It's one year on since the epic battle of the Hawkwind poster, and the poster I bought then (1994 Griffin promo) is still hanging up at the bottom of the stairs, reviled by all and sundry, but beloved by me.  I won, and no mistake!   Meanwhile my regression to childhood has come on by leaps and bounds since then.  If I was mentally 17 a year ago, I'm down to about 15 now.  And when I really was 15, I took my first fateful steps to where I am now by buying the Roadhawks album with money I'd been given for Christmas.  I remembered having seen Hawkwind on Top Of the Pops doing Silver Machine, and having an eye for a bargain, picked up the Roadhawks album because it had a free poster with it.  An album AND a poster for £2.74, this can't be bad!  (Well, it was 1975).  So I bought it and up went the poster onto my bedroom wall, which my parents felt was an improvement on the Alice Cooper poster I'd had there before, so no problems with them.

Now, roll the tape forward 29 years and one day I'm checking the Hawkwind memorabilia on EBay and what do I see but a very reasonably priced Roadhawks poster.   Mine had died a natural death years ago, and in fact I don't even own the album any more despite the great sentimental value I attach to it.  So after checking that the seller would ship world-wide and took PayPal, I put a bid in and "won" the thing for about seven quid.  It duly arrived and I took it out and looked at it - very nice to have.  I showed it to my long-suffering other half and she rather pointedly said "Oh, that's nice.  Are you going to hang it up in your closet?"  I said nothing to this...it's best to pick your moment with these things.

The moment came about two weeks later, when Mrs. Starfarer was going to be out of the house all day Saturday running various errands.  I had my own to do too, of course, but took the still-folded poster with me and made a stop at a framing shop.  The poster measures 20" x 30", which fortunately is a standard size, and I was able to buy a ready-made frame rather than have them make one for me, which would cost a lot.  I decided on one with a dark, reddish wood frame, because don't forget I have impeccable taste despite what my wife says.  Time was running a bit short so I got the frame home, put the poster in it (perfect fit!) and quickly lashed up some picture wire on the back of the frame.  Then I had to figure out whether it would fit the spot I had in mind, and no, it wasn't in my closet.  The key to my success one year ago was where I hung that poster - "no-one has to sit and look at it" was the clincher.  This time I wanted to put the thing in the bedroom which my dear wife still deigns to share with me, but it had to be where I could see it and she couldn't.  (The closet was starting to look like a good bet, by this time.).  The door into the bedroom is set athwart one corner of the room, and this little corner is already "my bit" since I keep my guitars and associated stuff there.  What's more, it can be seen full-on from my side the of the room but not from Mrs. Starfarer's, due to the shape of the room.  So I whacked a picture hook on the wall and hung the poster up....it looked great.  All I had to do now was wait for the fireworks...

I didn't have to wait long as Mrs. Starfarer came home within 20 minutes of me having cleared all the wrapping, picture wire etc. away.  I was actually in the bedroom when she came in to put some clothes away...she hadn't noticed the poster on the way in, which I immediately mentally filed away as a useful piece of evidence.  We discussed the success or otherwise of our various errands, and she turned to leave.  I though she was going to go right out of the room without seeing it, which would have been game, set and match to me, but when she got about three feet from it, she froze in mid-pace, one foot poised above the floor and squawked "Oh my gawd!"  I was ready with a volley of arguments as to why this was such a great place to put such a fine work of art, but I never had to use them.  She looked at me with a mixture of bemusement, resignation and pity and left the room, shaking her head as she went.