13 May

There are some dates in a person's life that stand out as being memorable. In my case, six dates come to mind. They are: 18 March 1941 - my date of birth. 14 November 1964 - I got married. 23 January 1967, 13 June 1968 and 24 November 1969 - Andrew, Annette and Nick's arrival dates in this world. That is five, so what is the sixth you my ask?

13 May 1958 was the day I signed on in the Royal Air Force. I was one of about 155 callow youths who joined the 89th Entry, Royal Air Force Apprentices at RAF Halton. For those with a mathematical background, you will note that that is 50 years ago today.

Some of those boys are still in touch and some of them will have met up today at the National Memorial Arboretum to remember that momentous day (for some of us) 50 years ago. Regrettably, I was not able to attend but I have been thinking of friends made all those years ago and hoping that they have had a good reunion. I shall be at the next Annual Reunion at Tunbridge Wells in October.

Instead of celebrating, I have spent the day, amongst other things, in climbing up and down a ladder, cleaning the guttering. This is a soul destroying task slightly worse than cleaning windows, which I hate. I then had to fix the exhaust on the Ride-on mower before cutting the 0.81 acre field alongside the house. The Strimmer came next and I would like to think that I am getting better with it but the results leave a lot to be desired. In the meantime, Maria has been hard at work with a myriad of different things including washing, ironing and loads of weeding. We finally packed up at about 7pm, had some tea and settled down for the evening. For me that means catching up with the Blog, sorting the e-mails and tidying up some Family History.

A Day in the Life of a "Retired" Aircraft Electrician

I thought that the story of yesterday should be the subject of this post. It started badly because, since I returned from holiday, I have been suffering from a bad cold (not man-flu) and my night's sleep was interrupted, resulting in about two hours sleep.
I gave up and got up at about 07.00, made myself a cup of tea and then checked my e-mails before doing about an hour's work transcribing Maidstone Marriages from 1761/2. This is an ongoing task for the Kent Family History Society.
At 08.00 I made more tea and took a cup to Maria. I then had a shave and shower followed by a leisurely breakfast.
The first job of the day was to fix one of the Black-out blinds in our bedroom. It would not stay closed and I had been told how to fix it by the company. The fix turned out to be good so tools and stepladder were brought down to the kitchen. Maria promptly asked me whether or not I had fixed the extractor fan in the en-suite; it was making a funny noise! Back up two flights of stairs complete with tools and stepladder. Having removed the fan, I located the problem, removed some damaged tube, reconnected everything satisfactorily and returned everything to its home.
Now what, thought I? For some time, Maria has been complaining about the state of the path to the front door, saying that it was slippery so I thought that it was time to improve its appearance.

Before

Armed with Pressure Washer, wellies and the oldest pair of jeans that I own I started the process.

During - Note the state of the Wellies and Jeans

About three and a half hours later, I put everything away and the path looked a lot cleaner, which is more than can be said for me! Everything off, I had my second shower of the day. The path now needed to dry so that I could fill all the gaps with sand so we had a very late lunch, quick siesta, watched "Deal or No Deal" with a cup of tea and then started the process of filling in the gaps. That took about an hour, but made the path look rather grey so we are now awaiting some gentle rain to tidy the whole thing.

After

I followed that with lifting some more turf and building my wall a little higher before calling it a day and settling down for a quiet evening, including a chicken salad sandwich. I did do a little more Marriage transcribing in between watching a little television and we finally went to bed at about 23.00. I read a couple of chapters of 'Oliver Twist' before having a good night's sleep - hooray!

Post Holiday Update

We have had glorious weather since we returned and therefore all the grass has been cut, including the two fields, some weeding has been done and further construction of my "turf wall" has taken place.
Today, Maria was washing some bedding and was complaining that the sheets did not fit very well on the rotary clothes drier. I decided to, temporarily, supply one of the longest lines in Cornwall, stretching all the way across our field. It now seems as though it will become a permanent feature although positioned slightly differently. If anyone is interested, it was just over 34 of my golfer's paces long. Anyone got a longer one?