Prompted, in part, by several military friends and acquaintances who have recently posted Facebook statuses of themselves at the beginning of their career, I thought I would try something similar but over a longer period - i.e. the whole of my life thus far. Here we go then: a caterpillar metamorphosing into a beautiful butterfly, or, perhaps, a scabby old moth.
Part 1: The early years
Above: My first, and only, foray into acting. Erith Grammar School 1965.
Left: looking very smug having presumably just mastered 1950s Lego. No glasses, must be a very very old picture.
A very young Apprentice Radio Technician at the Army Apprentices College. Harrogate. 1967.
Having
transferred to the Royal Army Pay Corps in late 1969, here I am in
Cyprus in Summer 1971. The last pic without a moustache!
Part II: Soldier on....... 24 years service in the Royal Army Pay Corps. Postings/attachments to The Gordon Highlanders, The Life Guards, The Cheshire Regiment, 39 Engineer Regiment, The British Embassy Moscow 1978-1980,The Royal Military Police, The RAPC Computer Centre and Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. It wasn't all work and no play though, as you can see here:
Entertaining HM Ambassador and staff Xmas 79
Burns night at the Embassy dacha
Jan 1980
One of many formal dinner nights
A formal dinner almost at the end of our Russian language course. Somebody, perhaps unwisely, decided to play Boney M's Rasputin. Cue drunken dancing on the table!
Part III - The Royal Auxiliary Air Force
10 very interesting years as a Russian Interpreter in the RAuxAF. Here are just a few of the highlights:
Above: meeting HM The Queen on the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of the RAuxAF. 2005
Left: Helping out the Royal Navy during a ship visit to St Petersburg. 2004
Squadron Training in Cyprus 2006
2005. At a dedication ceremony to the Russian ship Varyag, scuttled off the West coast of Scotland.
Part IV - Teaching English - in Moscow, Warsaw and Salou
Moscow, of course, couldn't be anywhere else!
Lodz (pronounced Woodz) in Poland
Part V - Sports (Marathons, hill walking, fishing, sailing, horse riding
Ben Nevis with my son Gareth. 2007
Above: Rutland Water with Dave Grundy 2016
Left: Russian (Zavidovo) 1979 with a much younger daughter
Haven't written a blog for 6 weeks. A little bit remiss, but really I haven't been travelling very much lately. I remedied that at the weekend by taking the train to Madrid (via Valencia) on Friday and back to Salou (via camp de Tarragona) on Sunday. On the AVE train on Friday the speed was being displayed on a screen in each carriage and I marvelled as we hurtled through the countryside at speeds of up to 300 km/h. I remember daydreaming and wondering what prompted people to vote for Brexit. I can't imagine trains in UK ever reaching anything like that speed. Especially once we become socially and politically isolated when the drawbridge has been pulled up and the portcullis lowered. But this is not the platform for political diatribe against Brexiters. Talking about platforms, Madrid's Atocha railway station is, I think, the largest I have ever seen anywhere. It services suburban, regional, and high-speed AVE trains and part of it is given over to a large display of greenery - perhaps a lot of it taken from the nearby botanical gardens. On Friday evening it was a simple matter of changing from AVE to a suburban train to allow onward travel to my hotel, but on Sunday it took forever to find an exit to the street. I put my little wheelie suitcase in to left luggage and went for a wander around the city. When I came back a couple of hours later I was amazed by the length of the queue to put items into left luggage. Almost as long as that at the Prado. Not quite, of course. That queue wound round and round and reminded me of the old Soviet times when people queued for hours to visit Lenin's mausoleum on Red Square.
I spent much of Saturday on one of those open-topped tourist buses that now operate in many of the world's capital cities. I don't often use them as I think they are quite expensive. But perhaps one of the few benefits of being 'slightly' old is that pensioners rates are often applicable. Such was the case here. A 22 Euro ticket became 10 Euros for senior citizens. The hop-on, hop-off nature of these buses means that as anything 'takes your fancy' on the way round you can get off and explore in greater detail and then get back on to continue the tour. There are two separate routes around Madrid, the 'historical' tour and the 'city centre' tour. I managed them both.Here are a few of the pictures I took.
A quick video to finish off, to remind me of the rain pounding on the roof of the train as it whizzed through the countryside from Madrid to camp de Tarragona. I also quite liked Rex Harrison's quote "the majesty and grandeur of the English language is the greatest possession we have". (Notwithstanding that grandeur is originally from French).
Note for students: In English to go Dutch means that if you're going out with somebody then you agree to split the costs 50:50. (a penny bun only costs a penny rather than two pence!)
I'm at Rotterdam airport waiting for my flight to Barcelona. It's quite a small airport so no business lounge. This is a shame as it means I have to keep putting my hand in my pocket for coffee and muffins etc.
As I said earlier, in going Dutch (Part I), Holland is a great place. The Dutch seem to be a peaceable and peace-loving people and almost everyone you meet is bilingual, or at least with a very good command of English.
Yet again I've missed the chance of visiting a 'special' coffee shop. Maybe next time I'll be able to say High instead of Hi.
I walked just over 29,000 steps on Saturday so was very surprised to find I still had the energy left in my legs to walk a further 12,000 yesterday while I was exploring Rotterdam. I walked from the hotel to the river and was about to board a 'water bus' to visit the famous windmills at Kinderdijk when I discovered it was only going one way. Perhaps I could have got a bus back but better safe than sorry.
A word of warning. Be careful if you want to walk from one side of a railway station to the other. In both Rotterdam and Arnhem you needed a ticket to get through the automatic barriers. I have no reason to suppose it is not the same at other (major) stations. There are no friendly assistants standing at the barrier to help out the unwary traveller who may have gone out at the wrong exit. Luckily that didn't happen to me. For a change I had my eyes open and my wits about me.
Another word of warning. Yesterday was the second time I've gone to buy something in Holland to be told they don't accept cash - cards only. Money, in the form of coins and banknotes, is on the way out!
Took quite a few pictures yesterday and here are a few of them, hopefully to give you a flavour of the place. I've tried to show both the maritime nature of the city and the super-modern high-rise buildings. Note the syntactical difference between super-modern and super,modern,
Last Friday I flew from Stansted to Amsterdam and took a couple of trains to get from Schipol airport to Arnhem (via Utrecht). The double-decker Dutch trains are comfortable and run at quite a reasonable speed.
I like Holland and I particularly like Arnhem. My 3* hotel (Arnhem Central) was a 2-minute walk from the station. It was perfectly adequate for the 2 nights I was there. Enjoyed a very nice carbonara mirada in an Italian restaurant called Pinocchio, named after he of the ever-lengthening nose. It appears that over the years a lot of people have drunk a lot of wine as the ceiling is full of empty wine bottle containers (aka ?)
On Saturday morning a fleet of buses carried thousands of people from Arnhem bus station to Oosterbeek ready for the Airborne walk. This takes place every year on the 1st Saturday of September and commemorates the part played by airborne forces in Operation Market Garden. I heard estimates of more than 30,000 people taking part in the walk. They were walking either as individuals or as part of a group, over distances of either 10, 15, 25 or 40 kilometres. Just like last year I chose the 15 km route but I'm sure it was longer this time. It certainly felt like it towards the end. Motivation was improved at the end by tucking in behind one of the many bands. It is always uplifting 'marching' to music.
I walked some of it with my namesake Des Buckley and his wife Hilda. Unfortunately we lost each other during a toilet stop not far from the beginning and never met again until the end. Turns out I walked slowly waiting for them to catch up and they walked faster in a bid to catch up and, somehow, we missed each other in the crowd and they finished before I did. But at least we found each other at the end, where thousands of people were enjoying a well-earned beer, or two. The park was full of people lying (not Pinocchio this time) on the grass enjoying the beer and the sunshine. I knew it would be more difficult standing up than it was getting down, and so it proved.
One more picture, to prove I was really in Holland! This is the cycle park, under the train station in Arnhem.Bikes, as you would expect, were everywhere.
For today's video I have included the film 'A bridge too far', the 1977 film with Sean Connery and Robert Redford. It tells the story, albeit in Hollywood style, of Operation Market Garden. For copyright reasons the you tube police may not allow me to include this film. My apologies if it has been removed.
Get some in. A term often used in the military to somebody who hasn't been serving long. The British military now has only volunteers, no conscripts. National Service ended on 31 Dec 1960. For other countries, that still have conscription, there are various ways of making the service seem to pass quicker. In Russia, for example, I heard that the young soldiers get themselves a one-metre rule and for the last 100 days cut off 1 cm each day.
How did I get onto the topic of 'get some in'? Oh, yes. I have been practising for the Oosterbeek march that I shall be doing on Saturday 1st September along with a namesake of mine - 2 Des Buckleys, can you imagine? The march, near Arnhem in Holland, attracts thousands of entrants every year and they offer a choice of distance. I plan to walk 15km, the same as last year. This morning I walked almost 9 km, from Cambrils to Salou. A beautiful walk alongside the Mediterranean, which I shared with hundreds of other walkers, runners and cyclists. A couple of points of note. Firstly the floral tribute to the victims of the terror attacks last year. If you remember there was an attack in Barcelona and another one in Cambrils. The flowers are looking a bit wilted but so would you if you were out all day in +30 degree heat. Another picture shows a view out to sea. The beach is still fairly empty as it is quite early in the day and it's between the two towns, the majority of sun-seekers beat a direct path from their hotel to beach.
The only thing I don't like about the walk is the narrow strip between the boundaries of Cambrils and Salou where African immigrants lay out their wares on the path and sell everything from hats to trainers, from handbags to perfumes. They fill the pavement with their merchandise and force pedestrians to move onto the cycle path. I'm sure there must be quite a few crashes as cyclists come hurtling along 'their' designated track.
The final picture, a space filler if you like, shows the IKEA bookcase I just assembled a couple of days ago and part of my somewhat eclectic choice of books.
And a video, to finish off? Highlights of last year's Oosterbeek march. If you time the finish right, you get to 'march' in behind one of the many bands that play there.
On 17th and 18th July, on the way North to Scotland, I visited as many of my Northern cousins as I could. These were all from my Dad's side of the family. Last Saturday, in an attempt to be impartial, I visited my Southern cousins - from my Mum's side of the family. Here is a sanitized picture of 10 of my Southern cousins lined up as though we're about to do the conga dance.
I've blanked their faces because I hadn't asked their permission to publish them on FB. These days, when every company seems to know every last detail about every person, I'm not sure I even had to ask their permission but it's only good manners not to plaster people's pictures all over the internet willy-nilly. N.B. my military background wanted 'tallest on the right, shortest on the left' but I was overruled and we are grouped by seniority!
It was great to spend some time with both the Northern and the Southern cousins. I missed one of the Buckleys because he now lives in New Zealand. Perhaps a little trip out there in the not too-distant future?
I spent Saturday night in the Clarendon hotel in Blackheath and early on Sunday morning got up for a run around Blackheath and into Greenwich park. It was magnificent. Stupidly I didn't take my phone with me so I've nicked these pics off Flickr. Greenwich park - the home of the zero meridian and boasting tremendous views down to the Thames and Canary Wharf on the other side of it. None of those high-rise office commercial buildings were there when I was growing up in this part of London. There's progress!
On Monday, a trip to the passport office at Peterborough to pay an arm and a leg for a 4-hour passport. Actually an arm and a leg and £6 as they wanted me to give them a different set of photos - they couldn't believe the first set! It was a bit nerve-wracking sitting in the booth watching the message "not suitable for a passport" coming up. You can have up to 3 tries before you have to press print but all 3 attempts said "not suitable". What could I do but print them off. Luckily those awfully nice passport office people accepted them and I now have two passports, in case one needs to be away to have a visa added at the same time as I need a passport to travel somewhere else.
Yesterday I flew to Salou and had 'fun and games' with the train from Barcelona Sants to Salou. On the train, off the train, on the train. Another story for another day. Here is a pic of the information board at Cambridge railway station
Today's video is the old "Yes Minister" sketch about the European Union.
Went for a walk around Strath Brora on Monday. (Strath is a Scottish/English word for a broad mountain valley). A fox ran out from the side of the road and then ran along in front of the car for a few hundred metres as we were driving to the start. (Note for Gwen & Clive: this townie knew it was a fox as Alisdair told me it was 😁) We weren't going fast as it is single track road out in the hills. Took us longer to get to the start than we had intended as both of us had maps that stopped a few miles short of our FUP (once upon a time it was military jargon to mean 'forming up point' I see it now also means 'Fair Usage Policy'!). We eventually discovered our mistake and turned back. We parked the car, had a quick caffeine fix and set off. The walk was just over 11 miles and took a little over 4 hours. It was over a mix of road, path and track. The scenery was magnificent. The weather was kind to us all the way round. A bonus in the Highlands of Scotland. The legs were pleased when we got to the end.
Off for a pint and a game of pool in the evening, walking/waddling down the high street as if we were practising for a grant from the Ministry of Silly Walks (see video).
small lakes in the hills are called lochans
the long and winding road...
a cairn in the foreground and unsightly wind turbines in the background. They seem to be everywhere in Great Britain.
