Bamber anecdote

[kipper]

This post brought back memories:

odds and ends ...

Back in the late '70s and early '80s I lived in Bromsgrove, roughly 14 miles from the city of Worcester. There were about a dozen or so of us who rode motorcycles used regularly to visit this pub at the weekend...

...we used The Plough for a couple of reasons.
1. They sold draught rough (alcoholic) cider.
2. The police used to drink there too. This meant the pub was never raided for 'after hours' drinking. The coppers used the lounge (through the door in the picture). We used the bar, in through a door at the rear.

As you can see, fairly close to the cathedral.

Quite handy then, from bloody Marys to hail Marys..

 

[kipper]

Here in the UK there is a license fee for possessing a TV (it's how the BBC is financed: no advertising revenue). It currently costs £157.50 (around $210) per annum. The last time I had a TV, almost 30 years ago, it was less than £80.

When I changed address a year ago I almost instantly received a letter from the TV licensing authority saying I didn't have a TV license. I wrote to them saying I didn't have a TV. I also told them I would NOT allow them access to the property without a warrant.

Today I received a letter with TV LICENSING on the envelope. I expected it to be a similar letter to last year, but no: it is a confirmation that I don't need a license. I didn't even know there was such a thing!

So I have what is, in effect, a non-TV license.

I wonder what faceless bureaucrat though this one up!

I've been helping a mate do up a property to move into. We gutted the place and started afresh. He received 3 reminders saying the property had no TV licence, it also had no aerial or windows for that matter...lol. The last demand with menaces said they'd send an inspector even after he'd replied the property was currently empty. Said inspector duly turned up one day to see the non existent licence, we invited him in, he looked around at the tools and plaster scattered everywhere, and said, the property is empty, (no shit Sherlock) then he said, you'll need a license when you move in, mate said I'll transfer the one I've got, inspector said you never said you had another property, Mick said, well you never asked!!! ... End of conversation...lol

 

[Bamber]

End of an era.

I moved to Torquay in 1986. The company I worked for had an office on the harbour front. In 1989 the office moved down the coast to Paignton, then again in 1991 to Dartington, the other side of Totnes. In Dartington I used to visit the Cott Inn every lunchtime for my main meal of the day and got to know a good few of the regulars. I took to having one night a week at The Cott, where one of the regulars was Bill Maclening, one of 6 brothers. I only got to know 3 of these men; Bill, Ed (who drank down the road in The Queens Arms) and Andy (who drank in Totnes).

I left South Devon and moved to North Devon in 1995. When I moved back south to Totnes in 2005, the first person I met when I went to The Albert was Andy Maclening. He was the barman that night and I found out that his wife Doreen worked there part time too, as a barmaid. They both retired from bar work four or five years ago.

I learned a couple of weeks ago that they both were infected with Covid. Doreen was isolated at home, but Andy had breathing problems and went to hospital. Four days ago he was looking forward to going home but took a sudden turn for the worse: he had a lung infection. This turned to pneumonia and he died in the early hours of this morning.


Andy Maclening by Phil Gayton, on Flickr

You will be missed, Andy Mac, not least by the landlords of Totnes. RIP me old mate.

 

[squirt]

I'm so sorry for your loss