mercurydancer

Melissa, when my uncle died, ( he lived in Hyson Green and never really went any further) my father and I discovered some documents relating to my grandfather and also to my uncle, who was killed as a prisoner of the Japanese. I'm still trawling through the documents, but if you google "600 Gunners party" then you will have some idea about what those poor men endured. My uncle was one of them, he died, probably during an American air raid, in Ballele Island in 1943. He is interred in New Guinea.

It was Marie Antoinette's family motto.

Actually I have registered with a reputable market research company and they reward me with airmiles with each survey I do. In total I generally get around 12000 air miles per year out of them. A return flight to Moscow is 20,000. The difference I make up with Tesco points!

Has anyone got the definitive recipe for yorkies? Mine turn out like spaniel's lugs.

I can't recall who originally said it but The past is a foreign country - they do things differently there. I'm a little melancholic by nature, so "nostalgia" comes easy to me. The word nostalgia does have some overtones to it- where does history end and nostalgia take over? Is the word "nostalgia" tainted with emotionality anyway? As a keen student of history, I have developed the knack of mentally superimposing what a battlefield would look like over what I am actually seeing. I tend to do that when I walk around Nottingham. Sometimes its for the better, sometimes for the worst. Its also

17 for me.

I write reviews for military history books, and also do battlefield tours, specialising in The Somme from WW1 but also Agincourt, Waterloo, D Day and Arnhem. My grandfather was shot in Belgium in 1917, he was in 2/5 Leicester Regiment. He lived until a month before I was born. If anyone has any information about this regiment I would be grateful.

I normally shopped for my Hi fi at Peter Ansons, although I can recall buying two really large speakers (Acoustic Research) from Laskeys and taking them back by bus to Radford Road, even though each one weighed about 10 kilos!

I vaguely remember restaurants on St James Street. IIRC there were two restaurants where the pub is now on the corner, immediately opposite to the (Now Britannia) hotel entrance. I seem to remember that the upper floor one was a steak house, but that is stretching my memory.

My earliest memory would have been about 1963 in Thurman Street in Hyson Green. I can distinctly remember being in the neighbour's house and it had been modernised (the memory fails me as to how) but I think that it was totally different from our terraced house in its interior. The next solid memory I have is playing with a tiny puppy at our new home in Bobbers Mill Road. That dog had a long and happy life, and died in 1980. I miss her to this day.

Julie and Richard, welcome. I'm a Hyson Green lad. After 30 years away from the place (mostly in the army and other stuff) I still feel at home there.

Its far from a criticism about the site, or anything like it, but I do find the "Member offline" tag to be really quite an emotional and important thing. We are all people of varying ages and even if I never met Rob or Caz of any of the members who have gone offline, its very pleasant to read their posts. Its a very endearing feature to this site, and one which I fully respect.

I lived for many years on Bobbers Mill Road and the Shippos horses often went by. Even now I can recall the joy when I saw the horses and their dray.

One fancy dress night at Isabella's I went dressed as a goat. I had a sheepskin rug on my back, some horns made out of God knows what, and little else, apart from some underwear to keep myself decent. The piece de resistance was a bag of maltesers which I deposited behind me. The bouncers didnt throw me out, and I'm surprised to this day why they didnt. My usual routine after leaving Isabellas was either to have a curry in the restaurant near to Isabellas, opposite where the tram stop is now, but this night I walked home to Hyson Green with an army DPM jacket on (Well I want going to go to

I do recall Dave Cammack working the door at Isabellas. I think his son now manages the Bell.

Isabella's was an old haunt of mine. I have passed the site on the tram and it appears to be there still, albeit in a different name. It was indeed opposite the Trent Poly, and near to the Masonic hall.

I recall the string quartet playing on Saturday nights well into the 1980s. From the bus stop from Hyson Green I either I went right into the Bell or left into Yate's. The Bell has hardly changed, even to the lavatories being awash with urine, but my, Yate's has changed. All coloured lights and flashy stuff.

I think that will get a visit. I seem to remember the Dhaliwal family involved in other Indian restaurants but cant recall where.

I get paid for reviewing military history books. Not enough to live on but its something. For military history books there is one which stands out amongst all others, Face of Battle by John Keegan. Basically he compares several battles, Agincourt, Somme, D Day, Waterloo, and describes not what the sequence of events were, but the soldiers would have seen, the size of the battle (Agincourt is surprisingly tiny as a battlefield) and goes far further than that, with the social structure of the soldiers who fought. Its by far the best military history book written. My personal taste leans towar

Mick, there are three (or four if you count Cumin, further down on Maid Marian Way) of the finest Indian restaurants in the country. 4550 Miles from Delhi is superb, Meem Sahib is equally as good, but Laguna is the best of the lot for my tastes. Its like comparing Manchester United to Chelsea and Arsenal. They are all top flight curry houses. I have been to the Bombay Brasserie in London and the food there is inferior to Laguna or Meem Sahib by a long way. In fact, the food is better than I have tasted in India (although I have only ever been to India once, to Mumbai) Nottingham should be pr

Going back to my student days, (1977ish) I worked at Nottingham Hospitals Radio and I am sure David Lloyd was there at the time. I was there the same time as Rob Wagstaff. If I remember correctly, the station manager (who will remain nameless) and a few others got caught with their hands in the till.

For me, the finest Indian restaurant from the late 70s and early 80s was Laguna Tandoori on Mount Street. I visited the place a couple of moths ago, and the menu hadn't changed. It doesn't need to. It remains one of the finest Indian restaurant I have ever been to, and over the years that has been many! Tony Vohra the owner, still takes as much care over his customers as he did some decades ago. First class place.

A school mate of mine was Peter Anson's so, who originally had a Hi Fi shop on Arkwright Street. He moved to Bobbers Mill, opposite the Cinema on Churchfield Lane. He had possibly the top range of hi fi in the 1980s.

I would have thought that working for 16 years in a brewery, no matter how bad the final product, would have given Richard Neale some considerable insight into how to make beer. I find it totally acceptable that Neale has recreated Shippos. CAMRA are supporting Neale and the new Shippos. Long may it continue. The bottled stuff was close to how I remember it. Next time I'm in Nottingham I'll get to one of the places which sell it from the keg and let you know if its any good.

Its worth it Melissa. I dont know if you are a real ale fan, I am, and adore the brews they have there. I have said before that its an old style Nottingham pub, and may it never change.