TROY'S BLOG

BLOGGING ELSEWHERE

2011-12-12T15:14:00.009Z

I first started blogging using the nom-de-blog East Anglian Tory as my initial interests were reading and commenting on other political blogs. But then I widened my interest into reading the many other fascinating blogs out there on the world wide web. In comments people called me EAT which didn't have a great ring to it. Then someone called me East Anglian Troy.

I liked that name.

Meanwhile as I had started blogging on a variety of issues and as well as commenting on many other people's day-to-day life blogs, it seemed more appropriate to call myself first, East Anglian Troy, then later for more ease, just simply Troy. That also enabled the introduction of Mrs Troy and Troy Junior into the blog.

Many of the blogs I read in the early days have ceased although a few notable exceptions have kept going. As my retired life became ever busier though I found less time to write my own blog postings. My readership fell off until now I only have a small handful of (but much treasured) readers. Blogs are either on the up, or failing that, are on a downward spiral. This blog now falls firmly into the latter catagory. Accordingly I've decided to stop posting on this blog.

My other blog, written in my real personal name, which I started when I stood for election in the 2011 local district council elections has now been revamped with a view to blogging on items of "local, national and international interest". It will be primarily focused on political issues with an unashamedly right-of-centre outlook. I hope some of my readers from here will find it of interest. The posting I made there yesterday for example, comments on David Cameron's use of the veto at the EU summit and is written as an antidote to the hysterical negativeness of the BBC on that matter - although I suspect it will reach a much smaller audience!

The link is here

I hope to see some of you over there going forward.

To those that don't follow me there - its been great knowing you and I'll do my best to still get round to your many interesting blogs. I'll most likely comment using my real name which will link to my ongoing blog.

So as this final posting - number 101 - comes to close, I'll sign off.

Sincerely yours, "Troy"

SWAP SHOP

2011-10-17T15:55:00.001+01:00

This morning we had to take ten year old Troy Junior into the local hospital for an appointment in the Paediatric Department. We found some empty seats in the waiting area among the hoard of parents/babies/children and settled down, me reading my Daily Telegraph business section (as you do) and Troy Junior and his mother idly looking around. Troy Junior's eyes must have then caught sight of a notice pinned to a door and he asked "Why would parents want to change their babies?". The notice read "Parents wishing to change their babies should ask a member of staff". We explained that it wasn't actually the 'Swap Shop' that he imagined it to be.

THE USUAL RUBBISH

2011-09-06T14:57:00.011+01:00

Due to the inclement weather this morning I delayed my walk down to the village newsagents until after lunch. So now I've just returned with my "morning" paper - The Daily Telegraph.

I was delighted to read a small article at the bottom of the front page headed "Vacancy to fill : usual equality rubbish applies". It turns out that an advertisement on a NHS website was published with "the usual rubbish about equal opportunities" on the end.

Apparently this was then spotted by a prospective applicant and the advert was swiftly changed to read "we are committed to promoting equality and diversity". I do wonder whether if these words were omitted people would assume that part of the NHS was not committed to equality and diversity.

A couple of years ago I had to draft up an advertisement for a new school Headteacher. These equality wordings plus many more about commitments to child safeguarding had to be incorporated at the end of the advertisement. The advertisement then went into the Times Educational Supplement along with many, many other adverts, in total filling about 300 pages! I suspect without the additional words we would have saved over £100 of the advertising costs and just think how many other schools could have done likewise. All that it actually achieves is to transfer money from schools to Murdoch.

What annoys me most is the meaninglessness of these phrases. The "usual rubbish" sums it up well. Do people seriously think state schools aren't committed to equality and diversity unless it is clearly stated? Do they seriously think that state schools aren't likewise committed to child safeguarding? I mean ITS THE LAW F.F.S.! Do we really need to spend money telling people we are committed to upholding the laws of the land?

It really should go without saying. I didn't need to put at the end of the advert that the school was committed to putting all its staff on the Pay As You Earn tax system. Or that we were committed to providing toilet facilities to staff. Or that we were committed to providing public liability insurance. I could go on and on.

No doubt someone will be fired for writing "the usual rubbish about equal opportunities" on that draft advert. Meanwhile nurses neglecting elderly patients who die from lack of food and water will go unpunished. Surgeons who leave their surgical instruments inside patients will be merely reprimanded. And no doubt an Equality and Diversity Manager being paid well in excess of a nurse's salary will be employed by that NHS Trust.

Here's a link to the article on the Telegraph website.
And I was so eager to blog about it that I've only just seen that there is also an editorial comment about it on page 21 and here on their website
Also it appearshere on the Daily Mail's website

NO LONGER TO BE A CLIFFHANGER

2011-08-04T13:36:00.014+01:00

Although the Suffolk coast is only a short distance away we do also enjoy trips a little further afield to the Essex coastline. In less than an hour we can be at Harwich, Walton, Frinton, Clacton or Brightlingsea. An interesting feature at Walton is "The Naze". In fact the full name of the town is Walton On The Naze. The Naze extends northwards from the town into the North Sea and provides lovely panoramas towards Harwich, the Walton backwaters and across to the container port of Felixstowe. The ground slowly tapers away from high cliffs at the southern end to sea-level at the north. The cliffs are clay and are being gradually eroded by the sea.

The most noticeable feature on the Naze is man-made. The Naze Tower was built in 1720 as a lighthouse. It was used during WW2 for early radar experiments. It fell into disuse but was then bought and restored by a very enterprising young lady and is now a tourist attraction, art gallery, tearoom and viewpoint. The only problem was that the cliff erosion was bringing the North Sea ever closer. The cliff-edge, that in days gone by was a considerable distance from the tower, is now getting ominously close. Here it is:

It would seem only a matter of time - a few years - before the tower would be lost forever. However a fund raising programme was put together and granite boulders, forming a walkway and viewing platform, have now been placed at the foot of the cliff to prevent further erosion.

and

The granite boulders, each weighing about 4 tonnes, were shipped by barge from Norway and dropped into the sea at high tide. At the moment it looks quite messy between the cliffs and the walkway but the cliffs will gradually collapse just a little further from the vertical at the top to provide a more gentle slope which will grass over and look more attractive.

A lot has been happening since my last post back in May. My father and I had a very enjoyable week in Lanzarote in June with excellent weather - hot, sunny and clear blue skys throughout. We had a fascinating trip out on a submarine - one of only 15 commercial submarines in the world. Highly recommended.

We took Troy Junior to Silverstone to see the Silverstone Classics which included a parade celebrating the 50th birthday of the jaguar E-type (XKE)

That is just a snapshot. They were hoping to get close to 1,000 E-types into the parade to set a new world record. I haven't heard the final results yet.

Sorry I've been such a poor blogger recently. Today is the first day in ages (wet and cloudy) when I've had time to post. Hopefully it won't be as long a gap until the next time.

WHAT BUSY DAYS!

2011-05-26T10:35:00.009+01:00

For those of you (the Politics Yawn Brigade)that didn't follow my separate election blog, I'm pleased to rather belatedly tell you that I won my local district council election. So now I'm officially Councillor Troy although an old friend has advised "I hope you don’t use that ridiculous affectation in real life!" Mrs Troy, in contrast, seems to quite like the concept of being the councillor's wife and has gone out on a clothes shopping spree in anticipation of being invited to future events.

With a council chamber dress code* of "jacket/suit and tie", Troy has also had to delve into his wardrobe to find garments much under-utilised since he stopped working back in 2007. And I'm proud to announce that they all still fit perfectly. With the suits having been hand-tailored in Hong Kong and each with an additional pair of trousers (obviously not worn at the same time!), its nice to be making use again of that previous investment. Fastening the top button of the shirts and adding a tie is actually taking some getting re-used to. However it does feel nice to be smartly dressed for a change and Mrs Troy welcomed seeing her husband in something other than the usual casual gear.

The reason I just got round to blogging now is that I've been SO BUSY! There is a tremendous amount of training and induction involved for new councillors. Unlike with both the school governor's role and being a parish councillor, this training is all upfront rather than spread over the first year. So my calendar has been pretty full and I've had to co-ordinate a lot more with Mrs Troy as a lot of it spreads over into the evenings. In fact some weeks, with all my various activities, I'm now out on three or four evenings! I felt pleased to get involved on the Planning Committee as those meetings start at 9.30am so I could go to those whilst Mrs Troy is at work. Of course this rather forgot the several meetings in school holidays which will present its own child-minding issues.

There are a handful of new councillors - "Newbies" we call ourselves - and by and large they are a very friendly and social bunch of people as most of us are in the same party. Some of the more experienced councillors, in contrast, have been there for twenty or more years and have seen a lot of changes in that time. Overall its a good mix.

Virtually everyone who retires will tell you that they don't know how they ever found the time to work. I think that one paces oneself differently but it is amazing how the calendar fills up and the days race by. I certainly don't regret retiring early and having all these new experiences in my "older age". Talking about "older age" - I insured my car through Saga and subsequently got a offer from them to subscribe to their Saga magazine at £7.95 for three years (22p per issue!). Never one to resist a bargain, I now will find myself reading the Saga Magazine which makes me feel very old indeed!

(* at least for the Conservative councillors)

A VERY AMUSING COMPOSITION

2011-04-30T19:44:00.005+01:00

A very amusing ditty appearing on Youtube, explaining the AV system and how it gives second votes to the extreme parties, has made me chuckle. I thought I'd share it with you. Worth a few minutes of your time before going out to vote on Thursday.

Brilliant eh?
VOTE NO TO AV on THURSDAY 5th MAY

BLOG LETHARGY

2011-04-10T11:17:00.011+01:00

Oh dear! Blogging mojo seems to have vanished this year. I'm not the only one as several people I follow seem to be suffering in a similar way - not sure why. Over the last few weeks I've been tagged twice which should provide blogging impetus - so watch this space and I will get round to it.

I was out in the garden earlier this morning and took this photo of our tulips

The daffodils seemed to come then go very quickly this year but I prefer the multi-coloured aspect of the tulips - they make a beautiful display with the sun shining through them.

I'm running in our local District Council elections in May. Readers who have been with this blog for a couple of years may remember my rookie campaign in the 2009 County Council elections. I finished a credible second then and hope to go one better this time. Actually finishing second this time would be okay as there are two seats in our election ward. There are eight (8!!!) candidates standing so there is plenty of opposition. Rather belatedly we found a second candidate to stand for the same party as me. That's useful because with each voter having two votes I was concerned that even my supporters could be helping the opposition with their second vote. Of course it is quite possible that this second candidate who is younger, female and more photogenic than Troy, may beat me!

If you'd like to follow my campaign I'm doing a separate blog about it. I'm putting in a link here [link since deleted] but will delete it after a few days. So do save it if you want to follow the progress of my campaign. If you comment there do remember to use my real name there rather than my nom de blog Troy.

HOURS OF FREE ENTERTAINMENT

2011-02-10T11:13:00.007Z

When you look at the price you have to pay for entertainment - sporting events, concerts, the cinema - most are expensive. Some excessively so, in my opinion. There's not a lot of free entertainment available is there? Or is there?

Yesterday afternoon I went to my local library. Its a three mile drive to the nearest village library and its opening times vary day-to-day so I need to check each time from a handout pinned to our noticeboard to ensure I'll be going when its open. Its only a small library but it has a decent selection of books - reference and novels - as well as a few newspapers and periodicals. Whilst there I always have a quick browse of the local newspapers and a couple of magazines. Recently the council announced that they would be closing this library unless it was taken over "by the community". You are perhaps now expecting me to rant and rave about council spending cuts. Not on Troy's blog. With the parlous state of our economy after thirteen years of socialist mismanagement I fully understand the need to bring public spending back under control. However I think in many instances that councils are picking soft targets to cut rather than say their layers of over-paid middle managers for diversity and equality.

Troy has another idea to save the local libraries. Yesterday I borrowed four novels. Here they are:

None of these could be described as educational. They are just entertaining fiction. In fact I'm hoping to have hours of free entertainment over the next three weeks reading these novels. "Found Wanting" by Robert Goddard is I think the 16th book of his that I'll have read so I'm confident that I'll enjoy it. Likewise the collection of short stories by John Grisham. The other two are gambles based on reading the blurb of their back covers.

So I'm getting hours of entertainment - reading is better I believe than the cinema if you've got a good imagination - and all for "free". Well I say "free" but of course I pay an excessive amount each month in council tax, but like the NHS, libraries are free at the point of use. Now my idea to save the libraries would be to charge a modest amount for each book lent - say 25p. So I'd walk in, pay £1.00 for my four books and come out with hours of very cheap entertainment. At our library we check in and check out books ourselves using the technology. It wouldn't be difficult to put a prepaid amount(say £5) onto a card and then when checking the books out the system would take the charge off the prepaid card. Children could be exempt from the charges - but then adults would use their kid's cards to take out books. My answer to that would be to just have childrens book as exempt from charge (zero rated on the computer system) so that adult books would still be charged whoever took them out.

I can't believe that a modest 25p charge would deter readers. Even "poorer people" like those ahead of me in the queue at the local newsagents buying lottery tickets and cigarettes shouldn't find 25p per book excessive for a few hours of enjoyable reading.

There is apparently an Act of Parliament from 1964 that prevents libraries from charging for books. DVDs etc. can be charged out, but not books. So it would need parliament to rescind that law. I think that should be done, enabling councils to make modest charges for book lending and thus saving our libraries.

But that's just my opinion, I'd be very interested in hearing via the comments box what my readers think?

HURRY UP! IT'S TIME FOR SCHOOL

2011-01-25T11:43:00.009Z

I wonder how many households are like Troy's on a weekday morning. Putting an ear to our front door, all you would hear is increasingly loud shouting.....

"Hurry up! It's time for school"

"Are you still in the bathroom?"

"Aren't you dressed yet?"

"It's nearly twenty five to nine already!"

Mrs Troy has already long got up, made Troy Junior's packed lunch and headed off to work. She starts work at 8.30am so leaves home before eight o'clock. So that leaves me with the responsibility of getting Troy Junior to school on time. It is only an eight minute walk door-to-door to the school and children are not supposed to be left there on their own before 8.45am when the doors open and the school assumes responbility for the children. So getting there at the right time should be easy.

And in fact it is. We normally arrive at 8.45am if not a minute or two earlier. We have never ever in the last four years since moving here been late. So you are probably wondering why all the stress and shouting in our household every morning?

Frankly I don't understand it. I get up at 8.15am and am washed and dressed and ready to walk out the front door at 8.35am - prompt, every day - you could set your watch by me. So I ask you - why does Troy Junior need to shout and make such a fuss every morning!

A CHRISTMAS DIP IN THE SEA?

2010-12-28T15:04:00.010Z

One thing I've always promised myself I would do one year, is to have a dip in the sea on Christmas Day. Mrs Troy's mother did it several years ago but all I did then was watch safely from the beach as upward of a hundred people stripped off their winter clothes and ran down into the waves. Here's the photo I took at Clacton-On-Sea on Christmas Day in, I think, 2005.

At least the sun was shining and the sea was calm. Afterwards I wished that I too had taken the plunge.

Now let's jump foward five years to 2010. I was determined this year that I too would plunge into the sea on Christmas Day. The event was taking place as usual at Clacton and, even more local to my home, a charitable sea swim had been organised at Felixstowe. In fact all around the British coast similar events were taking place. I decided however that I would prefer to do my Christmas Day swim more discretely in a small cove rather than on a crowded town beach. I suppose I was concerned not to make a fool of myself if I chickened out seconds after my toes first entered the water. The secluded cove I chose does not even feature by name on even detailed Ordinance Survey maps but locally it is called "Anchor Beach".

I suspect many people in Suffolk are unaware of its existance. Certainly I wasn't expecting a large throng of people dressed in their warm winter clothes on hand to witness my Christmas dip. What I hadn't bargained on was the weather! On Christmas Day morning I switched on the TV and selected the News Channel. In big bold letters across the bottom of the screen it said THE BIG FREEZE. Unprecedented low temperatures were being reported across the UK. At this point you are probably expecting me to chicken out?

Troy is not one to be deterred by TV headlines. Once I've made my mind up there is no stopping me. So I hurried down to the cove, stripped down to my swimming shorts and plunged into the sea. It was invigorating and I would recommend it to everyone. After a few minutes in the sea I also had a swim in an outdoor swimming pool. I don't have any photos to show you of my sea plunge but I do have a picture of the sea cove taken a couple of days before Christmas and also a picture of me swimming in the outdoor pool on Christmas Day.

Troy, being sensible, waited until spending Christmas in Lanzarote before having a Christmas Day dip in the sea. Surely you didn't expect ME to do it in the UK? After my dip, Father Christmas came to visit the Troy family on a camel.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and as this will be my last posting of 2010, I wish you all a happy, healthy and enjoyable 2011.

A BROAD CURRICULUM

2010-11-26T11:20:00.009Z

I've seen a lot of discussion in the newspapers about the pros and cons of the SATS tests in schools. Apparently, some schools focus very much on teaching to the test rather than offering a broad curriculum to their pupils. Troy Junior, at his school, I'm pleased to say, enjoys a broad curriculum with enrichment activities and school trips.

Recently Troy Junior's Year 5 class have been learning about our solar system. A recent homework was to choose an element of the solar system (sun, planets, comets etc.) and produce a factual document, poster or presentation on it. Troy Junior chose the sun and diligently researched it.

This week he comes home from school and asks us this question - "What is the hottest part of the sun". After we didn't answer he told us "Page 3". I asked him what was hot about Page 3. He replied with a cheeky grin and a cupping action with his hands.

I don't read The Sun, preferring the sober Daily Telegraph. However I am pleased my son shares my interest in astronomy and heavenly bodies.

(If any readers from outside the UK remain confused by this post, you may enjoy this link)

LONDON & BELFAST

2010-10-23T13:04:00.021+01:00

The half-term school holiday has come round quickly and yesterday we decided to visit London and Belfast, all in the same day, without leaving England. One of the benefits of being a Daily Telegraph subscriber is that I receive certain special offers. One was the opportunity of joint membership of the Imperial War Museum for the price of a single membership (£35). With children under sixteen entering free, this gives us the opportunity to visit the IWM museum sites in London and at Duxford (Cambridge) plus the Churchill War Rooms and HMS Belfast in London for a relatively modest outlay.

So yesterday we set off down to London on the train. The first bit of good news was, that when asking for two adults and a child off-peak tickets, the nice man at Marks Tey station said that we could have up to four adult tickets for the price of two, with Troy Junior effectively travelling free on the third adult ticket. So that was useful saving; and worth knowing for the future.

Although I used to commute into central London on a daily basis, yesterday was the first time this year that I've ventured into our metropolis. I was surprised to see three new buildings - the Heron Tower close to where I used to work on Bishopsgate, the beginnings of The Pinnacle also on Bishopsgate and The Shard being built near London Bridge. We took some photos of the work in progress. Here's the start of The Pinnacle with the completed Heron Tower in the foreground:-

And here is the The Shard in progress:-

A few people were hanging around the construction. We thought that rather than trying to see in through the glass windows, that we would wait until the building was opened - that seems safer!

But the main purpose of the day was visiting HMS Belfast at its moorings between London Bridge and Tower Bridge.

I've been before, on my own, several years ago when Troy Junior was just a toddler. There are many many sets of very steep stairs onboard so it seemed best to wait until Troy Junior was much older before taking him. At the age of nine he can also appreciate better other aspects of the museum. All in all, there are nine decks to visit on the ship, from the engine room to the bridge. Here's a view from the forward deck looking "aft"

and a photo of Troy Junior doing his best to stop the anchor blowing away.

[Sorry! Mrs Troy has insisted that I delete this photo of Troy Junior so replaced by this view from the bridge]

There are many realistic "tableaux" onboard, using dummies, for example in the ship's galley, an onboard surgery and an onboard dentist.

When Troy Junior was younger, he used to get quite spooked when museums used fully dressed dummies and wouldn't go anywhere near them. Another reason for leaving our visit to HMS Belfast until he was older.

All in all, a very enjoyable day out! This link will give you more information on HMS Belfast.

LET US PREY

2010-09-07T11:44:00.008+01:00

The school holidays are now over and Troy Junior is back at school. This summer seems to have flown by. Well that's my excuse for not having posted anything since 31st July. I'm wondering how many of my "27 Followers" are sticking by me through this thin posting season? If you do call by, please leave a comment, even if it is just "Hello". It would be nice to know you are still there!

At the start of the school holidays (Summer, Christmas and Easter) I produce a grid on A4 paper with the days across the top and the weeks down the side. Into this grid we then fill in trips away, planned days out and other organised events to ensure Troy Junior is adequately entertained through the holiday period. So much so, that he actually then enjoys his "rest days" when we just laze around at home. At the end of this holiday I asked him if was looking forward to going back to school. He responded "Yes". When asked why he explained succinctly "I need an education". There is no arguing with that, is there?

On the last day of the holiday, Troy Junior and I visited the local Owl Sanctuary. In some ways its a bit misnamed as they have many birds of prey and red squirrels, as well as their rescued owls.I guess it has evolved from its original purpose to become more of an attraction. We had a thoroughly enjoyable time there. The highlight is the flying display.

These birds are very photogenic. Here are a few photos I took during the day.

First an owl which had been raised from a young chick at the sanctuary.

Here's an eagle. They are quite magnificent birds.

And a Red Kite in flight.

This bird actually flew straight over my head several times, missing it by what seemed like inches. However I was too busy ducking and so missed getting what could have been a brilliant photo.

It was also interesting to see the red squirrels. For those that don't know, (let's call you "foreign readers"), the small red squirrel was the native British squirrel but when the larger grey squirrel was introduced into the UK it overran the native species who now only have very few colonies left. At the sanctuary, the red squirrels were in a large caged run but fortunately the cage wire doesn't really show on the pictures I took.

Here's a red squirrel enjoying a snack.

Hopefully I'll be back again with another posting much sooner than last time. Stay tuned!

A LIBERATING EXPERIENCE

2010-07-31T11:35:00.017+01:00

I've just realised that it is over four weeks since I last posted here so before July is out, I must do a posting to tell you about our recent trip to France. My father and I have recently had a most enjoyable few days over in Normandy. For more recent readers, I should explain that my father home cares for my elderly mother who has advanced Alzheimers. Ever three months, he has a one week respite break and my sister or I take him away for a few days. He's been to Falmouth and Florida with my sister and to Northumberland (twice) and Hong Kong with me.

This year, he didn't fancy a either long car journey or the hassle of airports so I looked in to local ferry trips from Poole, close to where he lives. We settled on the Poole to Cherbourg ferry trip which is only two and a half hours by the fast (38knots)ferry. The only downside was that it leaves at 7.15am so we were up and out of the house just after 5am! Taking the car on the ferry was simplicity itself and by 11am french time we were heading east from Cherbourg on the local coast road. We took the MGF and toured with the roof down throughout our travels.

Our first port of call was Barfleur from where William The Conquerer set sail for England in 1066. It has a delightful fishing harbour. (If you click on the photos you should get enlarged images).

We then called in at St Vaast-la-Hougue which has an enormous marina before heading down to Port-en-Bessin, central to all the D-day landing beaches, where we had booked five night's accommodation. Port-en-Bessin is a delightful village with an active fishing fleet, harbour and many seafood restaurants. In the picture below you can see the outer harbour but the port itself goes inland beyond the very far right of the photo. The hotel we stayed at is on the far right of the photo and overlooked the fishing quay where the boats unloaded their catches each day.

During our five night stay we visited most of the D-day landing beaches. The next photo shows Arromanches-les-Bains and Gold Beach where British trops landed on 6th June 1944. We (the British troops, not us) actually built an artificial harbour and its remnants can be seen in the photo.

There is a great museum in the town with an excellent guided tour. The tour guide spoke excellent english but with a very pronounced french accent. My father listened for over two minutes thinking the man was speaking french and being surprised how many words were similar in both languages. Then it dawned on him that the man was actually speaking english! "Ze sup-lies were brrrought in-too ze arbour and off-luuded". Once tuned in, he was actually a very articulate and knowledgeable guide.

A few miles inland is the town of Bayeux with its beautiful gothic cathedral and the world famous Bayeux Tapestry. To be honest, I only went to the tapestry because my father was interested, but it is truly fascinating. 70 metres (230 feet) long and full of marvellous details. In 58 scenes it tells of William's conquest of England in 1066. It is amazing to think that this fragile linen has survived over a thousand years whilst buildings have crumbled and disappeared. The centre of the town, around the cathedral is full of old buildings that survived the war. Here is the cathedral.

On the outskirts of Bayeux is the British Cemetery with over 4,800 graves of British soldiers killed in the liberation of Normandy in 1944. It is a poignant sight - row upon row of white headstones. And the ages of dead - 19, 24, 22 etc. All young men buried in a foreign field away from home. This photo shows only a small part of the cemetery.

Here's another view with my father looking at the monument.

Apparently, the film "Saving Private Ryan" gives the impression that only US troops were involved in the liberation of France. This blog isn't so crassly nationalistic. During our visit we saw Utah and Omaha beaches where US troops landed and Pointe du Hoc where US Rangers stormed 90 foot cliffs under heavy fire. And Juno beach which was taken by Canadian forces with Poles, Dutch and Czech soldiers also involved. No one individual army could have overcome the german fortifications along the "Atlantic Wall", it was truly an full Allied effort. Here is the US "Omaha" beach.

Everywhere along the coast there are Union flags, US stars and stripes and the Canadian maple leaf flying in the breeze. The locals welcome their liberators warmly.

Sitting in a restaurant on Friday evening we saw a poster advertising the UEFA Under19 football tournament in Normandy. I went online later and discovered that France were playing 'Angleterre' the next day in Saint-Lo so we even managed to take in an international football game during our brief visit!

All too soon, our five days had flown by and it time to head back to England. I can thoroughly recommend Normandy for a short vacation. Lovely scenery, gorgeous beaches, excellent museums and a special history are to be discovered only a short journey away from the UK's south coast. The roads are quiet, the parking is free everywhere (a refreshing change from the UK!) and the food excellent.

YOUR NEW EGG BUYING GUIDE

2010-06-27T20:56:00.013+01:00

In London you can pick up the Sunday newspapers from about 10pm on a Saturday evening. However with the internet now you can read those same Sunday newspaper articles from about the same time on a Saturday from the comfort of your house out in the sticks. That's what I did yesterday. I logged onto the Daily Mail website and thought it was April Fool's Day. The headline that greeted me was "EU To Ban Selling Eggs By The Dozen". Here's the link - unbelievable - so you can tell that I'm not making this up.

So the EU (or the Evil Empire as I prefer to call it) is now telling shopkeepers and I assume also direct farm sellers that their eggs must now all be weighed and then sold by weight not by numbers. Do you know how much an egg weighs? Well no one in the Troy family did either, in fact Mrs Troy has never mastered non-Imperial weights at all. So I got out my precious metal digital weighing scales, changed Troy ounces (well they have to be named after someone!) to grams and put a medium sized egg on the scales. Ladies and Gentlemen, a medium sized egg weighs 65.4gm.

So how good is your mental arithmetic. Suppose you want to buy six eggs - what would you now ask for? In true Monty Python style your conversation may go...

You : "Good morning, dear shopkeeper, I'd like 392.4gm of eggs please".

Shopkeeper : "Sorry Sir [or Madam], this is a cheese shop".

For those not too adept at mental arithmetic what you have just done above is attempt to buy six eggs from a specialist cheese shop.

You probably think I'm being silly. You wouldn't ask for such an odd amount of weight down to one decimal point now would you? Instead the conversation would probably go something like this...

You : "Is this an egg shop?" [good, you're not getting caught twice]

Shopkeeper : "Yes Sir [or Madam], we sell only the finest eggs. Didn't you notice our Royal Warrant?. We sell eggs to the Prince Of Wales".

You : "Excellent! If they are good enough for Charles and Camilla, they are good enough for me! I'd like half a kilo of eggs please".

Shopkeeper : "No problem Sir [or Madam]...(counts) one, two, three, four, five, six, seven (pauses then mutters under his breath - "err, four hundred and fifty seven point eight grams"), "You did say half a kilo?"

You : "Oh yes please!"

Shopkeeper : (egg cracking sound) "And this (picks up part of shell containing some yolk and some egg white) makes its exactly half a kilo. I'll put the seven whole ones in a bag but you'll need to carry the broken one home carefully".

You : "That's fine, I've still got nearly half an egg back at home from the last time I purchased eggs, so this will just make up the eight eggs I need for my baking".

The European Union has come up plenty of stupid schemes in its time but this surely is one of the most ludicrous. Early this morning we took Troy Junior along to his Sunday morning cricket practice and I asked several of the parents there if they'd seen the article about eggs having to be sold by weight not by number. All, without exception, thought I was pulling their leg.

The English are an apathetic bunch who have let Johnnie European get away with 'murder' since we joined the Common Market. Maybe, just maybe, something as small as an egg could be the catalyst that gets us to wake up to the sheer stupidity as well as the total democratic deficit that is the EU. Perhaps we are 'happy' to borrow money then ship £8billion a year of it across to Brussels to build roads and bridges in Ireland and Greece but maybe (please!) we will finally revolt against the EU over buying eggs by weight and regain our freedom?

UPDATE - Wednesday 30th June. According to the BBC this was a false alarm by The Mail On Sunday although I think there has been some behind the scene pressure as initially an amendment to save the "selling by quantity" had been rejected. See this link

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THEM SO FAR?

2010-06-19T16:55:00.004+01:00

Along with another 21 million people here in the UK, I turned on my TV to watch the match at 7.30pm yesterday evening.

Watching the images relayed from the stadium, it made me proud to see such fine, upstanding, clean cut, hard-working young Englishmen representing our country in South Africa.

But enough about the Princes William and Harry. What about the English football team - weren't they CRAP??

SHOW AND TELL

2010-06-03T20:40:00.018+01:00

When I was a child I lived within half a mile of the showground in Harrogate where they held the annual Great Yorkshire Show. This three day show was THE big event in the local calendar and one of the largest agricultural shows in the country. The traffic on those days was choatic but at least we could walk to the show. Probably the last show I went to was in the late 1960's.

Here in Suffolk, the county agricultural show is instead rather aptly named the Suffolk Show. This year we decided to buy tickets in advance and attend the show. I always hate buying tickets in advance given the unreliableness of the British climate but we took the gamble. In fact both yesterday and today we've had glorious weather - not a cloud in the sky - so our gamble has paid off.

We planned to get there mid-morning but the traffic queues were horrendous so took off down to Felixstowe for an hour, ate an early sandwich lunch watching the container ships at Felixstowe Dock and were then able to drive straight into the show without any congestion. Initially the place seemed heaving with people and as we passed countless trade stands, most of which Troy Junior wanted to look at, I was beginning to regret renewing my experience of agricultural shows. It wasn't as if I was in the market for a tractor or a combined harvester. The show site is vast but after an extensive walkabout we sat down near one of the show rings. Bowler hatted gentlemen in pinstriped suits were setting out a table of trophies.

A uniquely British scene!
The first event we witnessed was heavy horses pulling gleaming carts at speed through gaps only one foot wider than their wheelbase (the carts' not the horses' of course).
Here's one of the horses with its cart.

It was an impressive sight seeing these big beasts being steered on the gallop between such narrow gaps. If the obstacles were hit then the tennis balls balanced on them would fall off. It didn't happen very often, mostly they cleared with inches to spare.

The trophies shown in the first picture on this posting were for all the various class winning animals. There was a particularly impressive bull, being lead by a small young lady. Even the commentator in the ring marvelled at how she was able to control the animal. Mind you, if she hadn't, I suspect you would have already heard about it on the national news rather than seeing it first on my blog.

A part of that bull quite impressed Troy Junior. (Well I guess that's why he said "look at its balls" in a loud voice).
As well as Mr Bull, Mrs Cow and child, also won trophies. Mrs Troy was impressed with how clean they were.

Moving on to another show ring we were treated to some horse jumping. It was the first time that Mrs Troy had seen live show jumping and she was amazed at the height of the jumps. I stationed myself next to the last jump to get a photograph but most of the horses had faults (a technical term meaning they knocked off a rail) and retired before reaching the last jump. So I was lucky to get this photo before Troy Junior wanted to move on.

Finally to complete the photos from the day here are some horses and hounds pretending to be hunting a fox.

All in all, a very enjoyable day out. I left the show thinking that I mustn't leave it another 40+ years before visiting my next one.

A VERY LOCAL SHED COMPETITION

2010-05-24T17:05:00.023+01:00

Last year one of my Troy Stalwart's, "Debs", entered her shed in the Shed Of The Year 2009 competition and was a catagory winner! I'd forgotten all about the competition until on her blog today I saw a reference to the Shed Of The Year 2010 competition. These sheds, including Deb's very own shed, are rather splendid edifices - glories to behold. Now Troy is rather proud of his own shed although is realistic enough to realise that his shed would never win a prize. Not in a national competition, not in a County competition. In fact, I'd probably struggle to win in a village competition. So instead I thought I'd enter it into the "Best Self Erected Shed In Troy's Back Garden" competition.

When I blogged about our garden makeover, way back in 2008, I actually ignored my shed although it does feature in the very corner of one of the photos. That's a shame bacause as I said above, I'm rather proud of the Troy Family Shed. We built it ourselves (well I suppose strictly speaking that should be "erected" rather than "built"). We levelled the ground and then the shed's components were delivered:-

Then Mrs Troy and I set about erecting it. Here we are part way through. I'll just leave this photo on here for a few days as I don't generally include photos of ourselves on the blog. However I'll give regular readers a sight of the delightful Mrs Troy as well as myself until the end of the week. Notice the dexterity with which I'm handling the specialist equipment. It's a bit like Doctor Who's sonic screwdriver although the actual technical term for it is "hammer".
[SORRY PHOTO SINCE DELETED]

When it was finished it looked like this - just a pretty ordinary shed you are thinking. Well that's what I thought. It looked very wooden (not surprisingly!) and didn't particularly blend into its surroundings.

I contrasted the white render and exposed lower bricks of the garage and hatched a plan to help the shed blend into its location. Two pots of paint later (large pots and several coats to be exact) it was transformed to this...

See how the garage roof corners, the white render and exposed brickwork are mirrored in the colour scheme of the shed? Mrs Troy also got some film to go over the windows to obscure the contents of the shed. Click on the photo above for a better view of Mrs Troy's contribution.

So this is my entry into the "Best Self Erected Shed In Troy's Back Garden" competition. Entries are now closed. I'm confident of winning because I'm also the judge of the competition. It's also the only entry which should help it somewhat. However do feel free to leave any complimentary comments you wish as the judge is happy to be helped in reaching his verdict.

ENGLAND GETS THE BLUES (OR DOESN'T)

2010-05-08T17:42:00.027+01:00

I only did one blog posting about the election. And now, two days later, the election should all be in the past and the winning party should be getting on with governing the country. But it hasn't worked out like that, has it?

England voted for a fresh start. 82% of the nation, in 532 constituencies, via the ballot box sent the collective message "Bye bye Gordon". A government of England would have 297 Conservative MPs, 191 Labour MPs, 43 LibDem MPs and 1 Green. Enough to carry forward the Conservative manifesto and dig the country out the enormous hole it finds itself in (well, actually the enormous hole that Gordon Brown put us in). The bottom half of England - taking a line from the Severn to the Wash - voted even more overwhelmingly for the Conservatives (C 191, L 48, LD 30 I 1). So why can't we have what we want? Its simple, it can be summed up in one word. SCOTLAND.

Scotland, a nation which has its own parliament which has many devolved powers.

Scotland, a nation which has benefited from high levels of public spending due to the generosity of the English taxpayer.

Scotland, a nation whose banks were bailed out by English taxpayers.

So now we have Scottish socialist MPs (Labour and SNP) swarming down over the border, heading south to London to prevent the democratic will of the English, despite the Scots having their own parliament. Scottish MPs voting on many matters that affect the English only since so many policy areas have been devolved to the Scottish parliament. Scottish MPs voting on matters that don't affect their own constituents!

Wake up good people of England! This is a constitutional crisis.

We need to regain control of our democracy. If the Scottish people want a system of big government, central control, high taxation and high public spending then they should be allowed their choice as an independent nation. It might resemble Albania, Cuba or North Korea but it would be their choice. And the English likewise should be free to live under a system they have chosen. Where we find ourselves (both English and Scots) after this election is INTOLERABLE. So e-mail your local MP [I already have, but then he and I are on first name terms :-)] and tell him/her to put pressure on his/her party leader to break the Union and let both proud nations go their own way with the governments of their choice. David Cameron, in particular, needs to ditch his out of date attachment to the Union.

Here's a link to a great article about this in the Sunday Times.

Another interesting article in The Independent that concludes with the sentence "Although not many English yet realise it, their independence movement started last Thursday."

[And just to let you know how things went locally. The candidate I was helping got more than 50% of the votes cast in our constituency. I was invited to the count which declared at 2.40am. I stayed awake until 5am watching the other results on the TV. The neighbouring constituency, the town of Ipswich, turned blue and turfed out a Labour minister. In fact now, every square inch of Suffolk is Conservative!]

SEVERAL MARATHON WALKS

2010-04-30T09:39:00.020+01:00

I've never really considered doing a marathon. 26+ miles at one go seems impossible. Actually the idea of me running more than several hundred yards at one go seems inadvisable. Yet over the last few weeks I suspect I've actually walked several marathons. I've been helping our local Conservative candidate with canvassing and leaflet delivery. One very small cog in one very large wheel, but with time to spare I felt I had to do my bit. Like Spike Milligan's account of the war "Adolf Hitler, my part in his downfall" I'd hope a better title for this blog would be "Gordon Brown, my part in his downfall". However we'll have to wait another week to find out whether my efforts have all been worthwhile. I've had an enormous grin on my face these last couple of days however since Gordon's brilliant executed own goal in Rochdale.

Back to my marathons. I volunteered to deliver a couple of leaflets in our village and two neighbouring villages - about 1,500 houses. Mrs Troy and Troy Junior have helped out although Troy Junior seems to always get an urgent toilet break ("No.... I need a pooh!") when we are furthest away from home. It is amazing how quiet the villages are during the day with very few people at home, or out and about. One day, our candidate came to help out but the heavens opened and we got soaked. He came back to our home and we had a good chat whilst he dried out. Mrs Troy said afterwards that if our candidate could talk to everyone in their living room for 30 minutes then he would win by a landslide. He's such a nice guy! I suspect though that he'd have to start now to get round everywhere before the next election.

I've also helped out by assisting in the canvassing. I've marshalled up to five people as they've gone door to door whilst I've manned the clipboard recording their feedback of the voter's intention. We talk in code like "She's a C" which I've recorded as a positive result. I suspect Gordon Brown often says much the same thing about members of the public he meets, even when they are not Conservative.

It's not easy trying to control and record five canvassers. Their pace varies so much as some find no one home, so quickly deliver a "sorry we missed you card" before moving swiftly on. Others find themselves in conversation for several minutes. Meanwhile I'm scurrying along ahead to ensure canvassers don't knock on doors that have only moments earlier have been knocked by someone else. Then the waylaid canvasser catches up "they are Against at number 74" by which time I'm on a different canvas sheet on the next road. In villages where the houses have names rather than numbers it is actually much more tricky. The electoral rolls rarely seem to list the house names in the same order they appear on the road. I suspect I've done a good job though as they now always offer me the clipboard. I prefer this explanation to the alternative - that they don't want me to meet people!

Some people walking in the street actually seek us out with "can I have a poster for my window" or "good luck, you've got my vote". Always nicely spoken, nicely dressed people. Others, often passing in tatty old cars, put up their middle finger or yell out an obscenity. They don't seem to mind us paying our taxes to support them though.

I suspect most of the public and perhaps many of my readers are already getting election fatigue. Have you been watching the TV debates? Are you sick of seeing "how these polls would result in the number of seats in Parliament" graphics on every news programme?

That's why I've only done one blog posting on the election. I couldn't ignore it but one's enough.

I'll leave you though with a very sobering thought. The task facing the next Government is truly horrendous. The Conservatives always, at some stage, have to come in to pick up the pieces of failed Labour regimes. Some of the economic vandalism this time though is completely unreversable - the Nation's gold reserves sold off at rock-bottom prices, the destruction of the private sector pensions, our EU rebate thrown away. It will take at least a generation to repair the deficit and control the enormous debt burden. In reality, the position may possibly be already irretrivable - like Greece. The Governor of the Bank of England is reported as saying in the US that whoever comes in will have to make such difficult and unpleasant economic decisions that they will make themselves so unpopular that they'll be unelectable for a generation. That doesn't sound a great prize to win come next Thursday. There would be some irony if Gordon, perhaps with his new friend "I agree with Nick", had to stay and clear up his mess. But that wouldn't actually happen, it would be the IMF and our international creditors calling all the shots.

[I realise that some readers may wholeheartedly disagree with some of the sentiments expressed here. Let's not fall out but rather be thankful we live in a democracy where we can all freely express our views. Not just the sound ones expressed above but also others!!!!]

CHOICES, CHOICES, CHOICES

2010-04-15T14:45:00.027+01:00

I can't believe I've gone a whole month without blogging. Mind you, I can't believe how quickly the last four weeks have flown by. I've been very very busy, goodness knows how I ever previously found the time to earn a living! And I've been faced with so many choices, choices, choices.

I last reported about the new apartment I was buying in the centre of town. Having signed the paperwork on the 6th March, I exchanged contracts on 23rd March and completed on 30th March. The legal process was short but intense. In the meantime, two letting agents were actively seeking my business and getting the keys from the sales office to show potential tenants around. Both agents found me suitable tenants so I had to make a choice between agents. The agent with the lower upfront charges found me a divorced lady of a similar age to myself. This was someone who I felt would take care of my new apartment, so I went with that choice.

Having completed the legal process on 30th March and assessed what additional things were needed for this already "full-furnished" apartment - things like a cutlery tray for the kitchen drawer, towel rails for the bathrooms, loo roll holders, doormat etc. etc. - I had to hurriedly buy these (choices, choices, choices) and place them in the apartment. Then having liaised with the builder over the "snagging list", the tenant moved in two days later, on April 1st.

Whilst all this was in progress I also spent a lot of time in March coordinating the recruitment of a new Headteacher at Troy Junior's school. I haven't mentioned much in this blog about being a school governor as the details have to remain confidential. But having taken over as Chair in January, one of my first tasks was this recruitment. Meetings to decide the wording for the advert, draw up the information pack for applicants, review application forms to create a shortlist for interview, decide on the interview process - choice of questions and projects. Then a day and a half for the interview process itself. This all clashed with the apartment purchase requiring a lot of time juggling. I did however find the entire recruitment process (choices, choices, choices) to be a most rewarding and enjoyable experience and I believe we've now recruited an outstanding new HT.

Good Friday was my father's 80th birthday so early that morning we drove down to Bournemouth to be in good time to take him out for a special lunch. My sister and her husband together with my dad's best friend since his schooldays also joined us. Here's my dad, looking a tad silly, but also throughly enjoying his special birthday.

I mentioned before about wanting to buy a property to renovate then sell on (or rent out). No sooner had I bought the new apartment than our local property auctioneer posted their new auction catalogue which had several properties being sold by a housing association. Previously this association used a central London auction house and I was loathed to spend a whole day travelling up to London just to be outbid by others with deeper pockets. But now there were some great local properties being auctioned locally by a small family auction firm that we already knew. We viewed four properties shortly after Easter. At the guide prices they would all make great purchases (choices, choices, choices). Having got the apartment sorted - bought and tenanted - I was looking forward to this next challenge.

Then I got a call from the builder who sold me the apartment. The few remaining apartments in their final phase, the tower block, were being sold off at special low prices. In fact the prices quoted for this final phase were 20% less than I was quoted in March (remember I thought them then a little overpriced). In fact they are actually now going for less than half the price the builders had initially envisaged when the whole development started a few years ago. Troy has an eye for a bargain, so we went back to have another look. These prices seemed just too good to miss - but then I couldn't buy another apartment AND a property at auction. Choices, choices! After a lot of deliberation I decided to buy another new apartment! They won't be finished until the end of May at the earliest but here's a photo of the tower block as it is now:-

My apartment is half way up, so above the neighbouring roofline, with a westerly outlook. With so much glazing it is very light and airy. The balconies have still to go on and landscaping completed, and then they should look like this:

The letting agent went for a look then e-mailed me "I think it is fabulous and a great buy".

So, a hectic four weeks have flown by. No blogging done, but days full of choices, choices, choices. I've spent all my "ready cash" so will now need to carefully watch the pennies over the next few months. Its a shame I couldn't also buy one of the auction properties to renovate - I would really have enjoyed that challenge. I will hardly dare look to see what they sell for in the auction next Wednesday. But no doubt I will.

CHANGE OF PLAN - PROPERTY WISE

2010-03-14T16:07:00.023Z

I've spent the last couple of years reading auction catalogues for property sales and then viewing potential purchases. We've seen some truly awful properties being sold by housing associations. Well, not awful in themselves, but trashed by the previous tenants. Appallingly amateur interior paint jobs, children's grafitti on the walls, broken or missing kitchen doors, soiled carpets, filthy toilets and baths. All being sold with low guide prices but ultimately too depressing for me to buy. I've viewed repossessed terrace houses with small back yards full of countless dog turds. How do people live like that? We've also looked at some new build developments but so often the rooms are so small that it takes a lot of ingenuity by the designers to furnish the show apartments [US = model homes] to create any illusion of space.

I've viewed many of these whilst Mrs Troy was at work during the morning. Keeping myself busy trying to invest spare cash now the banks pay such trivial rates of interest. The ones with potential, I've gone back for a second viewing with Mrs Troy, and often with Troy Junior in tow. He's becoming quite a property expert, making quite savvy comments. However until very recently I haven't found my ideal purchase. That was a shame because I think a series of blog postings about renovating an old wreck or trashed house would have made interesting reading.

When we first moved to the Ipswich area a new building development had just been started centrally by the river. As well as several low-rise blocks, it also included an eleven storey high-rise block of apartments although for a very long time, through the credit crunch, it was just a concrete shell - looking more like a multi-storey car park than housing. Driving past, on the other side of the river, I often said to Mrs Troy that I'd love to see the view from the top. Then earlier this year they started to fit out the concrete shell and the builder put adverts for these flats in the local newspaper. We viewed them, including the duplex penthouses, wearing our hard hats. I was interested but thought them still a little overpriced so took it no further. Then I got a text message saying the prices had been lowered. So we returned to have another look. We were then told that the sale of an apartment in one of the "Sold Out" blocks had fallen through and that "Head Office want it sold this weekend". It was fully furnished (to show standard) and was a very generously proportioned apartment with two bedrooms, two bathrooms and two balconies overlooking the river. As soon as I went in, it felt really comfortable and spacious and somewhere I could happily live.

That's always been my problem with property - using my heart rather than head - thinking "could I live here myself?" rather than the hard-headed approach of a seasoned property developer. That's why we've certainly missed a number of opportunities in the past and I've pushed Mrs Troy's patience to the limit (although I'm sure she really enjoys having a nosey around anyway).

I made an offer to the builder as a "cash buyer". They grimaced and said that Head Office would have to approve it but they would push to get it through. They would want a very quick exchange and completion. Well I'm pleased to say the purchase is now going through with completion stretched out a little until the end of March. Already, two letting agencies have given it the thumbs up and are actively looking for suitable tenants.

Here are a few photos - I know you've been patiently waiting for them through all the verbiage above.

This is a view of the apartment block with the footbridge over the tidal river and with the other, previously mentioned, high-rise block to the right.

Here's the view from the balcony looking across the river. It is only a couple of minutes walk to the Ipswich Borough Council headquarters and to its left, the Suffolk County Council headquarters. To the right are the County Court and the white floodlights, centre of picture, are Ipswich Town Football Club. It's a level 6 minute walk (I timed it) to the railway station and trains to London in just over an hour. The main shopping area is within a ten minute walk, as is the marina.

But you really want to see inside don't you? (Its okay you're not nosey, just curious). Here's the spacious main bedroom which has an ensuite bathroom and full length glass patio doors onto a balcony.

It will need some personal touches to make it look less like a hotel room and more like a home.

Here's the kitchen. Everything was included in the sale price, not only fridge/freezer, washing machine and microwave but even down to a set of kitchen knives, kettle and toaster.

The living area and kitchen are open plan which isn't really to my taste. I would have preferred at least a partition and archway but apparently the younger generation like to be open-plan. Here's the living area with dining just to the right. There's a another full length wall to ceiling glass wall/patio doors onto a balcony. Everything, bar the child, was included in the purchase price.

If I was 25 to 30 years younger (and childless) I'd happily live there and commute into London. Hopefully I'll find a young couple who'll think the same and rent it off me. With everything brand new inside (and it has been fully carpeted by the builder since the photos were taken) I'll be envious of them!

Although the property market is still weak and will most likely dip again before recovering I'm glad to have moved some money from cash to property. I'm concerned that higher inflation is waiting round the corner. Even if not, I still hope I've got myself a bargain. A spacious new 2-bed, 2-bathroom apartment, centrally located overlooking a river in one of England's county towns for a price only just into six figures. There are not many places you can do that here in England are there?

LEAD BALLOON/2 WEEKS IN BASEL

2010-03-04T23:54:00.004Z

Well judging from the lack of comments, that last posting "2 weeks in Basel" (now deleted - but now reinstated, see comments for background) obviously went down like a lead balloon. It was a departure from my norm and obviously not to my readers' tastes.

Blogging is an experimental art - we live and learn.

I'll be back sometime over the next few days with another posting.

Troy

HERE'S THE ORIGINAL POST (BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!).

I thought I'd share with you an interesting exchange of real e-mails that went between various people who organise fund raising/social events locally. For confidentiality reasons I won't identify the organisation or the real names of the people involved.

A recent event was themed as a ladies "pamper" evening just prior to Valentines Day. The chief organiser, let's call her "Brenda" is pregnant and wasn't well in the week leading up to the event so her husband took over her organising duties. Another helper, let's call him "George" enjoyed working with Brenda's husband and teased her with how much better it had been working with him instead of Brenda.

The event proved to be very successful - both as a community event and financially.

A couple of weeks have since passed and now the organising committee (Brenda, George, Susan, William and Troy) have just exchanged the following e-mails:-

Brenda : "I will have to give my parting goodbyes at this point as I am going to be as lazy as possible from now until the baby comes"

George : "does this mean your husband will be stepping in"

Brenda : "Hmmmmm unfortunately not. You seem to have taken a keen liking to him!"

George : "He's nicer than you!"

Brenda : "So you've said before. I'm sure he'll be afraid, very afraid when I pass on your unswerving compliments....or maybe not?"

George : "Maybe you don't know your husband as well as you think?"

Susan : "Hi everybody, when did we say we would meet again? Can't find my notes at the moment. George, I can arrange for some support if you are thinking of coming out of the closet so to speak."

William : "By my calculations we have four Tuesdays to choose before Easter. I can make the 16th or 30th March..."

Troy : "I can't make the 30th but I'm okay with the 16th after 7.15pm"

George : "I cannot do either as I am in Basel for 2 weeks"

Troy : "Having read the string of previous e-mails, I hope you and Basel have a happy two weeks together. PS - I don't think you needed to have been so graphic about it though!"

EARLY DAYS OF TROY

2010-02-22T14:40:00.013Z

If you've arrived on this page hoping to learn about ancient Greek history then it is time to hit the backspace button. However, if you are regular readers of this blog then today I'm taking you on a trip back towards the middle of the twentieth century. Well mid 1960's to mid 1970's to be more precise.

Somewhile ago I scanned a number of my old Kodachrome slides into digital format. Then more recently I photographed a number of old photographs in my parent's album. I've just been looking at them again and I thought I'd use a few of them in a blog about the early days of Troy.

Here's me, with my sister when I'm about 10 and she's about 6. We are at Sewerby Park in Bridlington on the Yorkshire coast.

The next photo is taken towards the end of August 1966 when I'm eleven years old and about to start at the local Grammar School. I've always looked younger than my age and the short trousers in this picture don't help matters. Most of the boys in the first year at the Grammar School (now called Year 7) wore short trousers. It contrasts with Troy Junior, who has worn long trousers in winter and short trousers in summer to school since the age of seven or eight. Note too my school cap! It must be realised here that I'm proudly wearing the full uniform including the cap as the photo is taken just prior to me starting at the school. Later of course, I wouldn't be seen dead in a school cap although the prefects tried to enforce the uniform policy. Also, array of pens in blazer pocket (cringe!).

It's a photo of a photo and not very clear, but you get the general picture.

The next photo is taken about eight or nine years later. Away from the parental home I've grown my hair long in the style of Dave Davies from one of my favourite bands, The Kinks. Here, I'm running the shop in my university hall of residence. As we were fully catered with three meals a day, the shop just supplied the extras; chocolate bars, peanuts, biscuits, coffee, tea, sugar as well as things like washing powder. Looking at the photo, I'm also surprised to see cigarettes as I have absolutely no recollection from the time that we ever sold them.

Being elected "Shop Manager" by our Junior Common Room was, so far, my one and only election success in life. I won it by a landslide. My favourite memory of running this shop involved coffee speculation. In December there was an article in the newspaper regarding very poor coffee harvests. So at Christmas, instead of running down the stock and banking the money over the holiday, I instead used virtually all our funds to buy coffee from the cash-and-carry. In January we were short of most stock but the price of coffee had gone up about 80%. I was selling jars of coffee below supermarket prices but still making a substantial profit. When I was asked how we could undercut Sainsburys, my response was simply "bulk buying".

I have many happy memories of my time at the University of Nottingham. I'll leave you with a couple of photos taken on the campus, one in summer, one in winter.

NEWS UPDATE

2010-02-01T11:04:00.006Z

I can't believe it is February already! Where did January go? So much for my resolution to blog more frequently - nothing posted since 12th January!

I thought I'd better give you a News Update.

Firstly, my computer has packed up working. Well when I say it won't work, what it actually does is open to the initial Windows screen. Here I have four users - Troy, Mrs Troy, Troy Junior and Guest. The first two are password controlled. Whichever one is clicked on, Windows opens for about four seconds showing the background screen but no icons. Then it logs back off and reverts to the first Welcome screen. So none of us can get into Windows and get at any of our files on the C drive. Now fortunately I've got all our digital photos backed-up and also some of my excel files but there are a handful of important files that I can't access and for which I don't have any back-up copies. AAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH!

I also have a netbook and I've now got that connected to a proper keyboard and a large widescreen but that still doesn't get me to the files I need - tax return details, all my savings details (which are spread around several banks) and "interesting" things like my cars' petrol records etc. etc. It would take "forever" to recreate them. I was told that I could get into Windows "Safemode" by hitting the F8 key on boot up. I did that but even the various safemode options log me straight out of Windows when I try to open it. The data is safe on the hard drive but presently totally unaccessible. Any ideas anyone? £25 reward to the person who comes up with a satifactory fix.

Secondly, I owe you an update on the problem we were having with our car remote controls and all our neighbours' electric gates etc. We got a person from OFCOM to come out but the first time (Sod's law) everything was working okay. He came out a second time and then discovered that someone (not us!) had installed a faulty device to their TV to transmit signals around their home. This device was faulty and effectively sending out jamming signals to our remotes when it was being used. So the situation is now sorted.

Thirdly, almost a year ago I told you about how my MGF car had died from a totally broken engine. We finally got a quote for £1,864 to replace the engine with a new one (and put in a new clutch whilst the engine was out). We decided to go ahead but the new engine supplied was faulty and wouldn't rev past 1,500 rpm (ie. useless). The company fitting the engine had a long run in with the engine supplier and finally they got a further engine from a different supplier. The whole episode started at the end of last February and we didn't the car back until late May. That was still in time to enjoy the "barbeque summer of 2009" with it being a convertible. It's now done about 2,500 miles on its new engine and last week passed its annual MOT without any issues (thank goodness!).

Fourthly, I had to take over, with no notice, as Chairman of Troy Junior's school's board of governors. Just as the Head Teacher resigned! (No connection!!). I can't say anymore for confidentiality reasons, but already year-to-date I've spent nearly 30 hours just on this voluntary position! And the HT recruitment process will take up a lot more of my time over the next couple of months.

So, I've not had a lot of time for blogging, or indeed surfing the Internet in January.

SELF BUILD IMBY

2010-01-12T17:26:00.015Z

I've choosen a rather enigmatic title for this posting. It is not often you read about "Imbies" but I wanted to find a title that both fitted the posting whilst not attracting loads of Google hits.

Now don't get me wrong, I love getting new readers but I want interested readers who will stick around not people who just stumble onto this blog in error, show up on the analytics as 3 second stayers before retreating in search of what they were really looking for in the first place. For that reason I always try and find a posting title that won't attract people in error. If you look back over some of my earlier postings you'll see what I mean.

Anyway, today I'm posting about my Self Build IMBY (hence the title). For several years I've fancied the idea of self-building my own home. Finding a suitable plot of land in a lovely location and then building the house of my dreams. All the aspects of a perfect house whilst incorporating all the latest environmental features. I've imagined spending months living on site in a caravan whilst we worked (or supervised) the project to reality.

Turning the idea from concept to reality would also make an interesting blog. At least I hope so although I would hate to build up your expectations too highly at this stage.

Finding the plot is the hardest part of self-build. Securing it in a competitive situation is difficult. There is nothing more frustrating than losing the plot. Now where was I? Oh, right, I remember! Recently I read in the newspapers about how many new houses have been built in the gardens of existing houses. This gave me the inspiration for my plot. You may recall seeing the following picture on a blog posting I did about fourteen months ago about our garden makeover:-

I'm showing you this photo again (a) to show you the plot for my new house and (b) because I think it is important at this stage to establish my recycling credentials.

It's important to me to use materials that are local, natural and cause minimal pollution both during occupation and when the property ultimately end its useful life. Many aspiring self-builders could start with such noble purpose but ultimately compromise in its execution. I was determined not to fall into that trap.

I was also determined to go for a minimalist approach to the design and to incorporate an open-plan layout. I showed my initial plans to Mrs Troy and Troy Junior and both felt I had achieved these objectives. All three of us decided that we wanted to be thoroughly involved in the construction stage and even Troy Junior volunteered to help with the brick laying. I felt this would be a great education for him as he quickly grasps concepts such as load-bearing walls. Construction-wise, the biggest problem is the roof but even here I wanted my green credentials to be clearly on display.

You are probably now anticipating lots of blog postings over a period of several months but the simple truth is that when Troy gets a bee in his bonnet he just gets on and quickly completes the job. So the fact is this "Self Build In My Back Yard" is already finished. Here's a photo with Troy Junior already in occupation.

The building has a negligible carbon footprint. It is minimalist, open-plan and at home in its environment. The roof is plastic, due to load bearing issues, yet manages to be the most green feature of the house! For those of you that worry about recycling, the house has natural drainage and in fact my most recent photo of the house clearly shows this in action.

Oh well! Back to the drawing board. At least now I can't be accused of being a "Nimby".

SCHOOL'S OUT FOR TROY WEEK?

2010-01-05T11:50:00.007Z

Troy Junior goes back to school tomorrow (Wednesday). The teachers have been there since Monday but the first two days of term are "PD Days". PD stands for Professional Development and they are used for teacher training and updating purposes. I believe the concept started many years ago when these training days were called "Baker Days" after the government minister who first introduced them. I'm not sure when they changed the name to "PD Days".

I have had a potential brainwave - "Troy Weeks". I say potential as I'm interested to hear your feedback on my idea. I'm calling them "Troy Weeks" because I want the kudos should the concept turn into reality.

I've blogged here before about the enormous increase in the price of resort hotel rates, air-fares and package deals during the school holiday periods. A week at Easter or in the July/August period will cost more than double a similar week during the school terms. All the bargain offers tend to be during the school term. If you take your child out of school during term time to save a fortune on holiday costs then this is virtually guarenteed to be an "unauthorised absence" and in theory at least can lead to the parent being fined. As a Parent School Governor I have the added pressure of having to set an example and therefore have resisted the temptation to take Troy Junior on holiday during school term.

My new concept of the "Troy Week" solves this problem. During the school year there are five PD days. Normally they are taken over the course of the year, one day at a time (although this January two have been combined). The timing of the PD Days is set by the Local Education Authority so there is consistency within a region - all children being off school at the same time. A "Troy Week" would combine the five PD Days - taking them all together in one week. This would allow teachers to go off on residential training courses and have proper in-depth training and updating on new techniques and changes to the curriculum. There would be more time for in-depth target setting per pupil and more time to evaluate pupil progress and development needs in a calm and considered way. School policies and procedures could be thoroughly reviewed and revised.

There would be benefits for the school and the teachers by combining the five PD Days into a "Troy Week". Now lets look at the benefit to children and parents. If the various Local Education Authorities choose different dates for their "Troy Weeks" (eg. Suffolk in November, Yorkshire in May etc. etc.) then all the nation's families would not be going off on holiday at the same time. Suffolk parents could choose a week in the Canary Islands, Tunisia or Cyprus off-peak in November whilst Yorkshire parents would go off-peak in May. With thirty school weeks to choose from then less than 4% of the nation's parents would be holidaying at the same time. There would not be same peak demand and pricing during the "Troy Weeks" that there is during normal school holidays. There would be no excuse for parents to take their children out of school unofficially just to save money or to make a nice holiday actually affordable. Unofficial absences would be cut dramatically. It would also relieve some (a lot?) of the pressure for holidays during the school holiday period therefore reducing peak pricing on those weeks too.

To me the concept of a "Troy Week" has so many benefits but with minimal disadvantages. Do you agree? I'd love to hear your thoughts. In years to come when you hear a neighbour say "We're off to Tenerife for Troy Week" you'll remember me and being one of the first to read about the idea here first!

TROY'S CHRISTMAS HONOURS LIST 2009

2009-12-24T12:08:00.021Z

Regular readers that have been with me for over a year will recall that as the year draws to a close I announce who are my "Troy Stalwarts" for the year. I do this by reference to the number of times fellow bloggers have left comments on my postings.

I think one of the greatest things about blogging is that it creates the opportunity for a two way dialogue - allowing fellow bloggers to leave their thoughts and observations in the Comment section. It is always a thrill for me to open my blog and see that someone has left a new comment. I like to acknowledge my Troy Stalwarts who regularly comment on this blog. I'm sure several other readers regularly call by to catch up at things "Chez Troy" without leaving any virtual footprints on my blog and I apologise for not being able to recognise you as Troy Stalwarts - but you know how easy it is in future to remedy that - just leave me a comment, even a simple "Hello".

In a rather sad way (to paraphrase the thoughts of Mrs Troy when I first showed it to her [no sniggering]) I set up a spreadsheet to record who has left comments and thereby facilitate the awarding of Stalwart honours. Here's a photo of part of the said spreadsheet (click on it to enlarge):

Names are down the side and the 37 various postings during 2009 are across the top. When a comment is left then the relevant cell is filled in dark blue and the digit 1 inserted to generate a total per person and per posting.

This year I'm pleased to announce the creation of The Most Excellent Order of Troy Stalwarts. There are three membership catagories - Dame Commander (for indeed they are all female this year), Elite Officer and Cherished Member. I suggest the designatory letters CTS, OTS and MTS are used respectively for these awards.

So without more ado here is

TROY'S CHRISTMAS HONOURS LIST 2009.

The award of Dame Commander of the most excellent Order of Troy Stalwarts in 2009 go to:-

Debs
DJ Kirkby
Ladybird World Mother
(who each left 30 or more comments during 2009).

The award of Elite Officer of the most excellent Order of Troy Stalwarts in 2009 go to:-
Crystal Jigsaw
Lane
(who each left 25 comments during 2009).

The award of Cherished Member of the most excellent Order of Troy Stalwarts in 2009 go to:-
Catharine Withenay
Cheshire Wife
HelenMHunt
Kitty
Sarah
(who each left between 17 and 20 comments during 2009).

It looked for a time that both Kitty and Sarah had fallen by the wayside during 2009 but I was pleased to see them back here as the year drew to a close.

It was also my great pleasure during 2009 to actual meet in real life four of the ten Troy Stalwarts - at book launches, farmhouse lunches and speedboat riding.

In total 49 different people have left one or more comments on this blog during 2009 and (with the exception of one that May be deemed abusive) all were much appreciated.

To all my blog readers - to the those in the most excellent Order of Troy Stalwarts, to those who leave the occasional comment and to those who pass by leaving no virtual footprints - to you all on behalf of Mrs Troy, Troy Junior and your's truly, we wish a Merry Christmas 2009 and a Happy, Peaceful, Stress-free, Prosperous and Healthy 2010.

HARDLY A BLIZZARD

2009-12-18T11:10:00.016Z

The snowflakes were falling gently as we went to bed last night (which was good as I hate noisy snowflakes) and the forecast was for anything up to eight inches overnight (which for some reason put a gleam in Mrs Troy's eyes). However on waking this morning we had hardly had a blizzard overnight. Just a modest covering of snow; a couple of inches, at best (or worse). Mrs Troy set off to work in her trusty 4x4 and then I walked Troy Junior down to school. It was very quiet everywhere with few people about. There was not the usual throng of people by the school gate - were we late?

No, the school was closed! A couple of inches of snow and the public sector grinds to an abrupt halt. So yesterday, by default, was the last day of the school term and Troy Junior would today have a day of leisure to enjoy the modest snow fall. But first we walked into the village to get my newspaper.

No newspapers! (So not just the public sector!).

I got out my camera to record the scene as snow is such a rarity in East Anglia. This photo is taken close to where I live although it doesn't actually feature our house. All these houses are less than five years old but have been built to resemble older looking houses. I refer to it as "very late Georgian". I personally like that concept as you combine modern build quality with a splash of character.

Here are some other pictures taken within a stone's throw of our home featuring the local village recreation ground and the fields beyond.

REMOTE INTERFERENCE

2009-12-11T16:57:00.005Z

No, please keep on reading, this isn't a rant about Brussels interfering with our lives. Honestly, this is a much more intriguing local story.

We've had some issues relating to car remote controls. Mrs Troy's in particular has been playing up and she has taken to keeping a spare remote with her after changing the battery in the remote yet continuing to have problems. Last weekend she spoke with the neighbour on our left and he said that his remote wasn't working and he suspected someone was using a "remote blocker". When Mrs Troy relayed this news to me I just shrugged as I thought it was a quite far fetched notion.

Mrs Troy then noticed that another neighbour, across and down the road, who has remote controlled gates, was leaving their gates open which was most unusual. However with the cold weather and the dark evenings we didn't see them to query it. Last night Mrs Troy noticed that the next door neighbour to our right, who also has electric gates, had left their car out on the road overnight. At this stage you are probably imagining Mrs Troy to be like the neighbour in "Bewitched", always peering out from behind the curtains. That's a little unfair, she's just quite observant. It's more Neighbourhood Watch rather than Neighbourhood Witch.

This afternoon Mrs Troy saw that our neighbour was approaching her car, parked on the road, so she dashed out of the house (pink slippers a blur) and she asked her if she was having problems with her remote control. It seems they couldn’t get their gates to open despite having four remote control units. I was beginning to see a common theme developing here!

So Mrs Troy knocks on the door of the neighbour who lives immediately opposite us (this is someone I haven't mentioned so far). She told Mrs Troy that her husband had been having problems with his car's remote control but every time he had taken it to the BMW garage it had worked there.

Let's recap. Our car remotes play up. The neighbour to our left - his car remote doesn't work. The electric gates of the neighbour to our right won't open by remote. The neighbour directly opposite us has problems with his car remote but it works elsewhere. The neighbour further down the road also has problems with their remote controlled gates. Yes there is definitely a common theme working (or not working) here.

Mrs Troy phoned the local District Council and got put through to Environmental Health. They were puzzled and had never heard of a problem like this before. They couldn't help her. I've Googled "remote interference" and the only thing I can find is OFCOM but their website just refers to interference affecting TVs and radios. There’s nothing on their website about car and gate remote controls.

Its Friday teatime (5pm) and I doubt I'll get any answers from anywhere any time soon. That's unless via the power of the World Wide Web any of my readers can shed any light on this intrigue. Any clues anybody? HELP!!

GAMBLING ON A BID

2009-12-03T17:14:00.025Z

Firstly apologies for the virtually three week gap between posts. I've been very busy.

Readers who have been following this blog since last year may recall that one of the things I wrote about in November 2008 was investing in gold. Following months of research I discover in early 2008 a great place to invest in gold without paying silly premiums and high storage charges, whilst keeping it safe in a secure vault. I put a link on my posting and have subsequently put a link on my sidebar. £10,000 invested at the end of November 2008 could have bought 598gm of pure gold. Selling it now would have generated a profit, after all charges, of £3,930, or 39.3% in just over 12 months. A US investor, investing dollars, would have made an even higher percentage gain. By no means a risk-free bet but with the parlous state of most economies, gold looked one safe haven in the storm. Of course there is absolutely no guarantee the next 12 months will be the same. Many experts see gold peaking very shortly although the long term outlook for gold still looks good with the risk of inflation from all this funny-money printing by governments round the world.

I'm conscious of course in the present harsh economic climate that many people are being tempted to sell their old gold jewellry as they hear reports of record gold prices. There are several adverts on the TV and in newspapers with companies offering to buy old gold. I've heard some pretty disturbing stories about people sending off bracelets worth about £500 and only getting about £80 and failing to get their item back. A much less risky alternative is to sell to a local jewellers. One in my town has a board outside advertising to buy old 9 carat gold. Today it is quoting £5.42 a gram. I wonder how many are tempted in by the sign?

In my view that is not over-generous, being only 61.5% of the gold's market price. I've discovered on the internet a company based in Hatton Gardens, London that today is quoting £8.40 per gram.

The present price of pure gold is £23,500 per kilo. So 9 carat (37.5% pure) is £8.81 per gram. So the Hatton Garden outfit is paying 95.3% of spot gold price compared to 61.5% at the local jewellers. I've not tested the internet company but on a heavy bracelet the difference in price is quite significant (say £150+).

The reason for my research on this matter is that I found myself discussing the price of scrap gold with another jeweller yesterday. Last week I took a gamble and bought a diamond ring at an auction (as you do!). It was described as a 1.1ct brilliant cut diamond in a 18 carat white gold ring. Here's a picture.

A nice piece of "carbon". The estimate was £800-£1,200. High street jewellers, in store and online, seem to charge upwards of £2,500 for a 1 carat diamond ring. So I closed my eyes (figuratively) and bid at the auction getting it for £840. With buyer's premium and VAT it came out at £1,013. It was five ring sizes too big for Mrs Troy's finger so we took it in the next day to be resized and cleaned. For £35 the jeweller also offered a written insurance valuation. We returned yesterday to collect the ring and both held our breath whilst the jeweller opened the envelope with the written valuation in it.

This certifies the ring, describing it's 4 C's (carat, cut, clarity and colour), as well as it's valuation. I asked the jeweller what happened to the gold removed to reduce the size of the ring as even a gram is worth £17 for18ct gold. That's when we discussed scrap gold prices and he told me that there was no way I'd get anywhere near £17 for a gram of 18ct gold. We took home the sliver of gold as one day we might need it to resize the ring upwards.

Oh, I forgot to say what was on the written valuation...£4,500.00
That came as a relief - I hadn't bought a piece of cut glass! Now it is where it was always destined to be when it was being created millions of years ago deep in the earth's crust - on Mrs Troy's finger.

If you know of any young men thinking of getting engaged then perhaps you should advise them to buy their engagement rings at a reputable auction. For the same money, they should get three times the ring at auction compared to a high street jewellers. And with bigger rings come more kudos from both their fiancees and their future mother-in-laws!

SO, WHAT DO YOU DO ALL DAY?

2009-11-13T11:27:00.012Z

Before I get into the topic of this posting, I must firstly thank Ladybird World Mother for kindly giving me an award. Here it is-

It is a rather girly pink (and flowery) but based on the "it's the thought that counts" I am very chuffed to have received it.

I also feel somewhat embarassed as I am very conscious that I have been neglecting my blogging readers over these last few months. I've also noticed that many of the bloggers I've been following since starting this milarkey eighteen months ago have likewise either reduced or, in some cases, actually ceased blogging. In my case there hasn't been a great deal going on that I felt was suitable blogging material. Some things seem too personal and some things have to remain confidential (I'll explain more below). I read my daily newspaper and many of the things I read irritate me and give me a strong desire to blog about them but what bothers me doesn't seem to push the same buttons with many of my readers.

When people meet me for the first time and learn that I'm an "early retiree" one of the first things they ask me is "so, what do you do with all your spare time?". Some people actually ask me every day what I do with all this leisure time. These people are referred to on this blog as "Mrs Troy".

So I thought today I would try and answer this question. Having no work committments I no longer need to get up early for a long commute to work. What does stop me staying in bed in a decadent way is the need to walk Troy Junior to school. So I'm up and dressed by 8.30am, at least during school term time. I then walk down to the village to pick up my Daily Telegraph from the village store. Breakfast is now a hearty meal at about 9.15am (I could never eat heartily at the crack of dawn) whilst I peruse my newspaper. Usually the business section first but the sports section on Mondays. I'll then have a quick glance at the Letters page. I've had a few letters published in the Telegraph - about 40% of those I submit. I used to feel most aggrieved when a letter I sent in wasn't published. Recently I learnt that they receive 700 letters a day and publish about 20 - so anything better than 3% success rate is actually a good result and gave me a smug smile!

Time then to boot up my PC. (Truth is that I've already been on my netbook at 8am prior to getting out of bed to catch up on the news headlines and weather forecast. I used to listen to the radio but now prefer to go online and choose the topics myself). I look to see how my share portfolio and my gold bullion are doing. I might do some buying or selling and research for this can take up a good half hour or more of my time. Mrs Troy and I are also looking to invest some of the surplus funds we got from the sale of previous properties back into the property market so I keep a eye on Rightmove and also on several property auction sites. We've done quite a lot of viewing and made the odd offer but so far its come to nothing. Only last week we offered on a house that would have been a great renovation project and potentially would have given great blogging material. But the price it actually went for made no economic sense. I'll never make a fortune as I'm too cautious!

I'll stop for a coffee and have a trawl through the several blogs I follow then "bang, clatter" - it must be about 11.45am. The post has arrived - usually several envelopes for me and I'll spend some time dealing with them.

It's now "post meridian" and my thoughts turn to lunch. I didn't used to "cook" but now I'll do a couple of soft boiled eggs with bread "soldiers" or perhaps pate and toast. (Yes, I include toasting within my definition of "cooking"). I'll take this with a yoghurt and a drink through to the sitting room and I'll turn on the TV. 12.40pm and its half way through "Bargain Hunt". A very silly programme but if I catch it after half way through I enjoy watching the auctions of the things the contestants have bought. Usually they lose money - buying retail, selling wholesale ain't the cleverest strategy after all - but I find it interesting viewing. I keep meaning to apply to go on the programme with Mrs Troy's father - one day! Then I'll watch the One O'Clock News.

Mrs Troy gets home about 1.50pm from her part-time job. So I've just time to remember that I haven't yet washed up the breakfast items and now also have the lunchtime items to clean as well. Usually I just get the washing up done, wiped down all the work surfaces and have gone back to the PC in my study when Mrs Troy gets home. We catch up on her office politics and anything in her mail whilst she has her lunch. I'll show her anything I've found of interest on the internet (properties, blogs, news etc.) and she'll have a leaf through the newspaper's main section (which at this stage I've still to read!).

Time then to collect Troy Junior from school. Mrs Troy likes to do this but usually I'll also come along for the walk. When the weather is fine (Easter to early October) I'll play football outside with Troy Junior but in winter TJ will play with his toys and watch the TV whilst I finally get to read the main section of the newspaper. After dinner, if Troy Junior is watching a ninth repeat of Top Gear on Dave I'll read a book for a while.

That's a typical stay at home day. However, if the sun is shining (summer or winter) I'll jump in the car, head down to the beach with lunch, a rug and a book in a rucksack. I'll walk 2 to 3 miles then have lunch and a read then walk another 2 to 3 miles and get home just in time for the school run. I do love the coast on a sunny day. Other days I might potter round the shops and meet Mrs Troy for lunch.

On summer evenings the three of us may go out for long walks or get our bikes out. In winter its just the TV or the occasional live Ipswich football game. I've also got quite a few evening committments arising from my School Governor role. I'd love to be able to blog about some of the things I see and hear but it's all done in the strictest confidence.

It was a great regret not to have succeeded in the Council election back in June. That role, which also comes with a useful monetary allowance, would have greatly occupied my time whilst serving the local community. I've recently been approached to be co-opted onto the local Parish Council. Not quite the same thing (and not helped by the image set by the Vicar Of Dibley TV programme!) but I've said yes to them.

So, in a nutshell, that's what I do all day. I very rarely get bored although I much prefer the summer to the winter. In a perfect world I'd work, in an interesting role, from October to Easter but so far that concept has proved easier said than done.

DO YOU WANT A FREE BOOK?

2009-11-03T11:17:00.009Z

I got an e-mail this morning from the Tax Payers Alliance offering me a free book. This book (available free to the first 5,000 applicants) is written by an academic and envisages Britain in the future - 10 years after it has taken the courage to break free from the European Union. The book, by Dr Lee Rotherham is called "Ten Years On, Britain Without The European Union".

I can't give you a review of the book - so I don't know whether it is a brilliant read or badly written - but if I waited to do a review before blogging then my readers would lose the opportunity to apply for one of the first 5,000 free copies.

Use this website address:-

http://www.greateudebate.com/

to get an opportunity to be in the first 5,000 applications. You'll have to cut and paste it, for some reason it won't add as a link*. I applied at 11am today and got back the message that my free book was on its way.

Regular readers will know that I feel most strongly that the European Union is developing in a very undemocratic way and already it has a significant influence over virtually every aspect of our daily lives. I truly believe that in the years to come its democratic deficit together with the minimal influence that Britain has within the EU will lead to situations similar to those experienced with the IRA for Ireland or ETA for the Basques. Make no mistake, the EU is on a federalist path which aims to eliminate sovereign nation states and instead create a United States of Europe with an ethos and way of life quite alien to the traditional British way. Let's be friendly next-door neighbours with the rest of Europe and trade freely with them but lets not live in some giant commune totally under the thumb of "Big Brother".

If you decide to get the book do let me know what you think of it. I'll do a review here in due course.

* perhaps Big Brother is watching?

A TYPICAL THURSDAY EVENING?

2009-10-23T19:10:00.007+01:00

Apparently I belong to a group of two million people. People, who like me, sit down in front of the television and watch "Question Time" on the BBC on Thursday evening. Usually come 10.35pm and the start of QT, Mrs Troy decides to go to bed and I respond along the lines of "I'll just see who they've got on the panel and perhaps listen to the first couple of questions". Nine times out of ten though I end up watching the entire programme and find it generally very interesting though occasionally irritating [eg Shirley Williams].

However this Thursday was different. A further six million people tuned in to "Question Time" and even Mrs Troy delayed her beauty sleep. Only someone who had been out of the country for the past few weeks would have missed the phenomenal publicity the BBC had built up ahead of the first appearance on QT of Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP. Prior to his appearance the usual left-wing Rent-A-Mob had violently protested outside the BBC and Labour's Peter Hain, invoking a Mugabe interpretation of democracy, had tried to get Griffin's appearance banned. The show however went ahead and the BBC, rightly in my view, gave a place on the panel to the leader of a party which has two MEPs as well as growing band of local councillors.

At this point maybe you are wondering (and indeed worrying) whether Troy is a closet BNP supporter? The answer is a most definite NO!! Many of the BNP's policies, other than on "race" are ultra-left wing being extremely socialist in nature. The BNP support comes primarily from the white working class, let down by its instinctive home, the Labour party. I might flirt with UKIP but never BNP.

Thursday's QT was unlike any other QT I've ever watched. It was primarily a case of four panellists, a "chairman" and a largely hostile audience goading and baiting one panellist (NG) about BNP race policies. Attacked from all quarters, including an outrageous performance by the Chair, NG was interrupted and ridiculed throughout. The BBC had taken a calculated decision to reformat the programme away from its usual format of various topical issues being addressed equally to all panellists. The venue, Central London, ensured the BBC an audience representative of 'Inner-City' rather than being representative of the UK as a whole.

NG as an individual did not impress. However despite being in such a caustic, hostile environment he did land one or two solid verbal punches in the discussion. Jack Straw never seemed to recover from a revelation early in the programme that unlike NG's father who had fought in the RAF during WW2, Straw's father alledgedly spent the time in prison having refused to fight the Nazis. Later, Straw's outright refusal to concede that Labour's mass immigration policy had been a significant recruitment driver for the BNP won't have been lost on many viewers. Whilst Labour remain in denial the BNP will continue to flourish. For the Conservatives, Baroness Warzi performed extremely well other than for one major gaffe. At one point, she interupted NG telling him that there was no such thing as a "bogus" asylum seeker. In a clever legalistic way, perhaps she is correct, but I suspect the average BNP-targetted viewer would recognise an economic migrant claiming asylum for what they really are. (And if none are bogus then why are less than 100% deemed genuine and admitted?).

So, what were the final scores? No, the BBC didn't adjust the format of QT to the extent of having final scores - in many other ways they changed it, but not this! My own final scores (out of 10)would be:-

Straw (Labour) 2 [some commentators have since wondered whether he was ill]
Warzi (Conservative) 7 [would have been 9 without the above mentioned gaffe]
Huhne (LibDem) 5 [which is not bad for a LibDem]
Greer (playwright/novelist) 5 [generally a well measured performance]
Griffin (BNP) 4 [better than he could have hoped for given the bear-pit atmosphere]
Dimbleby (Chair) 1 [I think he will look back in shame on his performance as Chair]
BBC 2 [recognised the democratically case to include NG, but radically changing the format of QT showed total bias]

and publicity for the BNP - beyond price (and their wildest hopes).

(So, were you watching the same programme I watched?)

UPDATE ON THE COSTUME DRAMA

2009-10-06T11:13:00.010+01:00

Hadriana kindly asked for an update on my 14th September posting (thanks!) and I started writing a postscript to that posting. However as the PS grew I decided instead to cut and paste it into a new posting. So here it is:-

Firstly I visited a local theatre group in Ipswich who keep an extensive warehouse full of old costumes which they rent out. They only open for costume hire on a Monday but they are much cheaper than fancy dress shops. I've used them before for a Tudor costume to attend a recreation event on the recommendation of another parent. At the warehouse I told them that I was looking for a Dahl character costume for my son. "Which character do you want?" they asked. This completely threw me - I was (rather naively) expecting them to have a rail of Dahl character costumes. A hurried phone call to Mrs Troy at her office produced a very short list of Dahl characters after she had first berated me for not taking any Dahl books along with me to the warehouse (!!!). "We do have a fox costume" and the lady went away and returned with a realistic fox costume (well not totally realistic - there were no tyre marks on it or guts protuding from the body). The big problem however was that it was a one-piece jumpsuit fastening at the neck, which didn't seem ideal for an eight year old to wear all day at school (toilet complications you understand - Troy is a very thoughtful father!). Frankly they didn't have much more to offer in a Dahl theme - thousands of costumes but not much that was "Dahly").

Meanwhile back in Mrs Troy's office a co-worker told her that she could lend her various accessories that would make up a cowboy costume. This would create what I believe is "TV Mikey", a child character who dresses constantly in a cowboy outfit and one who held one of the winning golden tickets in the Chocolate Factory story. Thank God! It was far from being the most imaginative, or even a central character, but it would suffice.

So Troy Junior went to school dressed as a cowboy. Another parent met him in the playground with "Hello TV Mikey!". I was relieved (not having read the books). Many of the costumes worn by the children were amazing - head to toe creations plus significant make-up applied. But our cowboy outfit sufficed. Troy Junior was happy with his holster containing two guns and I think he was quietly relieved not to be wearing one of the large padded costumes or anything that was plainly unsuitable for a whole day in the classroom. We'd also said we'd treat him with the money saved from not having to hire a costume from an expensive hire shop. (Blackmail often gets a child onside!).

Of course he didn't win the class prize but he wasn't in the least bothered about that. He told us that one boy in his class had come in his school uniform and he obviously felt quite sorry for him. Some parents just won't make an effort, will they - I feel like phoning social services!

The final bonus was that Mrs Troy's co-worker said that TJ could keep the cowboy outfit, complete with toy guns, because her son had outgrown it. TJ was very happy with that outcome.

[Finally, many thanks for all your comments on the initial posting. They were both helpful and supportive. It was obvious from the playground that some mothers relish making elaborate costumes and then take much pride in arriving at school with their children to show them off. I, on the other hand, am very proud that my Troy Blog readers don't fall into that catagory.]

STANDING ON THE SIDELINES

2009-09-28T16:35:00.005+01:00

Troy Junior has always enjoyed playing football. One advantage of being retired is that after school TJ and I can go over to our local recreation ground ("The Rec") and have a fun kick-around with a football. Troy Junior has also played football in a school club (after school) as well as attending some junior sessions at Ipswich Town Football Club during the school holidays. He seems quite a natural, unlike his father who was always the last one to be picked to play at school.

A lot of his friends in our village played in the local village football team. Being a large village there are teams for each age group. They play in both friendlies and a competitive league as well as having training sessions one evening a week. TJ was keen to play for the village team but Mrs Troy did not like the idea of losing her Saturday mornings most weekends. Also the idea of trailing to away games and spending an hour on the touchline in cold and wet weather was not her idea of weekend fun.

One evening early this Summer Troy Junior and I set off after our evening meal to have a kick-around on The Rec. When we arrived there the children in the village team were having a training session and then a practice game. TJ wanted to watch them. He sat on his own football, chin in hands, watching the other children play. He looked a very sad sight sitting there just watching the others. I asked him if he wished he could join in - his eyes lit up. On returning home I explained to Mrs Troy how sad TJ had looked watching on but not being involved. It didn't take long to decide that we would let him join the village team. We got all the registration forms, paid the dues and subsequently turned up for the first training session of the new season.

The other players are all his friends from school, all are the same age and most are in his school class. He was welcomed with open arms. The coach said TJ was a natural player and would go straight into the A team. They play seven-a-side and there is an A and B team with about eighteen players making up the squad. During the training games Troy Junior played as a central striker.

The first competitive league game of the season was on the home ground on a warm and sunny Saturday morning. A complete contrast to the cold and miserable weather we had always envisaged for these "winter season" games. TJ had a couple of early touches and passes of the ball but these didn't amount to much. Then a cross came over from the left, TJ caught it cleanly on the volley - Back Of The Net. One-nil! The score by half-time (there are 20 minutes each half) remained the same. In the second half TJ scored again. Two-nil. The other team then got a goal back and we had a nerve-racking, clock watching, few minutes before the whistle blew for full time. TJ was name "Player of the Match" and was chosen to captain the team for the next game.

The second game, also played in warm sunshine again finished two-one to TJ's village team. By now both Mrs Troy and I were thoroughly enjoying our football. Last Saturday morning (26th), saw us arrive bright and early for the third game of the season. Yet again in warm and sunny conditions. Some parents make cake and buns and there is also a large urn for teas or coffees. There is a great atmosphere among the parents. They can however get quite vocal during the games! We've taken folding chairs to sit on but I'm too nervous to sit down - I like to stand and cheer. Troy Junior scored again "a natural poacher's finish" with the outside of his right boot and yet again the match finished with a two-one win. Three games, three wins (all 2-1), nine points out of nine and TJ as the leading goal scorer!

We have the cold, wet or freezing weather still to come but I for one can't wait for the next game.

If only it was this good down at Portman Road watching Ipswich Town! They, in contrast, have had a truly awful start to their season.

A COSTUME DRAMA

2009-09-14T16:51:00.009+01:00

Mrs Troy and I are both not happy. Troy Junior's school have a 'policy' of having dress up days where they ask all the children in a particular year group to go to school dressed in a character costume. For Troy Junior's year group, last year it was as a superhero, this year it is as a character from a Roald Dahl book.

The problem is that neither Mrs Troy nor I have any skills at costume making. We are not being modest, our skill levels really are negligible. I'm the one who walks to school with Troy Junior and last year I told Mrs Troy point blank that I would not take him dressed in his school uniform when (virtually) all the other children would be in costume. We did finally send him to school wearing a Spiderman T-shirt but I must confess that my heart went out to him as the other children turned up in costumes that would have made Superman's girlfriend or Batman's butler do a double take before realising it was actually just a child dressed up rather than being the real superhero.

Some of the costumes were homemade but with obviously a great variety of materials purchased and then painstakingly made up. Other parents had obviously hired costumes from fancy dress shops. A couple of parents told me that they had paid £18-£20 to hire a costume for their child. They resented the fact that they had felt obliged to fork out this money but they didn't want their child to be the odd one out with no costume on the day.

So I'm wondering if Troy Junior's Primary School is the exception or the rule when it comes to these dress up days? If you have, or have had, children of school age have you experienced these school dress up days? Have you hired, at considerable expense, a costume for your child or have you taken the time to make a really good outfit from scratch? Do you approve of these school dress up days where parents have the pressure of hiring/making costumes for their children?

We are in a quandary. We really don't want our young child to suffer the trauma of being the only one in his year group not to have a Roald Dahl character costume on the day. However we feel it is wrong that parents are pressured into hiring expensive fancy dress costumes if they don't have the dress-making skills to improvise from scratch.

I'm really keen to hear other people's thoughts on this matter. (And, if you have any ideas how to meet the "dress as a character from a Roald Dahl book" easily and simply please, PLEASE, let us know!).

A TORNADO PASSES THROUGH ESSEX

2009-09-04T17:25:00.006+01:00

The heading may sound like a disaster but in fact this is a heartwarming story. The tornado in question is actually a steam locomotive pulling a very special train called "The Winton Train". The journey commemorated a series of eight train journeys that occurred seventy years ago at the outbreak of World War Two. Those trains carried hundreds of mainly Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to new foster homes in Britain. They were organised by a 29 year old clerk called Nicholas Winton. The last leg of the four day route was from the port of Harwich in Essex to London's Liverpool Street Station. Today, a now 100 year old Sir Nicholas Winton was at the station in London to greet 22 of the original travellers who, along with their families ,had reinacted their earlier historic journey.

Although it is heartwarming to think that these children escaped to safety and went on to new lives in Britain it is also a sad tale as most, in not all, of these children waved farewell to their parents from the train as it departed and never saw them again. If you click on this link - here - you can read more about the 1939 journeys and today's 70th anniversary event.

I first became aware of this story when I heard that the steam locomotive "Tornado" was hauling a train from Harwich to London. This steam locomotive itself is actually a very interesting, unique engine. Rather than being a preserved and restored old engine it is actually brand new - the first steam locomotive to be built in Britain for nearly fifty years. There were 49 similar locomotives built in 1948/49 but the last one was scrapped in 1966 when the network went diesel and electric. Unlike many classes of engine not one saved - all went for scrap. Someone in 1990 had the ambitious idea to built an entirely new one from the original plans. Money was raised and over a eighteen year project the new loco 60163 "Tornado" was built. You can read about the project here.

This morning after dropping Troy Junior at school I drove to Marks Tey station in Essex. There, at 09.45, along with many other onlookers, I saw "The Winton Train" pulled by "Tornado" come through the station at speed. Here are two photos:-

It was a fantastic, albeit very brief, sight as the train hurtled passed, commemorating a very heartwarming story.

GOING TO PIECES IN SOUTHWOLD

2009-08-20T14:14:00.012+01:00

We've had some enjoyable days out over the summer holidays. One of nicest local places to visit is Southwold, which is about 30 miles from our home. Unfortunately the East Anglian roads north of Ipswich leave a lot to be desired in terms of speed from A to B and that 30 mile trip takes a good [or should that be "bad"] hour. However it is worth the tedious drive behind drivers who we assume have never dared ventured beyond 3rd gear.

Southwold is a delightful and genteel resort on the Suffolk coast. Nothing is brash or garish, just a beautiful restored pier selling tasteful sounvenirs, gaily painted beachhuts lining a promenade behind a sandy beach and a photogenic white lighthouse.
Here are two photos taken from the pier [click on them to enlarge] - the first photo is looking south towards the town:

the second photo is looking north over beach huts and the beach:

Here is a view from the southern part of the beach looking back towards the pier:

In one of the estate agent's windows we saw a beach hut advertised for sale by sealed bids with a guide price of £50,000. Further down the coast at Walton and Clacton they can't shift them at £5,000! Mind you, £50k for a wooden hut with no running water ain't cheap is it?

Southwold is a delightful place for a day out or even a weekend away. Unfortunately it is well off the beaten track unless you happen to live in East Anglia so for those of you who don't, I hope you enjoy the photos.

By this stage though you are probably wondering why the header to this post refers to "going to pieces"? Well, as we wandered through the town passed the lighthouse I saw a sign on a church hall "The world's largest commercial jigsaw puzzle - 24,000 pieces". Intrigued we went inside to have a look. Earlier this year they assembled this enormous jigsaw puzzle measuring about 14ft by 5ft. Apparently they did it in a record time and will be officially in the Guinness Book of Records. The jigsaw puzzle was only on view for two days so we were fortunate to call by at the right time. Here is a photo of the jigsaw puzzle:

The photo doesn't do justice to the detail and vivid colours. As it is a commercial jigsaw puzzle you could buy one yourself to make up - if you had both the space, a large enough table and a phenomenal amount of patience. Here's a link if you fancy buying it (for US$280) and that link has a much better photo of the jigsaw puzzle on it.

IN PRAISE OF HP

2009-08-07T17:25:00.004+01:00

It has been quite a few years now since I first took the plunge. It was in Stansted Airport. I was wandering around WH Smith bookshop looking for something new to read (which is just as well as they don't sell used books!). You can tell how long ago it was by the fact that the book I had in mind wasn't at that stage in the adult book section but was instead just in the kiddies section. And it had a very childish looking cover. However I was intrigued so I picked it up and took it to the pay counter. I must have looked a trifle uncomfortable buying a children's book. The person serving me looked at me and said "you'll enjoy that, its a great read". So, before all the hysteria and hype, I read my first Harry Potter book. And I was hooked!

So why am I writing this now? Well I've just spent a thoroughly enjoyable few days rereading the Harry Potter 6 and 7 novels. I've enjoyed them more the second time of reading than the first - and I really enjoyed them the first time round. I was prompted to reread them after reading film reviews of the latest Harry Potter film. Despite being a great fan of the books I've only seen one of the films (the first one) and I was disappointed with it. The magical fantasies and wizardry images that seem so real and believable inside one's mind whilst reading the books instead seem rather ridiculous on the big screen. Is it just me? I can imagine someone flying on a broomstick or doing magic with a wand quite sensibly in my head but on the screen it just looks well...rather ridiculous.

But back to the books. I cannot praise too highly the cleverness and complexity of the plot and how everything fits so neatly together over 3,000 pages and 7 novels. I just sit back in total wonder and amazement at how JK Rowling can have ever been so inspired as to create this story. The characters, the imagery, the humour, the drama, the whole magical world that is Harry Potter.

You may be wondering why I just reread HP 6 and 7 rather than start again at the beginning. Well having read the film reviews I was tempted to go along and see the new film of the 6th novel so I thought that before going along I would reread the book of that film. Having got quickly through book 6 I just had to go on and reread book 7. Previously, on first reading them I had had to wait a full year between those two books. Perhaps reading them back-to-back is the reason for my even greater enjoyment the second time round?

Having read them again and finally this morning putting down HP7 on completion, I realised that there was no way that I could spoil the fantastic imagery I had in my head by going to see the film.

If you are Harry Potter fans I'd really like your take on how you think the books and films compare. I'm interested to know if my regular readers are fans or whether the whole thing leaves any of you cold. And finally, if despite the hype and hysteria over the years, you've never read the books then I do thoroughly recommend them to you. There is a world of difference from the earlier books to the later ones but together they make up a story that is truly in a class of its own.

A BREEZY WEEK IN "SUNNY HUNNY"

2009-07-29T17:30:00.013+01:00

Four weeks since I last did a blog posting - disgraceful! What's my excuse? Well I've been busy but given that I don't actually do any work I guess it's not the strongest of excuses. Last week though the Troy family was on holiday in the neighbouring county of Norfolk. We rented a lovely small home in Hunstanton, or "Sunny Hunny" as its known to its devotees. Its the only resort on the east coast where you can watch the sun set over the sea according to its publicity blurb. We were very pleased with our seaside retreat which is pictured here -

Unfortunately it was only the part of the house this side of the hedge but it is bigger than it looks with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms as well as a large living room and more than adequate kitchen. Its set in a nice private garden close to the cliffs and within walking distance of both Hunstanton town centre and the sandy beach and dunes of Old Hunstanton.

During our stay in Norfolk we did however visit a somewhat larger house . Sandringham, the "Queen's Country Retreat in Norfolk" is only a short drive from Hunstanton and the house is set in lovely grounds. It is used by the Royal Family solely for holiday breaks rather than any official business and so the rooms open to public view have a nice family feel to them (in a Royal sort of way!). There is also a great museum as well as the beautiful grounds to admire. The last time we visited there, in 2000, the house was closed to the public but it was a Sunday and we actually saw the Queen and the Queen Mum coming out of the local church. Obviously there is no Queen Mum there now but Charles and Camilla are staying at Sandringham this week. Here's a photo of the house and grounds -

If look closely you can see that it is somewhat larger than the house we rented.

There are some excellent beaches on the north Norfolk coast. When the tide is out you can barely see the sea. When the tide is coming back in it advances at quite a pace and it is easy to get trapped on a sandbank island. On one beach, Brancaster, where we spent the day, there was ship wreck visible in the distance. This photo, taken by telephoto lens, brings it in a little closer.

I wanted to take a close-up look but there was a water channel in the way. Afterwards (back home) I googled "Brancaster Beach Wreck" and discovered that the wreck is the SS Vina and it was used for bombing practice during WW2 (although I could see little resemblance to Dresden). The water channel near it is quite treacherous and many people have got into difficulties trying to cross it to get to the wreck. Feeling very sensible, but frustrated, I didn't attempt it on the rising tide.

One evening we went to Thornham Quay. It was high tide and the road had a caution sign noting "Tidal Flooding". This was indeed correct - the calm water in the foreground of this photo is in fact the road down to the quay.

The quay is where the two yachts are moored. Finding the quay end at high tide involves stepping from one foot deep water to twenty foot deep water in one step (not recommended).

We had a very quiet but most enjoyable week and we can thoroughly recommend the Norfolk coast for a lazy peaceful holiday.

Hopefully you won't have to wait another month for my next blog posting.

FAVOURITES

2009-07-01T18:40:00.003+01:00

"Favourites", or rather because the software is American, "favorites" are a very useful feature of Windows Internet Explorer. Having a few minutes to spare before my evening meal, I decided to count how many websites I have in my own "favorites".

And the answer, which totally took me by surprise, is......

568.

Five hundred and sixty eight! Wow! That's a lot of favorites.

Now because I'm a qualified accountant, you shouldn't be surprised to learn that I do in fact have my favorites neatly filed into 23 named folders. And indeed, some folders have folders within folders (ie. sub-catagories) so there are in fact more than 23 folders altogether. I'm not going to count them all though, as that would be rather nerdy.

I'm now wondering if I'm alone in having so many website favorites all neatly filed in folders? Do let me know.

LADIES HAVING FUN ON THE BEACH

2009-06-15T17:11:00.009+01:00

The title of this blog may encourage some unwanted hits from Google but as you read on you'll see that it very much sums up today's experience.

My father and I are having a few days up in Northumberland, staying with old friend of mine. He told us that today we should witness something unusual and interesting on Bamburgh beach. So we got down their late morning to see a hive of activity. Most of my photos of Bamburgh beach comprise the castle, the dunes and beach together with a wind swept couple and their dog. But today the beach was quite crowded...

On closer inspection the hive of activity was a crowd of ladies from the Women's Institute (WI) making sand sculptures. In all there were 13 groups from various parts of Northumberland. The local Bamburgh ladies can be seen here...

Their industrious approach with spades and buckets of water put the nation's children to shame. Working labouriously on their hands and knees, spades furiously digging, hands gently caressing the sand, buckets of water making just the correct texture of sand. Then out of mounds of sand there slowly arose elephants, turtles, lions, seals, hares and rabbits. Oh, and of course an armadillo. Following a brief soujourn to the pavilion for fish and chips (the WI not us) it was time for the judging. The winning entry was this excellent elephant.

Another sculpture was this rather dashing hare.

Then after tea and cakes the WI ladies assembled for a group photo on the cricket pitch and a local celebrity (aka my old friend) drew the winning raffle ticket.

MY BLOG'S FIRST BIRTHDAY

2009-05-26T12:55:00.013+01:00

Tomorrow - Wednesday 27th May 2009 - marks the first anniversary of my blog. One year and 57 posts after my first tentative posting. It does feel to be more than a year ago that I first set up this blog and said "Hello" to the world.

I've just spent a few minutes looking back over the postings made in these last twelve months. It was a quite nostalgic and enjoyable experience. I've resolved that I must print out all my postings and keep them as a family record. This last year was supposed to be one of quiet retirement - stress free relaxation. I think on the whole I've achieved that whilst at the same time having some varied and interesting experiences.

I changed my name. I first registered on Google as "East Anglian Tory" to enable me to comment on my friend's blog about his own attempts to become a Conservative Councillor in Northumberland. (My friend stopped blogging there after the election but still blogs here). I then set about exploring the blogsphere leaving comments as I went and then someone incorrectly referred to me as "East Anglian Troy". I actually liked that name so when I started blogging on my own account I became East Anglian Troy with Mrs Troy and Troy Junior making up the remainder of the family. However several people then started calling me "EAT" which I felt just wasn't me, so I decided, like Madonna and Cher, to be simplify matters and became just "Troy".

I've really enjoyed blogging although recently I have lost momentum (and I some readers) due to the time committment needed to run my own County Council election campaign. However a number of blog friends have stuck by me through thick and thin. At the end of 2008 I announced my first listing of eight "Troy's Stalwarts" and now its time to update it. Three of those Stalwarts have dropped away - Trixie, who sadly has left the world of blogging; Hadriana, due to other time committments (although she and Trixie will remain "Honourary Stalwarts"); and Carol, who stopped following this blog after I met her at DJ's book launch. I like to think it was some perceived anti-Scottish sentiment I expressed here rather than her meeting me that turned her away!

Anyway, without more ado - the first birthday Stalwart listing....(cue drum roll)...

From the initial roll call of Stalwarts we still have:-
Debs, Crystal Jigsaw, DJ Kirkby, Ladybird World Mum and Brit Gal Sarah.

and introducing four new Stalwarts:-
Kitty, Lane, Helen M Hunt, and The Dotterel.

So now we have a total of nine "Troy First Anniversary Stalwarts" as well as the two Honourary Stalwarts mentioned above. A great big THANK YOU to you all for your support and encouragement.

You may be wondering how I determine Stalwart status? Well all these Stalwarts have on a regular basis left comments on my blog and, after all, that is the only record I can have of your visits. There are three others who have left several comments - Catharine, Cheshire Wife and Granny. I hope you'll continue to converse with me over the remainder of 2009 - it would be nice to end 2009 with a dozen Stalwarts.

So one year and counting. A year of garden makeovers, several memes to help you get to know me better, some rants and ravings about Government incompetence and borrowings, Hong Kong and other trips, book and entertainment reviews plus day-to-day observations and musings. It was great meeting several of you in person during the year and I'm look forward to meeting at least one more stalwart very soon.

Once this election is out of the way after June 4th I hope to get back to blogging on an at least weekly basis, hopefully even more regularly. In the meantime, here's a new badge for my first anniversary stalwarts.

Finally I'd like to also express my appreciation to my 20 Followers - I know some of you are reticient when it comes to commenting but its nice to know you are there in the background. The more the merrier!

SOME RANDOM MUSINGS (HOPEFULLY AMUSINGS?)

2009-05-07T11:43:00.009+01:00

Let me first apologise to my decreasing band of regular readers for my lack of regular postings to this blog in recent weeks. It seems however from visiting other blogs that, with a few notable exceptions, I'm not the only one neglecting blogging duties. I wonder why that is? Perhaps the warmer days and brighter evenings are taking us away from our keyboards?

One of my valid excuses for neglecting this blog is my election campaign is now getting into its stride so I've been doing some blog postings there and will be ramping up those postings even more as the campaign comes to a climax over the next 28 days. Also interesting developments at my local football club, Ipswich Town, as the football season has drawn to a close has generated postings on my football blog.

So what's been happening Chez Troy other than matters mentioned above. The short answer is not a lot. However reading my daily newspaper has brought to light some matters that caught my attention and caused some amusement....

The first is the hoo-haa regarding Marks & Spencer choosing to charge more for their bras sized DD and bigger. Apparently they charge £2 more for the larger sizes and this has caused complaints and the establishment of a pressure group on Facebook (shouldn't that be Titter?). It got me to wondering if these same people go into a curtain shop and expect to pay the same price for their curtains irrespective of the size of their windows?
Curtain Shop Customer : "I'd like to buy a pair of curtains for my living room."
Curtain Shop Assistant : "Of course Madam, this range here goes from £50 to £140 and is very popular."
Curtain Shop Customer : "Surely the price is the same for all size of curtain?"
Curtain Shop Assistant : "Oh no Madam, the larger curtains contain more material and involve more stitching."
Curtain Shop Customer : "I can't believe you charge more to people with larger windows, that seems so unfair. Next thing, they'll be charging more for larger bras!"

Another article that caught my eye was headed "Adult TV shows lead children to have sex earlier". I think adults too can learn from this. If like Mrs Troy and I, you stay up until 11pm to watch "Desperate Housewives" and then need to get up early the follow morning, all you want to do after turning off the TV is to get a good night's rest. So much better to follow the children's lead and have sex earlier in the evening!

The Scottish sporran is under threat from the European Union. Apparently they are made from sealskin and the EU is banning the sale of seal products. Synthetic materials cannot produce the same results according to the kilt industry. It will be a shame if Scottish men have to make a fool of themselves by wearing synthetic sporrans.

Finally, I read that Hertfordshire County Council is spending £5,000 a year teaching children how to catch a bus. Why the controversy you ask - I mean surely you can't expect parents to teach children how to catch a bus?

UPDATE - FRIDAY 8th MAY

Following this posting yesterday and the several comments made by my readers it now appears (for surely it can be no co-incidence?) that M&S have now changed their policy regarding charging higher prices for larger bras.

When I opened my newspaper this morning, the following advert for some reason - I can't think why - immediately caught my eye:-

Not only are M&S eliminating their £2 premium for larger bras but for the next two weeks, commencing this Saturday, are reducing all their bras by 25% (that's price not size). As a shareholder of Marks & Spencer I would encourage you all to go grab a bargain and "fill your boots (sic) up" whilst the prices are reduced.

A MOST ENJOYABLE POST EASTER JAUNT

2009-04-21T21:41:00.008+01:00

Today's posting will be a collection of photographs taken during the week after Easter when we had a delightful few days on the South Coast of England. Having stayed a few times in Travelodges I get regular e-mails from them telling me about their special £9 or £19 room sales. A sucker for a bargain, back in February I put together a few nights of cheap Travelodge rooms for the week after Easter. I tried various intineries including Bristol and the West Country but each time a rather inconvenient £50+ room kept breaking into the cheap set. Now a Travelodge room at £19 is good value (you get what you pay for) but £50+, well I ask you! So finally I got two nights in Portsmouth (where I'd stayed for DJ and Chopper's joint book launch) and two nights in Eastbourne.

Now the weather forecast at Easter for the following week showed as "sunny intervals", "light rain", "heavy rain" and "heavy rain" for the four days we would be away. I was half tempted to cancel - I mean Eastbourne for two days of heavy rain! However the actual weather was "quite warm and sunny", "warm and sunny", "warm and sunny" and "quite warm and sunny". And by "sunny" I mean clear blue skies. So much for the BBC 5 Day Weather Forecast. I wonder how many people actually did cancel their plans based on the erroneous forecast?

On our first day in Portsmouth we met up with DJ, her N3S, Leigh, Leigh's husband and her three children. So Troy Junior had some good company and so too did Mrs Troy and I. We had a lovely few hours on the beach at Southsea, watched the IoW Hovercraft come in (most impressive run off the sea up its slipway) and had fish and chips in the fresh air. Here's the hovercraft charging into towards the beach:

The next day, the three of us went up the Spinnaker Tower. This is a remarkable landmark in Portsmouth. Oringinally planned for the new Millenium but I believe was completed a couple of years late and (again I believe) well over budget. However it now is a wonderful attraction on the waterfront. A real asset to the city. This is the tower:

The view from the lookout area is impressive with views out over the Isle of Wight. In the other direction is the naval base and the historic dockyards which include HMS Victory (Nelson's flagship) and HMS Warrier (the first iron-hulled warship in the world). In this picture the two historic ships can be seen (click on photo to enlarge) plus HMS Invincible aircraft-carrier and in the distance the brand new HMS Daring destroyer.

On the way to Eastbourne we parked at the Seven Sisters nature park and walked down to see the chalk cliffs where the South Downs meet the English Channel.

Later in Eastbourne we walked up to Beachy Head. It was a long way but fortunately Troy Junior is a good walker (he's had a lot of training in his eight years). It was worth the walk as the view from the cliff top down to the Beachy Head lighthouse is well worth seeing.

The only downside to holiday was that someone vandalised my car on the last night we were there. Just the wing mirror but most annoying. Eastbourne obviously has its share of mindless morons as well as nice genteel folk.

On the way back home near Edenbridge we met up with an old work colleague of mine who we hadn't seen in about 12 years (well before Troy Junior was born). So new friends, an old friend and some great sightseeing in excellent weather - all in all a great few days away.

40TH ANNIVERSARY TODAY

2009-04-09T12:10:00.006+01:00

No we are not that old to be celebrating our 40th Anniversary today! In fact we've only been married just over two years having lived "in sin" for about fifteen years.

The 40th anniversary to celebrate (and to some extent also mourne) today is the first British test flight of Concorde. On this day forty years ago the British prototype of Concorde took to the air for the first time from Bristol. If you click here you can see archive footage from the BBC. Older readers will feel nostalgia too in hearing the unique voice of commentator Raymond Baxter.

Concorde was, and remains a wonderful achievement. We got it wrong economically in so far as we should have been making a "Jumbo Jet" equivalent of the Boeing 747. However Concorde was an amazing technical achievement. I remember following its development in my youth; the collaboration with the French, the cost overruns, the initial intransigence of the Americans in not allowing it into their country because they hadn't built it, the effects of the oil crisis in 1973 and the resulting poor sales.

Much later, in the 1980's when I lived in first Kew and later Brentford, I would see (and/or hear) it fly past on its way into Heathrow at 6pm and 10pm each evening. On a Sunday evening we'd quite often drive up to Heathrow by the runway end to see the 6pm flight come in. An amazing audio-visual experience of which we never tired. I never got to fly in Concorde, but I almost did. I actually booked a special flight through Goodwood Travel to take Concorde to the Monaco Grand Prix. I got it at a real bargain price but the organisers subsequently reneged on the deal I booked. I think they mispriced it and then cancelled my booking.

So to my lasting regret I never flew in her before she was withdrawn from service. On her last Sunday in service we took a very young Troy Junior to see Concorde land. He was too young to remember it but he can still say that he saw her. On the day of her last flight I took the afternoon off work and took the Piccadilly line out to the station before the airport. There, along with many others, I saw three Concordes come in to land one after the other, capturing it on video forever.

Concorde is also unique in so far as when she was withdrawn from service she was not replaced by something superior. Instead the withdrawal marked a backward step for aviation. So if you've a few minutes to spare in your busy day take a nostalgic click on the link above and see vintage footage of Concorde's first British test flight.

THE NIGHT SKY

2009-03-28T20:49:00.009Z

On Friday evening I attended a meeting held in a village hall deep in the heart of Suffolk. I followed the winding country roads for what seemed a long way through small villages that were quiet and very dark. At last I reached my intended village and peered through the darkness for some sign of a village hall. Then at a small junction near a church was a sign "Village Hall" pointing up a narrow lane.

I parked the car and got out. What immediately struck me was the pitch black sky illuminated with a myriad of stars. Having spent a lot of my time living close to London and now, more recently, in a large village with street lights, it was a rare and marvellous sight. The last time I remember seeing the stars so clear and bright was several years ago on holiday in rural Yorkshire. Then, like on this Friday night, the sky seemed to be teeming with stars.

To the casual observer there seems to be little pattern to these stars and the reality is actually the same - stars seemingly close together in the sky are nearly always in fact at quite different distances away from the earth. And a bright star can in fact be many times further away from us than a much fainter one. But people in ancient times saw patterns in the stars that made figures, animals, items. They had good imaginations!

Since I was a young child I have known and recognised these patterns or constellations. I used to buy I-Spy books from a village shop close to my Grandma's home. One day when I was about eight I bought "I-Spy The Night Sky". When I took this home (amazingly then it was deemed safe to go to the shop on my own!) and showed it to my family they wanted me to change it for a more suitable I-Spy book; not some book full of complicated night time constellations. But the book fascinated me, I dug my heals in and kept it.

I soon learnt to recognise all the major constellations. Now when I see them at night it's like seeing old friends. Often with just a small area of sky visible the stars there can be easily recognised. The constellations remain the same year after year but their position in the sky, or even whether they are visible or not, varies with the passing months and seasons.

On Friday night I had a few minutes before the start of the meeting. I looked up and looking back at me was Orion (the Hunter). This is one of the easiest winter star groups to see. At his feet was Canis Major (the Great Dog)with its very bright star, Sirius ("the dog star"). High above Orion was Taurus (the Bull) and Gemini (the celestial twins) and overhead Auriga (the Charioteer). Rising in the east was Leo (the Lion) which presently includes the planet Saturn. Above and to its left was Ursa Major (the Great Bear) seven of who's stars form "The Plough".

I gazed in wonder at not only these major stars but also the myriad of fainter stars around them. All these stars are like our Sun and many will have planets around them. By the law of averages there must be life out there - at truly mind-blowing unimaginable distances away from us. Somewhere up there perhaps someone is blogging right now about their night sky.

I said a quiet goodbye to my old friends the constellations then walked into the village hall to meet some new friends at the local Conservative Association AGM.

THE NEXT ELEVEN WEEKS SHOULD BE INTERESTING!

2009-03-22T12:43:00.006Z

A few weeks ago I was asked if I would be interested in standing as a candidate in the forthcoming County Council elections. After giving the matter due consideration I replied "Yes". So soon I will be starting a new blog, which I'll write under my real name, and which will follow my election campaign from start to finish. It should be interesting; I've never done anything remotely like it before. I'll start posting on that new blog very soon - first I just need to sort out what legal niceties I need to comply with. Then I will put a link to it on this blog.

I've already written my election leaflet, or at least the part about myself and why I'm standing. I sent that to the election agent on Friday, not sure what to expect back. It did however get an enthusiastic reception. "I liked your words (they made me chuckle). They hit just the right note". That response was most encouraging. Now I just need to persuade over 2,000 people to vote for me!

I will have an uphill battle against the present incumbent County Councillor, who I assume will stand for re-election, and who has been the County Councillor for my division for eight years. He got one third more votes than my party last time. Its a nice area and the majority of the people I've met appear to be conservative with a little c. I just need to persuade more of them to be Conservative with a big C.

I hope you'll join me on my new blog as the campaign gets underway and follow my new adventures. Keep an eye on my sidebar for the link to it.

OUR MGF HAS DIED : 1998-2009 R.I.P.

2009-03-15T09:26:00.019Z

In February 1998 Mrs Troy was the proud owner of a brand new blue MGF. It was the first brand new car she had ever owned. Both Mrs Troy and I have always had an interest in cars. She, as a teenager, helped a neighbour rebuild a "Frogeye Sprite" and I in my twenties owned 3 MGBs over a period of several years. In particular, I had a rare MGBGT with a V8 3.5litre engine which was my pride and joy.

For many years in the 1980's and early 1990's you couldn't buy a new MG sports car so we were both excited when the new MGF model was announced. On its launch we were straight round to the local dealer admiring the new MGF. However at the time (1995) we couldn't justify buying a new one as I had a company car and Mrs Troy had an almost new car of her own. But it didn't stop us having lustful eyes everytime we saw one on the road. For me it was pure nostalgia for my youthful wind in the hair motoring. Mrs Troy just loved the look of them.

By February 1998 we could hold out no longer. We went down to the dealer in Winchmore Hill, north London and gave them the best part of twenty grand (inclusive of part-ex) for a beautiful new one - Tahiti blue with ivory leather seats and trim. This was Mrs Troy's new baby. Troy Junior was still three years in the future and to me this seemed a cheaper alternative anyway! Mrs Troy used this MGF as her day to day car. In August 1999 Mrs Troy and I went to France in the MGF to see the total ecplise of the sun, a very special experience.

The growing bulge of her pregnancy in late 2000 prevented her from getting in her car. Then for several months, she drove my company Lexus and I drove her MGF. When "TJ" arrived we had a dilemna with the MGF - two seats and three of us. Also MGFs do not readily take prams and pushchairs along with all the other paraphernalia that real babies require. We got a new four seater Mazda 323 for Mrs Troy but she couldn't bear to part with her beloved MGF, so we kept it as a fun car for me (...and her). Here's two photos of it outside our old house back in 2004. Over the course of its life its had 3 registrations - this boring regular one and two cherished (in US "vanity") plates.

It's a cute looking car isn't it? (sob, I mean wasn't it)

Fast forward now to 2009. We've had years of fun motoring with our little convertible. It has still only got 35,000 miles on the clock. Only once did it not start when it needed a new distributor cap. We've put it nervously in for its annual M.O.T. (a check for roadworthy safety for US readers) but each year its passed with flying colours. There were no problems this year. However 22 miles after a service and MOT test I could not get it to start in our garage. It made some rather unpleasant noises instead. The engine fired for a few seconds but sounded terrible. A local motor engineer kindly came to look at it and noticed from the dipstick that the engine oil level was far too high - had it been overfilled during its service? He thought this may have damaged the engine's cylinder head - could be £1,000+ to repair. The company that serviced the car agreed to have it towed back there for examination. I followed in my car as I wanted to be there when they drained the oil to see how much had been put in. The car went up on the ramp the sump plug was removed. Instead of oil, green anti-freeze and water drained out. After about 2 litres (4 pints?) of this, the oil started flowing - the correct amount of oil. The oil had been sitting (floating) on top of this water so the dipstick made it look overfull with oil.

The cylinder head gasket had blown letting the water coolant into the engine. The service centre reckoned it could be £600 to repair, they would strip down the engine to examine it.

Yesterday afternoon we took a phone call. The extra water had completely ruined one cylinder piston and piston liner. The other three cylinders were fine but the damage to the one meant it requires a brand new engine - "loads of money, megabucks". As an eleven year old car, albeit with low mileage, it is just not economical for us to repair it. We'll get it towed back home, get its cherished plate put onto a retention certificate, then put it on ebay for "spares or repair". There are a couple on there now with bids above £500. I've got a hardtop for it which I'll also sell separately pre-winter.

We are fortunate that Mrs Troy now has a real baby (well he's now 8 years old) but I can still see the pain and loss in her eyes. Her little MGF is no more. I'm bearing it like a man but inside I'm crying.[edit : Mrs Troy has just read this and burst into tears]. This blog is therapeutic, I need to get my feelings out. And I'm half tempted to go out and buy one of the new "Chinese" MGFs which have been made in a "Limited Edition of 500". What this space.

MGF 1998-2009 R.I.P.
No flowers please.....but donations are always welcome.

INTRODUCING IGNATIUS

2009-03-09T12:06:00.008Z

We have a new member of the Troy household. In fact, we've had him since Christmas and I've been rather remiss at not introducing him to you before now. You are almost certainly aware (especially if you live in the UK) of the expression "A dog is for life not just for Christmas" and the Troy Family totally support and endorse that sentiment. So I can advise you that we haven't got ourselves a dog although Troy would very much like one. Pets can tie you down at holiday times and I'm sure that Mrs Troy had that in mind when she was choosing what to get me for Christmas. I think, and I'm no mind reader, that she was looking for something significantly more self-reliant as she already has a small child and a "large child" to look after.

Anyway, to cut to the chase, she went out just before Christmas to get me this present, wrapped it up (!) and gave it to me on Christmas Day. I was very pleased and immediately christened it Ignatius. Ignatius is quite a free spirit and I felt that it was more appropriate that he (for it is indeed male) lived in our garden rather than in our house. I found him a nice spot in the garden within a flowerbed. I'm pleased to report that he has lived there happily since Christmas, looking very pleased with his environment despite the bad winter weather earlier in February. He has been absolutely no trouble whatsoever and he settled in immediately. He has overseen the spring bulbs coming to life and now has some dwarf daffodils for company.

I can't really introduce him properly without showing you a photograph. The Troy Family are shy of appearing on photographs on this blog but Ignatius appears to suffer no such qualms. So here he is.

Ignatius, the Ipswich Imp
His family tree shows a lot of crossbreeding with Gnomes. You can't see the tree in the photo.

Although I missed it at the time, this was my 50th posting. A big thanks to all my loyal followers that I have picked up along the way. Here's to the next 50.

SPACE ROCKS! (plus a rude joke)

2009-03-03T17:05:00.014Z

I've always been interested in astronomy. Outer space fascinates me. So you would understand why I would say "Space Rocks!". However what I want to tell you about today is a near miss from a space rock. At a quarter to two on Monday afternoon (GMT) an asteroid the size of a ten storey building narrowly missed the earth. When I say narrowly, it was 44,000 miles away, but in space terms that is absolutely nothing.

This rock is apparently the same size as an meteorite that hit Siberia in 1908 creating a giant crater and flattened trees over a 800 square mile area. It hit with the force of 1,000 atomic bombs. So if Monday afternoon's object had hit the earth, especially a densely populated area, the consequences don't bear thinking about. Even if it had hit water (and over 60% of the earth's surface is water) then I suspect the tsunami created would have dwarfed the Indian Ocean tsunami of a few years ago.

Apparently this near miss object was only first discovered on Saturday. This is rather worrying as that seems remarkably short amount of time to track it and to deal with it (not sure how though) if it had been on collision course.

After that sobering bit of news I think you all deserve a joke. It's a rude joke so if you don't like rude jokes look away now. Okay you were warned, and I suspect everyone is still here, so here's the joke........

A couple are at their financial wits end due to the credit crisis. "There is only one thing for it" said the husband "You'll have to take up the world's oldest profession".
"What shall I do?" asks the wife.
"Dress appropriately then stand on the corner by the pub,I'll pop in for a drink and I'll be there should you need me. Charge £100 for sex" explains the husband.

She gets changed and then they put the plan into action. Very soon a guy in a car pulls up to the kerb and asks her how much. She tells him £100 but unfortunately he only has £30. She asks him to wait a minute and she rushes to her husband in the pub for advice. "Charge him £30 but just give him 'manual relief' for that money" he instructs her. She goes back and agrees to get into the car with her punter. He then unzips his trousers and what he gets out is huge. Not only is it huge but its also perfectly formed and the nicest one she has ever seen.

She gawps in awe then says "Just wait a minute!" She runs back into the pub and says to her husband "Can you lend this guy £70?"

Well, I hope my lady readers enjoyed that joke. Mrs Troy has started blogging again and has composed a short, poignant and ultimately tragic story. You can read it here although the link will only work after you've left me a comment.

THE FAMILY HAS A CHUCKLE, OR IN FACT TWO

2009-02-20T19:10:00.005Z

A TROY ENTERTAINMENT REVIEW

If you’d told me ten years ago where I’d be spending this Friday afternoon I would have laughed. Laughed at you that is, rather than laughed at the event. However having an eight year old son does at times change one’s entertainment choices. So Friday lunchtime saw the Troy family get into my car for the short journey across to Felixstowe and its Spa Pavilion. And what were we going to see there? None other than the Chuckle Brothers in “Chuckle Trek, the Lost Generation”. Now this viewing did come with a recommendation – from Mrs Troy no less, who had previously taken Troy Junior last year to see the Chuckle Brothers at the Ipswich Regent Theatre. She came back full of praise for them. I’ve watched them a few times with Troy Junior on the TV and must admit I have chuckled at them more than I expected.

It was a beautiful spring-like afternoon at Felixstowe. The Spa Pavilion sits on the seafront at Felixstowe and today the sea was calm and the sun was shining. It looked quite tropical in fact:

We had a picnic lunch, skimmed a few flat stones into the sea then bought some popcorn and settled down in the auditorium. I looked around, the average age was seven or eight, with a sprinkling of dads and many more mums. The lights went down and various space theme tunes were played and the show began. I won’t spoil the “plot” but Capt. James T Burke of the USS Exercise is short of crew. The Chuckle Brothers, Paul and Barry, are beamed up onboard, they boldly go where no one has gone for some while, they cause mayhem along the way but ultimately defeat the enemy robots lead by Dark Wader. It did what it said on the tin – we chuckled. In fact we laughed a lot, both the kids and the parents. It was very silly but in a pleasingly silly way. At one stage they invited three fathers and one mother to join them on stage. Mrs Troy and I slid down in our chairs whilst Troy Junior pointed to us. We were relieved not to be chosen. With the slapstick that followed we were increasingly relieved. At the end of that scene, when they said the four volunteers would each be getting a Suzuki moped, surplus due to the recession, we were disappointed rather than relieved.

Troy enjoyed himself, Mrs Troy enjoyed herself and Troy Junior enjoyed himself. What a pleasant way to spend a school half-term afternoon. If you are looking for a matinee show to entertain your young children you could do a lot worse than to boldly go along to watch the Chuckle Brothers. They are doing a nationwide tour.

VALENTINE'S DAY - A SURPRISE FOR MRS TROY

2009-02-14T20:12:00.011Z

Do you make much of a fuss about Valentine's Day? We don't normally in the Troy household. Perhaps that comes of being together now for over twenty years. At the start of our relationship Mrs Troy actually got an artist to prepare a handmade card for me which I still treasure. I was going to photograph it and show it here but rather frustratingly I can't find it. But I do treasure it, honest!

More recently though we haven't exchanged valentine cards or even wedding anniversary cards. It all seems so commercial and the money saved can be put towards a nice meal or the latest Ipswich Town football programme. You may have gathered from reading previous posts that Troy is not one normally to "splash the cash". There is however one thing that I do like more than not spending money and that is buying A Bargain. During the week I was reading my Daily Telegraph when I came across a Marks & Spencer advert for their "Valentine Collection for her". This large advert showed a collection of valentine gifts - a card, a real red rose, Belgian chocolates and some heart motif lingerie for £20. I did a double take. That seems a Real Bargain for £20 I thought and given that it was M&S I was confident that the quality would be fine. So I resolved to surprise Mrs Troy this Valentines Day. Thursday morning saw me going through Mrs Troy's lingerie drawer to make sure I would be buying the correct sizes for the underwear. An alternative, which I first favoured, would have involved lining up several sales assistants in the store and by use of my outstretched hands ascertaining the correct size. However on further consideration I did not think that M&S would encourage, or even approve of this approach.

So armed with the correct sizes I then ventured into the M&S store. If any of you have seen the hilarious Father Ted sketch when the priests find themselves lost in the women's lingerie department then you know how I was feeling. But needs must, so I ventured in bravely. The heart motif underwear along with the cards, roses and chocolates were on clear display. I quickly fumbled my way through first the bras and then the knickers (so no change from usual there then), found the correct sizes and then took the collection to the "Pay Here" area. I did feel self-conscious handing over the bra and knickers. "Do you want a gift receipt so you can bring them back?" asked the assistant. "Just for the underwear" I replied "I don't think she'll be bringing back the chocolates!" I joked with the stern faced assistant. I then brought them home and photographed my bargains. Here they are:-

I then had to wait impatiently until this morning to surprise Mrs Troy. But surprise her I did. First the card, followed swiftly by the rose. "Oh" she said, in a surprised voice. Then came the chocolates and finally a small bag containing the underwear. Think of gobsmacked and then go a level higher. "I haven't got you a card because you said we wouldn't bother" she chided me whilst hastily trying on her new lingerie. However shortly afterwards she handed me a card. Apparently she had bought a card just in case I gave her one (and yes, I mean a card!).

If you were given very expensive silk lingerie or were taken on a romantic weekend to Venice please do not comment to this effect. Mrs Troy is happy so please don't spoil it.

A MOST UNUSUAL PLACE

2009-02-06T11:27:00.015Z

Today's posting is mainly of photographs. They are of a very unusual place called Freston Tower which stands on a hill overlooking the River Orwell close to Ipswich. The property is owned by the Landmark Trust. This is an organisation who restore interesting old and unusual properties and then rent them out as holiday lets. Once a year they have "Open Days" when the public can view several of their properties. We've never stayed in any of their properties as the rents are expensive, although I'm sure they are fully justified as these old buildings must be very expensive to restore and maintain. So if you are feeling flush I would recommend you investigate them further for an unusual long weekend or week's holiday in the UK.

The header photo on my blog is taken from close to Freston Tower. In fact the full photo, rather than the cropped down one, looks like this:

The tower actually looks nicer from the front where there are bow windows to virtually every floor.

Each floor comprises one room. There are no doors on the rooms (except the bathroom!) and there are stairs leading up and down from each room like this:

This is one of the bedrooms:

You can see how small the rooms are by the fact that the end of this bed is visible in the photo of the stairs. I was actually standing on the stairs to take the photo.

Here is the cosy living room, which, like the other rooms, has triple aspect windows with marvellous views:

There is also a roof terrace, safe for children, with wonderful views over the Orwell Estuary if you have a good head for heights.

If you Google "Freston Tower" you will learn more about it. I think it is wonderful that the Landmark Trust has preserved it and that they organise free Open Days for public viewing. I'm sure you'll agree this unique building is worthy of a visit. And if you ever decide to rent the property for a week, or part-week do let us know - we are only about 15 minutes from it and we'll bring a picnic round to share with you on the riverbank!

Finally my thanks to fellow Suffolk blogger Liz for inspiring me to do this posting. She told me that she had visited Freston Tower on an Open Day five years ago but she had quote "forgotten to take my bloody camera".

A WHITEOUT? NO, AN ANTICLIMAX!

2009-02-03T11:20:00.014Z

It was towards the end of last week that the early warnings of severe wintry weather first came to my attention. It became rapidly obvious that we could expect blizzard conditions and a whiteout during Monday. I had booked my sports car in for its annual MOT and service on that day so I call by the garage on Saturday to reschedule. "Let's see what happens first" they responsed, "They usually forecast it to be much worse than the reality". So we left it that I would phone them on Monday if I needed to cancel.

Sunday evening we had light snow showers and there was a light covering of snow. By Monday morning a little more snow had arrived and our side roads had a thin compacted layer of snow on them. Several neighbours set off to work but then returned home. We live over the brow of a hill and it is the first few hundred yards that cause the problems. Mrs Troy, despite buying a 4x4 for these very conditions, decided to get the bus to work. I walked Troy Junior to school in about one to two inches of snow.

Looking at the 24 hours local weather summary on the BBC Weather website I could see that heavy snow was being forecast for the Ipswich area from midday to six pm. Accordingly I cancelled the car MOT and service. I may have got the car there but would I be able to collect it and get it home later? Certainly not if the forecast was correct.

Shortly after midday it began to snow lightly but the snowflakes were as small as washing machine powder and as dry. Only a relatively small amount actually settled. Going down to the school after 3pm I noticed the snow was turning to light sleet. After collect Troy Junior we hurried home to build what in my childhood was called a snowman (but now I had better say snowperson). The snow was wet and melting. We built a tall thin snowperson, added a mouth, nose and eyes and then on closer inspection found that we had actually built a snowdog. Here it is, with Troy Junior hiding behind it:

The sleet turned to rain. This morning most of our snow has gone taking our new pet dog with it:

Growing up in Yorkshire between the mid 1950's and mid 1970's I remember what blizzards and severe snowstorms were really like. I remember the snow lasting for days. I remember the buses still running and providing a public service unlike London on Monday.

Perhaps we've just been lucky with the weather here? So now, and purely in the interests of meteorological research, I find myself asking my regular army of female bloggers with their wide geographical base these simple questions :-

Did you get the six to eight inches you were promised on Sunday night? Was it an anticlimax for you? (And please, these are innocent questions so no need to be smutty).

A TRULY MAGICAL EVENING

2009-02-01T16:21:00.015Z

It’s been an eventful week so I’m belatedly now getting round to posting about an absolutely wonderful event I attended last Monday.

Ages ago I’d pre-booked a cheap hotel (Travelodge at £19) in Portsmouth and bought a ticket for DJ and Chopper’s joint book launch party. When I booked, Mrs Troy wondered why I wanted to travel all that way to an event full of people I’d never met. However the wonder of blogging is that you already feel that you do know quite well the fellow bloggers you actively follow and do really want to meet them in Real Life. So I travelled down the A3 for the first time (marvelling why they had built a chicane called Hindhead in the road just to delay my journey) and finally checked in to the hotel about 6.30pm. I got a quick but tasty takeaway pizza from the nearby Pizza Hut then got changed and went in search of “Rosies Winebar, Elm Grove”. It looked straight forward on the map but I managed to get hopelessly lost in both Portsmouth and Southsea. I would never normally stop and ask for directions but as it was after 8.10pm I made an exception and thus turned up at the event at 8.19pm. Events were scheduled to kick-off at 8.20pm!

After a very hasty hello and hug from Denyse, I sat down next to Carol, Leigh and Helen. “Hello, I’m [real name]” and polite smiles were returned. “But you’ll know me better as Troy”, prompting huge grins and handshakes. Then a lady approached me and said “it’s £1 per strip”. Well I thought, this sounds like an interesting party, I can’t remember the last time a lady said that to me. I passed on these thoughts to Carol, Leigh and Helen which broke the ice! I’m normally very shy when meeting people for the first time. Then DJ did her introductory talk and introduced a very nervous Chris.

After a witty few words, Chris read the prologue to his book. Then Denyse did a really heart-warming talk about her Asperger’s Syndrome and how she struggles hard but generally succeeds in masking her symptoms in everyday life. She then read an excerpt from her book. I hadn’t read either book yet as the intention was to buy them at the launch, or, being from Yorkshire, first hopefully win them in the raffle!

Next up was a performance of “Shrek Rap”. Now the only time I’ve heard rap music previously it has left me totally cold so my thoughts were “this could be really dreadful but at least it will be short”. The performer Darren had some magical (or perhaps just technical) gadgets to build up live his backing tracks then he launched into the rap. Now I have a choice of words to describe the performance; Brilliant, Awesome, Outstanding, Inspiring; all these fit the bill. Afterwards I was able to read and marvel at the lyrics written by the talented Casdok. I encourage you to visit her blog for more background to this moving musical masterpiece.

Then the raffle was drawn and inexplicably tickets 111-115 were ignored. Still the £1 was for a good cause (charity not a strip). Then the book signing started although people leaving early to travel home got get their's first. This gave me the chance to chat further with Carol, Leigh and Helen. Now Leigh had previously commented elsewhere that she found the "Wordless Wednesday" captions written by “Who’s This Then” to be wittier than those of Troy (I know, unbelievable!). I was eager to put her straight on this matter and think ultimately I succeeded. We then all assembled for a group picture.

It was then my turn to buy THE BOOKS. First I sat next to Denyse and had a lovely chat with her whilst she wrote a nice personal message in her book for me. Photos were taken (see her blog). Then I was finally able to properly introduce myself to Chris (Chopper) and he too signed his book for me. What a delightful couple they make and I’ve subsequently learnt that since the book launch they have got engaged to be married. Truly they will be the King and Queen of bloggers.

During the course of this magical evening I also managed a brief chat with Lady In Red, Joe Stein, Darren Callow and the Crafty Gardener but have realised since, to my disappointment, that there were several other bloggers I missed getting to meet.

For all too soon there were only a handful of us left in the room. It was well past eleven o’clock and it was time to depart. Lots of nice hugs and smiles and fond farewells and then I was off into the night to find the hotel. Typically, the trip back there was easy and short, perhaps I ought to reverse my car to events in future (well not all the way from Ipswich!).

It just leaves me to thank Denyse and Chris for a truly marvellous evening. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world and am so pleased to have met them, and everyone else mentioned in this posting, for the first, and hopefully not the last time in Real Life.

BY POPULAR DEMAND - MY STUDY

2009-01-24T17:40:00.020Z

After posting on Thursday a photograph of my old room at University, I received several comments expressing surprise at how tidy I kept my room. The reason was very simple, I had very few possessions at the time. I may well have also done a wee bit of tidying up - I can't remember after all these years. Whatever, I am nowhere near as tidy nowadays. When I was working, my office desk was always a mess. Every few months I would blitz it - disposing of piles of old printouts and memos and sheepishly handing old supplier invoices (and even occasionally old signed cheques) to my staff.

Now I spend many hours a day in my study at home. I've got an old fashioned style pedestal desk and a computer desk, a double height filing cabinet, a cupboard and an old oak bureau. The oak bureau is special to me. It was presented to my great-grandfather on his retirement on 31st December 1940 after 59 years service to one company. That is not a typo - he worked fifty nine years for one company, a textile company called G.Garnett & Sons Ltd. There is an engraved presentation plaque on the bureau.

Having filled ever drawer, cupboard, bureau and filing cabinet I am now using every flat surface to store things on, as well as resting some pictures and folded boat charts upright against the desks. "Don't waffle!", I hear you cry, "Let's see a photo!" So here, as requested earlier by Trixie, is a photo of my study.

You can see my webpage on the computer screen. On my desk is a black and white laser printer. As a retiree, Troy can't afford colour ink for printing (well it is many times more expensive than champagne per litre). I have a month to view wall calendar flat on my desk so I know what I should be doing. You will also see my "Don't blame, me I vote Conservative" [faithfully since 1974] blue mug on my computer desk. A pocket Oxford dictionary is to hand because I sometimes use bigger words than I can spell when blogging or leaving comments. On the wall is a coloured ink drawing of Scarborough Harbour. It only looks odd because it is reflecting the curtains. All my paperwork that needs dealing with is on the pedestal desk. This desk gets tidied about every three months (ok! twice annually).

There are two photos of Mrs Troy on my desk and a photo of a semi-clad Amanda Holden on top of my filing cabinet. Mrs Troy only appreciates 2/3rd of these photos, I appreciate them all. Also on top of the filing cabinets are some "I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again" cassettes of a very funny 1970's radio series.

So that's my study. When I'm surfing the web, blogging or replying to your comments, or trading my shares or gold bullion, or listening to Ipswich Town away commentaries I'll be sitting here. It may not be tidy but it's warm and cosy and it's my own personal space.

PHOTO TAG - BRINGS BACK MEMORIES

2009-01-22T12:43:00.010Z

This morning I was reading Lane's blog and she has done a photo meme and thrown it open to anyone who wants to do the same (tag themselves) by showing the fourth photo in their fourth folder. Well I went into the folders of the old photos which I recently scanned (from colour slides to digital) and came up with the following:

What is this you ask - have I been in prison or a young offender's institution? Well the latter is closer than the former. Its a photo of my room in University Hall of Residence back in the mid 1970's. Its a small room with a shared bathroom in Hugh Stewart Hall, University of Nottingham. The hall comprised an old block with a beautiful tutor's house together with a modern block. I was allocated a room in the modern block which at least had the (in part) en-suite facilities.

I am awash with nostalgia looking at this photo. You can click on the photo to make it bigger. In pride of place in the room is my "music system" which comprised a Sony stereo reel-to-reel tape recorder. Linked into it via a homemade pre-amp was a Gerrard turntable. I would borrow LPs and record them onto tape. There is an old 10cc album visible - I saw them play at Leicester, an excellent band.

Also in the picture is a poster of Paul and Linda MacCartney, a photo of our black labrador "Cindy" which we got from the RSPCA, and a photo of Filey Bay taken from my grandparent's apartment. My yellow boxes of slides are on one of the shelves. There is a photo of all the Hall students on the board and various postcards received from family and friends. There was a small (2ft 6in wide) bed, a desk and (off camera) a wardrobe in the room.

Unfortunately you can't see the nice view from the window as the photo was taken at night. Nottingham has a beautiful 200 acre campus. When I was deciding to which University to go, all my friends would say things like "I'm choosing X University because they have a good reputation in psychology" or similar words. I got all the brochures (they called them prospectuses for some reason) to decide where I'd like to spend three years of my life. "I've choosen Nottingham, its got a lovely campus".

I think that approach was a lot more sensible.

Anybody reading who wants to run with the tag - fourth photo in your fourth album - is welcome to do so. If you do let me know.

WAKE UP ENGLAND!!!

2009-01-20T18:04:00.020Z

There is an elephant in the room. It is a very large elephant. When will the good people of England see this elephant?

Let me help you. The newspapers today say that Britain is edging its way slowly to the brink of bankruptcy. Gordon Brown has now written a blank cheque to the banks. Credit agencies are rumoured to be poised to reduce our sovereign debt rating – meaning that they fear for our country’s ability to pay back its borrowing obligations. Just as in 1976/7, a Labour Government after mismanaging the economy may have to turn to the International Monetary Fund to bail us out. This would affect our living standards for a generation (or more). Even if we don’t have this worse case scenario we are still in very “deep doo doo”.

“So what’s the elephant?” I hear you still ask. This is the elephant – it is that Scottish politicians and bankers have brought our nation to the edge of bankruptcy. They were not content with working under a formula that for over thirty years took English taxes and redistributed them generously to Scotland. They were not content with a biased electoral system which saw the English cast more votes in the 2005 General Election to the Conservative party yet still ended up with a Labour Government. No, going beyond this, they had to take actions and deeds that have brought the whole system crashing down on its knees.

We have Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling (both Scottish and put into Westminster by Scottish voters) frantically trying to sort out this mess which occurred on their watch due to regulatory failures taking place under a regulatory framework which they established. This almighty mess is taking place at a time when they (Brown and Darling) had already taken the nation’s borrowings to worryingly high levels. The two banks at the heart of our problems today are the Royal Bank of SCOTLAND and HBOS (can you guess what the S stands for in HBOS?). Both RBS and BOS have their headquarters in Edinburgh. Yes dear readers, we can firmly lay our present economic woes at the feet of Scottish politicians and bankers.

In the hubris created by the false Mother Of All Booms in recent years the Scottish people were edging closer and closer to independence - hence the SNP as the governing party in the Scottish Assembly. The tragedy now though, as they see that Scotland on its own, would merely be a mega version of Iceland, is that their opinions are changing. Many may still loathe and hate the English but they understand clearly now that they still need us. They will not be voting for independence now in a hurry.

But what about the people of England? Don’t we have a say in the matter? Is the Union a marriage in which only one of the parties to it, the Scots, is ever allowed to consider filing for divorce? Where is the fairness in that? When can the English have their own say on this important matter?

*************************************

Want some other opinions?

What Troy thinks on 20th January appears in The Telegraph on 23rd January.

A view from The Times with interesting comments

Thoughts on Scottish Independence from "The Independent"

See also my comments box for a variety of other views including the scottish take on this contentious issue. Troy welcomes the diversity of views that blogging affords.

"MORE THAN LOVE LETTERS" by ROSY THORNTON

2009-01-18T15:34:00.017Z

A BOOK REVIEW BY TROY

I’m going to do something now that I’ve never done before – I am going to review a book on my blog. So what’s prompted this you ask? Well keen eyed readers of my blog may have noticed a rather odd comment by “Rosy” on my 7 favourite foods posting a week or so ago. Her comment went like this:-

Troy, why don't you have an e-mail contact address anywhere? I regularly read this blog, and your ITFC one (Chelsea, here we come) and I wanted to send you something - a book, actually - but there's no way to get in touch.

(I am not a lunatic stalker.)

Well I was a bit surprised to say the least. I clicked on her name which gave a link to her website and her University of Cambridge webpage which between them gave quite a lot of background on Dr Rosy Thornton. As well as being a senior academic with perhaps a brain the size of a small planet she was also an author with three published novels and an Ipswich Town supporter. I was intrigued. I went onto Amazon to see if they sold her books. And there they were – all three – and each one had rave reviews. One in particular interested me as it is set in Ipswich (my recently adopted town) as well as London and – get this (and I’ll explain more soon) – the story is apparently told just through letters, e-mails etc rather than using normal prose.

So I discussed the situation with Mrs Troy. If I was in fact going to be encouraging a lunatic stalker (and if you were one, would you admit or rather deny it?) then I wanted Mrs Troy to share the decision (by which I mean of course, the responsibility). I sent “Rosy” an e-mail. She responded by saying she wanted to send me a free copy of her book. I gave her my wife’s maiden name and works address. I told “Rosy” that if I really liked the book then I would review it on my blog and also buy her other two books. That was on a Friday – by the start of the next week I had in my hand a signed copy of “More Than Love Letters” by Rosy Thornton.
Now the fact that you are about to read my review of her book means that I did “really like” it. In fact I thoroughly enjoyed it. Perhaps like me you are thinking that you just can’t write a whole book using only letters (as in correspondence), e-mails etc. Surely they must be linked by normal prose. I mean surely! No, the entire book comprises just letters and e-mails between friends, relatives, colleagues as well as minutes of meetings, and extracts from newspaper articles with no prose. And Dr Rosy pulls it off brilliantly! Just to see this writing style tour de force would be a recommendation for buying the book. However a much better reason is because the book is a most wonderful read. At the heart of the book is a developing love story between an idealistic young single female primary teacher, (Margaret), and her local MP (Richard) to whom she originally writes several letters about issues that concern her. Her MP is New Labour (I still don’t know what possesses an intelligent person to become a Labour MP???) and he initially ignores her, but then later arranges to meet her at one of his local MP surgeries. The two main characters discuss the developing “relationship” by e-mail with their best friends in a truly believable set of dialogues. There are several interesting sub-plots involving a homeless women’s hostel, Margaret’s elderly grandmother, Margaret’s landlady and Richard’s developing career. There are some wonderful twists in the tale including a particularly brilliant one near the end which I was annoyed my sixth sense didn’t pick up.

Now as a book reviewer perhaps you think I would make a good plumber. But trust me – I’m confident that you will thoroughly enjoy this book whatever your sex, age, or political persuasion. So if you enjoy a good read – BUY IT. You’ll see it on Amazon along with some much better written reviews of it than this one. It is probably also available “in WH Smiths and all good bookshops” (although I don’t know why WH Smiths isn’t included in the latter category). Don’t wait for Rosy to e-mail YOU – you’ll be missing an excellent read in the meantime.

That just leaves my other promise – to buy her other two books. They have real girly covers although her reviewers say they too are not “chick-lit”. I could mince up to the bookshop counter and say "Mmm, what pretty covers" but maybe on second thoughts I’d be better off getting them from Amazon.

(If [surely when] you buy the book do let me know – leave a comment here even if its weeks/months later and I’ll see it and so too will my delightful “stalker” and fellow ITFC supporter, Rosy)

BUDGET AIRLINES = CHEAP FLIGHTS : NOT!!!

2009-01-15T12:21:00.011Z

Last Easter the Troy family flew to Lanzarote with British Airways. I arranged the flights and the hotel separately. We had a great time and the holiday was not cheap but I didn't feel I had been ripped off either. I would happily repeat the same holiday this coming Easter. The family could do with a bit of this:

There is however one problem with this plan. British Airways stopped flying to Lanzarote at the end of March last year (one day after we returned home) and the flights were taken over by Easyjet. "Result!" I hear you thinking (clever skill, I know). Surely a budget airline will undercut British Airways - I mean it is now no-frills with no food and no seat allocation. So what price for this "cattle-truck" class?

Well looking back at my credit card statement it appears I paid £589 for myself, Mrs Troy and Troy Junior to fly BA at Easter 2008. I even enrolled Troy Junior in the BA Executive Club (family member) so he clocked up some airmiles. Now I go into Easyjet's website to book for Easter 2009. Several dates to choose from to get 3 seats - obviously not full flights then. What's this...? A charge for each suitcase going into the hold. Okay, lets just take 2 cases rather than 3, Troy Junior's clothes will be spread over our cases. What's this...? Travel Insurance - well we can delete that as my bank account gives me family annual travel insurance. It gets cheaper and cheaper! Let scroll down to the "bottom line". £978! (Remember this is flights only, hotel, villa or apartment extra). I thought I'd choosen the cheapest flights. What if I'd picked other days during the Easter school holidays...£1,730...£1,835...yeah right as if I'd pay this for the Easyjet experience!

Let's see what price I'd pay if I didn't have to travel in the school holidays, maybe a week in mid-March. Oh, £454 for the three seats, well what a surprise.

Budget airlines = cheap flights? Not if you are travelling as a family in school holidays. Then you are well and truly screwed.

That's the great thing about having a blog. I can let off steam here rather than just shouting at the wall.

And I can also ask you this question....do you know anyone with a private jet with three spare seats this Easter? We are not fussy, anywhere nice and sunny will do.

D.I.Y. - LESSON #27

2009-01-13T09:48:00.006Z

It has been quiet in the Troy household since the New Year. In many ways that is a blessing but leaves little inspiration for blogging purposes. So today I'm bringing you "Do It Yourself Lesson #27" in a series of DIY lessons starting after #26 and ending before #28.

This lesson explains how you can change a wooden fire surround for a stone fire surround for less than £35. In today's economic climate this is a valuable lesson.

When we bought our house there was one feature that we did not like. Our living room featured a coal effect gas fire in a large black fireplace with a dark wood surround. As a picture paints a thousand words and to save me typing a longer description, here is a photo of said fireplace:-

Maybe you like it. Obviously the people who had installed it must have liked it (?) but Mrs Troy and I didn't. It went on our list of "things to change at some stage in the future". After we had settled in we started to look at new fireplaces. The gas fire itself is fine and we were not fussed about changing it. Even the black mantle was okay, it was just the wooden surround that was not to our particular taste. We quickly discovered that fire mantles came in a variety of widths and heights. At this point I should explain that Troy is more an ideas man than a practical DIYer. In fact in our household I concentrate on concepts, ideas and the finances and Mrs Troy does the practical things. Hence when improving our garden (see earlier posting) I was more the designer and Mrs Troy the digger of borders. Even when it came to having a family I made the initial contribution but Mrs Troy delivered the project. It took her nine months, but I digress. The problem we found was that if a new fire mantle was larger than the existing one then we would have to make adjustments to the skirting board. This could get messy and involve lots of redecoration. Or if the new one was smaller there would be a gap left in the skirting board. This again would test our DIY ability. All the fire surrounds we saw were either too big or too small. The project was "on hold".

Then one day whilst surfing the internet I came across some "stone effect paint". It was especially developed for wooden fire surrounds. At less than £35 for the undercoat and top coat (2 tins) I thought this was worth a gamble, better than spending well in excess of £1,000. So I bought the product online and it arrived the next day. Mrs Troy and I together put on the undercoat which was a strange goey mess. As I had to be away from home for a few days after that I left Mrs Troy to finish the project, whilst I phoned for regular progress reports (being a diligent staff manager). The top, stone-effect coat has to be put on by building up about four layers whilst allowing each layer to dry between applications. Mrs Troy reported that she was pleased with the outcome. On my return home I was greeted with this:

We were both very happy with the outcome. It is much less dominant than before. When we had visitors we would ask them if they liked our new stone fireplace. Oh what fun we had when we told them it was wooden! I feel the £35 gamble paid off very well. Without my internet surfing I suspect we would still be looking at our old firesurround.

THE LAST OF THE 7 THINGS - SEVEN FAVOURITE FOODS

2009-01-02T12:26:00.006Z

For all those who have eaten to excess over the Christmas period and to all those who have gone on a diet as part of their New Year Resolutions this posting should probably come with a health warning.

I am now coming to the end of this marathon meme where I've been tasked to enlighten my readers with various lists of seven things about myself. So this is the last one - my seven favourite foods.

Now I must warn you from the start that I’m no gourmet, so don’t expect anything fancy in my seven favourite foods. I was brought up in the late 1950’s and 1960’s in Yorkshire by parents whose own formative years from a food perspective was World War II with all the rationing that went with it. I think my mother still thought of bananas as exotic fare well into the 1970’s.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy good food prepared well. However there are many places that use good ingredients and cook them well without having to spend an arm and a leg. So without more ado are here my seven favourite foods:-

All Day Breakfast – there is a café close to where we live that fronts onto a lake. The lake is used by fishermen (well I’ve never seen a woman fishing there before anyone corrects my wording) and the café caters for them. Here sometimes I meet up with Mrs Troy for an “All Day Breakfast” at lunchtime after she’s finished her part-time work. For £3.95 we get bacon, egg, scalloped potatoes, tomato, beans, fried bread, buttered bread and a cup of tea. The plates are always left spotlessly clean when we’ve finished and we walk back to our cars feeling comfortably fed and full. We only go about twice a month at the most so we aren’t overdoing it with the cholesterol.

Porridge – from October through to May I like to start the day with a bowl of porridge, topped with a sprinkling of sugar and cold milk. I actually prefer syrup to sugar but keep forgetting to buy it. I make my porridge as soon as I get back from taking Troy Junior to school, having picked up my Daily Telegraph on the way home. Porridge is a great slow release energy food to keep one going through to lunchtime.

A Nice Sirloin Steak – an occasional treat down at the local pub “The Crown” when I’m feeling peckish. I’m not particularly bothered about the extras like sauces or onion rings but I do like some strong English mustard with it.

A Chinese Takeaway – it’s always nice to pick up a well prepared Chinese takeaway. I call it "eating by numbers". But as the numbers will mean nothing to you I'll give you the details. Egg fried rice (I can’t take it boiled like the Chinese eat it) and chicken with cashew nuts will suit me fine, or with sweet and sour pork. Or with both. Also the meal should include some prawn crackers. However the best Chinese dish has to be Crispy Aromatic Peking Duck – lovely, very tasty and quite messy.

An Indian Restaurant Meal – it’s been a long time since we had one of these as Troy Junior doesn’t like spicy food. Whenever we eat Indian we always seem to be either the only ones in the restaurant, or one of just two couples present. It seems everyone else eats Indian food after the pubs close but Mrs Troy likes her evening meal nice and early. The very first Indian meal I ever had was with “friends” after watching a football game in Manchester. I told them I’d never had an Indian meal before so I would rely on their judgement as to what to eat. They ordered me a Vindaloo. I actually enjoyed it.

Scones, Jam and Cream – on a warm summer’s day there is nothing to beat scones, jam and cream sitting in the late afternoon sun. All washed down with plenty of tea. I think it is impossible not to feel civilised whilst enjoying afternoon tea in England.

Snickers bars – when feeling peckish there is nothing to beat a Snickers bar. I’ve enjoyed these since the days when they were called Marathon bars. I read somewhere that they are going to change the name back to Marathon bars (or was I just dreaming that?). Warning – they may contain nuts (hopefully several).

Biscuits – the eighth in this list of seven favourite foods. I couldn’t miss out my biscuits with a cup of tea of coffee. There are so many nice ones to choose from – custard creams, ginger biscuits, HobNobs, milk chocolate digestives – actually, the list is almost endless. When I was student I bought Rich Tea as you got more for your money with those. I think the very best biscuits are ones I that haven’t seen recently – Abbey Crunch. These just melt in your mouth and are so very tasty. However HobNobs come a very close second. They are so moreish and require discipline not eat and eat and eat and eat and…

Now I suspect some of my readers may have actually put on weight just reading about my favourite foods. This is a high calorie posting. I’ve always been a strong believer in the view that it doesn’t matter how many calories you intake as long as you burn them off afterwards. Since childhood I’ve always tended to burn off the calories – I can’t stand still for a minute. However recently I have started to put some weight on (probably due to sitting down and blogging non-stop). So I have to be more careful and ration my intake of these favourite foods. But that just means I enjoy them all the more when I treat myself.

I look forward to hearing if you share my taste in favourite foods.

HONG KONG TRIP - DECEMBER 2008

2008-12-27T15:52:00.020Z

My father and I had a most enjoyable short break of five days in Hong Kong just prior to Christmas. The weather was perfect, with blue cloudless sky throughout and a very comfortable 21 to 23 degrees centigrade each day. As this was my father's first trip to the former colony, we did the usual tourist things - firstly a ride on the Peak Tramway up to Victoria Peak to see the view over the harbour, by day:-

and also by night (although this time we cheated, beating the queues for the Tramway by taking a taxi both ways):-
(Picture since removed)
One day we did a full day excursion onto Lantau Island to visit the largest Buddha in the world. This involved a quite spectacular 4.7km cablecar ride:-

The monastery was surrounded by a very colourful display of flowers. It was easy to forget with the colours and the weather that this was the week before Christmas.
(Picture since removed)
The Buddha itself is set on the top of a small hill giving a excellent viewpoint over the island. It is one big buddha (to paraphrase my father).

We had another full day out at Ocean Park. This amusement park combines fun rides, excellent aquariums and shows. My 78 year old father went on the triple looping roller coaster. He was easy to pick out on the ride as everyone else had dark hair and they were at least half his age! He's on the back row of the third car.

We spent a pleasant hour or more, every morning sitting by the hotel swimming pool getting a bit of winter sun and having a daily swim. My aim was to combine the sightseeing with a bit of rest and relaxation each day. This is a view of the pool from the hotel bedroom window.
(Picture since removed)
The next photo shows my father relaxing by the harbourside near the Exhibition Centre that was used in the 1997 Handover Ceremony. The office buildings of Central are in the background. The tallest tower is "IFC Two" which at 1,350feet tall and 88storeys dwarves the other buildings.

The view of the Hong Kong Island skyline at night from Kowloon is quite unique. We sailed over on the Star Ferry but we also used the MTR underground system extensively to get around. The MTR is cheap, efficient and air-conditioned. If only London's was half as good.

Overall we had a most enjoyable and relaxing break whilst fitting in an active daily amount of sightseeing. Despite the eight hour time difference we had minimal jet-lag thanks to Virgin's flatbed seats. We can thoroughly recommend Hong Kong as long-distance city break destination or, perhaps more sensibly, as a stop-over to break one's journey on the way to the Antipodes.

WHAT TROY JUNIOR WANTS FOR CHRISTMAS

2008-12-24T13:18:00.008Z

According to the song then all Troy Junior should want for Christmas is his two front teeth. However he also appears to have a rather long list of material things he'd like for Christmas. We have been trying to manage his expectation levels and, in part at least, have succeeded. One of the pleasures of Christmas is filming him on the camcorder whilst he is opening his presents.

Meanwhile, here is proof that Troy Junior is challenged in the tooth department at present.

The Troy Family send everyone their sincere best wishes for the Christmas Season and for 2009.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!

ALL SEVEN IN ONE - WHAT INSPIRATION!

2008-12-13T23:19:00.009Z

Having ducked out last week from writing about the “7 things I find attractive in the opposite sex” I’ve found inspiration this week. The reason for this inspiration will become apparent soon – be patient, first here is the list:-

1. Intelligence

2. Sense of Humour

3. Long hair

4. Eyes with a twinkle in them

5. Slim but curvy figure

6. Shapely legs

7. Not too tall

I haven’t put explanations against these attributes as I feel they are all self-explanatory and as well as being predictable.

What inspired me this week was someone in the news that VERY nicely combined all these lovely attributes into one glorious whole.

Ladies and Gentlemen I give you………

…the hostess of TV programme “Countdown” for the last 26 years, the gorgeous….

CAROL VORDERMAN

I was hoping to get a photograph of her that also had the 9 letters ILOVETROY on the board - but the odds on that are 26x26x26x26x26x26x26x26x26 or 208,827,060,000 to 1.

I must point out to all my readers that Mrs Troy is also extremely nice and of course caught my eye as a 21 year old with many of these attributes. However, if she has ever had a £1million a year TV contract she has kept it very well hidden. (Oh dear, I just realised that there are in fact EIGHT things I find attractive in a woman - aren't I shallow?).

MY STALWARTS - INTRODUCING THE "SPECIAL GANG OF EIGHT"

2008-12-11T10:41:00.022Z

It is now over six months since I started blogging and it has become a way of life. What has kept me going has been the kind feedback I've received through your comments. Although I look enviously upon those bloggers with their regular 30+ comments against their postings I am proud to have a "gang" of small but loyal commenters. It somehow seems more exclusive. I'm using this posting to say a BIG THANK-YOU to my "Special Gang Of Eight".

Having time on my hands I compiled a little chart a couple of weeks ago with names down the side and ticks across the columns for each comment I've received. How sad is that? (Or perhaps not!). Now as I regularly update this list, my loyal band shine clearly through and I find myself thinking "oh, so-and-so hasn't commented yet"...but then a few hours later - there you are!

So the "SPECIAL GANG OF EIGHT" roll of honour, in order of first arrival on my blog is:

Crystal Jigsaw - you encouraged me from the very start - thank you! - I'm looking forward to meeting you next Summer in your beautiful part of the world

Hadriana - also a stalwart from virtually Day One. If its not the full B&B when you've set yourself up, then hopefully we'll have a nice cream tea together one day.

Denyse Kirkby - my Wednesdays wouldn't be the same without the challenge of your WW caption competition. What I lack in quality I make up for in quantity and I'm proud of my winner badges. I'm looking forward to meeting you and Chopper at your book launch - not long now.

Debs - I've never been to Jersey (although have visited both Guernsey and the lovely Alderney) but one day I'll get my family over to "Bergerac Island" and then hopefully will get the chance to talk in Real Life.

Trixie - I've very much enjoyed our "virtual acquaintance" and hope we meet up at DJ's book launch.

Carol & Chris - I was well chuffed when I saw that someone in Thailand was reading my blog. I felt I'd gone truly "global". I've just seen on DJ's blog that you too will be at the book launch. Great news!

Brit Gal Sarah - you've become a recent stalwart - and all the way from remote Okieland! I can't see me ever getting so far "up country" but I appreciate our virtual acquaintance - and long may it continue.

Ladybird World Mum - last but certainly not least in this roll of honour. I love your blog and our mutual feedbacks. Again I hope that at some stage the virtual will change to reality.

Gosh, all ladies too! If only I was that popular with the ladies in real life. No I'm only joking, I've got Mrs Troy in Real Life and I couldn't wish for better. But I do appreciate my "Special Gang Of Eight" out there in blogland.

Here's a special badge I've made exclusively for you all:-

After this weekend I'm away for nine days doing my Hong Kong trip with my father. After quitting work, I no longer have a laptop and, after much consideration, I've decided not to buy one now. So I will be out of virtual contact from the 14th to the 23rd....and then it will be Christmas! So let me take this opportunity to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Finally to my other readers who may feel excluded by not being in the Special Gang Of Eight. You too are truly much appreciated - all comments are welcomed here. There are lots of other blogs, besides those linked above, I call by on a regular basis. Next year you know what to do to become a member of my gang - let me know each time you call by.

I may get one more post in before I fly out - most likely another in the "7 things" series - if I can find the time with all my packing etc.

7 FAMOUS PEOPLE I ADMIRE

2008-12-08T17:58:00.004Z

I’m going out of turn with this list in the “7 things” tag. On the “normal” running order as per all the tags I’ve seen so far, the next up in this series should be “7 things I admire in the opposite sex”. However I’m struggling to write this, not I hasten to add because I don’t find many things to admire in the opposite sex, but because most ideas either seem shallow and unworthy, or pretentious and cringe-worthy.

So rather than grind to an abrupt halt this week I’m jumping forward to the “7 celebrities I admire the most”. Even here I’m going to change it to include famous people from the past and the present rather the modern concept of “celebrity”. So here’s my list, set out in order of date of birth.

Sir Isaac Newton (b. 1643)
Newton was a brilliant scientist and mathematician. In 1687 he published what is considered to be the most influential book in the history of science. His work covered a wide range of scientific matters - astronomy, gravity, mechanics, momentum, optics and calculus, which together set out a framework for the next 300 years of study.

Sir Winston Churchill (b 1874)
Although he made a great contribution throughout his political life, Churchill gets into this listing through his leadership during World War II. His oratory of defiance when Britain and its Empire stood alone against the Nazi tyranny inspired his people to carry on in their darkest hour. Who can fail to marvel at both his word craft and power of speech?

Sir Frank Whittle (b.1907)
Whittle was the inventor of the jet turbine that transformed aviation. Without his pioneering invention, which he stubbornly worked on for years with little official support, we would not live in the small world of today. Next week I’m flying off to Hong Kong, travelling nearly 8,000 miles non-stop in 12 ½ hours. Without the jet engine this journey would still be a slow, tedious and uncomfortable.

Benny Hill (b.1924)
In these politically correct times I know I’m going out on a limb here! From the late 1960’s to the late 1980’s Benny’s show brought tears of laughter to my eyes. From the start of the “Yackety Sax” theme tune I knew there would be an hour of clever plays on words, delicious double entendres, attractive young ladies and brilliantly constructed songs. Hill wanted us to laugh at lechery not condone it and the hapless men usually came to a sticky end. His shows were sold to 140 countries and attracted audiences of billions. Yet he died alone and disowned by the new alternative comedians with their socialist pretensions.

Margaret Thatcher (b.1925)
Well you either love her or hate her – I know there is no middle ground. Well I think she has made the greatest contribution to Britain in the last fifty years. She got a nation laid waste by Labour and the Unions in 1979 firmly back on its feet, although the medicine at times was painful. We need to see the likes of her again after another bad spell of Labour mismanagement!

Sir Richard Branson (b.1950)
A serial entrepreneur, a marketing guru, and a person with the common touch. I flew on one of the very first Virgin Atlantic flights from Heathrow to Newark, NJ. A breath of fresh air with so many innovative ideas compared to staid old British Airways. I’m looking forward to renewing my aquaintance with a Virgin flat bed next week and know that without the likes of Richard Branson the travel experience would be still stuck in the 1970’s. He may get some stick over Virgin Trains but in everything he does he tries to put the customer first.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee (b.1955)
Berners-Lee is a computer pioneer who invented the World Wide Web. It is difficult to imagine the world today without the internet. He took out no patents and receives no royalties. He has made it his mission to keep the internet free of outside interference and the technology available to all. A modern British hero.

So that’s my list. Not without contention for sure but all in their various fields are worthy of being “famous people I admire” for the reasons I set out above. I’m sure you have your own opinions of these people and look forward to hearing them.

GARDEN MAKEOVER - 2 YEAR PROJECT COMPLETED

2008-12-05T13:07:00.004Z

When we moved over here to East Anglia two years ago, we bought a house that had been repossessed. As you can imagine, the garden had not had a lot of t.l.c. Once we had settled in over the winter, I did some garden design sketches and then through the following two summers we set about improving things.

Part of the garden looked like this when we moved in:

First I got in some professionals to build a nice decking area in front of our french windows. They did a good job so I phoned them to see if they would like to dig up some grass and lay some slate. They didn't seem so keen on doing this manual work. So instead I set about digging out the grass in front of the kitchen myself and with the aid of a neighbour's wheelbarrow I moved tons of soil. Over the internet I then ordered 2 tonnes of blue/grey slate and this was delivered in two giant bags onto my driveway. This we then moved over the space of two back-breaking days, using shovel and wheelbarrow, onto the area I had cleared. We also had a flat pack shed delivered and we built it and painted it white to match the house. The grass-banked area was then finished with wooden edging and some hebe type plants. The end result is:

At the top corner of the garden the previous owners had started digging out a deep hole for a garden pond. However rather than finish the project they instead used it to just dump a chest of drawers (as you do?). When we moved in it looked like this:

I removed the drawers and filled the hole using the soil and grass removed from the area by the kitchen. I then needed to turf this area. On the internet I found a supplier of good turf about 20 minutes drive away. I called by to see it and tried lifting one of their rolls - it wasn't too heavy. So I ordered the amount I needed having worked out it would just fit in Mrs Troy's 4x4. The day I picked up the turf it had been raining heavily, doubling the weight of the turf. I drove back home with the turf VERY gently using the gears to assist braking. Then we laid the turf (more back-breaking work). Spare wood from the decking was used to make another small decking platform in the corner and we put a double seat/table combination on it. This area of garden was transformed as follows:

I think you will agree that the back-breaking work over two summers was worth the effort. We are now looking forward to an nice easy summer in 2009 just enjoying our revised garden. And when it comes to sell the house in years to come we should get back our investment of time and money.

POSTSCRIPT : It was remiss of me not to acknowledge all the hard work Mrs Troy did in digging out the borders and planting them.

7 THINGS I CAN'T DO NOW

2008-12-01T12:51:00.006Z

Here’s the third instalment of the “7 Things” meme I’ve been tagged to do. I’ve got to think of 7 things which I can’t do – so here goes:-

1 Sing and play a musical instrument : I can’t do either, I’d like to be able to do both. Of course I can “sing”. Yet not like I’d like to – in tune. I had a few piano lessons when I was a child and learnt to play a few hits of the day - badly. What is frustrating is that I love rock and pop music. I love to sing along in the privacy of my own home or in the car. And at home I can dig out my trusty old folding air guitar, quickly tune it up, and feel like one of the great rock stars. I try to imagine what it must be like, performing in front of thousands of adoring fans. Perhaps a bit like blogging (tongue in cheek!).

2. Go back in time : I’m interested in history. Not just the key dates they teach you at school but rather what it must have been really like in Roman times, Tudor Times, Victorian times. Also, I’ve done quite a lot of work on my family history but what I’d really like to do is have a time machine and go back and see it for real. I’d love to see my parents and grandparents and great-grandparents when they were kids and when they were setting out as adults. What were their dreams, their fears and their attitudes? One of the drivers behind my Book Project (see earlier post if you’re new here) was a desire to leave something of my real life to my future generations. And perhaps now through blogs we can do what few people did in earlier generations – leave a diary of ourselves to the future. Yet I suspect that ink on paper is the only safe way to preserve things.

3. Grow my hair back : If I had just three wishes one of them would definitely be to still have a full head of hair. Mentally I still have. My image of myself is still as a 30 year old with youthful looks and a full head of hair. The mirrors in my house unfortunately are more up to date. Having a full head of hair would get me at least halfway back there.

4. Get in the Christmas spirit : It’s the same every year – this time of year depresses me. So many people getting into the festive mood but neither Mrs Troy nor I ever catch it. I’m just waiting for the Spring, the warmer days, then long sunny evenings, lightweight summer clothes, going out on my boat or for long walks through the fields or along the beach. When I was working and the end of December marked our financial year end and pending audit I used to think that was the reason I didn’t enjoy Christmas – that it was always casting a shadow over it. But since I’ve left work my feelings haven’t changed. Fact is I’m just a summer person.

5. Buy bargain holidays : Since Troy Junior started school we’ve been stuck with taking family holidays during the school holidays. As a School Governor I feel obliged to set a good example and not take my child out of school. Yet the change in holiday prices between term time and school holiday time is sickening. I do like a bargain. We used to book late holidays, take a cruise round the Caribbean and then come home before it was time to pay the credit card bill. Now we need to plan months in advance and we choose to stay in the UK in the summer. Those Caribbean beaches are but a faded memory. When Troy Junior goes to University (2019) we are going on a world cruise. The next eleven years will fly by!

6 Get a job : But wait a minute you are thinking, Troy is happily retired? Well yes I am, but in a perfect world I would still like to work from mid October until Easter. It’s the winter/summer thing again. I registered with an agency and I do look for suitable jobs on the internet. There was one perfect job last year – but they didn’t want me! Suitable, well paid temporary jobs seem few and far between out here in Suffolk – and I suspect the situation will get worse rather than better. Still as I type this, its 12.45, lunchtime, and the morning has flown by. I’m happy, life’s okay, mustn’t grumble.

7. Be bothered thinking of a 7th thing : I’ve already written a lot about myself in the six things above. A psychoanalyst would have a field day. And you are probably bored already (oh, you’re still here, thanks!).

Back next week with “7 things that I find attractive in the opposite sex”. A whole week to do some fieldwork!

ENGLAND OR ZIMBABWE?

2008-11-28T12:53:00.006Z

Am I still in England? Do I still live in a democracy? I ask these questions because the event occuring in the last twenty four hours, which saw a member of Her Majesty's Opposition arrested, seems more like Zimbabwe than the England I want to live in. Damien Green is Shadow Immigration Minister and the information he has brought into the public domain is of vital public interest. Illegal immigrants employed by the Home Office and working in the House of Commons shows security was a complete sham. The public has a right to know these sort of things.

We are now on a very slippery slope towards a one party Police State. In the same context as yesterday's arrest, Winston Churchill would have been arrested in the 1930's for disclosing information leaks about our lack of preparation against the Nazis.

What are the chances come 2010 that ZaNu Labour will declare a State of Emergency due to the ongoing economic situation and not allow an election? And no doubt the EU would fully support them.

Perhaps you've just read that last paragraph and you are thinking "what overblown scaremongering". Well remember we've had the introduction into British law of the Civil Contingencies Act which gives the government the right to terminate democracy in an "emergency" of its own definition. Also the introduction into British law of the Terrorist Act which allows the government to prevent political demonstrations and hold people without charge for a month. To paraphrase Vince Cable "from Mr Bean to Stalin". Be Afraid - Be Very Afraid!

7 THINGS I DO NOW

2008-11-25T11:33:00.006Z

This is my second posting in the Seven Things series following my tag by rob clack. This time it is “7 things I do now” but I’m actually just going to give you four things. Pleased don’t feel short changed, I will explain in a bit of detail why I do them now. So four is enough!

Chill and Relax – the best thing about retiring early has been the virtual elimination of stress from my life. Mrs Troy believes, and I tend to agree, that if I’d kept on going as previously I wouldn’t have lived to the normal retirement date. The early rise, the commute to Central London, the manic and incessant e-mail demands for information, the staff out sick, or on holiday, or extended maternity leave. The work that still had to done to ever tighter deadlines. Stop! Stop! STOP! I want to get off!
And I did. Of course I miss both the money and the social aspects of working in an office. But I’m so much happier now and so much more relaxed and free of stress. So if you can (and I know it is far from easy) save, invest and try to retire early.

Enjoy long walks on the beach – I’ve always liked the coast. Now we live just a fifteen minute ride from the nearest beach and it is not much further to many other beautiful beaches. My favourite local beach is just south of Dovercourt leading on to the Walton Backwaters. The views are nice, the sand is soft under foot and it is frequently totally deserted. Well just me, a picnic in a rucksack, the waves lapping onto the beach, a gentle breeze and the sunshine. There are yachts, power boats, ferries and container ships offshore adding to the interest as well as many small wading birds scurrying along the tide line. Bliss!

Invest in Gold – gold (and silver) used to be everyday money. But then governments around the world decided we’d be better off instead with their bits of paper backed by just their written promises. A Gordon Brown promise – yeah right! So I wanted to find a way of investing in something that was independent of governments and I found gold. Not in the ground or in a stream, but after much internet searching I discovered “Bullion Vault” a company who facilitate the secure purchase and sale of gold bullion, simply and with low charges. . My gold is stored safely in vaults in London and Zurich, it is not at home under the mattress! Obviously I’m not recommending buying gold to everyone but many experts do advise keeping 5%-10% of your wealth in gold. Which is strange, after all it is just a lump of metal, but over the years it has proved a safe way to preserve the purchasing value of your wealth independent of governments. Follow the link above to find out more (but caveat emptor!).

Follow Ipswich Town FC – three years ago I didn’t give Ipswich’s results a second glance. But having moved to the area with a view to settling here long term I wanted a sporting interest. Now I’m totally hooked. I can’t wait until next Saturday afternoon to get down to Portman Road and cheer on my team. I feel strongly that people should support their local team not some distant Premiership team. Get a season ticket, get to know the players – and support them through the good and bad times.

I’ll be back next week with my 3rd posting in the Seven Things series. Please stay tuned!

ROB YOUR CHILDREN? GO ON, BE A DARLING!

2008-11-24T17:00:00.006Z

What a totally disgraceful and pathetic pre-budget report I’ve just had the misfortune to sit through this afternoon. It is difficult to get one’s head around the levels of borrowing that Chancellor Alistair Darling will now be running up as a result of this Government's incompetence in handling the economy over the last few years.

£78,000,000,000 in extra borrowing in this financial year, plus

£118,000,000,000 extra borrowing in the financial year 2009/10, plus

£105,000,000,000 extra borrowing in the financial year 2010/11

At this rate it could soon add up to a big number!

And who pays the interest on these enormous borrowings? Me, you, and for many, many years to come, so will our children. Yes we are spending as if there is no tomorrow and our children will have to pick up the tab. To the next generation we leave all our worldly debts!

Perhaps you are cheering the 2.5% drop in VAT? Last week Marks & Spencer had a 20% sale yet I stayed at home. Debenhams had a 25% sale over 3 days last week and still I stayed at home. Now Mr Darling is expecting me to rush out next week on a personal spending binge once all the poor retailers have had the time to change all their prices to reflect a 2.5% reduction in VAT. Yeah right! Perhaps he wanted to reduce it further but the European Union doesn’t allow their EU regional governments to set the standard VAT rate below 15%.

There are lots of handouts of child benefits and extra payments to pensioners paid for by an increase in the tax on jobs – National Insurance.

Last week two Scots apologised and resigned due to the parlous state into which they had got their organisation (the Royal Bank of Scotland). It is too much to hope that the ultimate incompetent Scottish duo – Brown and Darling – will now have the decency to do likewise and call a General Election!

WHAT A CONTRAST!

2008-11-23T12:24:00.007Z

How the weather has changed in the last two weeks. These two photographs were taken in our back garden only two weeks apart - on 9th November and 23rd November - but what a contrast!

A very autumnal feel here with many leaves on the ground but also many still on the trees. A nice bright autumnal sun adds to the view.

But then two weeks later we awoke* to this:-

The trees are virtually bare. Troy Junior woke us this morning with the news that the snow had arrived. We rarely get snow in this area of East Anglia and Troy Junior has yet to see a true deep blanket of snow. Perhaps he will get his wish this winter? I'm just glad I no longer have to commute to work in the winter.

(* for the avoidance of doubt - we hadn't been fast asleep for two weeks!)

TAGGED AGAIN (ISN'T THERE A LAW AGAINST THIS SORT OF THING?)

2008-11-17T17:55:00.007Z

I’ve been tagged by rob clack to do the “7 things” thingy. It appears that there are seven different categories altogether as follows:-

7 things I plan to do before I die
7 things I do now
7 things I can’t do
7 things that attract me to the opposite sex
7 things I say most often
7 celebrities I admire
7 favourite foods

Which means that I have to come with 49 items in total to interest you. That’s a big ask – so instead I’ll do one category now and do the other six categories in the weeks to come which should take us to the end of December (so stick with me folks!).

Let’s start with 7 THINGS I PLAN TO DO BEFORE I DIE ----

• Go on a world cruise – this will have to wait until Troy Junior goes to University; pencilled in for October 2019. A long time to wait but also a long time to save up for it. If Mrs Troy is good, I’ll take her with me.
• Tour New Zealand – having seen it in a number of films, like Lord of The Rings, I’d like to experience it for real. Also I’ve recently been given this strange ring to dispose of carefully.
• See the Great Barrier Reef – why are these places all on the far side of the world? Perhaps in years to come the much heralded sub-space flights taking a couple of hours to get there will really come to fruition. And hopefully I’ll still have some Virgin air-miles to use up.
• Buy a place abroad overlooking the sea – we had a weekend holiday home, we called the Beach House, overlooking the sea at Clacton but I sold it when I retired. You may think that was a strange thing to do on I retiring, or, you may be impressed that I sold it at the top of the market in August 2007. Clacton is convenient but it sure as hell ain’t exotic.
• See England win the football World Cup – I’m hoping that England get to stage the World Cup in 2018 and that my Dad, Troy Junior and I can go and see England play in it at Wembley. In 2018, my Dad will be 88, I’ll be 63 (!) and Troy Junior will be 17. It will be great if the three generations of the family can enjoy this experience together. [Late addition : if our England "Reserve" team can beat Germany 1-2 in Berlin then anything is possible!]
• Complete the Book Project (see earlier posting) – this should take 20 years to complete. If it proves to be a best seller it may fund some of the other items above.
• See Troy Junior grow up to be a fine, confident and independent man - with only the one heir, I've got all my eggs in one basket. I hope he’ll be happy in love, happy in his chosen career and happy with his inheritance (that’s good genes; did you think I meant money!?!).

I hope you’ll return next week for my next instalment.

6 RANDOM FACTS ABOUT ME

2008-11-10T13:02:00.009Z

Oh dear, I’ve been tagged! Well actually a part of me is quietly pleased that someone took the trouble to tag me (thanks TarteTartan) but now I’ve got to come up with six random facts about myself which may (or more may not) be of interest to you, my dear readers.

I independently discovered a Comet
I’ve always had an interest in astronomy and in the early 1970’s I discovered quite independently a faint comet whilst observing the night sky with binoculars. At that time there was no internet to consult so instead I wrote to the TV Astronomer Patrick Moore. I got a reply, written on his old battered typewriter, telling me that yes I had indeed discovered a comet but it had been first spotted a little earlier by two Japanese observers. If I’d been a little quicker I would have had a comet named after me. Instead I’ve still got the treasured letter from Patrick Moore (now Sir Patrick).

Dealing with customer complaints in person at Butlins
Whilst I was a student in the mid 1970’s I worked the summer holidays at a Butlins holiday camp. I dealt with customers' complaints when they came to see me in my small office at the end of one of the chalet rows. This was my first experience dealing with members of the public and I tried to handle it with a smile and with humour. I must have done quite a good job because when I applied in the second year for this temporary seasonal work they took me back on and on arrival I discovered they had fired the incumbent when they knew I was returning! The great part about this job was my commute to work each day – a two mile walk along the beach.

A most useful invention – especially for students
I’m very proud of this invention – the folding air guitar. Again this goes back to the mid 1970’s when I had to travel each term from my home in Yorkshire to University at Nottingham (the real one, not Trent Poly). With so many things to pack and carry I found having a folding air guitar invaluable. This is so useful for anybody who likes music but does a lot of travelling. I’m disappointed that I’ve never had the recognition this great invention deserves. Perhaps I should take it onto the Dragons' Den?

Impressing the neighbour’s son with 850 million dollars
I recently told my neighbour’s son (Troy Junior’s friend) that I had 850 million dollars. He didn’t believe me. I actually had to physically show him the 850 million dollars before he would accept I was telling the truth. Then he was impressed. He would have been less impressed I think if he fully understood the implications of the words “Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe” on the banknotes.

I’m taking my elderly father to Hong Kong this December
My father spends his days caring for my mother who has very advanced Alzheimers. Every three months we encourage him to have a “Respite” break when my mother goes into a care home. This December I’m taking him to Hong Kong. He has never been before, and at 78 years old this may be his first and last visit to the “Far East”. He’s got a flat bed both ways on the plane and five nights in a five star hotel. He deserves it (and much more) for all the love and devotion he gives to my poor mother. Alzheimers is the most truly horrendous thing – I’m praying for a cure before I get old.

The Troy Family may be on TV next Spring
I’m not giving away the details yet but there is a chance that the Troy Family may feature in a Channel 4 documentary next Spring. The idea is at a very early stage so I’m giving no further clues but will of course let everyone know more if it does come to fruition.

Well that’s six random facts about me that you didn’t know before. I hope you found them interesting. I think I would have struggled to find a seventh one – I lead a quiet life. Regarding the book project (see below) – I’ve got my short list drawn up now and will contact the “victims” and move things forward this week.

HELP WRITE AND THEN PROFIT FROM A BEST SELLING BOOK!

2008-10-31T15:58:00.004Z

Yes, I thought that was a heading that would catch the interest of my readers. I have had what I hope is a brainwave – an idea that could result in the production of a best selling book. The good news is that I want to share this project with several other people, each taking an equal share of the profit. The bad news is that the benefits, by the nature of the project, are to say the least, some way off in the future.

“So what is this brainwave for a best selling book?” I hear you cry. Here it is:-

I’m looking for four or five other people, as well as myself, to record a typical day in their life each year for the next twenty years. On that specific day each year (say for example, the first Wednesday in May) they would attempt to do the same things, year after year, whilst making observations of the changing world around them. They would record what was making the news headlines, the latest crazes, the sort of clothes they were wearing, the price of their purchases; whilst doing a collection of the mundane and interesting things that go to make up an average day.

Imagine if this had been done for say the period 1956 to 1975. What a lot of interesting changes would have been observed and recorded even by people going about their everyday lives. Or the period from say 1978 to 1997. In fact I suspect that for any 20 year period in history the changes would make a fascinating read.

I think we would need a variety of people – male and female, urban and rural, married and single, from their late twenties to their early fifties – to get the most out of the project. It would need people in a somewhat settled routine for continuity. It would be no use for example for a 7 year old to transition into a 27 year old (from CBBC to Panorama) as that would be about their own transition rather than the changes in the world about them. Likewise people shouldn’t be too old at the start of the project as we would want them to complete the project whilst still being healthy and active (and alive!).

If each person’s annual observations ran to about three pages of text that would produce 60 pages over the 20 years. With five or six people that would give a 300-360 page book.

I think if it was then published in 2029 it could have the potential to catch the public’s imagination and become a bestseller. Best case scenario – it would be on everybody's Christmas present list and ultimately become the Samuel Pepy’s Diary of 21st Century. Worse case is that no one would interested, but even then, the people undertaking their project would have collected some interesting observations for their own family history and their future generations.

So is anybody interested? I would look to share the future proceeds in equal shares so I’m looking for no additional reward for the initial concept. Some outline legal and confidentiality agreement would be needed for everyone’s protection. Everyone taking part would have to commit to the project for 20 years – effectively agreeing to maintain as far as possible the same activities on one unique day each year for twenty years. So what do you think? And more to the point, are you interested in taking part?

SYMBOLIC OF WHO IS IN CHARGE?

2008-10-26T12:51:00.004Z

Do you have that horrible little EU symbol on your car registration plates? If so, you are in a small minority here in the UK yet if you travel on the Continent they are displayed, presumably with pride, on virtually all their cars. This, perhaps more than any other tangible sign, clearly shows Britain’s contrasting antipathy to the EU.

When Mrs Troy and I have purchased new cars over the last few years one of our first instructions to the car dealers has been to ensure, most emphatically, that the number plates do not include the EU flag symbol. We would not be seen dead with it. Mrs Troy does have an EU flag sticker in her car window but as it also has a big NO in the centre her feelings on the matter are quite clear. She got her car sticker off eBay and it looks like this:-

Quite a lot people in the UK have decided to put the national flag – of England, Scotland or Wales – on their car registration plates. They have done that in the belief that this is legal. In 2001, following a Mail On Sunday campaign, a Labour government minister assured motorists that they could continue to display the Cross of St. George, the Scottish Saltire or the Welsh Dragon. DVLA officials at the time advised that legislation would quickly be enacted to ensure the legality of these symbols on vehicles. But now we learn that never happened. Seven years later, following questions in Parliament, it has emerged that the required legislation was never put in place.

So the government action to exempt UK drivers from the EU legislation outlawing national symbols never happened. Perhaps it is because, as with so many things, this Government is happy to say things but never action their words?

More disturbingly however, it could be because our Government humbly approached their bosses in Brussels to get their kind permission for the exemption but that exemption was refused. I suspect it is the latter – WE ARE NO LONGER A SOVEREIGN STATE.

THE LEAVES THEY ARE A FALLING

2008-10-18T12:19:00.013+01:00

October is a busy time in the Troy garden. The good news is that we have some lovely beech and oak trees in our back garden. The bad news is that in October all their leaves choose to fall to the ground. I can’t overstate the gravity of the situation. Clearing away these leaves is a major undertaking.

The trees are a beautiful feature of our garden and when we bought the house we were told that the trees were subject to a TPO. To the uninitiated I should explain that a TPO means Tree Preservation Order issued by the local council. The council feel that our trees enhance the environment and therefore they want to protect and safeguard them. Unfortunately though the council do not want to come and clear up the leaves from their protected trees – that is our job.

So in early October our trees look like this:-

That’s not all of them just the ones I could fit in.

Then by mid October the garden begins to look like this (2006 picture):-

And then we all have to get down to the hard work of collecting them up. We have several goes at clearing the leaves and each time a couple of days later the garden looks the same. Last year in total, over a period of about four weeks, we collected 40+ black bin bags of compacted leaves. After the first year (2006) I went out and bought an electric leaf vacuum to suck up the leaves but we also rely on manual methods as modelled here by Troy Junior.

These giant plastic scoopers are very effective and highly recommended. They cost about £6 from Robert Dyas - and are a cheap way of keeping a child amused for hours. If you do buy them we can sell you some leaves for your child to play with!

TIME FOR A CHANGE IN TIME?

2008-10-14T11:38:00.003+01:00

Is it time for a change in time? That is what the good folk of Jersey CI will be voting on tomorrow (Wednesday 15th). They are having a referendum (that’s like the people having their say, Gordon) on whether to move their clocks forward by one hour to Central European Time. That would put Jersey one hour ahead of the UK throughout the year. Supporters of the plan say it would improve the quality of life in Jersey. The main objection of opponents is that it would put them out of sync. with the UK.

I would certainly vote for that change here in the UK. It would mean that in winter we are on GMT + 1 hour and in summer on GMT + 2hours. During the long summer evenings the sun would set about 10.20pm. It would rise about 5am instead of 4am so effectively we’d be getting an extra hour of daylight during our waking hours. If you’ve ever been in France during the summer you will know how pleasant it is to have this extra hour of daylight.

But what about winter you ask? Well during the month of shortest daylight – December – the sun wouldn’t rise until about 9am and would set about 5pm. Some people argue against the change because for a few weeks in the year English school children would be going to school in twilight conditions. I suppose schools and offices could move their start times by 15minutes from November to January.

However there would be savings made on power usage in the evening – so this would be a green adjustment – and there would be fewer road accidents. Apparently, and I don’t remember this, the UK experimented with the extra hour between 1968 and 1971 and there was a fall in the number of people killed in road accidents.

So what’s to stop us changing? The Scottish don’t like it because they would suffer from dark winter mornings more than the English due to their northern latitude. They wouldn’t see any winter daylight until well after 9am. Also, I understand that farmers don’t like the idea, again because of the darker mornings but I would have thought they would have more flexibility over their working hours anyway.

I think this is a debate worth having. I look forward to the result of the Jersey referendum with interest. And courtesy of my blog you can also have your own mini-referendum : I would welcome your comments on this subject.

UPDATE 8.20AM 16TH OCTOBER : We are about 1,058 comments short of a statistically valid sample.

SCHOOL MUMS TO THE RESCUE!

2008-10-10T10:30:00.008+01:00

Whilst controversy raged on my blog yesterday there was excitement of another kind outside my house. Minutes after the morning school run had finished there were three school mums desperately trying to get into my house. And I was there. At this point, dear reader, you are probably imagining three yummy mummies trying to break down my door whilst I’m inside trying to decide on which one to bestow my “morning favours”.

I like this image. When I took early retirement this image had crossed my mind.

Unfortunately the excitement was of a different sort yesterday. I had locked myself out of the house although I still had my keys with me. “What???” you ask. Well my front door effectively locks itself when you close it so I ’m always careful to ensure I have my keys with me at all times. What I hadn’t noticed was that my son had previously opened my door from the inside using a spare set of keys and then had left them in the lock.

So at 8.35am the other families who we walk to school with were walking up our road as usual and my son and I raced out to join them. I closed our front door and went to double lock it. My key wouldn’t fully go in the lock as the inside key was in the way. I could neither double lock it nor unlock it – I WAS LOCKED OUT. Anyway, school beckoned so we all completed the walk to the school (with me cursing my son under my breath all the way). Then two of the school mums came to help and give moral support. One of the school mums had explained that a few months earlier she had had a window changed and the workman had easily removed the outside beading and then the window pane. Hey presto! An easy way in? The school mum emerged from her kitchen with a variety of implements with which to attempt our break-in.

First though we tried working on the front door – trying to shift the inside keys. One mum had a daughter aged about three. Perhaps the daughter’s thin arm could reach through the letterbox to these keys. Not a good idea – it was soon apparent that we were more likely to have a young child with its arm stuck in the letterbox. Just then another school mum walked by – “trying to break-in?" she asked breezily. She quickly got hold of the long wire which the other mum had brought and try to get to the keys through the letterbox. After several attempts she got them but the wire just bent. “I’ll come back with a stronger coat hanger” she said and promptly left. In the meantime we went round the back of the house to look at the window beading. We tried to dislodge it but it wouldn’t shift.

A car drew up outside the front – the third school mum returning with a straightened coat hanger. She sat on our front door stairs and began to poke at the keys through the letterbox again. Minutes passed by, neighbour’s young daughter got bored “Can we go now!” she wailed. Two of the school mums gave up and started walking down the road but meanwhile the third mum had hooked the keys with the wire but couldn’t budge them. I quickly grabbed the wire and frantically twisted it. Suddenly the keys came loose. I put my key in the outside lock and the door was opened. “I’M IN!” I shouted to the other mums as they walked down the road. They rushed back. Congratulations all round – a job well done.

Meanwhile I had put my wife in the picture and from her office she had contacted my bank with whom I have emergency cover. They asked her if the doors and windows were all locked. She replied “Yes, [duh!] that why he’s locked out”. Their reply? “Well if the house is secure we can’t help you, we don’t class it as an emergency!”.

If you are in trouble there is only one place to call – “SCHOOL MUMS TO THE RESCUE”.

SHEER UTTER STUPIDITY - ICESAVE BAILOUT

2008-10-08T09:23:00.005+01:00

I've just read that we, the British taxpayers, are to bail out all the cretins that put more than £50,000 into that dodgy foreign bank (Icesave) that was paying an excessive rate of interest. How stupid is that? In future should we move all our savings from the UK banks and put them with whichever minor, previously unheard of, foreign bank is paying a better rate of interest? Why be content with 6% when the Bank of Timbuktu may pay us 7%+. After all there will be no risk - our Labour Government would come to our rescue with taxpayers' money! Unbelieveable!

POSTSCRIPT : It now appears that 20 local councils in the UK have deposited hundreds of millions of pounds with these Icelandic banks. Heads should roll in these councils and the "responsible" officials who put public money at risk in these Icelandic Casinos should be named and shamed. UPDATE : Ipswich Borough Council have £5million deposited in Icelandic banks. That's the annual Council Tax of 4,000 hard working Ipswich families.

UPDATE - FRIDAY 10TH : The country of Iceland is now for sale on ebay. Hopefully this link will work

SOME MUSINGS ON THE CURRENT CRISIS

2008-10-03T10:38:00.010+01:00

The news is full of doom and gloom – with banks having to be rescued and shares plunging. However this week I’ve attended two interesting auctions and the results from these do show that some people certainly have money to invest. On Tuesday in Colchester four hand written letters from the late Diana, Princess of Wales, to her childhood nanny sold for nearly £25,000 and a three page letter written in 1937 by the Duchess of Windsor sold for over £13,000.

On Wednesday I went to the Spink auction in central London where a banknote sold for over £78,000. In a hushed room the bidding increased firstly in one thousand pound increments then in two thousand pound increments. The only other existing similar note had sold years ago for £8,000. Some other banknotes in the auction went for nearly £45,000, for £35,000 and £27,000 to mention just three more examples (all these prices include buyer’s premium and VAT). Several expensive ones sold to a gentleman sitting directly behind me which was a little disconcerting as the auctioneer appeared to be looking directly at me as he took the bids. So I was sitting there wondering whether I had blinked or rubbed my nose!

Of equal interest (well to me at least, as Mrs Troy yawns) was the price realised on Tuesday in Colchester for some run-of-the-mill gold Sovereigns. These had been estimated at £92 - £115 (including buyer’s premium). As you probably know (?) each sovereign contains 0.2354 troy ounces of gold – so their intrinsic value at that date was about £115. They sold for an average of £156 with the cheapest at £138! Dealers this week were offering £110 to buy sovereigns so several bidders were happy to pay well over the odds for gold. (If you do want to buy gold for a sensible price and which is safely kept in a secure vault I recommend the BullionVault.com website).

Finally, I read today that 100oz pure silver (99.9%) bars are selling on eBay (US) for in excess of $1,500 whilst the “market” price for silver is under $12 an ounce. More than a 25% premium is being paid for just a lump of the metal (no craftwork or aesthetic content).

So people in these times of crisis are putting their wealth into alternative investments and real money (gold and silver – not government issued promises) whilst others struggle to pay their utility bills or to stave off repossession of their homes – it’s a strange old world! What do you think?

TROY TO BE UNMASKED?

2008-09-23T11:36:00.001+01:00

There is a vote this Thursday in the European Parliament that seeks to regulate blogs and stop people blogging, like Troy, anonymously. Typically, it a centre-left politician who wants to interfere. They can’t abide the idea that people want to criticise the European integration movement. A British Conservative MEP rejects such regulation and points out that blogs have become the life blood of a vibrant democracy.

Apparently a European Commission report found that the EU was losing the battle for hearts and minds online. Big Brother is not happy! You MUST learn to love Big Brother! Expressing thoughts of your own, especially anonymously, is dangerous.

Troy supported the “Common Market” when it was put to the vote all those years ago. However I am vehemently opposed to the concept of a European Union run on continental socialist ideology by primarily unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats spending unaudited billions on their pet integration projects.

Troy fears he may have to end his days as a geriatric freedom fighter in the English Independence Army. Let’s hope it doesn’t have to come to that and instead I can enjoy my old age on the beach, in a deckchair, with a good book and my Daily Telegraph!

GORDON BROWN - A NEW TAX CALCULATOR GAME

2008-09-19T17:33:00.005+01:00

I hope you enjoy playing this Gordon Brown Tax Calculator which comes from The Tax Payers' Alliance. I would also recommend their blog - a link to them is shown on right hand side of my blog.

I couldn't get the image above to quite fit my blog. It is too large - a bit like Gordon's public sector!

Although I loathe Gordon Brown intensely I do sincerely hope he is still the leader of the Labour Party at the time of the next General Election.

ONE OF THOSE DAYS

2008-09-15T12:10:00.003+01:00

Today is turning out to be “One Of Those Days”. They are so, SO frustrating. The problem started at about 8am but I had to take Troy Junior to school so I left home just hoping for the best. I collected my newspaper from the village store and walked back home in the sunshine. How was the morning going to turn out? A quick nervous look on my return home confirmed the worse!

I phoned my wife at her office – “We’ve got a complete disaster here at home”

“What’s the matter, what’s happened?” she responded, full of concern.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do – I can’t seem to fix it”

“Tell me what’s wrong!” she demanded.

I couldn’t hold back, I had to give it to her straight - “The internet is down, it’s been down since 8am!”

East Anglian Troy is a man of habit. That habit is seriously tested when the internet is down. And today of all days; with Lehman Bros. going into bankruptcy protection and stockmarkets around the world going into freefall. It’s no time to be cut off from the information superhighway. Had I been a little calmer I suppose I could have looked on Teletext, but that now seems so 20th Century.

I fiddled around rebooting the BT Hub – nothing. I unplugged the mains lead – nothing. I just need that one particular light to be green – it isn’t. It’s completely ungreen.

Then it turned green. I hurried off an e-mail to Mrs Troy at her office. Subject heading – “Life Just Got Better”. She should be the first to know I’m back online. It’s sent, it went!.

Then that truly awful click sound – and all the lights are flashing on the BT Hub, and then they all go out. Spoke too soon. Yes, it is going to be “One Of Those Days”. I left my study, went over to the Hi-Fi and put on Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” CD, closed my eyes and enjoyed her melodic voice (Mrs Troy calls it a screech). Several times I checked back into my study – no internet – so I rebooted or unplugged/replugged the box. Quickly between each CD track.

The relevant light finally came back on. I’m no longer alone – I’m reconnected. Quick check on my e-mails. Mrs Troy has replied to mine. It reads:-

“Oh thank God for that. I was very close to calling 999, but wasn't sure whether to ask for an ambulance for you...or the police to investigate the matter!”

And so, dear readers and fellow bloggers, it seems I must turn to you for a little sympathy…….

CLEARING UP A MISCONCEPTION

2008-09-12T12:21:00.008+01:00

Mrs Troy is spitting blood. It appears that some of you may have mistaken her e-mail (which I reproduced in my last blog) which read “You don't fancy doing some ironing instead of pissing around with blogs all day!!!!!” as suggesting that I'm the one who does the ironing in the Troy household. In all my life since I’ve lived with Mrs Troy I think I’ve only ironed three shirts and one pair of trousers. In fact every time I do get the iron out I find it is a different and more complicated model to the one I used previously and I don’t know how to use it! So that must be about once ever six or seven years at best (or worse, depending on your viewpoint).

In a feeble attempt to redeem myself with my female readers I should like to point out that I do enjoy vacuum cleaning. I do the vacuum cleaning in the Troy household. Me and my Dyson are like Fred and Ginger. We waltz around our rooms in perfect harmony. (Just to avoid any more confusion – Fred and Ginger have never waltzed around our rooms – it’s just either a metaphor or simile, don’t ask me which). I also wash up our breakfast items after Mrs Troy has gone to work and walk Troy Junior to school.

After all that excitement I then just like to spend a few minutes at my computer screen to catch up on the world events, see how my investments are performing (usually woefully) and explore the “wonderful world of blogland”. And surely I’m allowed a few minutes to compose witty, winning captions for DJ’s Wordless Wednesdays? Mrs Troy should be proud to be living with a two-times award winner. I mean when was the last time Hugh Grant or Pierce Brosnan (her heartthrobs) got such an award?

And do WE seriously think THEY do the ironing in the Grant and Brosnan households?????????

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF "BLOGLAND"

2008-09-07T17:59:00.002+01:00

Over the last few weeks my eyes have been opened to a wonderful world out there in “blogland”. I’m indebted to my good friend, John Woodman of “Thoughts from the North” for introducing me to the concept of blogging. His earlier blog, charting his attempts to roll back the yellow peril in Northumberland, inspired me to start up my own blog. However my real joy has been in meandering from blog to blog and discovering a whole new world out there.

In the space of a few weeks I’ve learnt about :-

- Falling off ladders and wind farms
- Kissograms, Morris dancing and handbag contents
- Blackberry jamming and the challenge of writing photo captions
- Spirits visiting a Northumberland farmhouse
- Learning Latin at home
- Mothers’ thoughts about children returning to school
- Front doors and heroic levels of volunteering
- A love letter from a secret French admirer
- Elliot Cowan being divine (from a female perspective)
- States of Emergencies in Thailand
- Home selling adventures in France
- Demolishing cooling towers
- Sandcastles on the Yorkshire moors

Hopefully you’ll recognise yourselves somewhere among that list. I think I've got most of your links shown on my sidebar. Thanks for being out there, and for being both entertaining and educational. And thanks to everyone who has dropped by here and left comments – it is nice to know some people are out there and finding my musings are of interest. I hope you’ll keep returning.

One thing that has struck me – just an observation not a scientific study – is that the ratio of female bloggers to male bloggers out there in “blogland” seems to be about 7 : 1. I’m wondering why that is? Mrs Troy, who works part-time, reckons it is because so many women are at home all day and have time on their hands!! She even sent me an e-mail from her office last Thursday - quote “You don't fancy doing some ironing instead of pissing around with blogs all day!!!!!” What do you ladies (and gentlemen) think about Mrs Troy’s point of view?

A STAR IS BORN

2008-09-05T10:37:00.002+01:00

I’m sure that I’m not the only one who has becoming heartily sick of the extensive BBC coverage of the 2008 US Presidential campaign. This was especially so during the earlier part of the year with the coverage of the race to the Democratic nomination between Clinton and Obama. There seemed to be some frankly obnoxious hero-worshipping by the BBC of the “first black candidate for the White House”. Whoever becomes the leader of the USA is, of course, an important matter for us here in the UK but the contest could have been covered as a regular but minor item on the news rather than taking up the first ten minutes of the programme virtually every evening.

However I must make one exception to that general observation. This week “A STAR IS BORN”. In the space of less than one week I’ve become a top fan of Sarah Palin. I think there is a very good chance in 2012 that she will become the first female President of the USA. Full marks to McCain for plucking this woman seemingly out of obscurity and having the guts and foresight to choose her as his running mate.

The similarities with Margaret Thatcher are many. In her speech on Wednesday, and in her general demeanour, she comes over as warm and genuine. Compared to that bitter old harpy Hillary, Sarah is a breath of fresh air. As with Mrs.T., the left-leaning liberal media are sticking the knife in and deriding Sarah Palin’s small town, provincial background. As with Mrs.T., Sarah is obviously no shrinking violet but rather she is a woman of strong convictions and an articulate, clever fighter for the things she believes in. As with Mrs.T., she will be an intensely partisan figure, loved and hated in equally measure depending on where you stand on the political spectrum. However, like Mrs.T., I think Sarah Palin will connect with “the common voter”. They will regard her as someone like them, someone who understands the everyday ordinary problems that real people face. And understanding them in ways that the average affluent, left-wing, patronising politician just doesn’t.

So “Rock On Sarah”. Now the race to the White House is very open. If her presence on the Republican ticket isn’t enough to get McCain elected in 2008 then I’m convinced she will be odds-on favourite to get there herself in 2012. If I was American, she’d have my vote.

THE "MANSFIELD MERMAID" AND OTHER OLYMPIC HEROES

2008-08-18T20:45:00.006+01:00

During the build-up to the Olympics, East Anglian Troy must confess that thoughts of the event weren’t firing his imagination. However I decided to watch the opening ceremony just out of curiosity (mainly to see how high the bar was being set for London) and I was VERY impressed. It was never my intention though to get over excited about any particular event.

My attitude has certainly changed over the last few days! Can you believe Team GB being THIRD in the medals table (at the time of writing at least*)? There have certainly been some heroic performances. I knew we were strong in sailing and cycling but Rebecca Adlington’s Gold medal in the 400m swimming seemed to come out of nowhere. It was heart warming to see her joy at winning and to hear the interviews with both her and her family who were watching back home. Then to find out that the 800m was actually her real forte wetted the appetite for weekend. I can’t actually imagine swimming 800m against the clock – I’m a weak swimmer (like to keep within my depth) and at the end of one length of the pool (a constant 1.2m deep at the gym) I need to stop for a breather. “Becks” can certainly swim – we have a new national hero in the “Mansfield Mermaid”. Back in the Spring it seemed a no-brainer that Lewis Hamilton would win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year – but the odds now must be on Rebecca, and quite rightly.

I can remember back in the late 60’s and the ‘70s when we were pleased to see GB achieving a single Gold at the Games. How times have changed. A neglected hero here is Sir John Major – it’s lottery money from the National Lottery which he set up that has made this great improvement possible. Someone on the radio was complaining about the money spent on the Olympics. I understand where they are coming from, but the Olympics will inspire millions around the world – to take up swimming, sailing, rowing, riding or even the “hop, skip and jump”. So let’s celebrate something positive. Even if not a penny was spent on the Olympics we’d still have to suffer news of Saddam, Mugabe, Putin, Bin Ladin and our local villain, Gordon Brown.

* we finished fourth overall - a brilliant result

CONTRAST IN SERVICE

2008-08-17T11:37:00.007+01:00

The Troy family have recently experienced very contrasting levels of service whilst eating out in English pubs.

Two weeks ago (Friday 1st) we were enjoying a week’s break down on the south coast and had just driven down that day from Suffolk to our rented holiday home in Rye Harbour, East Sussex. Having settled into our cosy and comfortable cottage we went out for an early evening walk and to have supper in the local hostelry. The pub sign said “Meals 7pm to 9.30pm” so as it was about 6.45pm we had an enjoyable walk by the harbour in the fresh air to build up our appetites. We then entered the WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR pub, chose one of several empty tables, picked up the menus, read through the many Specials written in chalk on a blackboard and made our choice. Mrs Troy went to the bar to order. “The food will be about half an hour, is that alright?” asked the barman. Mrs Troy looked at me and I nodded – we were in no rush, we were on holiday. The handwritten receipt had 7.20[pm] written in the bottom right hand corner. We had chosen simple fare – fish & chips; gammon ham, egg and chips; and for Troy Junior, chicken nuggets and chips. About 8pm the first sight of food arrived, but for another table – we’ll assume ours is next. At 8.10pm (after 50 minutes of waiting) I went to the bar for “a progress report on our order”. The barman checked in the kitchen then mouthed to me “about 5 minutes”. Good, we were getting peckish and Troy Junior normally goes to bed about 8pm. By 8.25pm with Troy Junior visibly wilting, Mrs Troy was getting annoyed when more food appeared which wasn’t ours. Meanwhile we had seen someone sitting at the bar smoking, with the smoke drifting our way – completely against the law! She went to the bar. “It’s been over an hour – where’s our food!”. The barman called the chef. Mrs Troy complained about the wait. “Have you ever worked in a kitchen?” asked the chef. “You can have it now but it will be raw” he kindly offered. If we hadn’t paid upfront we would have left. At 8.32pm (72 minutes after ordering) the food arrived. It tasted excellent and I wolfed mine down leaving a completely clean plate. Mrs Troy picked at hers because she was by then “passed the hunger stage”. Troy Junior was very sleepy but ate most of his.

And here is the contrast. This Saturday (16th) we went to our local village pub – THE CROWN at Claydon, Suffolk. It’s a very busy pub, especially on a weekend evening with 20+ tables of which 2 were vacant. At the bar I ordered – Lasagne, Mini Grill (chops, liver, sausage, chips and peas) and for Troy Junior a hot dog, mash and beans. The Troy family eat simply when out! The order was timed on the Visa receipt as 19.04 (7.04pm). At 7.19pm all three dishes arrived. This, in a crowded pub with many, many families eating at the same time. Delicious food – we eat there once or twice a month and know we’ll get good food, served quickly and very reasonably priced [see August 1st posting for significance of the last criteria].

In summary – WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR pub at Rye Harbour took 72 minutes to serve three simple main courses. Very rude service, price £22+ including drinks. THE CROWN at Claydon took 15 minutes to serve three simple main courses. Polite prompt service, price £18.62 including drinks. WHAT A CONTRAST!

Have you had any similar experiences in contrasting service levels?

TODAY IS YORKSHIRE DAY

2008-08-01T10:37:00.005+01:00

August 1st is Yorkshire Day. Today all Yorkshire people celebrate the historic county of Yorkshire recognising it as it was prior to the boundary re-organisation of 1974. East Anglian Troy is a born and bred Yorkshireman and proud of it! You can take the man out of Yorkshire but you can't take the Yorkshire out of the man.

I was born in Otley and spent the first four years of my life in the village of Calverley. Then we moved as a family to Harrogate - "the posh end of Yorkshire" - where I spent the rest of my childhood. After a three year spell at the University of Nottingham I returned to live and work in the City of Bradford where my family roots go back several generations. In 1983 I moved to work in Coventry for a short while (no, I wasn't sent there!) and then spent the bulk of my career working in London and living in Hertfordshire.

In 2006 I retired to Suffolk. Mrs Troy wouldn't let me move back to Yorkshire as she prefers the warmer weather here in the South East of England. However Suffolk has proved to be an wonderful compromise. Like Yorkshire it is a mainly rural county with some beautiful countryside and tranquil coastline. We settled in quickly, I bought my season ticket to Ipswich Town FC and feel very much at home here. We have found the people, like in Yorkshire, to be open and friendly. However on the 1st August a Yorkshireman's thoughts return to home and to toast the historic county of Yorkshire.

SHE FLYS AGAIN

2008-07-20T19:43:00.005+01:00

I’ve been watching the progress made in restoring to flight the Avro Vulcan XH558. At times the project came close to failing but with Lottery grant aid, extensive donations plus philanthropic assistance from Sir Jack Hayward the old V bomber finally took to the air again in 2007 and now has its CAA flight approval and public display authority.

East Anglian Troy remembers as a boy watching these loud but graceful machines flying over the Yorkshire coast. At air displays they also stole the show with their impressive displays. Most famously, prior to its retirement two Vulcans took part in the 8,000 mile bombing raid on Port Stanley airfield in the Falklands War – at that time a record distance for a bombing raid. So I was keen for Troy Junior (aged 7) to have a similar experience (to see the Vulcan in flight, not to bomb Stanley).

So armed with advanced tickets, Mrs Troy, Troy Junior and myself headed off to Farnborough Airshow yesterday. From the traffic queues it seems the rest of Britain had the same idea. Having finally got into the show Troy Junior seemed well impressed with the Red Arrows and the fast jets (Typhoon, F-16, F-18) as well as with the pilot who threw the giant Airbus A380 around the sky (memo to self – don’t fly with that pilot on holiday). Just after 3pm the Vulcan XH558 taxied onto the runway. It very quickly got airbourne – they obviously didn’t restore many of its 1,000lb bombs with it – and it was great to see that familiar delta shape in the sky again after all these years. Yet Troy Junior didn’t seem over impressed. The pilot handled it very gently, it did a couple of flypasts then landed again.

My lasting memory of past Vulcan air displays was the fast low level flypast then a near vertical climb at full throttle at the end of the display area – the whole ground would shake, the noise was ear-shattering – you really felt the immense power of the plane. The RAF certainly knew how to burn fuel – a delta shape with a carbon footprint to match.

So in some ways yesterday was an anti-climax. However the “Vulcan To The Sky” people must be applauded for the way they succeeded against the odds in restoring Vulcan XH558 to flight. And a great use of Lottery money in preserving an important part of Britain’s flying heritage (our main nuclear deterrent prior to Polaris).

SOUTHWOLD or GLASGOW EAST?

2008-07-16T14:14:00.003+01:00

East Anglian Troy is feeling guilty. Could it be that Gordon Brown saw my picture of Southwold (see “Coastal Suffolk” photo on this blog) and thought “we must go there for our Summer Hols”? Perhaps Gordon doesn’t read this blog. I hope that’s the case as I would hate to be the cause that lumbered the good folk of Southwold with our Prime Minister.

Gordon will have the chance to see a beautiful part of our country and the Brown family should have a wonderful, enjoyable holiday. However I’m wondering whether Southwold is a good choice for Gordon to see the state of the country following the 11 years of Labour mismanagement.

I think Gordon should have taken the family for a holiday in Glasgow East. Here is a constituency that has been solidly Labour for many many years. It is in places such as
Glasgow East that the true effects of Labour ideology can be most clearly seen. Here has been lavished loads of public spending, enhanced by the Barnett formula which favours Scotland over the English. Here the life expectancy is lower than in Iraq. Here, 50% of the population is unemployed and have no qualifications. Here the welfare state has removed the incentive to work. Labour has enjoyed a stranglehold in the local politics for many decades and this constituency epitomises how the whole country would look if the UK didn’t have the collective sense to regularly return Conservative administrations to power to undo the chaos and mismanagement of the economy by every Labour Government since the 1940’s. Gordon could proudly tell his children that all the country could have looked like Glasgow East if only Labour could have emulated Mugabe‘s approach to elections and clung onto power since the 1970’s.

Perhaps Gordon is waiting until his children are older to show them the Facts of Labour Life. Hopefully by then, Scotland will be an independent nation and England can be ruled by the party to which it gave the most votes in the last General Election. It is a great disappointment to me that the Conservatives cling to the Union when the people of Scotland and Wales clearly believe in a collective ideology quite alien to conservative England.

WHAT A WEEK!

2008-06-13T21:02:00.003+01:00

If I was looking for inspiration well this has certainly been an eventful news week. So where to begin? I think the best news has to be the Irish No vote. Only 0.6% of the entire electorate of the European Evil Empire has been given the opportunity to vote on the Lisbon Treaty. But didn't they do well! And that No vote was achieved with all the main Irish political establishment going for a Yes vote. I could never have imagined twenty years ago that I'd be on the same side as Sinn Fein!
I'm proud to say that I was one of the several thousand people who protested outside the House of Parliament on 27th February with a "Where's Our Referendum" placard. It was the first time I've protested outside Parliament although I had previously taken part in the march through Central London against the Hunting Ban. The interesting thing in both those protests were what thoroughly decent people were there. Having seen the normal rag-bag collection that usually grace political protests (remember for example the Poll Tax riots) it was nice instead to see the "silent" majority making a protest. In both cases I wanted to have a souvenir of the day - for the Hunting Ban protest I got a discreet lapel badge but with the Referendum protest the small sticky badges they handed out almost immediately came unstuck. So instead I decide to take home the placard I'd been given. That involved carrying a two foot red placard on a six foot long wooden stick on first the District Line tube and then on the overground railway back to Suffolk. I tried, and I think succeeded, in looking quite nonchalant whilst carrying a bright red "Where's Our Referndum" placard all the way home. No one commented, which in some ways was a shame but in most ways was a great relief!
So what next for the Lisbon Treaty? It ssems that the unelected elite that run the EUSSR are already moving on with their implimentation with complete disregard for the Irish plebiscite. But then that is how they regard the electorate - as plebs. Creating their European Evil Empire is far too complicated a project to let the common people get involved.
Lots of other interesting things happened this week. I should have started this blogging business earlier - soon I could be detained for 42 days without trial for making adverse comments about Gordon and ZaNu Labour. But I'll leave further comments for later posts.

FIRST BLOG

2008-05-27T17:59:00.000+01:00

I've enjoyed reading other people's blogs so now I've decided to start my own. I've changed my name - I was calling myself "East Anglian Tory" but after I posted a comment on Crystal Jigsaw's blog someone later referred to me as "East Anglian Troy". I liked that. I want to make some political comments along the way but also want to comment on life and its foibles in general. So its nice to be Troy as well as a tory.

So I've got to think of something to say that is interesting and witty. I seem to have suddenly got writer's block so I'll give it a few days (or hopefully sooner) until inspiration takes over and the fingers dart swiftly and usefully across the keyboard - fingers crossed! Well obviously not crossed whilst I'm typing.