Sunday, 31 July 2016

Today's Menu

It's all go around here these days, what with The Brother here.   We're in hosting mode, which means thinking about days out and about, entertainment and of course, cooking.   And these days that means catering for everyone's different needs and wishes - some are vegetarian, some are mostly veggie but eat fish, others are mostly carnivores and some we have difficulty getting anything to be eaten.  Difficult to please everyone all the time - my wife bought one of those little quotes on a hanging thing - 'Today's menu: take it or leave it'.  Very apt.

Portstewart, looking towards Dominican College
At least the weather has picked up a bit - after about 6 weeks of rain we've had a couple of decent days.   We did Derry-Londonderry-Doire yesterday - not many places have 3 names, y'know.  Most locals call it Derry.  Some call it Londonderry, to emphasise the links to London, England.  Doire would be the Irish name, which means Oak Grove.  We did the walls, which are always good for a dander.  The walls were built in the 17th century, shortly after the start of the Plantation, when ship-loads of English and Scottish settlers were brought over ostensibly to quell the unruly Irish and attempt to create a more governable land.  Governable in the sense of allegiance to the Crown, that is.  Famously, the walls were never breached, hence a fourth name - The Maiden City.  In December of 1688 thirteen Protestant Apprentice Boys closed the gates before Catholic forces loyal to James II could enter.  During the resulting siege of the city over 4000 people, about half the city's population, died of starvation or injury.  Eventually, in July of 1689, the barricades stopping supplies reaching the city were broken, those loyal to James II departed and the siege was lifted.

Of course the whole thing is still remembered today, as we do in this part of the world, with annual marches and a ceremonial closing of the gates.  Most times now this passes off fairly peacefully, thanks be.

Portstewart Harbour, looking out towards Inishowen and Malin Head
The walls have appeared on this place before - and might again, if ever I get round to developing the film.  I suppose that's the nice thing about using film - delayed gratification they might call it.  Sometimes I take a fit and as soon as the film is finished I'll develop it straight away.  It doesn't take long, really - probably less than an hour from start to finish, most of which is getting the chemicals sorted and then washing up afterwards.  But that's not the norm - most times I'll wait until I have at least 2 films ready to go, when I'll use the Paterson tank - the one I have can take 2 reels.  If I've any more than 2 I'll get the Unicolor drum out, which can take up to 6 35mm reels or a mix of 120 and 35mm reels.  It's continuous agitation on a motorised base, so the times are reduced by 15%, which seems to work out ok.  The hardest part of that is converting 14 minutes, say, to seconds, loping off 15% and then converting back to minutes&seconds...

The Unicolor drum has a piston, which you use to expand or contract the size of the inner tube, so that the volume of chemical required is matched to the number of reels you are using.  Nice - except that the piston's rubber gasket has split.  Not uncommon, from what I read, and I suppose to be expected after 35 years.  Up to now I've found that a bit of petroleum jelly (or Vaseline to give it it's proper name :) has been a good fix.  I should probably use the Unicolor drum more often - it's very economical compared to the Paterson.  For example, 2 35mm reels in the Paterson needs about 600ml.  In Unicolor world, it's 150ml for the first reel and 90ml per extra reel, so less than half what the Paterson needs.  Yes, as I write this I'm thinking that I definitely should use the Unicolor system more...

Friday, 29 July 2016

Reflections

I was browsing the old Kodachrome Archive the other day and was disappointed - not with what was there, but what was missing.  I'm thinking Taunton, in the West Country, where I lived for 2 years in the late 80s.

Christmas lights in Taunton - down by the River Tone. 1987
Taunton was where I had my first real paying job, after graduating.  Teaching at the Richard Huish Sixth Form College, which was a great place to learn your craft.  The kids were lovely to teach, full of life and enthusiasm and just beginning to realise that they were about to inherit the world.   I say kids, although I was only a few years older than most of them.

As anyone who has ever taught knows, things are pretty full on at the beginning of your career.  Ideally you are at least 2 steps ahead of the students, but of course it doesn't always work out like that...and that's when you have to learn the essential art of bluffing.  Of course after a while you begin to relax into the job and realise that admitting 'Actually, I don't know the answer to that question' can lead to one of the best learning experiences for everyone in the classroom.  But it takes time before you are confident enough to go down that road.


So I don't remember thinking much about anything else other than lesson preparation and marking during the Taunton years.  Well, I do remember having to have another hip replacement towards the end of my first year of teaching - probably as a result of all that prep and marking.  But I was young and (ankylosing spondylitis aside) I was pretty healthy so I was back at work 6 weeks post op.


I really did like Taunton - the people were very friendly and I always thought it would be a lovely place to live when I was about 50.  But when you are twenty-five you want action and adventure and so after a couple of years I upped sticks and headed for the bright lights of Brighton.  More of that another day.

Monday, 25 July 2016

People watching

Some people watching at the Raft Race went on - it was a good day for it, what with so many people around.


How did we ever live without mobile phones?  Everywhere you look, people are on them.


I was with a guy once who for a time did street photography of people on their phones - very good he was too, although he was a bit 'in their face' for my liking.  It might be all right in them big cities, but over here in The Liberties you'd get some comments and maybe more.  I've touched on that subject before - maybe because of what is euphemistically called 'The Troubles' people here are wary of getting their picture taken in public.  There was an incident recently in Belfast when quite a well-known photographer was attacked after taking some shots of youths - he was very lucky not to lose an eye.   I do come back to people every now and again though - it's hard not too in this part of the world, as we do have a lot of interesting ones.

These two seemed like a mother-son combination and were a bit over-dressed for the weather - although it did rain for a very short time, mostly it was very hot.  Well, when I say very hot, you know what I mean - very hot for this part of the world, in early summer - capice?


The guy on the left here looks like he's taking the whole raft race thing very seriously.  Not sure what the guy on the right is taking, but he looks happy enough:


This lady was stunning - don't know what the character was, but she'd obviously made a big effort:


And these two caught my eye as the rafts disappeared over the horizon (well, not quite over the horizon - more like around the buoy and into the harbour...)


So that's it for another year.  It was the best of weather and a grand day out - a bit of people watching and a few snaps on the old Ilford HP5+.

Friday, 22 July 2016

Busy busy

I know, there hasn't been much action on this place recently.  No excuses, other than it's a busy time of year, what with Missy off school and getting ready for The Brother coming and all that goes with that.

We've actually had some sunshine as of late - not before time, as I think it rained for about 4 weeks solid from mid-June.  But this week the BBQ finally made an appearance and although it did rain again we persevered, being the hardy North East Liberty folks we are.

I've a bit to catch up on, regarding snaps and what have you - these are a couple from the Raft Race, which seems like an age ago but was probably early June.  Now that was a warm day, I do remember that.  I went with the Nikon and the 180mm, which was a combination that doesn't get out much these days.  The Nikon always does a great job with the exposure, provided you remember to set the correct ASA :)

Did I tell you it was busy down in Portrush that day?  I'm not a big fan of crowds, but it was good to see the folk out enjoying themselves - it's a long winter in this part of the world.  And it was a long, cold, wet spring in 2016...


The annual Raft Race is a good excuse for general mayhem and a bit of fund-raising for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).  There are lots of home-made rafts, some more seaworthy that others, it has to be said.  Many people come in character, like this dude, who was a most excellent Spiderman:


I think his Superhero Eyes caught me pointing me camera at him - but he didn't react, since he was relaxing before the off.  They have to leave their rafts at the start line at the back of the beach, you see, before walking down to the water.  Then the hooter goes off and they all leg it back to their rafts as fast as they can and carry their raft back to the water, before heading out to the course marked in the sea.  It's much easier to show it snap-torially, if you get my drift:

This was the norm for most rafts - a few oil cans joined together.

This one looked a bit more serious, as did the crew


Come on the girls!

Spiderman and his Superhero friends


Not sure that Captain Jack Sparrow was really taking this seriously (I think they made their raft a little on the heavy side - rookie mistake Capn' Jack!)

The Portrush Lifeboat keeping a watching eye as the rafts head out to the open water

It's a very good day out, the Annual Raft Race.  Even better when the sun is shining, as it was in 2016.

Friday, 15 July 2016

30 years on 1 film

A few weeks ago my mum handed me two old cameras that she'd found lurking around in a drawer somewhere - both cheapo plastic affairs from the '70s.  One was a Kodak 126 and the other a Haminex 110.  Nothing remotely special about either of them - except that both still had films in them.

So I snapped off the last couple of pics to finish the films and sent them off to AG Photolab.  They arrived back the other day.

I wasn't sure what to expect, due to the age of the film and what have you.  The 110 film was in poor shape, due to the film advancing mechanism not working properly.  It looks like it never worked, as there wasn't one decent snap in the whole film.  I recognised no-one from the blurry, double-exposed frames, so nothing to report there.

The negs from the 126 film, on the other hand, were more than acceptable.  OK a slight colour cast, but nothing that couldn't be fixed with a quick scan and a 'Auto Color' button on Photoshop.

What we have are a bunch of fairly typical family shots from way back.  I reckon my mum must have been the user of the camera - she says I bought it to her sometime in the 70s.  That's the sort of thing mums remember, I guess.  Anyway, at the start of the roll are some shots of Bath, where I studied from '81 to '85.  I didn't have the car until the last year I was there, so I reckon this film dates to 1984, possibly '85.

On the left we have Kensington Place, Bath, along London Road where I lived for the last year of my studies.  That's my old silver VW parked up there.  The house on the right must have caught my mum's eye - nice looking veranda and a period Morris Minor outside.

Then there are a couple of shots of mum's patio, back home in The Liberties.  One of these has my grandfather in it.

The greenhouse in the background is long gone - blown down several times over the years by our winter storms and rebuilt when there was still people around to do that sort of work.   The pond has survived though and was home to a couple of goldfish until very recently.  Grandpa would have been in his eighties in the this shot on the right.

There's a half-decent shot of Grandpa and me, out fishing.  Fishing was my Grandfather's passion and in his day he would have been away for all of Saturday walking up and down a river bank trying to entice a salmon onto his hook.  It didn't happen that often, I seem to recall, although it was a very enjoyable day. It looks like we're having a bit of laugh while trying to get the line sorted out here:

That was when I actually had hair to get blown about in the wind...

And finally we have one of Missy, taken a few weeks ago.  I didn't have high hopes for anything here, so just told her to stand there in the early summer sunshine:


So there we are - one film, 30+ years old and shots that span four generations of our family.  Colours are pretty good methinks and OK some of the shots could be sharper but overall I was pretty impressed.


I guess the moral of the story is that out-of-date film shouldn't really be too much of a issue for most of us.  And there's probably another moral somewhere in there too, given that these were taken on a 1970s plastic camera with a plastic lens, no focus control and only two light settings (sunny or overcast).  Made in England, it says on the front.

Thursday, 14 July 2016

The Mansell Collection

The Mansell Collection in St Helier, Jersey is pretty unique - a small museum dedicated to the career of the British F1 driver Nigel Mansell,  still one of the most successful drivers ever in Formula 1 with I think 31 victories.  I'm a bit of a petrol head, I have to admit and so one day, when it was absolutely bucketing down and the ladies were 'going around the shops' I headed off on the bus to see what it was all about.

Inside were a few of his cars and lots of his trophies and various other memorabilia.  This was his iconic 'Flying Red 5' Williams FW14, from 1987, one of the most successful cars of all time, winning 9 out of 14 races that year:


Yes I know it would have looked better in colour, but I don't really do much colour, so HP5 rated at 1600 will have to do.  Taken on the rangefinder/21mm combination - hand held down as near to ground level as I can get these days, which ain't very far truth be told.

This was his Ferrari from 1989 - another race-winning car:


All in all there was quite a few £million lined up here:


The museum is really only one room - apart from the cars, the other 'stars' in the collection are his trophies, which are many and absolutely superb pieces.  You get a commentary by the man himself through your headphones and it is excellently done.  Apparently very few drivers get to keep their trophies - the team usually keeps them - but 'Our Nige' had it written into his contract that he would be the one that got them.  Smart thinking, that was.

OK I'll break tradition and post a couple of colour digital snaps, of what I thought were the best of his trophies - although the whole display was very impressive.  The one on the left was from the Estoril GP, Portugal - one that no longer is on the calendar and was just stunning.  All the important names are engraved on the base - Senna, Prost etc.  There were two of these in the collection.  I'm not sure where the one on the right was from - I have a feeling it was an IndyCar trophy.



The museum is on the first floor of  the building, above a Mitsubishi car dealership.  When I entered and bought my ticket, I joked to the guy behind the desk that I was half expecting the man himself to be there.  He replied that he usually was, but was stuck in England due to the bad weather.  I had no idea that Nigel Mansell ran a Mitsubishi Dealership on Jersey...good to see him still working for a living, though I'm pretty sure he doesn't need the cash.

Anyway, I can recommend the Mansell Collection if you ever find yourself in St Helier on a rainy afternoon and have an hour or two to spare.  It is well worth the £10 entrance fee.

Tuesday, 12 July 2016

Graduation Day

Queen's University Belfast puts on a good show, it has to be said.  The marquees were set up in the courtyard at the back of the Lanyon Building and it was a great setting for the old strawberries and what-have-you.  Even better when they send you the tickets for the after-graduation lawn party by mistake, free of charge.



I didn't attend the ceremony, as tickets were limited.  But then again, I've seen enough graduation ceremonies to do me - usually when stiflingly hot, all robed up on the platform.  I got myself a dander around Queen's instead.  Just next door are the lovely Botanic Gardens, with a seriously impressive glass house:



The Lanyon Building from the side - it was the party sitting on the wall that caught my eye, but I wasn't really close enough to them to make them stand out.  I had the rangefinder with me, with a 21mm lens which is, as you know, on the wide side and I didn't want to scare them by getting too close:



Before and after shots outside the Whitla Hall, where the ceremony took place:



As yes, there was some finery on show that day - it was a good excuse to get dressed up.  And we were lucky with the weather - no rain and the sun actually shone for a while.  Amazing.

Friday, 8 July 2016

For Faces and Places

When I was sorting through a collection of old photographs the other day I came across an Ilford sleeve and I was very happy when I opened it to find a bunch of negatives:



The sleeve advertises Ilford Selochrome Film - For Faces and Places.  I thought I'd already sorted out all the old prints and negs that my mother had kept over the years but this one must have slipped through the net.  Nice big 6x9 negs too - just the sort of thing which required some immediate darkroom attention.  I don't know what camera they were taken on, must have been a folder of some sort but mum can't remember.  Not important really, but the negs were lovely and contrasty so it must have been something pretty good.

I printed a few of them yesterday, on Adox MCP paper.  This is a really nice paper but I do wish Adox hadn't skimped quite so much and supplied a slightly larger dark sleeve for the paper - it is just about possible to fold it over before putting the lid back on the box, but not as easy as, say, Ilford or Kentmere.  Anyway, not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

Most of the negs were from a trip my mum made to the Isle of Man, in 1950 - her first holiday as an adult.


This first one was so easy to print - around grade 2 I think, which shows you how good the negative was.  Lovely tones.



My mum went with a girl friend but they soon met up with some others, from Dublin she recalled.  Most of them were pretty decent, she told me, apart from one lad who was a real pest.  I think that must be him on the right, with his arm around my mum.  The cheek of it!  The flower my mum is wearing is an Edelweiss, she was able to tell me - a present from a girl friend in Switzerland that for some strange reason had been to school in Coleraine.  Why she was schooled in Coleraine I know not, but they remained friends all their lives and visited each other on several occasions over the years.



There were a couple of family shots too - this one of my mum with her brother and their mum and dad.  It looks like the same dress as in the first print above, so this might have been the day she left for the Isle of Man.  The dress was hand-made by my mum and her mother, as most of her outfits were.

It felt really good being able to bring these old negs to life again.  The quality of those negs is just amazing - it's made me want to shoot more medium format.


Wednesday, 6 July 2016

54 Degrees North

The Young Fellow enjoyed the odd pint of Guinness while on Jersey:


Well, he deserved it, after his results.  The big graduation ceremony was yesterday, at Queen's Belfast (which is about 54 degrees North, in case you were wondering).  It was a great day.

It's interesting looking at the University's approach to the whole graduation thing, which if you were the cynical type, could be regarded as just another way to raise a few ££s.  Queen's is not alone here - they are all at it. It's not enough that the tuition fees are substantial (although I have to admit that as it stands in Ulster the fees are slightly less than half that of Universities in England, where they are £9,000 per year.  In Scotland, by the way, tuition is £1820 per year for Scottish Students or non-UK EU citizens.  Got that?  Non-UK EU students. A student from the RestOfUk (RUK) - England, Wales or Northern Ireland - will be charged the full £9000 per year but a French student studying at a Scottish University will be charged £1820.  Methinks it's best not to comment further about that particular anomaly, given the current situation we find ourselves in, eh?).

No, the thing is, once you actually reach the finishing post after your 3, 4 or 5 hard years of partying studying there is a cost (£67) just to attend the graduation ceremony, hire the gown for 24 hours, go to the boring speeches, have your name called out, walk up to to the platform and get your hand firmly shaken by the Vice Chancellor.  That's if you're lucky - most times it will be another Senior Member of Staff who you've probably never seen before and will most likely never see again.  And if you want to impress the family with strawberries and cream in the 'Garden Party' that will be an extra £20, thank you very much.  And if you want the official photograph then you have to dig deep.  Not that we needed to do that, obviously :)

The University graduating experience can be summed up in three words: It's a business.

Now I know that no-one is forced to go to University - it's a choice.  But in the last 10 years it has become an expensive choice. That's all I'm saying.

I'll leave the last words to The Young Fellow himself, who when he learned that his soon-to-be employer, BT, offer apprenticeships to school leavers.  He said if he'd known that 5 years ago he wouldn't have bothered going to Uni.  The thing is, it's no longer in a school's interest to actually tell their pupils about apprenticeships, since they have one eye on the League Tables. The more of their students that go to Uni, the better the school looks - as far as the League Tables say, right?  It's all a game and they're all playing it.  So, schools want as many of their students as possible to go to Uni, whether it's the right thing for them or not.  It's nuts, the whole thing.

I saw it, at Ulster University where I spent the last 15 years of my career.  There was a significant percentage of students who had no interest in or aptitude for their subject.  They were only there as there was peer pressure to go, mummy and daddy wanted their child to 'go to University' and for a few of them, it was to get them out of the house and doing something - anything.  You would think that many of them would fall by the wayside once the academic work ramped up, but you would be wrong.  You see, for every student that arrives on day one, the University gets money, income, from the UK government.  And for every student that leaves, it loses income.  You can see where I'm going with this, right?  Once accepted onto a course, the University will do everything in its power to keep them.  Remember, folks - it's a business.

In spite of my working life spent in academia - or maybe because of it - I have a great regard for the likes of Alan Sugar, who famously left school at 16.  Also Jack Taylor.  Who?  Jack Taylor - the guy who created Enterprise Rent-A-Car, with annual revenue of $19.4 billion in 2015.  The company that employs more graduates every year than any other company.  Now that is some achievement - and most of them start by washing and vacuuming cars.  Mr Taylor passed away a few days ago, at the ripe old age of 94.  As the NY Times article states, he was a poor student by his account, and joked that World War II, which ended his college career after 2 semesters at Washington University, 'saved me from any further educational opportunities'.  Nicely put Mr Taylor, nicely put.

Monday, 4 July 2016

A walk in the country

Parishes seem to abound on Jersey...St Helier, St John's, St Mary's are a few we visited.  Along with each is a church, naturally enough, and some mighty fine ones too.  While the others went into town one day I got off the bus at St John's.  The plan was to meet a couple of hours later at St Mary's where there looked to be a decent country pub where we could eat.  More of that plan in a minute...

Entrance to St John's, door open invitingly.  I had to stand to one side, since there is a glass inner door which was catching my reflection, which you wouldn't want to see.  Off-centre is best anyway :) This one on Adox MCP312.  I've had trouble getting the best out of this paper in the past, but today it seemed to work well.  I had HP5+ loaded and was rating it at a 1600asa, which wasn't the best for a sunny day but was a hangover from the first few frames where I was indoors and in poor light.

St John's has the most beautiful church - it looks like it has been lifted from somewhere in France and set down on Jersey.  Most of the names on plaques inside and on gravestones are French-sounding.  I was beginning to appreciate that Jersey lies a lot closer to the coast of Brittany than the south coast of England.

This rather impressive structure formed the base of the pulpit in St John's.  There's probably a decent photograph there somewhere, although this certainly isn't it.  Kentmere paper.

I get the impression that there isn't much in the way of crime on Jersey - particularly once you leave St Helier.  The churches at St Mary's and St John's both had their doors open, and not a sinner in sight, as my grandfather would have said.  It was a hot day and it was nice to cool down for a while inside.  The church at St John's in particular had a lot of character - inside and out.

What can I say - it was a bright day!

There isn't much in St John's apart from the church, about 4 shops and an inn so after a dander about I set off for St Mary's.  I'd noticed a lot of people walking around the roads and although they aren't particularly wide (no room for a footpath) I set out on my way in buoyant mood.  I was on holiday, the sun was shining and I had a rangefinder loaded with HP5+.  Life was good.  After a couple of hundred yards I decided this was suicidal - there was too much traffic and not enough room for me and the cars.  As soon as as I spotted a Green Lane I made for it and soon was enjoying some peace and quiet again.

After a while I realised I had absolutely no idea where I was.  There were no signposts and since I'd turned off the main road and taken a turn this way and that I was beginning to think I was in trouble.  I passed the odd house or two, but there's never anyone around when you need them.  It was kind of worrying.  I half expected to come across skeletons of people like me who had set off for a walk in the Jersey Interior and were never heard of again.   Occasionally a car passed, but I had too much pride to flag it down and say 'I'm lost'.  Then I came to a junction.  Hmm...turn left, or right?  This could be an important decision, I thought.  I took a drink of my water and decided to play safe and turn right - going this way, I reckoned, would at least take me back to the main road I had left a while ago.  It might mean I may need to turn around to get to St Mary's, but so be it.  Energy levels were getting low but if all else failed I could always head back to St John's, admit defeat and take a bus.

Eventually, after a good walk, I came across a hamlet.  Ah ha, I thought, civilisation - there's bound to be people about here.  I wandered around and salvation came in the form of an elderly gentleman walking along.  From his demeanor I reckoned he knew where he was going and sure enough he put me right.  As it turned out I wasn't too far from my destination and suddenly the world seemed a better place.  The old built-in compass still working then...just.

If you look (very) closely, you might spot the scaffolding round the back of St Mary's Church.  The trees did a good job of hiding it.
In the end, I arrived at St Mary's in good time and had a good explore of the church there and even got as far as the Ecole Elementaire just behind (that French influence again), looking lovely in the sun with its white walls and blue piping.  The church was in the middle of renovations - there was scaffolding all over one side.  A lot plainer inside than the one at St John's.  Actually I'm all for plainness when it comes to churches - must be my Dissenter upbringing :)

Saturday, 2 July 2016

The Three Amigos

Here they are, Jersey-style:


As you can see the weather wasn't great.  Warm enough, just a little too much precipitation for our liking - we get enough of that the 51 weeks of the year we're not on holiday, y'know.

That would be Clare (of shoes fame) you can see there, doing something with her phone.  The Young Lad at the back showing his lovely set of teeth and Missy there just enjoying the craic.  He got his results while we were in Jersey - actually, just as we were leaving the War Tunnels.  He was a very happy boy and there were loud whoops from us all when we realised he'd got the degree classification he wanted.  The job with BT is now definitely on and all being well he'll be off on the next stage of his life come September.  (He'll be programming computers or something like that).

It was a good day.

Friday, 1 July 2016

Hohlgangsanlage 8

As you may know, Jersey was occupied during the Second World War.  Now this was, as you well imagine, a Big Thing.  Churchill said "The Channel Islands will not repeat not be defended against external invasion' and once the Germans were informed (after they dropped some bombs) they arrived to take up residence in the islands.

The usual war-like sort of stuff went on.  One of the first things they did was change the time to Central European Time, which kind of flummoxed the locals for a while.


Gradually, or maybe not so gradually, the islanders' way of life changed.  First they weren't allowed to fish, which was a biggie, for a small island.  Then they confiscated all radios.  Food was rationed and neighbours started ratting on their fellow kin, as some people are want to do when the going gets rough - old scores need to be settled.  Letters were sent to German Command along the lines of 'Check out Mrs So-and-so, she has a radio under the floorboards', 'Why has Mr Whoever got stockpiles of tinned food in his wardrobe?', and so on.   Interesting to read about it now, some 70 years on.  Human nature and all that, eh?

One from the darkroom, that, as you can probably tell.  I skipped in there this morning for a couple of hours.  Nothing great came out, mind you, but it was nice to be there all the same.  This one should have had a lot more light about it, but hopefully you get the gist.  There used to be an old gas mask like these in our shed when I was growing up and it was very weird putting it on.  Don't know what became of it - probably got dumped, as things do from time to time.  

The occupiers took to writing articles in the local press - the usual propaganda stuff.  Thing is, the editors didn't correct their English, so it was pretty clear to any islander what was going on.  Things took a turn for the worse after a few years, however, when the spotlight was turned on any English-born islanders and then any Jewish.  Anyone found harbouring a radio or generally getting into the German's bad books was deported to mainland Europe and generally didn't come back.



There was a lot of evidence of the the occupation in Jersey.  You have Liberation Station.  And the Liberty Bus service.   Very good they were too, the old Liberty Buses.  On time, good value, clean and with friendly drivers - what more do you need from a bus service, eh?

A final note about the War Tunnels, which were built as an ammo dump and an underground hospital (Ho8).  They were mainly built by forced labour from nations across Europe (although there were some well-paid, voluntary workers alongside).  The ones who suffered most were the slave workers, mostly from Ukraine/Russia, who were treated like sub-humans.  On most Sundays they were rested and could beg/buy any spare food from the locals.  They were not given any protective clothing, so when a local store got a delivery of bowler hats they were bought out by the workers.  Slave workers in bowler hats blasting out underground tunnels?  Strange, but true.