Thursday 27 August 2009

Nostalgia rules Ok!

Following on from my previous post which took at least one reader down memory lane I thought my reader might be interested to know about a museum that specialises in days gone by. It is in Craven arms and is called the Land of Lost Content which could mean contentment or lots of belongings - the name is taken from the poem A Shropshire Lad by A.E.Housman.
It really was like going back to my childhood and youth - they even had some Bayko in the toy section along with lots of other things - both my wife and I enjoyed it immensely and we had lunch there as well. We spent a very pleasant four hours in there and how often we said 'I remember that' or 'We had one of those'.
For more information check out their website here .

Wednesday 26 August 2009

Bayko Building System

Sometimes life is a little strange - one day last week a chap at work was talking to me over lunch about toys when we were young and one of the the things he mentioned was Bayko, a building system that I always enjoyed playing with. It was tiles of different colours that slid down copper rods that were put into the baseplate and the house I built with mine and then knocked down to start again was really good. Imaging our surprise when on Friday night there was an article in the Express and Star (local evening paper) about Bayko and wow were there some interesting buildings in that article?
The other building system we talked about was Betta Builda which was similar to Lego but never really seemed to catch on and I have to be honest very few people seem to remember it so I was pleased to find somebody else who did.
Well better stop reminiscing as its time to get ready for work!

Tuesday 4 August 2009

Hero?

I am having a little bit of a struggle with the use of this word recently in press coverage of things and wonder if we have devalued the word a little as we seem to use it so glibly.
I have noted that every time one of our armed forces loses their life they are hailed as heroes when often it seems that the deaths happen when there is no actual fighting taken place and no heroic deed in the old fashioned sense. For me heroes are the sort of people who fought at the battle of Rorke's drift where the highest number of Victoria crosses were awarded, or the likes of Douglas Bader who battled against immense odds to continue flying. I am concious of how tragic each death is and do feel that it is even more tragic where we are involved in a war we shouldn't be.
The latest thing that made me question the use of this word was an item in the local paper last night about a lady who had been stung and gone into anaphylactic shock and her husband had gone to fetch a neighbour and had saved her life. The paper said he was a hero and no doubt to his good lady he is a hero but is this the right word to use for him - perhaps not that long ago we would have called him a 'life saver'.
Well over to you dear reader - any thoughts on this?

I've seen the light....

Well at least the signs on the Broadway - I was taking my wife to work this morning and there was a car coming the opposite way which I thought was doing quite a bit over 30 as it passed me so I looked in my mirror and there it was the sign lit up saying 30 mph, slow down and showing the vehicle registration.
This must have been someone who didn't know the signs were there or thought they weren't working so it was safe to exceed the speed limit - he may not like the envelope he gets shortly!

Monday 3 August 2009

What to say?

I can't believe its been almost two weeks since I posted anything - I thought that I would be posting at least once a day and sometimes more than once with the amount of strange things that go on, especially in Walsall, but nothing has really caught my eye in the news and made me feel like ranting.
Perhaps this is a good thing or perhaps it means I am mellowing in my old age - I am not sure but I doubt it will last very long, there's bound to be something soon that really winds me up and I will be able to make some comment.
I suppose all I can say is keep watching and thanks to those folk who are visiting me pretty regularly you never know one of these times you might visit and I will have said something really interesting or controversial.