it with all the restrictions, congestion etc. which we now experience. For years we have driven around France and Greece which we have visited 25 times now. We have also done some of the classic road trips, Highway 1 from San Francisco along the Big Sur to San Diego with an extension to Las Vegas because 9/11 happened and there were no flights so we had to drive over the desert! Then there was a month in New Zealand round both Islands which was the most enjoyable driving I have ever done despite the rather under powered Toyota Corolla hire car. The changing scenery was just incredible. Running NZ a close second was Canada from Calgary to the Rockies at Banff then a return trip along the Icefields Parkway to Jasper with a side trip to Lake Maligne for a boat tour. Then down to Vancouver to board an Alaska cruise. A second trip to Canada featured driving around most of Nova Scotia from Halifax taking in the Bay of Fundy and Prince Edward Island plus the Cabot Trail. All wonderful drives and never to be forgotten.

Unfortunately I lost an eye due to a retinal vein occlusion at the beginning of Covid and the treatment delays meant that it couldn’t be saved. I am OK to drive with one eye as far as the DVLA is concerned and it is fine in the UK but I don’t think that driving abroad where you need all your wits about you (and eyes in the back of your head in Greece) is advisable so I am now effectively confined to the UK where I can drive OK but need to take a break every couple of hours as otherwise I get eyestrain. It is a huge disappointment but I have to make the best of it. At least we still have our memories and the photos from our previous adventures.

We have always subscribed to ‘do it while you can’ and we have done that and have the photos!

Colin

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Thanks Richard,

I should have read my post regarding Wales more carefully 🙂 Obviously I’m going for the steam railways !!

Courting at 69 has some advantages 🙂

Regards Ray

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

My most memorable drive was when I was working in a shipyard for two years in Italy.  At the end of the time we were given a couple of weeks holiday before having to return and then go out with the ship for a couple of months so we would otherwise have been away from home for over six months.

I had taken a motorcycle over with me so I could go for runs at the weekends into the Dolomites and this was the only chance I was going to get to get it home without having to ship it.  I left where I was living, in Treviso, a few miles from Venice, at around 06.00 hrs and headed northwest.  It was still the end of summer so beautiful weather and a lovely ride.  I got lost in Northern Italy but wasn’t too bothered as I planned to stop in Strasbourg, which was where I stopped when I took the bike over to Italy.  I made really good time and got to Strasbourg for around 15.00 hrs.  It was still a beautiful summers day and I couldn’t see the point in stopping so decided to get a bit further.  By about 21.00 hrs I had reached Calais, just in time for the last Eurostar so I boarded that and ended up in Folkstone for around 22.00 hrs.  I had done around 950 miles in a day on my VFR800 and, to be honest didn’t feel as bad as I would have expected.  I was even tempted to continue up to Yorkshire but common sense prevailed and I checked into a Travelodge for the night.

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

Man that was a lot of time in the saddle.  The longest time I went non stop was 4hrs on a journey from Brissie to  Coffs harbour. man was I  stiff and sore mind you it was on a Honda 600 RR sports bike which wasn’t designed as a tourer, it would get your there super quick but comfortable  it wasn’t.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

That’s a trip and a half Richard! very impressive. We have done some long car drives but nothing like that, One of the longer one day ones was from Dunkerque to northern Holland including over the IJsselmeer. Another was in Eastern Crete to the remote Minoan ancient site of Kato Zakros which we have done three times. No motorways in Crete!

Colin

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

At this age you tend to look back on the music of your youth which I think was way better than today’s offerings which don’t rhyme or scan a lot of of the time.

I remember having old valve wireless which I listened to in bed. One night Radio Luxembourg announced a new group called the Beatles playing ‘Love me do’. Around that time the Everly Brothers caused a sensation with their own song ‘Cathy’s Clown’ with its pounding beat. Another standout was ‘Mountain’s High’ by Dick and Dee Dee.

I still remember building one of my first model boats to the sound of ‘Wonderfui Land’ by the Shadows. Hank Marvin was and is fantastic.

The Moody Blues have also been a continual soundtrack of my life. Justin Hayward is my hero!

I count myself very lucky to have experienced all this. Much of if is still available on You Tube and I listen to it through my Bluetooth hearing aids! Never say die.

Colin

 

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

I’m with you 100% on that Colin. .many , many great songs and groups  ie; the shadows produced so many classic tunes . Hank Mavin was a revelation in guitar playing and as far as im concerned is still the best. Many great songs I remember , the house of the rising sun , greater shade of white, and many other blues based classics .  Some of the most memorable songs came from the female artists  Sandy Shore ,Lulu ,Helen Shapiro and the late great Dusty Springfield  . Happy days sadly we will never see the like of again,. I feel very fortunate to have lived through that era .

Regards Eastie

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