Weekly Rant

 

I have just emptied the spam folder, I have noticed that 90% of the spam is for McAfee virus protection, I used McAfee once it came free with a new laptop I purchased, I had some problems with the laptop getting a virus, a quick trip to the local computer shop, and all the problems were solved they told me that they found over 3,000 items of malware and viruses on the laptop, McAfee said there were none, I was also told how the laptop had got infected, it was via an application that had been installed, that was deleted and I went back to using the original virus protection program that had always worked and vowing never to use McAfee again.

The engine in the picture is probably the most unusual locomotive to appear as a Ready To Run model an ex London & South Western Railway 0330 0-6-0ST, these were a standard design from Bayer Peacock, the LSWR had 20 of these and were all withdrawn from service by the mid 1930's, two of them saw further service, one on the East Kent Railway the other on the Kent & East Sussex Railway. The model was made as a limited edition by oo works in 2020 and was never offered in the maroon livery.

Ran-Dells - Sound Of The Sun

The second record from the Ran-Dells, this December 1964 record was only released in Australia & the USA.

 

18 The Ran-Dells - Sound Of The Sun (youtube.com)

Ran-Dells - Martian Hop

 

This was the first 45 I ever owned, Christmas 1963 we got a new record player, until then we only had an old electric 78 record player, we all got a 45 this was my choice, my younger sister's choice was Freddie & the Dreamers - You Were Made For Me, my elder sister had loads of records, there were also some EP's and LP's, my elder sister lent my copy of this record to someone and like many it was never seen again, I found a decent copy of this record at a Boot Sale some years ago. 

The Ran-Dells - Martian Hop (youtube.com)

A quiet week

 Thursdays fishing was cancelled due to high winds, there was a possibility that the next weather front with quiet winds could arrive early, but no we were not that lucky, but it saved having to get to Gosport for 06.00.

The Time is Now - Everybody's Children (1970)

I recall hearing this record on the radio, at the time I was working in Richmond, Surrey, I tried to purchase a copy of this record every time I went into the record shops and asked for the record, it was not in stock and they were waiting delivery, after six weeks I eventually gave up trying to get a copy, on my day off I would go into Kingston and got the same story in the record shops there, it was if they were making the record hard to get, many years later something reminded me of this record so I tried looking on eBay there I found a copy.

I left home in 1974, I could not carry all my records so they were left in my room, my younger sister helped herself to the pick of my record collection, she later sold them to fund her drug habit, if I had this record it would have been among the pilfered records, later my son started collecting 1970's records at the local Boot Sales, it was then I thought I could replace the missing records, it took some time but I managed to replace them all, the last missing record  was the Universal Soldier EP by Donovan when I found a copy I thought what about all the records I had wanted but could not afford at the time of issue, Boot Sales & eBay provided these over the next couple of years, it was when I started buying the obscure records, a number of them would appear on the blog.

The Time is Now - Everybody's Children (1970) - YouTube

A Month to Forget

 

August this year has been a month to forget, the first inkling of a problem when after coming back from shopping my wife said there is only £6 in the Nectar account, someone had cleared out our Nectar account, a few phone calls later we had a new Nectar account and later the lost points were restored, then on the Bank Holiday in the evening, I had finished on the PC, for some reason I had the urge to sign on again, I found some one had hacked into my account and was in the middle of ordering gift cards on my eBay account, the two cards listed on my PayPal account were close to their limit so they didn't get much, both cards were blocked, more phone calls and new cards issued, for the first time in many years I had to use cash to pay for the shopping, the new Debit Card and Credit Card arrived, I noticed that the Credit Card had a different number to the one shown on my account, more phone calls, they told me the new Credit Card was cancelled on the Tuesday and a new one issued, I'm still waiting for the new card to arrive, all the charges on the Credit Card have been reimbursed, though I am still waiting for the charge on the Debit Card to be refunded. 

Dave Allen - The Good Earth / A Way Life

The only single from the Irish Comedian Dave Allen issued February 1969, in 1971 Les Crane had a UK #7 hit with "A Way Of Life" retitled  Desiderata. 

 Dave Allen - The Good Earth / A Way of Life (1969) (youtube.com)