Charlie

An Amazing Review of My Book

Who’s Got the Biscuits – Book Review

Where It All Began 31 The Finale

After eleven years in Hampshire, we decided it was time for a change. Well, someone did 😂. We’d enjoyed the time in sleepy Over Wallop. I’d got some running in, lots of hiking, and we’d had some adventures in Cuba, Italy, Spain and Greece. Although my running was still mainly for fun, I did a couple of races with good times.

York was a strong possibility but no teaching jobs were coming up. Eventually Beverley College advertised for a Carpentry Lecturer. I travelled up for the interview and it was less pay, but this was East Yorkshire, not Hampshire, and I was promised promotion to Team Leader. So starts the finale. (Yup last one in this series folks) I have to say the first 12 months were difficult! If you’ve ever worked in education you’ll know that there is a lot of BS. The promotion never happened. When I left Fareham college we had had been given Outstanding by OFSTED, voted College of the Year by TESS, and the principle recieved an MBE for services to Education. I’m not one to winge, so lets just say Beverley College wasn’t Fareham 😂.

Gillian and I continued to visit Greece often, and I took advantage of the hilly trails to get up early and test myself. I joined a running club for the first time and started competing seriously, finishing 1st, 2nd, or third in my age group regularly in races. I also started doing Triathlons, now these are fun, if you take out the swimming and the cycling 😂I fancied a marathon but Ultras seemed more attratctive. I tried a 35 mile Ultra and found it quite good fun. I completed my first marathon race with a time of 03:36:00 in 2022. I’d run long distances before but never competitvely, so fairly happy with that. After that I did the Hardwolds 40 which is good value as they give you an extra 7 miles for free. So 47 miles in ten and half hours was kinda acceptable.

I changed my job at the college to Apprentice Assessor, which meant no more classrooms, and spent my time on site assessing apprentices in the work place. But i wanted to write. I’d done a course with the Writers Bureau some years back and if you want a comprehensive writing course I’d highly reccommend them. I completed my first novel in 2022. The Siege of Mr Khan’s Curry Shop, loosely based on my experiences in Bradford in the early 1970s. It was intended to be a one off, but people kept asking me. “What happens next?” I decided to retire and take my running and writing seriously. I published a sequel in 2025 Who’s Got The Biscuits and both books have had some success, and I have to mention Esther Chilton here because I couldn’t have done it without her editorial expertise. And of course Gillian for her continued support, and I have to say “patience” 😂 That’s basically it! Thank you if you’ve stayed all the way through, I do really appreciate your support and comments 💜If you remember at the very beginning I said I’d asked my wife if I should get therapy and recieved and empathatic. “No! It would be too much for them.” Maybe now you understand her answer? 😂

Happy Trails, Folks x

Messing in Morocco

I’ve wanted to go to Morocco ever since I started writing my second book, Who’s Got The Biscuits. A tad late for research but not for marketing. The first place I needed to visit was a Souk. If you’ve read the book you’ll know that’s where Janine gets…. Ah, no spoilers 😂

I had to have a Gandora as I’ve wanted one ever since I watched Lawrence of Arabia years ago😉. The Moroccan people are just lovely and I received a lot of compliments while I was wandering around making marketing videos. Did you know I was a TikTok Creator? 😂😂 The hotel we stayed in was excellent, with great rooms, views, and food.

But you know how I love the trails. So we contacted a local guide and at 7:30 am began our assault on El Gouz in the Atlas range. It was only 12k, but as mountains tend to go up, it was rather steep.

We met a couple of friends on the way and they stayed with us for the entire day.

Once at the top the views were spectacular and well worth the 4 hour climb up there.

So, mission accomplished, fascinating adventure, great seaside runs, cultural experiences and lots of research and marketing material.

Happy Trails, Folks x

Where It All Began 30

If you’ve never worked on a construction site I can definitely recommend it. The camardarie and the tough physical challenge is amazing. We had moved house to a sleepy village called Over Wallop, Hampshire. I had to travel quite a lot. Two of the best sites I worked on Kiddington Hall where we were sub-contracted to do a refurb. Jemima Khan nee Goldsmith had just bought it for £15 million. It was to be a weekend retreat for her and her new beau Russell Brand. Although it was 136 mile round trip, it was worth it.

The site I really enjoyed was Lygon Place in Belgravia. It had been used by the Spanish Embassy for years. The eight houses had been sold for renovation and we secured the contract. This entailed catching the 5:20am train into Clapham Junction and the tube to Victoria with a short walk to the site, usually arriving back home around 7pm for 18 months, but once again it was worth the travel. In 2010/11 the cheapest house was £17 million and the most expensive £21 million. All our cutting was done in the underground carpark. I recall one day Roger Moore was due to view a property and we were told we all had to stay underground while he was there. Obviously James Bond would be nervous around a bunch of construction workers. 😂

These were good contracts, because with Tony Blair leaving office in 2007, suddenly there were no hospitals or schools to build. We were so successful we had a 5% pay increase every year. We had escaped the great recession of 2008/9 because of those contracts. But as Bizzare Inc, sang in 1992 Why waste your time? You know you’re gonna be mine…”(I’m gonna get you, baby) I’m gonna get you” In late 2011 after struggling to find more work for some time we had gone from 35 carpenters and 3 foremen… to 3 foremen. My boss had us cutting his hedge, mowing his lawn, painting his fence… anything as long as he didn’t have to lay us off. But I had an idea! 😂

Even though I had enjoyed my time on site it looked like it might be coming to an end. There was still a niggle to do something… “good” I dunno what else you would call it. I had seen an advert in a local paper for teaching courses in colleges. So, in January 2012 I did a short evening course. My neighbour expressed his concern that at 55 years-old maybe it was too late to start another career.😂 By June I had a part time job covering someone’s sick leave, teaching Carpentry at Brockenhurst College. I also started volunteering at a place called Enham Trust that supported disabled people, mainly with Cerebal Palsy. That was such great fun and I met a lot of lovely people. We did three pantomimes while I was there and as you already know I do like a dressing up box. 😂

During the summer recess a job was advertised at Fareham College for a full time Carpentry Lecturer. I read everything I could about teaching in a college, made a model door and frame for my practical lesson test in front of the panel. I winged the interview relying on improvisation rather than experience. They decided I was the best candidate, mainly because of my model and explanation of how to fit a door. So began five years of achieving more qualifications, teaching kids how to saw a straight line and assessing apprentices in the workplace.

I got awards for using IT Innovation in Teaching and was now a fully qualified Lecturer, Assessor, and Internal Verifier. Life was great, but I swear Gillian and I must have Gypsy blood 😂

Happy trails, Folks x

Where It All Began 29

Prison

Sometimes in life you just get a hankering to do some good. In 2003 I decided to become a prison officer at Feltham Young Offenders. The advert said I would be helping to rehabilitate young men aged between 17 and 21. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea. After completing written and role play tests and an interview I was in, and began a twelve week training programme. It went well apart from one day. In a pretend senario I had to enter a room where an officer was supposedly unconcious, his keys missing and the prisoners gone. I radioed it in, but I then saw someone skulking in a cupboard. I was quick off the mark, kicking the door open, and shouted, “Show yourself. Now!” A female officer with a clipboard in one hand and holding her nose with the other hand appeared. My radio crackled and the test examiner said. “Mr Robinson, she’s an observer!”

There isn’t much I can say about the next twelve months, it was a prison. I had a great rapport with the inmates and got some good results. There was a fancy dress graduation ball, I refrained from picking anyone up and carrying them out though.😂

BUT… There was a lot of stuff happened. Lets just say I wasn’t happy with some people’s behaviour which made it increasingly difficult to do my job. I became frustrated with some superiors and other officers. I found out later, some had been sacked. Now prison inmates at that age are not very clever, lets face it if they were, they wouldn’t be there. I remember two in particular. They had robbed a Marks & Spencer payroll office, thrown their masks, shotguns, and loot into the boot of the getaway car and were homefree. Half a mile away a police car came up behind them and pulled them over. They were baffled, it had only been 5 mins since the robbery, but they stopped the car and ran. The police caught them, returned them to the car and opened the boot. They were arrested on the spot. Does that make them dumb? Certainly the getaway driver was, the reason they were stopped is because he forgot to put the car lights on. 😂

One day I was chatting to those two lads and they asked me what I did before. I told them I was a site carpenter and when they asked what I built? I said mainly hospitals and schools (it was the Tony Blair years) They replied. “Building hospitals and schools is more important than this, Guv. You’re wasting your skills babysitting us. We’ll never change.” That was the beginning of the end. At the time I had a new senior officer and we had been doing a lot of good work, but he was replaced by another chap. A martial arts expert and he undid everything we’d achieved. The governors weren’t really interested and after a long chat with my wife and my old boss. I went back to building hospitals and schools. It was 2004. Times were booming, including me there were foremen with a construction site each and thirty five carpenters working for us. I’d found my place at last. What could possibly go wrong?

Happy Trails, Folks x

Meet the Characters #49

Reading?

Reavaluate or Reboot?

Sometimes I need to reavalute, and if you’ve read Where It All Began 1-28 you’ll know I seem to do a lot of that 😂 Last year I entered the Jersey Marathon. So, on Sunday I found myself on the start line. As preparation I’d done Boston and Windermere marathons earlier this year, so all was good. Except 14 weeks before Jersey I tore a calf muscle which put me out for 9 weeks. But hey ho, surley five weeks to train for a 26 mile race is enough? The age category prize was 60-70 year olds… at 69 I wasn’t going to win anyway. 😂

The weather was glorious, the crowds turned out in their droves and my eleven year old grandaughter was excited. Nothing to do with my run, she had entered the one mile race starting an hour after me. 😂 Yes my eldest son (mentioned in Where It All Began 15) is now 48 years-old and still living in Jersey. The first thirteen miles were fine, and it looked like I was going to get under 4 hours. Not my best time but under the circumstances, I’d take that. At twenty miles my legs began to feel tired and when I speeded up my calf gave a little yelp 😂. The final few miles took me all the way down the main esplanade from St Aubins to St Helier with the sea on your right. Sounds great? Except by this time everyone else was well in front of me or behind me. Ah, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. I remember it well.

During those last, lonely 6 miles I began to wonder about my life choices and decided it was time to reavaluate. Maybe, after running for fifty years, it was time to take it easy. Swop the running shoes for some golf clubs? Yes, that seemed like a plan. But then… my Garmin watch told me I was still running at 6mins per kilometer with two miles to go. As I reached the last 500m’s there are people again, lots of people, cheering people, clapping people. Yup! There was the finish line, the clock above it said 04:06:00. I was 8th out of 23 in my age category, with only five weeks proper preparation. Okay, maybe it was time to reavaluate my running, but let’s leave it until next year, eh? 😂

Happy Trails, Folks x

Where It All Began 28

Sally and I had been running Night Owls, the largest Mobile Disco company in Yorkshire for five years. In the December of 2000 we had thirty mobile rigs in the store and had hired thirty five DJ’s. Christmas parties were at an all time high and we did 308 functions that December. We’d managed to get away a few times, visiting Kenya and Sri Lanka, but they were brief visits and I always felt disappointed when we left.

I was still running, completing several half marathons in a time of one and a half hours. I’d joined the local gym and taken up Kickboxing, but after two years, and in my forties, it was getting tough. One night I broke three ribs, which kinda hampered installing disco rigs, so I called it a day. The next challenge was to climb the National Three peaks in 36 hours with the boxing club.

We had a great time, but it got me to thinking. There was more to life.

Sally and I were at loggerheads, she fancied selling up and settling down with ordinary jobs. So inevitably we sold the business, paid my old bosses off and went our seperate ways, all very amicable and everyone happy. But I needed a plan, so as breather, I rented a small flat in Boston Spa and worked the night shifts for my old kickboxing instructor who owned a security business. That was fun, especially one night when I came across a guy in a lorry park, slitting open the side of a lorry with a knife. Sadly he managed to get away. I’d been single for a while and had two ideas for the future. One – Buy a smallholding in France from where I could get anywhere in Europe. Two – Rejoin the Foreign Legion if I could get away with lying about my age 😂 It was around this time I reconnected with Gillian. We’d met in 1990. I’d made a few moves on her at the time, but she was engaged and I was rebuffed 😂. After she married and Sally and I became an item, we all became close friends, but she’d divorced in 2000, and moved to Bracknell as Operation Manager of Oakley Court Hotel, which had been used for the Hammer House of Horrors back in the day. We got on famously, even though we were in different parts of the country. Eventually I moved to Bracknell and as a stopgap took a job as a Carpenters hand (labourer)

Surprisingly I enjoyed having a proper job and working on a constuction site. After six months I qualified as a Level 2 Site carpenter, a year later I took my Level 3 and the boss made me a foreman with my own site. Gillian and I married, and everything was hunky dory.

But there was something niggling at me and one day I saw an advert for Prison Officers to train and work at Feltham Young Offenders prison. TBC 😂

Happy Trails, Folks x.

Jack Sparrow Goes Dragon Boat Racing

A few months ago I joined a second running club called Fitmums&Friends. They are more relaxed and not just about fitness but mental health, wellbeing and they are a registered charity. My main club City of Hull AC are… shall we say competitive. Anyaways… They decided to have a Dragon Boat race between all the different Fitmums groups. Ten teams, twelve in a team, two boats. I started with an idea to where a bandana, this became a bandana and a hat. Later, I thought why not a white shirt and a waistcoat, and maybe I could grow a beard. I guess you know where this is going? 😂

The day was a huge success, apart from the half hour of rain for our first race, which left me worrying that my mascara had run. Talking of mascara, how do you ladies do it? It was hell! Everytime Gillian came near my eye I backed off, so she practically had me in a head lock 😂 One thing that amused me was people’s reaction. I was the carpark attendant in the beginning, and some people gave me a second look, but most people were completely blasé, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

A good day was had by all, sadly we came fifth, but I honestly believe avoiding a collision from another team hampered our chances. Plus my dressing up idea caught on with the rest of the team. So you have to take into account that, while some teams trained, we were occupied with the outfits and getting our chant right 😂

It also gave me the opportunity to make a couple of very short promotional videos for the socials 😂I’ve dropped the YouTube links in below as I say they’re very short, but may make you smile 😂Happy Trails, Folks x