What does 1986 mean to you?
- I was 23 (for most of it)
- Some of the musical hits of 1986 were “Rock Me Amadeus” by Falco and “Take my breath away” by Berlin.
- Lovejoy made its first appearance, as did Bread and Brush Strokes.
- The space shuttle Challenger exploded killing all 7 on board.
- Top Gun was the highest grossing film of 1986.
- The world’s first test tube twins were born in London.
- The Sega Master System was the must have console of the day.
But what about today 25 years ago?
Well today, as far as I am concerned, 25yrs ago is the day I married my sweetheart and friend.
I remain a blessed, amazed, stunned, delighted and thankful man.
Blessed to have met someone as wonderful as my Kathryn.
Amazed that she was prepared to take me on in a very rough and ready state.
Stunned that we are still together after more than 30yrs (at least 5 pre wedding).
Delighted that we still are and still working at it.
Thankful, constantly, for all the blessings she has brought and will bring to my life.
I love you babes.
Happy 25th wedding anniversary.
Tags: 
There’s a Bon Jovi song that has the line:
We’re half way there, living on a prayer.
At the moment that’s exactly how I feel.
I am now exactly half way along my journey of obtaining my black belt (before I turn 50). Last Saturday Coel and I graded to 5th Gup in Traditional Tang Soo Do. 5th Gup is also known (in our federation) as green belt with one red tag. The second half of the line also points to just how much work I have left to do.
After having had what our M’am calls a “brain fart” during the opening 3 or 4 techniques I have to confess to being surprised that I am half way there.
I need to improve on my Korean.
I need to improve on my remembering of the forms.
In short, I need to improve.
It’s not far off 2 years since I last touched on this… but once again I find I (we) are the victim of fraud.
The last time I was never given a definitive answer as to what, who or why but the presumption was that some disgruntled offshore employee was passing information onwards.
This time it’s quite a clear case of someone or someones with cojones the size of a wrecking ball has taken 2 debit cards and my driving license photo ID card.
Left the cash.
Left the credit card.
And left the savings account cash card.
Then they’ve waltzed into town (Bridgend) and withdrawn £1200 from our Halifax account and then literally gone round the corner to the Abbey and taken £500. Then they or someone else has done the same again with the Halifax in Neath and then Swansea – thankfully the Abbey has a £500 per day limit whereas it would appear that Halifax’s is per branch per day!
So a total of £4,100 …gone.
I won’t bore you with all the details but I phoned both banks when I discovered this and the Halifax have been super helpful and are investigating. The Abbey stopped my card but wouldn’t investigate until I turned up at a branch today with “photo ID” to prove whom I was. Anybody else see the irony here?
What it did allow was for me to see the signature on the debit slip – clearly I can see it isn’t mine but equally had I been a member of staff I’d have accepted it.
The kicker, as I see it, is that I can’t pinpoint when or how they got the cards.
I can only identify one bit of time (approx 1hr) that my wallet was not in my physical possession – and that was when I was at the gym. However, the wallet was in the same pocket as my shiny new phone (HTC Desire HD) inside a locked locker and the key hanging round my neck!
So why not take the phone as well?
The rest of the time it was with me in my pocket.
Bizarre.