Goodness me!!!

Well, here goes, I shall dip my toe into the world of bloggers and see what happens.

Nothing much here now but I hope to post a few messages of 'odds and ends' that may bring a ray of sunshine into someones lives.

At this very moment in time I have a rare weekend off from work and the house to myself.

Wifey is out doing that all important Xmas shopping, daughter is at work in Wolverhampton and son has taken himself off to Hereford to sample the beers/ciders of that fair city

I have just returned to the 14-18 boards after short break, however all systems are now GO

so I hope to be taking a more active part in South Staffs pals meetings and general chit chat about all things historical.

I have just posted a few pictures in the gallery of my visit to Ypres in June this year. Take a quick look if you have a spare minute. Our guide for that 'jolly' was no other than forum member Iain Mchenry, what an excellent knowledge he has, he painted a picture of all the events that took place around the Salient.

I would recommend his services to anyone.

So what about the coming 2007?

My own group of mates from work want to make a first visit to the Somme area.

We have a mixed bunch of blokes, some are ex-services, three parachute Rgt, one RAF, one RCT, one Netherton Boys Brigade ) and the rest of us have a general interest in history.

We made our first weekend jolly to France to satisfy our interest in D-day, we visited the Pegasus memorial,Merville battery and Ranville. A good time was had by all and so we returned the following year and expanded our visits to other nearby historic sites.

Our group was begining to swell in numbers and so a change of venue was required for the following year to keep us all 'fresh' So off we went to the American section of the Normandy invasion, St Mere Eglise, Omaha, and the battery at Longues. We also made a trip to Arnhem and Oosterbeek in Holland to visit the bridge and airborne museum.

That was about the time that I started to investigate my grandfathers role in WW1. I met up with the S/Staffs pals off this forum and as a result of their knowledge and assistance I was able to piece together a rough plan of where he was and when.

I had made my own mind up that I wanted to visit Ypres in 2006 and I mentioned this to my work mates, I was rather surprised to find that they too would like to see Ypres and its numerous sites of interest.

It was a fantastic long weekend. Much beer was drunk and many sites visited.

My lasting memory was of my own first 8pm appointment at the Menin Gate. Talk about lump in throat/hairs on neck. The respect shown was awsome.

To date my little band of brothers have always roughed it with camping kit/tent etc however for the Somme trip we are looking at perhaps a stay at Chavasse farm or similar.

So there you have it, a potted history of why I'm on the boards/blog

Feel free to ask or comment on anything. If its not a state secret I will do my best to reply

Graham