Cautionary tales – I Walk Alone

Research Rabbit Hole ~ Oswald Mosley in Southampton

Today, it’s hard to believe that there was ever a time when fascism was accepted in England. It’s even harder to imagine a massive British Union of Fascists rally on Southampton Common or the infamous BUF leader, Oswald Mosley, standing on top of a van giving a speech. This is exactly what happened on Sunday, 18 July 1937, but I’m pleased to say things didn’t go quite the way Oswald Mosley expected. Read on to find out more . . .

Beware catfishers, and ten-a-penny Keanus!

I am old enough to remember a time when SPAM meant tinned meat — spiced ham produced in 1937 and popularised during the food shortages of World War II. I remember seeing the Monty Python SPAM sketch for the first time, too. If you haven’t seen it, check it out here. Of course, the sketch came out in the 1970s before the internet existed. It was twenty years before unwanted messages began popping up in ever-increasing numbers, and like the spam on the menu in the Monty Python sketch, drowned out everything else. That was when the word got its modern meaning. This sort of spam was on my mind in the second half of 2022.

Not the best of starts

At some point between Christmas and New Year, the dreaded Coronavirus finally caught up with Commando and he, being a sharing kind of man, kindly passed it on to me. Thankfully, for all concerned, it was not nearly as bad as expected. Yes, it was worse than the cold I had a few weeks earlier, although with less snottiness, hacking, and coughing. The main feature appears to have been tiredness, a woolly head incapable of concentrating for any length of time and a few olfactory anomalies that have made eating an interesting venture.

Return to Dorney Lake

Back in 2015, Commando ran a pre-London Marathon twenty mile event at Dorney Lake, a sporting venue built for the 2012 Olympic rowing events and now owned and used by Eton College. I’d had a wonderful few hours wandering along the Thames towpath to Windsor and back. When he said he had a race there on the last Sunday in August, I was excited to tag along. It was only a 10k this time, not twenty miles. I knew I wouldn’t have time to walk to Windsor, but I looked forward to another walk along the towpath.

Daedalus, a myth, a memorial and some history

On 3 July 2022, Commando decided to go for a nice flat run along the shore at Lee-on-Solent. Obviously, I took the opportunity to tag along and pay my respects to Leonard Thomas Haley, my first cousin once removed. I discovered him when I was researching my family tree on Ancestry.co.uk. As parts of his story inspired my current work in progress, it seemed fitting to pay a visit. I was also keen to explore the area around the Fleet Air Arm Memorial and enjoy a walk by the sea.

The end of an era

Back in January 2014, I wrote a post about a famous Southampton landmark. It wasn’t the Bargate, the medieval walls, the Civic Centre, or any of the usual monuments; it was a giant boat in a humble garden in Midanbury. To be honest, it was more of an analogy than a history, a cautionary tale about things getting out of control and ignoring the elephant in the room — or the boat in the garden. Sadly, Peter Bromley, the man who built this unintentional folly, has now passed away, aged 93, and, this week, the boat was finally dismantled. Avon Road will never be the same.

Southampton General Hospital and the blue bin lorry

On Thursday, 9 June 2022, at a little after two-thirty, Commando got his cycling gear on and said he was going out for a couple of hours. I told him to enjoy his ride and take care, and then he left. When I saw him go past the front window on his bike, I settled down for an afternoon of research into my next project. Mostly this involved downloading Met Office weather reports for April 1942. I’d come to the last report, and was thinking about what to cook for dinner when the house phone rang. The only people who call on the house phone are salesmen and scammers, so we don’t usually answer it. It was now approaching five o’clock. I was expecting Commando back shortly. For some reason, I had a feeling I should pick up the phone. When I did, Commando’s voice said, ‘I don’t want you to worry but . . .’

An Omicron Christmas

Twelve days before Christmas 2021, Kim and I were wrapped up against the cold, up to our ankles in mud and taking photographs of yet another cross country race. Meanwhile, the media were doing their best to whip up a storm about the new COVID variant, Omicron. It was spreading like wildfire, but everyone I knew who’d had it described it as a mild cold. Most only knew they had it at all because they’d taken a routine test. Some had no symptoms other than a positive test result. Even so, there was plenty of hype about cancelling Christmas and locking the country down again.

They think it’s all over . . .

In March 2020, when it became clear that COVID 19 was going to change our lives, I remember wishing that I had a magic wand and could fast forward until it was all over. By November 2021, life really did feel as if it was getting back to normal. I’d had a much needed haircut, although I’d opted to keep it longer just in case things went pear shaped again. Parkrun was back. Races were back. Mark and Nicole had finally managed to get married. We’d even been away for the weekend to Witney and visited a museum. The real feeling that it might be all over, though, came with two long put off appointments.

Disaster at Woodmill

The walk along the river to Woodmill has always been a favourite of mine but, since the first lockdown, it has been a walk I’ve regretfully abandoned. The parks have been too full of people for my liking. It was the news that finally dragged me back. On 11 May 2021, a stolen Nissan Micra drove into the side of the mill and badly damaged the building. From the report I’d seen in the Echo, and on the local news, it looked worrying but the initial work to repair the damage had been completed and I wanted to have a look for myself.

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