Timsbury:
On bthe building front we had a brief opportunity to purchase Malcolm's incomplete shops next door. Unfortunately because of the rush to foreclose on Malcolm's debt we were pipped to the post by a builder from Cornwall. The Bank wated it's money quickly , and Malcolm had to sell everything to settle his many debts. The TV shop in Walcot Street had to close , Gordon White who ran it got a job with Granada TV Rental at their Wells showroom, with a little help from me and Graham Wakefield the Technical Supervisor. The 5 storey house at No.3 Bathwick Street student let was sold, along with the garage at Ciecus Mews complete with all Malcolm's usual "left overs". An end of an era had arrived.
Malcolm by this time had a new girlfriend from Nottingham and was now reduced to living in a flat in Walcot Street. What a huge fall from grace he ad experienced after the lavish lifestyle he had become accustomed to, his latest business, a craft enterprise shop were he imported Asian artifacts and figurines was forced to close and excess stock from this enterprise was left behind in the garage.business at Circus Mews. Nothing new then, history repeating itself yet again ..!! It was time to reassess his life an Singapore looked a good option to re-invent himself. Sad not to have had the opportunity to say "Bon Voyage", but that is life !
Andrew was developing as a person in his own right and forming new relationships with his peers. His latest girl friend was Zenobia Cowley from the Red House in Chuch Hill along the road from us at Maggs Hill. Mary was American by birth , she nad her mother Babs had gone to Cyprus in the late 60's to live with her father who was a Greek cypriot who had a large house in Farmagusta. The conflict on the Islan meant they had to flee to the U.K. and come to live with Mary and Robin (her husband).
Babs soon became a well loved member of the village, she could bee seen regularily striding out on her walks. Mary's dad unfortunatly suffered from the trauma of loosing his home nad possessions during the conflict, and the result was illness and then death from thsi experience. Robin Cowley had a mobile bookshop in the form of an old blue van and earned a living from this, he also took on a bookshop in Frome which became quite successful.
Work was proceeding at a pace with Granada by now and some new technology was on the horizon at the time which woulod have a major impact on the way Television would be viewed in the future. Video Recorders were now small enough to be used domestically. Philips had it's twin stacked cassette version (complete with cooker timer for time shift ) Betamax and VHS systems were being released this year in the UK and some competition was being tested for the rental market. It was looking like VHS would win. Teletext services were also affecting programme listings and the way people saw Television as an information service in the home.
Computers were another innovation soon to be unleashed on an unsuspecting public. The technical among us were already being flooded with information from manufacturers of intedgrated circuits and components for "Home Brew" machines (albeit very basic ones , no pun intended !)
I displayed my prowess on Tandy1s TRS80 by filling the display up with a large "for x%=1 to 100,000;print;x%,next" loop one liner. Luckily there was a Tandy shop opposite the Granada showroom in Broadwalk, Bristol and I found it useful to purchase "out of spec" digital devices. "Kiss's" electronics shop on the Lower Bristol Road was another emporium for electronic parts. Such was life in these hectic days with my various hobbies.
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