Hi Wilma, thank you for the info regarding my dad. I didn’t know he worked at Choppington High Pit, which was about 3 years before I was born and dad would have been about 21. The amount of times I’ve walked Choppington woods and didn’t know about the antics which went on under my wandering feet. Someone once told me when down the pit, he could be stubborn, un-cooperative and would sit down in protest if things weren’t done his way. I only wish I could sit down and talk with him about the past but now has dementia and hardly speaks a single sentence. He doesn’t remember who I am or much of anything anymore. I remember his loft was a shack with CB and amateur radio's. As a kid, I remember the tv picture going crazy when DXing on amateur radio and CB am, this was before CB was legalized later on fm. Dad still has an amateur radio setup, which he never sat the test for, he was a bit of a rebel when it came to things like that. Dad looked after his things, especially the Lada, having coating it with Waxoyl to keep it from rusting. I got the impression he didn’t care much for the Lada in its later years. There was one time someone blocked his exit in a carpark so he just forced the other car out the way using the car's bumper. Lada cars were relatively cheap to buy and very basic, Russian engineering which was probably built in the same factory they made their tanks lol. Regards, Damian.