TonyTiger66

Hello friends 👋 

It has been some time. I hope that you are all well, or at the very least getting along fairly tolerably well.

I have missed you all.

I think maybe most of my followers/friends here know that my recent almost annual attempts to get back into modelling, into regular posts, have not worked. 

Short spell of normality: silence.

The Internet is a place where one’s data and words are harvested and used in the strangest and most mystical ways, therefore I was previously reluctant to explain a lot.

However, now a person involved in what is being referred to as the largest scandal in NHS history, I have waived my rights to privacy via my lawyers, for the class action. This was my choice. I’m no spring chicken any more, there aren’t that many of us old bleeders left (I’m not swearing here), so I feel fine writing about it here.

Around 40 years ago, along with around 2500 or so other Haemophiliacs, other recipients of blood based products; I copped for a couple of very nasty infections. Ones that can kill and have killed many.

I’m one of the U.K. ‘survivors’.

I have been sort of ‘stuck’ in Australia. Following what was intended to be a far shorter trip; my health, related to my Haemophilia and liver infection declined and I ended up stuck here.

There are far worse places to be stuck. I have been very kindly looked after, especially following my move to the lovely and friendly, very civilised city of Canberra. The capital city.

A couple of years ago the U.K. government finally opened an inquiry into the way so many became infected by blood products. Shortly after that I asked a U.K. lawyer to represent me in the class action currently underway.

Writing a witness statement spanning almost 40 years has been a harrowing and demanding task. At over 10,000 words, thanks to the help of my kind and supportive wife, to the help and support of some members of Britmodeller past and present, to a wonderful team of lawyers and a wonderful team of Haemophilia and liver nurses, doctors, support workers, counsellors and a superb GP, the support and help of my home MP in Argyll in Scotland and more; I am almost there. Also with many thanks to the support and kind words of an old academic friend of mine; Prof. Danny Dorling, currently of Oxford University.

Reading thought provoking books by Danny and others, researching all kinds of things, from conflict history to geopolitics and social geography (I’m a geographer by the way, it probably shows 😉), Audiobooks, encouraging emails and text messages have kept me (fairly 😉 ) sane and determined.

I went on a kind of targeted chemo/anti viral medication last November and that appeared to be the point at which my get up and go for model making, for most leisure pursuits, got up and went.

However, it appears to be working 😊.

Moreover, I saved enough Virgin Velocity points (92,000) make the journey to the U.K. in a few weeks time, at the end of October.

This will be in time to attend a few days of Inquiry hearings in London, ponder whatever the B word throws at us on Haloween and to enjoy Guy Fawkes night too.

In model making terms, I appear to have branched out into restoring old die cast and tin plate toys; trains, aeroplanes, automobiles, motorcycles and so on. My plastic modelling interests have really narrowed down to ‘Golden Age’ aviation and most things from the 1920’s to the 1950’s.

I also appear to have acquired a piano, another guitar and number of classic cars in need of a little love and attention; all British or European, although my Australian built 1973 Ford Cortina Mk III with a 200 cubic inch engine and three speed manual gearbox doesn’t quite fit the classifications. The others are Audi, Rover, Mercedes. SAAB, Volvo, Peugeot, Simca and so on.

I will need a few quite large shipping containers and an old barn to move this lot to the U.K., hopefully Scotland, and keep them

safe, protected from the elements.

Should anyone wish to meet up for a chat, cup of tea and so on; I will be in London the last week of October, Oxford the first week

of November, then Birmingham, then Glasgow and Argyll.

Please send a message if interested, it would be lovely to meet up with anyone.

I hope to more carefully heed the advice of a friend from my last attempt, and slowly ease myself back into some model making and sharing of experiences; rejoining the good people on this great forum again.

Have a great weekend

TonyT