Phoenix's Future Plans

Discuss all the girls comics that have appeared over the years. Excellent titles like Bunty, Misty, Spellbound, Tammy and June, amongst many others, can all be remembered here.

Moderator: AndyB

Post Reply
Phoenix
Guru
Posts: 5360
Joined: 27 Mar 2008, 21:15

Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Phoenix »

By this summer I hope to have sold my house and relocated permanently from Maghull near the Lancashire border to Cornwall. I'm mentioning it here because it means that I am going to have to put on the back burner my current project, the history of D.C. Thomsons' story papers for girls, which is nevertheless moving along very nicely indeed, and I'm not likely to post all that often on this site either. There just doesn't seem to be much point in staying here when all my family members are miles away, Andrew and his two daughters in London, Russell and Rachel and their three in Hayle, about ten miles north of Penzance. The only downside will be that the train from Hayle to London takes five hours. The first task is to rid myself of a lot of stuff that has somehow accumulated over the last thirty years or so. Local charity shops will obviously benefit. I will probably drive down fairly soon to Hayle for the best part of a week to run the rule over the range of properties there, paying particular attention to those that I would be able to afford. Three estate agents are sending me details of houses they currently have for sale within my price range. So it's just a matter of watching this space I suppose to find out when things become a little less uncertain.

User avatar
peace355
Posts: 343
Joined: 05 Sep 2011, 22:32
Location: Uk
Contact:

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by peace355 »

Best of luck with the move, it will be nice I'm sure to be closer to your family

comixminx
Posts: 505
Joined: 09 Jul 2015, 16:41
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by comixminx »

Best of luck from me too! It's a big move but it makes sense - and of Cornwall is supposed to be lovely (I've still never been, we always went to the Lake District or Wales or similar).
jintycomic.wordpress.com/ Excellent and weird stories from the past - with amazing art to boot.

Phoenix
Guru
Posts: 5360
Joined: 27 Mar 2008, 21:15

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Phoenix »

comixminx wrote:Cornwall is supposed to be lovely (I've still never been, we always went to the Lake District or Wales or similar).
Cornwall is a lovely area of the country, comixminx, and even though its major city Truro is half an hour away on the train from Hayle, it is essentially not that much longer a journey than going into Liverpool from Maghull, although there is a long hill to descend to get to the centre, a more noticeable slope when you are going back up it. When I was still at school my mother used to take me and my younger brother to the Lake District, at least twice most years, on a Holiday Runabout ticket, and my Primary School class teacher in my final year there took all of us to Hawkshead to see some sheepdog trials. They helped me enormously to visualise those described in the serials in The Wizard featuring sheep farmer/footballer Limp Along Leslie. Several years running in the early eighties I took my then wife and our two boys to stay as paying guests on a working dairy farm near St Clears in South Wales. Russell in particular loved playing with their dogs, 'jackosils' the landlady called them. It would be quite a while before I realised that she was actually saying 'Jack Russells'. :o Either way they certainly kept the rats in the barns under control. We enjoyed visiting Dylan Thomas's writing hut overlooking the estuary near Laugharne. I bought three books about him, Paul Ferris's Penguin biography of him, his wife Caitlin's Leftover Life To Kill, neither of which I've yet read, and I still feel guilty over not having found enough time so far to do so. Their spines stare at me accusingly from a bookcase in my hall every time I go from the lounge to the dining room. I have read the third one Dylan Thomas In America by John Malcolm Brinnin. That certainly brings his drink problem into focus, presumably out of focus from his perspective.

User avatar
starscape
Posts: 989
Joined: 17 Jul 2011, 14:51
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by starscape »

I had assumed Phoenix the comic.

Spent many years in Cornwall, partly studying Lelant and Copperhouse - either side of Hayle. Great place.
STARSCAPE Comic
http://facebook.com/Starscape-Comic-108831387707862/
comics, cartoons, music & movies

Phoenix
Guru
Posts: 5360
Joined: 27 Mar 2008, 21:15

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Phoenix »

starscape wrote:Spent many years in Cornwall, partly studying Lelant and Copperhouse - either side of Hayle. Great place.
Yes, it is, starscape. As you will obviously know, Lelant is roughly half way betweeh Hayle and St. Ives. Whenever I'm down in Hayle, which is not often enough, I take my ten-year-old granddaughter Lois to her ballet classes in Lelant village hall every Tuesday or Wednesday, and depending on my mood I will either have one pint in the nearby hotel, the Cross Keys from memory, and read a book, or I will drive back to hers and go back for her later. My preference is for the former. Incidentally, my remarried ex-wife lives in St. Ives. We have been on good terms for many years now, and in fact I go to their house several times with our grandchildren every time I'm down there. On at least one occasion every visit we take Lois and her younger brother Alex swimming up at the Leisure Centre. There is an excellent wine shop near the end of what is now a one-way road between Hayle and Lelant. If you are going from Lelant to Hayle you now have to go up as far as the roundabout as if you are making for St. Erth railway station. I do realise that Copperhouse is a district/area but it is also the name of the pub that my son Russell calls his local. I suppose it is if you go the back way from his house. Either way it has naturally become my local as well with its good range of beers, snooker tables and a coal fire in Winter.

Phoenix
Guru
Posts: 5360
Joined: 27 Mar 2008, 21:15

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Phoenix »

On a completely different matter my postman has just delivered from Will at 30th Century Comics a book I have had on order for quite a long time. The Avengers - Steed And Mrs Peel - The Comic Strips - Eight Vintage Stories From The DIANA Comic. The issues containing these strips are nearly impossible to find, and very expensive when they do emerge onto the market. Including p&p I owe Will £16.50. Great value! In fairness, given their rarity, this superb production would be excellent value at twice the price. I shan't offer to pay that though. I'll pay him over the phone before he puts the price up! :lol:

User avatar
starscape
Posts: 989
Joined: 17 Jul 2011, 14:51
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by starscape »

Phoenix wrote:
starscape wrote:...depending on my mood I will either have one pint in the nearby hotel, the Cross Keys
Do you mean the Old Quay Inn?

I used to take samples at the salt marsh there. I could cross the creek quite easily. However, a few years later, I went in winter. Too deep for wellies, so I jumped it. Boot caught the current and went in head first. Soaked in January! Went to the train station (waiting for about half an hour in the freezing cold), then first charity shop in Hayle for a complete clothes change.
STARSCAPE Comic
http://facebook.com/Starscape-Comic-108831387707862/
comics, cartoons, music & movies

Phoenix
Guru
Posts: 5360
Joined: 27 Mar 2008, 21:15

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Phoenix »

starscape wrote:Do you mean the Old Quay Inn?
Probably. I felt sure there was a Key in it somewhere. :) Perhaps I've simply miscounted the number of pints I have there while I'm waiting for Lolo. An hour does seem rather a long time to husband just the one pint.
starscape wrote:I used to take samples at the salt marsh there. I could cross the creek quite easily.
I did wander down in that direction once. I got as far as the other side of the railway line between St. Erth and St. Ives and then wasted some valuable drinking time trying to skim flat stones across the water. On a later occasion I took Lo's then six-year-old brother Alex with me and I taught him which shape of stones to choose and how to keep the trajectory low. Once a teacher, always a teacher, eh? :D

Phoenix
Guru
Posts: 5360
Joined: 27 Mar 2008, 21:15

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Phoenix »

The pub near to Lelant village hall, starscape, is called the Badger so we were both wrong. I've just had a pint there this evening while waiting for Lois. Unfortunately the only available reading matter was the Sun. Just three more properties to inspect either tomorrow or Saturday.

Phoenix
Guru
Posts: 5360
Joined: 27 Mar 2008, 21:15

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Phoenix »

Home again after a six-hour drive. Starting out at 6.30 a.m. helped break the back of the journey, that and no traffic to speak of on the A30 or the bulk of the M5. Had just a couple of pints in the Copperhouse last night to be on the safe side.

User avatar
starscape
Posts: 989
Joined: 17 Jul 2011, 14:51
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by starscape »

Phoenix wrote:The pub near to Lelant village hall, starscape, is called the Badger so we were both wrong.
The pub I used to go to in Lelant was the Old Quay Inn (which is still there - although it seems to have been retitled the Old Quay House)
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/The ... 4d-5.43867

I know there is a whole bunch of 'new' houses around there though, so all my haunts have changed (the estuary now much more difficult to get to).
STARSCAPE Comic
http://facebook.com/Starscape-Comic-108831387707862/
comics, cartoons, music & movies

Phoenix
Guru
Posts: 5360
Joined: 27 Mar 2008, 21:15

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Phoenix »

starscape wrote:The pub I used to go to in Lelant was the Old Quay Inn (which is still there - although it seems to have been retitled the Old Quay House)
Phoenix wrote:There is an excellent wine shop near the end of what is now a one-way road between Hayle and Lelant. If you are going from Lelant to Hayle you now have to go up as far as the roundabout as if you are making for St. Erth railway station.
Well at least we are both referring to the same Lelant road, starscape, just different ends of it. It is called Griggs Quay. Several years ago the council decided to create a cycle path on one side of that road, the side where the Old Quay Inn/House is, so making it too narrow for two-way traffic. The wine shop I referred to is at the other end, and the other side, of Griggs Quay. According to an article on the front page of The Hayle Times for Friday 24 February there have been calls for the one way system to be reversed, and the cycle path to be dug up altogether before the summer season begins in order to reduce the traffic queues from the St. Erth roundabout through Lelant and back to Carbis Bay at peak times. In what was described as a 'disturbing' meeting it transpired that the necessary changes to recreate a two-way system would take three years to get underway.

Phoenix
Guru
Posts: 5360
Joined: 27 Mar 2008, 21:15

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Phoenix »

This morning, purely out of curiosity, I counted up the number of issues of the eleven story titles for girls whose serial content I will be presenting in my next book. The total is 7619. By no means as many serials though, fortunately. At least I have already completed the listings for Judy and Mandy so only 4715 to go. As Bunty accounts for 2249 of those I'll leave her till last!! :D

comixminx
Posts: 505
Joined: 09 Jul 2015, 16:41
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by comixminx »

Phoenix wrote:This morning, purely out of curiosity, I counted up the number of issues of the eleven story titles for girls whose serial content I will be presenting in my next book. The total is 7619. By no means as many serials though, fortunately. At least I have already completed the listings for Judy and Mandy so only 4715 to go. As Bunty accounts for 2249 of those I'll leave her till last!! :D
Blimey Phoenix! That's quite a number, eh :)
jintycomic.wordpress.com/ Excellent and weird stories from the past - with amazing art to boot.

Post Reply