Monday, February 22, 2010

Squeal Pig ...

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Malc White sends the following intriguing piece of intelligence: "Just a quick note to report that the Cheeserollers pub in Shurdington is now selling a cider called Squealy Pig. Now I don't know if Squeal Pig as used by Mr Parry (and referring to Woodpecker Cider if I remember correctly[may well have been: or otherwise GL cider? Ed.]) is an original or whether it's a local term for cider but it struck me as a coincidence that a pub which was used by diggers occasionally is selling a cider described so eloquently by one of them."

Strange indeed, and best illustrated by a photo of JP clasping a glass, most probably of Squeal(y) Pig, at the 2009 reunion picnic, courtesy of Terry Courtney. Also in view, Dr Phillpotts & Andrew Powell.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

A bit bedraggled ...

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Apologies for the recent lack of postings: C-H-M has been mildly poorly as well as being frantically busy at the cookery school and cooking dinners on the odd evening for clients, which has left me short on energy and inspiration though I am now on the mend. Feeling slightly bedraggled was probably what made me select this picture from Anna's collection of the assembled diggers sheltering from a bit of a downpour. I think I can spot Kathy Scott, Anna Behan, Elsa Charlot and Dr Phillpotts.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

A normal evening at the Air Balloon ...

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From Anna Behan's collection, an evening in garden of the 'Air Balloon' in 1978 or thereabouts: Dr Phillpotts, C-H-M beginning his entry for that night's gurning competition, Anna turning away in horror being comforted by Ollie Crick, Ranging Rod & Mike Webb looking on and Mike Taylor watching the unknown photographer. It is surprising that Flt Lt Southwood is not in the frame but perhaps the photographer was he, unless he was getting the next round in. It looks as though the lights of the bar, small as it was in those days, are in the background.

C-H-M has, somewhat unromantically for the time of year, been abed with a gastric bug (- what other kind would a student of cookery get?), which is why postings have been lacking, for which my apologies. Perhaps Bacillus cereus was the culprit or indeed Clostridium perfringens. Each can stalk a curry house ...

Friday, February 12, 2010

Spot the bow ties

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Apologies for the recent hiatus in postings: it was largely caused by the need to plan and cook lunch for 50 in 3.5 hours and recover from the (mainly splendid) experience. On a food theme, here's a 1977 shot of the lunch with tablecloths & waitress service that was enjoyed by Messrs. Irvine, Howell, Glaskin & Roberts. Here they are in mid-trough snapped by Anna Behan. Love the bow ties.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Unprepossessing heaven

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It may not have been a thing of beauty, but to a Crickley digger at the end of a long, hot, hard-labouring day, the sight of the Ablutions block in the early evening was welcome together with the knowledge that soon you could scrub away the grime of the day. Even a wash in a basin was bliss, let alone the heaven of a shower on the days when it was your turn to have one. From Mike Sims 2004 end of Ullenwood series.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Ahem ...

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Alan Ford gave this 1991 picture from the Knell/Ford Ermine Street Guard debut in Martigny in Switzerland the caption "What was I thinking?" about which, I suspect, we may not wish to have too much clarity ...

Friday, February 5, 2010

What on earth did John Parry just say?

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On the stage in the mess hall at Ullenwood in 1979. Plainly, from the fact that everyone is falling about laughing JP must just have said something hilarious to Randal Motkin who clasps a ceremonial block of oolitic limestone (probably that season's 'Personality of the Year' award. Why John is wearing a crash helmet is lost in the mists. Back row, L to R, Dmitri, C-H-M, Bernard Dawson, Randal, Terry Courtney, JP. Front row, David Hole, Zoya Spivakowska, Ros Cleal and Anna Collinge.

Stop press: following a recent straw poll of Crickley veterans this year's reunion will be on the weekend of 16 to 18 July, holding the picnic on the hill on Saturday 17th. This at least gives Noakesy a chance to hotfoot it from his foreign tour just to make it in time ... I will email the usual suspects soon about the arrangements.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

The conversation must have been scintillating ...

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L to R: Rowena Dutton, Terry Courtney, Philip Dixon, Anna Collinge, Jane Dineen's legs. Anna was plainly so gripped by the elevated conversation during this break that she is deep in her book. From her own photo collection, probably from the 1980 season.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

A picture of concentration

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Dr Cleal was, I suspect, concentrating so hard on her tracing that she may well have been unaware that Eric van Dorland was taking this rather fine study of her labours in the planning hut in 1990. Update: Jane Dineen thinks this is a misidentification and so does Eric: possibly someone called Emma, he thinks & not Ros.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Getting it straight

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Feeling a little jaded? Alan Ford, in 1991, shows how he straightened himself out: a couple of scaffold poles down the trouser legs does the trick. The spoil heap was to hand for a soft landing and Julie looks on in the background.