It’s a Dog’s Life
In loving memory
Mike Nicholson MBE
5th November 1943 – 1st October 2026
Mike passed away peacefully at home in the early hours of Thursday 1st October 2026, aged 82.
A Royal Artillery officer who rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, Mike was appointed MBE in the 1979 New Year Honours for organising the Green Goddess fire engines during the firemen’s strike in the late 1970s, when he was stationed at Larkhill, Wiltshire – an honour he always made light of.
Following retirement, and after successful meetings with like-minded ex-military personnel at The Liberal Club in London, Mike formed the company Forces Business Net. He produced a regular printed newsletter listing vacant positions for ex-military job seekers, and later a website of the same name. After finally winding that operation down, in recent years, The Steam Room became the place where he came to let off steam: recollections, opinions, and the letters the newspapers never printed. His writing remains here for everyone to enjoy, with Frank, his dog, as ever, in charge.
From The Steam Room
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Words on Words
By Arousal Stillskin (nom de plume for the original article) “For I am a bear of very little brain, and long words bother me.” AA Milne NO APOLOGY As Constance Wu once put it: “You’re never going to please everyone, and if you do, there’s…
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Three Motoring-related Issues
January 11, 2020 INTRODUCTION These three motoring-related issues have been gnawing away at my equanimity for a number of years: · Daylight driving with headlights turned on. · Reverse parking in public car parks. · Locating pedestrian crossings near to roundabouts. Although any normal egotist hopes that their…
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Job Search Thoughts For Armed Forces Folk
Get fell in for a logical job search campaign….. “People from the Services have been very carefully selected and are very well trained. They are accustomed to learning new skills the whole time and, of course, they have a sense of duty, responsibility and a work…
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Thoughts on Leadership in the 1980s
Of late I have taken the view that far too much time and energy is generally devoted to the topic of leadership but that was not always the case; indeed, reading the Obituary of Lord Chalfont (DT 15th January 2020) which quotes his thoughts on…
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THOUGHTS ON RESTRUCTURING
THOUGHTS ON RESTRUCTURING Disclaimer: Notwithstanding that much of this article talks in the Present Tense, having been out of the Army for more years that I can count on the combination of my hands and feet, it is accepted that things have changed since ‘my day’. I…
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One Approach to Self-Isolation – Not a Template
Update The Coronavirus survival campaign has been developing day-by-day and enough changes have been made to offer a meaningful update to the original non-template; indeed there have been some encouraging moves very few of which have made a jot of difference to my self-isolation routine. Against…
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The Land of Dons
As an untutored non-Graduate, it is likely that my views on the collective outburst of Oxford Dons will attract the criticism that “he is too stupid to understand the issues”. However, allow me to express dismay at the public vilification of the Vice Chancellor, Professor…
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Instant Gratification Society
Born in 1943, this author was part of the war effort; unfortunately his arrival meant another mouth to feed while Britain was digging for victory, so his arrival offered more support to Hitler’s cause than to Churchill’s. His middle class status at birth came under…
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UK PLC – Are there any answers?
INTRODUCTION It may be just my generation that has a gut feeling that all is not well in UK PLC since there is a natural inclination to view the past through rose-tinted spectacles. Of course the fact that, ‘back then’ we had no need of spectacles…
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Above The Parapet
An upside down world……… “Why does everybody have to be happy all the time?” Doc Martin Professional musician, and WWII RAF pilot, Peter Gibbs, stood up at a rehearsal of the London Symphony Orchestra and said to Herbert von Karajan: “I did not spend four years…