Barnsbury Boy - Tom Pratt - 1958-1962
Tom Pratt
Hi all known and unknown GoBBs (15/08/20)
Herewith slightly a narcissistic mailing.
After reading James' 2020 editorial in the School web page and it got me thinking, so just thought I’d let you know that I do pass by here every so often; reading while not taking any part in the gossip and nostalgia.
The luxury of time has not been on my side, to mail the GoBBs’ list! As along with divorce a few years back, some metalwork additions to my limbs (no doubt at least one more to come), few lady friends, a few intercontinental holidays (with lady friends), moving to sunny Bletchley, aka Milton Keynes, from Watford and getting married in 2018 to a young female 70 year old Bahamian Magistrate, Marriage Officer and Pastor (a feat for an out-and-out agnostic, that I am) on Goodman’s Bay Beach in Nassau.
Then dealing with the long, bureaucratic jobsworth, an expensive process to get a spouse visa, and then it has to be applied for again after 30 months (18 months to go) only then for another 30 months for the same amount of money, before she can apply at cost to stay indefinitely in the UK.
The crazy thing being that the Bahamas not only has the same head of state as the UK, but me being married to a national means I can automatically stay as a resident and, after 5 years, if still married can become a citizen and from day one will be entitled to free health care; whereas I’ve had to pay £400/year over the first 30 month period for the extension increased to £600/year for my wife NHS where clearly no reciprocity.
The other crazy thing being a Bahamian Citizen, she can vote in General and Local Elections as she did last December, never mind being entitled to a free bus pass. I’m starting to think maybe I should have met up with her in Northern France and rowed across the English Channel.
So, there we are, my first posting for sometime and it’s a rant I know, but to just to let you know there is still some life left for us in our 70s and new chapters can start. How long they go on for is, of course, in the lap of the gods.
Regards.
Tom
Hi all known and unknown GoBBs (15/08/20)
Herewith slightly a narcissistic mailing.
After reading James' 2020 editorial in the School web page and it got me thinking, so just thought I’d let you know that I do pass by here every so often; reading while not taking any part in the gossip and nostalgia.
The luxury of time has not been on my side, to mail the GoBBs’ list! As along with divorce a few years back, some metalwork additions to my limbs (no doubt at least one more to come), few lady friends, a few intercontinental holidays (with lady friends), moving to sunny Bletchley, aka Milton Keynes, from Watford and getting married in 2018 to a young female 70 year old Bahamian Magistrate, Marriage Officer and Pastor (a feat for an out-and-out agnostic, that I am) on Goodman’s Bay Beach in Nassau.
Then dealing with the long, bureaucratic jobsworth, an expensive process to get a spouse visa, and then it has to be applied for again after 30 months (18 months to go) only then for another 30 months for the same amount of money, before she can apply at cost to stay indefinitely in the UK.
The crazy thing being that the Bahamas not only has the same head of state as the UK, but me being married to a national means I can automatically stay as a resident and, after 5 years, if still married can become a citizen and from day one will be entitled to free health care; whereas I’ve had to pay £400/year over the first 30 month period for the extension increased to £600/year for my wife NHS where clearly no reciprocity.
The other crazy thing being a Bahamian Citizen, she can vote in General and Local Elections as she did last December, never mind being entitled to a free bus pass. I’m starting to think maybe I should have met up with her in Northern France and rowed across the English Channel.
So, there we are, my first posting for sometime and it’s a rant I know, but to just to let you know there is still some life left for us in our 70s and new chapters can start. How long they go on for is, of course, in the lap of the gods.
Regards.
Tom