Broithe

If you only have a bit of track and one tunnel portal, but loads of spare trees. And you only have to paint the carriage roofs.

I grew up on RAF bases and didn't really realise just how much of the past had lodged itself in my head, until 2005. I'd never been anywhere outside France, 'on the continent', but a friend moved to Prague and we drove a van there overnight, across Germany on Easter weekend and the roads were really (even spookily) quiet. We hadn't even got to Germany before the motorway signs started carrying "wartime place-names", the first was Venlo, a major night fighter base, then we cruised by Cologne and many other places in the Ruhr, which were regular targets. We went past Frankfurt airport, on the way to Nuremberg. For some reason, as we passed the retro-futuristic terminal building, there was a searchlight beam swinging around in the sky. The lad was born in 1979, so none of this was of any concern to him, and when I said "If this engine starts missing, I'm turning south for Switzerland!", he really didn't know what I was getting at. In the late 50s, the Chief of the Defence staff was Air Chief Marshall Sir Dermot Boyle - he had joined up in WW1 and worked his way to the very top. He was from a few miles away from here in Laois and my father was very indirectly acquainted with him, via his sons, I think. Anyway, he came out to visit the then Near East Air Force establishment at Luqa in Malta. At the time, my father was a new corporal and worked in the officers' mess. He was there in the background as all the top chaps were presented to the absolute top chap. Half way through the introductions, he spotted my father and said "Ah, I heard you were here - I'll see you when I've finished with this lot". Utter silence and sideways glances followed, as people tried to remember what they might have said in my father's earshot... They had a quick chat along the lines of "Come back here tonight and we'll pop out for a Guinness after the dinner". My father went back, in t-shirt and shorts, to be asked by Boyle in full kit "Where's the best Guinness?" - "Well, it's in the sergeants' mess..." - "That's OK, you're with me" and they burst in on people who were not expecting that amount of brass at that time of night - the immediate panic was quelled by the order "He's with me and I'm not here! Carry on." The association protected him well, even after Boyle had long retired. He came out to Cyprus, when retired, and much the same thing happened again, but people were forewarned this time - but it was good to 'top up the shield'.

I bought the double cassette in a charity shop - well, I thought I did, but only Tape 2 was in there when I got it home... It was broadcast in 'real time' sections though the whole day, from the pre-flight stuff in the morning, to the raid itself and the return flight, if you were coming back... Here we are - the first of four parts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6U0e5DUdNQ

The general lack of fireworks in the Republic is a great thing, from my point of view. The annual onslaught on the Big Island has dropped off over the last decade, from a peak in the early years of this century. In an urban area, you would get them daily from late September into the first week of January, with the obvious peak around late October, early November. That fortnight would sometimes be like the Somme - drawn out, if the "special days" weren't at the weekend, in particular. I was once listening to a BBC dramatisation of Len Deighton's Bomber, on a dark, cold, autumn night, when I started to feel that the explosive soundtrack was a bit repetitive and out-of-sync with the narration - at that point, I also realised that the next day was bin day, so I decided to put it out before I forgot again. When I opened the front door, the noise got louder - it was actually a firework display that was four miles away in a straight line, and loud enough to be heard above the flak and bombs on the radio indoors, with all the doors and windows shut. Madness. As a child on the Big Island in the 60s, Trick or Treat was something that was occasionally mentioned on US TV shows - nothing more, and we didn't really know what it was - and Hallowe'en, as a whole, was of virtually no consequence, it was hardly even mentioned.

Three shades of grey?

It's not to be sniffed at...

When I saw this yesterday, I was initially concerned that it was a CAB seizure of somebody's "high value goods".

Phew, i thought my eyes had gone funny*. * Funnier...

Just learn a few phrases - I'm sure you would get away with it. It looks easy enough:- Повторіть, будь ласка. Будь ласка, говоріть повільно. Probably easier than Kerry...

The full picture.

I'm just looking at the size of that antibiotic capsule. I hope it's not for a sore throat.

@leslie10646 will be along shortly to deal with your query.

Great work! Time to get a bigger camera.

I think we need a vote on that...

Times can be a bit 'flexible'.

Excellent! - articulated? - suitable for posing? - does it come with a pouch?

Beautiful models - the figure on the tank looks almost real.

I've been around a good bit longer and used to admit to 14, but I've had a hard couple of years and will accept 15 now.

If you enjoy doing the landscape and aren't keen on complicated trackwork or buildings.

And there were camping coaches at one time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camping_coach

One of my 'claims to fame' is that I've never been arrested by anybody without a gun. By far the most dangerous one also involved a bayonet, and was the only time that I felt that I was really in danger. All I was doing was watching a Cyprus Airways Trident doing circuits and bumps.

You could always defend yourself by asserting that you are "a trainspotter, a loner, an anorak, a nerd with no friends". I'm sure a few of us could easily convince people of the veracity of that position. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-16760464 Unfortunately, i can't find how that case finalised.