Woke up this morning and couldn`t believe my eyes, snow everywhere. what a change from the nice warm temperatues we had been having. though it will soon clear away still a pain in the rear end. I remember one time back in January 1963 I was on a BP oil tanker called the British Osprey we had arrived in Bangor Bay after seven months running between the Persian Gulf ports, India and East Africa. It was nice and calm as we weighed anchor and proceeded up Belfast Lough to Harland and Wolfs where the ship was going to be refitted. I was on the bridge as the Pilot was giving orders and could not keep my face straight as he got into an argument with the Pilot HQ in Carrickfergus over the placement of missing buoys in the channel.
 Unfortunatley during a custom search of the ship after we docked they found drugs in the engine room and so another bus load of custom officers arrived to tear the ship apart, in the meantime we were all packed and paid and ready to go but were not allowed off untill the search was completed. Along with a Scottish friend we grabbed a cab and headed for Lisburn to my Aunts place. The next morning I could not believe it snowing like crazy which just about brought everything to a standstill, anybody remember that winter.
     ps.Having trouble with the keyboard. Mauri
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

mauri,
i remember winter 63. i was just out of the air force and living in spruce street low road. i was working night shift at mackies then and no car. i walked to hilden bend bus stop every night to get the bus to belfast.
real thick snow weather tom

Tomm, I have always intended to ask you if you knew my Uncle Desmond (more like a brother) who was in the RAF for nearly 40 years. He entered Cranwell just before the war as an apprentice Instrument Maker. I visited him and his family a couple of times at different RAF bases if I remember Correctly one was RAF Bingham just outside Nottingham and "Boy" did I have a good time in the Sergeants mess. He later took a commission and was a Flt Lieutenant when he retired and settled back in Lisburn, he was married to Esme Stranaghan from the hairdressing family in Railway St and Wallace avenue. Unfortunatley he didn't have a very long retirement as he passed away at the early age of 59. Mauri

TOM,
3rd time I´ve tried to answer you, been spammed.
I was 19 at the time of the "big snow" and worked also in Mackies. We were sent home on the first day as the management received areport that the buses were being taken off. Next day I travelled from Hilden Halt to GNR Belfast in the train and as the buses were still not operating walked from there via Governer Road to Mackies in the Springfield Road over piles of snow, hoping when I arrived the storeman who operated a "tick shop" would be there to supply me with a few Woodbine until I got my few Pence wages on Friday to clear the debt. "Good old Days"!
donald

mauri,
no i don't think i ever met your uncle, would have registered, as i have a brother desmond. also your uncle was commissioned i was a lowly ""or"" my postings were few
north coates in linconshire
bishops court in co. down
aden two years
felixstowe east anglia
northolt in bucks all nice places. tom

Tom, Sorry about the extra m in your name on my last posting, didn't spot it utill it was too late???. Wasn't Northolt the old London airport I seem to remember flying out of it a few times. Desmond was a real down to earth guy who only applied for a commission because his wife pushed him. He visited me a couple of times when I was stationed at Brize Norton where we both got hammered in the Enlisted Men's club, he was only a sergeant then. Years later my wife and I visited with him and his wife in Cyprus by this time he was an officer. We went out to dinner one night in a old home turned into a restaurant. we noticed some guys hanging around in the grounds but didn't pay much attention, it was only a couple of days later we discovered that Colonel Grievas the leader of the Cypriot EOKA who was wanted by the British was hiding in that restaurant hence the guys in the grounds were his guards. Mauri

mauri,
yes northolt was the london airport before heathrow took over. now, northolt is a vip airport. the politicans and royal family and i believe visiting foreign politicans all use it as the security is easier to handle. tom

Tm and Mauri, I remember that big snow very well. I think I wrote here before about my brother helping me to push the pram from Huguenot Drive to Parkview, where we lived at the time. The snow as so deep I couldn't have managed to get the pram moving on my own. I was 22 years old at the time. I remember another big snow when I was a child and living at No 9 East Down View. I can recall the big mound of snow at the front, separating us from our next door neighbour. I remember climbing over it. That snow must have been before or during 1948 because that was the year we moved from East Down View to Hugenot Drive.

Hi all,

Weather here has been very changeable this last week, sun, then heavy showers, some of hail, then rain, then sun again, very cold too only 11 degrees the highest temperature, after the highs earlier.

Our tans of recent weeks will be fading, luckily we are off in May to our beloved Nerja again for to redo the tan.

Pat

Hi Pat, Hope you have a very enjoyable vacation in Spain.at least having been there before you will know your way around. My late wife and myself had a vacation in Spain and Morocco back in the late 70s, while we enjoyed the week in Spain on the Costa Del Sol, the week touring in Morocco was a diaster, won't go into details here but couldn't get back to Spain fast enough.??? Mauri