I think that a statue of Fred Dibnah is a splendid idea.

Considering that his workshop and mineshaft has been vandalised, neglected and will soon be auctioned off to the highest bidder along with his house.

Considering that his priceless, collection of rescued, irreplaceable relics of Britains past have been stolen and no doubt melted down by Pykies.

Considering that his famous Land Rover has been left to rot.

Considering that his two steam engines have had to be illegally taken to a secret place of safety by his real mates in order to save them.

Considering that his wife Sheila, chucked out of the house and left penniless, is having to pound the lecture circuit to raise the £35,000 for a statue in his home town of Bolton because the local authority whose town he put on the map can’t be ar##d.

Considering that UK Discovery and History channels show his programmes back to back don’t reveal what has happened to the memory of this great man.

His statue should be 20ft high, a spitfire and hurricane in each hand, floodlit and with ‘Did you like that’ engraved in huge letters on the plinth.

Or perhaps the ‘Great’ Damien Hirst will have other ideas involving bodily fluids, or Tracey Emin might be interested in bidding for his bed and displaying that, what do we know about art after all.

Following all the hype, I thought that last nights episode of CSI, ‘the new series’ was pretty naff, the ongoing theme of the model making serial killer was pretty cool, but the end of it was a waste of space, I’m very surprised that more of this theme wasn’t exploited at the end, or perhaps it will be in future episodes, again.
Lets see what Gary Sinese can do with the up and coming new series of CSI New York.
As for CSI Miami, apart from the gorgeous and eccentric Cali, lets forget that one shall we.
Just thought I’d bring us all back to earth, thats all.

I feel guilty now, it was a very small snowman, we wouldn’t have wanted to hurt our pals on the footplate and Victorian designed 4F’s clonking along at 20mph weren’t likely to suffer much damage in comparison to a modern high speed Swedish train and we certainly didn’t fill it full of stones.
Has any body else got any terrible tales to tell, I witnessed some stupid acts by other people but apart from pennies on the level crossing and once a maggot ridden pheasant, not guilty m’lud, or do toilet rolls attached to carriage handles count, they didn’t half go back a long way, depending on the speed of the train.

No matter what the sport.. Australians are full of vitriol and arrogance..i’ve lived in this country long enough to witness it first hand in all types of sport.. the “win at all costs” attitude is even bred into the youngsters playing sport in the playgrounds and at school

Good for them, pity some of it hasn’t rubbed off on the lack of attitude of British sporting teams, but then don’t our schools teach that competition amongst children is wrong.
A few years ago I tried to coach football at our local primary school, they hadn’t won a match for years. Not surprising, the Head had a very ‘enlightened’ attitude to sport, that meant that girls, no matter how crap they were, had to be included in the team, also, when I did get the team on a winning streak, our school kid supporters weren’t allowed to boo and jeer the opposition, they were supposed to provide polite applause.
B#####s.
Now I wasn’t some nutter keen type parent either, I just let the kids get on and develop their own skills without any bullying, it worked, until the system let them down.
Similarly, I tried to coach cricket, a much neglected English school sport.
When the authorities found out that I was taking the kids up to our local pitch and making them face a hard ball, though a smaller, softer kids version, I was forced to hang around the playground and use a load of plastic rubbish, hardly the stuff that fast bowlers are made of is it.
My son had the potential to be a bloody good cricketer, but the school system and even the local team totally let him down.
Then there was swimming, but we won’t go in to that.
I gave up in the end.
Theres always been great rivalry and sledging between England and Australia at cricket, not surprising really, but both teams seemed to have accepted it as par for the course, there have been incidents, ie Lillees aluminium bat, but has that created animosity between them, I think not.
Get a bloody grip and return like for like you bloody monkeys, it’s all part of the modern game, gentlemen and players died out with the First World War.

Anyone know what airfields are used the BBC series Dog Borstal and Discovery Channel Prog Wheeler Dealers?

Martin[/QUOTE]

Dog Borstal is almost certainly Bentwaters in Suffolk.

‘The One That got away’ was filmed at Oakwood rather than it’s actual location at Hucknall.

I’m sure that an episode of ‘Lovejoy’ was filmed at Wethersfield.

I reckon the Nazis despatched in ‘The Last Hangman’ were filmed in a hangar at West Raynam.

I don’t think that any sequences in ‘Memphis Belle’ were shot at DX, it was just used as the flying base.

Which mansion was used in the location for ‘Pearl Harbor’, Badminton?

I gather that while planning ‘Saving Private Ryan’, Speilberg approached the then British Government, ie John Major and his Tory cronies, for co-operation, which was refused, subsequently much of it was filmed in Ireland.
When Hanks and Speilberg were planning ‘Band of Brothers’, Blair bent over backwards to help them, and yes it was North Weald, try and spot the traffic coming off the M11 and on to the Ongar Road.

Can anybody elaborate on this?

A propeller peck or right on its nose?

Not ringing any bells.:)

Mark

Propellor peck!
I’m sure it was at Legends about 2000 or thereabouts, the incident happened opposite the Tank bank, while quite a large contingent of Spitfires were preparing to take off from west to east.
He was taxying on the grass towards us and appeared to brake too hard on soft ground, the engine was cut immediately and the a/c fell back, there didn’t appear to be any visible damage to the prop, but after a lengthy examination the a/c was towed back to the hangar.
From memory it was a MkV or IX, I captured the incident on video but can’t play it back at the moment.

Well…..
In the old days, and I mean the 60’s here, we used to have a freight come past our bridge every day, for those of you keen types, it was always pulled by an ex LMS 4 Freight steam loco with a nutty crew who used to spray us with hot water from the boiler.
One day we decided to get even and built a snowman on the bridge, when the train arrived we pushed it off the bridge and by coincidence, it went straight down the funnel, must have been during the winter of 63.
After that, the footplate crew used to build up a pile of snowballs in the cab, reduce speed and give us a bloody good battle, can you imagine that happening now without either side being arrested.
Good fun, weren’t the old days full of real pleasure.

Pete, you’re old enough and smart enough to know it’s a wind up..we are both near enough to the same age so I’d suggest our musical tastes are pretty similar .. i like all types of music and and would surely love to shoot the breeze with you over a pint or ten where we could both discuss music and salivate over Miss Kylie

I know that, you silly sod, I just think you are worth a good argument without the groin clutching retorts that you get from some other ‘intellectuals’ on here.
As for Norms attitude to Kylie, I’ve always wondered about that blokette.
She’s the only woman, not music wise mind you, that appeals to my 13 year old stepson, 22 year university son and ancient me, even my missus recognises her obvious talents.
C’mon Paul, get in there.
As for music bought at Xmas, this household received cd’s by Seasick Steve, Keith Urban, Amy Macdonald, Dixie Chicks, Snow Patrol, quite a mix.