Archive: “Seen and heard”
I saw her again this morning, when I got up for my old man’s early morning ‘comfort break’. Eschewing the pocket-sprung luxury of her Slumberland mattress, she was up and out as dawn was breaking. Walking at slightly faster than relaxed pace, her right arm was extended forward at forty-five degrees as she attempted to […]
Read more »The first incident of which I shall tell you took place in the 1970s. We lived on a small private development in Tunbridge Wells, which consisted of a mix of three-storey townhouses and flats, which were also arranged in three-storey buildings. This was a co-ownership scheme and the developers employed two men to take care […]
Read more »Susan and I worked together, as Librarian and Driver respectively, on a Surrey County Council Travelling Library. We met a great many people, from all walks of life and made many friends. Susan was excellent at her job and readers were constantly enquiring about the latest works from a myriad of authors. This required that […]
Read more »Just outside Dormansland, in Surrey is a large pile which rejoices in the name of Greathed (pronounced Greathead) Manor. This place houses retired people from such walks of life as the military, the diplomatic service and similar. They are all of a type and mostly slightly dotty. In the mid-60s I used to take my […]
Read more »When I first took on the job of driving the Surrey travelling library, I found myself working alongside a chap called Bill Strahan. He was a very conscientious man and went on to greater things in the library world. I was replacing in the driving seat a man with whom Bill had not got along […]
Read more »The block of flats in which we lived at Tunbridge Wells was built on a sloping site, with the front facing up the slope. The front of the block being at ground-level meant that the rear was supported on six-foot high brick pillars, which afforded parking space for cars under the rear of the building. […]
Read more »Susan, Sarah, John and I were on a caravanning holiday at Brecon in South Wales, when Susan came out with this gem. We had walked to the top of a nearby hill, taking with us an Ordnance Survey map of the area. From this vantage point we were able to identify, on the landscape below, […]
Read more »This story was told to me by Lee. When he worked for Kodak, in the role of photocopier engineer, he was required to attend a meeting on this particular day. This was a quite high-powered occasion, with various managers and supervisors present, as well as a dozen or so engineers. It seems the meeting had […]
Read more »In the summer of 1999 we had a lovely ten-day holiday in Malta. The weather was so hot as to be almost unbearable, so much so, that as we went to step out of the aircraft at Malta Airport, the flight attendant warned us that it would be like stepping into an oven! She was […]
Read more »During my time at the Marley Tile Company, I met a very pleasant man, by the name of John Himbury. He came from South Wales, where he had been a keen rugby player. He was now living in Sevenoaks, Kent, which is very much in London’s commuter belt and, it has to be said, a […]
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