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| Anybody else involved in geocaching? It's a fun hobby that is fairly inexpensive (and that is what I need at the moment).
I started back in July, finding my first cache on a golf-course a few miles from home. Didn't take me long to get hooked. Current total is 93 caches found and 3 placed. I will try to keep you all updated with my progress.
Toodlepip!
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| I've been thinking about the size of my Internet presence (no jokes please!). There are so many Social Networking sites out there - and the truth is that I can't resist them.
Flickr is probably my most active site. 8,113 photos at the time of writing. You do not need a Flickr account to view my pictures.
I'm kind-of active on Facebook too. Not as active as some people, but I do try to look at Facebook at least once a week. If you are a Facebook user too I would love to hear from you. My username is Lyndon Wigmore.
Twitter. After Flickr, Twitter is probably my most active site. If you are not familiar with Twitter, it's a bit like a cut-down version of Facebook using just the status updates - very easy to use on a cellphone. I'd love for you to follow me on Twitter. My username is lefthanded99.
Sometimes I use Plurk. Plurk is very similar to Twitter, but the cellphone application is not as good. You really need to be using Plurk regularly to get the best from it - but if you are a Plurk user please follow me at lefthanded99.
Friends Reunited is a UK-centred networking site. But if you use it, please look me up. Lyndon Wigmore again.
And when something new comes along, I expect I shall join that too!
Toodlepip!
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| I had a long and complex blog about Cyprus all ready in my head, but it will have to wait. Because something much more important has come up - I have been talking to my father about D-Day.
My father is 94 years old, and he was a regular soldier (i.e. not a wartime conscript) for many years. He has never said much about his wartime service. I always knew that he saw action in Normandy, but when I was growing up he refused to talk about it. The only time I recall him saying anything about it was when I was 17 and I considered joining the R.A.F. He did not support the idea. He was proud of his Army service, but did not want any of his children to be in the situation where they might come under fire, the way he had in Normandy.
Yesterday was the 65th Anniversary of D-Day, and I asked him what he was doing 65 years ago. He said "I was in an American Army Camp in Southampton - and not allowed to leave".
This (apparently) is what happened:
on 3rd June he was asked to take 2 men and collect two American Army deserters who had been arrested in Birmingham. He and his squad were to take the two deserters to Southampton and return them to the American authorities. He was told that the two men must not be allowed to escape, and must not be allowed to talk to anybody - not even to my father and his squad.
The reason (we now know) was because the two men had already been briefed about D-Day.
He went on to say that the two Americans were not really deserters at all. They were just AWOL having been cooped up for months in camps in the UK and they had gone on a bit of a drinking spree, but they were now keen to get back to their unit. Naturally he did talk to them, and by the time they all reached Southampton on 4th June, my father knew all about the Americans' situation, and all about D-Day as well.
The Americans were returned to their unit - and my father and his squad were "interned" in the American camp - because they now knew too much about the imminent invasion of Normandy. On D-Day+1 he was told to return to his own unit in Shrewsbury, and on D-Day+6 he was back in Southampton and on his way to Normandy.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
My father in uniform, taken in 1942.
Toodlepip! | | |
| Vacations are like Buses. You wait ages-and-ages with none at all, and then suddenly three of them come along all together.
R and I have been taking our main annual vacation early this year. We have been to Cyprus. We have had this planned for almost a year, and I apologise for not telling you in advance where I would be. But I have an aversion to announcing in advance, in a public forum like this, that I am, going to be away from home for a few weeks. Just because you are paranoid, doesn't mean that they aren't out to get you, right?
Anyway, about the three vacations. Cyprus was the big one. Two full weeks (May 6th - 20th) in a 5-star hotel on the Island of Aprodite. I could write a full day-by-day blog about it, like I did about my Florida trips, but I'm afraid it would run something like this:- Day 1. Got up. Had breakfast. Sat by the pool.
- Day 2. Got up. Had breakfast. Sat by the pool.
- Day 3. Got up. Had breakfast. Sat by the pool.
- Day 4. Got up. Had breakfast. Sat by the pool.
- etc.
I think you get the picture. Actually that isn't entirely true. We did rent a car for three days and explore other parts of the island, but we spent 11 days just sitting in the sun.
We booked this vacation last year, and because we knew that we would be away for two full weeks in May, we didn't originally intend to go anywhere else in the early part of the year. But as Easter came close, R decided she couldn't stay at home for a Bank Holiday, so we went away to Brighton in the caravan. After all, we expected to be home on the 17th April, and we weren't leaving for Cyprus until 5th May, lots of time in-between. But then our friends wanted to go to the West of England for a few days, so we went with them and from 21st to 28th April we were in Ilfracombe.
Which brings us to where we came in. Three vacations in a row.
I'm exhausted.
I need a break.
In fact, I need a vacation!
Toodlepip!
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| Hi Guys
Just a quick note to say that I haven't forgotten you all. I had to go away again for a few days and I have had no access to the internet for a while. But things will be back to normal soon and I should be able to put up a proper post in the next day or two.
Toodlepip!
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