Let’s do this together SILLIEST PET SELFIE Things to do this half-term
After wrestling with call centre speech recognition telephone systems that seem to be related to Manuel in Fawlty Towers, reader Brian Davies got in touch with a story about how accurate messages could mean the difference between life and death.
Or even the quickstep or waltz…
He says: “I was a boy army apprentice at the tender age of 15 years old at Catterick Camp in Yorkshire, training for the Royal Corps of Signals.
“I had to learn Morse code, wireless telegraphy, be a teleprinter operator and use a field telephone on top of the usual weapons training and drills.
“We were told it was vital to be 100% accurate when either sending or forwarding a message.
“To illustrate this, the message to be sent read ‘Send reinforcements, going to advance’, but due to mistakes made in transmission, the message received by the Commander in Chief was ‘Send three and fourpence, going to a dance!’
“The introduction of a humorous element into the lesson was to make sure we didn’t forget, and I have to say that fast forward almost 80 years on, I haven’t – as yet – forgotten!”
What’s that, Brian? You’ve haven’t met my bottom?
Please keep your stories, memories and photos coming to siobhan.mcnally@mirror.co.uk or write to Community Corner, PO Box 791, Winchester SO23 3RP.
“My grinning dog, Lola, is becoming a bit of a local celebrity. She’s a podenco, originally from Spain, and we rescued her when she was a pup,” says Sheree Somerville in Canvey Island, Essex. mirror.co.uk/ newsletter
We’ll be running ideas for half-term fun between now and when schools release our children back into the wild.
Well, obviously when I say fun, I mean something you can do while social distancing, wearing masks and washing your hands.
Not that this was something you did very often back in 1066, but even with restrictions, England’s most famous battlefield is hosting a family event to mark its anniversary.
Normally they have a good old-fashioned battle re-enactment, but they’re the wrong sort of (helmet) masks for this year.
The Saxons vs Normans: The 1066 Challenge at Battle Abbey near Hastings, East Sussex, is running from now until Friday October 23, and needs an army of children to help settle this age-old score once and for all. During the last week of October the site will be running spooky Halloween events.
Families can follow the trail around the historic 1066 battlefield, and discover the story as they fight for victory and earn points on the trail leader board.
Who will rewrite history and help the last Saxon king, Harold II, achieve the victory he was cruelly denied, or do we have to keep learning about boring old William the Conqueror in history? Sigh…