I completed my PhD in 1980 with Prof. Jim Turner FRS as my supervisor, specialising in the energy-factored force fields of metal carbonyl species with a particular interest in matrix-isolated unsaturated carbonyls. I then moved into teaching Chemistry and, in 2017, I retired and resuscitated my academic interests. Now, retired, I use the backs of many envelopes to shed whatever light I can on the understanding of the vibrational spectra of metal carbonyls and related species.