Baggy's Blog

Timeline: 1950s - Present Location: Warwickshire, Gibraltar & Tangiers My first encounters with various animals was at my parental home in Lapworth , Warwickshire. My father , the charismatic cross between Churchill & Lucan had a very "soft spot" for animals so my early childhood was blessed with being close to a huge variety. There were always three or four dogs , some dozen or more "yard" cats ,a Green Fronted Amazon Parrot called Charlie who laid an egg and became Charlotte , an aviary full of squawking parakeets & budgerigars , about 500 free running chickens (much to the delight of the local Fox) and George The Monkey. I am never quite sure what type of Monkey he was but I think he was a Spider Monkey . He was pretty much hated by the whole household apart from father who he amused greatly - but of course father never had to clean up after him - he just sat in his Victorian ex-dentist's chair and laughed with George like a naughty schoolboy...

Timeline: 1980s Location: Shipston on Stour. Following on from yesterday's blog I thought I would recount another couple of "Sharpy Tales". Sharpy's sixtieth birthday started both early and well in the White Bear and after a while he announced "Bugsy dear boy I have arranged a birthday celebration for us tonight - Baggy I am not including you as you have your beautiful bride Sheelagh" Bugsy was between marriages and Sharpy was a long term divorced geezer with little chance of remarriage! To use modern parlance the day's drinking turned "messy" - we all drank far too much (no surprise there!) as the dear old Bear let us "lock in" through the afternoon "dry" period and I began to feel relief that whatever was planned for the evening did not include me ! At about 6pm Bugsy asked what the form was for the evening - Sharpy responded "Bugsy I tell thee I have ordered two "ladies of the night" who are coming by ...

Timeline: 1970s-80s Location: Shipston on Stour James R Carter-Sharp was a most extraordinary man who owned The Kandy Shop in Shipston on Stour. I am giving quite a lot of preamble about this gentleman and his abode because there are further tales to come! "Sharpy" was ex military , extremely erudite and an absolutely huge character. He arrived in Shipston via Public School ( Gordonstoun from memory) , then The Army & then Tea Planting in Kuala Lumpur . He regularly exclaimed "Baggy - I tell thee the ugliest women in the World come from Kuala Lumpur!" Sharpy took possession of the Kandy Shop and Babs Furniss another great local character managed the shop in an almost Dickensian manner and could be seen bumbling about Shipston in her little Austin A30 which she drove till she died. In Honesty Sharpy did very little in the shop and Babs organised everything leaving Sharpy to drink and regale his audience in The White Bear to his heart's content . The lit...

Timeline: Late 1990s Location : Gloucester & Shipston on Stour. My very dear friend Bugsy Nicholson who is sadly no longer with us was both a great character and for a long period my best chum. We lived together on & off in various places including the grim little flat that featured in my blogs "The Waggling Spoon and also  Cold Champagne , Fortnums Pie & The Wet Beer Tent " , a wonderful Toy shop , a narrow boat and a farm cottage. We had an awful lot of fun together and you will find more "Baggy & Bugsy tales" to come - this one is however is a Bugsy "Solo Event" as recounted to me straight from the horse's mouth. Bugsy was working for Redkir Construction of Brailes who were civil engineers of high regard who undertook underground duct work for BT and other telecom providers. In order to lay the underground ducts both roads and pavements had to be excavated by Redkir in order that the various cables and fibre optics could be provi...

Timeline 1981 - Location Algeria Leaving Bou Saada after eventual hot baths , a soft bed and boiling eggs (which I had to get from the Veedub as the hotel had no eggs!) we felt much refreshed and travelled on westwards through Ain Oussera and on to Tiaret a pleasing town on the edge of the Tell Atlas where we stopped for coffee. It was a real mixture of Ancient & Modern having Berber roots back millennia with plenty of more modern French influence . Onward westwards to the town of Mascara where there was a market in full swing selling everything from Babouches (Shoes) made from old car tyres, a plethora of used clothing in various states , donkeys and of course plenty of food stalls . I was particularly drawn to one such food stall which appeared to be selling something entirely black and had a large cluster of people around it . On venturing closer it became apparent that the "blackness" was in fact a complete covering of flies on a confectionary stall and the vend...

Timeline 1950s - Present Day : Location Various Warwickshire Abodes. Now England is a real dog loving Nation and I am sure you will all have a few anecdotes of your own - here are some of mine. Lapworth 1960s: Butch the Boxer was a typical "mad boxer" and lived happily with Sophie The British Bull Terrier and Bonkers her son who was the product of an athletic Black Labrador who jumped the gate "at that awkward time" . Butch was a lovely dog with a lovely temperament  but who hated cats and he spent hours chasing our dozen or so outside "ratter cats" round the grounds . One fine day he was chasing Thomas Tight Arse a black cat of advanced years who had gone blind and sadly he chased him into a tree stump where TTA knocked himself out - I think Butch was somewhat surprised to have caught him - but he still ate him! Snitterfield 1970s: Here we had Horace , a fine British Bulldog who was well bred and thankfully suffered no breathing or other difficultie...

Timeline 1950s . Location Lapworth , Warwickshire. I was shipped out to the family home after being "hatched" in a nursing home / maternity home in Edgbaston. My elder brother , Rob , was at Amesbury prep school at the time prior going to Pangbourne Nautical College. My father had returned from the war and I saw little of him as he was either endlessly drinking and socialising or setting up a successful business - he had many influential friends in various spheres and actually did very well in life between drinking bouts . Looking back now father appeared to be a bit like a cross between Mr Churchill and "Lucky" Lucan. My dear mother was the mainstay of the family home - a wonderful woman of aristocratic heritage and independent means ( which father used a lot!) . I suppose we would have been known as very comfortable. Being the elder brother - Rob played some of the usual tricks that older brothers played . I received a well used £1 note from my aunt at Christ...