LizzieM

The day in 1986 when my dad retired from ROF after being there for 48 years, apart from 4 years in RAF during WW2. He was still using that ‘long service’ watch when he passed away 5 years ago.

It’s still so cold though, we’ve got the heating on again today.

Going off at a tangent (as we do on Nottstalgia) Prince William’s co-pilot on the Air ambulance was a schoolmate of one of my sons.

Sounds like a plan PP, don’t count me in for breakfast, I don’t get up early enough, but I’ll be there for lunch if I’m about.

Mary, the evening was hurriedly arranged so that Hippogirl and Katyjay could catch up, as they are two of the original Nottstalgians and also Ian hadn’t had time to chat properly with Katy on Thursday. The evening wasn’t long enough though! We need to get someone to take over the role of meeting organiser pretty soon, who’s volunteering ........

A funny sort of day, still thinking about Chulla and what an impression he made on us Nottstalgians who got to know him. However we’ve rounded the day off at the cosy La Capanna Italian Restaurant in Sherwood in the company of Katyjay, Ian Dawson and Hippogirl (who sadly wasn’t able to join us at Wilford Hill to say goodbye to the Nottstalgia Social Secretary). Katyjay brought along a book that Chulla wrote about Rolls Royce. I’m buying a copy of that, even though I haven’t got a clue what it’s all about! We enjoyed a lovely meal, wine and a bottle of champagne to toast our dear departed pal. It was also an opportunity to have a good chat with Katyjay as she’s an infrequent visitor to Nottingham. We’ve rounded the evening off in Doctors Orders micropub, well it had to be done!

I was very impressed with the Nottstalgian members at Chulla’s special extraordinary meet-up yesterday on a sun-drenched hill overlooking Nottingham. So many in smart black suits and I’m sure Ben was delighted to see all the men wearing ties too.

What a wonderful send-off for a really lovely man. During that service we Nottstalgians learnt so much about our mate Chulla. We knew he was an incredibly bright and warm man but I doubt any of us realised just how intelligent the man was. Apart from his posts about old films, music, poetry I had no idea he was an author with many published articles in ‘Air Britain’. I think his friend and colleague Dave Piggott said he’d had 94 publications which is brilliant. Plus he was an international authority on aviation. We will miss Chulla so much, especially those of us who became close to him in the short few years we’d got to know him. Fly high Chulla, the World has sadly lost a good un. My thoughts and love to his family. x

Ben, you always have my unspoken passion, although I may not seem to care. Yes it’s very quiet today.

My roller skates had rubber wheels but the rubber must have been low-grade as the wheels wore down to triangular shape! Had a lot of fun on them, despite the bumpy ride, because we lived on a steep hill. My favourite top was a ‘carrot’, I just couldn’t get the ‘mushroom’ shape to work.

That bend in the road by Wollaton Church is a bit dodgy if you’re faced with an HGV now though.

My Dad used to play and kick a football around on that land in the 1930s

Just look at you AfferGorritt, you’ll be logging onto Facebook all day long now, in case you miss something. Apparently Facebook is more for ‘our’ age group now, all the youngsters use something else, but I’ve not figured out what yet. A few of us lot are on NWBW too. It’s good and brings back lots of memories but the problem is that if you make a comment you get notified of everybody else’s comments on that photo, drives me mad. Enjoy your new hobby!

Things you don’t see anymore (times 2) A 1945 photo of my aunt, wearing a turban and scrubbing her front door step on Queens Grove, Meadows. She dug her heels in and refused to move when the council re-housed the street’s residents, I believe she was the last person to move out of the Grove