I AM not one that has many very strong likes and dislike, but one of my few pet hates is snow.

I think it’s because it’s so deceptive.

I looked through the window the other morning and overnight it had transformed my green fields into a beautiful vast white expanse of wilderness.

And there it was looking so clean and benign; but you take a step outside and very quickly you’ll find out what a treacherous beast this virgin snow really is.

I paid a visit to my dentist and I am very glad to say that I do not have the fear of dentists that I had as a child.

Now a visit to them is virtually pain free, or it perhaps could be that as you get older your pain threshold is a lot stronger?

Of course it does help me that the dentist I go to is Bill’s son.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t get any special treatment, but you feel a little more comfortable with someone you know pretty well.

 

WINSTON CHURCHILL. I don’t know about you, but the very name evokes and brings back such strong feelings.

I think, for not only for me, but for the country, he was THE father figure, standing strong, making us all feel safe, keeping up morale, which was of the most vital importance during those very difficult and frightening war years.

When Sir Winston Churchill was about to deliver a speech to the nation my mum would gather us all and we had to sit still and listen to the radio, or the wireless as we called it then.

And I can recall the next door neighbours coming in to listen, as they only had relay radio and they hadn’t paid their bill.

Sometimes when I think back on those years, I think how difficult they must have been for the womenfolk, and what they had to cope with at the same time as worrying about their husbands and sons away fighting in the war.

There was food shortages, rationing, clothes on coupons, air raid warnings and blackout curtains.

But one thing’s for sure it certainly brought out the very best of our British spirit and so we not only coped extremely well with what was a very bad situation, but we won.

I WONDER if I might take this opportunity to wish and hope that Ted Robbins recovers and is soon back to his bubbly and cheerful self. He is a tremendously popular figure around these parts.