Happy Renting

I passed Jimmy Savile in his gold Roller on the M4 circa 1990. I should have run him off the road.

When I was about 10 I asked about it, but I just got a clip round the ear and told to leave the projector alone, it was for 'Auntie's Parties'.

He had a tattoo of a tortoise on his left buttock, he was easy to spot.

He was in several movies, but unfortunately the Vice Squad now possess all the copies, and only show them at Freemason's get-togethers.

D-day was originally 5th June, it was postponed for a day because of the weather.

Tommy Flowers paid for the development of Colossus himself. The supposed wisdom at that time was that valves were so unreliable, a machine with so many valves would be permanently unserviceable. Flowers realised that the main problem was failure due to thermal cycling, and the machine would be reliable enough as long as it was not regularly turned off and on. My ex-boss (now dead) was involved in making the replica bombes; the rotating parts were made by a local school. Better replicas were used in the Turing biopic, I don't know if those ended up at Bletchley Park as well. When I visited about 15 years ago the museum was badly underfunded. I believe things have improved now. I can not work out why the real Bletchley Park was not used for external shots in either of the two recent films about Enigma.

This is my uncle with his pistol. He gave up using it, because he kept tripping over it when it was in his holster.

I know.

About 25 years ago I was on holiday in Newquay, Cornwall. One day on the beach we watched an air-sea rescue chopper flying up and down the coast all afternoon. Someone had gone fishing and disappeared. His body was found in the sea the next day. Which was ironic, as over the headland, 500m away, was Fistral Beach, where they were holding the World Life-Saving Championships all week.

I wanted a shotgun because The Voices told me to get one. The Police didn't agree. I'd look good in chaps.

My half-brother's gran kept a live hand-grenade in her desk after WWII. This is her on her motorbike. Sadly she died before I had a chance to get to know her. My real Gran didn't like her.

The U2 is older and still flown. NASA operates at least one.

They expect to be flying modern versions of the C-130 until about 2040. The original C-130 dates from the 1950s.

All B52s still flying are of a similar age. Big military planes spend a smaller percentage of time in the air than airliners, which are, er..., run into the ground, so to speak.

My favourite genuine PoF quote from a female profile is "I'm looking to settle down. I'm not looking for fun."