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Messages - Gillg

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1
The Stay Safe Board / Re: Diary summary week ending 5th May 2024
« on: Thursday 02 May 24 11:39 BST (UK)  »
Heavy rain last night and thunderstorms for some, so some of our road are flooded again.  We had to take a longer alternative route to the nearest town to do our weekly shop today. 

We're off to vote while there is a fairly dry spell before it starts again later in the day.  We only have to vote for a Police Commissioner this time, but will be interested to see the various results around the country, especially from the Mayoral elections.   

2
The Common Room / Re: Gentlemen Only Funerals in Wales - Why?
« on: Thursday 02 May 24 11:32 BST (UK)  »
I experienced this on the Scottish island of Mull many years ago.  A funeral procession of men made its way through the town, winding its way up a hill to the church and graveyard. Many houses had curtains drawn at the windows.  I don't know at what point women were involved in the funeral, as we didn't follow the procession.  The island was very set in its ways then and women were not allowed in pubs at that time.  I expect things have changed a lot by now.

Things like this always make me wonder why men are so afraid (?) of women that they put so many limitations on their behaviour.  But that's another topic...

3
The Lighter Side / Re: PoW camps
« on: Thursday 02 May 24 10:53 BST (UK)  »
It's always really interesting to hear personal experiences, Rena.

4
The Stay Safe Board / Re: Diary summary week ending 5th May 2024
« on: Wednesday 01 May 24 11:25 BST (UK)  »
Covid booster injections today for us both and a review for me, which involved the taking of blood and blood pressure, plus various questions about my "lifestyle" and jumping on the scales to be weighed, having taken off my shoes and anything else that might add to my weight.  This is an annual review for older patients with an underlying health problem (high blood pressure in my case, though the GP has recently lowered my dosage, I'm pleased to say).

Yesterday was such a poor day - rain, wind and low temperatures - that the thatchers who are working on our neighbour's roof gave up and went home at lunch time.  Where is that sun?  When will it get warmer?  ::)

5
The Lighter Side / Re: PoW camps
« on: Wednesday 01 May 24 10:50 BST (UK)  »
It was mentioned earlier that some of the PoWs chose to remain in the UK rather than return to their homeland. Several years ago I was asked to help our vicar with a reading that he wanted to give in German at the funeral of a German man (I used to be a teacher of German) and to talk to his sister, who had come over from Germany for the funeral, but who spoke no English.

She told me that her late brother had been recruited into the German army as a boy of 16 in the later stages of the war and had soon been taken prisoner and brought to England.  The family had lived in what became East Germany and the sister fled when the Russians came.  Her parents said that they were too old to flee with her and they would have to take whatever was coming to them.  They were sent to East Berlin and the sister eventually reached Stuttgart, where another sister lived.  The brother said he didn't want to return to a conquered Germany, where his family were scattered around and chose to stay in England for the rest of his life.  The parents eventually died and the sister was able to bring them to a grave in Stuttgart, where the other sister was already  buried.  She was determined to bring her brother back to the family grave, too, "so that the family could be together once more", she said.

6
The Lighter Side / Re: PoW camps
« on: Tuesday 30 April 24 20:02 BST (UK)  »
As a former resident of a Lancashire mill town I find it interesting that several mills were used as PoW camps.  They must have been in the centre of town, so difficult to control, but maybe the PoWs became operatives in the mills rather than farm workers.

7
The Lighter Side / PoW camps
« on: Tuesday 30 April 24 11:07 BST (UK)  »
Did you know that there were over 1000 WW2 prisoner of war camps in the UK?  It's interesting to see where they were located from this article from the Guardian and Lost Cousins

https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/nov/08/prisoner-of-war-camps-uk#data

I only knew of one, the one in Grizedale Forest in the Lake District - see the 1957 film with Hardy Kruger as "The one that got away". https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050803/   You can watch the trailer if you scroll down that page.

8
The Lighter Side / Re: Family Search activity
« on: Tuesday 30 April 24 10:27 BST (UK)  »
My Family Search mystery has been  sorted via PM with the kind help of Zacktyr.  I'm chasing up the person whose email address was given as the person entering those incorrect details.  The One World Tree seems to have pulled together a lot of information from various sources, but some of that information can so very easily be incorrect, as I have discovered.

9
The Common Room / Re: Stressed out
« on: Sunday 28 April 24 18:21 BST (UK)  »
Thank you, Trystan and Sarah.  We can always rely on you to sort things out. :D

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