Firetop

Remember ‘Ulysses 31′ or the ‘Mysterious Cities of Gold’? Tonight I discovered that most of my favourite cartoons from the 1980s have had their theme tunes (and of course opening credits) uploaded to YouTube. When you haven’t watched the Thundercats or Bravestarr introductions for almost twenty years, doing so brings a warm reminder of care-free days gone by, sat in front of the TV waiting for dinner. I’ve linked to ten of my preferred cartoon introductions… have fun and sing along! (more…)

One of the main reasons I don’t live in London, despite working there, is the fact that I can step off the train each night into the relaxing environment of the Surrey countryside. Of course I don’t live on a farm and the station isn’t immediately situated in a field, but a short drive from home gets me away from vehicles, fumes and more importantly other people. Following two weeks of intensely long hours I was feeling a bit stressed by the time the weekend arrived. Suzie_Q reminded me that there was a family dog we could borrow for a quiet stroll down the local public footpaths, and with Sunday being unusually warm it was the perfect opportunity for some gentle exercise.

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Sunday mornings are sacred - they’re meant for sleeping until 11am… until awaking to watch Holly Oaks, Country File and the Eastenders omnibus, before arising for proper food at about 4pm. It’s for this reason that I rarely venture out of bed to go to a car boot sale, and even rarer that I get up early enough to sell my own wares (I get VERY grumpy at 5am). However, this morning Suzie_Q and I decided we wouldn’t ignore the glorious sunlight, so we headed down to Dorking Station for the weekly car boot sale (10am - far too early for me). (more…)

Bagleys nightclub in Kings Cross has transformed itself into a Roller Disco, and not a cheesy one either. On Thursday night £10 gets you entry and skate hire, taking you into the first room to swap your shoes and skate to some funky disco music. The last (and only) time I went Roller Skating was in Welwyn Garden City on a date with Helen Brown… aged 13 - and I had to take my yonger sister along (weird). That place was a bit cheesy, Bagleys Roller Disco however is basically nightclubbing on wheels. The bouncers search you on the way in but ‘checking for food or water’ apparently, I did ask if people taking drugs and skating was a major problem but was told by ‘the big guy’ that ‘it’s just food that is’. (more…)

So the weekend was a bit of a heavy one with VIP tickets to the annual dance festival ‘Global Gathering’ to be enjoyed on Saturday. Now in its sixth year, ‘Global’ takes place annually just outside of Stratford-on-Avon, at an old airfield near the village of Long Marston. As luck would have it, there are some Pesketts in that neck of the woods, so ‘Suzie_Q’ and I had somewhere local to stay (Bidford), and marvellous hosts my Aunt and Uncle were too; even insisting on picking us up from Global at whatever time of the morning we liked - which turned out to be the slightly earlier 2:30am (it rained). Thank god we didn’t choose to walk. (more…)

Continuing with my theme of ‘nostalgia’ I revisited the days of the ZX Spectrum this week to try and recapture some of that early gaming fun to which I was so addicted as a small boy. ‘Spectaculator‘ is a ZX spectrum emulator that you can download and install on your PC to recreate the early 80’s computer game sensation. They don’t supply a rubber keypad I’m afraid… and you won’t be able to reproduce that ’scratching paint from metal’ feeling unless you take a can of gloss to your PC’s keyboard first. However, you do get a 30-day free trial with Spectaculator and pretty much all of the classic games can be found at World of Spectrum. (more…)

Popped up to Duxford’s Imperial War Museum (Cambridgeshire) on Saturday for the ‘Flying Legends’ air display. Admission prices have skyrocketed since I was a lad - it cost £150 for my carload of people to get in. The last time I went (in the mid 1990s) it was about £30 per car to drive in and watch the air display… a decade later it’s £30 PER PERSON with additional costs for ‘walking past the planes on the air strip’ or getting on board for a ‘look around’. Now call me Victor Meldrew but with people collecting to ‘get Concorde flying again’, shouting “Got any spare change?” I thought they’d have to be pretty lucky to find anybody at the show with that luxury.

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It’s very hard to reminisce about things you did as a teenager when few people that you know years later can share the memories. Last night over a beer at The Lincoln Arms (Kings Cross), I was recounting tales of CB radio glory from the mid 1990s, which lead me to talk about the Friday night foxhunts I took part in. No, they DIDN’T involve real foxes - more like hide and seek ‘Cannonball Run‘ style. (more…)