Symptoms

I too have been caught by the Forum's word thief in the distant past. If I intend to write anything long here now I create it in Word (or any free text editor will do) then copy & paste it to here; if anything goes wrong here then the original is safe in the text editor or has been saved elsewhere. Mind, I tend not to write reams any more so just work 'live and dirty' here and run the risk (a bit like unsafe sex ... ).

Mrs Sym insisted that I watched it last night (free via Kodi on the telly) ... both of us agreed at the end that we'll never get those hours back. Simply an awful film and the leads no Fred Astair or Ginger Rogers; yep, they had the dance steps but it was wooden - all a bit 'Dad dancing'.

Here's the link to the "Battle of the Bastards" in The Game of Thrones (it's in two parts, so let it run on at the end of part 1; part 2 will start automatically): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsFeIVJfKsA Enjoy ...

Maggs - I'll not be getting my juices tested 'cos I'm sure that at some stage the Peelers will hack into those Ancestry DNA results and Sym'll get his 'collar felt' and 'fitted-up' for some bank job back in the 70s. I'll break under questioning as the phone book is being applied to my lugholes and name Maggs as the 'brains' behind the operation and HPW as the getaway driver.

HPW wrote: " Templars....?!........maybe....eh Sym?!!....... " Yep, all those fellas and much further back ... Mind, the other strands on Sym's bloodline don't make for happy reading ... escape from the Irish Potato famine to work in the Cumbrian iron ore mines, deaths in those pits, walking over the Pennines for work in the Durham coal fields when the iron ore ran out. Others were the Jocko fishermen from the Outer Hebrides settling in Shields. The real nightmare for Sym is all that Jocko blood flowing though his tubes with the only relief being that it's been diluted by Norman juices from "1066 and all that". Some amazing characters have cropped-up in the Sym Saga and there's still more to do. Maggs, you're right, once you start you can't stop the research.

Just try to imagine what it must have been like back then ... charging with pike or sword and trying to chop the other fella to bits! Until recently the only references we had about what it must have been like were all those sanitized Hollywood movies, until, until, until ... The Battle of the Bastards episode in of Game of Thrones. My God, that had to be what it was like! For those who haven't seen it search it out on the internet (it must be there somewhere). HPW - Yep, Ye Olde Sym has plenty of Jocko ancestry all who lived in various castles. For most folks you usually can't research further back than circa 1800ish because for the masses nothing was written down about them. If there's a nob in the family then it's a huge game changer ... just like horse breeding EVERYTHING was recorded. You wouldn't believe just how far back the Syms go.

Maggs wrote: "Some of our ancestors must have been there." I've recently been doing a load of family tree research and have found two of my ancestors who were killed at Flodden: Sir John Semple my 17x Grandfather Sir Robert Colville my 18x Grandfather both buried at Branxton. Not father and son but father-in-law and son-in-law.

This is one of Westridge threads that could be co-joined with the others. I'm off to look for more ...

Let's breathe a spot of new life into this particular old Westridge thread. Perhaps, at some stage all the Westridge threads (3 or 4 of them) could be glued together on here to make for a more comprehensive read.

Oops, I forgot to attach that photo ...

Ernie - any relationship to Edwin (Eddy) Armstrong ... he'd be 65 now and had ginger hair as a lad? Eddy had a younger brother whose name I can't recall at the moment ... here's a photo of Armstrong the younger brother taken in 1969 (snipped from a large group snap taken in the Domino Club).

Malcolm, like you I'd be unable to attend Jan's March bash, so I suggest that we stick with the original July reunion plan and see what happens by your proposed 'cut off' date at the end of May; you'll recall suggesting in an earlier post a 'cut off' date at the end of that month. The http://www.westridgeschool.com website, although only having been online for a couple of days is generating 'hits'. We've got one old pal resident in the USA planning to fly over for the do; another one, living in Ireland, also plans to attend; there's been an enquiry from Portugal. It's early days, so I reckon we should continue promoting the 50 Year July reunion 'till May and see if the numbers signing up make it viable. I hope Jan's reunion goes well and perhaps she might like to sign-up for the July one too. Let me know what you think.

OK ... that promised website is up and running here: http://www.westridgeschool.com If anybody has some other photos that I could use on the siteplease let me know.

Thanks foxy ... apparently I did have a very, very old FB account which I'd forgotten about (hadn't been used for years) so when I did a new sign-up it chucked the old account in my face. Anyway, I used it to visit that group above; when I've got a bit of time I'll contact them.

Foxy ... I'm not on Facebook so how do I get to the above? I tried google but nowt came up. I'd be happy enough to sign-up to FB if needed.

HPW - who looked after the woofa, LBJ whilst the quacks had you?

Auntie mentioned it on Newsnight last night. This is all 'wind and piss' and pressing a button on their PCs is a poor substitute for all the fat, lazy basta*ds not to get out into the open air and join the marches. Poor show, I say! Trumpet is no worse than many of the tyrants previously wined and dined by Betty Saxe-Coburg-Gotha; let him in so the fat, lazy basta*ds have the opportunity to stand on the Mall and shout at him. Je suis Sym

GGG - I've registered westridgeschool.com and created a simple webpage (with email reply) for the proposed Westridge reunion. Obviously, the next step is getting it hosted. Before I do this does bedlington.co.uk have a vast server farm hidden away that might be able to host the site? If not I'll stick it on godaddy or similar. It's ready to launch so a speedy reply would be appreciated. The intention of the website is to capture anybody who might google Westridge School to alert them to the reunion and direct them to this thread. Casting the net as wide as possible.

Note to Administrators - I've cobbled together a list of about 70 pupils from 66/67 which I'll post here but was wondering if there was a way of allowing the list to be kept live for other Forum Members to add names, and to update as folks on the list have been contacted and an indication as to whether they would attend a reunion. I'm thinking of a table of some form, perhaps with 3 columns: Name, Contacted, Attendance. If there is a way of doing it in this thread I can re-post my list to make it 'live or active' for others to amend. Here's my starter list: Barbara Rudge Susan Lindsey Joe Knox Alan Charlton Kenny Campell Lenny Wilson Mary Tyler Michael Henderson Maureen Hindhaugh Yvonne Logan Billy Stoker John Hancox Alan Henderson Charlie Roberts John Bowman Colin Cooper Janet Common Michael Gibb Veronica Chadwick Peter Oliver Elizabeth Rowell Margaret Richardson Pauline Brown Elizabeth Stafford Aileen Prime Carole Johnson Eileen Cummings Yvonne Thompson Sally Jones Anne Stafford Sheila Oliver Joan Gibson Gordon Coulthard David Fennel Shirley Andrews Anne Graham Helen Hurst Judith Oliver Marjory Mayes Carol Johnstone Irene Ellison Florence Ellis Ken Straw John Brews Malcolm Cross Tony Burn John Orange Gordon Hartil Gordon Morris Ivan Knox Les Stewart Barry Muldoon Alan Potter Paul Hewish David Halloran Michael Dixon Ian Henderson Rod Allison Alan Carr Bob Young Larry Steel Colin Sanderson Joe Know Dennis Miller Jimmy Potts Michael Routledge Jimmy Watson David Morris Brian Corner Martin Henderson Paul Hewish Simon Temple Melvyn Jamieson John Hewish Joe Lees Donald MacDonald George Nesbitt Alan Greenacre John Harmerson Ian Dixon Alan Coultas

Perhaps, we should create a list of those we remember from Westridge in the hope that others here might have contact info on them so invites to the proposed reunion can by dispatched. Shame friendsreunited has gone as that would have been a reasonable starting list.

GGG - I got all my Dad's standard 8 stuff converted to DVD maybe 10+ years ago; he had something like 40 large reels of the stuff. It was one of the best things I've done as it enabled me to organize everything on my PC; getting footage in the correct order, correcting over/under exposure issues (and the dreaded frame/gate jitter), adding captions and sound, and so on. It helped that I had the full-fat Adobe Creative Studio which included their video editing suite Premier so many a happy hour was spent on the task ... it was addictive so be warned, once you start to edit you'll miss meals, dog walking, bed times. The best part was once the project was completed I was able to burn personal DVD copies for family members. Previous to this the footage was never viewed even though I still have my Dad's old projector. Obviously, lots of the footage I found very poignant. Best of luck and enjoy the project.

Had GOD* not been banned from this parish a couple of years ago he might have bellowed: "MANY MOONS AGO, BILLIONS OF YEARS ... MY AR*SE!!! IT ONLY TOOK ME A WEEK AND, AND, AND THAT INCLUDED A DAY OFF WHEN I WATCHED THE TOON ON MATCH OF THE DAY 2." * the mods excommunicated him.

Ooops! Tried to insert a .mpg movie file but it didn't work ... back to the drawing board. Poo.

Aghhh! Imfamy, imfamy - Mag's has got it in for me! Not content to goad Sym with the Cramlington Budgie Strangler but for dessert the dirgemeister in chief, Leonard Cohen, applauded. No! No! No! I suffered for a year when in halls at uni in 69/70 because the guy in the next room, that bast*rd Phil Jones, played nowt else. Every lyric is etched into Sym's brain and can't, even to this day, be erased. Mind, I fought back with Cream cranked-up to 11 through my 100 watt guitar amplifier stack lashed-up to my record deck.

HPW - do you recall an electrician called John Dixon (known as Jack) who worked at the Doctor Pit in the 60s until it shut? He went to Costain's opencast as boss spark when the Doctor shut. He lived next door to us in East Riggs.