59 to 60 Part 18

 Hello and welcome to part 18 of this blog the photo is of me and Helen couple years ago she looks great eah? So anyway working yesterday so starting this blog on Tuesday and currently i am trying to lay a base for my man shed which is turning out not as easy as i thought as the stuff i am using although it clicks together it does not lift as one unit so it is hard to get it level.

                                                         Mmmm where do i go from here 

Have a couple of things to try to see if can get it a bit more level but thought i would take a wee break and get my bike ready for work tomorrow as car goes in for its MOT tonight. Another lovely sunny day i was going to head out on bike but never slept very well and feel bit worn out think it is the unit is so warm at moment and i never drank enough water yesterday, also Helen had to go and sleep on couch as I was snoring and she could not stop me 😂 oh dear it must have been loud as i kept waking myself  up as well. Well small break over with time to get back to it.

Finished in garden for today and just back from dropping car off for its mot. Bike is ready for tomorrow as well so now sitting inside as i have been out in sun all day and need bit of a cool down. Will be up early tomorrow well earlier than usual if taking bike normally about 5-30 just in case have any punctures or anything go wrong it gives me time to get it sorted and to work still on time. During this blog hopefully Thursday i would like again to tell you about getting into work and how it changed things for the better for me, will mention my first job and how on my last day i managed to start working in the building trade and since then well have never been out of work except through choice. 

                                                  My current job Renal Assistant Practitioner 

                                                                          22/07/21

Good morning breakfast has been done and i know am trying to decide what to do next i had good cycle to work yesterday and home as car was in for its mot which it passed also cycle home after 12hr shift so am feeling bit weary as this heat takes it out of you and the unit is very hot also does not help having a mask on all the time as well. I have to go and pick up a prescription from boots so i may cycle down there for bit of exercise as later today i am taken Helen into the town so she can get her hair cut, i am only off the one day then back to work Friday and Saturday so i am trying just to have an easy day but active as well.

Anyway after three years of doing not much i finally got my first job it was a with manpower and it was basically only for a year and was to help me get in the way of working and it involved lots of different types of work but mainly in the building trade, I remember one of the first things they made me do was use a needle gun on a wall up the Perth rd to clean it up and also we repointed this wall as well, i have to admit i quite enjoyed this and it did give me a sense of purpose even though it was not the best paid i still for the first time had money in my pocket and started to meet other people as well some i got on with and some not so much but you just got on with things and if you or they had problems with you mmm well you sorted them out behind a wall or whatever cover was there 😂 from this job we went up to camper down park to start a big renovation job and this is where i spent the rest of my year. Building ships new walls and a new cage for Jeremy the bear and an accident with said bear. We built ships and seats at the sand at camperdown which I think are no longer there they were big wooden structures and the sand was meant to represent the water and we had dolphins and whales coming out of the sand as well it looked great and although it was manpower we all did a good job mmmm when most were sober as at times a little tipple was had during break sometimes these people were really down to earth.

                                                   Not my picture but these are the ships

I remember one guy who worked there Frank Cavanagh man he was crazy but he was funny and liked a drink, he was in the T A and went to Germany when he came back he brought a bottle of schnaps and brought it to work i remember as it was a rainy day and we were all sitting in the Buckie  rained off  so Frank in his wisdom brought out this bottle of Schnaps and we all finished it man what a bloody riot while he was sitting one of the guys tied his bib and brace straps to one of the long tables we had i was at the door and shouted to Frank that the gaffa wanted to see him Frank being bit drunk jumped up to run to the door and of course all the tables flew with him smashing plates cutlery all over the place and the bottle although empty flew off the table and smashed 😂 man he went mental and fekin chased me for some reason all over the sight ha ha until he calmed down and realising his bib and brace had come off, gaffa came in and told us to get it cleaned up and sent us home this was 1984 and it was a year that changed my life of course for the better. After we built these ships we were next tasked with building a new a den for Jeremy the bear in the zoo this was a big job and although really none of us had much experience we did this and we did it well apart from one incident which really was nothing tom do with the guys that we took on this task, it was strange as it was right next to his old cage which was horrid as the poor thing was down in the depths of the zoo it just when i think back was so cruel but in these days it was acceptable, when we started there was a wee cove with bricks in and when you sat here to do bit of welding or whatever the bear would put its nose on the bricks and you can here it breath through i sat there often and used to say hi bear how you today 😂 aye was young then, we did a good job and within a couple of months his den was ready well from our side it was and they let the bear in, the incident i referred to was not long after i had left manpower a kid who was looking at the bear put his hand through one of the wholes in the cage and the bear grabbed it and ripped his arm off as the ones who were meant to put a barrier around never did it poor wee guy am not sure what became of him and truthfully the bear.

                                  The cage we built doesn’t look big from this photo but it really was.

I only had a year with manpower and some great laughs every Tuesdays a guy would appear with tickets for the nurses night at the coconut grove and we would go every Tuesday man some bloody great laughs and all i will say is nurses know how to have fun, it would go on until about 1am and we would stay until the end even though we had work the next day, many a time i would be walking up the bray at camperdown feeling like poop and see the rest of the guys walking ahead all feeling the Sam ha ha man how we managed i don’t know. Anyway 1984 turned out to be a big turning point in my life for the good i must say was the year i met Helen and my firs at real job. Onto the rest of today i decided to go out on bike and do just 10miles was glad i did as i saw the steam train going through Dundee, i am not a train spotter by any means but it was great to see and hopefully will see it tonight as well as it is due back around 18-30, good cycle today not far but was fine. I am now sitting in Tesco well costa enjoying a latte and doing my blog so for today i shall leave you with some photos of the train.

                                                                        The Aberdonian

                                                                             25/07/21

Sunday and a couple of days off and it is nice today so I have put the mountain bike 🚵‍♀️ in the car and am heading off to the woods for while later today, i have just come back in after cutting hedge at the front garden and i am sweating buckets. Hard day at work yesterday in the morning what with people being off sick and other things so the morning flew in and the afternoon was much better after 2 but have to say that everyone I was working with did an excellent job really hard workers and are a credit to the NHS. Onto the rest of the day and Helen not to well so it will be a quite kind of day apart from getting out on the bike. 

As you can see my meddle arrived from the charity ver nice indeed. So out to shops now before my small adventure on the mtb. Oh was out to see the steam train on its return journey as Helen wanted to see it as well so loves steam trains well dont we all.

                                                                     The return journey

So just back from mtb run and it was great Corbie woods and it was so quiet i kept stopping to take in the silence, i got out car and set up bike and soon as i got on bike and put phone away a Buzzard flew out the tree just beside me, this was to continue as when i got to the end of the first part a deer jumped out right in front of me 😂 and yes my phone was still in my back pocket of my top grrr.

But i have to say what a really good mtb trail this is not very long but so quiet and plenty to see so if the weather turns tomorrow i may go out again on mtb but if stays nice will be a road bike. Well Helen still not felling to great so it could be a quiet night but it may involve a wee glass of fizz or two.

Well another week ends and so does this part of my blog next week i hope to go back again and put a bit more about growing up as it helps the memory 😂 maybe a bit about football days and meeting Helen. But for now it is time for me to go and make our tea a nice big plate of stovies mmmm yummy. 

59to60 pt17

Hello and welcome to part 17 of my blog and if you happen to be reading this I hope your enjoying it and even if your not then well stick by it anyway. So was back at work yesterday and unfortunately my arm had a reaction to Sunday’s cycle and doing bit of garden was sore most of the day but on good side it has settled down again so decided to just do some light stuff today, went out for breakfast then some messages, back home and out to do bit in the garden just some light work. Helen back for wee kip and weather is ok so need to get out for while.

Teenage years were bit of a blur truthfully i remember some days things like having party’s at the wknd at my sisters just a load of us dancing to heavy metal and getting drunk and sometimes to much drink and we would have a few square goes 😂 but mainly was just a bit of a riot and mainly good fun with not much sleep involved but plenty of other things mmmm good days and maybe during the blog i shall go into it a bit more mmmm maybe.

As you can see was fun and i was going out with the girl in white top Christine she was one tough cookie but she was fun and i think she has a lot of kids not seen her in a long long time but i hope she is well. My sister Margret she was cool but i think at times we took a loan of her as it always seemed to be her house. Apart from parties we used to just hang out around Kirkton just mucking about really just did not seem to have a care in the world and really it wasn’t until i got my first job i thought man this could have been all different. Growing up when i left school well for first nearly three years i basically never did much i depend on dole money and what mum would give me, but in the summer we would go to the berries to make a bit extra cash, it would be an early start as you wanted to get a bus that would come and pick the berry pickers up the bust was always an old wreck but boy it was great getting on them if you were on time, it normally be there for 7ish or maybe 8 am no sure and it would take you out of town to Blairgowrie or other parts of  Tayside and Angus you would leave armed with sandwiches and coke or flask oh tea and you’d get to berries and pick all day until around 4is when boy would let out a loud shout of BERRY UP BERRY UP ha ha, i was able to make about a tenner sometimes but you had the real nabblers who would probably make near double that and my brother Chris well he was one of them he also did the tatie but an fook that it looked to much like hard work 😓 he used to come home and went straight to kip totally beat, back to the berries it was fun and sometimes a berry fight would start bloody poor farmer watching ah his money getting chucked at each other bloody mental. But it always seemed to be sunny. So you would fill a bucket or a punnet and take them to get weighed it would be a crate of berries or a black bucket and you would be payed, if you had a bucket you were able to squash them down and and put more in so it weighed more as the heavier it was the more money mmmm i wont tell you what some people used to do in there buckets though 😂 and that what you did for the day, but i used to love the journey home bus full of great people ah smelling oh berries having a good laugh some sleeping as well but good honest people real down to earth most of them, and when got home mum used to let us keep our money as she would say we worked for it man why did the penny no drop for me during these years of being unemployed but I’m sure mum knew it would eventually and i say again what a woman she was.

                                                       Picking strawberries and raspberries 

So onto the rest of the day and not much to say, new phone arrived iPhone 12mini so did bit of garden and now about away to set up phone and chill the tea time again.

                                                                             16/07/21

So Friday and finally few days off i am now sitting in back garden with a cold glass of wine trying to do this blog fore the battery runs out as i only have 4% left. Been an ok day had 11miles on bike after breakfast and at the moment my arm seems fine so tomorrow’s planned 40miles looks good to go ahead. Just a circuit today again on the mtb and its a nice sunny day but very warm at times.

As you can see by the pictures it was a really nice day and I hope for the same tomorrow fingers crossed . We went out when I got back bought a book and more vinyl this time pink floyds wish you were here another great find, then onto farm to get eggs strawberries, raspberries then for a coffee and cake and big jar of blossom Honey which I usually put in a cup of tea this very nice. Well will stop here as doing this on my phone and it’s bit tricky. Will add more tomorrow. 

                                                                              17/07/21

So just back from 37 miles cycle and what a day only thing that hampered me was there was a strong wind and by the end it had become really difficult i was hoping to extend it to 45 or more but that wind took it out of me and it was roasting as well so a mixtures of both and my 11miles yesterday think it was just bit to much for just getting back into longer miles but it was a great day in the saddle i even managed to stop for a scone and a coffee at the cornkist which was needed and helped as i went on also some nice photos.

Was the Bianchi today a nice smooth ride mmm well sometimes as some roads you have to watch out for, seen a few cyclists out and was good as most said hi and even when i stopped to take an photo couple asked if all was ok so that was good as i would do the same, i feel like when i have my shower its going to be messy as i had a lot of sunscreen on so the dust will be stuck to me 😂 yuk.

Well I’m now in relax mode for wee while thinking about memories of growing up i have concentrated on Kirkton of course as that is where a big chunk of my teenage life was thinking of what used to happen in these days one memory i have at the moment was the rag and bone man who used to come he would be pulling a cart or his horse would and he would have a trumpet he would blow and shout out RAG AND BONE 😂 so if you had any old clothes or household stuff you would run out with it to give to him and from what i remember you got a ballon a bloody ballon I’m sure my mum hid all her good clothes but I’m sure we still managed to get some stuff to take out to him, i think there may have been other things he gave you but i can only remember getting a ballon and he was always dressed in rags as well 😂 

                                                                           Rag&bone

Amazing when you tell others about this and they looked shocked as you probably would not get anything like this these days as they all go to charity shops for us to go in and buy, had to copy the photo above just to give an idea of how it worked but as you can see he has balloons 🎈 we used to have someone who sold whelks as well these were like snails and tasted like boogies ha ha and thing is i used to like them and go to the beach and collect them to boil in salt water but will tell you about that later.

Helen just back after bite to eat with her friend and I’m sitting listening to the football no alcohol involved at the moment but i may have a glass of red tonight. 

                                                                                18/07/21

Good morning a cloudier start today but it feel just as warm as I’m sitting doing this and can begin to feel myself warm up, today will be a garden and shopping day and if time allows maybe a sit in the garden as well to do a bit mor of this blog. Last night we had a great sunset over the sidlaws here are a couple of photos.

Back home and settle for a while i still feel bit weary after yesterday but think it was just the heat and it took a bit more out of me than i first thought, i had enough sun screen on but face does feel a bit hot 🥵 and when finished the garden i was soaked with sweat so i have been drinking a lot of water today. Well as i come to the end of another weeks blog i have to say that this has been a massive help to me remembering things from when i was young and i will continue but feel i should mix it up a bit in the next weeks blog so to finish this wee story about end of school disco 🕺 i want to say 1978 and it was the first time i was introduced to punk music, we all brought our own music for the DJ i took my kiss alive album but a guy i know called Frank brought never mind the bolloks this is the sex pistols, I remember meeting some guys before i went in and we had couple of tins of beer and when your 15 the excitement took you over, the music was loud and all the girls from classes were all dressed up one in particular i really fancied looked great but unfortunately i don’t think she thought the same as it was near Christmas and some of the guys had mistletoe and yes i think you can guess the next bit but i did get a hug from her and it did make my night (fkn sad i know) i have saw her recently and she always speaks and remembers me well. But the thing i do remember most now i was still getting into my music the DJ put on pretty vacant by sex pistols and place went crazy we all just flooded the floor and started poogoing jumping up and down and bumping each another around and I remember thinking wow this is new.

I was never a real punk i was mor of a metal head but this made me get into other kind of music like Blondie, the stranglers also bands such as Boomtown Rats and the Police but still my main music was heavy metal. The disco i think finished around 10 ands i remember leaving i never looked back at my school but I remember the next day when i woken up thinking well that’s that over with and what’s next well as i have said before the first three years i really just never did much at all which when i think back i wonder why or how things may have been different if i had got a job straight away but i never and well that’s just the way it is or was.

So another weeks blog comes to an end back to work tomorrow but as always will start next weeks asap, i am now sitting enjoying a cold cider just the one though so on that note i will finish this here.

Thanks again.

59 to 60 part 16

 

                                                                             05/07/21

Hello and welcome to part 16 of my blog 59 to 60 if anyone has read these well i hop you are enjoying them, picture is of me in Egypt at a very famous tomb TUT ANKH AMON and i shall go into holidays more as i go on but first Helen is watching Tennis and i am not long home from work so i thought i would take the opportunity to start this week, work was fine no issues today, weather wise well it has been rubbish heavy rain most of the day and does not look any better for my only day off until Saturday. 

Well as i have been writing this and doing bits about myself growing up i came across a photo on a Facebook page called meh Dundee and it is a picture of Balgowan Ave as you know where i spent the first 21years of my life, it is a very old picture and as you will see it does not even look like the house we stayed in has been built so i have no idea what year this is.

                                                           A very old picture of Balgowan Ave 

I love this photo it is before i was born maybe 50s maybe earlier but i recognise the street and I think i know where the bus stop was as well, there was a bus stop near a set of shops not far from our house and this does look like it, the shops were always busy we also used to have a savings bank there also a spar a news agent a chip shop and butchers and bakers, it was fine during the day but could get bit wild at night, my brother peter worked in the bakers and i seemed to remember a story he once told about working over night, whilst working the shop up from the bakers the Spar was broken in to and when the police came Peter who was just finishing his work and the police asked him if he had seen anyone with a pick axe? (They went through the roof to get in) to which he replied yeah every bloody night 😂 aye rough indeed. The shops were at times a source of entertainment with Huns hanging about there in there blue and yellow colours. Well enough for the moment feeling bit sleepy 😴 but more tomorrow.

                                                                           06/07/21

Well good morning the photo above is me with the tangerine top on and a mate called Steve Gudmunsen who used to stay at 128 Balgowan Ave he stay abroad now but we still stay in touch, his mum and dad were so nice and helped my mum through some tough times, his dad owned a car and in these days that was a rare thing and they also moved to a bigger house near strathmartine road which i used to call my second house as was never away from there at times. But a wee story of a day i was hit by a car and again it involved Chris my brother, we were out playing one day the year i can’t remember but we were all just making about Chris had crossed the road onto the grass in the middle of the dual carriageway, i was wanting to cross as well but their were few cars parked in the street that day and i could not see if anything was coming so i looked at Chris and he told me to cross ( why did i ever trust him 😂) so i did all i remember was the grill  of a van as it hit me and next thing I knew was being in the back of the van getting rushed to hospital and it was with Mrs Gudmunsen as i think mum was working, i remember getting pushed through a corridor and for some reason i thought i was in a bakers 😂 but i was not as i ended up getting stitches in my head and you can still see the mark to this day and i also cant remember if i got kept in but i think i was let home, oh and far as i know nothing happened to Chris. To this day i can remember the grill of the van and i am sure it was a Bedford van as well. How did i get to this age 😂 

So onto today and cant see much happening as again not great out but we shall see what the day brings, the photo is of me at the Star Trek convention so beam me up.

So just back in but never really did that much as again it is raining and have to say I’ve not been feeling to good today, i woke up about 4am only to discover that i had been sweating a lot and my pillow was damp with it and since then i have just felt bit weary so am glad to be home and try to relax probably a sleep as well see if it helps. 

I have so many memories of growing up some good and maybe some not so good but i think mainly good, as i have said we were a big family so there was always something going on in the house and weekends were always the best, but week days were well after school good as well, for as long as i can remember at 9pm mum would make supper and it would consist of tea some sandwiches and KitKats and there was always a rush for the KitKat 😂 but mum always knew who had an extra bit the night before, suppers became that popular that mates would stay so they can get some to greedy feckers, there were times you would look at mum near supper time and depending on who it was or who’s mate it was she would give you the nod to get rid of them ha ha she was very subtle at times. I remember one morning when one of our mates stayed over without mum knowing, she kept shouting up the stairs for us to get up but we kept ignoring her mmmmm how stupid we were, we heard her coming up stairs and told Raymond (Paddy) to hide and he did behind the bedroom door, our mum burst in and started shouting WOULD YOU TWO GET UP ITS NEARLY HALF THE DAY GONE OH AND I DONT WANT THAT RAYMOND PERSON OVER HERE ALL THE TIME I DONT LIKE HIM….just at that she turned round and saw Ray standing there face red and probably scared she looked right at him and said oh hello Raymond hows you family 😂 😂 it was funniest thing i had seen and truthfully when i went down stairs mum was laughing her head off and very embarrassed oh god love her… but we used to talk about that night even when Raymond was there and laugh about it aye happy days.

                                       Raymond far right in first photo and him now and Maw

So be a quite night tonight as work for the next three days but if i have time and feel ok i will try to do a bit more. 

                                                                                10/07/21

Well three days at work finished at last two days off and I need it as it has been busy and bit weird, I have been waking up around 4am sweating mainly from the back of my head no where else just my head 😂 fekin weirdo. Work was fine but was busy and think it took more out of me with the sweating and the heat in the unit. Good news is that my arm seems to be well on the mend just every now and again I get a bit of pain so maybe couple days rest mow will be a great help but am sure missing getting out on bike, saying that weather is not great today rain and very low mist but hoping by Tuesday i can get out for a good cycle run. I found some photos of Kirkton for my looking back bit just need wee edit so will be back soon to do bit more.

Just back strange day sun out at the ferry but back home bite clouded over, was out at first fixing mountain bike manage to sort it i hope but needed up putting to much pressure in back tyre i knew this when i heard an Big Bang 😂 so had to replace it and all seems fine now will find out tomorrow as going to put in few miles. When i was growing up their was a hill not far from us called the hillocks being yoiung they looked big but i recently went back and though mmm no that big, they were where to go for bit excitement and well to have a fight with the prodies ( Protestant) yes every St Patricks day the catholic’s used to fight or chase or run away from each other ha ha if you managed to get to the top of the hillocks before the other lot then you had more chance of wining as you were able to throw dokies (rocks) at them or easier to run away ha ha funny as the next day you probably passed them in the street and say hi bloody funny days.

This photo is of the path that leads up or down the Hillocks with St Columbus Chapel where we used to go until we discovered this big mountain 😂 one story is of our mum who used to take us to chapel it was a Sunday morning and mum took us to the steps that lead to the chapel but she said now you two go up and inside, she turned round and headed home so me and Chris decided an em no going lets go up the hillocks and wait for it to end then we can go hame, So we got to the top and just sat there waiting for it to come out, about 50min later the door opened and all the people started coming out one of which was yup you guessed it MUM we both looked at each other and just thought oh shit were deed how the hell did mum get in there? Well i think i don’t need to say anymore apart from my bloody ears were red after a good slap from mum and was tell tae get up tae ma room and there be no supper or tv for us ha ha…. But after mum calmed down and she had her first cigarette of the day she let us back out the room and we did get supper. Mum never swore apart from once when she saw a photo of David Bowie and she called him a poof ha ha now please remember this was the 70s and days were different and I’m sure when mum saw all our faces she was as shocked as us, she always had a cigarette around 1800hrs and she was a different person she was calm and if you wanted to ask something like can a mate stay over you were better waiting for her to have her Fag she still might say no bit it will be a calm no.  God bless her i wish she could have had more of a calm life because if you got her laughing she could set everyone of laughing.

This photo is from top of the hillocks and ass you can see on the left the nursery this is the school i talked about that was down from our house and where the steps were where we used to hang out most nights and some days. I climbed on the roof of the school one day then could not get back down had to get some help and i say no more on this ha ha.

So down in ferry today having a coffee there was a rig being towed out very impressive watching this so i leave you with a time lapse video of this.

                                                                              11/07/2021

Well good day today decided to try first ten miles on bike since i had steroid jab in arm and although was a bit sore it was fine so i shall try a few more mile on road bike on Tuesday then build it up from there, took the workhorse today (mtb) after manage to get it sorted yesterday tightened few things up and fixed the tyre that popped yesterday, just few circuits which was fine and 10miles was good way to get back into it and as i say arm fine.

This old retro bike is great and works fine was good we 1.5hrs on it. Got back home and now have decided to cut the grass if the rain stays off and then back in to have a chill as it is back to work tomorrow.

Well as we draw to the end of another week and another part of my blog it is amazing how fast time is going, but i am enjoying doing this especially looking back, and although a lot of it has been about my very young days maybe next blog i shall concentrate on teenage days we shall see. But one last thing you will remember me writing about that walk i did and how all the places like my schools have all gone? Well when i think about it things move on i still feel like part of my young life has been wiped out but just through my memories but i suppose writing them down does keep them alive, i look back to times of no mobile phones no cds not many gyms health was a second thought, you ate sugary sweets you drank sugary drinks no diet shite you have these days, kids are under so much pressure these days to have the newest phone to be thin or whatever just to fit in where my day all we bothered about was getting out and doing daft things and laughing about it. Do i wish to be a young person now mmm well no nit really maybe 30s but no way i would want to be a teenager again. Anyway thank you all again if you read this and until next week bye.