Have you got a favourite mug?

I did have, until the wind blew it over and smashed it just this morning :0(

It had that picture of a smiling soldier with a mug in his hand, with "how about a nice cup of shut the f*** up. I bring my own mug to work, and my own spoon, which I also keep in a cupboard separate from the rest of the cutlery at home, because it is exactly the right size and I can not find another one like it anywhere 

Oh no, so sorry to hear this.

When I break or lose a favourite object I mourn it quite deeply.

Is this the picture that was on your mug?

Edited to get past censors...

You are sensible to take great care of your special spoon. 

currently the spoon with British leyland logo is absent without leave, AWOL. I hope it turns up,,, the cowley canteen was about to be shut down and all new everything, it had just been taken over by the Japanese!

when BMW took it over to produce the new look mini they rather quickly covered all the old brick work with cladding! I don’t suppose for one minute it was because you could still see the camouflage paint put on during the Second World War, back then they produced Jerry cans and so many essential items to keep the troops going. 

It  is now a sterile looking place,, if you look hard you can still find reminders though.

That sounds amazing - I like the visual image of the orange glow coming from the steel works. This image from Google is what the Middlesbrough industrial area looks like at night 

I've never been to Middlesbrough.  I have spent time in the area, Newcastle, Sunderland, Durham, Whitby, Darlington.  

But in Sheffield I travelled in daytime and after dark when the steel works were operating and I could see the orange glow coming from the buildings.

This is exactly the same type of spoon  that is £20 on Gumtree! 

Sounds amazing! Have you ever seen industrial areas at night? I got lost in Middlesbrough after dark and ended up in an incredible dystopian fairyland. Lights, steam and buildings bigger than cathedrals. 

I love your logic! 

A friend told me about when he went on a day trip to Blackpool as a kid in the early 1980s with his grandparents. Whilst out and about his grandfather noticed an abandoned British Rail plate with a British Rail knife and fork. His grandfather picked it up, to the disgust of his grandmother who ranted on about it being dirty, and insisted that he took it back to the train station. There was a big queue of people buying tickets at the station and when he finally reached the ticket office window he handed the plate in then all the other passengers gave him a funny look.

They were the days when they served proper meals with proper tableware on Intercity trains.

Does anybody remember the giant cookies sold in the buffet cars? 

In 1981 I started traveling by bus into Sheffield from the M1 to the city centre through the Don valley ,  through miles of steel works, dark tall canyons with all the steel works still operating at full capacity.  Mile after mile of steel works. It's a sight I will always remember.  

Soon after they started closing them down.  Then the demolitions started.  Then it turned into a desolate post industrial wasteland.

justifiably so,,, in my humble opinion Lol.

Treasure It well. Memories like that are worth hanging on to, all our memories collectively tell us Although life was hard, we got by, resilience was a way of life, still is sadly, but the dynamics have shifted considerably, 

It has huge memories, 

bare with me, 

my first real job was as a labourer helping refurbish a huge building, so labourer, chippy, steel fixer, scaffolder, just about everything, learning as I went, mostly all Irish workers, great men, they gambled and drank, always up for the crack, They taught me to mask, they mocked my “ posh” ! Accent? So in order to fit I learnt to cuss and started talking with an Irish lilt, picked up thief words, started to fit in and be accepted.

As a kid I went to visit the factory on an open day, saw the dark cold conditions, loud machines, massive presses, men stuck doing just one repetitive job day in day out, vowed I would never work there, and never did, not on assembly any way, just building work. 

So my first proper job, paid well in comparison to my mates all doing apprenticeships,  the canteen staff were lovely, down to earth and always friendly, 

My favourite British Rail teaspoon. The coffee was overpriced.  So I recovered some of the money by keeping the spoon.

That's a very collectable spoon - there's one on Gumtree for £20! 

That's a very collectable spoon - there's one on Gumtree for £20! 

This is exactly the same type of spoon  that is £20 on Gumtree! 

I love your logic! 

A friend told me about when he went on a day trip to Blackpool as a kid in the early 1980s with his grandparents. Whilst out and about his grandfather noticed an abandoned British Rail plate with a British Rail knife and fork. His grandfather picked it up, to the disgust of his grandmother who ranted on about it being dirty, and insisted that he took it back to the train station. There was a big queue of people buying tickets at the station and when he finally reached the ticket office window he handed the plate in then all the other passengers gave him a funny look.

They were the days when they served proper meals with proper tableware on Intercity trains.

Does anybody remember the giant cookies sold in the buffet cars? 

justifiably so,,, in my humble opinion Lol.

Treasure It well. Memories like that are worth hanging on to, all our memories collectively tell us Although life was hard, we got by, resilience was a way of life, still is sadly, but the dynamics have shifted considerably, 

My favourite British Rail teaspoon. The coffee was overpriced.  So I recovered some of the money by keeping the spoon.