Welcome to newsletter number 28.  Well, it's a bumper issue this month, Just right to sit and read while sipping a Pimms in the garden...  spoke too soon there...  while waiting for the next thunderstorm to pass.  Either way, we hope you enjoy it. 

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AGM

 

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Virtual Pub Quiz   Every 1st Saturday of the month. (next one is 7th August 11:00 am) Zoom in with the in-crowd. Several rounds of General Knowledge, Music and Pictures. A bit of a social at the end. Join our  Zoom Meeting

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Amazing Fundraiser

Sylvia has now raised over £1000 for Northants Parkinson's People. She has planted, grown, picked, bottled, obtained and sold plants, jams, marmalades and lots of other things on our behalf.  So we want to say a great big thank you to her and all the people who have contributed and bought from her.

More Art Exercises with Judith






 

Hello everyone,

I hope you are enjoying our beautiful British summertime weather at the moment, and are getting out and about a bit more to see our wonderful countryside. In this month’s art section, I have put together a simple painting that I did after a drive out in the local Northamptonshire countryside near to me.
As per the last art lesson, when you first start to draw – remember to set out your ground level and then work upwards. Firstly put in the fence posts, then a driveway perhaps, followed by small out- buildings and in the distance, some hills. These fixtures will add perspective to the painting as a whole.

 

When you feel that your sketch is showing the landscape in front of you – and remember, it doesn’t have to be like a picture you would take with a camera – it can be your interpretation of it, you can start to add colour.
I have used watercolours on this occasion, but it could be done in pastel, oil or colour pencils.
Do remember that if you are using watercolour then it is wise to work on a watercolour pad for the best results.
Here is a list of the colours that I used:

Finding colours and mixing them to reach a shade that you are happy with is all part of the enjoyment of painting for me. You can choose your own colour range – and have fun with it :-)

Simply enjoy having a go at painting your first landscape – now is a wonderful time of year to try local landscapes and gardens. Trees and grasses and flowers all add texture and interest to a painting, and with so much summer colour around right now – don’t wait, get out there and try it

      
My Fig tree                                                                Raspberries in pots
 
Shallots
 
Blueberries in pots

I feel there is a real lack of awareness amongst the general public as a whole when it comes to Parkinson's. I am sure you will agree that this is a problem and creates misunderstanding with the general public. 
I read in my morning paper, that a lady having a meal with her husband, in a pub in Bath, was asked to leave the premises.  The reason given was that she drunk and causing a problem. Apparently, she had stumbled and fallen against a waitress, who reported to the manager that the lady was drunk and had hit her. The husband tried to explain that she wasn't drunk, and in fact, she didn't drink alcohol because she suffered from Parkinson's disease. The manager however took no notice. The lady reported the incident to the pub chain's head office and the couple received an apology and recompense. This incident could be enough reason for some people to think twice about going out and about, especially if confidence is an issue anyway.     

I'm reminded of a similar incident that happened to me.  Approximately 3 years ago, I was on a bus travelling to town. As I got up for my stop I stumbled against a seated female passenger. This 'lady' turned to the person next to her and said "bloody good ain't it? drunk at half ten in the morning" she said it quite loudly so I and everyone else could hear her. I thought to myself  I'm not ignoring that. So I didn't lose my temper, but just said, "Madam, I am not inebriated.  But I do suffer from a progressively debilitating neurological disorder, that is Parkinson's disease, which causes my body to sometimes react to this and I lose my balance. In future, I suggest that you engage your brain before you utter such drivel".  At this as I alighted from the bus, the other passengers applauded, she just sat looking aghast. 
I would like to say that I do not normally go around insulting people for no good reason.    

Doug 

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Editors Note
Well, it seems to be a common problem of Parkinson's awareness. Browse the internet and there are many news articles from Grandads being barred from flights to innocent people being arrested.  One or two novel ways to make people aware are shown below. 
 

         

If you have any ideas about how we can raise awareness locally please let us have your suggestions. Tell us HERE

Serve buttered.
This fruit loaf will freeze well for a couple of months.

It is delicious! Thank you, Rosemary!

Mimi on the move
(Mimi, who was until recently our secretary, has just taken up a teaching post on the island of Jeju in South Korea.
We've asked her to send occasional updates on her adventures. This is the first)

It took from Thursday at 9.30 am from Heathrow, until 6.30 pm on Friday into our apartment (albeit with an 8-hour difference) but we did it! Heathrow was the worst bit I think- nearly 2-hour queues just to ‘drop your bags’ (you check-in online nowadays but it doesn’t seem to have made any difference to timescales.) Then we were quickly in Frankfurt. Had a very expensive lunch (should have packed a sandwich??) and because we were on a 6-hour layover, we thought we’d treat ourselves to one of those nice Lounges with free drinks, chairs, showers even – bliss. Except it was shut. So our layover was laying on a hard bench with a plastic cup of coffee. Still, the next queue for boarding to Korea (just to check Covid Tests) was a nice time filler…

Then we were off – lovely Premium Economy seats on Lufthansa: slippers, blankets, eye masks, lots of videos and yummy food (well, I had to have the Economy version because of my allergy but it was nice) but the other half enjoyed his spicy chicken and rice, followed by peach crumble cake and cream and a beer! I binge-watched Modern Family and he watched movies…10 hours actually flew by – great pun. We were SO lucky we disembarked early, as the next stage into Korea was usually 3 hours of different queues – we made it all the way through in less than an hour, then our connecting bus driver took us to the next airport (3rd by now) and we managed to check in our 4 enormous suitcases again, and finally sit still on land for a bit.

    

Our school has been brilliant - met us at every stage, gave us information, took us to where we need to go – it was seamless. Our final flight to the Island was cramped and warm, but as it was exciting and only an hour, it wasn’t terrible. We were herded through by a policeman to make sure we got to our testing station – I have to say this was the most painful bit – they really had no sense of personal space with a swab up your nose and throat – very intrusive (must be a horrible job). But the cleanliness, efficiency and speed were impressive. Then a quick 45-minute bus journey to our apartments, lift to the 3rd floor, and arrival at our spectacular apartment. It is enormous, well laid out, air conditioning (phew!) and with so many cupboards even I cannot fill them all (yet??)

     

   

View from our apartment with the
Local rainforest beyond





Mimi and Paul

Another Poem from the pen of 
Dave Meakins
(Boothville Dave)







Toby
Now Toby is a lovely boy,
In his heart, there's lots of joy.

Loved by all and Mum and Dad,
He really is a special lad,

He laughs so much and shouts out loud,
You would never lose him in a crowd,

He's now at school and doing well,
Perhaps an academic time will tell.

The Pride of his grandparents and uncle Ben,
He does impress us, not just now and then.

So young Toby with your laughter and play,
Keep on smiling and grinning every day.

I couldn't go without mentioning Doctor Who,
But this is enough and that will do.

Alas, young Toby it's been a pleasure to write,
About someone with such delight.

Keep on doing what makes you happy,
Lots of love from Nanny and Pappy.

Boothville Dave is not just a poet
Here he tells us about his other rather intriguing hobby, we hope you enjoy.








 

Hi Angela, I thought you and the quiz crew might be interested in my Ham Radio Shack at home. In the picture above there are many forms of communications speech, Morse Code, data coms, ATV (which is fast scan television) with which you can communicate to various parts of the country and if the conditions are good we can make it to Europe. All the ATV equipment in this picture has been made by me. We make a lot of our own equipment which is part of the hobby. We talk all over the world on our radios. I have spoken around most places in the world. I have been licensed for over 40 years. It’s been a good friend to me as I never get fed up with it.

On one occasion I spoke to the space shuttle: Columbia, it was orbiting the Earth. One of the crew, Dr Owen Gariet: his call sign was W5LFL. He spoke down to the Earth when the orbit wind was open for a few seconds. The Radio Society of Great Britain kept updated position data which I used to track the shuttle with my antennas as they were rotatable and very accurate. I have the biggest licence and callsign available: G4SCJ. I have made many friends around the world who are amateur radio operators. We pride ourselves on being quite animative as we have to make a lot of equipment.

I myself am responsible for the very first 10m repeater in the UK which I fought for over 2 ½ years to get approval from the OFCOM and other radio licensing departments in the UK. The callsign of the repeater was GB3CJ as it is a variation of my licence. A repeater relays the information you put into it by talking instantaneously. The idea of a repeater is to make contact with places you would not usually be able to on-ground wave but an HF repeater like this uses skywave and you can work all throughout the world with it. It consists of two parts a receiver and a transmitter. The transmitter is actually on to of the Mounts Fire station and the Reciever closer to home. I have enjoyed myself as a radio Ham and am proud of some of the things I have achieved and the friends I have made. This is just a small insight into my hobby which you need to pass an examination to become one.

A slightly younger-looking Dave
working on the 10m Repeater

 

Remember 1973? Back then as a spotty youth, I was in the middle of an engineering apprenticeship at Northampton Machinery Company. I was so good they never had any more apprentices after me but that's another story. Today I'm going to tell you how to double your money, albeit in 48 years!
I used to have the occasional Pie and Chips for lunch. I'd jump on my little motorbike and nip up to Kingsthorpe chip shop because the pies were better. On one occasion I got a foreign coin in my change. This was after decimalisation and my only excuse was, I didn't check. A few days later I tried to pass this coin on in a game of cards. "Oy! what's that? get that foreign thing out of it" and the coin was pushed back. One of the older blokes asked to see it. I passed it to him and he examined it. "I'll give you 50p for it," he said.  Alarm bells went off in my head. I wasn't the smartest tool in the box back then but when the tightest, meanest, sneakiest bloke on the shop floor said that I snatched it straight back. I said I'd hang on to it. I took it home and showed it to my Mum and Dad.   Half Sovereign! said my Mum.  Ha, I was right to trust my instincts when Mr Nasty nicely offered me 50p
My starting wage as an apprentice was very low, well less than a fiver a week and there was great demand on my money to entertain myself. So much so that when Christmas came about I was quite pressed to afford presents for all those in my life. I ended up giving the half-sovereign to my mum hoping she would find it acceptable and maybe get it made into a necklace or something.
Twenty-three years later Mum passed away suddenly and I went from telling the doctors there was no history of heart problems in my family to saying there was!  A few weeks after mum died my dad gave me the half-sovereign. It's been tucked away ever since.
So how did I double it?  Well, a few weeks ago Dianne was watching PAWN STARS!! a reality(!!!) show about pawning stuff when someone was valuing gold coins. They mentioned they weighed and measured to ensure they were not counterfeit. I did the same with my half-sovereign,  ONLY IT'S NOT!   It's a full sovereign.  It's back in its place now though, It reminds me not only of my late mum but Folies chip shop, Pukka pies, my little motorbike, learning how to file, saw, hammer and problem solve in engineering.  I could go on, End of the Vietnam war, the 3 day week! the Partridge Family, Wizzard, David Bowie. All in one small coin, and yes I also wonder if the person who spent the coin eventually missed it. 

 

All pictures of me as a spotty youth are banned from publication by Mary Whitehouse!  My Honda 100cc bike (above) was sold to fund my 1st Car. I sold it for £200 I think. A Mint example would be worth about £5k now, I should have kept it!

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