A Rather Long Update

What a tremendous few days we have had !  We called in to Bognor Regis and met Marie, she is lovely and made us feel very welcome.  Put her straight on a few family happenings - explained that D had choice of Mam's home after the funeral for his new flat and that we didn't see Ena again.  Seemed truly surprised - no surprise to me!

Anyhow she put to bed the fact that Peter traced his ancestors back to the Armada - she says her brother was the least likely to do anything like that.  Maybe a young man was trying to impress a young girl when he told Ena about it ..... we were both agreed on that!

We talked about her brothers and sisters and the fact that she was quite ill at one time so passed all her paperwork to her younger brother so I will contact him and perhaps visit.  My only regret is I forgot to take a photo ........ HOW COULD I?  no brain me ............

A treasure that Marie gave me was a photo of MY GRANDMA ............. this is one person my mother never met so I am overjoyed to put it mildly.  Marie had several photos and updated me that, who I thought was my Aunt Tilly, is Aunt Gertrude (Auntie Gertie!!!!) so we have TWO nuns in the family.  Apparently she was based in Liverpool so something else to research.  Can you tell I am loving this!!

My Grandma:-

I only have stories of her - Mam said that she used to beat the children and that was why Dad ran away - as did most of the boys.  Auntie Vie met her and said she used to smoke a clay pipe and was quite harsh.  According to the records so far, she was left a widow not long after arriving in England and had about 13 children so one can sortof understand her attitude to life.  This is a close up taken from when Aunt Gertrude bacame a nun, that is why I think the photo was taken as there are several photos - which I will add to this post. 

This is the original which includes Auntie May B and Auntie Gertrude:-                                        

This one is Aunt Gertrude with, I think, Auntie Caroline.  Unfortunately I don't have a more recent photo of Auntie Caroline to compare

This one is a small head and shoulders of Aunt Gertrude and I can so see a likeness to someone else!

I am adding these two as they are a postcard that Auntie G sent to Dad - possibly a photo taken at the same time - and Mam always thought it was Auntie Tilly.
     

             

When I was a child, Auntie Tilly came to stay, she was formidable and I was terrified of her - I didn't even know we had a nun in the family!!!  She wore a peculiar habit, a bit like the one below, so she took up rather a lot of room - slimness does not run in my family!!  I never understood why, if it was her in the above postcard left, she did not wear her normal habit ...... all is now explained

Thoroughly Thoughtful Thursday ..

I have so much to say but cannot seem to get organised. 
I have stopped the training for the Captioning as I realised it was going to take over my life.  The grass is always greener in another man's field and I really did want to do it but my vision of the job was not what was involved.  I am quite happy working with my blogs and with my groups on the web, and this week in particular, I am very happy working in the garden - well ......... anyone's garden!  Just that there isn't the time, when the weather's good enough we are usually doing something else.
I have today joined a forum to try to gain more photos to illustrate my memories ...... like this one ...........

Now this is an old picture of the Beaufort Cinema at the 'Fox & Goose', but it hadn't changed much when I went there in the 50's.  I can only remember going on one occasion, taken by my sister.  We went to see Phantom of the Opera, I am sure it was in black and white as were most of the films in those days.

  IT TERRIFIED THE LIFE OUT OF ME!!!

I think I was alright up until he took off his mask - I had my hands over my eyes by then although my sister thought it was funny ....... remembering she was 11 years older than me.  We came home on the bus and talked about it and she had calmed me down by the time we arrived home.  I had nightmares for years afterwards!!!!!  When travelling along that road I always look across and breathe a sigh of relief that it is now a shopping centre.  I would never go there, and when we did go to the shops, it was with a great deal of trepidation.  Unfortunately the long reaching effect is that I have never seen the wonderful musical that Phantom has now become, just the thought of going gives me 'butterflies in my tummy'!
Not all memories are good even tho' they are softened by time.

Lack of postings here!!

I haven't forgotten my blog friends - been ultra busy!!!
I have found myself a job .......... yes!......... I know ................. I HAVE RETIRED
Well, it just so happens that this little job was advertised and it sounded rather interesting.  Captioner at the local theatre .......... couriosity aroused!              so I applied.
There were 10 of us on the day, two dropped out by lunchtime so the remaining eight did all the tests ....... English grammar test followed by listening test (listening to part of a play, following the script and marking the script for pauses, grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.  Once only!!!)
They would let us know within the week.
Nothing
Three weeks later I had an email congratulating me and offering some training dates - yeah!!! I'm as good as the rest - which I knew but didn't really believe.
There were two of us and we were then inundated with emails - dates and times, scripts, Training Manual, disks, more scripts and disks, more training material ........... to do exercises were also included (how kind!)  But we ploughed on day and night, morning, noon and whoa!!! one needs a break ........... no! ........... one needs a laptop!!!
LAPTOP!!
There had been no mention of that!!
Help! I yelled on Facebook.
'Borrow mine' came back the replies - I made the choice and it was delivered (along with a McD - thank you Nade!)
V e r y s l o w . . . .  add some memory.  Now why can't I do that?  I am slow and forgetful, please give me some memory, please!  please!  Memory bought (along with a posh mouse)

like this except mine is white with pretty black lace design!!!


So off I go today, up a side street near the back of the theatre  ............ sign in ........ meet up with other 'captioner to be'. 
We are shown into a room, the trainer comes in and helps us set up our laptops and the day begins.
It was brill!!!
Very informative and, good to know that even someone as experienced as our trainer cannot get some of the disks to work either!!!
We survived, and now are able to use the captioner software on our laptops.  We worked with it and without it, listened to music, checked out work and so on and so on ...........   Tomorrow we go back for more!!
So there we are .......... busy ...... busy ............ BUT I won't be doing this until next year so once my training is out of the way and I have passed my exams (and I will!! - I am assured that I will pass) then it will be back to as near normal as I get!!

No news is good news.

Easy day today - preparing my cards to send out next week on my swaps and looking for a design to make two cards for boys - that takes forever but I managed it.  All the info for Training next week came by post first thing, haven't really looked at it properly - One folder and four disks!!!  Glancing through it looks as though there is some work to do before the actual training sessions start - have a go sort of thing and then we'll discuss how you did when you're in class.  I will wait until Friday and then time myself from start to finish. PJ is away with 6201 for two days, I was going to join him on Saturday but have decided to stay at home and get on with this Captioning work ........... sigh ........... it's not easy you know.  I think I am supposed to have a laptop - in for a shock aren't they?!!

I have updated some more of my memories so there will be more news soon, meanwhile  ...........

This is a photo taken in 1945.  I know this because the bride is my cousin's wife (Dorothy) who traced the Peterson side of the family.  She sent me this photo and told me how, although pregnant with me at the time, my mother made her dress for her.  Ena is the middle bridesmaid and my Dad is standing behind her.  Auntie May Blenkinsopp is seated by Ena and Uncle Lionel stands behind the bride's mother.   I am at this wedding but just a bit more than a twinkle in my Father's eye!! 

What am I?

I must be clever to get into a training group ........................ I must be stupid staying up till 05.00hrs researching family history!!!! 
I have now found the Army Discharge papers for my Grandad Holland (Joseph Holland) which shows he was in India and received an Afgahn Medal .... ???? ......seems we were at war in the 1800s - no change there then.  I have a detailed report on Wynberg Camp where he was stationed - shocking conditions, if Matilda was there it's a wonder any children survived but then think 'Sharpe'.  PJ continues on his hunt - he has achieved several generations and it looks like he's half a yamyam!!  We have managed to fit in a trip to Eastbourne and hope to visit Cousin Marie - all good fun.  Random??  We're masters at it!!
I have joined a Forum to try to trace Great Aunt on the Titanic and Mary E has found out that Nanna was the fifth child of eleven - never knew that.  I am now trying to trace the picture on their marraige certificate - I always thought it was the Baptist Church on the corner of Palmerston Road/Stratford Road as Great Grandad had an Ironmongers at 89 Stratford Road and Mam was a Baptist but comparing pictures I am thinking maybe not ............ another road to wander down. So here are my piccies for today:-

Christ Church, Sparkbrook

Mam with Marie

What do I know???!!!

I know that the sun is shining and I am stuck trying to get a computer and printer to DO SOMETHING!!!
I have ventured outside, I sat drinking my coffee and thinking how much needs doing in the garden.  The little crocuses have their faces turned to the sunshine and look so happy.  Thank you Lord for this lovely day.
I have been unaware of one of my swaps on my Card Group and I have had to download instructions and get started.  Praise God it all went smoothly (unlike my PC and Printer!) thanks to some ribbons from Nadine and old papers of mine.
I have also scanned in some other certificates and stuff to do with the original idea of this blog ........ sigh.
The good news is that I have had a response to my request for info about Great Aunt so it looks as though I could be getting some help ............ I am not holding my breath but it would be nice.

Memories:
Mam, Ena and I went to Clacton long ago and I have been looking at the photos from then, I guess I would have been about 9years old.  My sister has always been my idol and, looking at these photos ........... we must have been a big disappointment to her!!  lol

Here she is posing beside a Ford Zephyr, she loved this make of car and said one day she would get one.  Her dress is magenta green, golden yellow and mauve stripes on a grey/mauve background.    I can't remember what Mam and I were wearing!!

I don't know whether I persauded Ena to lend me the hat but it is certainly too big for me and looks much better on her!!!

 We did not have many fine days when we were there, they were windy and quite chilly.   In those days if you paid for Bed and Breakfast you could not stay in your room during the day so every day we went for a walk.  I can remember walking along the beach and we walked so far we had to catch a bus back.  The young lad (I thnk his name was Jimmy) that lived at the B & B was about 16 -17 and adored Ena.  They spoke with Cockney accents and he used to call her Eeeenn.  She used to get really angry with him saying there were only two syllables in her name and would he please use them both - he never learnt.





Every morning as we walked down to the beach a coach trip salesman used to try and persuade us to go on a trip and there was much banter between Mam, Ena and him.  One day the weather was so bad we went to the pictures to see the 'King and I' and I felt so grown up as I never went to 'grown up' films - it just never happened at home.

Came the Friday Mam decided that was the day we would take the salesman up on his offer of a day trip out.  Tickets were bought, we climbed on the coach along with some others and off we went.  Where?  I do not know ............ I remember the banter every morning and I remember him being the driver but where we went ........................

Special times ................ wonder where Dad was?