Hi, I'm Mike

[Troony]

Hi Everyone,
I'm Mike Troon, an exiled Cornishman and member of FOMS.

I was born in Redruth, brought up in Crowlas (3 miles from Penzance) and am very proud of my Cornish roots. I left home to join the RAF in 1968. I married a "Black Country" girl in 1988 an inherited 2 beautiful daughters. After leaving the RAF in 1991 I settled in Stourbridge although as a family we travelled to Cornwall every 3 months or so to visit my parents until my mother died last September.
It was my mother who introduced me to the books of Derek and we met him on a few occasions in the early and mid 1990s.
As with everyone who visited him, he made us feel very welcome and we spent many hours putting the world to rights!

I still work iin the Black Country but hanker for a return to my home county.

I look forward to joining the discussiions here and maybe joining the rest of the FOMS kduring their annual get together at teh Queen's Hotel.

Regards,

[gloria townsin]

Hello Mike,
nice to hear from you and hope you can make it down to the AGM. How super that you were among the lucky ones who met Derek and how fortunate to come from such a lovely part of the country you can tell from this forum that we all hanker to either visit more often or live there. Life takes us all on a long journey with lots of twists and turns but eventually we hopefully make it to where we want to be even if it is in reflective moments. Look forward to your views and annecdotes about Minack, Derek and Cornwall.

[Sybille Weber]

Nice to hear about your life and your Cornish connections, Mike.
I hope you will be able to make it to your old home county in March for Memorial Day and the AGM although it is quite a way to go - not as far though as it would be for me travelling all the way from Germany. I haven't been to England for several years now, and unfortunately won't be able to make it this year either, but I always travel there in my mind, and I have all those photographs of Cornwall to look back at, including those of our visits to Minack and the meeting with Derek.

As I'm typing this I actually have a 'Black Country Calendar' on the wall right next to me. Friends of ours send one over to us every year. They live at West Bromwich but we do also have friends at Stourbridge! (However we visited them last when they still lived at Warley - so haven't seen Stourbridge yet.)

Kind regards

[Linda]

Hi Mike, Glad you made it onto the forum.

You will be sought after for your views of Cornwall! We all wish we were in Cornwall and perhaps one day we will all get there, or back there as the case may be!:)

As you are a FOMS member I have given you access to the members only section which is being expanded as we speak and hopefully shoud,be up and running within the next couple of weeks.

If you have any difficulties or problems please do let me know.

Welcome again!

Linda 8)

[Kath Mulligan]

Hello Mike

Nice to meet you via the forum, hope to see you in person at the AGM/Memorial Day. Like the others say, we are all Cornish at heart, even if not born and bred in the county, and all of us feel we have arrived home as soon as we cross the border into the county.

Look forward to hearing of your experiences when you met Derek.

Regards

Kath

[nashie]

Hi Mike
A slightly belated welcome from me to you on joining the FOMS Forum, which we all hope you'll enjoy using. We look forward to hearing from you. Looking at the FOMS membership list which Mike Ackroyd regularly sends me your name comes directly after Gloria Townsin, who must be just about our most prolific poster - (I once posted a reply at about one o'clock in the morning and she came straight back to me!)
It would be great if you are able to get to the AGM next month, but if not we'll be reporting back on the website and in the next copy of Wavelength. We're praying for fine weather this year, but we'll enjoy it whatever the weather's like.
Thanks for joining us
cheers
John

[gloria townsin]

Would hate to let you down John so - take a look at the time!!! 8) That will be me in the morning...........!

[Linda]

What I think we would all like to know is what does Gloria do in all these hours she is awake....when do you ever sleep? I cannot find a time when you haven't posted!

:lol:

[Sybille Weber]

Gloria is really a devoted Minack fan. Not only is she active in the forum when others are asleep but she is also the member with the highest number of posts. We have the member categories 'new member', 'regular member' and 'senior member'. Perhaps we should create a special 'Gloria category'.?

[Linda]

OK, OK!

If you want a black cat like Gloria's you have to post 170 posts!

:lol: :roll: :lol: :wink:

[Kath Mulligan]

You know what? This is the great thing about this forum; the way all the regular posters are becoming friends, even though most of us have never met, although I'm hoping to put that right with some of you next month. It's lovely the way we are now able to feel more relaxed with each other, even tease each other a little.

Like you I have sometimes wondered whether Gloria ever sleeps, looking at the time of some of her posts!! 'Fraid you won't ever catch me on line in the early hours - having to be up at 6.30am each day for work means I'm heading for bed around 11.00pm

Kath

[gloria townsin]

How marvellous to be awarded a black cat of my own.......thank you so much. Insomnia is my problem and it's not fun!! It's got a lot worse over the last year, but I have decended from a line of owls on my Mum's side of the family. Unfortunately I have passed this on to at least two of my sons......not good!! Even when we were in Cornwall at the beginning of the year I was no better. Ho hum......that's when it's good to be able to post here.

[Kath Mulligan]

Tough luck Gloria, that can't be much fun. I can remember the loneliness of sleepless nights when my elder daughter was a baby and it felt like I was the only person awake.

I am more of a lark than an owl. I function much better early in the day than I do in the evening, although I don't much enjoy getting up on these dark cold mornings!

Hope your lucky black cat can whisk you off to Cornwall in the near future.

Kath

[Linda]

So what we need is way of Gloria being able to talk to those on the other side of the world when they are up and about...?

(I went through a period like that back in 1999, without the computer and internet I would have gone mad but was able to while away the hours talking to people in chat rooms (respectable! I hasten to add) who were in USA and Canada. Must admit they were a few from UK as well but they usually worked odd shifts which is why they were online at the time. Had to remember to keep my music turned down at that time of night....my electric bill was staggering too! But as Kath says you did feel a sense of isolation.

Perhaps we'll have to give you a task or two to do Gloria....??

:)