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Welcome to the internet Home Page for the Comlay Family from Havant, England

at various times, and in various numbers,  residents of 
Portsmouth, Midhurst, Bangor, Havant, Chappaqua NY, Petersfield, Buenos Aires, York, Cambridge and various Arctic islands lost in the mists of time... 

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Click here to e-mail
Bob, Fiona (Strachan), Elinor, Jonathan & Daniel

Also.. Bob (the elder!), Hilary and Alison
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We'd welcome contact from any other Comlays out there on the web. Given the unusual nature of the name, the chances are we're related in some way. Any fabulously wealthy and hitherto unknown close relatives will be particularly warmly welcomed.

We've been visiting France for 25 years now, and still it holds pleasant surprises... and a public transport system that works... and a road system that shows what can be done with thought... and wine...and cheese...  Can somebody please remind me why I still live in the UK?

Discover a life less ordinary

Bill Tilman

Mountaineer, Navigator and one of the finest travel writers of the twentieth century.

 If you only ever buy two travelogues in your life, make them these. For dry wit & understated accounts of incredible exploits, they cannot be beaten. For a collection of photographs and anecdotes  from the Pilot Cutter voyages to high latitudes, take the following link www.comlay.net/tilman

For further details of the forthcoming television documentary, visit www.tilman.tv 

Family Stuff

The lack of existence of anything here either implies that we have no lives, or that the content has been supressed by the editorial panel. As the reluctant family geek*, and oft persecuted scientist, I confess to deriving a certain level of pleasure from maintaining this little e-scrapbook.  The historians & linguists in the family, however, would venture that it's a rather sad activity which doesn't warrant serious consideration. As with most things in Comlay family life, this site is - therefore - my fault!

Dan's Birthday - 2004
Jim & Kirsty's Wedding - 2002
Gite for rent - Montcuq, Lot
Holiday snaps - 2002, France
Holiday snaps - 2003, Crete

The 1901 census 
....is now finally available online

The Official UK 1901 Census site......

So..... .not the "Son of a Son of a Sailor", more likely the Son of a Son of a Plumbers Apprentice... well only slightly less romantic!

Lecky's Wrinkles revived

The Mother of all Maritime Links - Exactly what it says - a great place to start
Cape Yachts - What an excellent idea... hmmm

...a retirement project perhaps?

Foudroyant - For those locals in Portsmouth who wondered whatever happened to her
Westward Ho - Another lady of the islands...

Westward Ho - seen here on the right in 1971, now undergoing rebuild in Scotland

The yacht Northanger - ....and if circumstances were different!!!
Seamen's Secrets - John Davis - 16th century navigator extraordinaire
Joshua Slocum - The original text online

What's in a name?
Trawling the online census for more information on the Comlay, Luckham, Cunningham and Habgood families 

A brace of Allan Cunninghams at Frome around 1890

The real photographer in the family

Assorted links of interest:

A rambling set of sites will be added over time, crudely classified as follows.... No reasons will be given... just pure bigotry!

We like:

http://news.bbc.co.uk - probably the best presented news on the net
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ - hardly the Grauniad of old.. but still a good read
http://www.abe.com - looking for an old volume?
http://www.ibm.com/uk/ - best of it's type...but then I'm biased
http://uk.multimap.com - useful... a really useful link
http://www.amazon.co.uk - Superb implementation of e-commerce & content - shame about the prices (but see play.com, below)
http://freeola.com/ - Why pay more? In fact why pay anything? I've tried many ISPs, and this one wins hands down.
http://www.mozilla.org - One day Gates... one day
http://www.novatech.co.uk - Same story for hardware bits & pieces
http://www.greenpeace.org/homepage/ - Since the beginning in the Pacific
http://www.vbianchi.com - Memories are made of wine & music
http://www.channel4.com/news/index.html - The only news worth having a TV for....
http://www.census.pro.gov.uk - Ancestors Reunited?
http://uk.altavista.com/babelfish - My hovercraft may be full of eels, but sometimes it's useful
http://www.play247.com - (Cheap... and no P&P... Shame about the catalogue...)
http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk- OK... so I'll admit it
http://www.yacht.de - A reputable yachting magazine - unlike V&V, below!

But not:

http://www.voilesetvoiliers.com/   - Monsieur Allisy, I'm still waiting for my money!
http://www.microsoft.com/  - Just because they're there...
http://www.wessex-ltd.co.uk/  - The pride of Havant - sad, isn't it?
http://www.conservatives.com/  - The only person who ever went......
http://www.labour.org.uk/ ......... to parliament with good intentions.....
http://www.libdems.org.uk/ ........was Guy Fawkes (RJC)

The jury's still out on:

Nothing at the moment!

The next generation.... January 2003:

Wit & Wisdom?

Guardian Notes & Queries - Read and enjoy
The White House - Hours of fun at Dubya's expense...
The Krazy Bus exploits - Evidence of fun at IBM? Surely not.....
Origami Boulder Co. - One of life's more entertaining links...
http://www.private-eye.co.uk - Bits of the best
H2G2 - Froody.....really quite froody
HIGNFY - The other thing worth having a TV for
Scary Duck - OK..I give in... a blog worthy of perusal

The IBM Jargon Dictionary

(800k pdf file) An entertaining look at the IT industry's legacy of abuse of the English language. Serious English scholars may find this a valuable treatise on the "'verbing"' of nouns.

On a lighter note:

Steve Bell - This is as serious as politics gets for us....

 

On reflection: 1952-2002

...best job application:
"Crew wanted for small boat voyage. No pay, no prospects, not much pleasure"..... 

...worst job application
IBM doesn't qualify here (I never applied - they phoned me!)

...particularly good years:
1968,1970,1971,1975,1981,1984,1988-1990,1992,2000

...particularly crap years:
1972,1991,2002,

On a more serious note:

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution
Has had my support for a lifetime

The Stroke Association
Has had my support since Feb 2002

Site Contents © Bob Comlay  2004
financial sponsor of the following higher education establishments


* This is a blog free zone, and will remain so until I can find a genuinely useful application for such. Should a blog ever appear here, the family should consider me to have become a certifiable geek and take appropriate action.

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