Sue and Martin in Mallorca 2019

Sue and Martin in Mallorca 2019
On the Archduke's Path in Mallorca

Monday, 16 June 2014

A Weekend with Grandma and Granddad

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Hello, this is Jacob. I don’t think I have a Google account so I asked Granddad if he would write this report for me.

On Saturday Mummy and Daddy took me to Timperley, where Granddad found some old clockwork train sets. We found the keys to wind up the engines and put the track together. It was great fun watching the trains whizz around their tracks. Sometimes there were crashes.

The box for the set with the big green engine still had its price label - £2, 14 shillings and 7 pence. I have more money than that in my wallet, so I thought that sounded very cheap. Granddad told me that sixty years ago it was a lot of money. He said that in those days you could buy a house for a few hundred pounds, and a motor car cost almost as much as a house. Not many people had televisions, which were very small, with black and white screens. Granddad showed me an old payslip – in 1968 he earned just over £12 for 40 hours’ work.

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After playing with the trains, and with some newer (but still very old) Lego and Brio, I made some Jumbles biscuits for Daddy. It was Father’s Day, you know.

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My hand got burnt taking the biscuits out of the oven, so I went out into the rain to cool it off. Granddad had put a tent up. He told me it was quite new, only about twenty five years old. That seems quite old to me!

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There was a duck pond in the garden that I tried hard to keep full of water with Fruitshoots recycled through my body.

Where am I?

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Gotcha – I was in the tent. It was very cosy inside. I pretended to be a lion. I know there are no lions in Timperley, nothing to be afraid of, because the mouse in Grandma and Granddad’s garden has frightened all the lions away.

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Then we made some sandwiches and went to Tatton Park for lunch. I didn’t eat my sandwiches, but I did enjoy a massive banana that filled my tummy. It fitted very neatly above all the biscuits.

There was a children’s playground next to the picnic bench.

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Somebody glued my bottom to the slide.

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At Tatton we went to a farm. It wasn’t far away – I went on my bike. There were chicks and piglets and lambs and goats and reindeer and lots of other animals. I fell over and grazed my knees. I found a room full of tractors and a fire engine. I tried driving them all.

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That made me very tired, and my knees hurt, so Grandma took me on a journey.

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We washed my knees and found a giant plaster and some more places to play. Then I cycled back to the children’s playground. I can ride a bike properly now. I am three, you know.

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My final treat of the day was a ride in my hero, Lightning Mcqueen. We won the race, of course, with some very clever swervy driving.

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Then Grandma took me home. I think Granddad had to stay in Timperley to cook tea for Grandma and Uncle Mike.

Grandma took a few video films – here they are if you are interested.

3 comments:

AlanR said...

Gosh, you can tell he's your grandson Martin. Have fun.

Anonymous said...

What a great write up Jacob! I loved the pics. I don't know where your Grandad was earning such good money, when I started work in 1971 I made one pound 85p for 8 hours!!!
Helen

Phreerunner said...

Granddad says he was doing very technical and dangerous work carrying fireplaces and red hot bags of cement, and his boss was the Very Generous Harry Peacock, District Commissioner for the Boy Scouts (which in Granddad's Scout Group included Girls!).

from Jacob