Category Archives: Nostalgia

May 19 2013

Star Trek – Into the darkness – oh dear.


Star Trek – Into the darkness

I just saw the movie.

There are a few things that I have questions about.

Underwater ?
Can fly in an atmosphere?
‘short’ distance from Earth, well known planet and situation, (they have a debrief about it) and yet un-exploited (by characters like Mudd?)

Tribbles ?
Mudds Spacecraft still in dock and ready to go?

He cries?

The all new Dreadnought class can go faster than Warp?

And can transport people through shields? – “What are you doing there?” and apparently despite shields being up,  you can enquire if the “beam” can be blocked, and it’s only a lack of power that prevents you?

Quick phone call to a reclusive and looking a bit worse for wear ‘Old Spock‘ to ask how it ends?

No way of blocking communicator traffic, and they work from one end of space to the other – Can you hear me Scotty ?

Re-animation using a newly extracted “serum” from blood, takes 2 weeks in a human, hour or less in a troublesome tribble.

Carol Marcus – random character – like the mirror of the man in red in the landing party – gratuitous underwear shot, has managed to defeat many security checks and walks onto a spaceship – just like that, oh and how important?

Many and varied ‘alien’ species, already in contact and employed in Star Fleet.

And Earth has no missile defence system ?

and we finish with a  5 year mission to explore and discover new civilisations  ?

But it’s a  jolly good roller coaster of a ride. Khan is great, the new play on the old plot is fantastic and I’d watch it again. For those who remember the Star Trek series the first time around, this play well to the nostalgic and doesn’t stray too far away from comfortable. I do hope however that the next film doesn’t have a bald woman, whales, and a satellite that’s gone all Wal-E, but a Genesis project might go well, if only they could figure out how “old spock” didn’t do that bit.

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Dec 27 2012

The 12 ways of Christmas – The Holiday with the ‘folks’


We’re lucky enough to enjoy a beach house. We’re lucky enough to have ‘Christmas‘ in the summer months, being as how it’s New Zealand and it’s all the other way around.

As “workers” we work hard all year and get a couple of weeks off to do nothing, to laze about, twiddle thumbs, shower occasionally, eat, drink, eat, sleep, nap. It could be so nice.

But we’re also unlucky enough to have parents who drive us madly insane. Not my parents, but the in-laws for me, the parents for MrsPdubyah.

They were school teachers and so eery year they would spend a goodly amount of weeks at the beach house. For them it’s just another house, it’s managed to acquire all the town house things and none of the beach house things.

You could transplant this house to a town and you’d never know. Now holiday homes are different, they are full of art, sea-shells, mis-matched furniture, rustic tables. We don’t have one of those. The neighbours have those. The neighbours….

We have a house at the beach, and it’s a harrowing experience to live though a week here. We used to be able to do 10-14 days, now we get to about 4 days and start getting a twitch. We’ve not had any days at the beach house when they are not here, we call as say “are you going to beach this weekend” they invariably reply “if you are we will”, it’s maddening, frustrating and difficult to broach.

Age will turn you into a prisoner. A prisoner of routine. Every day you have to do the same things. Up at 7am, washing in washing machine at 7:30am, go get newspaper at 7:45am. Cereals at 8 a.m.  Washing the dishes is an immediate task, heaven help us if they are left for more than 10 minutes.

Then it’s 9 a.m. so possibly mowing the lawn, picking fruit from the tree, spraying some weeds. 10 a.m. tea of course. 10:30 is mid morning siesta, because they’ve worn themselves out.

More washing at 11:00 am, they wash clean things to maintain schedule I’m sure of it. Random vacuuming and brushing time till lunch, when we have a selection of mulled over left overs and a cup of warm water.

Hourly switch on the radio at 30 seconds to the hour for the news bulletin, the log range weather for everywhere, then off. No music allowed, and don’t change the channel, ever.

Afternoon siesta.

Discussion about what the neighbours are up to, who’s at the beach, who’s not, why, if we don’t know why make a guess. Read the death notices to see which friends might have had the temerity to die when they’re at the beach and not in town. It happens.

Gin o’clock, wine o’clock begins as the 6pm news is on the TV. Pre-dinner dishes, of course, washing dishes not cheese and cracker dishes.

Dinner must be before 7 pm. Fretting ensues if it’s going to be later.

Entertain everyone by reading the teletext updates (A service soon to be discontinued).

Read book, coughing randomly until 9pm when it’s bedtime.

Days when the gentleman’s fishing club is in session, make an agreed time “how about around 7am” where “about” means up at 6:30 to prepare, leave at 7 am, no later, no sooner. Fishing line can only be in the water 1 hour. No longer, no shorter. 1 hour. Today I was suckered in with “whatever time” which meant of course 7:45am knocking on the door “are you ready yet” We didn’t go fishing.

We didn’t go fishing because on a 800 meter beach someone had launched a gentleman’s fishing rig into the sea before us, and fretting and panic ensued about them being too close together. Serious fretting, muttering and followed by deep investigation of the mans credentials, home address, and a lecture about “how I do it…”

Fishing was also cancelled, no only to proximity, but because weed was spotted in the waves, and weed is bad. To make up for this disaster he burnt some paper and plastics instead of putting them out for rubbish collection, it’s “what we had to do in the old days”

We’ve taken down the tent, it rained and wasn’t used. Didn’t let it dry now the weather has changed, took it down and stowed it wet. “It’s what we had to do in the old days”

This evening we will again have a discussion about Teletext, the neighbours wi-fi and how it’s intermittent (we have permission to use it, we’re not totally freeloading”, who’s arrived, who’s left, pontifications on the “Sales” the lack of Eggs in the house.

And tomorrow we will do it all again, in roughly the same order, amount of time, and with the same earnest face.

Not a holiday.

 

Dec 20 2012

That annoying top ten list stuff – The Music


I’ve touched on music a bit in other places here and hereabouts

There are a few musics I’d like to call out. To place them in an order wouldn’t do them a justice, they are things that are dear to me and that I’d like to journey with, but I’m going to give it a go….

  1. David Bowie – Station to Station
    • This has never left me as music, the haunting tracks, the all of them, everyone of them, you want me write more on how?
  2. Elbow – Seldom Seen kid
    • If you have to ask then don’t ask.
  3. Dire Straits – Dire Straits
    • This is some serious guitar thing, and lyrics, and it’s about time and place.
  4. Yazoo – Upstairs at Erics and/or you and me both.
    • A time in my life when my Honda CX500TCC turbocharged motorcycle, and becoming an adult, and this in my walkman stereo – what!
  5. Status Quo – Live
    • If I could go back and have a bit “of the bit, right” then that’d be me!
    • Because Andy Heatherly  for this, Think Lizzy and Rush
  6. Donald Fagan – The NighyFly -
    • because it reminds me  of a girl I once knew. Don’t mention this to MrsPdubyah.
  7. Paul Simon – Graceland
    • This is me being released from home and family and being my own self on my own as a being.
  8. Dire Straits – Communiqué
    • because “News” is about the motorcycles that I miss so much
  9. Coldplay – Parachutes
    • after 5 or 6 plays this is a piece of brilliance. Listen without prejudice.
  10. Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn, Side 2. Then Tubular Side One….

Supplemental…. Your own personal favourites in one “mix tape from 10…..

The Honda Turbo, I had two of these, one was stolen and the other I managed to crash.

The Honda Turbo, I had two of these, one was stolen and the other I managed to crash.

Dec 20 2012

The 12 ways of Christmas – The Entertainment


I laughed out aloud when I discovered what televisual delights were available to entertain. This would have been after you’d opened your science kit and played with the magnet and iron filings, or the cooking thing that made stragne tasting jelly, or you’d used all the batteries that powered the rifle range game, and it was too cold or there was too much snow to play with your Action Man Red Devil Parachute” toy….

Christmas Eve Thursday 24th December 1970. Some of the highlights

  • 11.10am Tom and Jerry Mice Follies
  • 11.15am On Top of the World international ice champions entertain
  • 12.00 Movin’ Along with Andy Williams
  • 3.30pm Film : Misty (1961) with David Ladd and Arthur O’ Connell
  • 4.55pm Blue Peter
  • 5.20pm Scooby-Doo, Where Are You ?
  • 5.44pm The Magic Roundabout Pancakes, When Dougal starts cooking there are plenty of offers of help from his friends
  • 6.15pm Tomorrow’s World
  • 6.45pm Joy to the World
  • 7.30pm The Cliff Richard Show

The Adults got a real treat :

  • 8.20pm The Gang Show Gala, with Peter Sellers, Dick Emery, Graham Stark, Cardew Robinson, Reg Dixon and David Lodge
  • 9.20pm Play of the Month: Five Finger Exercise with Margaret Lockwood, Paul Rogers
  • 10.50pm Just Pet
  • 11.40pm A Story for Christmas The Gift of the Magi
  • 11.50pm First Communion of Christmas, from Worcester Cathedral
  • 1.05am Closedown

Christmas Day Friday 25th December 1970, as if you couldn’t get enough excitement

  •  9.30pm Basil’s Christmas Morning with Basil Brush and Derek Fowlds
  • 10.00pm Christmas Crackers a cartoon parade with Michael Aspel
  • 12.35pm The Story of the Silver Skates starring Eleanor Parker, Richard Baseheart
  • 2.15pm Top of the Pops 70
  • 3.00pm The Queen, speaks to the Commonwealth and introduces a special film
  • 3.25pm Billy Smart’s Circus Spectacular
  • 4.30pm Disney Time with Harry Worth
  • 5.10pm Robinson Crusoe starring Ken Dodd, with Lyn Kennington, Peter Glaze, Arthur Mullard
  • 6.45pm Christmas Night with the Stars introduced by Cilla Black, featuring Bob Hope,Mary Hopkin,Graham Kerr, Jerry Lewis, Nana Mouskouri, Clodagh Rodgers,Frank Sinatra, Jack Warner,Dad’s Army, Stanley Baxter, Dick Emery, Bachelor Father,Terry Scott and June Whitfield

And if the Snowball, Babycham or the Party Seven hadn’t done the trick for the adults there was

  • 8.15pm The Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show
  • 9.15pm Film : Charade (1963) starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn
  • 11.00pm The Good Old Days with Danny La Rue
  • 11.50pm But Seriously…on the Nativity with Joyce Grenfell, Cyril Fletcher, Ernie Wise

And at 12.00 midnight the TV station Closed down for the night, yes they did.

Check out 1975 and other years here

Dec 12 2012

The 12 ways of Christmas – The Festive Treats


There were things that were only ever seen in our house for one month a year. Fleeting things enjoyed because of their rarity in some instances.

The Treats.

As well as the backup tin of Quality Street chocolate in a big tin, the one we didn’t use to decorate the tree we had a number of celebration things in the house for christmas.

Alberta Binford McCloskeySatsuma Oranges individually wrapped in tissue paper. this is how they came from the grocers, it wasn’t a family tradition or any such thing, they were just wrapped. Not all of them, some in the bowl were, and these were the prized ones of the the pickings. For no reason than they were wrapped in tissue. on reflection being winter of course a tropical fruit was a luxury, and presented as such.

Oranges-&-Lemons-Fruit-SlicOrange and Lemon Slices. Sugar coated jelly candies. The blob in the middle was for the Mother, the slices were allocated at one of each per child, perhaps. We seemed to have unlimited boxes of these things, there was always one being opened when anyone visited, perhaps it wa some strange ritual that has since passed into lore. All I can remember is there were always lemon and less orange slices left to sneak during the early evening.

DatesDates. Why we had dates I’ll never know. They came in an an oblong box, and contained a wooden fork to jab them from the box. I still have a vague unease about boxed dates, and how they looked inedible, mouldy even, wrinkled in their box, all sticky and glistening.

ChristmasNutsMixed bag of nuts. Walnuts, Almonds, Filberts (Hazlenuts) and possibly the least liked, Almonds. Hours, or what seemed like hours, cracking nuts and extracting, usually, pieces, of nut from crushed shell. definite win if you could extract an unbroken walnut from a shell.

StockingThe Christmas Stocking. Which contained a selection of chocolate bars that you were supposed to enjoy over a period of time, expected to be longer than an afternoon. Never happened. Don’t recall any trades going on either, my Milky way for your Smarties… none of that.

There were also, and this is going to either ring a bell or ring an alarm bell, Chocolate Smokers Sets. These were a presentation of smoking related things in chocolate form, containing, from memory, An Ash Tray, a Lighter, A pipe, and a packet of chocolate cigarettes that were in a packet that looked like the real thing, each cigarette wrapped in tissue.

Dec 11 2012

The 12 ways of Christmas – The Festive Drinks


One of the things that I remember from Christmas was the abundance of things. The seasonal drinks cupboard got topped up.

There were 4 standout things that were brought into the house only for the Christmas period.

babychamBabycham

A sparkling Perry (fermented pear) drink. In packs of 4 little bottles, and aimed fair square at a female audience. Loved by my mother.

Warninks Advocaat

advocaat

What is Christmas without a “Snowball”, made with Advocaat,and lemonade, Lime and ice if you’re a bit fancy. A fluffy yellow treat for the teens.

Port and LemonPort

“Port and Lemon”. Another post-war favourite, relying on the memory and traditions carried forward. If you couldn’t talk your way into a Port and Lemon you would fall back on the Snowball

party sevenWatneys Party Seven

Also available as a Party Four. Contained 7 or 4 pints of beer. Could only have been 3.9% ABV of  English Bitter. Came with a can opener. Usually resulted in half the contents spraying over the guests as it had not settled or had just arrived.  Needless to say the last “offering” was only available to the adults and only after bedtime for the children. The adults would congregate in the back room, and smoke and drink, play cards.

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Dec 9 2012

The 12 ways of Christmas – The Tree


This year might be the year when we don’t have a traditional tree decoration at home. By decoration I mean a tree with things on it.

As a child the tree was an important part of the Christmas thing.

  • It was always a real tree.
  • it was always as tall as the room, sometimes taller, the fairy looming over the room at an awkward angle.
  • Every year we had to make a new base for the tree out of some wood in the form of an X.

Every year Come easter the tree might still to have been found behind the shed, brown, spindly and forlorn. It would be a few months till Bonfire night, unless we had one earlier.

MultimeterEvery year the same things happened in preparation. An important part of the tree was the lights. a Lot of lights. one of the chores was checking each and every light bulb. Because. This involved sitting with an interesting multimeter device the like I have not seen again, and checking each one by passing a current through it. Every one.

The bulbs were I remember coloured. And each bulb socket had a flowery looking surround. Each bulb was an Edison screw type bulb and not a bayonet fitting. We called them fairy lights. I’m not sure we still do.

LightsDecorating the tree was a family affair and there were always lot of hands. The hanging ornaments were fragile glass globes. Some of which had been broken in the previous 12 months.

But an important part of the tree dressing was the decorations made from lollies and walnuts

.

RosesTake a tin of Roses Chocolates, they come in foil and cellophane wrappers, brightly coloured and shiny.

You get a reel of cotton and you make each sweet an ornament by making a loop of cotton using one end of the wrapper as an anchor.

You then hang the lollies on the tree.

During the next 20 days, or whatever time frame you have, you get a reward treat of a lolly from the tree, opening the chocolate and leaving the foil and cellophane on the tree, empty but still pretty!

There was the Round toffee one, the long toffee one covered in chocolate, the one with the walnut inside, the sold chocolate one, the one that was strawberry,  the orange creme…

Mother would also make walnuts to hang from the tree, using a matchstick in one end of the walnut whole to make an anchor.

And there you have a tree with lights, glass globes, Cellophane lollies and walnuts. Add a rope or two of tinsel and a can or two of fake snow and there you have my traditional memory of a tree.

An enormous pine smelling plant, that dropped pine needles from the moment it was in the corner, and kept watched over the room. We didn’t have the presents under the tree as a tradition, we were many children and there were many temptations, until christmas eve. It wasn’t  a big deal.

Come taking down the tree time there were always willing hands to investigate and find the cunningly hidden lollies or those that were too high to reach for esger young hands.

With children we’ve carried on at least the lolly part of the decorations, the glass globes have moved onto shapes and stars made of various things, safer and less likely to cut and injure.

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Oct 5 2012

Two Funerals and a wondering


To be honest it’s been a few funerals,  but specifically I’m thrown off by axis by one of which was this week, the other from 1988.

This week the funeral of a friend, Des Tierney, a good bastard by any measure. If I end up half a good a bastard then I’ll be spectacular. No one exemplified the meaning of community than Des. There won’t be a million words or books written about Des, and that’s a pity in some regards, but he’ll be an oral legend, around these and other parts.

The other funeral, my Father. The one I didn’t go to because I just moved to New Zealand, in 1987.

The thing that links them? Well in the sadness of things they both died before they were 60.

And why then would I be thrown into the funk that I have. Well I’m not getting any younger, and I’m now contemplating, as I did with some incredulity at 16, as being as old as my dad. Except now that the words “when he died” are added on the end.

So why should I panic about the age my father died? He was a heavy smoker with a sedentary lifestyle, it’s not the way I am. And how does the passing of a friend conflate a story to make it a doom.

In a normal thinking they don’t. But as your own mortality, and your own perception of that mortality changes you begin to fret. I spoke to a couple of of me friends about this, and they get it, what I’m feeling, they didn’t laugh, they just compared theirs to mine, and we all agreed that it was a nothing. It is what it is, there is no binary thing going on, that event A does not meant that it will equal a similar event  A for me, or them.

So now here I am wondering why it is that I never owned a Lotus Elite Turbo, and E-Type Jaguar. A 1967 Mustang fastback , or a V8 anything, and it’s not like that would define me in anyway. It might bring me immediate pleasure, and the added angst of maintaining and paying for it.

I’m now wondering why I never went home to England and abandoned almost everything to a new country, like no one ever did that, but I’ve not been home, not am I likely to go home, and I left in 1987. And yes it’s still home. Go figure.

Do I think people will tell grand stories about me when I die? You’re having a laugh, the most heroic I’ve been was when never.  Should I worry about that?

So a life just as ordinary. A fear and doubt. A surprise? There are many things in my head, and a weight on my shoulder that has descended for no reason other than self.

But if I had a motto to live by it would be “this too shall pass”, and it will. Might get that as a tattoo.

Sep 15 2012

We all follow the Palace, Over land and sea, And Brighton…


For a long many years I’ve followed the fortunes of Crystal Palace F.C. For many years I went along every saturday afternoon when they were playing at Selhurst Park to watch them play, sometimes mid-week night games, sometimes even getting a coach to watch them play away.

The New Years day match in Brighton, the long weekend double headers, cup games.

Sometimes I even went to watch other teams, at other grounds.

But I’ve always followed “The Palace”

I watched them when they had Ian Wright, Mark Bright and Andy Gray playing, and scoring some of the most spectacular goals, lots of them.

They had John Salako, Alan Pardew, and Geoff Thomas. I saw Phil Barber, Micky Droy, and Jim Cannon.

I saw legends, and I saw donkeys.

I drank more warm bovril and luke warm pies than I care to remember.

And I saw them win, and I saw them lose.

Today they beat  an “Old Foe”, and that reminded me that I’ve never stopped following them, over land and sea….. and never will, and the strange way that an event that you have no control over can make or break your day.

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Sep 15 2012

Happy Families, the one with the lost photographs #2


I found some more recent pictures, some of me as a fine young man, and they are presented here for your amusement.

Yes almost literally in a tree, can you believe it?

Me holding onto my Dad and Uncle Jospeh in the foreground like he’s been startled by the Paparazzi. He’s dressed very well for a ramble in the countryside. Poland 1967ish

With my Cousin Andreiz (he’s the tall one) apparantly. Again in the trendy turn ups and a fashionable yellow top, probably with airplanes on it. On reflection shorts seemed a lot shorter and high-rider than now too

Back Left – Lesley, Back right – shirly with her Crystal tips hair, and Front Right Andy (looking like a tubber) and me on the front right.

Back Left – Lesley, Back right – shirly with her Crystal tips hair, and Front Right Andy (looking like a tubber) and me on the front right.
I have no idea where, when or who took this, what context it’s in or anything.
This was the day my sister got married, but it does bring me many memories of the back doorstep and having to shell peas, you can see it’s very worn, I have no idea why, and I don’t remember it being Red, but clearly it was!