[Random Ramblings]

Loch Ness in 1998 - a monster-free zone that day too:

[Things our parents used to say]

In the late 1800s there was a popular "comic" song called Jimmy Riddle .....Jimmy Riddle who played the fiddle ! This may be where the rhyming slang came from .

There's another word it rhymes with.

[Things our parents used to say]

When naughty as child my grandmother used to say I was a " little so and so" still no idea what she meant. From the north east so it maybe just a Geordie saying, any ideas.

I think it's just instead of using a swear word!

[Things our parents used to say]

"you know what thought did" but I still don't know

Killed the cat?

[Things our parents used to say]

I got up to go for a pee and she asked me where I was going.

"I'm going for a Jimmy Riddle" I replied. I don't recall ever using that expression before but my wife said that her mother had said it.

Rhyming slang of course.

[Things you don't see anymore]

Spills to use when lighting things from your coal fire.

[Trainspotting]

A bit of digging on the Internet produces a few bits of information:

The Brits would only work as far as Woodford.

Vans were dropped off at various places, so only a few made it right through to Whitland in South Wales.

It's suggested the empties from various places would be attached to other freights to be returned to Grimsby.

There is a mention of a Working Timetable from 1961 which showed a freight departing Woodford at 0137 to Grimsby Docks, passing Annesley North junction at 0341. Presumably that was the return working of the Brit, so not many would have seen it on the way back!

[Where you from then ?]

Born in Caythorpe, Lincolnshire. My mother was from a Caythorpe family (although actually born in Ollerton) and my father from Leadenham, the next village but one.

Spent what's still the largest part of my life in Nottingham until moving to South Wales 18 years ago.

[Psycho]

I should have said it costs £2 a session, but by August that should include post match tea & biscuits again.

[Psycho]

Stu and carni - if you run a free kick is awarded to the other side.

You could put me down as right back, but we tend to play Total Football and anyone is likely to turn up in anywhere on the pitch.

BeestonMick - it's 10am every Thursday at Penydarren Park and you'd be very welcome. You could always act as ball boy.

[Psycho]

.........whats this walking football all about for us 'ode uns' ?

It's great fun! I play once a week at Merthyr Town where we have sessions for the over-55s - ages range from 55 to some in their 70s.

I wouldn't last five minutes running about, but we play 25 minutes each way and could easily manage more. Not being allowed to run takes a bit of getting used to, but it's very good exercise plus we have a real laugh while at the same time taking the game seriously.

We usually play six, seven or eight-a-side depending on how many turn up. The game takes place on about a quarter of the full pitch and we have small-size goals. We don't bother with offside, and it's a kick-in instead of a throw-in, but otherwise it's like the 'real thing' with heading allowed and no restriction on the ball going in the air unlike in indoor five-a-side games.

Here's some of us old fools:

[Things our parents used to say]

To say 'Calm down.' Dad would often say 'Steady the buffs.'

I once asked him what this meant and he just laughed. Was it rude or did he just not know?

Had he been in the army? I don't know all the details, but it's an army expression - the Buffs being a particular regiment I think.

[Buses in Nottingham]

Yes, all those were. 8ft wide buses weren't generally allowed until a few years later.

[Buses in Nottingham]

43 was delivered in 1945 and had Duple bodywork, 37 also was new in 1945 and had Brush bodywork. They were before my time, but the later types of Daimlers were still running when I began to take an interest in such things - although I think they may have only ventured out in rush hours by then.

[Mansfield Road Tunnel]

There's something about it in the book 'The Rise & Fall of Nottingham's Railway Network - Volume 3 - Off the Beaten Track' by Hayden J. Reed, published by Book Law in 2009.

It mentions the tunnel being inspected in 2002 and describes it as being 'still littered with reminders of its railway past' with track keys, a few sleepers, a signal post, etc, etc. Three photos are included, taken on the occasion of the visit in January 2002 by Council engineers. It says the tunnel (and also Sherwood Rise tunnel) is visited occasionally by the engineers. 'They no longer provide routes anywhere, and being blocked off without through ventilation, they are classified as confined spaces and potentially susceptible to the build up of toxic gases. Consequently they are only entered by qualified personnel with breathing apparatus, and they are kept securely closed.'

[Theatre Royal]

Thanks Merthyr, simon&Garfunkel have a bench on a platform somewhere?

It's Widnes station that has a plaque saying Paul Simon wrote 'Homeward Bound' there while waiting for a train.

I gather there's some doubt over whether it was actually Widnes or somewhere else, but it's Widnes that has the plaque.

If you travel on the direct service from Nottingham to Liverpool you go through Widnes station.

[Theatre Royal]

Dint' Arnold Ridley write the Ghost Train?

Yes - said to have been inspired by having to wait for a train at Mangotsfield station near Bristol.

[Theatre Royal]

carni, you had nothing to worry about! People have been going in the 'gods' at the Theatre Royal for 150 years now and there's been no recorded instance of anyone falling over the edge yet - not even in the old gallery days of padded bench seats.

But I understand what you mean - I felt like that the first time I went up there back in 1970, when it still was the aforementioned benches. The worst part was standing up for the national anthem which was still played in those days. But after a few visits and I found I still hadn't fallen over the edge I began to realise I wasn't going to and it ceased to bother me.

When I finish working my way through the old football programmes I've been putting on another thread I mean to reproduce some pages and memories from my old theatre programmes on here, which I hope will be of interest.

[Random Ramblings]

[Things our parents used to say]

If you had a quick wash, that didn't make much difference, mam used to say it was a cat-lick.

Mine used to say it was a lick and a promise.

[Things our parents used to say]

when playing a game, a request for a break, or temporary immunity was, 'Fay Nights' (Hucknall: 'crosses').

Interesting - that would have been 'fainites'. I vaguely remember reading it in comics or childrens' stories years ago and working out what it meant from the context. Apparently it's (or was) in common use among children in London and the South East, so that fits in. Said to have originated in Old French or English (or both).

[Random Ramblings]

So how do you lead a Zeppelin anyway?

[No Steam here]

Sulzer Type 2, or Class 25, no. 25064 with an inspection saloon. Don't know the date sorry, but I see the locomotive was based at Crewe from October 1982 until withdrawal at the end of 1985, so possibly nearer the earlier of those dates.

Quite unusual to see one of those in Nottingham from the mid-1970s onwards.

[Flying Scotsman in steam]

In at least one history of the Railway it's pointed out that Topham Hatt and William Stanier were apprentices together at Swindon Works, and suggested that the latter owed a favour to the future Fat Controller for getting him out of a scrape on one occasion.

Consequently, when Henry was badly damaged in the Flying Kipper accident ('The signal was down, sir!'), Hatt was able to send him to Crewe and get him rebuilt in Black Five form and thus he became a Really Useful Engine for the first time.

[Flying Scotsman in steam]

Gordon the Big Engine is blue.

Henry the Green Engine is - er - green.

The picture above shows Henry in his unrebuilt state. As everyone knows, after the unfortunate incident of 'The Flying Kipper' he was sent to Crewe ('a fine place for sick engines') and re-emerged with a new shape - that of a Black Five. Although still green. Hope that's clear?