Personal history

Spurred on by an old school friend sending me a photo of a party in 1980 I had a happy morning looking through my photo drawer, which is full of prints, slides and CDs of digital pictures. 

It was a great occupation for a cold morning. The sun shone, but a bitterly cold south-easterly wind made it unbearable to spend much time outdoors.

I came across a couple of photos to scan and send back to the schoolfriend. 

And I also found this one of my wonderful Dad and his lapdog gundog - Judy - from 1983. He was about the same age as I am now. And he was similarly content to have a large dog sprawled across his chest. 

Dad was deaf and insisted on using a hearing aid which was very visible, so that people always made the effort to speak clearly. It didn't always work of course - and hearing aids were very much less efficient in those days. If he still couldn't hear somebody and if he thought they weren't making enough effort, he'd wave the box in their faces while saying indignantly "I'm deaf you know!!" 

I loved him dearly, but the embarrassment factor was high at times. I strive to live up to his uninhibited attitude to life.

The extra is for IainatCreel: it's the only shot I have from the kids' holiday I helped run on Hoy in 1984-ish, taken on the steps outside the hall in which we stayed. Can you identify the building Iain?