Recent changes.

18th December 2005

Brian Osbon has come up trumps yet again, he has discovered that 247 Mike Woolley is living in London, so have added yet another address to the database.
This is the last update of 2005, so will leave you with best wishes for a very merry Christmas, and let us all hope that it will be a Happy New Year.

17th November 2005The website rules again, John Stevens contacted Bryan Hyland out of the blue looking for Jeff Richardson, and although we know where he is at this moment, he is escaping to Spain next month, apparently he will be about 20 minutes from Alicanti airport, but even he doesn't know his address yet.
Brian Osbon has found out the whereabouts of Colin Taylor, but the news is not good, he is in a geriatric unit near Aberdeen, and has been for some considerable time.
The worst news of all though is that Dave Johnson died of a massive heart attack on 11/11/2005. He had a triple bypass a few months ago, and the doctors had given him the "all clear" just 2 days before he died. I've always reckoned that doctors were a lying load of buggers.

29th October 2005 Just a couple of amendments, Dave Pleasants email address has been added to the contacts page, and Kev Mangnall has done a runner. Just had mail from him telling me that he and the lovely Sylvia have become what is known as "Swallows". Got himself a place in New Zealand and is spending our winter there, returning to the UK next April. They are still on email the contacts page should be the current one.
One small change to the front page, where it used to state the last update date, click on the "UPDATE" word, this will give you the information you require.

17th October 2005 It seems we are retiring thick and fast now, another email address change, Peter Cooke this time, and Les Eva has finally bought himself a PC and let us have his new email address. Both these have been annotated on the contacts page.

2nd October 2005 Email changes for 3 of our members this time. Pete and Tony Wildish and Dave Horne have their changes recorded on the Contacts page.
As of today there are only 347 days left to the big reunion, do not forget to put your pennies in the saving box each week, and book a room with John.

18th September 2005 Rob Knotts has been a busy lad, emailing newspapers in Norfolk looking for bodies, and success is his, he has found David (Errol) Flinn, no email address yet but we do have his snail mail. and he indicatesd that he will be attending the 50th.
I also checked out the 83rd site and discovered that they knew the whereabouts of Mick Frost, he is on email and that has been added to the contacts page.
Did you remember that it was our anniversary last week, well I did so there, and sent an email out.
One other small thing , if you use the Google search engine, select UK only and type in "84th", our website is top of the list, I must admit to feeling quite chuffed about that, long may it continue.
On a personal front, those of you who may be following the saga of the garage roof, the camper has finally been parked beneath the same, with 1.25 inches clearance.

7th September 2005 On the anniversary of the death of Chris Hanfrey I feel it is appropriate to publish the email recently received from his brother Brian giving the circumstances of this sad event. This is published with Brians permission.

Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2005 2:21 PM
Just stumbled on your website whilst doing a search on my family name.
I noticed in your changes section, you recorded the sad death of my brother Chris, but said you had no further information. Just in case you wished to pass on this information to any of your members, I would add the following information.
Chris had been suffering from Multiple Sclerosis for more than twenty years, which eventually forced his early retirement from British Airways several years ago.
His condition remained fairly stable for many years which enabled him to enjoy some of the activities that meant so much to him. Although he became severely disabled in latter years, he did manage to take several trips with other disabled people on sailing ships such as the "Lord Nelson".
Sadly he lost his battle with the disease on September 7th 2004. He leaves a widow Jackie, a son Colin and a daughter Nicola.
He will be sadly missed by those above, and also his sister, Sheila, and his two brothers, Peter and myself Brian.
Hope this information is of some use to you. It is nice to think that he is being remembered by some of his former colleagues.
Regards
Brian Hanfrey

On a more pleasant note I wish to report that Roger Martin found William (Bill or John) Randall using the spreadsheets distributed for the purpose, keep looking lads, there is more of us out there.
Eee the wonders of email, one of our number moved house five years ago, but as we only communicate via email, it made no difference, however he has now told me he has moved and I have his new address.
Just over a year to go for the big reunion lads, John has had bookings already so do not be reticent, you know it makes sense, there is only ONE of these.

6th August 2005Well I waited for all the photographers to send me their shots of the reunion, I have now published what was sent, but I have a feeling there are more out there. One aberation was that we did not get a full group shot this year, so tradition has gone out of the window.
A few more old photos from Kevin Mangnall have been put in his particular area, and a new slot given to a couple of photos from Geoff Parkes.
I have had a quick shufty at the people who came to the last two reunions, and if they came next year there would be an extra 15 couples to those we had this year, and that would break all attendance records.
On a lighter note, my garage/carport roof is now firmly in place thanks to my son and son-in-law, unfortunately there is a slight height difference between the roof and the campervan - the damn thing will not go in. A case of back to the drawing board methinks.

25th July 2005 We had another good time at Stratford with wonderfull weather and 37 (I think) sitting down to dinner, it was very enjoyable for me, because I really didn't think I was going to make it, but my son came to my rescue and drove me there. Isn't it boring being a passenger. The hotel staff yet again treated us very well, and as far as I am aware, no complaints whatsoever.
This marriage lark is catching, no sooner have we got over the fact that John and Angela have done it, that we get the news that Kevin Mangnal is to marry the lovely Sylvia in September, good luck to them both.
John Horan has now changed his email address, see contact page for that, and surprise surprise, I called in on Pete Rollings on the way home to find out why he was not at the reunion, and found out that he had been dragged into the 21st century. I think his sons had a lot to do with it, however his email address is now on the contact page as well.

8th July 2005 At long last Jayars advertising campaign has finally paid up. As a result of a notice in the RBL magazine, we discover that Geordy Parkes is no longer residing in South Africa, but has moved back to the UK, aaannnd is coming to the reunion on the 16th, roll up and meet him there. His email address is on contacts page, as are the changes to Roger Martins and Pete Symonds.
John H has not only married the girl, he has moved in as well. He has kept the same mobile like, but his land line telephone number is now 01480-435278. Be carefull with the snail mail too, the old address contains some Yank from Alconbury.

2nd July 2005 The obituary columns are slowly getting longer, Derek (Drag or Dolly) Gray, ex 1 wing Engines, finally hung up his boots in May of this year.
Roger Martin has changed his email address, see contact page.
Ian Blunt has come up with the goodies on George Gibson, and he too is on contact page.
If my injuries continue to heal at the present rate, and as long as "nowt else gans amiss" I will see you in Stratford.

15th May 2005 No updates for six weeks, well most of you will know how lazy/busy one gets once retirement age has passed.
Rob Knotts sent me some more black and white shots of our youth, find them under his name heading under "Old Pictures"
Eric Shipley is looking for a house swap for approximately ONE MONTH, as soon as possible. If you are interested please contact Eric directly via E-Mail. Oh yes I forgot to mention that he lives about One hour from the Orlando Theme Parks in Florida, current temperature about 75F.
If you have not yet sent your monies for the reunion to John, now is the time to do it, the poor B....r has enough on his plate with the forthcoming wedding without worrying about Stratford.
Further to my rantings about SKYPE in the last update, I have found that the use of a USB headset or USB telephone handset much improves the usage of the program. For some reason women seem to be able to use a telphone handset better than a headset !!!

31st March 2005 It is with regret that have to inform you that Chris Hanfrey died last September, his wife informed John Horan after getting the last newsletter in the post, I have no further details. Think of him next time you have a beer chaps.
I am quite chuffed, having sent out the latest newsletter as an attachment in PDF format, I only got one query back about opening it, I will not mention who it was, but sufficient to say that he was swearing that Black was White, and I was correct.
Having joined the pensioner ranks I was looking for a cheaper way of keeping in touch with my youngest son and his wife who have just moved to South Korea, rather than paying NTL telephone charges. I heard about a VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) program from SKYPE. I looked at the online blurb and decided to give it a try. I obtained the free download from "http://www.skype.com/" and installed it on my PC. which was fully automatic and took no time at all. I then immediately ran the program without plugging in my headset. No sooner was the program running than a small window popped up telling me that Eric Shipley was "on line". I don't think I have moved that fast for ages grabbing the mic headset and plugging it in. Within minutes, the PC simulated a telephone ringing and a gobsmacked Eric was talking to a gobsmacked Tony. The reception was brilliant, full duplex not single sideband, both of us wondering how the connection had happened. We chatted for 10 minutes and then he had to go back to working. What I have failed to tell is that Eric was/is in Florida and I in Redcar, and that the call was completely FREE. Voice calls between PC are FREE, calls to a standard telephone are handled by SKYPEOUT, these require a pre-payment of 10 Euros via a credit card or Paypal, and are 1.4pence per minute to USA and Australia, and 1.9pence per minute to South Korea. Numbers are dialed on your PC and and answered on a normal telephone in the destination country. When you set up the program, one enters an email address, the reason Eric found me so fast is that I was in his email address book and he in mine. I recommend this program all of you, but especially to expats who contact other countries, or bodies with family or friends in distant lands. Mind you ALL calls in the UK, regardless of time of day or distance, are 1.4ppm, and this is certainly cheaper than my tariff.

7th March 2005 Peter Priscott has finally submitted his email address, Tony Roach has moved house and changed his email address, and I have duly added and changed the details on the contacts page, Thank you Peter and Tony.

24th February 2005 Another body has returned to the fold after "finding" the website. Rob Fowlie contacted me and I have all his details on the database and his email on contacts, the irony is that he lives in Aberdeen where I used to go on a regular basis. Pete Dawson lives near Lincoln if anyone is interested.
The response to the poll about the 2006 reunion has been pityfull. Out of 170+ persons contacted only 28 responded, and I am worried that such a minimal vote will commit us to a reunion location for just a few.
According to the "Banner Keeper" I had some names wrong on one of the photos, so have altered the "mouse over" names on the assembled at Tring station under Mick & Dicks contribution.

17th January 2005 Serious stuff this - John tells me that after all the slaving we have done that he has only had EIGHT replies to the questionaire, and that includes the ones sent to me. Come on lads get your fingers out, it isn't that hard, you can even type them slowly if you wish.
Jeff Richardson got a bit peeved with having to use his wifes email address, so has changed it yet again to what he thinks is a more appropriate name !!
Derek Cox has finally read the web site and found that we couldn't contact him, so he has sent in a new email address as well, both these on Contacts page.
I get so many jokes and other types of funnies sent to me that I have included a "Humour" button on the front page of the site. The actual page(s) will be held on my broadband server so I can update them quickly and easily, but as users you should not even notice this. The jokes may be a bit risque at times, but if you are looking for more - go elsewhere.
Oh yes, one other thing.
Mr Horan informs me that this "living in sin lark" is unbecoming of an orfficer and a gentleman, so he is tying the knot again in June of this year. Comments directly to him please!!
Just noticed that the date was incorrect for the next reunion, so changed that too.

7th January 2005 Brian May has changed his email address, I have retired, but most important of all is that another guy has returned to the fold. I sent a small note to Sheila Perkins, and in her reply she mentioned that Pete Dawson had attempted to contact Roy some 4 months before he died. She gave me his address and BINGO it is the correct one. The saying goes "that something good always comes out of the bad". Happy New Year to all our readers

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