So started off with breakfast for three. Phoned mother and discussed washing machines. Then walked Sasha. Went to Tesco’s and ordered a washing machine. It’s stainless steel and has a dryer. Had a light lunch.

Drove to Thornbury, went to the ‘Model engineering and hobbies’ exhibition. The first thing I noticed on entering was strange, I was probably one of the youngest people there. I walked round the first couple of halls. There were just some fantastic models, all sorts, from Meccano to jet engines. The thing that fascinated me was that these men, in sandals and socks, in their eighties were producing fully working model engines in their little workshops at home, out of solid blocks of metal. These things were fantastic. I chatted to a couple of these chaps and they were absolutely passionate about there models, they’d answer any question and would chat all day to you if they could. The sad thing they both confirmed though, there were no younger people there, they would dearly love to share there knowledge and skills, yet no one was interested. The bulk of their clientele were other retired gentlemen. Give it another ten years and their models will be consigned to a museum and there skills would have vanished forever.

In the last hall I managed to meet up with the ‘Beaufort flying club’, which is the local club in Bristol. They actually fly very local to me. And just to prove that the world is a small place, standing by the small arena was Stan, this was the man I met a couple of weeks ago one evening to find a couple of geocaches with. I chatted to him, after I reminded him who I was I then asked him if he was a member, he said yes, and that he flew the model helicopters. So we had two hobbies in common. We then chatted for about an hour on anything and everything. He’s in his seventies, he thought I was about twenty-eight, I like Stan. Chatted to the helicopter guy there and he gave me lots of tips about setup. I may join the club at the end of the year when they renew their memberships. I learned quite a lot anyway, so hopefully I can put some of that into practice.