philmayfield

Sounds like a lot of bullocks Barrie!

That’s it. Our office, Hubbart Durose and Pain was next door but it wasn’t called Angel House then.

That's Byard's Leap. Was it a byard?

I often saw the lift in action and wondered what went on down below. They must have had a powerful fume extraction system to keep the air clean.

I went into a French restaurant and ordered ‘quatre salads nicoise’. The waiter didn’t like my pronunciation and corrected me. I told him ‘we’ve come here for lunch, not a bloody French lesson!’ We walked out!

It must have been cavernous underneath Burton’s Barrie. Back in the late 60’s my accountancy firm moved from 18 Park Row, where there was ample street parking, to more ‘prestigious’ premises in the rhs rear of the Council House occupying two floors over the shops beneath. It was inconvenient for both client and staff parking but the partners thought it was the bees knees. On the rare occasions when I was in the office I parked in Broad Marsh and walked up Drury Hill. We were over Ross Sergeants the chemists. Coincidently one of the partners was John Ross Sergeant, obviously a relation.

I’ve always got on well with the Germans and the Italians even though they were once our enemies. It’s the bloody French I can’t stand!

I flew into the airfield at Karlsruhe in Germany some years ago. I got chatting to some older pilots in the clubhouse bar and it turned out they were in the Luftwaffe during the war. I said ‘I guess you guys tried to kill me when I was a baby?’ ‘We probably did’ they said. Oh how we all chuckled!

There’s a sign in Southampton airport saying ‘Southampton for the Continent. Eastbourne for the Incontinent’.

Boston went down the pan some years ago. It used to be such a pleasant town. I remember queuing at Tates fish and chip shop, a local institution. Immigration has not done east Lincolnshire and Boston any favours. It’s similar now in Spalding and Wisbech.

Yes, Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, to quote it in full!

It’s not really fair though expecting pubs and cafes to provide toilet facilities for none customers. Obviously when you gotta go you’ve gotta go.

Certainly not in the centre of Nottingham Barrie. I think there should be an organised ‘pee in’ on the Council House steps to protest at the lack of toilet facilities.

We certainly could do with more public toilets. The centre of Nottingham is bereft. Perhaps fining people for peeing in the street is a money raiser like speed cameras. I’ve never been caught doing either!

At the moment I’m a kitchen designer but having spotted some powerful cleaning wipes in Wickes and ordering a steam cleaner from Amazon the kitchen’s looking like new again. My wife can put her catalogues away!

A neighbour of ours used to be a psychiatrist. I know I’m slightly odd but he’s much odder!

Our daughter went to NGHS. She went to Central St. Martins and did an arty degree. She remained in London and worked at ASOS in advertising for some years. She later returned to the sticks and took a masters degree. She now works for the NHS dealing with people with dietary disorders. I wanted to be a dentist, then an airline pilot but became an accountant and then an engineer and then company chairman. Our son wanted to be an agricultural engineer and is now a lawyer. My wife wanted to be a psychiatric nurse and finished up as a schoolteacher. Life has many strange twists and turns!

Nowadays university seems to be the equivalent of National Service but without the discipline. Where do you end up with a degree in ‘media studies’ from Bolton?

Let's hope they can fill the hole in the City Council's finances.

When I go to the fishing tackle shop in Lochgilphead and ask the owner for ‘what are they rising to at the moment?’, I’m sure he thinks ‘bloody English’ and he sells me something he can’t get rid of. I rarely catch anything!

I’ve probably mentioned this before but one of the first places the police came to look for Lord Lucan was at the old vicarage on our lane. The occupant at that time was know for his gaming parties and Lucan was a regular attendee. The story was recounted at his funeral in the Minster a few a years ago. I didn’t see him on the checkout in Waitrose this morning but I did see a Tesla with the registration W18REV in the carpark. Does the Archbishop of Canterbury shop there?

After the overnight rain the Trent’s spilling over the river bank at Fiskerton and it’s well over the fields at Kelham bridge. After the previous heavy rains the ground’s saturated and puddles are appearing in the fields. The lake at the end of our field is starting to form again. The gentle brook by Hockerton Farm Shop had turned into a muddy brown raging torrent. The snowdrops are prolific though!

They might as well raze the whole of central Nottingham to the ground and turn it all into student flats. There’s not much left of it now anyway. Why trek into town when it can be delivered to your door. Do people still take pleasure in shopping? Why are there so many dimbos around when everyone goes to university these days?

Opposite the library and the undertaker’s.

Atkeys had the place on the corner of Union Rd. and then it became Sytners who moved from Mapperley. I’ve bought BMW’s from both places.