Memories of Grandad Jim

Memories of our granddad Jim


Firstly, please forgive me in advance if my voice gets a bit wobbly, I’ve a feeling this is going to be a little emotional!

I’d like to start by saying how proud I am to be the oldest of our grandad’s many grandchildren & great grandchildren & it’s not very often you’ll hear me say I’m proud to be old. It truly is an honour that I’m able to stand here & speak on behalf of all of us about our brilliant grandad Jim.

Our grandad really was a great character; he & our nanny Kit have been amazing grandparents and really would do anything for any one of us. No matter how naughty we’d been! And believe me, some of us must have tested their patience over the years… In turn, we would have done anything for him & we did, up until the very last moment. We hope we did him as proud as he did us all of our lives.

My cousins & I thought it would give you some idea of what he meant & still means to us, by sharing with you some of our favourite & funny memories… This is just a few of the very many I received….

This is from Ben:

I will remember grandad for always making me laugh. Even during his very last days he had me in fits of laughter, filling my eyes with not crying tears, but laughing tears.

When I was about ten or eleven he and nanny took Casey, Sally, Peter & me to Broad Reeds holiday camp, near Bognor Regis for what was one of my favourite kids holidays, and apart from his usual moaning and groaning, and Casey & I having a tear up on the last day, we all had the best time and he looked after us all just like a Dad would have done.

In 1994, our family went to Florida. This was the last holiday I spent with my own dad, and Grandad being there only made it all the more enjoyable and memorable for me. Especially when on the flight home, my mum told the air hostess to tell grandad that the fish on the menu was a lovely piece of skate from Westmoreland Road. The silly old sod only believed her.

This is what sticks in Matthew, Bobby & Jimmy’s mind when they think of grandad:

There are so many memories of grandad, but for us growing up, a lot of them occurred at the infamous ‘Rye Hill Tenants Club’ where we would plead to join Dad, Grandad and Uncle Steven up the club every Sunday night, sitting mesmerised watching them play cards into the early hours. We could see the three Millers playing ‘tootsie’ under the table (in other words cheating against the other players) and yet come the end of the night we would say to Grandad “who won grandad?”, and he would always say “that poxy Alf again”!


Sally wanted to say this:

My grandad was the best. Grandad & I loved a glass of champagne, and when we were at a party he always got me up to dance. That all started when I was a little girl when we went on holiday & I got him up to dance. My grandad still thought I was that same little girl, and that’s why he always called me his little Sally. I love my grandad so much and always did anything I could for him. There will always be a piece of my heart broken now & I’ll never forget him. He meant the world to me and always will. I love you grandad.

When Sally shared this with me, it brought to mind one of my own earliest memories of our grandad – he’s obviously the reason why we all love to dance because from being tiny toddlers, he’d grab hold of our hands & put our little feet onto his & dance around with us to whatever happened to be playing on the record player, & even if nothing was playing, he’d sing to us one of his favourite tunes….

Little Harvey remembers:

There are loads of things I will remember about granddad Jim, but one that I really remember is when he rattled his teeth at me while they were still in his head, it made me cry, but every time I saw him, I made him do it again.

Little Harriett has this memory:

Climbing up the mountain is mine, and I make my daddy do it every night when he comes home from work.

Shelley & Ricky wanted to say:

Grandad to us was amazing, how he could share his love with so many of us. If we have to think of just one thing he taught us, it is to laugh, sing and love each other.


Louie remembers when Granddad taught him how to play cards and all of the tricks he used to teach him. And he remembers how grandad used to pretend he was throwing dice, shaking them in his hand, but making the sound by rattling his teeth & then taking them out.. also when Grandad used to play a trick and find fifty pence behind Louie’s ears and then give it to him. Louie also looked forward to telling grandad how many goals he had scored at football because he would give him a pound a goal.

Lucy remembers this:

When grandad took me, Jodie & Louie to Trafalgar square to feed all the pigeons and when he used to take us down to the shops and skip along with us and sing skip skip skip to the loo. Also when ever we stayed over, he used to play games with us like noughts and crosses and boxes. And he taught me how to play solitaire I still can't get the hang of that game.

Peter shared this memory:
I used to drive him to and from the Rye Hill Club in Peckham every Friday night to play cards. I would pick him up from there at about midnight and I would know as soon as he got in the car whether it was a profitable night or not. If he lost he wouldn’t say a word but if he won he would sing virtually all the way home, but when you asked him if it was a good night he would always say not bad, lost a couple of quid. This usually meant he won a tenner and I’d get my petrol money.
Casey told me:
My earliest memories are from when I was probably about 8 or 9, Saturday afternoons with Grandad and Steven usually at the flat up Rye Hill Park. We’d be watching the racing, a couple of losers down, and one of them would say “run down Cheltenham Road and put a bet on for me boy”. I would have a bit of a moan and grandad would say “go on I’ll time you see how long it takes you”. He’d write them on the betting slip give me the money and off I’d go running as fast as I could, thinking I was Shergar.
I suppose that was when Casey the racehorse era began.
Anyway, I’d get to the betting shop, open the door and say to some stranger “excuse me can you put this one for my grandad please”. Sure enough the stranger would put the bet on for me just like Grandad said. I would run all the way back, get in the lift, press floor number 5 (I couldn’t reach 7) and then run up the last 2 floors. Sure enough I’d get there and he would say “sorry boy I forgot to count”. He certainly kept me fit ! What he didn’t realise, was that I would use the “can you put this bet on for my grandad” trick for my own personal flutter from then on.
Sammy shared this with me – on hearing this, I realised our grandad’s false teeth played a huge part in all of our early years!
One of my first memories of my grandad was his "special dice teeth", I can’t remember how old I was, but from the first time he showed me his "dice teeth", I was amazed!

Another memory is from when my cousins, Jimmy, Tony, Casey, Peter, Matthew & me were playing outside & all came in for some drinks. We went in to the front room and came across our grandad sitting in his favourite chair with a soggy rollup stuck to his bottom lip that had gone out, watching his favourite geegee's on TV....What we found hilarious to the point where we were all crying with laughter was when the horse that grandad had had a bet on was doing well and every time the field went around a bend he was leaning so far over that he nearly fell out of his chair – totally oblivious to anyone else in the room. These are just 2 memories of many of my grandad Jim, now at peace with his daughter Susan, my beautiful mum.



Our Granddad always thought he knew best & would try to catch you out all the time with your spellings or a random trivia fact. This sticks in my mind so much that I did seriously consider a floral tribute of the word ‘phlegm’. I’m sure I would have spelled it wrong though granddad, so I thought better of it…

Enjoy your Mojo’s grandad & tell daddy & auntie Susan we told them to look after you.

Finally, to quote Ben, but I’m sure a thought shared by all of us:

If love is wealth Grandad, you were the richest man on the planet.

We did it

Got hitched, that is. It seems like an age away now, but we had a wonderful day - it was really special & intimate. The sun shone all day - amazingly as they predicted rain all day - and everything was perfect. We haven't been on our moon of honey yet - that has to wait until January as we need to make sure the kennels are pretty much empty of inmates so that the olds are able to cope by themselves for a few weeks. But, it's all booked & we're off to Thailand to learn how to play ping pong. I'm kidding, but I'm practicing my pelvic floor exercises, just incase. We are going to Thailand, but after spending 4 nights in a very swish looking Bangkok hotel, we fly down to the island of Krabi. Very excited! I've been to Thailand before, but about 19 years ago & I understand that Koh Samui where I spent most of my time is no longer the idyllic paradise it once was, but more like Benidorm! What a shame. Krabi, I believe is a lot less developed, but still has a bit going on in the towns - we need something other than just perfect beach as my new husband might just go a bit stir crazy. Hopefully, it will fulfill all of our expectations. Please don't comment otherwise if you've been there - it's booked now!!!

The kennels are gearing up for the bank holiday weekend & we're gearing up for the wedding party here in a few weeks. Jeff has a love rival it seems in the form of a Staffordshire Bull Terrier called Taz. More about him later..... for now, I'm off to hose the runs.

VP x

I'm back!

First thing's first - congratulations Malc! My pal on the Edge of Nowhere has two sows who have produced their first two litters - he has the UK's most northerly herd of Saddlebacks now! Well done Malc & Sal (& Molly & Kim of course!)

After much coaxing from a particular friend of mine (mentioning no names Claire) I've come out of self-induced blogging retirement & have decided to keep you updated with my daily antics. Antics is probably too strong a word actually - that makes it sound like I lead a life of real excitement!

I'm about to go to work in the kennels now, but I shall sit down later & let you know what I've been up to to bring you all up to speed. I hope you wont get too bored....

Speak in a bit.

VP x

It seems my guilt has started to pass...!

Jeff & I finally tasted some pork last night. Jeff insisted I get a couple of chops out of the freezer & really try to get over my negative feelings about it. I agreed & part of me was dreading it, but a teeny tiny part of me was actually looking forward to it. I had acupuncture earlier in the day & my therapist said that I should try to thank the pigs for the food they were putting on my plate & as hippy dippy as that sounded, that's what I did. It did make my eyes well up a bit, but I ate my chop & thoroughly enjoyed it. So much so, that I definitely do not want to give the rest of the meat away & I'm going to get more out of the freezer for Sunday lunch.

I'm so glad I enjoyed it - I was beginning to think that at the wedding hog roast, I'd be beating people away from the meat with sticks, screaming 'that's my Tubbs- how dare you eat her!!!' I feel that wouldn't have gone down too well as such a joyous occasion!

I still don't know if I want to keep pigs again - my feeling is not - not for now anyway, but it seems I change my mind like the bloody wind at the moment, so who knows??!!

Just over a week til the wedding (part 1 - the actual deed) and I'm getting butterflies in my tummy!

I'm off to visit my friends in London tomorrow. Just for 1 night, but it feels like I haven't seen them in ages and I'm really excited.

Have great weekends everyone (I hope I still have some readers left!)

(the not so) VP x

This is the end...

... of my journey into pig-keeping.

I got Edward (I've been trying to think of it as just meat, but can't) back on Saturday in pieces and although I haven't cried & got upset, I'm really not ok about it all. I've tried hard to detach myself & I know Edward & Tubbs would have been raised for meat regardless of my involvement, and I know they had a lovely life & were happy and enjoyed themselves, but I would be happier eating them had I not known them personally. So, I made the difficult decision to not pick up the weaners yesterday & I've hung my pig-keeping hat up. For now at least. Maybe I'll feel differently in a few weeks, but I just can't put myself through this again right now. Thankfully, I'm not in a situation where I have to continue - it's a terrible shame that the fabulous area in the barn that Jack fashioned for them is going to go to waste - I do feel really bad about that, but maybe I'll keep some chickens in there instead. At least it'll get used for something. And if all else fails, Jeff can claim it back for work-shop area for his furniture making hobby.

It's taken a lot of soul searching this weekend to come to this conclusion & I feel embarrassed having to tell you all that I'm wimping out, but I just can't do it, I'm really sorry. I know it's ridiculous, but I feel that after what I've done, I've been changed and I don't know if it's for the better in my head.

After coming to this decision, I've thought about becoming a vegetarian, but I don't know if I can or even if it's necessary for me to. I think that as long as I continue to source meat from the local farm shop where I know it's been raised in a non-intensive way, I'll still be keeping my newly found morals about meat. I just don't want to know the animals personally and I don't think that's a bad thing - or is it? I'd really like to hear your views on this, no matter what they are - I feel crap enough as it is, and maybe the opinions of you guys would help me be less blinkered.

So, the Virgin Porker is no longer a virgin porker & is out of business. What happens to my blog now?! Do I continue with tales of kennel life? Again, let me know what you think.

I hope you can all forgive me for wimping out, but mostly I hope I'll be able to come to terms with it all myself. It's bloody hard.

Alex x

Just call me the Grim Reaper

I swear I can here the Death March when I'm walking about now... It's been a death-filled week so far & there are still a couple of days left! You might remember me talking about Twinkle the very old cat who has been near to death the last few times she's been in? Well, the Grim Reaper has worked her magic & Twinkle no longer twinkles. Found her stiff as a board in her little pen.

Right, who can I kill next?

VP x

All's a little quiet for my liking

It's a bit odd not hearing Edward & Tubbs (I'm feeling stronger today & can use their names) grunting and snuffling around in the barn when I go in there & also not having their snouts pressed up against the gate and shouting for more grub when I'm sorting the dog's runs out... The piece of land they had to wander around on backs onto one lot of kennels you see... It's funny, but they were absolutely not fazed one bit by dogs' barks. It never seemed to bother them in the slightest. Good thing it didn't really I suppose as I could hardly have fashioned ear plugs for them! So it just feels weird not having them here & even John has said so. I feel really bad that after all of his hard work, Jack didn't get to say goodbye to them (he didn't come in on Monday as the snow stopped him travelling) - he seemed a bit sad when I told him they'd finally gone yesterday when he arrived. Still, he'll get to taste the fruits of our labour as I'll be giving him & his wife some meat when I get it back.

So, I'm already looking forward to the sound of little grunts and squeaks again when I pick Kitty & Joan up on Sunday. I have to confess, I'm feeling so brave now that I'm even thinking about maybe getting one more & breeding from her. DON'T TELL JOHN!!!

Hugh F-W had better watch out - this girl's on a roll.

Speak soon.

VP x