philmayfield

Next you’ll be telling me you knew Gordon Taylor who was well known in the Rushcliffe YC’s. He introduced me to Ken Clark when he was a fairly new MP.

I too was a Young Conservative. I’ve met John Fawcett way back. We were the Trent Valley group and met in the Bromley Arms tearoom on a Monday evening. I was treasurer and my wife to be was the secretary. It was more social than political back in those days.

I was driving an MG in ‘64 but was not a member of the MGOC. The car was a 1947 TC which I virtually rebuilt and resprayed. I’ve since rebuilt a Morgan 4/4 and built a Caterham 7 from a kit. Long gone now though.

I was flying a light aircraft into East Midlands when CB was popular. The air traffic controller was using CB expressions rather than the disciplined pilot communication for which you had to study and be examined for a licence. I don’t think it caught on though and he was probably suitably admonished!

Budgie? Is that predictive text talk? Actually my 10.20 is outside Lowdham Post Office.

Ten four Rubber Duck!

That’s stirred up a few memories Brenda. I was trying to recall Ponte Vecchio and Puccinis. We’ve patronised them all and once hired the whole of La Bucca on Thurland St. for a Sherwood Flying Club gourmet dinner where you served rabbit - much to the dislike of a couple of members who’d dined regularly on rabbit for much or the war years! I had been appointed ‘entertainment officer’ for my sins.

Surely La Buca was originally on Thurland St. That's where we first discovered you. I travelled to Italy quite often on business and it was good to find 'proper' Italian food back home. We followed you around until you departed.

My O level French is impeccable. Our French master came from the West Country and we all spoke French with a broad Somerset accent. He lived on a smallholding at Hickling Pastures and bred chickens!

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!