John Douglas Eccles

30/12/201530/12/2015

My 2015 Crossfire Year

This year we have been quite busy with work and family commitments but we still managed to get to a car show or a road trip at least once a month. This is my year in pictures.

January 2015

01-January-Trafford-Centre-American-Car-Meet — With Karl Edmundson at the ACCNW meet at the Trafford Centre Manchester

February 2015

02-February-Isle-of-Sky-Road — The Isle of Sky Road in the Snow on the way to Holmfirth

March 2015

03-March-Lytham-st-Annes — Visit to the Coast Lytham St Annes

April 2015

04-April-Glossop-Car-Show — Glossop Classic Car Show with the Mopar Muppets

May 2015

05-May-Laon-Historique — The Laon Historique in France our first event in France

June 2015

06-June-Burton-on-Trent — Burton on Trent Meet up with UK Crossfire Club

July 2015

07-July-Tatton-Park — American Car Show Tatton Park with UK Crossfire Club and the Mopar Muppets

August 2015

08-August-Ripon — Ripon Classic Car Show with the UK Crossfire Club

September 2015

09-September-Running-Hill — Sunday Morning getting the groceries, Saddleworth is a great place to live.

October 2015

10-October---Northern-Quarter-Manchester- — Down with the Hipsters, going all urban in the Northern Quarter in Manchester

November 2015

11-November--Trafford-Centre--American-Car-Meet — At the ACCNW Meet at the Trafford Centre, Manchester

December 2015

12-December-Christmas-Shopping — Christmas Shopping with Saskia (it wasn’t like that when we can out!)

I have had a blast this year so thank you everyone in the various groups I am involved with, one thing that I have discovered is that you are all a great supportive and friendly group of people who know how to have a good time.

So All the best for the New Year and here is to seeing you again in the not to distant future.

24/12/201527/12/2015

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

I am now a week into the Christmas break and at last I have a quiet moment to do what I want rather than what I need to do.

The grandkids have gone home to be identified by Santa so they get the right presents. Ann is sleeping trying to gather some strength for tomorrows busy schedule and I am here savouring a quiet five minutes from the madness that is Christmas.

In recent years I have noticed that the festivities have moved away from the simple things like catching up with friends and family to the lets shop until we drop from exhaustion and then get ready for the Boxing Day sales.

This year is going to be different in our house. Yes the grandkids have what they asked for within reason but I refuse to be dragged along by someone else’s idea of what Christmas should look like.

Tomorrow we are at our daughters house for Christmas Dinner and she has been stressed beyond all belief because she wants a picture postcard version of what Christmas Day should be like.

We have all fallen into that trap but as the years roll on I have discovered in my recollections I never once remember the quality of the Christmas dinner but I remember vividly the people who I loved and who are no longer here, the friends who made me laugh and the family who infuriated me for the rest of the year but made me laugh until I cried.

So in the middle of this madness we call Christmas I hope you all have a great time with your friends and family and make experiences that will last a lifetime because these things only happen in the moment and they are gone and cannot be recreated.

So tonight for the first time in forty years Ann and myself will go to sleep in a house which has no excited children going to bed, I don’t have to eat a carrot, half of mince pie or drink half of glass of sherry to add to the magic.

But I can tell you I would trade an organ in a heartbeat to do it one more time. So to all you young parents out there who have had to track down Unicorns for daddies little princesses and the latest technology for mummies little soldiers remember every little detail because before you know it they will have flown the nest and it will never feel the same.

So on that maudlin note I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and remember enjoy the ride you are only here once!

22/12/201522/12/2015

The Nearly at the End of the Year Blog Post

Happy Christmas

Its that time of year when I have finished work for a couple of weeks and I have now had a couple of days to stop vibrating from the level of stress I have been subjected to since my last break.

Now Ann’s idea of a break and my idea of a break could not be more different. Mine is more of the lets read a book, watch a film, have an afternoon nap followed by lets go for an early evening snifter at the local.

Ann’s version is you need you to fix the shelf under the sink, take me shopping for three tons of food (that we will never get through) followed by can you deliver these Christmas cards in a typhoon like storm to people who we know in the village.

To add insult to injury instead of the early doors snifter she had me driving across the rain sodden moors to Holmfirth to deliver even more cards.

It’s not like me to complain (much) but when I tried to mention that the Meteorological Office had issued a severe weather warning and had even gave the storm a name, we really should abide by that edict in case we get injured,stranded or even killed!

Her response was good, she said we have the 4×4 you wanted and you said when we got it, it could get through anything so get your coat and stop being a wimp. I had been hoisted by my own petard.

I am now sat here trying to finish this blog post before I am given my next endless list of chores that should see me gainfully employed until at least Christmas Eve.

Normally this is the time I spend a little time looking back at the past twelve months and sort of do a mental calculation to see if I have been a hero or a zero.

It’s been a year of mixed blessings, we both still have our health, the kids are settled and we even have new neighbours which is always entertaining.

The bad news is this year has seen the passing of my Uncle Paul. He was a true gentleman who never had a bad word to say about anyone. He lived most of his adult life with my Aunty Vera and his five children in Great Rollright in Oxfordshire.

When I was young every summer my parents would take two weeks holiday to help on the farm which was brilliant. This meant that my five cousins and I would spend what seemed like endless sunny days playing in the great outdoors whilst our fathers did the haymaking.

My cousins and I would play from sunrise to sunset only stopping for a makeshift picnic that the women brought unto the men in the middle of the day. When the sun went down we would sit telling each other ghost stories whilst trying to sleep topped and tailed five to a bed it was magical.

For a boy who spend most of his life in the red bricked terraced houses in the industrial north of England this was a very different world of big skies and lots of green fields to run and play in.

Geographically speaking it meant we didn’t see him or his family as often as we should and that is sad. As I sat in the village church listening to the vicar who knew him well (they had been neighbours for twenty-five years) It started me thinking about getting old and how your world starts to become a little smaller.

I wondered how many times I would get to visit this village now that what I considered to be the anchor that I had in the Cotswolds was no longer around. I had a salutary lesson the older you get the people who you considered would always in your life one day are not and I feel like I should have taken more time to visit and more time to tell him what I thought of him.

All that remains for me to say is that I hope you have been good all year so that Santa brings you what you want rather than what you need and to the people who are having a particularly rough time at the moment my prayers are with you.

So I have licked my wounds braved the elements in the name of Christmas card delivery and came out the other side unscathed and I am now looking forward to Christmas with the family.

So may I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to you and yours.

12/12/201512/12/2015

My Happy Anniversary Blog

We have an anniversary. I have been writing this drivel for three years and apparently and I have amassed what can be only described as a small audience. Small but loyal as I would like to think.

Its been a roller coaster of a ride, I have had to explain to my wife on more than one occasion that the young women who have spoken to me whilst I have been out and bout are in fact people I have never spoken to before they just recognise me from my blog photograph.

Now thats not quite as bad as the time last year whilst on the Norfolk Broads were I was mistaken for Sir Terry Pratchett. The gentleman in question came upto me in a pub and quite politely asked if I was Terry Pratchett. My reply according to Ann was less that acceptable. I answered I couldn’t remember to which she kicked me in the shin under the table and gave a look that could kill at fifty paces.

So thank you for your support and your comments which I try not to weep at if they are less than complementary.

Now we are less than a week away from what the advertising industry describes as the most important night of the year. No, that is not Christmas Eve (that is ten days away). The alternative event of the year the juggernaut that is Star Wars The Force Awakens.

In this world of instant news and social media one has to take your hat of to the Disney corporation for the blackout of anything to do with the film.

The best press release I have read from the film is that from Carrie Fisher’s who plays princess Leia. When asked what she felt about reprising her role, her answer was priceless.

When they called they didn’t want all of me just about three quarters, I have been on a diet ever since. The things people do for money.

I hope that when we get to watch it over the christmas break it is as memorable as the first time I saw it.

I took my son who is now forty on New-years Eve to watch the return of the Jedi when it was released which he thought was epic. This time we are taking the Children and Grand Children with us and I only hope that when the music starts as the curtain opens that they get the same feeling that I had all those years ago.

Only after the event will we know if it is a great and that is what makes the cinema so special.

21/11/201522/11/2015

“How do we change the world? “One random act of kindness at a time”

earth_flag — PROJECT BY OSKAR PERNEFELDT The International Flag of Planet Earth is a graduation project at Beckmans College of Design (Stockholm, Sweden)

Unless you live on the dark side of the moon you will know this has been a bad week. This time last week the unthinkable happened in my favourite city in the world. Innocent people got killed and injured for no justifiable reason.

The resultant fallout has been scary to say the least. People have become more tribal in their thought processes which is very depressing. I have sympathy with people who have lost loved ones, I have undying admiration for the broken hearted husband who will not allow Isis or whatever terrorist organisation carry out indiscriminate acts of violence change the way he thinks of people no matter what religion they are.

Now I am a humanist, I try to treat people in a way I would like to be treated myself and it has served me well through the years.

I can also see the other side of the argument from people who think they have been treated unjustly. But I cannot reconcile indiscriminate bombing no matter which side is carrying out this atrocious behaviour. In a problem that has become so complex with people on both sides thinking they have the moral high ground it will be difficult to see a way out of this.

Millions of people on Facebook have placed the tricolour flag on the profile pictures and I applaud them for thinking about the people of Paris. But what about the other people on the planet. The Palestinians, the Syrians and the many people in Africa all who are suffering in equal measure.

A few months ago I stumbled on a website that had a flag that represented us as a whole, the earth flag. Which is something that every nationality could stand under and become one.

Just think for a moment what if aliens dropped down to Earth tomorrow and started attacking us, how long do you think it would be before we all joined forces against a common enemy to protect our beloved planet.

I suppose our planet is a little like a family, we all fall out and squabble but at the end of the day we all stand strong if anyone threatens our dearly beloved, I hope that our collective position is just like that.

So instead of alienating innocent people for the random act of violence which is dominating our media at the moment lets take a leaf out of the french gentleman’s book who has lost his wife in the Paris attacks.

He has said he will not let this indiscriminate violence change him into something he is not. That way the perpetrator’s have not won, they have not made rational people fear people just because the colour of someones skin.

This coming week I am going to make a concerted effort to make sure I give everyone I meet my best five minutes, treat everyone as I would be like to be treated and hopefully this behaviour may be contagious, it may even lead to other people acting in the same manner.

In the words of Morgan Freeman “How do we change the world? “One random act of kindness at a time”

So here is my challenge to you, be kind and watch carefully how life suddenly gets a great deal better with the added benefit of that it makes you feel great in the process.

14/11/201517/11/2015

What a difference a week makes!

I week ago at this time I was typing about what a brilliant night I had been a part of, belly laughing about trivial things that people find amusing.

Tonight I am deeply saddend by events in what is arguably the most beautiful city in the world. It has been the latest victim of the latest atrocity in the name of some cause which in the eyes of its supporters is justifiable on whatever grounds they see fit.

All I see is hundreds of families shattered by the fact there loved ones have been dispatched without rhyme or reason. Over one hundred killed and god only knows how many injured in the name of what?

Some bigoted self belief that these people are guilty of some crime that they are totally unaware of. Innocent people, loved ones, someones family who will never to come home.

This is the unforgivable madness of these events, people left behind who will never be able to tell loved ones what they mean to them, hold them for one last time or even just look at them thinking what they mean to you.

All this gone in a blink of an eye, and of what. A moment in the headlines, fifteen minutes of fame and the promise of an afterlife that promises more than life here on earth.

My prayers go out to everyone who in the next few hours will have a knock on the door that will ruin there lives forever. I hope that I will never have to experience the heartbreaking moment when you receive news that you will never recover from.

Please remember that someones son, daughter, wife or husband has been taken from someones life tonight and there lives will never be the same again.

If these people who carried out this atrocity believe in a god or entity that can justify this abominable behaviour I think its time for them to follow a new god.

Tonight I go to bed with tears in my eyes and a heavy heart.

What a difference a week makes.

07/11/201507/11/2015

Ordinary life does not interest me.

I realise this is a Friday and I may have been out for a drink or two but sometimes events occur that you just have to put words on a page just to get out of your system, something that you have just experienced that has changed your outlook on your working life forever.

Forget stereotyping, forget what you thought you knew about the human condition because I have just experienced something joyous.

I have been in the company of the two busiest people I know. Both women in management and both mothers. Now I know you think you are busy but these guys are absolutely in a different league.

As regular readers of my blog will know Fridays in Diggle are a family affair, kids come first and everything else is a sideline. It does not matter a jot if you have been busy in your day time job because all that matters is the routine of kids having a great time and learning something worthwhile in the process.

Now I must confess that brass band music leaves me a little cold (OMG i have just become a social pariah), however now and again a young person picks up an instrument and they play flawlessly with an innocence reduces me to tears. But that wasn’t what affected me tonight.

I was in the company of two great women who have more life in them that 90 percent of the country. I have laughed with them for over two hours and that has not happened for a long time. It was brilliant, belly wobbling laughter that lifts your soul.

Now these guys diaries read like some chief exec of a major multinational company with the added pressure of kids activities thrown in and without a blink of an eye they decided that tonight was going to a good night, and it was.

Gone was the frustration of the week, the crap decisions, the I should have achieved this or I should have done that. The realisation that we cannot be active for every waking minute without dropping the odd plate and the reality of we tried our best arrived at about ten o clock.

We are all human and I think it is better to be remembered as a supportive parent rather that a great manager. So hats off to these women and all the women out there who are expected to deliver everything to everyone 24/7.

I don’t want to appear patronising but my advice for what it is worth is that you need to look after ( in no specific order) yourself, your kids, your husband, your employer and above all the grumpy old guy who tagged along for the best night out I have had in a long time.

Good night and God bless.

04/11/201504/11/2015

Inspirational Quote

24/10/201524/10/2015

Its been a strange old night

It has been a strange old night, now as most people who follow this blog will know that Friday night is spent in the company of relatively young people who attend the bar at the local Band Club who are waiting for various offspring to come out of Brass Band practice whilst sampling the delights of the local breweries.

Now that is a novel approach to getting revenue across a bar if ever there was one. The great thing about this pastime is that when the kids come out of practice they are far more judgemental that any methodist minister on the planet. But thats not the strange thing, that is Friday nights in Diggle.

It is a cross generational thing and I love that, old crumblies get to talk to bright young things and have great debates, and do you know what, the crumblies more often that not have to concede to the knowledge of the younger generation who know all about the new world order.

But thats not the strangest thing that has happened, whilst deep in conversation I got a tweet from a Dave Robinson, a guy who was in Hollywood last week at a film premier for a film that we worked on last January, who used the Band Club Bar as a location for a scene in the film.

The bar in the film is called “The Happy Beaver” (I didn’t write it, I only directed it) and the Club fitted perfectly with the 80s sitcom feel that they needed for the film, without adding any props other than a 1980s trim-phone.

He sent me a message that made me smile.

The message was “I hope Mr Hollywood director is relaxing with a beverage at the movie set after a busy week”?

Gregory Hatanaka (Director), Mathew Karedas (lead actor) & Dave Robinson. In Hollywood for the Premier of Samurai Cop 2

What made me smile is that this guy is still Jet Lagged and since coming back has had the week from hell and he still made the time to send a message on a Friday night when he should have his feet up and relaxing.

These people are a rare breed, they take time to thank people who have helped them attain a personal ambition and in the current climate these people are indeed special.

By far my favourite one of these people is Richard Branson. He has a theory which I love and try to emulate. “Treat your staff like your best customers and in turn they will treat your customers in the same manner”.

This theory works, the next time I get a call from this guy for help I will try my hardest to try to make sure I can. It’s not Rocket science, treat people with respect and thank them for there efforts and you will be repaid several times over.

Cristiano Ronaldo the footballer lives his life in a similar fashion. He was taught by his father that any kindness you give out comes back a million fold. Recently I found out that this guy gives one weeks salary every month to charity. Considering last year he earned £50m, that is some donation and I can only assume that his father’s theory is working.

So next time you are feeling a little hard done by, just remember there are people who are far worse off than you who need help in some way.

It’s not only money that solves problems, (but it helps). Sometimes it’s an non judgmental ear or a friendly shoulder to lean on that does the trick, but the secret thing that makes all the difference is time. Invest some time without any expectation of reward and great things happen, these random acts of thoughtfulness make the world a better place and you never know where it can lead to. As Cristiano’s father says, any kindness you give out comes back a million fold and thats not a bad thing.