Its holiday time again. Mid-Xmas twilight zone and once again I have forgotten what day it is. Royal Mail is pretty tight on holiday time around December (I wonder why) so I have to use up loads of my own to have a few weeks off.

I have had a great Xmas. I got a fab new digicam from Mother dearest and as soon as my memory card comes from Amazon, it will be useful. Why do they sell the bloody things with no memory at all? As it comes out of the box, it will hold 4 shots. Brilliant. Once again, I mamaged to do all my Xmas shopping at the last moment in a few hours. Plymouth city centre is avoidable at the best of times but even a hardended cynic such as myself has to put his best foot forward in determined fashion to step around and over the cretinous dregs of society.

“What do you do for a job daddy?”, ” I run a dodgy stall that unlocks sim cards for people who have stolen phones”.

“5 lighters for a pound”, “5 lighters for a pound…”

Yo Ho Ho indeed…

I did manage to see the best busker in the world though. It was about 8.20am and as I stood outside Woolworths waiting for them to open, a festive, tramp-like chap set up a considerable amount of audio equipment. Considering the amount of technology available to him, myself and a small crowd of on-lookers expected a lot. With a loud buzz of feedback he fired it up and techno filled the air. Somewhere deep in the mix was the vague melody of “White Christmas”. Several dotty old ladies started to clap and when he judged the moment was right, said busker having first topped his head with a santa hat began to breakdance. I kid you not. The coppers and pound coins began to fly towards his cap and I left.

I have had a few Emails lately that I kept quiet about. Michael Duffy, a contempory of Ben Johnson’s from Australia has been in touch for few years and is no closer to finding the lofty teaching one. Michael’s Email did at least solve the mystery of at least one Australian dot on my visitor map.

Secondly, a new contact. John Allan. He sent such a long and readable note that I hope he won’t mind me sharing.

Hi Neil

After many visits to your site I thought it about time I dropped you a line. I was Kitchener then Wolseley 72 -77. I am not sure if I was ever considered an asset to the school, I accumulated some 16 strokes of the cane during my school career, six of which came from Col Ferrier the head ( don’t ask, I was just a stupid twat then, no change now really ). Although one of those was from Major Cherry who was so fed up with people playing about he caned the whole house, 1 stroke each. I will always remember comparing “marks” with David Love in the toilets opposite the boot room as David Brooshooft walked past, paused, shook his head and walked on, with that wry smile on his face.

I have recently made contact with a few others from my era and we are mumbling about a get together for 2007, I hope it comes off OK. When I attended the west country bash with Andy Barlow last year it was daunting going along but once you get a beer down your neck you either love people or you hate ‘em. strangely by the end of the evening I think I found closure on something but I am still not sure what.

I have read write ups from others at the school and I was a bit shocked to find there were many who were as unhappy as I was at certain points through my time there. Having said that, in my last year something different happened and Pete Sampson did something to me that had not really happened before, he praised me. I wont bore you with details but it was during a 3rd 15 rugby match, we were winning as usual and its something I have never forgotten. From that day on I really enjoyed my time , I knuckled down and studied hard, well a bit harder than I was. It was as a result of that last year in school that I really did manage to gain any benefit from the education system at all. But I am thankful, now I work, as you can see from the E Mail address for a train operating company, I started at the bottom but with many of the skills the school taught me (not he who stabs first wins, always share a bath with other boys etc) but self reliance, self discipline, I have managed to do very well ( a bit better than the train service this morning unfortunately).

I think a good example of the gulf that existed between me and the school was not the fact that I ran away 3 times (once you’ve done it once, its easy ) but that in my first year I fell out of a tree and hurt my arm on a sunny Saturday afternoon. I went to Matron who told me not to fuss, but it was really sore all weekend and on the Monday I went to another Matron (Mrs Hopkins I think, her husband ran B-Div). She sent me for an X ray and they found I had broken it, three weeks in plaster for me, great.

This probably seems like I hated all my time there, I didn’t . I remember loads of really good times, like when the delivery van left the staff room beer delivery outside, well it was like manna from heaven. A load of guys lifted the odd bottle, not that they wouldn’t notice a crate or two missing. about 4 PM the fire alarm went off and we all duly assembled on parade. To say the riot act was read out would be an understatement. On pain of death we were instructed to return the stolen beer. some did, not I, too wise by half I knew I was not going to get caught , after all, all that would happen would you be in even more trouble. No, I hid my bottle of Guinness ( yes Guinness, what boy drinks that !!!) up in the loft and secretly shared it with Derek Spencer. We then ate a tube of toothpaste each to hide the smell (I am not sure what tasted worse ). We had locker searches and all sorts but I got away with it, well till I meet my maker I guess.

It was not all conflict either, we had a close bond of guys in my senior house and whilst we often argued about trivial things we stuck together when ever any of us were in trouble, except when the police came round about some senior boys visiting a caravan of ill repute, parked just outside of Guston. But it was gone by the time we found out where it was.

Look mate, I started off by wanting to drop you a line and congratulating you on a brilliant web site, cheers me up on crap days. But I have waffled on about my self , I do apologise and maybe if I see you at a distant reunion you will allow me to buy you pint by way of that apology.

Have a good day, I have and will keep on coming back.

Kindest regards

John Allan ( not all bad boy of 72-77)

Caravan? Where?

L8r Dudes

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