War Cabinet

 Over the years I have amassed a number of trophies and nick knacks. Some from sport, i.e. golf and petanque, some from my army days and the rest are gifts, some old, some new. Nobody ever really sees them so I thought that I would share them with you. Mainly so that I can get back into blogging, cos of course the first thing is that I need something to blog about.

Anyway, the first pic is of my "War Cabinet", lol, where I keep my bits and pieces.

In here is a miscellaneous amount of trophies, army stuff and things I have collected on my travels.

So starting with the first pic, these are my two recent trophies from Petanque. I started playing in 2019, just before lockdown. Great, I find a hobby I like and then can't play it because although it's in an open space it's also with up to 20 other people. Anyway, late 2020 we were able to start playing again, albeit with the 2m distancing and things took off from there. I love the game now and play twice a week, plus league games and a few competitions during the year. These two are from the Club Doubles which my playing partner and I won.

This pic is of glasses that I have collected. The stein was from Czech Republic, way back in 1997 when I went to stay just outside Prague with a penfriend. We visited the castle in Prague which also at the time housed the Czech Parliament. One day, the president arrives and Bozenka (my friend) just walked up to him and said hello and introduced me. I was gobsmacked when he shook my hand and then walked inside. I told her, in the UK you wouldn't get within 10m of the PM never mind shake his hand. Anyway, on the way home we called into the village bar, in Roudnice, and the barman gave me the stein to bring home.

Just a pic of a few golfing (and other) trophies I have won.

This one is special, The pewter mug was presented to me in 1981 when I left the Guards Depot after serving there for 3 years as a senior instructor. The brown mug was handmade in Cyprus in 1974 by a local craftsman. It has a large crack because my daughter dropped it, good old super glue. The glass e-type is because that is my all time favourite car and was given to me as a prezzie. I got to drive a vintage e-type a few years back when my children bought me a blue letter day for my 70th. I got to drive one around a race track. 4.2ltrs of pure muscle and growl. Bliss. The hip flasks are, 1 for winning the Charity Shield at Golf, the one behind is a simple Welsh Guard one and the last one is a memento from The Falkland Isles with the map and dates on it. The "nuts & bolts" motorcycle represents my love of cruisers and finally the brass snuff box belonged to my great grandfather which he used in the mines and has his name and date on it. William Jeffrey Jones 1888.

Hopefully you've enjoyed a peek into part of me and I haven't bored you too much.