I had a friend over last week that I grew up with and we were chatting away (like you do) about what it was like to grow up in the 60’s & 70’s. Obviously we didn’t have CD players, hell, we were still using the reel to reel tape deck back then and the ’78’ had only just gone out of fashion having been replaced with the ’45’. We could remember getting dead excited about having our first transistor radio. It didn’t matter that it was ‘am’ and sounded like a tin can with a hole in it, these things could fit in our hand and run on batteries, they made a noise and that was all that mattered. Of course our TV was still operated by valves for some time and were all B&W, the sort which had the dot on the screen for ages when it was turned off. It didn’t matter though because there was sod all to watch. There was no kids TV except between 4-6pm on weekdays. Much later came Saturday morning kids TV. We had Blue Peter, Crackerjack with Leslie Crowther and Peter Glaze, well, at our time that was who it was. Michael Aspel was young, way before he started selling pensions and funeral plans, he did ‘Ask Aspel‘ and ‘Newsround‘ was presented by John Craven when he had dark hair.

We did some great holidays such as ‘Clacton’ which took 2 1/2 hours once we were on the ‘Grey-Green‘ coach. It took an hour to walk to the coach stop with our luggage and we’d be waiting around for a good 30 minutes so the whole trip would take about 4 hours. Other ‘exotic’ places were Isle of Sheppey and Great Yarmouth though that was around that magic time of 1976 which those of us around at the time would still say was the best summer ever.

On the counter to all that talk of hot weather were the winters when we always had snow and there was no heating or double glazing to speak of. There was a gas fire in the ‘front room’ and, if it got really cold (way beyond ice on the inside of windows) we’d be allowed to have the paraffin heater on. Most nights we could have the electric blanket on but it barely did anything and the sheets still actually crackled as the ice melt in them when we got into bed.

Oh, those were days … I may write more about this some time 🙂

I had a friend over last week that I grew up with and we were chatting away (like you do) about what it was like to grow up in the 60’s & 70’s. Obviously we didn’t have CD players, hell, we were still using the reel to reel tape deck back then and the ’78’ had only just gone out of fashion having been replaced with the ’45’. We could remember getting dead excited about having our first transistor radio. It didn’t matter that it was ‘am’ and sounded like a tin can with a hole in it, these things could fit in our hand and run on batteries, they made a noise and that was all that mattered. Of course our TV was still operated by valves for some time and were all B&W, the sort which had the dot on the screen for ages when it was turned off. It didn’t matter though because there was sod all to watch. There was no kids TV except between 4-6pm on weekdays. Much later came Saturday morning kids TV. We had Blue Peter, Crackerjack with Leslie Crowther and Peter Glaze, well, at our time that was who it was. Michael Aspel was young, way before he started selling pensions and funeral plans, he did ‘Ask Aspel‘ and ‘Newsround‘ was presented by John Craven when he had dark hair.

We did some great holidays such as ‘Clacton’ which took 2 1/2 hours once we were on the ‘Grey-Green‘ coach. It took an hour to walk to the coach stop with our luggage and we’d be waiting around for a good 30 minutes so the whole trip would take about 4 hours. Other ‘exotic’ places were Isle of Sheppey and Great Yarmouth though that was around that magic time of 1976 which those of us around at the time would still say was the best summer ever.

On the counter to all that talk of hot weather were the winters when we always had snow and there was no heating or double glazing to speak of. There was a gas fire in the ‘front room’ and, if it got really cold (way beyond ice on the inside of windows) we’d be allowed to have the paraffin heater on. Most nights we could have the electric blanket on but it barely did anything and the sheets still actually crackled as the ice melt in them when we got into bed.

Oh, those were days … I may write more about this some time 🙂

Still awaiting the final decision regarding the DLA. I say it is the ‘final’ decision, I don’t know that, it could just be the ‘next’ decision. To clarify, the DLA people are querying the decision. Apparently it is not an appeal just them asking the tribunal chairman what exactly they mean and how she reached her decision. That was send off to the tribunal panel about 2 weeks ago. I spoke to the clerk to the panel and she said that ‘these things take time’. I asked how long and she declined to answer that but did say it would be by the end of March for sure – probably.

Coincidentally (or not) Voyage (The Coach House) sent me a letter on Friday saying that I’d not yet made any contributions from Jermaine’s DLA award toward the transportation costs. They say that I will need to start paying about £27 a week as of April. I wrote back and told them Jermaine is not in receipt of any DLA and that the PCT have informed me his transport is already fully funded.

Nearly bought a dream sofa yesterday (£1400) but decided it was beyond my budget not least as I really also wanted the foot stalls which would be another £600. I have seen another one I like in DFS but even that is £1028. Ebay has one at the moment which ends on Tuesday evening. It is almost exactly what I’d been looking at anyway. Bidding is currently slow (99p) but I am watching it and figure that if it stays under £600 it is worth looking at. The only issue is that it is in Essex and I’d need to collect!

On a related note to all the above. Monday I have a van to use. I intend going to Wickes and getting some conti board for the office along with some timber and some attractive support legs which should all make the new office set up. We will also be going to Corby to swap Jermaine’s kit over there with what we have sitting here so TV and computer basically. Tomorrow, or rather, today, we are moving the ‘J’ lounge into Matt’s old room so the ‘J’ lounge will be no more. Matt’s old room is to be known as the games room. I plan to get a Wii around April time but for now it will have the Xbox and PS2 in there along with the laptop. The old PC that Deej is currently using is becoming the server and will run all the external hard drives from it allowing us all to just get on with restarting our respective PC’s without someone screaming we’ve just cut off their music or movie!

Still awaiting the final decision regarding the DLA. I say it is the ‘final’ decision, I don’t know that, it could just be the ‘next’ decision. To clarify, the DLA people are querying the decision. Apparently it is not an appeal just them asking the tribunal chairman what exactly they mean and how she reached her decision. That was send off to the tribunal panel about 2 weeks ago. I spoke to the clerk to the panel and she said that ‘these things take time’. I asked how long and she declined to answer that but did say it would be by the end of March for sure – probably.

Coincidentally (or not) Voyage (The Coach House) sent me a letter on Friday saying that I’d not yet made any contributions from Jermaine’s DLA award toward the transportation costs. They say that I will need to start paying about £27 a week as of April. I wrote back and told them Jermaine is not in receipt of any DLA and that the PCT have informed me his transport is already fully funded.

Nearly bought a dream sofa yesterday (£1400) but decided it was beyond my budget not least as I really also wanted the foot stalls which would be another £600. I have seen another one I like in DFS but even that is £1028. Ebay has one at the moment which ends on Tuesday evening. It is almost exactly what I’d been looking at anyway. Bidding is currently slow (99p) but I am watching it and figure that if it stays under £600 it is worth looking at. The only issue is that it is in Essex and I’d need to collect!

On a related note to all the above. Monday I have a van to use. I intend going to Wickes and getting some conti board for the office along with some timber and some attractive support legs which should all make the new office set up. We will also be going to Corby to swap Jermaine’s kit over there with what we have sitting here so TV and computer basically. Tomorrow, or rather, today, we are moving the ‘J’ lounge into Matt’s old room so the ‘J’ lounge will be no more. Matt’s old room is to be known as the games room. I plan to get a Wii around April time but for now it will have the Xbox and PS2 in there along with the laptop. The old PC that Deej is currently using is becoming the server and will run all the external hard drives from it allowing us all to just get on with restarting our respective PC’s without someone screaming we’ve just cut off their music or movie!