Symptoms

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.

Talc ... although I don't live in Blighty I'd be interested in attending the proposed reunion. Strictly speaking I don't qualify 'cos I was in the year above, so perhaps the qualifying boundary could be 'elastic', say a year of two either side. I'd look forward to talking about the stuff we got up to: concerts at the Rex Hotel Whitley Bay and kipping on my Granny's floor at Billy Mill 'cos there were no late buses back to Bedders; concerts at the Mayfair and catching the 3am London/Edinburgh Mail Train (using 2d {old pence} platform tickets ... naughty!) from the Central Station to Morpeth, then walking back to Bedders sometimes in knee-deep snow; the weekly bands/dances at the Market Place Club; supping ale at the Farmers in the Haymarket before going to the matches at St James; and, of course all the annual camping holidays in Keswick.

Just got the new Rolling Stones album, 'Blue & Lonesome' - it's brilliant. It's all Blues covers from back in the day and I can't stop playing it over and over again. It's the best thing they've done in decades. It would make a lovely Xmas present or just buy it for yourself. Also, Joanne Shaw Taylor's bluesey album, 'Wild' is worth getting; she has a touch of Joe Bonamassa about her - awesome guitar technique and a great voice. Some of you might have seen her on Jools Holland's show a couple of months ago. Let's have other suggestions ...

Talc - Just to wet your appetite ... here are a couple of photos from Keswick in 1969: Photo 1: (l t0 r) Alan 'Cowt' Coultass, David 'Docka' Docherty, Malcolm 'Talc' Allan climbing Skiddaw above Keswick Photo 2: At the summit. The photographer is me Symptoms (Talc if you remember me - keep my real ID quiet here on the blog ... I'll confirm via a Personal Message) Oh, what tales we could tell about the Keswick holidays all we lads had!

What a year!!! First, Haikeye, now Talc; long lost chums turning up here. Malcolm, I'll also PM you in the next few days with my name.

Blueprints were created by using a dyeline machine. The original drawing was done with black ink on a thick tracing paper and then fed into the rollers on the machine. The machine contained a large roll of light sensitive paper which was exposed to the original drawing (hence the transparent tracing paper); the image was then fixed with an ammonia based fluid. You could produce loads of copies from the original ... the copies were usually blue in colour due to the process, hence, blueprints. Dyeline machines came in different sizes and were quite common until the rise of computers and pen plotters and more recently wide-format inkjet printers. They were a pain to use because you had to wash the machine clean at the end of each session. The are a few print shops who still have 'legacy' dyeline equipment for odd jobs when required.

Talc ... is that you?

Blimey Maggs ... they're mighty steep mountains in Jockoland but it's good to see those Cooper's coaches making light work of the climb.

I'm interested in these 'shit flies' and 'fleas'. What were they? How did they survive underground?

Wilma - losing stuff used to happen to me, so if it's going to be a long (or even a short interesting one) I create it in Word (Notepad will do), then copy & paste it into here. Of course, using Word (or Notepad) allows for saving good stuff. No more frustration for Sym!

Pauline - contact Freemasons Hall in London ... it's the HQ for all English Freemasonry and has a records archive. Google for contact info.

I'm sure you're right about Larry being a closet Kipper sucker but he also loves lickin' his own arse.

Rejoice. Rejoice. Rejoice. Phew! The poor, the disabled, gays, womens, black folks can sleep easy tonight.

Maybe some hack has discovered some dirt on her and is about to publish ... jump before push. Or maybe BIG G (not our own beloved 3G) doesn't want her as his Blighty boss ... too reactionary!

Time now 11.53am ... Guardian alert to tune into Andrea Leadsom news conference at 12.15pm. Is she quitting?

Like I said, and I quote: "Just watch as the denials and excuses flood in ...".

Goodness 3G ... quite a bit of bile there directed at moi, and I though we were all sort of chums here. Poo.

Oh, dear! No free thinking person should be looking forward to the prospect of living in a shadow theocracy, 'cos that's what you'll get if Sister Andrea gets ordained. Leadsom and her ridiculous karaoke show, starring the heirs of Martin Bormann, Enoch Powell, Martin Luther (not King) and Ian Paisley, will undo the hard fought for rights many currently enjoy. Like most Evangelical Christians she won't be able to resist informing her actions by visiting her fundamentalist views on Blighty. Remember, what drove Blair was his Catholic conversion (kept hidden for years) ... it informed his decision to embark on his Crusade to the Holy Lands and look how that turned out. Perhaps, only Atheists should be allowed to govern.

Let's be clear about why the EU Referendum went the way it did ... deep down white folks just don't like black folks and other assorted foreigners. It was a national bun fight over immigration. Simple as that! Just watch as the denials and excuses flood in - stuff like, "I ain't racist but ...", or, "some of my best friends are black", or, "it's terrible that all those refugees kiddies are drowning but we don't have room for them", or, "I love curry", or, "they take all the back-breaking cabbage pickin' jobs me and my kids should be doing", or, .....

If you're a fox be very afraid, if you're gay be very afraid, if you believe in a woman's right to choose be very afraid of Leadsom. She's even a leading member of Parliament's Bible Study Class ... perhaps, that's just what we need - a Christian Fundamentalist in charge.

James - you must inform the police as this guy has behaved in a threatening manner towards your girlfriend. You must also inform them of your suspicions regarding the noxious stuff in the grass maybe poisoning your woofa. Both of these events are illegal so it's your duty to report him. Anyway, grassed margins BEYOND a property line (front wall) don't belong to the householder, they belong to the local authority or the 'highways agency', so are public spaces.

Maggs - 'plastic' in this context means pliable or mouldable out the tin; it sets hard in situ due to heat.

Now to invade Poland in September.

Pilgrim's right about RedX dispensers beside the petrol pumps. They were conical in form, maybe 8"dia at the base and with a syringe sitting across the top. You'd fill-up with petrol and fire maybe 4 squirts of the fuel additive through the syringe into the petrol tank. Throughout the 50s and 60s my Dad had a RedX Lubocharger fitted to his cars (same unit was swapped from old cars when he got a new one). He'd drill and thread a small hole in the inlet manifold, insert a brass nipple into the hole to accept the copper tube that went to the RedX tank (maybe half a gallon capacity) via a small brass tap. The tap was adjusted to allow just the correct amount of RedX to be drawn into the engine by the vacumn in the inlet manifold. Apparently the stuff is still available.

HPW - brilliant! You really did bring it to life.