Memories of Childhood

I don't think I ever completed a single game although I did like playing the Spectrum version of Scrabble a lot. Daley Thompson's Decathlon I did well at winning a few times, mind you my fingers hurt from the tapping like fury in the 100m to the frustration of trying to time the jump on long and high jump. Great game though and the graphics at the time were good.

(02-03-2019 13:37 )GreenMachine Wrote:  I don't think I ever completed a single game although I did like playing the Spectrum version of Scrabble a lot. Daley Thompson's Decathlon I did well at winning a few times, mind you my fingers hurt from the tapping like fury in the 100m to the frustration of trying to time the jump on long and high jump. Great game though and the graphics at the time were good.

The high jump frustrated me the most

Yes get it wrong and he stands there scratching his head and for the throwing events you had to time it right especially the discus and javelin

School days as a 70's/80's child;

Singing pure Jesus tunes in assembly.

P.E involving balancing a bean bag on your head & gym mats that were about as soft as landing on concrete.

The overhead projector being wheeled in.

Pudding with Pink custard.

Thatcher the milk snatcher.

Being a Jew I and my sister at school were exempt from Assembly until the end when we and others were wheeled in for the final homily from the headmaster-you'd never get away with that now. P.E. wasn't too bad but I was rubbish at it-at my main school they gave me a five minute head start on cross country run and I still came last! I remember overhead projectors and those special felt-tip pens they used. Hated custard but liked the little square of sponge you used to get with jam in it but you could also have chocolate sauce(or mabe it was a kind of custard). Thatcher thing I remember but that was after I had left junior school.

Maybe slightly off thread ( but this show was a childhood fave of mine)
The Equaliser starring Edward Woodward is on forces tv tomorrow night at 9.00. Great series, I loved the theme by Stuart Copeland as well.

I remember him as tough spy-type Callan(the one with the lightbulb swaying about) and roughing up a character called Lonely(Scottish actor Russell Hunter) I think it was-been years since I've seen that. Space 1999 is also being shown on that channel.

Callan starts on Talking Pictures TV tomorrow night at 9.00 as well.

Well that's spooky!
Also on Forces TV is UFO if you remember that series. Worth a shufti-I still have the recordings on tape I made when the BBC showed it a decade ago. Watched Street Hawk last year from the 80's about an injured cop who is given this super motorcycle and works undercover for some secret organisation.

I've recently been watching re-runs of The Great Egg Race(thanks to andyjb for the original archive link) and originally it was to build a machine that would propel an ordinary egg across a distance back and forth until it ran out of energy-namely the rubber band(tightly wound) unwound itself. Outside of that contest(which went to a showdown between the originators of the idea Canada, the US and Great Britain) there was also a side challenge of building something in 3hrs out of household items and utensils. Later the idea of the Egg Race was dropped and the challenges were built up more whilst a giant machine was constructed in the then Pebble Mill studio gardens to propel a giant egg to an eggcup by various fiendish and innovative means(this was hosted by Lesley Judd)

The original programmes were hosted by Brian Cant with input from expert Professor Heinz Wolff and Professor Ian Fells. Later Wolff, who was originally from Austria, and at that time it was unusual for a foreigner to present a British show, was given the task of presenting the series and had guest judges including Prof. Fells and the late Fred Dibnah, (who had come to prominence after being discovered by a producer who had seen him felling giant chimneys in the old fashioned way-namely lighting a fire using tyres and things and bringing it down by the heat building up). He was interested in steam power and worked for years restoring an old steam engine in his garden.

I think programmes like this were very good at stimulating your brain, trying to solve a problem but dropping the egg racing bit was a bit of a mistake. It is good looking back though. Heinz Wolff became something of a national treasure and even turned up in a commercial. The Sun in the 80's even killed him off, not sure how that happened but he was still very much alive then.