one step forward two steps back,,,,,,,,,,,,,

last weekend looked like the start of better things had the van back (4 glowplugs 1 injector latter) even a good Sunday at Cheltenham, then came Wednesday set off for Gloucester got about three miles from home and the van lost power and was smoking, “silly me doing things on the cheap should have done all the injectors not just the weakest” getting back to last Sunday i did pick up a few box’s of odd’s and sods in one was a bag of very grubby looking coins

       

national transport tokens, still trying to make sense of these if they can still be used or not, if i can I'd be laughing there’s a couple of hundred of them in the bag i love bus and train travel.

 

this one speaks for it’s self a 1938 west African two shilling coin and still very collectable,

   

this is the mystery one, I'm 99% sure it’s silver, kings head and rex (king), lion standing over a crown, not really sure on this one so if any of you good people out there in blogland have any idea’s please get in touch.   

“whoop’s we have a poorly Mercedes”

Sunday looked like it was going to be a good day, no more snow, rain, wind, and it wasn't too cold either so poppy and i jumped in to the van for a days trading  at Cheltenham, turned the key she just spun and spun and spun etc. at this point there was a niggling  little job on the van i had been meaning to do but never quite got round to doing, “get the glow plugs and relay changed” 

     

“well beat me around with a stocking full of dysentery” but look at all goody's the good people of Cheltenham missed out on

 

“well see anything you fancy!!!” try http://jdclearance.com/ and mail me (unashamed plug)

so all in all it was just another boring no work day “thank’s to me being a bit lazy”  but not to worry let’s end this post  on a sexist note it was roast pork for dinner today,

 

“look girly’s” these aren't aunt Bessie's or packet mix these are the real McCoy made by a 52 year old curly haired yob

“snigger snigger”  

A follow on to the last post,,, (the camera thing)

“At last the camera problem is solved” and my sanity is restored (what there was of it in the first place) there was a manufacturing fault on the finepix s4000 with the photo cell that caused orbing or halloing hence the poor results, i found all this out on Thursday with a trip to john Lewis's to try out some of the new camera’s but this time i took a memory card with me so i could test them all properly, first came the Nikon p510 “what a beasty” then the two canon’s sx50 and sx500 “good but,,,,,,” and finally the finepix sl300 “my faith has been restored in Fuji” and here’s the proof, firstly the photo that started all this

  

now the finepix sl300 “that's better”

this is my third finepix camera now and I'm as pleased as punch with it the zoom is quite impressive too

from this to this and still keeps most sharpness and colour

pretty good macro for the poor light as well

 

all in all very pleased so thank you all at John Lewis for sorting me out, “oh” and before i forget poppy only went and did it she bought the Nikon beasty, she said it was like love at first sight

 

“steady girl you’ll be eating yorkie bars next”

It’s snow time (in Purton)

what a difference a few days make

 

and camera, same tractor above was with my finepix s4000 this was with poppy’s canon a2300 compact third of the price but twice the photo  

“but anyway that's enough moaning for now” back to the snow (with the canon on all these photo’s)

 

feeding time for the old horse’s

big kid in a silly hat

even with a good covering of snow springs showing it’s on it’s way

and now the reason mother nature really invented snow for, yes kids with pieces of moulded plastic

 

Charlie's first time at sledging and he loved it so much so he’s probably trying to figure out how to fix lights on his sledge now. 

 

“well at the grand old age of 52 i did it”

“I've just joined Flickr”

(not as free as it sound’s only 300mb a month upload) “but ho hum such is life”

but I'll give it ago

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_bagwash/

“So what about my year and a bit off”

the last bit of 2011 and 2012 was all abit of a haze really, went back on the driving for a while but soon realized lorry driving is a mugs game, (here's a tga fronting up to the comfortably numb) just seemed to spend more time sleeping in a cab than my own bed and what with the governments new how to squeeze more blood out of a stone idea called cpc, £300.00 exam teaching you what you’ve done over the past thirty odd years (rip off springs to mind) so back in the draw goes the hgv licence,   

In February came a change of house, now back living i the village i grew up in purton,

and its got its own iron age camp

in fact this little village is steeped in history from ringsbury camp built 50bc, the romans, witch trails, the list goes on,

have been passing the time by trying out the markets again, not too bad but the weather has killed it abit this year gone, was good to see a lot of the old faces again, one downside to all this was the stall got bigger and bigger and the comfortably numb let us know she was too old for all that work by making me fork out for a new gearbox, clutch and drive shaft, so she's now in retirement until spring and spends her days telling the new one all about her glory days,

   

always wanted one and in my opinion the best vans ever made even poppy fell in love at first sight, and with the size of her we’ve now pushed the stall up to 20/30 foot too, so that’s a brief update on the life of  poppy and john and now some randomness i remember  doing this back in the dark and distant days of junior school so i had to try it again “the fun way of growing hyacinth bulbs”

 

(randomness courtesy of the ghost of Billy bagwash)

Christmas

A traditional British Christmas

full of deep joy and merryment

 

CHRISTMAS IN THE CHARLIE PIT

its funny how many thirteen year old kids use floordrobes and just pile stuff on top of cupboards, its like all the draws and doors in the house are magically sealed to them (apart from the fridge and pantry doors) or maybe I've got it all wrong and really Charlie is one of these amazing  entrepreneur kids, he might be leaving his bedroom window and letting the local skip hire company tip in there for £10 a time.    

winter solstice

It seemed odd this year being in England for the solstice normally im in Tenerife in the warm sunshine, but with all the things going on at the moment poppy and i have called Puerto da la Cruz off until our honeymoon, but all in all this solstice did seem more pagan

 

  poppy’s new sparkler (im a lucky boy)

 

Terry and the gang doing what they do best a very peaceful and meaningful sunrise

So mote it be

merry mid winter the love of poppy,,billy or blogging ?

“A long time ago in a galaxy far far away”

there was a market trader called Johnny Costello who used to sell second hand clothing ( , he was very good at it too) so good that all the other trader’s used to call him captain bagwash (bagwash being market slang for second hand clothing) this did get shortened to “Billy” hence my alto ego, i put up a post on 27/06/2011 which i was not sure about, was i putting Billy to rest or was i just bored of blogging, this is just brief explanation more will follow but back to here and now!

      

this is poppy and i at Avebury this morning for sunrise, and yes that is a ring on her finger, we did the big one today at sunrise we got engaged,

 

PS,, cheers sandy for renaming this blog

PPS,, merry solstice one and all  

Billy,,,,,,,,, “he saw the sun rise”

William Oswald Bagwash (billy)

[11,12,60 ~ 23,06,11]

“And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear

You shout and no one seems to hear

And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes

I'll see you on the dark side of the moon”

[RIP CRAZY DIAMOND]

happy solstice

it’s been a while since my last blog on here but happy solstice every one,   

and a very good time was had by one and all, shame we couldn't take the van and made a long weekend of it (the police two mile parkin restrictions at avebury) 

and PS,, get well soon terry,

oxford

“now that was what i call a weekend”  to me it was having a time travel moment, going back almost thirty year’s to my miss spent youth there, alot of my old stumping ground’s have long gone but a few still remain, the main one being the new theatre (the whole point of this weekend) “god did i see some band’s there in the late 70’s early 80’s, from lizzy, marillion, all about eve, ozzy, and robert plant to name a few” as for the city itself oxford is very much oxford still, big grand old building’s, collage’s, push bike’s, history at end of any little ally way, and also over priced parking!!, “just have a look at this for a laugh” 8 to 24 hours parking would cost £30.00, so we opted for a fairer option and booked into a campsite 30 minute’s walk to the city centre for £20.00, ok sound’s a bit pricey for a campsite but it was a caravan club site and I'm not a member (well could you see Billy wearing an old moth eaten pair of khaki short’s, sock’s,with sandal's, an i love Scarborough t-shirt, and a bush hat with fly fishing hook’s in it) “say yes to all that and I'll block you” now back to the real oxford, “bicycle’s”          “croquet and cucumber sandwich's anyone”           “no poppy what’s wrong with the comfortably numb” 

the brit floyd,,,,,,,,,,,,

a very good night out was had by one and all on Saturday, know now as the brit floyd (used to be the Australian pink floyd show) filled the new theatre at oxford and really did put on one hell of a show, “yes i know it’s not the real thing” but the real thing dos’nt exist anymore so this is as close as it get’s, this was the third time I've seen them now and they do just seem to get better and better with both sound and lighting, it is odd to sit back and remember they are only a tribute band at times,      there’s always a good age mix at their gig’s too right from 11 to 60+ showing the music of pink floyd still lives on and can attract new follower’s, (loved the 20+ minute version of echo’s)   

“this will be a good’un”

“IT’S ONLY THE WEEKEND”

so welcome back to Billy land

and this weekend is going to be a “cracker” oxford and as their called now the brit pink floyd show (Charlie's first gig) this will be a good’un

“a happy Beltane”

Happy Beltane

“or what we saw of it” think it was to good a day and night spent at overton, to cut to the truth we over slept!!!!! so this was all we saw of the may day festivity's “everyone making their way to the red lion” but still all in all a cracking time had by all, we got to finally see east Kennet long barrow and east Kennet village it’s self “real chocolate box cover stuff” even the bears there are friendly, overton had a great gathering this weekend children being children, sunshine, music, firework's, even little sky telling us about all the angel’s that live in the sky, and her little brother that needed to have his two penny’s worth about the co co pop’s monkey.   so after all that think it’s just time for us two reprobate's to wish you all

“a happy Beltane”