Month: September 1976

Starting My Alleyn’s Fourth Year In 4AT After Spending The Last Few Days Of The Summer Holidays Editing Basher Rasher With Graham Majin, Early September 1976

Trevor Tindale reimagined by Nano Banana 2.1 with the help of grainy Alleyn’s Scribblerus pictures and my instructions. Not perfect, but not bad.

We returned from our family holiday just a few days before school restarted. Here are the diary notes from those last few days of school holiday.

Sunday 5 September 1976 – Easy morning. Afternoon Graham editing TV. Games TV M[ichael] Cain[e] film.

Monday 6 September 1976 – Went shopping – library – Andy [Levinson]+ Graham. PM cartoon, TV Some Mothers [Do ‘Ave ‘Em], Angels, Sweeney, Gun.

Tuesday 7 September 1976 – Last day hols. Got training shoes. Graham ‘tnoon. Film. TV Dick Emery +M[aster]mind.

The reels of Standard 8 film upon which Graham Majin and I had shot our pilot stop frame animation film, Basher Rasher…

Making A Stop Frame Animation Film – Basher Rasher – In Two Weeks, With Graham Majin, August 1976

…will have been returned by post while my family was away on holiday. Our obsession during the remaining few days of school holiday was getting as much of the editing done as possible.

The Michael Caine movie that Sunday was Get Carter.

I can’t imagine my mum having been happy about me seeing that movie when I had just turned 14, I wouldn’t choose to watch such an ultraviolent movie these days, and can’t imagine such a film being allowed on free-to-air TV at 21:00 now.

Then back to school

Wednesday 8 September 1976 – Like new form etc. Good teachers. TV Carry on film, Michael Cain[e].

My new form was 4AT – Trevor Tindale’s class. He was to be our form master for the next two years. A pleasing choice for me.

As for the Carry On film, it was not just any Carry On film: Carry On Up The Khyber:

May the benevolence of these YouTube clips light up your lives…

…meanwhile, the Michael Caine film that evening was Deadfall.

Thursday 9 September 1976 – Another great day. Swimming v gd. TV Bionic Woman, Benny Hill, Marlboro, F[rankie] Howerd.

Friday 10 September 1976 – Good day. TV It’s a Knockout, Good Life, Victorian Scandal.

I was clearly pretty happy with my new Alleyn’s School circumstances after those first few days.

Saturday 11 September 1976 – Lazy day. TV Sweepstakes, Two Ronnies.

Sunday 12 September 1976 – Didn’t go to classes. Dined at Carretta [Il Carreto] . Filming [working on editing film] ‘noon + evening.

I sense that “filming” was still the animated film, as I doubt if any holiday cine would have got back to us that quickly. I don’t mention Graham, but I might have thought it obvious that he was there or perhaps there were some tasks on the animated film that I had taken upon myself to undertake without Graham.

Monday 13 September 1976 – Got into V.S.O. [Voluntary Service Organisation – through school] Good day. TV Some Mothers [Do ‘Ave ‘Em], George & Mildred, Inside Medicine ok.

Tuesday 14 September 1976 – Nice day. Soccer practice. TV Dick Emery, Mastermind.

Wednesday 15 September 1976 – Not so good. Joined Signals, CCF. TV Carry On Nurse. Home film show.

Thursday 16 September 1976 – Swimming. Got into photographic soc. Some films came. Slide show TV ITV, F. Howerd.

Friday 17 September 1976 – Another film came. TV It’s a Knockout, The Good Life, Victorian Scandal.

I don’t remember a process of applying and therefore “getting into” societies such as VSO and Photographic, but perhaps there was a sort of sifting system through which we had to pass. I seem pleased to have achieved those entries given the diary notes.

Saturday 18 September 1976 – Lazy day. Film editing (2 more came). TV Two Ronnies.

Sunday 19 September 1976 – Films ‘noon. Dined at Felds. TV Picture of Dorian Gray.

By the end of this fortnight, I am clearly working on editing the family holiday cine. the animated movie had to wait – perhaps for Graham’s availability.

As an aside, just in case some of you think that my use of Google Flow and Nano Banana is all straightforward, I want you to see just how bananas it sometimes goes, based on my instructions. It generated two class scenes and two versions of Trevor. I preferred one scene to the other but preferred the other Trevor face. I extracted the Trevor I wanted, sent it as a separate image called Trevor! and asked it to replace the teacher’s face with Trevor! The software returned this inexplicable image:

Questions for advanced Alleyn’s alumni students:

Analogue question: which of our former classmates has now turned into the scary bloke depicted in that image? Answers on a postcard please.

Digital geek question: identify the character and explain logically why the AI has inserted that scary bloke into the picture. Answers in the comments section please.

Holiday In La Manga, Spain, With Mum And Dad, 21 August To 4 September 1976

This turned out to be our last family summer holiday together. The following year dad was brassic (skint) so we just did some day trips and stuff, e.g. Greenwich:

Visits To Greenwich and Brighton With Mum and Dad, 29 to 31 August 1977

Then the year after that, I did BBYO camps while mum and dad went off and did their own thing early autumn.

I turned 14 on this La Manga holiday and I do remember feeling, even at that tender age, that I had sort of outgrown those family holidays. I sensed that mum and dad wanted some prime time together and I was no longer intrigued by going off and doing stuff with random youngsters who just happen to be on holiday with you.

We stayed in the Hotel Entremares – not the sort of place I might stay in now, but it is still there and looks OK. Mixed reviews now.

The hotel (and to some extent the resort) was brand new then and I suspect my dad picked up a late booking at low cost for a place that hadn’t yet gained a reputation.

Clearly we were treated like visiting celebrities:

There is a movie for this holiday which, believe it or not, actually did yield some “famous for 15 minutes material” many years later, when Visa rewarded me handsomely enough and used some clips in one of their adverts and vines. Here is the whole movie:

Here’s the Visa ad, which shows dad slapping on the tanning oil:

While here is a link to the Vine (remember those) of me and mum looking silly on a pedalo.

This blond girl features in the movie too. I wonder whether I had latched on to the blond girl or whether she had latched on to me. Rohan Candappa probably wants me to track her down and write a story about her.

In those days La Manga was positioning itself for tennis in particular…

…but latterly (he says writing in February 2019) it has superb cricket facilities by all accounts – at least Middlesex CCC bowlers have just toddled off there to train.

In fact it was reading about Middlesex training in La Manga that made me reach for the 1976 file and Ogblog this holiday.

1976 was the cricketing year the the West indies thrashed England in every conceivable way. I missed the ODI thrashings by being in La Manga.

It also looks as though I missed a thrilling London derby at The Oval too – click here for the scorecard. I do like a match with a happy ending…

…and a season with a happy ending too – see the 1976 final table. So hopefully La Manga will be auspicious for Middlesex again in 2019.

Here is the full stack of photos from our 1976 family jaunt:

1976 La Manga 001