My Friend Albert.

                                Words for Wednesday, July 18. 2018
 Cheerful. River. Children. Sunday. House. Age. Or and. Demise.Noise.Point. Idea. Above. Year.

                                             Remembering Albert, an old friend..
   
  Old Albert as few of us young lads from the neighbouring village referred to him was a cheerful and helpful person. Most Saturday mornings we would find Albert fishing in the river Thame not far from where it enters the Thames at Dorchester on the Thames in Oxfordshire. It seemed to some, that Albert was an ordinary working person, However, my own judgement was otherwise, Although his dialect was slightly different than local his superior brand of fishing tackle suggested he was 'Well off 'so to speak

I was about nine years of age when Albert took the time to instruct me on how to catch that elusive Jack-Pike; a large predatory river fish, by tying a hook and line around a frog and allowing it to swim in an Eddy of a river bend

 But these Halcyon years of my youth faded to summer vacations from then on from my wretched boarding school at ten point five years until Joining the Royal Navy At a tender age of 15 years and Five months And like many other children became a crew member of a large battleship one year later.

It was during the Second World War in July1944 I had arrived home on leave from my ship which had returned from the Mediterranean and was refitting in Liverpool in order to form the British Pacific fleet later that year.

Chalgrove my home village was agog with activity, A British company had built an airfield within about 100 yards from our back garden. The noise factor was intense. So without much ado, I discovered my brother's aged Motorcycle which had a small amount of fuel to which I added a quantity of paint thinner.- It Roared to life after a few kicks then shortly after I  set off with my Fishing Tackle; praying this mechanical beast would make it there and back from the river.

Being it was a Sunday it was fairly quiet except for a shout" Is that, you Les". An old Guy in his Sixties or more appeared. It was old Albert. he seemed pleased to see me again. I told him I intended to go to the lock keepers house to visit his daughter although much my senior Pearl was perceived to be a little above my station, nevertheless, we were good friends.

Albert placed his hand on my shoulder and say's " I'm sorry to disappoint you Les but the family have moved away, but to where I have no idea. You see the lock keeper had a complete breakdown on hearing of his sons' demise on the Battleship Barham last year.

I was fortunate to meet Albert on that Sunday when the summer rain arrived unexpectantly he said we should go to his house for lunch, it was not far as he had walked there but now hitched a ride on the pillion of the motorcycle - we were nearly there when the fuel ran out. We then wheeled the Bike to his amazing waterfront home.

It was discovered that a fuel line was the problem with the bike so It was arranged for it to be fixed and refuelled the following day on a Monday.

My fishing friend who apart from knowing him as a regular guy on the river bank; had a lovely home, We had lunch in a unique and interesting dining room where the walls were painted with beautiful murals in a panorama  of rolling hills and babbling streams, with winding roads which meandered through pleasant meadows, tiny houses dot the landscape and a small white church with a tall steeple.

That is the church I attended as a boy, up north a bit, Laughing he say's" I sat through many boring sermons in that church with my parents, they are long buried in its cemetery but in memory I go and stand by their graves and to hear them speak to me as in days gone by. it helps to sit here and return to the untroubled days when my life was new and fresh, it does something for me, it gives me peace.

It was several years later after WW2 when I revisited the area, to call on old Albert. Sadly old Albert unknown to me had retired from his business - shoe manufacturing in Northampton. and was living on borrowed time even when I first met him. His kind old body lies buried in the cemetery of that little white church with the tall steeple.

 I visited Alberts lovely home by the river, now occupied by a family with several children playing happily in Albert's lovely garden.

Kindly words are a honeycomb, sweet to the taste, wholesome to the body.

Vest Daily Gaggle.

Yesterday My 92nd Birthday.

I received cards and telephone wishes from family members, plus two cakes and it seemed like hundreds of calls on my hardly visited the Facebook page. now under control by my son Chris. Thank you Facebook friends. Also yesterday I renewed my driving licence, my local RTA complex seemed more humane since its upgrade last year and the people behind the desk more friendly opposed to what was formerly like a visit to the Gestapo headquarters. shortly after we had lunch at a cafe followed by a free haircut at 'CUTS Are us. I had filled the previous7 slots over the year.
 My Son Chris bought me a new keyboard for my PC and a new reading lamp.
I now intend to shower early and also have an early bedtime. I am becoming a trifle tired. I shall post "Words for Wednesday" soon . after this. See you all later on "WORDS". Love you all.

Vest Daily Gaggle.

ON THIS DAY 16th Of July.

                                                      On this day, the 16th of July.

The year 622. The beginning of the Muslim Calendar. Prophet Mohammad flees from Mecca to Medina.

The year 1945. The first Atom Bomb test takes place in the New Mexico Desert/.

The year 1969, at 2100hrs GMT. Appolo 11  Starts its journey to the moon

The year 1926.-92 years ago  Yours truly Me, VEST entered this Big World.

This year, Today Approximately 65,753 people in Australia will have a Happy Birthday.?.
.                                                 ----

This post will be available 24 hours earlier due to possible irregular activities occuring.

Words  On Wednesday.

         Words this week are
 Observation. Enjoying. Dining. Capacity. Manufacture Embarrassed.
                                                               Or and
Journey. Business. Baptism.Subject. Loudly. Surprised.

Half of these words were selected at random by a third party. the remainder selected from my story.
                                              Happiness.
My wife and I arrived early at the central station in Sydney for our twelve hours *Journey North to Brisbane, in order to attend our first grandson's * Baptism. It was intended to be a happy and rewarding reunion with family members as well as a comfortable first-class * journey plus *enjoying the scenery along the way.

Shortly after starting our trip my Wife and I  joined other passengers in the *Dining Car and sat across from a husband and wife who were strangers to us. The lady was expensively dressed, as the high fashioned clothes and jewellery indicated. But she was having a most unpleasant time with herself.
Rather * loudly she proclaimed that the dining room was dingy and draughty, the service abominable and the food most unpalatable. She complained and fretted about everything. Her husband, on the contrary, was an easy going man who had the *capacity to take things as they come, although he seemed to be a trifle *embarrassed by his wife's critical attitude and somewhat disappointed too as he was taking her on this trip for her pleasure.

To change the * subject, he asked what *  business I was in and said he was a  Doctor, then he laughed and said: " My wife is in the manufacturing * business". This * surprised me as she did not appear to be an industrious type of person, so I asked the Doctor" What does she *Manufacture" he laughed and replied " My wife manufactures her own misery.

Despite the icy coolness that settled on the table following this ill-advised * observation, I was grateful for his remark, for it aptly described what far too many people do.
On returning to our comfortable Ist Class seats, I fell asleep only to wake some two hours later, Feeling pleased with myself having rested, however, my wife was still snoozing but with a beautiful and happy smile on her pretty face. I feel blessed that today I am not a doctor, plus I have nothing that needs changing. Seems like we will have to take in the scenery on the return *Journey.
Vest. Dailygaggle.com.

Most that one suffers from unhappiness, comes from the tongue
 Words are like bees, Sometimes they have honey, sometimes a sting.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROSEY. LOVE YOU"

 Today July 5 is the birthday anniversary of my dear departed Lady - Wife and Best Friend  Beautiful Rosemary.

 Rosemary was born in 1934 and would be celebrating her fun-filled fourth 21st today. Rosemary was an ageless person - Loving - hard to fault - priceless in every aspect.

It was also on July 5 at 2am 1971 on Rosemary's 37th birthday when our family sailed from Southampton on the good ship 'Britannis', a ship carrying mostly migrants to Australia.

                               

                                LOVE YOU ROSEMARY

L

Words for Wednesday .

Words this week provided by Vest,  limited to six words to enable more people to take part
     Mixture. Summer. Footsteps. Warmth. Shelter. Chilly. These words were selected by a third party and used in the following story

                             A late English Summer.!970

   Many of us manufacture our own misery. Of course, not all unhappiness is self-created, for social conditions are responsible for more than a few of our woes. yet it is a fact that to a large extent by our thoughts and our attitudes we brew from the ingredients of life either happiness or unhappiness for ourselves. Our good fortune in being able to send all of our school-aged children to school camp and the three-year-old to grannies for a week. was also a blessing and a sort of contrived happiness.

It was during this heaven-sent break from our lovely children on a bright English summer afternoon, my Wife and I went for a long walk into the woods where we were staying near the lakeside village of lilyponds our favourite weekend getaway in the Chiltern Hills. On this afternoon there was a*mixture of *summer showers and sunlit hours. being far from the * shelter we became soaked, we both looked a mess, then when the rain stopped we hugged each other and as we squelched our way back towards the village only stopping briefly in a sunlit area to rest and allow ourselves to dry out. Shortly after we walked under the trees in the woods; flying insects awakened by the showers hurried us along and later feeling tired we sat down on a lichen-encrusted log for a further rest, there we talked for awhile and then remained silent.

 We were listening to the quietness, the woods are rarely still, there is a lot of activity in progress, but natures sounds are quiet and harmonious, nature was laying its healing quietness on us, we were happy.

Shortly after we arrived at our rented cottage where we were greeted by the live-in help, it had become somewhat *chilly with a light northerly wind blowing. but the * warmth of the cottage interior was comforting and the oldie world aroma of the Steak and kidney pudding warmed our entry.

 That evening we planned to leave early the following morning in order  to visit my childhood village of Chalgrove and other surrounding villages where only * footsteps away were other quaint old-world cottages and the former homes of likenesses of Geoffrey Chaucer and who with Jerome K Jerome lived in more recent times and was buried in the local church in Ewelme. It is a region of Great Britain where history becomes alive.



Let yourself shine, do not compare yourself to anyone else.
 Vest ... back soon.

WORDS ON WEDNESDAY.

      Words this week are provided by  LEE.
     Caricature.Undercurrent.Multiple.Dominent.Confident. & Ultimate.

Aloysius was as the first child of Anne Smithers and a supposed unknown father, not at all like the other five siblings of three girls and two boys., aged between four and twelve years who constantly provided an *undercurrent of misbehaviour.

Hardly poor, her husband Fred the father of Josie the eldest girl, who had wed Anne Smithers to become  Anne Brown.  Fred Brown had been a *confident person until the day he stepped into the path of the local bus when leaving the 'Hare and Hounds' Public House thereby suffering *multiple injuries and his *ultimate fate.

Fred had been a * confident person and due to his good fortune in landing a  substantial win on the football pools made himself a great catch for the impoverished Anne Smithers who was still a somewhat vivacious young lady and very wealthy on the demise of her husband Fred. and subsequently bedded most of the local studs in the small market town of Sodbury Marsh-not far from the village of Frogsbottom, mentioned in an earlier tale of debauchery.

Anne Smithers and her brood of brats were the dominant sources in any undercurrent of dodgy business, such as shoplifting, bashings and school bullying, the leader of the pack being Aloysius who was quite large for his fourteen years.

Aloysius was not a pretty boy but one most artist would enjoy painting or draw in *Caricature; his name came from his father so it was believed the local priest at the time who was a spitting image of Aloysius who years before had  employed Anne during her early years as a flower lady at his church, and subsequently deflowered Anne accordingly...

Anne, being she was with child became enamoured of Fred, Fred being nouveau riche Fred was also quite handsome and a good catch but also was a drunkard of sorts and as mentioned earlier got himself knocked off by the local bus.

As time passed, a visiting Lawyer to the town heard of this local tale with great interest and like most ambulance chasers, knew he was able to make a tidy sum from the misery of the pub accident and successfully sued the local bus company then  wed the plaintiff to ensure  his share of the wealth he acquired would  be put to good use by marrying the plaintiff. whereby the crooked family of Filcher - Smithers lived miserably ever after.

This story has no connection to any sane living person.

VEST Daily Gaggle, Back soon.

CRICKET IV'E GOT YOUR WICKET, EXPLAINED RIGHT HERE

CRICKET IV'E GOT YOUR WICKET, RIGHT HERE

The following preamble is a layman's explanation of the rules of cricket to the people of North America.
You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in goes out, and when he is out he comes in and the next man goes in until he is out. When one side are all out, the side that's been out comes in and the side that has been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.
When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man goes out and goes in.
There are two men called umpires who are all out all the time, and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice, after the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game.
The general rules of actual play are saturated with a glossary of terms and conditions with sub rules, with the prefixes 'Unless, depending, benefit of doubt, and other Misc Claptrap, every morsel of important cricket goings on is recorded in WISDEN a sacred hard to get book with more info on cricket than Brittanica, from the time the first ball was bowled in Hambledon Hampshire England in the early 19th century . There is more to read in Wisden than the 'Holy Bible' or the 'SevenPillars of WISDOM'. 
Any Cricket Jokes?   

CRICKET IV'E GOT YOUR WICKET, RIGHT HERE