Ok Campers, this is a combined post for April and May, as I will be having a tour of Eastern Europe in between the two months. I will tell you more about that towards the end of this post.
In the first week of April, taking in the Easter Bank Holiday weekend, I spent mostly in the garden. And with particular regard to April I can only ask “When will it fecking stop raining” cos its really pissing me off now. The moment I start something in the garden the skies turn black and it starts tipping down. If its not rain its bleeding hail and it is really getting on my nerves.
I have even considered conducting a “Please stop pissing down with rain dance” but didn’t fancy decapitating some poor crow for the ceremony. Oh well, I suppose it does do the garden good.
And I can’t make out how it is that I want a low maintenance garden but I have to work like crazy to get it low maintenance? I’ve painted all the fences, planted all the bedding plants and repaired everything that the winter months had wrecked. So I’m now looking forward to just relaxing in my garden. At least, that’s what I was thinking just before the lawnmower broke down…
So here’s where I was on patrol in April:
Luton – GKN Aerospace.
Cambridge – Laser manufacturer.
Hemel Hempstead – Air Conditioning supply and maintenance company.
Winchester – Satellite Ground Station.
Gatwick/Horley – Vending machine engineers.
Blasted lawnmower cost me £200 to repair.
My mate Andy is writing another book, this will be his third. I reckon his brain is on fire with plotlines.
I’d like to think that I might write a book one day, like Ernie Wise with that “book wot he wrote”. My book would be like a “James Herriot” of electrical engineering. I’d like to show the funny and sometimes poignant experiences I’ve encountered at work over fifty years.
I would also like to devote one chapter to the corruption that I have encountered that still disgusts me. so watch this space. A couple of names immediately spring to mind, shall I – Shan’t I? I’m still not ready for that quite yet. “A dish best served cold” etc. But if I disappear in some sort of “accident" my son knows where the files are.
Anyway, I had a very strange experience this month on Facebook. I received a friend request from somebody I had really wanted to friend but was frightened they would say “No” so I was absolutely delighted, and for a few hours I was really happy. Then they “Unfriended” me and that made me really sad.
Why they did that I can’t imagine. It worried me though because I wondered if they were seriously ill and decided to do it then changed their mind. I messaged them but did not get a reply, so what else can you do? I still hope they are Ok and might get back to me in the future.
Hold on a minute, can I see a story in there somewhere? “Get back to me in the Future”?
Anyway, I went on an Eastern European tour by coach for the last week in April and first week in May.
The idea of this was a kind of “Catch Up” for me as although I have been to a few parts of Europe I have never visited this far East before. I would still like to visit Moscow but that will have to wait for a while.
I must admit to being a bit of an admirer of the Soviet Republic as they did keep the lid on a lot of separate states and made them toe the line, look what happened in Serbia and Croatia after the demise of the USSR.
If you undertake a tour like this you can’t really say it’s a “Holiday” its more of an educational experience. I actually prefer Spain and the Caribbean for my Holibobs where it’s a little bit warmer.
Nevertheless, I visited Berlin, Warsaw, Krakow, Budapest, Vienna and Prague and travelled through at least eight countries in the process. Even went to Auschwitz to pay my respects and silently shed a tear.
Met a very nice Canadian lady in Berlin and bumped into her again in Prague, ships that pass in the night.
But all in all fascinating to see those ex soviet-bloc countries along with the impact of communism from a sociological and architectural viewpoint and also how the Third Reich affected all our lives in one way or another.
So it was back home on a Friday evening, washing machine on, unpack, a quick Family get-together on Saturday, mow the lawn on Sunday before some tribe of lawn-gremlins takes it over and then back on the road again training on Monday.
Next thing I’m looking forward to is a mini-cruise to Amsterdam in a few month’s time. Yes, I’ve been there before and got the clogs but I just like to go on an occasional cruise. And I still remember that record about a mouse on the stairs in Amsterdam, and sung it with my grand kids for their entertainment.
So training into the remainder of May looked like this:
Crewkerne – Dairy processing plant.
Bristol – Coffee machine service engineers.
Bedford – Vehicle engineering research station.
Daventry – Environmental systems handling engineers.
Winchester – Satellite Ground Station.
Now ain’t it funny, started off in April with non-stop rain and finishing up in May with a Heatwave! We can’t seem to just have “Pleasant” in the UK. It’s full on rain or boiling hot.
Going in for my hearing aid implant in June, I’ll let you know how I get on.
In closing folks, remember “There never was a horse that couldn’t be rode and there never was a cowboy that couldn’t be throwed”.
Adios Amigos and Amigas, until we meet again.