Tim Satchell's handwriting...

Many years ago, when I was at school, our collective handwriting ranged from the reasonably neat to the absolutely unreadable and appalling scrawl! Mine was a cross between Jennings and Molesworth after several tinctures...

Our Headmaster tried to encourage us to learn the Italic method, and we all bought those square nib dip pens, and the inkwell monitor worked overtime before prep, but it was never to be, and I reverted to my spidery, wiggly writing! One day, a few years later, I had some sort of St Paul moment, and grabbing a green biro, immediately and totally changed my writing style to the one which I still use, sloping forward, and slightly above the line! It was during a history lesson, and to this day, I don't understand why it happened, but it did!

But there was one chap at school, who changed all this! Tim Satchell was slightly older than me, and he was a lovely guy back then, being artistic and sporting as well as friendly to everyone. He decided to reinvent his handwriting, by taking samples of everyone he could ask, and choosing the best bits of each style! He was meticulous in his method of choosing each letter, and adapting it to his own requirements.

And he actually succeeded, handsomely, and his handwriting became something of a wonder, because it was neat, even, and of course, easily read! I hope he kept it up, as he became a journalist, and did columns occasionally for the London press, and a few years ago did an article about getting MS, so I hope he has the slow one, not the quick and nasty one...

I found his signature in my old autograph book (remember them), the other day! He said he'd be famous one day!

Well he is in my book!

With no apologies - 'Chinese Ovens'...

The other day, while queueing to pay for some petrol, I stood alongside the retail shelves with all manner of items, like chocolate and spanners. The stuff above just made me start to giggle, and by the time I went to pay, I was nearly a gibbering wreck!

Years ago, a very old chum used to tell me of his escapades in Australia. One of these was to go out on the town to sink a minimum of eight pints of Guinness, then go on for a Chinese or an Indian. The best part of the evening was for everyone to cram into one car, and drive home WITH ALL THE WINDOWS CLOSED!

Now that sounds like a game and a half to me...

Down on The Farm...

Posting has been sparse recently, because there's so much to do down on 'The Patch', and also round the village, where a newly retired Scrobs is required to do this and that!

So here's a pic of 'The Patch', to show that at least the spades, forks and tillers have been doing their jobs, aided and abetted by Mrs Scroblene, who is a dab hand at couch-removal, and also catching a chum's stray chickens (not ours), and inserting them back through the hole in their netting...

Life is just too good...