I've Heard It All Before!

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"Piss off back to your posh area and isn't it time you proposed so I can get rid of her?". Not what you expect from your future father-in-law but he'd had a couple of cans apparently and I'm used to making allowances for Ian. It's not his fault I tell myself regularly, he was born like it according to Debbie's mum Ellen. At least you've got your sense of humour Ian, you're going to need it for the wedding speech!

But it's not just Ian giving me grief at the moment, it's every one of my mates without exception, my mate's wives' including Rachael, who like Debbie is a red head but with an extra dose of fire, and even Debbie herself.

So Ian, knowing full well that you'll read this, as will everybody else I know, I'd like to remind you of a few things.

1. I know exactly when I'm proposing to Debbie, it's in my diary. You know too, as do all my mates.
   
2. You're paying. As such you need time to save up. Debbie wants a massive wedding, this will involve plenty of saving! Serve you right for having a big family!
   
3. Getting engaged will involve an engagement party. I need to negotiate a venue for this which I will do when I have the time. We like parties!
   
4. I also need to go out and buy an engagement ring. This involves the type of shopping I absolutely hate so I need to motivate myself. Shame you can't get them in Maplin's!
   
5. Even though Debbie knows I'm going to ask her she doesn't know when and I'd like to keep it that way. If she finds out I'll change the date by at least 6 months.
   
6. The longer I leave it the more desperate you all become!

So don't panic, everything is under control and I have a plan! The plan involves running like hell as quickly as possible in the opposite direction to you lot.

I'd also like to say a quick thank you to Steve and Mandy directly and Steve and Sue indirectly for inviting us both to some of the best nights out we've had in ages.

Debbie's quite a party girl but when she'd prefer to cancel a girlie night out with her mates rather than missing one of your gatherings it speaks volumes.

Us Two

I'd had a few!

She'd had a few!

Flooding in Willerby, East Yorkshire

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I've lived in Willerby, East Riding of Yorkshire for over 30 years. Willerby lies on highish ground compared to Kingston upon Hull and therefore I thought we were immune to flooding. How wrong I was!


A torrent of water, coming from higher ground, worked its way down Kingston Road and entered many of the side streets, including mine seeking out lower ground. For much of today the road and many gardens have been under water. Fortunately the house was not affected but a few neighbours have spent most of the day bailing out their gardens and patios to prevent the water entering their houses.


As far as this area goes the torrent is now a slow flow and the road is now visible. Recent reports on Sky News suggest that there are motorists on stranded in their vehicles on the A63.


A quick thank you goes to the owner of the Cottage Fires van who lives down the street. He blocked the road behind my car using his van to prevent cars driving down the already flooded street as the resulting wake from the vehicles was making the situation worse. Unfortunately a handful of idiots decided to drive down the pavement to avoid the road block. I really hope they got home to flooded houses.

Fry Family Genealogy Wiki

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Today I've launched the beta version of the Fry Family Genealogy Wiki. The Wiki is the first part of a new portal system I'm currently developing codenamed Project FryGen.

Project FryGen was conceived from weaknesses I've experienced whilst carrying out my own family history research. Many one-name family history resources suffer because they are often fragmented, do not benefit from modern software solutions and don't have the backing of expert web developers and web servers. In a lot of cases they are expanded personal projects containing an amazing amount of valuable data which is difficult to navigate and search and therefore of reduced value than otherwise would be the case if the same data was available through a better interface.

The Fry Family Genealogy Wiki is a central collaborative database of information provided and edited by researchers who are also involved in Fry family research; people just like you and me.

This wiki is very flexible and allows information on just about any relevant subject to be entered and categorised in minutes. That information becomes immediately searchable by other researchers both through this wiki and through most major search engines such as Google.

The wiki will remain in beta for the next 60 days while I tweak the settings and address any support issues.

I'd therefore like to invite anybody who is carrying out Fry research to join me on the wiki and help build an invaluable family history research resource for the benefit of all.

Related Articles:

• Fry Family Genealogy
  

Related Links:

• Jonathan Fry's Family Genealogy

Scallywag Porscha Fry

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Another sad announcement I'm afraid. Our amazing white Persian cat 'Scallywag' Porscha has died this morning (Wednesday) after a short illness.


Porscha was truly amazing and not only to look at. She had a fantastic personality, loving nature and remarkable human traits. Mum says that Porscha was the best alarm clock and bed warmer anybody could wish for. Mum should know, Porscha spent more time in mum's bed than she did!


Porscha was due to celebrate her 13th birthday next month but didn't quite make it. We thought she would live forever, well that was the hope anyway but it wasn't to be.


Porscha is now resting in one of her favourite places in the garden, next to the catnip plant, close to her great uncle 'Scallywag' Tuppence Halfpenny (Tuppie for short) who died thirteen years ago on his fourteenth birthday.


Porscha is survived by her sister 'Scallywag' Sophie who must be missing Porscha like crazy, but rest assured she's been well looked after.


Sophie, the poor dear, isn't quite all there in the head department. She was the runt of the litter and had to be hand reared and even though she's nearly thirteen still needs hand feeding and acts like a kitten most of the time.

Porscha is sadly missed but will never be forgotten.

Kevin "BoBo" Watson 1959-2007

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When my mobile phone rung at 5.20am on January 3rd and the display said BoBo Calling I thought the worst. Before I even pressed the answer button I was trying to work out whether his car wouldn't start, he'd broken down or somebody had broken into it. I was awake but nodding off and I wasn't really with it.

I expected to hear jolly BoBo breaking the news that his car was poorly but instead it was the sister of BoBo's wife Patsy, giving me the terrible news of BoBo's passing at 12.30am that morning. The news didn't sink in then and it still hasn't now.

I don't know how long I've known BoBo but a rough guess puts it around ten years. BoBo didn't have many friends, his funeral yesterday proved that. He'd have expected a handful of people to turn up but instead the chapel which holds over 200 was full to bursting point with no standing room left and there was more people outside than there was inside. These 500+ mourners prove once and for all just how short of friends BoBo really was.

Stood over my shoulder during the service in the entrance to the chapel (that's as close as we could get inside, and we were the lucky ones) was a reporter from the Hull Daily Mail taking short-hand notes about the service. Outside was a Hull Daily Mail photographer recording the event. Such was BoBo's popularity that he was given a page three write up in Thursday's edition following a massive amount of memorial announcements placed in the newspaper since his death.

Kev was a big man in every sense of the word. Big in stature, big on personality, big on wind-ups and big on memories. At his funeral he didn't walk alone and he will never be forgotten by all the people whose lives he touched.

BoBo is survived by his wife Patsy and children Lyndsey, Kevin, Rebecca, Joe, Tom and grandson Declan.

They have no reason to fear the future, I have a feeling they are going to be well looked after by all of Kev's friends, including this one.

I'll leave the last word to BoBo in the way of a photo of the great man himself.


Rest in peace mate, we're missing you already.

Related Links:

• Joe Watson
• Rebecca Watson
• Tom Watson
• The Watson Family

Fry Family Genealogy

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After a couple of years looking for a suitable domain name for my Fry Family History web site I'm pleased to announce I have bought the fry-family.com domain name after it became available earlier this week.

The new domain name will prove to be the perfect identity for what I hope will be an expanding and popular web site detailing not only my own family tree but those of my extended family and others researching the Fry surname around the world.

So, if you're a Fry, where ever you may be, pop along to www.fry-family.com and have a look. If you would like to see your family genealogy included on the site there's a contact link at the bottom of the page. Feel free to register yourself with the site and send me a message and I'll do my best to guide you through adding your own family tree.

Related Articles:

• Fry Family Genealogy Wiki