Looking Back

I am having a lot of time to reflect on my past lately, things have been brought into focus rather when I have been looking at my children seeing how well they have done, and how did I stand up as a father for them. It set me thinking about my own mum and dad just how good were they? I can honestly say brilliant.

I was born at an early age in the maternity unit in Old Town in Swindon Wiltshire, on December 25th 1941, to Mellissa and Douglas Large, the first few years are a bit of a blur really until my brother Jeremy came along on July 14th 1944. My world was turned upside down by this momentous event I was no longer the apple of everyone's eye, I suspect it was around this time I started playing up, I was to young to see that I was getting just as much attention as my brother, the strain I put on every one must have been awful. Eventually I was sent to boarding school in Sussex, it was alright in fact it was more than alright I actually enjoyed it. The shock to my system was when I was not sent to Mayfield Collage with my class mates, but sent with my brother to St Gregory's in Cheltenham, I was bullied for a while perhaps because academically I was ahead of most of my classmates,that soon changed though.
My eleven plus exam was not entirely a success I did not get into Cirencester Grammar School much to mum and dad's disappointment they had both attended, instead I was sent to the newly opened Deer Park School, it was unusual at this time being set up in an old army camp the classrooms were Nissan huts. This was I think down to the government of the time trying to get schooling to the masses they commandeered any buildings deemed suitable. Secondary Modern was the way to go children of all abilities streamed and educated in the same place, although not eligible for a Grammar School I was always in the A stream at this place. In addition to the usual subjects we boys were taught metal work, woodwork, mechanics, all the things thought necessary to help us find a job on leaving school. About this time I developed an interest in geography and history as well as English literature, I devoured any books I could find on some of these subjects I was particularly interested in modern history the war and some of the great men of our time Brabazon of Tara, Winston Churchill, Lloyd George, my heroes were like were the pilots and air crews who grabbed my imagination, of course I wasn't thinking of the hardship and suffering so many endured during the conflict, but it made great and exciting reading.
During my final year I decided I wanted to be a woodworker, dads boss new somebody who new somebody who got me into a firm of architectural craftsmen HH Martynn and Co in Cheltenham I was excepted on a five year apprenceship not altogether a happy time,                  

Hornby Shop

How nostalgic is this? The Swindon outlet centre has a Hornby shop. It's full of their stuff Scalextric, Airfix, but mostly Trains. I spent a glorious nostalgic hour looking through the stock,talking to the staff about my dublo kit, of course it's ancient by today's standards nevertheless they were interested enough to listen to my ramblings of youth, we had a good chuckle when I was asked had I seen the big engine on display,in the entrance to the centre?, I told them not only had I seen it I can remember being pulled by it going from Kemble to Stroud when I was at college. The modern stuff is well modelled, but, for me something is lacking, maybe it's because everything is there and to scale from trackside furniture to signal boxes stations and tunnels, there was very little of this available when my first train set arrived on my seventh birthday, Dad and I spent hours making things, as a child my imagination was running riot I could make tunnels from boxes a block of wood with small nails in it looked like a signal box,use small bits of coal in the coal wagon. I remember Dad spending hours making a station and a proper signal box. Dinkey cars were used to enhance the playability, so what if they weren't to scale, to my friends and I they looked fine, oh yes as I grew up so it was allowed to take over a spare bedroom, there we cobbled together tables and bits of timber to produce a surface to run on. For a short time we were using the loft until one of the lads put his foot through the ceiling covering Mum and Dads bed in plaster, we were none to popular that day. I never got into the modelling thing of the hobby but still had great fun from it until finally leaving home as a so called adult, part of  my youth was put away in a box and there it remains waiting for the day when one of my boys is ready for it.
Recently my two year old grandson somehow found the engines put safely in a cupboard, he has desperately wanted to play with them. I am thinking when he is older perhaps and I suspect he would respect the set more. The trouble is this new stuff is in some ways more realistic leastways, the track is, mine is all made from tin shaped and painted to look like ballast and sleepers As well as a third rail carrying the current, whereas this modern stuff has two rails the sleepers are attached to look like they are in their saddles much more as it should be really. How this would set with a boy of the twenties I have no idea, but if he has any feel for the past ????? Who's to say, after all this time I am loath to part with it.
Suffice it to say I would dearly love to see my trains running again.

Update on eye test.

On Monday 11th November I had a letter from the appointment and booking centre offering three hospitals to choose for an eye assessment all of them were over 60 days the nearest Witney being 82 days. I chose Witney and the John Radcliffe, the former being the nearest the latter shortest waiting time.

I was surprised at the speed with which I was contacted.The very helpful and kindly person dealing with my call,told me I should hear within 10 days when I might have an appointment and which hospital.
So things are moving along quite well,the elephant in the room could be Christmas, I have said before that Genny would like to go to the family in Odessa I'm not so fussed but it does sort of cause a minor problem, she has said that if push comes to shove we will stay here and see what happens, my bluff being called leaves me in a bit of a quandary. It's a suck it and seen situation.      

Marvellous

Bloody marvellous I wanted to do some shopping today and came into Banbury.

Jenny's phone was not working so they wanted me to go somewhere mean O2 to get it see what was wrong with it and see if there was problem, after having sorted her phone I was having a discussion with the assistant about some thoughts I have on the new phone for myself, at this point Jenny turned up and was very impatient to leave and go back to the car, I was in no hurry I had things I wanted to do for myself, but she was insistent that we go there and then and I thought all in the time I give them to do shopping and go and do what they Wanna do, however when it's a day that I need to do something I'm not allowed to do it I don't think that's right somehow. But now I am in the car sitting in the car park at Tesco's in the pouring rain while they go and do the shopping, I am being overwhelmed by the smell of roasting coffee from the Nescafe factory across the road, it's not too unpleasant but I would rather be sitting here with a good cup of the real thing.

Eye sight test

On Thursday last week I booked in for an eye test, my sight has been progressively getting worse. The optician put me through a test and said that although my prescription had changed somewhat she felt that was not the root of the trouble, her feeling was the cataracts that have been growing for a while are now cause for concern, consequently she is sending a letter to my GP to the effect that an operation would be beneficial, I am now waiting for his decision, on Wednesday I have visit to surgery for diabetes check up, so expect to speak with him then.  

Broadband Saga

About 2years ago I complained to BT about my broadband contract, I had moved over to them after my other provider had been taken over three times,  each occasion mucking about with my allowance and speed, frustrated I decided it was time to move back to BT. I had been with them years before but left because their billing system was so difficult to understand, I never knew which tariff I was on and so forth. Now things were looking better there web site was much cleaner and less confusing, so I thought give them another go, they were promoting themselves heavily and the deal looked good. All was well for a year or so, then the trouble started, I suddenly found my bills had sky rocketed. Eventually a new contract was negotiated and all appeared well. My broadband service was reasonable speed did fluctuate from time to time but I could live with that.

One day while trawling the net I discovered certain companies offering discount for paying a years line rental in advance, contact with BT proved to be fruitful, therefore we have since done this, however every year they see fit to up the line rental, I fail to see why this is, trying to get a sensible answers from them is not easy.

Almost a year ago I started having real problems with my broadband, the speed would fluctuate wildly from 7.8mgs to as low as 2.5mgs it was okay for some things but then it would seem to right itself and the speed climbing back to normal. I complained constantly through this time, it would appear to improve for a while and then the troubles would start again.

September this year my phone bill was very big, I had recently paid for my years line rental which had risen by £20 this time (Why?) nothing had changed. The broadband charges were almost double, finally I got through to a sensible person who explained that each year I have to renegotiate my contract, as I hadn't I had been put onto a standard tariff.  I told him fine but I was unaware of this in any case I would have forgotten when it was up for renewal anyway, in the end a deal was struck and I am satisfied with the result.
Three or so weeks ago I was settling in to watch a couple of Podcasts on YouTube when I realised they kept buffering, I thought this odd I had not had this happen seriously before, this prompted me to do a speed check, I found speeds as low as 0.11mgs to 1.08mgs not good at all, I commenced a regime of checks unplugging this, turning, off that, resetting the router, connecting to the internet both wired and wirelessly, I inspected all the plugs and sockets on the system without any sign of a fault, I knew calling for help I was going to be asked to go through all this again, sure enough once the call was made this is exactly what I was asked to do, no change of course, eventually I was told maybe my modem router was at fault and that a replacement would be sent straight away along with a new filter. The router duly arrived within the allotted time but no filter, oh well plug it in and see what happens, result! negative, speed had not changed. Another call same procedure same result, and a we’ll send you another filter (I am still waiting for either of them) but a line fault had shown up, I was advised an engineer would come and check out the fault, if it was found to be outside then no charge would be made however if it was anything else a £130 levy could be made.

The upshot of all this is, on Monday morning two vans appeared outside the house one of them had a lift a guy was up the pole checking the line the second chap inspecting and testing it from the house, all results showed no faults the indoor equipment was fine the lines checked out. In the end it was suggested that I run the system from the wall socket rather than the extension I had been using, after much moving of stuff the modem and apple extreme were relocated next to the incoming socket. Result!! Nah same speed as before all that work for nothing.
Back to BT again all procedures tried, hard wired and wireless to no avail. It is now thought the fault lies with BT broadband somewhere it is being looked into, this is what I've been saying all along, but who listens to the customer what do they know?  

Twenty four hours later and the speed is climbing it's still not as fast as before but better than it was, I intend to let everything settle for a few days before ringing in again well I will if the speed is not back to normal..

A bite of the Apple

Well now here's the thing. Today took yet another visit to the Apple Store for a chat, reason being that Lizzie's computer was playing up,  I had managed to free quite a large chunk of hard drive space for her, but it was still looking very full something like 20% of space taken up with what apple calls other, I had a look on my new iMac only to find it also had 90gb of other, so a trip to the store seemed like a good idea. The salesman couldn't have been more helpful after a longish chat we decided that other must be something to do with the operating system, he suggested we took a look on their machines to see what space the almost virgin hard drives had. To our surprise they were not far off my findings something like 50gb on the iMac and 23gb on the MacBook Air. My conclusion to delete any unused apps and thoroughly clean up the install.

A very productive and interesting visit.