I am so sad to hear this news. I've never been a really regular poster on Rinkworks, but have posted every now and then since my first year of sixth form, which was (good grief) six years ago.

One of my first conversations on here was with Beasty, about Williams and Griffins, the big department store in Colchester (a town in Essex). In the childrens department, there's a toy monkey that hangs on a kind of trapeze from the ceiling. The trapeze is on a motor and it pulls the monkey up and up until he swings round again. I always used to go and visit the monkey on trips into town, and when I mentioned that I was from Colchester, Beasty's first question was "Is the monkey still there?"

It was lovely to have a conversation on here with someone who knew my part of the world, he was lovely.

Next time I'm in Colchester, I'll go visit the monkey like I used to do when I was little, and I'll think of Beasty.

Liz