So what we been doing since lockdown

I will start, my son whilst he was on the move asked me to look after a large book commercially available of newspaper pages relating to BCFC dating back to 1905 up to pretty much the present time.

I fell in love with it, they are about £45 a piece, anyway believe it or not I found one on FB marketplace for the princely sum of £5 and more bizarrely from some random guy in Wrexham (and not a BCFC fan).

I zeroed in on 1960 onwards, I loved it really brought back loads of great and painful memories as usual with BCFC in equal measure.

I then decided that I would make a list up games that I attended home and away that were important to me during that period and attempt to purchase the programmes for those games.

I have to say until now I have never been a programme collector.

Even considering it was a 60 year period I wasn't exactly surprised that I could only come up with a list of 19 programmes.

It started off really well, I found most of them quite quickly and reasonably priced on ebay, but got stuck on the last two.

Arsenal away (our glorious first match back in the top flight August 1976) I put a post on a BCFC FB site and within literally minutes I received a positive reply and better still it was from somebody that not only went to the same school as me (1 year below) but was also an ex work colleague in a previous life, we are now firmly in touch and he introduced me to this site, so thanks for all that mate, also the post on FB yielded a 2nd message from a guy that during that period in our history traveled to many away games with myself and my dad and his father in law, small world and all that.

The last I believed might end up a forlorn hope, it was Torquay v BCFC easter Monday 1961, it was a shocking match a 0-0 draw, but memorable for me because it was my first real away game (I always considered the gas at Eastville like a home game and I will return to those games shortly) but most importantly I went with my paternal grandfather an Aussie giant of a man who was a 1st world war hero, who although severely wounded at Gallipoli, was patched up and spent the next 3 years in the trenches at Mons.

I remembered another ex work colleague who was a Torquay season ticket holder and lo and behold he located a copy within an hour, got my programme and back in touch with another ex colleague.

Now back to the gas at Eastville, I realised that every game I actually attended at Eastville I never saw City lose. I also realised that some of my happiest moments as a BCFC fan was pre segregation stood the Tote end watching City win, so 3 of the programmes are 1967 FA cup replay 1-2 win, later that season May 1968 winning 0-5 in the Gloucester cup (a game where all 5 forwards scored a goal each) and December 1975 (when segregation had started but was in the South stand enclosure) 1-0 down at half time and came back to win 1-4, watching Gerry Gow make Prince look like the pussie that he was.

Finally whilst researching the list of programmes, I came across an article where an original programme of the BCFC v Man United 1909 cup final at Crystal Palace sold for a then world record sum of £23,500. It would appear that the new owners licenced certain companies to replicate the programme and sell them on Ebay etc. for varying prices depending on quality (good way to get your money back, given the amount of Manu fans in the world and this game being their 1st FA cup final victory).

Although not even I was at the game I bought one to overcome my OCD tendencies and have a round 20 in my collection.

 

Nice memories Jiffie. I was at the 1-4 City win at Eastville in 1975 and also the dreadful 0-0 draw sometime around 1980 (maybe) when we were both relegated from the old 2nd division.

So what have I been doing since lockdown ? I've just been eating and drinking basically !! But after 5 years of it, I've just carried out my last ever night of being On Call, so shall be having a lot of beer at 16.30 to celebrate not waiting for the phone to ring again when I finish work !

 

I was in the Wedlocks pub one new years eve, with my missus and at about 10.30pm only having just arrived, I was called out on a job and had to drive to Taunton leaving her in the pub and not getting back until about 2.30am. Stayed there until 6am went home shower and back to work for 11am and worst of all the gas beat us 0-1 at the gate, talked about being pissed off.

 

I'm not convinced by little Lee, but as my mates and I all decided before lockdown, after a run of abject performances, we would all renew because it was a good crack meeting up as school mates from over 50 plus years and have a few beers, what else would we do?

My missus is the gardener per se, I just carry out the donkey work under her supervision, but the garden looks a treat.

I have always wanted to learn to play the guitar but struggled, so I have bought a 3 string cigar box electric guitar, figuring it must be easier with half the strings, just about to embark on that particular journey.

And read ****loads of books I bought ready for any doomsday scenario.

 

I feel your pain over not being able to get away.

My wife takes a chemotherapy drug to help combat her severe arthritis and as such was on the vulnerable list with her immune system being screwed.

My son and his family live less than 10 miles away and we haven't seen them since the day before official lockdown, we are hopefully going to see them early next week.

 

The cars never been cleaner, the garden looks great and the runner beans are flourishing. I've hired a skip, now full to the brim with old hoovers, radiators, ironing boards, fire grates and just general 40 years of c+ap awaiting collection today.
I've walked my 10k steps each day as well as cycling on old railway lines each week. That's the good bit.
I can put up with pubs shut (just) but missing my grandchildren has been hell on Earth. I can't explain how much I'm looking forward to Monday.

 

I gave up on washing my car, my driveway has telephone lines above where the car is parked, I spent £15 cleaning it last week and the local pigeon population of our village have crapped all over it, god I hate washing cars.

As for your last 2 sentences I couldn't agree more and enjoy yourself, safely of course.

 

I feel your pain on that. My eldest Grandaughter spent at least one night a week on the weekends since birth and even spends Christmas Eve every year at our house (nannies house if you ask her). She has older siblings with another father so her mum has always let her stay with us. She recently had another baby and even though it was through another man named him after me. So far I’ve only been able to see him from a distance.

But my Grandaughter face times us and we go to her house and put presents at her door and talk at each end of the path.

My other Grandaughter lives in Bristol so not seen her so much due to my son and his partner always out at her mothers.

But for me I’ve been working so still only get weekends to myself, so not been as busy as everyone else round the house etc

 

My eldest granddaughter is a nurse in intensive care at the BRI and whilst facetiming her I can see the strain that the past few months has put on her, I cannot wait to see her so my wife and I can tell her in person how proud we are.

 

I’ve been working in the garden - assembled 2 Rattan garden furniture suites, part-laid a patio, set up a (small) safe shooting range so I can have safe fun with my airguns, cleared out the garage - like you RP I managed to fill a skip with all the rubbish I had accumulated over the years - I’d almost forgotten that I have an old Triumph Spitfire in there awaiting renovation!!
I wired in 2 double garden plug sockets, replaced a radiator in my old Hyundai Santa Fe 4x4 (that was a pain - I needed to divert the automatic transmission fluid circuit because the new rad was from a manual model - I had no idea the rads are different depending on if the car is auto or manual)
I helped Mrs R&W renovate an old wooden garden furniture set - I needed to graft in a wooden repair to one of the arms which had rotten, made from some old scrap wood I had hanging around and fitted with a dowel and some glue.
I’m also building some wooden shutters as part of my bedroom DIY project but that work is on hold for now as I’d rather be outside in the sunshine whilst it’s nice weather.
I fixed a garden tap - I needed to reseat a bolt in the feeder tap because it had corroded - and had to make a new seal out of an old tap washer.
Ive also been walking the dog - mainly over the Ridgeway and eating lots of barbecue food and drinking far too much beer!
All in all I’m quite enjoying the lockdown - and Saturday afternoons in particular have been blissfully stress-free - not sure why....!!!!!!)

 

Retirement is looming for me Wiz - Mrs R&W retired last week but I still have a few years left to work. I got very excited recently about some motor yachts for sale - the mrs has always wanted a place in Brighton - property is SO expensive there but I thought about buying one of those boats for about £30k and paying the marina costs of about £4K might be a cheaper (and fun) way of managing it!
My youngest daughter lives in Brighton and we think she is where grandchildren are most likely to come from!!!!

 

Wahoo I can add something to my list of things I’ve done during lockdown (not finished as run out of paint) I’ve painted my fence today. The Mrs decided she done like autumn red no more and wanted charcoal grey.
A word of advice, trying to change the colour of your fence is not the easiest of task. It takes about 4 coats to cover.

 

I just this minute gone out and noticed a bird has shat on the fence. My wife things it’s hilarious with me shouting at the birds

 

Buy yourself a decent air rifle Wiz. Never mind clay pidgeon shooting, you can get rid of them and have a decent meal out of the situation!!

 

I’ve got a couple of airguns (a pistol and a rifle) - and I enjoy clay pigeon shooting at a local gun club - they provide the 12-bore, but it’s strictly target shooting for me. No animals get hurt.