Spring edition

Apart from Tuesday being the first anniversary of Lockdown in England which will be marked by a pause at midday to remember the over 126,000 people who have died from Covid and those who have been otherwise made unwell by it it also happens to be officially spring this week.

Spring is when everything that went away from late autumn returns with vigour such as the wildlife activity in our local wood which is full of the sights and sounds of summer right now from flowers coming up in bloom to manic bird activity.

Our daffodils have come out on the green a sign of recovery and we all hope the slow steady moves towards being able to do a bit more and travel across our country after this last year.

Still 10 at 70

It's been an interesting week so far in for getting to understand more around what being me is all about and how that slots into my life.

That's what happens when you find a place that is just about people like you and people share experiences around how you feel about being that eternal child, what you love and how sometimes it can seem a bit lonely navigating that path between actual child and not being functionally grown up.

Not surprisingly the big thing at Chris's has been Beano 4077 which marks Dennis's birthday when 70 years ago this week he was born and like me remains 10 even if the world around him has changed to include smartphones and computers.

For this special edition there's a pull out double sided poster one of which has his family tree and three Dennis birthday story strips on top of an extra eight pages.

This is my new Dennis and Gnasher Fan Club wallet rather than the one I had back in the 1970's which is a little dog eared at the corners but in pretty good shape otherwise.

One difference is the membership card has a credit card style rather than being all paper being in these times as much as it of the the past.

Last Friday Crackerjack series 2 finished with a Golden Awards edition looking at the funniest bits of this last series, expressing the hope a third series in its current incarnation will be made soon .

It was side splitting hilarious then as boy and in its new form just the same  with the boys and girls having fun being on it and watching too.

The world around me may of changed but I and my interests  haven't.

Birthday Edition v1.2

Something happened on Saturday and it doesn't easily fit the blogging schedules but can anyone guess what it might be?

Hmm thanks to that nasty virus this year unlike last year by a hairs breath organized events of the sort that normally would mark birthdays are out as much as I'd just love to have a party or even a birthday meal out.

You might recall something came at Christmas back into my life but this year the main present is even closer to home.

This is a original 1970's Action Man of the sort I actually had unlike the new ones you can buy from places like Amazon and when they are re-opened toy shops.

The moulds and construction is more flexible in the original which as boys when we posed them in the imaginary play we had was useful for more realism compared to the newer one.

Then there's the plastic used is of a higher standard which distinguished him from the more generic boys soldier figures of the seventies. 

The Achilles heal of the original unlike those from even the late 80's and 90's is the hands that were rubberized, prone to perishing or breaking off and on this one the hands have been carefully replaced as part of the restoration by new ones.

Toys are meant to played with so for me it's a must that you have functioning hands rather than the collector only original parts mentality, the badge is a replica and the scarf is handknitted  but all else is original as Palitoy supplied it.

Also I got a 1993 figure dressed as a Snowboarder with seven accessories apart from a original Rocket Launcher.

Having back something whose removal including a massive collection of accessories was a long running sore given it was played with at the time is just great.

Although we don't generally talk about music much on this blog compared with the originals I had two whole series of cds, the first of which was by the composer Prokofiev.

The set were a complete set of Violin Sonatas by Beethoven that although they'd come out in 2014 I had missed out upon

I had some money from relatives for when the shops finally reopen and some knitted bedsocks from an elderly neighbour to whom I'm a bit of an acquired grandson in his grey shorts which is an indication of the extent to which the eternal boy I am is increasingly accepted.

The bike and me

It's Friday, not any the day before Saturday I would hasten to add so things will be a little different over the next seven days.

Many children and certainly most of they boys I grew up had bicycles and as it happens only the other day I saw two boys cycling off along the road I was hiking along with their helmets on which certainly wasn't the case in my era.

I didn't simply because I wasn't good on my feet and wasn't able to keep a bike balanced while turning the wheels which was pretty frustrating.

You might of thought a three wheeled cycle would of been worth getting for me but unfortunately that didn't happen, I mean we never even got to try it out as an idea even.

A few years ago while I was away I did get the chance to try it out and although it was difficult for me to get started due to leg muscle weakness, when I did it was just magic.

Somehow I feel I'll be seeing more of what the boy on the left is doing in within a day.😂