BABE Of The DAY - DIANE YOUDALE...

There used to be a TV show called

GLADIATORS a number of years ago,

which I never watched.  Seems I may have

missed out, 'cos one of them was total babe,

DIANE YOUDALE - otherwise known as -

er, don't have a clue actually.  You'll have

 to research that info for yourselves.  (You

expect me to do all the work?)

TOYBOX TREASURES Of The PAST: FAIRYLITE FIREBALL XL5...

Photos by Jim Lewis

Long, long, long ago, while on holiday (or was it a day trip?) perhaps to the seaside resort of  Ayr or Girvan (or even another place entirely - Kinghorn maybe), I spied a friction-drive model of FIREBALL XL5 in a toyshop's window.  It sang to me, cried to me, pleaded with me to buy it, but my parents were deaf to my entreaties.  And though it was love at first sight, we had to part, and I was forced to resign myself to the fact that this magnificent toy would succumb to the advances of another suitor - one with much more pocket-money than I had to spend.

FAIRYLITE was the name of the manufacturer, and a few short years later, I bought GOLDEN GATE's STEVE ZODIAC & ZOONY JETMOBILE friction-drive toy, which I was very pleased to get.  However, there's always something about 'the one that got away', isn't there?  I never saw another example of that Fireball toy for many, many years, and when I did, it was only in the two photos that you see here, sent to me by a friend who spotted it either on eBay or another site.

So, like a forlorn lover consoling himself with a mere photo of his lost love, I sit here and imagine how things might've been those long years ago, had my parents only known as they dragged me away from the toyshop window, that my breaking heart would never truly recover from being so cruelly separated from the object of my desire and longing.  Maybe fate will yet bring us together before my life's race is run, but until then I have my memories and these pictures - to remind me that 'my heart is still a Fireball, a Fireball, every time I gaze in to those starry skies.'

(Okay, I changed a couple of words there, but it works better that way.  Just call it artistic licence.)