Bill's Beard

William and Isabella (nee McKinlay) Hunter lived for many years in the coal mining community of Lochgelly where they died in 1925. They had successive homes in Grainger Street, Chapel Street and Plantation Street. I would guess this photo of my great grandparents dates from around 1920. Whilst looking for information about the family I stumbled across online software which can be used to animate old photographs. The video clip below was created using the above image. If you sign up for a free trial on the MyHeritage website it's possible to animate a limited number of portraits. I suppose that in the future image manipulation of this kind will be widely used for those creating and presenting a family history. I'm undecided if I like it or if it contributes much of value. Moving on... below is an extract from the  Hunter Family Tree . Note that at present (April, 2021) I'm sti...

I decided to replace the spark plugs on my Suzuki Jimny. This blog page includes images and comments on fitting new plugs. I've owned my Jimny for about 7 years and never replaced the spark plugs. Whether they'd ever been renewed since the car's manufacture in April 2007 I don't know, but with a current mileage of just under 63K I came to the conclusion that it was probably about time.

I've previously written about my 2007 Suzuki Jimny and explained why I think it's such a great little vehicle. In this post I give an account of how the starter battery was rejuvenated by a 'smart' charger and take a look at the brands and specifications of battery which can be fitted to this model of car.

In 1996 my first (and last) book Football Fortunes was published. It was described by the Sunday Times as "a trainspotters paradise". A curate's egg of a review, although I do confess the book is one for anoraks. The book was written in an age before internet gambling was commonplace and the football pools and bookmaker's fixed-odds coupons were the most popular way to place bets on the outcome of matches.

The year 2020 saw the Suzuki Jimny celebrating its 50th anniversary. It is now in its fourth generation. The third generation model, of which mine is an example, was launched in 1998. That design remained fundamentally unchanged until 2018. This is my car. You may be unimpressed and think it a box on wheels, but I believe its chunkiness adds to its quirky charm. Well, many modern cars do look identical, don't they? I recall that as a boy and probably up to the late 1970s I could identify just about any model on the road. Is it because in those days designs were more distinctive and style was not necessarily constrained by price? Returning to the Jimny. It isn’t economical and the road handling is dismal, in fact bordering on life-threatening if you don't learn to accept and deal with its idiosyncrasies. Drivers must be wary of poor grip and a disturbing body roll on bends. The ladder frame chassis and the short wheelbase generate unwelcome pitching on bumpy roads. O...