Author: siskinbob

Formerly employed by MOD and IBM, now retired

The French Vacation Begins


Day 1 – Friday 15th June.

So it has finally arrived. Our holiday. I picked my wife up from work at 15:30 and we made the quickest exit ever. We were home by 15:50 and on the road by 16:45 which included making a pot of tea and the final packing of everything into the car. A final check to ensure we had money, passports, car documents and we were away.

The traffic was kind to us. Even on the M25. We heard on the radio that there were significant delays on the Euro Shuttle, our hearts sank. But when we arrived at the Shuttle terminal it all went smoothly. Nobody checked our passports. We didn’t even have to show any ID to pass through to the waiting area. All done on vehicle registration number. Amazing what the technology can do these days. I have to say that it seems just a little too easy to leave good old Blighty. Suffice to say that we were on our scheduled train no problemo, no delays.

Loaded onto the top deck and a short while later we were on our way, gently rocking, zooming along under the channel. 35 minutes or so later we were in France.

Smooth.

We then encountered our first hitch. The bloody satnav didn’t recognise the road, in Sangatte, on which our hotel purported to exist. We managed to glean enough information from the hotel confirmation email along with a Michelin map to hazard a guess as to the likely location and forced the satnav to find a random point on our chosen road. As luck would have it we came across a roadside advert for the hotel and a few minutes driving had us at our destination.

We checked in, took a quick stroll round Sangatte. Determined that we were too late for a meal in the local restaurant so raided the cool bags in the car then retired to our room to feast on Ginsters Chicken and Bacon pasties followed by an apple for pudding.

I sat and read for a while occasionally looking out the window, watching the lights of the cross channel ferries heading in and out of Calais.

Eventually it was time to hit the hay, the end to a long day but the precursor to an even longer one.

Big Thanks To The Blood Suckers


I’m sure they have been called worse but truly a big thanks for the speedy service.

I arrived at the Phlebotomy Clinic, in Cosham, at around 09:00. They operate a numbered ticket process and the next one up was 26 but the number on the ticket I received was 43.  My heart sank as I calculated a rate of one person every five minutes. That was my guesstimate of a best case rate. I’m off on holiday today and with lots to do the last thing I wanted to do was sit in this waiting room for an hour or two. I was also concerned about my car which was parked in a free space with a one hour limit.

Luckily, for me, they had two nurses on duty and with a number of no shows I was in and out again 20 minutes later.

So thank you to the staff who were operating the conveyor belt today.

Low-cost office lets trial for new businesses in Waterlooville


Hooray. Somebody trying to encourage businesses by reducing the overheads.

Now all we need is the owners of the empty shops in Waterlooville to do the same thing and we might see some growth in our little town.

Low-cost office lets trial for new businesses in Waterlooville – Local Business – Portsmouth News.

500,000 buttons and counting for Waterlooville school’s Holocaust project


I well remember seeing the 2004 movie “Paper Clips” that has so inspired these pupils and their button collection.

The movie is a documentary about the children of the Whitwell Middle School in Tennessee who try to collect 6 million paper clips representing the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis. They did this whilst studying the Holocaust.

I wish the pupils of Oaklands Catholic School, in Waterlooville, well in their endeavour and hope that the additional publicity that I can gain for them through this post goes to help with their button collection.

500,000 buttons and counting for Waterlooville school’s Holocaust project – Education – Portsmouth News.

A Secret Well Kept


A big thank you to all my friends and family who did such a great job of setting me up for a surprise meal to celebrate my birthday

A big thank you to my wife who arranged it all and managed to keep me in the dark until we arrived in the restaurant, even though she was getting stressed waiting for the taxi. And then, when he arrived, tried to make him take the long way to the restaurant to allow the other guests extra time to arrive.

A big thank you to my granddaughters and great granddaughters, who played a blinder by coming and visiting me just a couple of hours before, knowing they were going to see me later. I didn’t have a clue.

A big thank you to my granddaughter for making my birthday cake, cakes I should say as there were those lovely cup cakes to support the Camera Cake.

Camera Cake
Camera Cake – Baked at ISO 60 (ISO = I’m So Old)

A big thank you to all my friends, family, relatives, acquaintances, colleagues, indeed everyone that have wished me well via the many cards, phone calls, texts, Facebook messages.

You ALL made it a truly special day.

To all of you I say,

THANK YOU

I LOVE YOU ALL


There Go The FIfties


Despite the best efforts of those around me, I managed to hang right on in there up to the very last second.

I was fifty-nine, still in my fifties, and then it happened.

Didn’t feel a thing. Still feel exactly the same. Yet, things have changed. I can no longer say that I am in my fifties. I don’t have to pay for prescriptions anymore.

It was bad enough when my grandchildren thought I was old because I was over forty. At least everyone was telling me that life begins when you are forty and we all know now what liars they were.

So I guess I’ll just have to, whats the current term, suck it up. I’ll have to live with the fact that I cannot turn back the clock, that mother nature continues to play the sickest of jokes, regardless of what my mind thinks. I just grew another year older. In less than the blink of an eye …..

I AM 60

Why ?


Tomorrow is my birthday.   Tomorrow I will be 60.   Tomorrow I am supposed to celebrate.

So Why Is Everyone Reminding Me That Today Is The Last Day Of My Fifties.

I feel like I am hurtling towards a cliff and everyone is laughing

And The Wally Of The Week Award Goes To ……….


Follow the link below to read all about the idiot who admitted to attacking a friend’s father, on Facebook, while still in the middle of the trial.

How his Facebook confession was printed and handed to the prosecution, anonymously.

Confronted by the new evidence Ruse, who had used the name Michael Miles online, had little choice but to change his plea to guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm.

Not content with the online confession he then proceeded to make comments, again on Facebook, about the judge before the sentence had been passed.

Judge Ian Pearson said Ruse’s stupidity was no excuse.

‘You pleaded guilty part way through the trial only really because you were stupid enough to put on Facebook what amounted to a full confession,’ he said.

‘Your stupidity really is not much mitigation.’

For that reason I award Michael Ruse the Wally Of The Week Award.

Russell Pyne, defending, said his client had planned to move away from Leigh Park and change his ways.

‘He needs help with regards to thinking skills,’ he added.Russell Pyne, defending, said his client had planned to move away from Leigh Park and change his ways.

‘He needs help with regards to thinking skills,’ he added.

You don’t say !!!

Facebook boast to his friends lands dopey thug ABH conviction – Local – Portsmouth News.

Parents’ fury as cars are banned from Waterlooville school site


Personally I think its a shame that pupil parent vehicles are not banned from the roads outside of this school too.

With three schools alongside each other the number of vehicles clogging up this road twice each day is beyond a joke. On occasions the tailback caused by these vehicles reaches down Frendstaple Road and almost back to the Hulbert road roundabout.

The cars that can’t get into the school sites tend to park all over the show and when turning into St Peter’s Primary School quite often end up staionary with the rear of their vehicle projecting into the road because there are people on the pedestrian way across the entrance.

But parents have started a petition – now with 62 signatures – calling for the ban to be withdrawn.

They say it will lead to parking chaos in surrounding residential streets.

I’ve got news for you folks, it is already chaotic in the area.

They are also concerned as children may have to walk for up to a mile in bad weather.

Oh Dear !! The poor little darlings, is that such a hard thing. Perhaps it’s the parents that are worrying about having to abandon their 4x4s and walking as far as a mile.

Back when I was in primary school we regularly walked a mile or more. It was part of the day and was made interesting by my mum or dad walking with me.

Parents’ fury as cars are banned from Waterlooville school site – Education – Portsmouth News.