Category Archives: Autobiography

The £50 Adventure: Chapter 3

Posted on December 19, 2014 by odeboyz

Training was going on apace and the committee were beginning to understand their roles and how to work together as a team. We knew it wouldn’t be long before we were ready to start appointing staff. We looked at where … Continue reading →

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£50 Adventure: part 2

Posted on December 5, 2014 by odeboyz

The following year, despite receiving £25,171 in grants from the Government as well as £9,698 from the council, our section 16 agent fleeced us of £20,433 in administration fees. Our newly formed committee of 15 residents thought this was daylight robbery. The … Continue reading →

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The £50.00 Adventure.

Posted on November 22, 2014 by odeboyz

Eleven years ago, Jan (my wife) and I, along with two other couples started a TMO (Tenant Management Organisation) we call PETRA (Parkhill Tenants and Resident Association). I wrote to the Council and explained that we intended to form a … Continue reading →

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A Soldiers Tale

Posted on November 6, 2014 by odeboyz

My lovely old Grand-dad was all the more lovely – when after a few Guinness’ he would get nostalgic and regale us with some of the lighter moments he spent in the army. He joined the army as a boy … Continue reading →

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Stanton and Staveley.

Posted on October 23, 2014 by odeboyz

Not a name that jumps out at you but in the sixties I was a snotty nosed plumbers apprentice sent to work on a building site at “The Barbican” in the centre of London. Apparently  Haden’s (the company I was … Continue reading →

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Technology I Hate

Posted on October 10, 2014 by odeboyz

Me, Irascible! I have disliked the bloody machine ever since it was squeezed into our kitchen. It sits malevolent in its innocent white drop down door. It was instant abhorrence since the day Jan took my empty plate (without letting … Continue reading →

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The Best Jam.

Posted on September 30, 2014 by odeboyz

It always rained in autumn Mum, holding her old “Trug” We trudged to New River Walk No one’s hedges were safe. Blackberries, Blueberries, Rosehips We gathered while she told us the names My turn to carry the burgeoning feast The … Continue reading →

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The Big Plaster

Posted on September 25, 2014 by odeboyz

Although childhood memories of the early 50s are fading fast, we should record them for our children to try and understand why we think and do as we do even now. They were the years that shaped us – and … Continue reading →

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Hackney Saga 2

Posted on September 5, 2014 by odeboyz

Despite all the efforts I had put into making the WIS (Wenlock Barn Improvement Scheme) work, whilst I was in hospital that week my old area boss Joe Terry succeeded in scuppering the continuation of the scheme set up under … Continue reading →

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The Hackney Saga

Posted on August 22, 2014 by odeboyz

Bob Beavis, my senior carpenter, was a great asset to me in that within his apprenticeship he had been taught how to become more than just a carpenter but a skilled joiner he used to overcome any technical problems. For … Continue reading →

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