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Easy Money

This is filed under atari st

Here’s one of my first video games I wrote for the Atari ST back in the day. It’s a fruit machine simulation called ‘Easy Money’. It was released by Micromagic in 1991 along with ‘Magic Darts’ – intended as a set of ‘PUB’ games, I also finished a pub quiz game (Brilliant Boffin Brothers) and also a strange Shove Ha’penny game (‘Shove Off’) which never got released.

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christmas tree decorations

This is filed under miscellaneous and has been tagged

Some of Mum and Dad’s original glass decorations that used to hang on the Christmas tree each year. Beautiful things really.

rudolph cake decoration

This is filed under miscellaneous and has been tagged


Here’s a little reindeer that would always appear on Christmas cakes (along with little plaster Santa and a wee fir-tree).

Sadly, shortly after this photo was taken, poor Rudolph was quite badly savaged…
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dad’s toy santa

This is filed under toys and has been tagged

Here’s the old walking Santa from years gone by.

Dad loved this.

And so do I.
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sketch of james

This is filed under art, college and has been tagged

A pencil sketch of James from my first college sketchbook.

Not really very good, but I think it did capture something quintessentially James-like…

five poems

This is filed under poetry and has been tagged

Some poetry by James and me (credited to ‘M.J’ and ‘J.Z.’) from the first of my art college sketchbooks. Titled ‘five poems – an anthology of shopkeepers by 2 former customers’.
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my art college sketchbooks

This is filed under art, college and has been tagged

sketchbooksMy four sketchbooks from when I was at college – I think mainly from when I was at Kingston Poly.

They are mostly filled with crap.

lemon pen topper

This is filed under toys and has been tagged

lemonA little plastic fruit guy who you stick on the end of your pencil.

This one is the last remaining example of the many I had as a child. As far as I can remember, I had a pear, a pineapple, an orange, tomato, onion, corn-on-the-cob, a kind of purple blackberry or raspberry (which for some reason I called a grape), a long thin green one (possibly a cucumber) and I daresay others too. They were very popular in the 70′s, but I’ve yet to find a definitive guide to them anywhere on the internet (it really is the kind of thing someone, somewhere would get a bit anal about). A guy has a photo of some here.

I’ve kind of got it into my head that there were the original fruit toppers (‘grape’, pear, orange, pineapple) and also later imitations which seemed to be made of harder plastic (like this lemon), were poorer quality, and tended to be more obscure (often unrecognisable) types of fruit and vegetables. The ‘good’ ones were made of a slightly softer plastic and were much more satisfying to chew on in lessons.

Some of them might have worn little removable hats.

grandad in uniform

This is filed under family, old photos and has been tagged ,

grandad-in-uniformA rather damaged old photo of Grandad in uniform – presumably on the coast near Bovington (Lulworth Cove?).

mike and mactavish

This is filed under family, old photos and has been tagged , ,

mike-and-mactavishMe and Mactavish in the back garden in Teddington.

The traditional pudding-basin haircut if left untamed would occasionally ‘go native’ – it can be seen here in the process of becoming a fully-fledged crash helmet.

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