Decorating for Brownie points.

I have spent the whole of the weekend confined to quarters. It was decided some time back that we needed to decorate our lounge. She who must be obeyed has been very considerate with my metal detecting forays of late; I therefore thought that with this weekend being a 50/50 job (50% sunshine and 50% rain) i might take the opportunity to gain a few Brownie points. You see the theory is that if one behaves themselves and knocks a few chores off their list they will be allowed to get some well earned detecting done in the future.

My brother had over-boarded our ceiling and a bloody good job he had done to. No skimming, just filled and sanded the joints. We had moved everything from the room prior to him doing the job. the ceilings were painted white (three coats) and the walls were "neutralized" with pale creams. A new wall mounted fire was installed over the opening in my chimney breast. I had to fit two new radiators, and to my utter shame (being a plumber as such) i had a bloody leak on my new pipework.

The hardest part of the job was getting all of the furniture back into the house. Its a good job that she who must be obeyed is a real hard grafter. Our house is not of a minimalistic type, we do have ornaments etc. The  point being is that all of those ornaments had to be brought back into the house, a job she who must be obeyed did. We don't have hundreds of ornaments, just the usual candles, a few bronzes and a whole load of John Beswick horses. I was banished from anywhere within 5 meters of the horses as they were put back in their display cabinet.

the horse cabinet © w parry 2012.

Any way Brownie points were accumulated in the bucket load, so a detecting adventure could well be on the cards for next weekend, hurrah!

Camping out on Clodhoppers inaugural dig 15/912.

 The inaugural Clodhoppers open dig 2012.

After making the decision to Haul my ass off for a weekend dig with clodhoppers, I realised I had many things to do. For a start off I was going to overnight in a tent.....but I don't have a tent!

Anyway mi Julie gave her blessing for me to go, with the expected send off of "don't come back moaning about not getting any sleep".

I picked up a cheap 2 man tent from Argos £14.99 on the Friday, as we were due to camp on the Saturday (I always like to leave plenty of time to cover for problems). Mi Julie then informed me that there was no chance of the air bed fitting in the tent; well I could do without it because I’m hard!

Early morning Saturday and the girls tent is up. © Warren Parry 2012

Friday night and I have the car loaded to the rafters. I put the breakfast meat in the freezer in the hope that it would stay fresh until Sunday morning. All I had to do now was get the meat out in the morning, take my batteries off charge, load all my stuff into the car and I would be away.

7am on Saturday and I have remembered everything, so off I go ......wait a minute! Why won't the doors open on the car? Nor the boot for that matter!! Oh crap, why me? I run back into the house creeping around like a baby Hippo with slippers on and wake everyone up.  I need the spare key fob as I think the battery may have gone in the one which don't work. To my relief the spare key works. The sat nav says 58 minutes to destination, via the M5

Sid collecting the cash and doing the admin stuff. © Warren Parry 2012   

The directions given by Sid took me directly to the gate in the field where we were to park. Sid had already pitched up his tent on the Friday and spent a lonely night in the field. I think I was first there, although others were there at about the same time. I paid up and pitched my tent. I gave some of the ladies (who were camping) a hand to put up their tent, although they were more than capable of doing it on their own. People began rolling in on a regular basis as the 9am start time rapidly approached. A brief talk from one of the group on hole filling and the fields which were in play and we were off.

people arriving and chatting. © Warren Parry 2012

Ayit giving a speech before the off. © Warren Parry 2012

Gold Quarter Nobel in the hands of the finder Dave H . This was found on a previous dig. © Warren Parry 2012

It was quickly established that the fields were heavily iron infested. They were also giving up plenty of finds, which is what everyone wants to see. My first find was a George iii penny which was still readable, and that's not that common for George iii coins. Others were having the same sort of success, especially along the canal side. News broke at about lunchtime that one of the detectorists (Brett) had been seen doing the hammy dance, it was indeed true. This was his first hammy, an Elizabeth half groat I think. My day continued with a few more old coppers and a sixpence. I also had a pound coin and a musket ball in the afternoon. It was fairly hot and sunny so I took to resting up at about 4pm and catching a few rays.

 A copper in the hole. © Warren Parry 2012

At about 6pm I noticed that my breakfast sausage and bacon had become exposed to the sun. I therefore had to use them for my evening meal and pop to the supermarket to get some more breakfast stuff. Being the useless shopper that I am, I came back with cooking bacon! Oh well, that's why Mi Julie don't take me shopping with her.

When I returned to the field, there were only a couple of detectorists left out on the dig. Most of the campers were milling around the admin area. We came to a team decision that a fire pit should be dug. Greyhound (one of our lady members) had brought an admirable amount of fire wood; however she thought we might be a little short. We both headed into the darkness to find some more firewood. There was a dead pear tree lying in one of the fields which we headed towards. There were plenty of heavy dead and well seasoned pieces lying around which we took back to camp. The fire was going like a good-un by now, and looking like it should be the place to be for the rest of the night. Most of the team had brought food and cooked it up, burgers, sausages of many types and plenty of buns. I cooked off my breakfast lot and had a real belly full. 

The beginnings of a truly magnificent fire. © Warren Parry 2012 

By now everyone was well fed and the Alcohol was freely flowing. The stories around the camp fire from all parties went down well and the atmosphere was very good. Aurelia (lady member) read a ghost story which captured the imagination as her story telling was spectacular. At one point Andy almost caught fire as he was listening so intently, and got too close to the flames.

Once the stories subsided and the alcohol had taken affect, the mood became one of hilarity. Most of the group headed out to the pear tree to collect more wood for the fire. They came back with some huge chunks of tree trunk which lasted to the next morning.

Everyone hit the sack at about midnight.

After what can only be described as a fairly restless but warm night in my sleeping bag, I realised that I should have brought a ground sheet or air bed. My back was wrecking, and the chorus of snoring caused me to emerge from my tent like a dazed moth from its pupa. I do admit that most of the snoring would have come from me as I had consumed the best part of two bottles of wine and a good slug of vodka.

The whole camp emerged between 6 and 7am, as the first of the Sunday detectorists were going to be rolling in from about 8am. Breakfast of cooking bacon in baps was like ambrosia to me, as any food usually is after a night on the pop. My head was pounding and I felt like shite!

The morning after the night before. © Warren Parry 2012

By 9am there were about 10 detectorists on site, a few more followed later. We ventured over to the fields on the other side of the farm. The first field I went into had recently been ploughed and sewn with grass. It looked promising and i soon had a ship ha'penny out. The problem however was that the ground was very very hard. I gave up after about 1 hour of back breaking digging. I still felt like a bag of shite so I headed back towards the camping area. I had also forgotten to bring my pro pointer with me due to the foggy state of my brain. Once I had collected my pro pointer I decided to have another bash along the canal side, where I again found a few coppers. I had to depart at 12 bells so at 11.30 I headed back to my car. I had packed my tent up earlier so I said my goodbyes to a great bunch of people, who I now consider being friends and headed off home.

some of my finds. © Warren Parry 2012.

It was a great weekend which I would recommend to anyone who gets the opportunity.

Thanks to all involved.

metal detecting Rally near Cirencester.

I thought i might blog my recent adventures at a open rally near to Cirencester. This might give you some insight into how a rally occurs and how one prepares for the day.

I returned from my holiday on Saturday 1st of September with a huge appetite for getting out with my detector. My first port of call was to trawl through the Metaldetectingforums.co.uk web site. There is a section in there where forthcoming Rallies are often posted. My eye was immediately taken by a rally being organised in Cirencester. It was short notice, but i began finding contact details of the organiser, and investigating the validity of the dig. This didn't take to long as some of the forum members were going to the same rally.
I emailed the organiser and requested a place for the Sunday. The organiser responded to me with an email  confirming that i could attend . With this email came the address of the farm where the rally was being held.
It was a weekend rally with campers turning up on the Friday for a early start on the Saturday.

On the Saturday evening i thought i might ask a few of the attendee's via the forum how it had gone. I was informed that one of the fields had turned up a lot of Roman coinage as well as a Celtic stater and a few brooches. All of the other fields had not turned up many finds. However, as most weekend rally's do, there were fresh fields for the Sunday.

I spent Saturday evening going through my check list, as driving 85 miles and realising you have forgot something is not a great idea. Batteries were charged, shovel and detectors loaded. Sandwiches were prepared and drinks at the ready. I loaded the address into the sat nav and hit the sack.

Sunday morning came and i departed at 7am. The journey down the M5 is fairly easy at that time of the day. i arrived on site at 8.30am and bright sunny morning awaiting. The registration tent was easy to find, and attended by two extremely polite young ladies. They took my £20.00 and handed me maps and information leaflets.

field 7, my first destination.

car park.

looking across to the village. The largest field being behind the houses.

I met a couple of familiar faces and got into a bit of banter about metal detecting. We decided which fields we would head to and got our stuff together. We all gathered around the organiser who gave a brief talk, in which he stated that the field where all of the finds had come, had a section which was out of bounds. All detectorists were to stay out of the said area which was demarcated by stones.

I thought i might give that field a miss as it would be heaving with detectorists again. I always think that the grass is greener on the other side so headed for one of the new fields. The field i chose gave up a few buttons and a bronze gold gilded ring. There was obviously a dearth of Roman finds, so i decided to move on. it was back down the beautiful country lane and to the largest of the new fields.

I had two hours on field 12 which only threw up a few modern-ish finds. I began to think that i had better try the Roman field (26) or i would regret it the next day. One of the guys showed me a silver roman brooch which was absolutely stunning, and i don't say that lightly.

Field 26 was beginning to look like the Somme, with pot holes everywhere. There were at least 25 detectorists on there still finding things. I had an hour on there and found little, so i moved on to the field below it. Here i found another bronze finger ring showing some gold gilding, and  at last a Roman coin. The coin was unmistakably a Roman, but with no recognizable markings on it.

This was the field below 26, field 26 was above the hedge at top.

I stayed on the fields around 26 for the remainder of the day. At about 4 pm i decided to call it a day as i had a 2 hour journey back home and my legs were hurting like mad. I showed the FLO my finds and noticed that the Silver Brooch i had looked at earlier was now on display in the FLO's case. I do wonder how long it will be before the guy who found it will see it again, if ever? It's definitely a floor in the process of declaring ones finds. The FLO's and their hierarchy can't turn these finds around quick enough. This will inevitably cause some of the finds to go below the radar.

All in all a good day out and i would recommend.

Can Barclay's Bank allow their reputation to sink any lower?

You bet they can!! Barclay's bank Wroxham Norfolk.

While on holiday in the beautiful Norfolk broads, we paid a visit to the Beautiful village of Wroxham.

It was quite a dull grey day with nothing exceptional occurring in the village, just the usual excursions on the passenger boats. 

The kids loved the sights as did the parents. We popped into Roy's food hall prior to us departing from Wroxham and picked up some groceries. My son and I spotted an opportunity to have a look the in guns and tackle shop, while the women got their things together. We crossed the road and turned towards the shop. We were greeted by what looked like a couple of young girls, one of which were lying on the floor and the other crying and looking very distressed. i immediately went over to ask if they were OK, when the person on the floor looked up, she was in fact a lady of about 40. The young girl was obviously with her and in quite a state of shock. I asked what had happened. She said she had fallen. i asked my son  to call an ambulance, however he had no signal. I looked up and noticed we were directly outside Barclay's bank. i ran inside the bank and asked for their help. I said do you have a first aider that can help this lady? They looked at each other and told me to go to Roy's (the shop from where I had come)! i said can you call an ambulance then please? Again they told me to go to Roy's store!! I was totally livid with them and gave them a few choice words. i then had to run around to Roy's, who called the first aider's to the check out. They then allowed me to call an ambulance.

The first aider's then tended to the lady who was now sitting up, with the young girl looking a bit calmer. 

I informed the small crowd that were around the lady of how unhelpful the people at Barclays bank had been. 

I don't know what happened to the lady as she was in good hands when i departed. I do know this though, if Barclay's were the last bank on the planet i would rather burn my money than let those uncaring bastards deal with it.

Barclays bank shame on you yet again.

Scary crash on nasty bend near Tesco's.

Barriers smashed to pieces over the years and very dangerous. © W.PARRY 2012

On the evening of the 18th August 2012 i decided to go and have a couple of hours fishing with my dad on the canal just below the market.

I had been there about 40 minutes when I heard a tremendous racket and breaking plastic noises coming from the back of me. When I looked back i could see a red scooter and its driver skidding across the road and coming to a stop in the gutter.

I immediately got up and ran across to the scene shouting to my dad "call an ambulance". As I got to the driver, he stood up in a dazed state. I think my dad noted this and did not call an ambulance after all, I asked the driver are you ok? He had his helmet on and said yes I think so. He had ripped his trousers, and the arm of his jumper. He had damage to his helmet where his head had hit a very dangerous looking broken stump. I am sure that his helmet went a long way to saving his life. I said "your helmet as saved you mate", at which point he took his helmet off. He was a young lad, with an L plate on the bike. He stated that he had only had the bike for two weeks and that he thought he had took the corner too fast. By now he was in pain and limping. I insisted that he look what damage was done to his leg. He rolled his trouser up to reveal a nasty bruise and a cut. He could hardly walk and said his foot was very painful. Again I made him remove his shoe and look, as shock can make some people not realise the extent of their injuries. He looked like he had a broken foot, and said so himself.

We stood his scooter up and he managed to start it. I asked if he was ok or did he need to borrow a phone to call someone? He said he was ok. He then said I don’t know what I will do as the scooter was his only transport to work. I said mate you’re lucky to be alive, so thank your lucky stars and don't worry about the bike! I pointed out the sharp wooden spike that his head had hit. He then looked at the damage to his helmet.

The young lad rang some family members who turned up after 15 minutes to escort him home.

That particular bend on Silver Street, (which is where the road runs parallel with the canal) has had numerous crashes on it over the years. In fact the reason there is a sharp wooden stump which the guy hit, is because previous drivers had hit it. Most of the wooden barrier is smashed or missing, and it’s about time the council did something about it.

There are no warning signs, and the road markings are almost invisible.

Ho, and we blanked on the fishing!!

The stump that almost claimed the life of a young motor cyclist. © W.PARRY 2012

The notoriously bad bend on silver street. © W.PARRY 2012

Look at that spike of wood, just waiting to impale some one. © W.PARRY 2012

Making candles at Millfield Junior mixed infants school.

 Tonight I decided to light a few of the many candles my good wife has accumulated over the years.

While doing so I had to remove some of the excess wax at the top of the candle. This was a scented candle which immediately cast my mind back to my early years at Millfield school.

Now I can't remember what the teachers name was that took the candle making lessons, may be Mrs Cradock? I do remember however that we used to take the lesson in the foyer of the school. I always thought that it was a strange place to hold a lesson!

It was a scent called sandalwood if I remember that invoked the memories tonight. i used to bloody love that smell. If I remember correctly there were at least 10 scents that you could choose from, but my good mom always ended up with a sandalwood candle. I am sure she loved and cherished each one regardless of the scent I chose.

I can't even begin to imagine any of today's schools paying for candle wax and wicks. Those sorts of lessons don't fit in with today’s curriculum do they?  

it would be nice to know if any of my old school mates remember the candle making, so ahoy there ye oldie chandlers get in touch with me.

picture courtesy of one brown cow.

Burning the candle at both ends!

I must admit that I am feeling the pace of these last few days. 

I am currently completing a three week training course which will enable me to sit my domestic gas exams. I will then be able to work on gas appliances in domestic properties as a competent and qualified person.

Considering I have been in the trade for 15 years, I think it’s about time I got it sorted.

I am also trying to run my day to day job once I get home, as well as during my lunch break. Once I have caught up on my day to day stuff it’s time for revision, and then I fall into my pillow.

Unfortunately for me I seem to have an overactive brain (not over effective, just over active) which often seems to process things while I sleep. Last night I woke at 3.05am thinking "crap! I didn't sort that email out about the keys". As hard as I tried I could not go back to sleep, finally getting up at 3.40am and sending some poor individual an email. I am sure they will think I am bonkers when they get it as it will say sent at 3.40am 15th August 2012.

On the first day of our course the tutors name was Dave, he was a matter of fact type of guy. He got his message across in a fairly effective way. The day seemed to take forever though, and that bloody huge clock on the wall in front of me is really annoying.

The second day started with a new tutor, by new I mean different. This guy’s name was John, he is a semi retired ex British gas employee. John introduced himself and informed us that he was 71 years young. He then went straight in to asking who wanked? Yes you read it right "which of you men wank"? A few tentatively raised their hands. He then said "ok, all of the wankers sit on that side of the room and all of the Liars sit on the other side". Well that certainly broke the ice, and was a sample of what the day held for us. He had a well rehearsed joke ready for every conversation we had. It did make the day go by fairly quickly, and also broke the ice between the candidates.

I am the oldest person on the course and have the least field experience, as I am not a gas fitter by trade.

It appears that I am managing to hold my own, and may be ahead of one or two of the candidates. I must admit that trying to burn the candle at both ends is difficult, and may take its toll later this week.

Still, it could be worse; I could be living in Syria!