Mr Z do not panic !

Now Mr Z before you panic and think your Facebookie thing is failing a bit let me explain that I am going to be away from the laptop pretty much all day. I am facing a challenge far. far greater than anything in OurRebekah's Bureau of Silly Ideas - I am going to drive round the M25 - TWICE !

How is that for a challenge ?

Just keep calm Mr Z I will be back on Saturday.

The Wave Of Love yesterday took on a beautiful crest when Pam sent in these pictures.

Look carefully, you look as well Mr Z.

Where do you think they were taken ?

McDonald's BERLIN.

We are going to San Francisco in April and will be hooking up with the Ronald McDonald Houses there.  Beth, from Trailfinders, who is handling the travel arrangements has family experience of Ronald McDonald House in New Zealand.

When I was chatting to Charlotte from Milton Keynes Vet Group about our Doggie Treasure Hunt she told me her family had used Ronald McDonald House in Australia.


The wave of love is international.

Jake and I went to Stowe gardens yesterday to do some work for the Doggie Treasure Hunt. We were about as far away from the entrance as it was possible to be when it started raining. Absolutely tiddling down I can tell you.

Talk about wave of love, I thought we were about to have a wave of our own in rural Buckinghamshire.

We took a few pics but I am not sure we achieved a lot more.

This amazing building on the right is where the post treasure hunt disco is to be held.

The pic below shows part of the area where we will have the treasure hunt clues placed.

And here below is Jake checking it all out.

Have you added your name to the guest list  yet ? Simply go to www.or-doggie.com 

The downpour of rain was not the only issue I had yesterday. Something went wrong with the website. Don't tell me what, I don't have a clue. Some geek or gremlin was having a bad day. I spoke with a guy at the web hosting company and we fixed it. Well I hope we did. If you find any busted links PLEASE tell me.


Yesterday  49 people checked this page which was a bit down on Wednesday when we had 101. How many will we have today.

Ok the M25 is waiting for me so I had better head off.

Speak again tomorrow.

What's on The Wave Of Love Today ?

First things first.....

THANK YOU to the one hundred and one fr ends who read my blog yesterday THAT WAS KIND.

Did you miss it ?  Well CLICK HERE

OK get your surfboard ready.

The first thing I did this morning was to write to a lady by the name of Carole. she is Chief Executive of Milton Keynes Council, I said that there was not a big enough font on my laptop to say THANK YOU. She put OurRebekah on to the Council's staff newsletter to see if anyone would be interested in joining our Three Peaks Challenge. Very quickly Hayley added her name to the team list. WELCOME.  Then we heard from Michelle who knew Beck when they were teenagers. She made a kind donation. THANK YOU to you all and a special thank you to Carole. Welcome on board the wave of love.

Waiting for me in my e-mail inbox this morning was a message from Sue who is a director of MK Dons FC. The autographed football and team shirt are waiting for me at the club reception. I will pop by on Monday and will a have a thank you gift for you all.

Jake went to the vet's yesterday afternoon to cave his nails clipped. Jake loves going to the vets, honestly he does !  His good friend Charlotte clipped his claws the  had a great chat saying how MK Vet Group could help with our Doggie Treasure Hunt.  Wow ! Thank You Charlotte and Thank you to all of your colleagues.

I think we are going to have to get a bigger wave and a bigger surfboard !

Today, this afternoon, Jake and his girlfriend Lucy are going to Stowe to pick out places where we can put clues for the treasure hunt.

Our good friend at Stowe, Scott, is on holiday. We have a week to get all of the clues sorted before he returns to England. Scott is in San Francisco. I am looking forward to seeing him when he returns and hearing all about his adventures in The City By The Bay.

My  own travel documents arrived in the post yesterday for our fun run on the Golden Gate Bridge. Are you coming ?

At the top of my doings list for today is to mail out our newsletters. I have just added a link to the website where friends can download the latest copy.

That newsletter is packed with love, it runs to no fewer than seven pages.

Like I say we need a bigger wave and a bigger surfboard !

Come and ride the wave

There's an old Boy Scout gangshow song WE'RE RIDING ALONG ON THE CREST OF A SAVE.  

Do you know it ?  

As the past three months of planning for OurRebekah are now turning into events actually happening we are indeed riding along on the crest of a wave. That was is a wave of love. It is an incredible feeling, a feeling I just have to share and something I invite you to take a hold of, to grab your surfboard and ride the wave with me.

I was away from the laptop all day yesterday, something a bit unusual for me, so today my doings list is a rather big !

There you go - here it is. I have a lot to do ! He he he......

The problem with my sitting in the car all day yesterday, I drove 450 miles between a couple of things I had to do, was that my mind was tearing round the M25 at 95 miles an hour even in the car was crawling along in second gear !

I had Jake with me in the car. We started our day at McDonald's drive through for breakfast. Jake performed his usual antics.

At the payment window the young lads taking my cash looked us and asked his name. Jake, I explained then added Jake as in Jake goes to McDonald's. She smiled and said Yes, I know that video. When we got to the pick up window there was a short wait while the hash browns were cooked. Staff who were not serving customers came to see Jake, even the manager took time off from overseeing what ever it is she oversees to meet my famous little dog !

Jake and I left McDonalds smiling.

As I have been working to set up OurRebekah projects I have dealt with a few politicians. They are always supportive but usually one deals with their staff rather than the individual direct. This was waiting for me when I returned home.

Thank you for your invitation. Firstly let me say how sorry I am to learn of your story and your deeply sad loss of your daughter. My sincerest of condolences. 

I am also in awe of your commitment to raise money for Ronald McDonald Charities and continue your support for them. I don't know their work in detail but from what you say, it sounds like they do some beautiful, loving and kind things for families in distress. 

Very sadly, both I and our Deputy Mayor are committed on Sunday 15th October and cannot be with you. You might like to contact the Chair of Stowe Parish Council who may be available to add some parish council glitter to your fund raising event.

But I wish you well - and hope that you manage to raise lots of money for this charity. (The next time I am in a McDonalds - I will put in a good donation in your daughter's memory)

Sincerely yours

Jon

Isn't that beautiful ?  Isn't that kind ?  Isn't that lovely ? What a special man !

Another e-mail waiting for me was from someone who had read about OurRebekah in the local council's staff newsletter and wants to know more about joining our Three Peaks Challenge.

There was a parcel at home waiting for me. It contained two copies of the 7" vinyl single World Cup Willie which will go with signed photographs from Geoff Hurst and Gordon Banks. These are part of our e-bay auction which will be starting in just a few days time. Check that out and you will not believe the love within it.

You know I am a cunning old sod !  On Saturday 9th September I am going up the M1 to watch Sheffield Wednesday play and hopefully win against Nottingham Forrest.

As well as watching the game I will be going pitch-side with some supporters to receive a football players have signed for the e-bay auction. The club has kindly added two match-day tickets to the lot. The club is organising a photoshoot and I will be writing an article to appear in a future programme. We will be giving copies of that programme to families in three different Ronald McDonald Houses.

So what's cunning about that ?

Hang on a moment and I will tell you.

At all OurRebekah events we will be asking people to sign small cards saying HELLO and WISHING YOU WELL. These will then be sent to families in Ronald McDonald Houses. At the game, before kick off and during half time I intend to stand up and ask fans seated near me to sign cards. The owner of Sheffield Wednesday need not think he is going home before he has signed a card ! They will have seen me on the pitch and will know who I am so we should be able to get a hundred or so signed.  I have within my e-mail inbox a message from a sports editor at the BBC saying if he can help he will.  Today I will be sending him half a dozen cards asking if he can get people in his office to sign them. I will

do the same for all Sheffield based media. AH BUT, I will be asking these good people if they could invite journalists from national media at the game, it is being televised, to sign cards.

That is cunning !

Now this blessed FROG CHALLENGE. Another £50 was pushed into my hand yesterday for this.

We set a target of £100 for the challenge. I would give you £100 NOT to have to do it.  We have The Mayor of Milton Keynes coming along to make sure I do not run away. With that £50 from yesterday the total stands at £160. Still five weeks to go and we have smashed the target. Chances are we will triple the target. OMG I am not going to get out of this am I ?

Meet ALFIE. He grabbed hold of his surfboard to ride the wave. he is coming to our Doggie Treasure Hunt.

Of course, while I was driving and while I was parked up on the M25 my phone kept ringing. Checking the voice mail messages later there was one from the operations manager at the National Trust saying how much he is looking forward to the event.

After the DOGGIE TREASURE HUNT we are having a BBQ and a retro disco. Just look at the building the National Trust has put forward for the disco.

Isn't that amazing or what ?

Yesterday as I was driving the last one hundred miles home I put music on to the CD featuring some silly games we are going to play at the disco.

Among these we are going to use the disco to launch our LAMBETH WALK project.

Oh what the heck let's play The Lambeth Walk.

CLICK HERE and start dancing.

I think I had better shut up, finish this diary entry and get on with that doings list. But before I do let me remind you about OurRebekah. YES, we are raising support for Ronald McDonald House Charities but that is ONLY the DESTINATION. The JOURNEY, which in many ways is more important, is to smile, to have fun, even be a bit silly, to make others smile. If the journey is fun the the destination will be a success. It can not fail.

And with that let me invite you to grab YOUR surfboard, to climb up on the wave and have some fun.

Catch you all again tomorrow.

Sunshine Smile Day

It is a fact of life in the twenty-first century that NOBODY smiles enough.  I challenge you to dispute that.

We live in a society where negativity too often wins the day and happiness just can not break through its gloom and despondency.

When you go to work does your employer make you feel happy ?  Does your company make its customers feel happy or are they only cash cows ?

When you go into your local supermarket are the staff there smiling and happy to be doing their jobs ?  Do they make you feel happy ? When you walk out and push your trolley back to the car how do you feel ?

McDonald's gave us HAVE A NICE DAY, sadly their robots have not been trained to do the same. All they understand is GIVE US YOUR MONEY !

I would love to name the company, my fingers are itching to type its name but I will refrain, that has a policy of NOT responding to customer compliments - of NOT passing on to members of staff when someone has taken the trouble to give a good review. Why is that ? Because they are too busy dealing with customer complaints ! Isn't that right Cineworld ?

So many companies employ a director in charge of stupid ideas. These sad, unfortunate over-paid individuals should be immediately sacked and replaced with a director in charge of common sense. Is it not common sense to treat your staff properly ?  They will then treat your customers properly. Then OH LOOK our sales and our profits have gone up. What a surprise.

I would just love to be the CEO of my local supermarket. Overnight I would turn it from being the empty shelf supermarket into the happiest place to shop.

I am running round in my head an idea to include in OurRebekah - to have a project SUNSHINE SMILE DAY. It's a good idea even if I say so myself but would it be a success ? How many companies would take it up ? How many would be too busy exploiting their staff ?  How many would be too busy ripping off the cash cows for as much as they can ? Nah it's asilly idea. It would never work.

Blondin

My Old Boss, bless him, used to say I was like Blondin, never content without a challenge. When Blondin crossed The Niagara Falls on a tightrope, god knows who actually strung the rope for him to walk on, he stopped half way across and started to juggle.

Those who know me will be aware of my maxim for life - LIFE IS A DISCO SO DANCE !  I have also been known to say -LIFE IS A JAGUAR SO DO NOT DRIVE IT LIKE A FORD FOCUS !

As I have spent the last three months setting up the OurRebekah project I am constantly saying that the DESTINATION is to raise support for Ronald McDonald Houses but that is ONLY the destination. The JOURNEY is to have fun, be a bit silly to smile and make others smile. If the Journey is fun then the destination will be a success.

One of my former students contacted me via Facebook last week. He is headmaster of a school. Within a beautiful note he wrote this:

My memories of you are filled with images of you chasing down the corridor always doing one hundred things at the same time. You always had more energy than most people on the planet. I get the feeling you love the chase more than the prize.

Sam that was really kind of you. THANK YOU.

Call it the chase, call it the journey, call it the destination, call it the prize - we all know what life's destination is don't we ? We never quite know when that destination will arrive so we MUST enjoy every minute of the journey. Like Blondin we must rise to the challenge then add to that challenge, not just to walk across the Niagra Falls but to do something silly as part of it - JUGGLE.

Yesterday I brought on-line the project THE WILD ADVENTURES OF DI CENTRAL EATING.  Take a look. Each chapter in the story has a dedication page, I have just finished listing all of those who have given their love and fun to OurRebekah over the past three months. The lists are astounding, incredible !  The book will be published early in the New Year, I wonder just how big the lists will be then.

NO, I am NOT responsible for the incredible support OurRebekah is finding. I am just opening the doors for the supporters to walk through. If you like I am the one stringing the rope over The Niagara Falls, Blondin is the people who are walking through.

We have not actually done anything in OurRebekah yet !  Sam's description of me is accurate for the last three months and so was my dear old boss who said I always had to juggle half a dozen things at once. Everything is now ready, the projects are in place with nothing left to chance. I am about ready to hand them over to those who will be running them. I will draw breath then string a rope across The Grand Canyon and pick up half a dozen footballs to juggle.

SEE YOU THERE !

It has happened AGAIN. Wake up world - we are at war.

It has happened AGAIN !   When is the world going to wake up, to stop giving the benefit of the doubt, to stop making excuses, to stop being politically correct and accept the fact that evil within the religion of Islam has declared World War Three ?

Why is it in our own country the security services has 3,500 Islamists on the security service's watch list. In France police say there are 15,000 ! Do not mess about with words, these are our enemies. Why are they allowed to roam about free ?  Why are we spending money and wasting time on these horrible people ?  We, as a society, should round them up and imprison them. Stop messing about.

Look at the kind of people this EVIL is targeting. Why are we allowing this to happen ? It will happen again and again and again. We all know that.

Have you heard a mosque near where you live speak out against the murders in Spain ? I have not.  Have you seen an Islamic preacher in your local media condemning the attack on innocent people ?  I have not. You never will.

If it were the Jehovah's Witnesses or Catholics carrying out terrorist atrocities would their religion be allowed to continue or would it be banned and made an illegal organisation ?  The answer is obvious so why do we allow this alien religion to continue ?  In World War Two what would have happened if women walked the streets wearing the Nazi Swastika ? So why do we accept it for Islam ?  The head covering, let's say what it is the rag-bag, is not part of our culture, it is a defiance of our culture and a representation of an evil which has declared war on our culture.

WAKE UP WORLD BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE !

the bastards have done it again !

The bastards have done it again !

I opened my laptop this morning and the cretins at Microsoft hijacked it to install yet more sad, pathetic downgrading updates. When will somebody put an end to this behaviour ?

President Trump can you please drop one of your bombs on the Microsoft Office and rid the world of this plague ?

Do it now please Mr President.

Microsoft to be prosecuted under the terms of The Geneva Convention

I wonder if you can regonise the location in this photograph. You should be able to, it affects your life every day.

Any ideas ?

It is MICROSOFT'S BETA TESTING DEPARTMENT hard at work. This image was taken during the course of a normal working day with all staff employed within the department sitting at their desks !


I am going to find a human rights lawyer and see if Microsoft can be prosecuted under The Geneva Convention.

God I hate Microsoft !

You probably do as well.

Microsoft is an inward looking institution that has no idea there is a real world out here. You and I are the real world, Microsoft's geeks are cretins who belong in a lunatic asylum.

More than anything else about Microsoft I hate the way it hi-jacks my laptop with monotonous regularity to install downgrading updates. There is nothing we mortals can do to defend ourselves against the war criminal geeks at Microsoft.

How about if I were to walk into a geek's home and switch off the cooker for an hour just as Mrs Geek is cooking dinner ?

How about I downgrade a geeks's car by  removing its wheels for an hour while I check  the  tyre pressure ?

GOD I HATE MICROSOFT !


Do you ?

I wonder what the wet, spineless liberals from today's society would have done

I went to watch the film Dunkirk yesterday afternoon. Rating the film on a score of one to ten I will be generous and give it FOUR.  A hideous grammatical error was applied to the introductory sub-titles and repeated several times. I guess that did not set me in a good mood for the story.

The photography was good but while some characterisation was OK others were weak. The two main characters were similar looking so it took time to work out who was who. The action kept jumping about in time and failed to achieve the effect the director was aiming for. The biggest failure, however, was the film's complete and utter failure to show the magnitude of the evacuation from the beach.

I told my mother, she will be 90 years old in October, that I was going to watch the film. She shared something with me she has never spoken about before. She told me that as a young girl her mother had taken her to a railway station to welcome and cheer the soldiers home. She said how the soldiers had hung their clothes out of the train windows to dry.

Taking her two daughters to wave to the soldiers is something my Nan would have done. She was very patriotic. We could do with more like my Nan in today's society.

The Dunkirk evacuation happened in 1940, here we are in 2017 - 77 years later. I wonder what the wet, spineless liberals would make of the plight, the sacrifice of our soldiers were a similar situation to happen in our time. How many politicians would have the backbone to fight for freedom, liberty and democracy ?  What would Jeremy Corbyn have done ? Does not bear thinking of does it ?

Oh I wish I had looked after my teeth !

Do you remember the celebrity poet Pam Ayres ?  

Can you recall this particular poem ?

Oh, I wish I’d looked after me teeth,
And spotted the dangers beneath
All the toffees I chewed,
And the sweet sticky food.

Oh, I wish I’d looked after me teeth.
I wish I’d been that much more willin’
When I had more tooth there than fillin’
To give up gobstoppers,

From respect to me choppers,
And to buy something else with me shillin’.
When I think of the lollies I licked
And the liquorice allsorts I picked,

Sherbet dabs, big and little,
All that hard peanut brittle,
My conscience gets horribly pricked.
My mother, she told me no end,

‘If you got a tooth, you got a friend.’
I was young then, and careless,
My toothbrush was hairless,
I never had much time to spend.

Oh I showed them the toothpaste all right,
I flashed it about late at night,
But up-and-down brushin’
And pokin’ and fussin’

Didn’t seem worth the time – I could bite!
If I’d known I was paving the way
To cavities, caps and decay,
The murder of fillin’s,

Injections and drillin’s,
I’d have thrown all me sherbet away.
So I lie in the old dentist’s chair,
And I gaze up his nose in despair,
And his drill it do whine

In these molars of mine.
‘Two amalgam,’ he’ll say, ‘for in there.’
How I laughed at my mother’s false teeth,
As they foamed in the waters beneath.

But now comes the reckonin’
It’s me they are beckonin’
Oh, I wish I’d looked after me teeth.

I think she may well have written that poem for me !

I am going to the dentist this morning for the first in a series of fittings for my new dentures -

no let's use the proper terminology shall we - MY FALSE TEETH !

I find the idea of wearing false teeth utterly disgusting !  I blame my present predicament on the school dentist from when I was six and a half years old !

In those good old days a dentist would visit our junior school on a regular basis to check up on we kids' choppers. On one occasion he decided I needed to have two of my baby or milk teeth removed so the adult teeth could grow. Why he could not allow nature to take its course I do not know. Perhaps he was on

commission, who knows. Anyway off to the dentist I was taken - dragged.

Back then there were two ways teeth could be removed. You could be put to sleep using some form of gas or you could have an injection in your gum of - WAIT FOR IT - cocaine !  Yes the now highly illegal Class A drug ,cocaine. My dentist opted for the former. Problem was he did not give me enough of the gas and I woke up during the extraction process.

That was sixty years ago. I can still so clearly remember the dream I had when I was asleep and even clearer I can remember waking up. My mother, in the waiting room, said my screaming was deafening.

So began a life-long mistrust of dentists. I did not look after my teeth. Why should I ?  Teeth are servants of the body, they process food. My teeth are - WERE - my servants, not the other way round.

My uncared for teeth did their job faithfully for sixty and more years but in February I was obliged to visit the dentist who removed every single nasher in the top of my mouth. I was told it would take six months for the gums to harden - it has. Six months of looking like an geriatric with a sunken face. Six months of not being able to talk properly. Six months of not being able to eat properly. Today I have my first in a series of five visits to prepare my FALSE TEETH. The dentist tells me it will be strange, my voice will change and as my gums have hardened in an uneven way they may not fit properly.

OH I WISH I HAD LOOKED AFTER MY TEETH !

I have put my money where my mouth is. I have joined the Conservative Party.

I've done it !  I have joined The Conservative Party. It's no good standing on the sideline shouting my mouth off I need to put my money where that mouth is.  I will not be appearing in the party's list of top donors but I have paid more than the minimum subscription to join.

We live in worrying political times.

There is The Witch of Scotland who will spare no effort and listen to no reason as she campaigns to destroy a beautiful land with calls for a second independence referendum.  Democracy counts for nothing in her vision, she will call for independence referendum after independence referendum as she seeks to ride her own inflated ego.

Meet Flight Sergeant Billy Ashford, my uncle, who gave his live at the age of 20 years in the service of his country. He was killed in a bombing raid over Germany on 8th March 1945. He, and so many others, we fighting for freedom and democracy.

Meet Billy's father, William Ashford, who served in World War One. He died a relatively young man from tuberculosis contracted while serving in the trenches of that Great War.

My father, now aged ninety-one, joined The Royal Air Force as soon as he reached the age of eighteen. He served within The British Mandate in Egypt then went to Palestine as part of the peacekeeping force at the time the

State of Israel was set up. Two of his best friends were murdered by Israeli terrorists while serving their country. Dad told me troops were told never to leave the base without a gun, danger lurked at every corner.

Meet Thomas Ashford. He was William Ashford's father's cousin. He is wearing two medals. One was awarded for service in The Second Afghan War. The other is The Victoria Cross awarded for bravery. Queen Victoria herself pinned it on his uniform.

I am proud that when their country called my family was not slow to do its bit in defence of our way of life, our democracy and our freedom.

Jeremy Corbyn, of course, would trash their memory. Fighting for one's country is not something he respects.

We have a prime minister who I am sure is a lovely lady but she is not a good politician. She is failing every day to stand up and protect our country from Corbynism. If that evil brand of socialism gets any stronger hold on our nation all of our history will be consigned to the rubbish heap.

Corbyn was once a national joke. Now he is a national threat to our way of life.

It is debatable which is the bigger danger to Great Britain, Jeremy Corbyn or The European Union. The horrific dictatorship of the European Union has destroyed national identities in so many countries, it must not be allowed to destroy ours.

These members of my family did not serve their country for it to be dictated to by The European Union. We should stop talking to its dictatorship and walk away immediately.

Sadly, our prime minister is not strong enough to lead us out of this dictatorship. When it comes the time for her to be replaced I want to be a part of the democratic process to elect a new party leader.

It is not just Britain that faces the horror of Islam and its spread across the globe. Billy Ashford gave his life in World War Two,, William lost his life as a result of World War One. Islam has declared war on the world. How many more people will lose their lives in its acts of terror before our political leaders wake up to the threat it poses ?

Was my Dad a spy ? You know I think he may have been !

I was a good boy yesterday. A good boy but not a very good boy. I have said that I will write 500 words a day for my book The Bridge House. Yesterday I wrote 440.

I wonder if any of you recognise this building on the left. When I knew it in the early 1970's it was not well known at all. Now it has international fame. During World War Two it was the most closely kept secret in the country, Winston Churchill called it his ULTRA SECRET. It is, of course, Bletchley Park's mansion at the heart of the secret decoding of

Hitler's Enigma machine and its messages.

For three years I lived in Bletchley Park, not in the mansion which was in the 1970's the training school for Post Office Telephones, but in this building. In my day it was Milton Keynes College of Education, a satellite teacher training college of Oxford University.

Today my former bedroom is part of a museum showing the wartime work of Bomber Command. My Uncle Billy, who dominates the chapter I am working on was part of Bomber Command.

The story is moving slowly from Billy to his younger brother, my father, Kenneth.

As soon as he was 18 years old Kenneth volunteered and was signed into The Royal Air Force. He went through basic training then qualified as a signalman.

Dad, who is now 91 years old, tells how he was called to the base adjutant's office and offered three assignments. He could select which ever he wished.

The first was to train as an officer but to do that he would have to change from being in the RAF Volunteer Reserve to make the Air Force his career for life. Dad was not keen on that. He was then told he could go to work in Bletchley Park.

"What's at Bletchley Park ?" He asked.

"Can not tell you, it is top secret. You will find out when you get there."

"What is the third option ?"

"We need a signalman at Cairo in Eygpt."

If you were nineteen year old, if you were my Dad, which would you have chosen ?
No contest !

So Dad never went to Bletchley Park. He forgot all about it until I went there in 1971 to train as a teacher.

A I write The Bridge House I am going to let my author's imagination take my Dad to Bletchley Park before he is sent to Egypt. I will use my own knowledge of Bletchley Park to write the story.

After spending a year in Egypt my father was then sent to Palestine as part of The British

Mandate setting up a new country, Israel. There he had an important job managing signals for the RAF base in Jerusalem.

I wonder, I just wonder........ Did my Dad perhaps go to Bletchley Park after all ? If he did he would have been told never to speak about it and my Dad would have respected that. He would never have told anyone he was there.

Was my Dad actually a spy ?

If not a spy did he co-ordinate secret activities in Egypt and then Palestine ? From what I know of his career in The RAF that would make perfect sense.
As I write  The Bridge House that si exactly what he will be doing. Doing in the story and perhaps what he did in real life.

My Dad the spy ?

Perhaps his time in Bletchley Park in those final days of World War Two were much more of an adventure than my own in a boring teacher training college.