A Busy Week at the Hospital

When Margie was in hospital a few weeks ago for an emergency operation they found a lesion on her chest, to add to her list of problems.

To-day she went for a scan to find out the problem, on Friday she goes to see the specialist to see what the problem is, so we are keeping our fingers and toes crossed. But still a worrying time.

On Thursday she has an appointment with the specialist who performed the operation a few weeks ago, to make sure everything is ok there.

So a busy week at the hospital, with hopefully a satisfactory ending.

ATB Ken

My Love of Canals

My interest in canals goes back over 40 years, from when I was a long distance lorry driver; driving all over the country.

I have always lived within a few miles of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, but driving all over the country brought me into contact with probably the majority of the canals in the country.

When I started hgv driving there were very few motorways, and using A roads brought you a lot closer to various stretches of canal. I used to see a certain stretch of canal and try to work out which one it was, I bought as many books and guides as I could to try and put a name to the canals that I saw.

I used to park over night sometimes at the lorry park in Banbury, and walk along the canal bank; it certainly looked a lot different then, the bank overgrown with nettles and weeds, what a difference there is now.

I used to collect bulk wheat from farms in Oxfordshire, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and the surrounding counties, wherever I went there was a canal or waterway to investigate.

I also used to pick up at the docks in Goole and the wharfs along the Trent at Keadby, Gainsborough and Newark from the coasters that used to go down there.

I can remember going down the A38 south of Gloucester looking down and seeing the coasters on the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal.

On one particular day I was driving along and came to one of the most beautiful places I have seen, the River Thames at Lechlade, in fact the Thames valley through Oxfordshire and Berkshire has some magnificent scenery.

Another regular run I did in the late seventies was to Kingston upon Hull, passing the site of Humber Bridge that was under construction. One tower was complete when I started the run, but I saw the building of the bridge from then to completion and was one of the first hgv’s to cross the bridge.

The M62 in West Yorkshire on the way to Hull runs near to the Aire and Calder in places, and a daily site were the 'Tom Puddings' on there way to the power stations.

It was inevitable that before long I would buy a boat, but finding one then was easier said than done, I eventually came across one in 1976, at White Bear Marina near Chorley. An 18-foot cruiser complete with trailer at just the right price, the boat was called 'Flitter mouse', the previous owner must have had a thing about bats; the make I do not know.

We certainly had some fun on that boat, cruising up and down at weekends and further a field for holidays; I think the furthest we got in her was Lymm on the Bridgewater Canal. At that time you did not need a license or insurance, you just had to pay the mooring fees and petrol was far far cheaper then of course, so boating then was a cheap pastime.

To cut a long story short, a couple of years later I divorced and re-married and lived at the other side of the country for a while, and the boat stayed put and was eventually sold.

Of course my interest in canals did not wane, and luckily enough my wife was also interested in canals and boats as her Grandma had been brought up on a working boat, so holidays were spent on hire boats for a while, this gave me the opportunity to cruise on some of the canals that I had seen while driving; but with a whole new prospective; looking up from the canal and seeing the traffic rushing by, a completely different world.

Sadly lifestyle changed and other interests and pastimes came to the fore and canals and boating took a back seat for a while.

In 1996 we moved to caravan park in Scarisbrick, which bordered the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, this move re-kindled the love of canals, seeing all the boats moored alongside the caravan park. The caravan park not being residential, closed down for two months each year, and everyone has to find alternative accommodation; what better way could there be than spending those two months on a boat on the canal at the side of the caravan park. So again a search for a boat commenced; we eventually found a reasonably priced cruiser at Lymm Marina, in fact at that time they had probably ten or twelve for sale, so plenty of choice.

We arranged to pick the boat up the following week-end, and my youngest son and his wife agreed to help us bring her back. The journey back turned out to be a bit of a nightmare that I will relate at a later time.

To be continued.

A Good Friday for the Saints

I am a life long Saints (St.Helens Rugby League Club) supporter and one of the high lites of the rugby league season is the Good Friday derby game between Saints and Wigan (affectionately named The Pies or Pie Eaters).

For the last two seasons Saints have been the top team, two seasons ago we won every cup on offer, but as they say 'when your at the top there is only one way to go', last season we won two cups, which is still an achievement.

This season we have not been doing to well, we have suffered a few key injuries which has not helped our cause, our defence has not been too good winning or losing by just a few points.

We lost last week by a few points to Catalan for the first time, and Wigan managed to win there game by scoring in the last few minutes, so we fully expected a thrashing this Good Friday.

As I was working Friday night I was unable to watch the match, but when I got up and put on the teletext imagine my surprise when I saw the headlines 'Ruthless St Helens crush Wigan '.

We put on our best display of the season to beat them 46 - 10, an influential player Sean Long made it back from injury for the match and worked his magic. So we are now in joint second place in the league, and we wiped the smile of the 'Pie Eaters' face again.

Yes it was a good friday for the Saints.

ATB Ken

Blogging Takes Over Your Life

It's funny when I started this blog by mistake two weeks ago I had no idea what I would write in it, but now my head is filled with so many memories and things that I wish to put down in writing, they could probably fill a book.

Blogging is taking over my life.

Ken

My Favourite Season

My favourite season is spring, what is yours. The leaves and the buds start appearing on the trees and bushes, everywhere starts to turn green; the days start to get longer and thoughts turn to the hopefully warm sunny days ahead.

Vote in the poll for your favourite season.

Thanks Ken

Early Memories (1945 - 1955)

My earliest memories are of Wigan Infirmary, a black nurse and a wooden rocking horse. I was two when I had mastoiditis, not a serious problem nowadays if treated early enough, but back then it was pretty serious. I was always told that I was lucky to survive the operation, which left me with no hearing problems, just a dip in the bone at the back of my right ear which I believe had been chipped away.

I suppose starting school was the next memory, something I was not looking forward to.

I was born in a little village called Crawford, just one street where everyone knew each other, the school only had two classrooms, one for infants and one for juniors. My brother who was eight years older than me had left junior school and after passing his eleven plus exam with flying colours was now at Up-Holland Grammar School.

Luckily enough my cousin Pat who was six months older than me lived in Crawford as well, and being a bit of a tom-boy she became my protector both at and away from school; in fact she was my best friend for quite a few years.

Crawford School

I was not impressed with school at all, there were only two teachers, Mrs. Webster who taught the infants, and Miss Ellison who taught the juniors. Both of them where real battle axes, I would not like to count the number of wooden rulers that had been broken over pupils hands by both of them, one thing I know it was really painful. But it enforced discipline, something that is sadly missing in this country at the moment.

I suppose teaching four different years in one class was a difficult task, and I really cannot remember how it was done as each year would be learning something different.

Just as important as school in those days was Sunday school, all the children in the village used to go without fail, Sunday morning was bath day then Sunday clothes and of to Sunday school. This is the only time my cousin Pat and I were apart, for we were C of E, and Pat's family were Methodist, one church was at one end of the village and the other at the other end.

Our Sunday clothes were bought for Easter, these lasted us for twelve months and then were used for another twelve months as after school clothes, extra clothes such as cardigans etc. were knitted by Aunties etc. which used to be given as Christmas and birthday presents.

Crawford C of E Church and Mission Hall

The mission hall in the photo was used for wedding receptions, bring and buy sales, and all the kid's favourite Christmas party, it was a real treat for most of us. There was also a Christmas pantomime, I am not sure but it could have been held on the same day; the highlight of the night being Bob Lathom's rendition of 'There's a little yellow idol to the north of Kathmandu', which always received rapturous applause.

Another treat provided by the Church was the yearly Sunday School trip to Blackpool, a day that both parents and children thoroughly enjoyed, and the only holiday that most of us got.

We also took part in two walking days; the parish of Up-Holland contained five or six areas that all had there own walking day, and the big walking day when all the areas took part together in one big walk.

Walking day in Up-Holland

To be continued.

Lake Windermere

One of our favourite places is the Lake District. Here are some photos we took about three years ago on and around Lake Windermere.