Alan Archer 1964-2012

I'll try not to get all maudlin, and just put some stuff that sums Al up.
The three words I would use to sum up Al are happy grumpy sod! I think this sums Al up totally. If he was your friend you could forgive him his downfalls. We always got on great, we knew each other from the age of about 12 until his untimely passing far to early, so if we cant say how it is now we never can. I hasten to add that there's nothing here that I havent said to him in the past.
I don't remember us ever having any major failing's out over so many years, you said the wrong thing and it was sorted the same day. His mates new just how to take him, with a pinch of embarrassment usually, due to something he said, just that little bit to loud.
I'll upload a couple of photos here as a little tribute, to a little fella with a big heart.

Getting shirty with dinner

The only bloke I know who can fall out of a tent

Fence!, Al's handling of the English language was really coming along.

The top two pictures are when me and Al went to Bradfield near Maningtree, must have been about 1980ish. We stayed in a campsite in the grounds of a Pub, The Strangers Inn. Al with pub right next door, this was only ever going to be a good trip. I'm not sure why we got those potatoes out as I'm sure we ate in the pub every night. As you can tell, all three photos show Al in his skinhead phase. He went through almost every musical genre over time, but always seemed to go back to his first love, a little bit of rock.

He was an avid collector of Subbuteo. He loved nothing better than  painting his own kits, and modifying teams he had , but, in all honesty, and I told him on many occasions, he was crap at it, like he cared, and like most things, if you enjoyed doing it where is the harm.
We used to go and watch Colchester United most home games between 1980 and 83, and I remember with much laughter me and him taking in a U's home game against Charlton. Just before the game kicked off it turned out that a few Charlton fans had got in the U's end. We both noticed this and I quickly made a run for it down to the cafe under the stand. I turned around to make sure Al was ok only to find he had not followed me. I crept back up the concrete steps and found Al getting to his feet, roughly where we had been standing. Turns out he had copped and unfortunate one just as we was about to run away. He was alright though, we laughed about it, which, upon reflection seems a little mean, as I'm laughing about a mate getting a slap, but no harm was done, and it got a load of mentions over the years.

What can I say about his good and bad points.
Well the good points would definitely be headed by his generosity, if he could help he would. He was normally up for a laugh., and if there was a beer or six involved even better. He had a huge character in a small body, and if you found it offencive well, you just stayed away. As a mate you accepted it as Alan, its the way he was. His language was usually fruity, and he would always say things just as he found them. He had opinions on nearly everything. I may be making him out to sound like a right horrible sod, but no, this was him, this was how he was and its for these reasons that we loved him. 
Bad points, honestly, as a friend, I cant think of any. I took him as he was, he said it like it was, but I can see with his opinions that some people would find it hard to get on with him. He was known to say the odd controversial thing just a little loud, but he normally got away with it.
For the past couple of years he has been unable to get out quite as much as he would have liked but this didn't stop him getting on with life, he faced all the crap the world could, and did, throw at him, he moaned about it, but he got on with it, which is something to be proud of. Having said that, with all the crap he had to deal with over the years he was more than entitled to have a moan.
He loved his family with a passion, and I don't ever remember hearing him say a bad word against them, and he wouldn't hear a bad word said about them either.
One word to finish off.
LOYAL!

A life more ordinary

Let me talk you through a few old, embarrassing, photos from my childhood.
This first one must be from about 1972, on Clacton Pier, in Essex.
I'm on the right :-) The child with the hideous shorts, they took the word shorts to new lengths, they were short shorts!
The girl in the photo was our next door neighbours daughter, Jackie, I put this photo up on Facebook and she thanked me for choosing the one where the candyfloss covered her face.
The only way of telling it was from around 1972, is going by the fact that my brother wasn't there, he's nearly 10 years younger than me, and dad was, he was in another photo taken the same day. Mum and dad split up in late 73, early 74 so hence the guess at the date.
I don't remember anything truly memorable happening on this day trip, but apart from those shorts, the only other thing that stands out in that photo is the fact that I seem to have someone else's legs on, and on the wrong way round as well.
Dress shoes with shorts, and those socks, please, if you dressed a child like that today you would have social services come down on you like a tonne of bricks.
The main problem with looking back over old photos of yourself as a child is that there really is not going to be anything to like. I probably thought I looked terrific, oh dear. I certainly did in some of the photos of me in my teens, and early 20s, Jack the lad, more like Jack the twat looking back at them now. Still, you gotta laugh, as everyone else will.

The next picture is of me and mum. I wouldn't like to guess the year, but if i had to I would suggest about 1983, give or take a year or two.
This photo was taken at one of the many parties held at our next door neighbours, probably new years eve.
Like I say in the post above, Jack the twat, having said that my hair seems remarkably calm for once. In my back pocket you can just spot the cause of this calm, a comb, quite probably a little used comb, but none the less, still a comb.
I quite like this photo, as this is how I want to remember mum. Now I don't want to get all maudlin here, suffice to say mum is still with us, but unfortunately she has Alzheimer's, which is very advanced, to the stage where she cannot communicate nor does she recognise faces, such a hideous illness.
Anyway, we had loads of parties at new years eve and mums family would travel down which really made them an occasion we always looked forward to, besides, it was next door so if you had to much to drink you could fall in doors.
Mum loved these get together's, she really was in her element at them. She would have a smile on her face all night, drink gin, dance, smoke, get drunk and go to bed. A great evening for mum, but being an only parent she deserved these parties, she did a wonderful job.
If I had to hazard a guess at my shoe colour in this picture it would almost definitely be white, oh yeah baby, special. By the way, the shirt is a very pale pink, I had style in them days I'm sure you would agree :-)

The curtains are twitching

Just under the Internet explorer bar when I'm on my blog there is another bar which says, among other things, next blog. By clicking this title I can explore my neighbours blogs and see what they have been up to.
Boy O boy must they be disappointed in me. I can hear them saying to each other, have you seen who's moved into the area, just over there, look there he is, look what he's writing about, I suppose he thinks its funny.
I looked through about 6 or 7 of them and most, if not all where religious based. Sending glad tidings to people, wishing people Gods speed.
I look back over my own blog and feel incredibly ashamed of myself, cats in bins, to knackered to ride my bike, giving up smoking (those people would never have started), ugly people, football and talking about death, what a load of old crap, but, I love it. I wouldn't change even if asked. I thought writing this would just be a flash in the pan, but no, I really enjoy it. Getting stuff off your chest is really quite therapeutic. Who cares if I embarrass myself, I just love making people laugh. If one person stumbles on my blog and leaves having had a little chuckle I would have achieved my goal.
So really, as much as they love their blogs about religion and such like, and they do a good job, but they can get a little samey, you can keep all that stuff, write about what you know best, and I know crap!