Wireless

Although "wireless" in the current vernacular indicates internet connection without wires, there are of course plenty of die-hards who still use the term affectionately for radio, probably those lovely old wooden ones with a fabric covered speaker. We had one when I was very young and it resided in my bedroom for a while in an attempt to help me get to sleep. I have a degree of nostalgia for that piece of 'furniture', but my favourite radio ever was my GEC Starfinder II. It was a 13th birthday present and I still vividly remember lying in bed in the school infirmary listening to a 1975 UEFA Cup commentary featuring Jimmy Case scoring a hat-trick over Slask Wroclaw from Poland. Great name for a radio, Starfinder, reaching out to the heavens for sounds - well as often as not, reaching to the end of the dial to listen out for police communications, which seemed so exciting and daring at the time. Well, sad to say, the Starfinder II has now made the trip to the local recycling depot. I had to just take a photo to remind me of old times.

All Hands to the Pump

Lunch hour for Puddler today entailed a quick dash to Sainsburys to fill up the Puddlemobile with fuel, resist the goodies on offer in the kiosk and then back to the desk to eat the usual sandwich, today made from Mrs P's home-baked bread and raspberry jam. The anticipated delight was tempered by the odour of diesel on the hands (the polythene glove holder at the garage is always empty). So, as I experienced the raspberry-diesel flavour, I pondered on days gone by when your car was refuelled by a garage attendant who had permanently oily hands and might even check the oil and water while he was at it. I wonder, do any rural garages still offer this service? The last I recall in our neck of the woods assisted its last customer about 10 years ago. Upton-on-Severn still has the right type of pump, and not a litre marking in sight.

[Four years for the first post to materialise - a record?]