How times change

In 1999, I was forced to retire from a working life in company finance (close work) as a result of failing eyesight. In 2001, I received surgery which went some way towards at least stopping my sight getting worse. At the same time I had upgraded my current 780 adult education cert so as to teach anyone music in schools & colleges. When I left Courtaulds, I told everyone that I would never have a computer at home, I now have three. I have in the last two years become a computer addict. My first job in the morning is to log-on & check emails, then read my online (free) papers. My first pc was to store pictures, but one thing led to another. A friend posted pics of my railway on her unused Flickr site that I now share full access to. So we both post comments which is fun working out who is the nurse & who is me. Now, you have to put up with me on here. How times have changed. As we reflect on the old & view the new year, what about you ?

Funny isn't it, fate? I always swore that I would NEVER go into the motor industry! I spent 38 years in it. Some were happy, some weren't; but it never failed to spark interest. I never thought I would leave Coventry. Now here we are, 140 miles away, after almost 30 years away from the city! The one thing that has been constant throughout my life has been a passion for history in all its forms. Art, antiques, photography, music, travel, wildlife, engineering, all from part of my interest in the world and its history. I always need a new form of challenge, and still want to learn more. I can't imagine not learning new things, being fascinated by them, by technology, why things happen. I just want to be able to carry on acquiring, assimilating, and probing into new things in 2012. It's good to look back, but also to look forward. Long may it be so!

I love your art, Morgana. I wish that I could draw but that is a pipe dream, so my model railway is my picture but in 3D. I have put some pictures of our railway on my hobby gallery file. I tell you something else that has not changed. At college one day, a student asked me what my favourite subject at school was. I told her, dinner hour. That has never changed. Your description of being a prisoner in your home is not unusual. I listened to a radio news bulletin years ago where two of the news items were about a breakout from Parkhurst prison & Madonna's home in the USA with her security guards. The venues could have been swapped around and the news stories would have still fitted. That's why I believe that Rob's HCF site here is such a lifeline to people who are house-bound. Those of us who are mobile can become your eyes & ears, that's why I will continue my out & about stories. We, who are part of Coventry are history, now. What happened in Coventry yesterday or even this morning is history now. Best wishes to you

Thank you Philip that is so kind, I never feel my paintings are good enough, there is hope for you yet as my mother, she started in her 60s when my dad died but could never draw to save her life, yet she was more a superior painter than myself or sister who could draw but couldn't paint. We all have to have some kind of hobby and especially steam trains I love to look at, I shall be taking a look at them, at least your hobby gets you out and about to where you can see it for real and at the same time keeps you healthy with exercise to work off that dinner time, hehe, also you can meet the same kind of people with the same interest. I love looking at your photos of places you visit on your walks, thank you for sharing them with us all. As you have your trains I have my garden to go out to look upon which keeps me sane watching nature visit it and teaching my grandchildren about how to grow plants be it food or flowers when I'm up to it. Yes that is the price some when yearning for fame have to pay, something I've never sought to be famous neither rich, I've been more of a helper to others especially oap neighbours, I see being wealthy not knowing who your true friends are, it never makes anyone happy just not so much worry on paying bills and would hate for it to change my character like I've seen it with do with others I know, not that I would let it if by chance I ever became wealthy. Yes this site is a great asset for people like myself to be able to share.

There was one single event that sparked me off into model railways as an adult. The three of us were on holiday, staying with my mum & dad at their home in Bodmin, 1972. My mum asked me if I would help her local vicar out by playing for a wedding at his parish church in Newlyn East. I called to see the church for a practise & was greeted by the Rev. Peter Denny. I knew him as I had read one of his books. He was famous for his model railways. Fiddle-yards in particular. Anyway, a few days after the wedding, we as a family were all invited to his home for a Friday tea. We left his home gone midnight after a fabulous full shift at his Buckingham Great Central em (fine scale) like 00 model railway. The year after my mum & dad died, 1977, Peter & his wife Silv invited us to have a weeks holiday with them. One of the best holidays of my life.

Fate. Tell me about it. I came here as a teenager to study at the Poly (which turned into a University in my final year). I then studied at the other University in the city, moved away to study some more in Sheffield, and ended up getting a job at GPT in Coventry. I remember when the bloke phoned me up to invite me for an interview, he sounded almost apologetic that the job was in Coventry. I never intended to come back. Luckily, my partner (now wife) worked in the city so it turned out good in that respect. So now I have been been here 15 years as a "resident" (and spawned two children) and ended up leaving Marconi/GPT before it crashed and ended up in the auto industry as a Software Engineer. Which is odd. As I don't even like cars. I came from a small town in Lancashire, which I swore I would leave and as soon as I could, I did. But there's a strange Coventry link: during a weavers' strike in Lancashire, they imported Coventry weavers up to the area I grew up in, and there's even an old folk song from the area about Coventry Weavers. They also moved some of the industry up there during WWII.

How times change - even for me! Although as a teenager, I used to enjoy the great folk and poetry nights at the Old Dyers' Arms , I would NEVER, EVER, have imagined that - almost 50 years later - I would be a regular performer at such nights around the Canberra district, reading my own poetry (well - more like the Pam Ayres stuff than "real" poetry, but the audiences seem to like it!). Some of the other performers sing and play old English and Celtic folk-songs, and they would be very interested in the Coventry Weavers' song. I couldn't find it on the web. Anyone know where I can get the tune and lyrics?

Hi all I have added to the title of this topic, rather than starting a new thread, continuing the theme of changing times. I have performed a rare duty this morning by topping my diesel tank up with £18 worth. I still have to get used to using diesel instead of petrol, old habits die hard. This is my first top-up since before Christmas, so you can see my high mileage count (joke). When I had my first car (1967), a ten year old Wolseley 6/80, I could fill the tank for £5. I had owned a couple of motor-bikes & a moped previously & I think that petrol was about 4/- per gallon then. That is the same money as 20p per gallon, new money. What are your motoring memories? Please keep it Coventry related, but have fun.

Hi. Funny really I was just working it out when, Philip, you put your post on. In 1965 petrol was 4/11d a gallon, four gallons and a lollipop for a pound. Don't sound a lot now but the wage was only £12 a week. This works out at 48 gallons for the wage. On my calculations, for the same job at £400 a week, petrol at £6.03, that works out at 66.33 gallons for a week's wage, it's cheaper. I was only an apprentice then so my wage was £3.50 a week, so I used to head for the Jet petrol station on the Coundon Rd (slightly cheaper). I loved the freedom of my car then at 17 and I still enjoy it today.

Hi & thank you, scrutiny. Towards the end of last year, the Beeb broadcasted a series of history programmes that were centered on the village of Kibworth in Leicestershire. There were so many ties with Coventry, that the presenter spent time in our city & we saw inside our own historic civic buildings of the time. What was demonstrated was how much better off the skilled working class person was prior to the present day. It was measured by how much it cost to feed & keep a roof over our heads. We today pay more for that now than our serf cousins did five hundred years ago. Another measure is taxation. Please laugh at this but is a very true statistic. Mark day 155 on your calendar, as that for a working person paying tax in the UK is a very big day. Taking direct & indirect taxation at average, we do not earn a penny into our own pockets until that day. Our government has it. When I left school in 1963, that same day was day 126. So we even pay more tax now, in spite of what is claimed. Hope you liked that interlude.

Hi Philip, so every pound YOU save is a government oversight!!!!!!!

When you look at some of the old photos of radios and the like! Luxury! 'Home Receiver'

Around 1966 the Racal two-way radio in our private hire car cost £2,000 per year, or twice the sale price of the Ford Corsair it was fitted to! From memory it was made from sky-blue plastic and had just two controls on the front volume and "squelch". "Squelch" was used to dampen the loud bursts of static between messages but setting it was a matter of trial and error.

Hi all Entertainment has changed, hey! Just click on the picture for a couple of minutes of magic.