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Showing posts from May, 2012

Jubilee Lunch...

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Jubilee Lunch at The L M Ladies Club in the UK... I promised you Ladies a mention... Thank you Girls... Patrick

Goodnight Sweetheart...

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With “Goodnight Sweetheart” making a welcome return to DVD, it could almost be D’eja’ vu when you walk into The Royal Oak public house at Columbia road in the East End of London. It was as if I had time travelled through the time portal with Gary Sparrow into Ducketts Passage and wartime London. I half expected to find Pheobe serving behind the bar, Gary at his piano, and Reg supping a pint at a table. Could this wonderful setting have been a seed in the minds of writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran? Had they visited The Royal Oak all those years ago? I would like to think that perhaps they did. This lovely old London pub can be found @ http://www.royaloaklondon.com

The Wherry and The Windmill...

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The Wherry and The Windmill Taste of the past… This dramatic picture from photographer Roy Northwood shows a traditional Norfolk Wherry moored alongside a traditional Norfolk Windmill, and thus providing us with a wonderful glimpse of those lost bygone days.

Cruising Britain's Grand Union Canal...

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  Canal  Holidays can be great fun, as Marilyn and I found out recently. Narrowboats, like this one at Leighton Buzzard, Linslade, in Bedfordshire England, provide an insight into the pleasures of canal boating through the wonderful English countryside. Operating the many water gates or  Locks is a bit of fun too, and you don’t have to be an expert on boating or Locks as there is always free advice on hand. Britain’s canal system was built by the Victorians for moving cargo from place to place and is still busy today with its leisure and houseboat traffic.

Interesting Movies From The Past...

One of the warmest and lovable films in my collection is THE BARGEE made in 1964. Whenever I watch this I just fall in love with the colour and nostalgia of it. Beautifully filmed and set along Britain’s canals it stars Harry H. Corbett of Steptoe fame, as Hemel Pike, a romantic barge owner with a girl at every Lock, and when one of his girlfriends falls pregnant he is chased to the alter by her angry and hot headed father. It’s a lovely and clever comedy that just blows me away. Featured are: Hugh Griffith as the father, Ronnie Barker as Hemel’s cousin and workmate, Eric Sykes as a canal traveler, and Julia Foster as the expectant female. It was wonderfully written by the famous team of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.