Danskcolin: Wednesday October 2nd 2024 "Have YOU ever had a "medium-to-top-secret" job haha? (!)"

Yes, dear Reader! Have YOU ever had a medium-to-top-secret job? A lot of us have, haven't we!

October 2nd - it's a date etched for ever on my memory, because it was on that date 52 years ago, in 1972, that I finally after 7 years (!) said goodbye to the "eternal-student" life, and, now newly married to my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois, I took on my first ever "proper" job, doing medium-to-high priority, medium-to-top-secret work for Her Majesty's Government.

flashback to summer 1972: Lois and me on our honeymoon in

Norway, at Åndalsnes Railway Station, photographed by

a friendly American tourist we had met, and chatted to, on the train

And I'll never forget that date - October 2nd 1972 - because I had to keep writing it on forms both bureaucratic and non-bureaucratic, but mainly so that the Inland Revenue people could start taxing me on my "earnings" etc etc, before I'd hardly even had the chance to see much of them.

What a crazy world we lived in !!!! [People still pay taxes, Colin, hadn't you noticed?(!) - Ed]

Oh those first 6 months together in Cheltenham! Renting a 2-room flat near the town-centre, living in each other's pockets, cheek by jowl, and, physically, even closer than that at night-time, because our ancient 4 ft 6 double bed tended to sag in the middle when we were both in it - happy days!

our old bed - "tended to sag in the middle" when we

were both in it - what madness !!!

We lived in a big Regency mansion on Royal Parade - so early 19th century - a typical grand Regency period house, split into flats, dating from Cheltenham's glory days when it was a celebrated spa town. When even George III came on a visit to "take the waters". But that was way back in the late 18th century, not while Lois and I living there, I hasten to add (!). [You don't say! - Ed]

Royal Parade, Cheltenham, as it looks today - apart from

the newer cars it looked exactly the same in 1972

Yes, Lois and I started our married life, aged 26, in essentially 2 rooms, a gigantic living-room with kitchen area for daytime and a miniscule bedroom up a flight of stairs for the night. Our living-room / kitchen was about 30 x 20 ft with enormously high, typical Regency, ceilings. I wish I'd taken more photographs to show you, but I've only got a couple really.

[That's something to be grateful for, anyway (!) - Ed]

You can get some idea of the enormous Regency windows and the height of the Regency ceilings from this one. It's an "arty" shot (!) that Lois took during a whirlwind visit to our flat by my younger sister Jill ( - the picture just shows the top of mine and Jill's heads, in the bottom right of the shot, if you look carefully: I'm the one with the glasses by the way (!).

flashback to the spring of 1973: me and my sister Jill [minimally shown]

in the enormous living-room of the flat Lois and I were renting

the view from one of our windows showing even more massive Regency

buildings, waking up on a Sunday morning after a fall of snow

"Time it was, and what a time it was - a time of innocence...I have a photograph. Preserve your memories: they're all that's left you", as the great Paul Simon said in that "Bookends" song of his. "How terribly strange to be 70" - that was another one. [That's enough old lyrics! - Ed]

For the first time, I was doing a proper 9-to-5, 5 day a week job, so for the first time since high-school days, the weekends became something to be cherished, looked forward to, and looked back on.

And also, I had begun to feel vaguely "important", but not being able to talk about it. So, coming home in the evenings, not being able to talk about my medium-to-top-secret day's-work even to Lois.

I had to restrict myself to telling her about my very interesting co-workers, including some who had worked at the legendary Bletchley Park in the war, and other unusual characters like old "Fay" - a former Baptist missionary who had worked in China in the 1930's, recruited to the office after the war for his linguistic knowledge.

A few years later, in 1975, my boss was Joan Murray, who for a brief period in the war had been Alan Turing's girl-friend - this was years before he "came out", needless to say, so she would have had no idea of his essential "gayness", presumably (!). Or did she maybe have an inkling? It's too late to be told, sadly!

my boss in 1975: Joan Murray, seen here

with her code-breaking hero "boy-friend", Alan Turing

Joan in 1992, 4 years before her death

fast forward to 1998: together with a party of co-workers,

Lois and I visit Bletchley Park, the "shrine" of all British

code-breakers, and are shown the legendary Hut 6

Back in 1972, as a "newbie" at the office, I was being told in no uncertain terms at the office to be extremely careful in my private life, because there were Russian agents round every corner, infiltrating pubs and parties, all looking to spot civil servants with weaknesses that they could exploit and blackmail - yikes! Disappointing perhaps, but I never met any of those mysterious agents, as far as I know - just lucky I guess haha!

I even remember telling Lois she had to give up writing to her then pen-pal in Czechoslovakia, as it then was, an act which still causes me shame to this day - poor Lois !!!!! What a nonsense that was !!!!! But it shows how keyed-up I was about such things in those far-off crazy days.

But happy days too, they were, to put it mildly (!). Look at us in these pics, with our little dark green Morris Minor car, taking a weekend break to mid-Wales in the summer of 1973, and then beetling down the M5 to Bristol and Brunel's "Clifton Suspension Bridge". Happy days!!!

Where is that couple today? [Aren't you in Malvern somewhere? (!) - Ed]

Oops yes - I almost forgot to mention! We're living in Malvern now. Not only that, but we're both 78, "magically", almost (!). You do the maths haha!

And when you're 78, let me tell you, doctors keep bothering you with un-asked-for "life coaching" advice, like saying we could usefully "eat fewer cakes and biscuits, like - a billion fewer" and "take more exercise". Us??????? Surely not!

Funnily enough, we got a message almost exactly like that from our GP surgery just yesterday, while we were sitting in the waiting-area of our local tyre-and-battery centre, just minding our own business.

What madness !!!

flashback to yesterday: waiting in the waiting-area of our local

tyres-and-battery centre while one of our car's tyres was

being checked out: Lois gets an unwelcome text from our GP

surgery, urging like - a billion fewer cakes and biscuits a week.

What madness !!!!

And today, while we're doing our regular morning walk (GPs - please note!) over Poolbrook Common today, its like a sign from heaven as we pass the Poolbrook Village Hall, because we see a bunch of elderly women turning up and going inside. Yes, there's apparently a weekly exercise classes for the over-60's that takes place there.

Yikes !!!!

Lois stops to chat with one of the old ladies turning up for the class, while I keep a safe distance. And she tells Lois that although the class, run by somebody called Jane, is predominantly female, but that there's one male "old codger" who could "be a friend for me" - Yikes (again) !!!!

our daily walk - today it's over Poolbrook Common, in the lee

of the lovely 700-million-year-old Malvern Hills

at the Poolbrook Village Hall, Lois chats to an "old codger"

turning up with a bunch of others at the local Village Hall,

while I keep a safe distance

Oh dear!

We had actually a couple of weeks ago already started keeping a daily track of our weight first thing every morning. I'm about 10 stone 5 lbs (145 lbs or 65.9 kg), which I don't think is too bad, for my height - which must be about 5 ft 10 (1.77m), and I'm only a 34 inch (86cm-ish) waist. But is my "tummy" too big? Answers on a postcard please - on second thoughts, no, don't bother haha!!!

flashback to September 16th: I showcase

our shiny-new bathroom scales from Argos

We had already decided to cut out cakes and biscuits, as it happens. The best solution is not to have such things in the house in the first place, we find.

And it'll be easier now, to live more healthilier [sic], because last month sadly our daughter Sarah and her family flew out to Perth, Australia, to start a new life out there. She used to bring the twins to stay with Lois and me almost every weekend, so we had to make sure we had to have a bunch of "unhealthy" food available, ostensibly just for the twins' benefit.

flashback to earlier this year: Lois busy baking

for another weekend visit by our daughter Sarah

and her 11-year-old twins Lily and Jessica

There'll be a possible hiccup at the end of the month, because we'll have to have in our larder - like a billion - tons of "fun-size" chocolate bars in for Halloween. Last October, which was our first real Halloween in this house after downsizing from our old large 3-bed semi in Cheltenham, we were surprised to be inundated with young trick-or-treaters. We rarely got any when we lived in Cheltenham, probably because we lived on a main road, and not in an estate.