John York

I'm completely deaf in my left ear. I won't go into why...it's a war story. Anyway my wife and I are lucky. We sit side by side every evening but I sit on her left side so I hear what she says and the television is in front of us so it's no problem. Apart from juggling with the telephone and trying to write at the same time its not much of a problem.

In the early days there was only FSX. It was good fun but in my opinion was far short on realism. When Orbx was released it gradually changed all that and corrected some of the glaring incorrectness of the FSX scenery. The only complaint I had was, and I know it couldn't be helped and they were large areas, the slowness of the releases was galling Nevertheless, although still not real, the Orbx scenery was a vast improvement and heralded the gradual change to more realism. I did get a bit fed up with flying in Australia though so obviously, for me, it was nice when it was Europe's turn.

Don't get old too quickly. Life passes too quickly anyway.

I have a friend who lives in Canada now ; Chris Debruin, a professional golfer who won the Dutch Open years ago who I played golf with regularly when I was the Golf Club Secretary and he the Club Professional. Oh and I also played with Justin Rose every Sunday morning for a couple of years. At 16 & 17 I also played table tennis against Johnny Leach and the famous lady players known as the Rowe Twins and managed to get soundly beaten by all of them! The problem was they all wanted return matches!

Can't really contribute on this. I liked Tommy Dorsey and his band. I suppose they had one in there somewhere!

Last entry 15th.October. Did you all pop your clogs before I found you?!! John York (88)

Nostalgia for me, as always; Vera Lynn - 'We'll Meet Again' and The Seekers original - 'I'll Never Find Another You'.

I've only had a couple of dogs. Both of them scatty! No cats. Both dogs were mongrel softies and lived full lives. The trouble is though that they're also heart breakers and after the last one died on us Sheila and I decided we didn't want to go through that again so we haven't had any pets since. We now enjoy other people's and family's pets when they visit or we meet them while out and breathe a sigh of relief when they've gone!

The real reason they won't do both eyes at once is in case something goes wrong!

My wife and I had to have both our eyes done some years ago. We can both see everything clearly still but wear glasses for reading so as to avoid eye strain. You'll probably end up seeing better Jack than you ever did before.

When I was in the Boy Scouts, having crossed a stream we rested during the walk. One of the guys sat on a mound. It was an Ants nest! Next thing we knew we had Ants all over us. the whole patrol (six of us) jumped in the stream to get rid of them. Our parents were not best pleased when we got home soaking wet and covered in mud!

Very best wishes to you Don. I hope you're feeling better soon. JohnY

After 60 plus years of marriage I can still annoy her without even trying !

I'm with you adambar. My imagination doesn't stretch that far.

Blimey Ken, that sounds NASTY! Glad you're getting over it.

Don't know what it is Ken but glad to hear you're health is improving.

Lifejogger think of your baseball where you make runs in a circle. Well, in cricket you make runs in a straight line from one wicket to the other while your opponent is trying to get you out of the game by hitting the wicket you are running to with the ball before you get there. Come to think of it neither game makes much sense but they are a lot of fun.

Brad B - I was a good putter and chipper but could just never hit it far enough! Same with cricket when I was younger, opened the batting for my team and got some good scores with lots of 4's but just never achieved a '6' even when playing on smaller pitches. Very frustrating!

In Southern Spain for a couple of weeks playing golf in Pro-am's with our Tylney Park Golf club-Pro and another friend. The golf was mediocre but great fun trying to avoid the cork trees and make the long 'carries' on the courses but the evenings were superb eating different Spanish dishes in a different restaurant every night.

I seem to remember Leeds was always a challenge. If you ran off the end of the runway, you fell off the edge of a cliff!

I hope you paid up the Char Waller when you left Taph! Many didn't!

My Sheila and her lovely Mum when she was alive spoiled me with their Chinese food. Now when we go out for a meal we only ever eat English as we are today. Boring but nice.

I love dogs. Had a gang of seven or eight, all different breeds, of them from all different homes as my gang when during the war in the east end of London when the schools were closed. All the other children were 'evacuated' to the Country so I had no-one to play with except the dogs. We used to have play fights but not once was I bitten and not once did they truly bite one another. The criticism I have of them though is they're heart-breakers. They have such short lives. My gang was broken up though when he owner of one of the dogs, a beautiful golden retriever, had the dog put down. My parents saved one dog for me that was also destined to be put down; a mongrel we called Julie. She was a wonderful pet until she went the way of them all while I was away in the army doing my two years National Service. Sheila and I rescued a little toy poodle with bad breath (also destined to be put down) when we had our first house and he lasted for a good many years but he became ill and the vet recommended we should let him put the dog down as he couldn't cure him and he was in pain. That was it. We decided we didn't want to go through that heart-ache again so he was never replaced. We love it though when our friends and family visit with their dogs. We can make a fuss of them while they're with us but they take them away before we get too attached!

The smallest Sheila and I ever had was a Morris Mini. It was surprisingly big for us in the front seats. But then again, we are only small people.

Sorry Gumby. Have no idea what you're talking about.