"gwynfiguy at Home" Gwynfiguy's Profile

I was raised in a little village of Aber & Blaengwynfi Mostly in Blaengwynfi ( Pronounced Bly n Gwin Vi ) the village name is derived from the scource of the river and the end of the river as it goes into the river Avon .
It is situated at the top of the Avon valley in west Glamorgan South Wales. I left to join the Royal Navy in 1963 a mear slip of a lad 6stone wet through and even wetter behind the ears. Married Mustertal in 1975 and I left the navy in 1978 after sustaining a broken neck and damaging both knees beyond repair. I Worked for the SOS in Camberwell for a year then in security at Breweries and government laboratories before moving to Lancashire to another security job ( a builders yard) I was then Invalided out of that as my knees couldn't take the constant walking and climbing. Went to University and got enough qualifications in Music to become a teacher of the subject ( brass) until arthritis set in and had to finish that . Since then I have been retired and putting on weight ( as you could see if you met me on Saturday).
Don't know if this is the correct way to introduce oneself but I can but try . If it isn't right then someone will let me know.

Me 2nd row on far right 1968

A bit about my past ( if you are interested. Joined the RN in 1963 and was stationed ( for training) in Portsmouth Hampshire, From there went to Haverfordwest ( W Wales) and then onto Lossiemouth in Scotland Preparing to go onto HMS Eagle with 800 squadron ( Buccaneers) as an Aircraft electrical mechanic.
Whilst on the eagle I visited many counties and continents . I will list some of thes :-
Cape Town South aAfrica
Singapore
Mombasa Kenya.
Perth Western Australia ( were we discharged oil into the Swan River)
Boston Mass. Norfolk Virginia.
The Phillipines .
Malta
Gibralta.
Marseille, Nice and Cannes
Reykavik Iceland
Bardufoss Sweden
plus main little islands with no names.that I can remember
Lefy The eagle and went onto Portland in Dorset where I started to try and become an aircrewman in helicopters only to find that That I suffer from High frequency deafness and I couldn't understand some of the commands that were given.
I than went to Cornwall and helped instruct royal marin commandos ( for a short time then onto a qualifying course at portsmouth ( lee on solent and back to Portland (where I manged to crack and compress my neck during a rugby game) After recuperation I went back onto my first love Buccaneers at a place called Honington in Suffolk where I sustained the injury to my knees that eventually invilided me out of the RN.
I went with Margaret to Camberwell in London where we worked for a short time with The Stars Organisation for Spastics (SOS now renamed Scope).
I went into security work in leatherhead surrey and eventually moved North to th Preston area (Margarets family live here).I got a job as a Security Officer at a builders merchants until my knees finally gave out and I was made medically redundant. I then went to University and studied music doing enough to be able to teach Music ( brass) this was alright until the arthritis got to my hands and i had to quit that . since then I have been a man of leisure

I have just come back from holiday in Spain, I had a reasonably good time but this was spoiled by the farcical capers of the Post office travel card people.
Unbeknown to me they had blocked my travel money card ( the Post office lost the confirmation letter), I had no inkling of this until the Tuesday of my holiday when I went to draw some money out of my travel money card ( I knew that I had sufficient funds for my holiday as I had topped it up the week before) to my amazement the "hole in the wall " said to contact my bank, thinking that this was a bank that didn't take my card I set of on my way and had a meal I tried the card once more there but yet again it was refused. So i went back to my accomodation and telephoned the customer services helpline ?
They said that I should have returned the Non appearing letter to them when I had received it I then pointed out that as they the post office had not delivered it that I could not have filled it in and returned it. Oh was the reply , wait one , Could you send a fax with your drivers licence and a Utility bill on it to them . I then poited out that I didn't drive and was on holiday so didn't have any utility bills with me as there was no reason to carry them . I did havea passport and an Insurance Statement that gave my name and home address on it . After consulting the supervisor I was told that this was fine.
So i went and faxed them off .
The next afternoon i went and tried the cash machine , No cash contact your bank.
I re rang the P.O and was told that a Utility bill was required I pointed out that I was on Holiday in Spain and didn't carry them around with me. They were insistant that I got one sent to them . I then had the dubious task of contacting my son In Chorley to ask him to send a Utility bill via a fax to the P.O.
He tried that night but because it was after 8pm there was no fax operating at the P.O. ( that night?). Eventually the next afternoon he managed to send it .
(Thursday).
We gave them 18 hours breathing space and tried to draw money out the next afternoon only to find that the machine refused and told us to contact the Bank.
We did and was told sorry the Utility bill was not one that was authorised in the letter ( missing) that was sent to us. I then explained in detail all the facts that I had given time and time again and the Customer services person had to go to her supervisor. She came back and stated ( 3 days after first sending it) that the photo on my passport wasn't clear enough on the first fax that I sent to them.
Talk about changing the goalposts. I then went down to reception had them take a photocopy ( a clearer one) and send it off to the post office.
at 5pm ( local time we got a telephone call saying that we could now utilise the card ( for 10 days only).
But the sting in the tail was that when we got back there were two letters from the Post Office asking for Two utility bills and one utility bill , So that we could use the card whilst we were still abroad. I then rang up thecustomer services and asked how I was supposed to read these whilst in Spain.

so my advise is if you want to have hassle free ease for drawing your money out whilst abroad use any foreign currency card rather than the Post office Travel Card.

Rob