Diary 24th And 25th August 2017

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Diary Thursday 24th August 2017 A bridging day, catching up on job searches after spending most of Wednesday visiting Skipton, and preparing notes and Powerpoint slides for my main talk tomorrow. Diary Friday 25th August 2017 A special and busy day. This was the day of the last of my summer talk presentations, and my theme was the dreadful events surrounding the Freckleton, Preston air crash of 1944, a few days after the 73rd anniversary of the tragedy, when as U bomber on a test flight crashed into the village infant school, killing more than sixty people, mostly children. The local interest factor drew my biggest audience, including a remarkable lady who witnessed the events first hand and as she was with the fire brigade, he was very involved in the rescue work too. She was able to flesh out my observations very well from her own memories and she had a selection of photos and mementoes of the period and later reunions of the survivors and their families. It was a very moving and privileged experience to meet her. In the evening I was one of several speakers at the first anniversary of Preston Spark gatherings at the Ham And Jam Café in Preston. The theme for the five minute talks based on personal experiences was regret. I spoke of regretting just about everything I haven’t done in life, including climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, and my sense that I often feel like I’m an observer and witness to life rather than an active participant. My grandfather often left cryptic clues so his own wild adventures and left it to me to fill in the gaps in his narration. I referred to my earlier talk and that while I researched and studied literature on the crash, others actually experienced the events first hand. Other speakers presented stories ranging from a struggle to contain a pet gerbil with a persistent and ingenious tendency to keep escaping, being driven crazy by seeing Jeremy Kyle shows everywhere travelled and a man falsely accused of disrupting a school play by throwing frogspawn at the performers. A lovely evening, and I am sure the 2nd anniversary of Spark at Ham & Jam will soon be here before I know it too. A big thank you to everyone at both events today. Arthur Chappell