Pete TrumanI remember a few years ago doing a site visit to a block of 4 storey offices I had designed in Bishops Stortford.
A massive mobile crane had arrived and was lowering some very large steel beams into position on the top floor.
The overturning alarm kept going all the time and you could see this thing twitching. I queried this but was told it was no problem, in the end I wasn’t prepared to put up with it and walked off site, no H & S inspectors in those days, but it wasn’t good, however no one was prepared to consider it dangerous, apart from me, I told them, but it had no effect, they just thought I was being over cautious, too right.
Fortunatley nothing happened, but it was a dodgy moment, bloody builders always know better.
Pete TrumanYou’ll never beleive this, after replying on this thread I went back into the garage where I’m trying to sort out a myriad of cardboard boxes full of stuff, found a box of slides, took one out at random and found my son fleeing from the VC-10, wierd.
I’ve been a bit unfair on my stepson actually.
We have had a lot of holidays in Norfolk and he really enjoyed going over to Coltishall and watching the landings and take offs of the Jags, more to do with the danger of standing under the landing lights I suspect, not that I approved. His best moment was when they were exercising with the Polish Su-17’s a couple of years ago, I think he just loved the noise though, very reminiscent of the thrash metal he’s into now, bless him.
Pete TrumanA story well told – apaer from the “trick” effcts used on the original news reports. What were they trying to achieve by this?
Well, we used to feel much trepidation when that po faced unemotional spokesman appeared on the news, even when things were going well, I don’t recall a flicker of a smile.
I actually thought the affects were quite good, perhaps everyone involved with the propaganda war were actually on LSD, who knows, ask Mrs T.
I wonder what happened to that spokesman, and where did he come from, probably retired on a wacking great Civil Service pension by now.
Pete TrumanOne of the worst things about ‘Junk Food’ are the morons who go up to Macdonalds roundabout at night, buy their Big Macs, KFC’s, whatever, then chuck the wrappers out the car window.
We have some lovely countryside round here but wherever you go there are plastic and cardboard food containers all over the place, even if there’s a laybye with a litter bin the gits can’t be bothered to get out the car and use it.
Saturday nights are the worst, when I take the dogs for a walk on a sunday morning, I sometimes take a dustbin bag to get rid of the rubbish left lying about from the night before.
It makes me maaaaaad……..
Pete TrumanOne of the worst things about ‘Junk Food’ are the morons who go up to Macdonalds roundabout at night, buy their Big Macs, KFC’s, whatever, then chuck the wrappers out the car window.
We have some lovely countryside round here but wherever you go there are plastic and cardboard food containers all over the place, even if there’s a laybye with a litter bin the gits can’t be bothered to get out the car and use it.
Saturday nights are the worst, when I take the dogs for a walk on a sunday morning, I sometimes take a dustbin bag to get rid of the rubbish left lying about from the night before.
It makes me maaaaaad……..
Pete TrumanNice one, I hope it continous.
My son was 2 when I took him to his first airshow, that was at Wethersfield in the late 80’s.
Great, we got out the car and his favourite Matchbox toy Tornado F-3 was sitting on the runway waiting to go, fortunately matchbox toys don’t make a noise, this one did, big time, didn’t like it one bit. We put up a tent that day and he spent most of the time running into it every time a jet displayed, I have a wonderful picture of him fleeing in panic with the not so noisy RAF VC-10 approaching behind him.
Eventually he got to like it, great moment was at the massive 1990 50th BoB flypast where we got a spot right in front of Buck Palace, he was the same age as your little sprog then. Mind you, he spent most of the time looking through the bins at Princess Dianna, bless ’em both.
He then got to sit in the cockpit of a Spitfire and a Hawk on Horse Guards parade, charming little git.
Things went down hill after that, it had something to do with the funfairs you get at British airshows.
I remember taking him to Mildenhall once and priming him up to see the Red Arrows perform for the first time, they took off and all he wanted to do was go on that awfull, skin removing, snake slide. The owners of that must have made a fortune out of me.
We did have some adventures though, going on a Tornado simulator at Finningley with a crowd of French Mirage pilots, that was brilliant, then getting out and him getting his F117 poster autographed by the pilot.
After that, when he got older, he would only go with pals and they would clear off and leave me alone.
The last airshow he really enjoyed was when he had measles. He was banned from school but was feeling OK so we went to the practice day at North Weald. The bloke on the gate was a client of mine and he let us in, we seemed to be the only members of the public and had the complete run of the place, we had the grandstand all to ourselves, and some of the displays were quite hairy to say the least, and of course there were no barriers to stop us from wandering over to the a/c and chatting to the pilots.
After that, no interest, however the lucky git did fly round Mnt Kilimanjaro in a light a/c last year and loved every minute of it, who wouldn’t.
There you go, kids will be kids, my stepson has no interest whatsoever, he never has and will not go to an airshow, ‘Nah, boring’.
Cest la Vie.
Pete TrumanWell, point taken, I jumped into that one head first and got the deserved good kicking.
On the other hand, she does like a good airshow and it could be a better option than making her suffer on the Tank Bank, not that she would think of going and putting up with that lot.
Pete TrumanI remember a thread on here a while back, started by one of our transatlantic pals, that suggested Mr Yeager was a bit of a miserable sod and quite anti British. I was quite surprised by it, but, without meeting the bloke, I would’nt like to comment on that, does anyone actually know the truth about this.
I read his biography a few years ago and was quite taken with it, it’s interesting to think that I spent many happy times at the Cakes and Ale campsite on the old airfield in Leiston where he was based, but I didn’t know it at the time, strange to think that he could have been lying in the grass where we put up our tent.
As far as I’m concerned, he was one of the great heroes of ‘to the edge’ flying, it must have been a bit wierd to play the role of barman in ‘The Right Stuff’ and watch an actor play yourself.
Glad to see the old boy is still going, despite hanging out with those obnoxious Hilton people.
Pete TrumanPity the ejector seat hadn’t been accidentally left live, that would have been interesting, pykies and yoofs found hanging from Humber Bridge in mysterious circumstances.
Pete TrumanImpressive, the Reds just came over, low fast and all together, on their way to Biggin I suppose.
Pete TrumanFollowing the complete annihilation of the tadpoles, the pond seemed pretty dead, though there are still lots of waterboatmen and pondskaters.
Last night though, we spotted a very large fish, very thin but about 75mm long, how it’s got so big in such a short time is a mystery, it’s mouth doesn’t look big enough to have scoffed the tadpoles.
If it gets any bigger, and it’s quite shy of being monitored, it’s going back to the river.
Had a laugh yesterday, took the dogs for a walk down the Blackwater when the spaniel spotted a pidgeon on the grass, while attempting a very cautious act of stalking, a sparrow hawk swooped and nearly took her head off, she was not impressed.
We have a family of swans with 3 cygnets down there, after initial bouts of curiousity and barking, the dogs have decided they are not to be messed with and now give them a very wide birth, yesterday they were all out on the bank, but my two pretended not to notice and kept well away.
Unfortunately there are a lot of rabbit warrens down there, and you can’t keep the dogs away from them, even though they are in the inevitable briar patch, the Jack Russell seems to force a way through followed by madam, who always gives up and comes back for a breather, not Mr Doo though, he would stay out there all day.
Does anyone have much experience of Badger watching. We have an enormous sett down here.
Over last weekend, I fell asleep watching TV and woke up at 2:00, feeling wide awake, I sat outside, had a fag and finished off the wine. I could hear the wierdest calls, not a fox, possibly a deer, but could it have been badgers.
Many years ago we rented a farmhouse in Devon, complete with badger sett, we spent a most amazing evening having these creatures come out the sett and wander round us only a few feet away, but all they did was grunt and snuffle.
Strangely enough, Boots managed to destroy my slides, the badgers were unafraid of flash, perhaps they were passed on to Bill Oddie.
Pete TrumanFollowing the complete annihilation of the tadpoles, the pond seemed pretty dead, though there are still lots of waterboatmen and pondskaters.
Last night though, we spotted a very large fish, very thin but about 75mm long, how it’s got so big in such a short time is a mystery, it’s mouth doesn’t look big enough to have scoffed the tadpoles.
If it gets any bigger, and it’s quite shy of being monitored, it’s going back to the river.
Had a laugh yesterday, took the dogs for a walk down the Blackwater when the spaniel spotted a pidgeon on the grass, while attempting a very cautious act of stalking, a sparrow hawk swooped and nearly took her head off, she was not impressed.
We have a family of swans with 3 cygnets down there, after initial bouts of curiousity and barking, the dogs have decided they are not to be messed with and now give them a very wide birth, yesterday they were all out on the bank, but my two pretended not to notice and kept well away.
Unfortunately there are a lot of rabbit warrens down there, and you can’t keep the dogs away from them, even though they are in the inevitable briar patch, the Jack Russell seems to force a way through followed by madam, who always gives up and comes back for a breather, not Mr Doo though, he would stay out there all day.
Does anyone have much experience of Badger watching. We have an enormous sett down here.
Over last weekend, I fell asleep watching TV and woke up at 2:00, feeling wide awake, I sat outside, had a fag and finished off the wine. I could hear the wierdest calls, not a fox, possibly a deer, but could it have been badgers.
Many years ago we rented a farmhouse in Devon, complete with badger sett, we spent a most amazing evening having these creatures come out the sett and wander round us only a few feet away, but all they did was grunt and snuffle.
Strangely enough, Boots managed to destroy my slides, the badgers were unafraid of flash, perhaps they were passed on to Bill Oddie.
Pete Truman3 single engined warbirds in vic formation passed over here heading north at midday, my missus got a good view from upstairs but wasn’t sure what they were.
Returning from the continent perhaps?
There seem have been quite a few things rumbling about over the past few days, including what sounded like the Lanc yesterday.
Unfortunately, attractive though they are, the trees restrict my field of view.
Pete TrumanSo did you watch the new Big Brother last night.
Apart from the totally obnoxious Davina, how she keeps employment in the industry is beyond me, we thought it was wierd how the TV presenters have put in a load of females, well, not sure that all of them actually are.
Sorry, but having had a contraversial cousin in there ourselves, we find it quite fascinating as an exercise in human relationships, though this is between people who should know the score by now, not a sick scenario involving a life saving experience, or is it?
Pete TrumanSo did you watch the new Big Brother last night.
Apart from the totally obnoxious Davina, how she keeps employment in the industry is beyond me, we thought it was wierd how the TV presenters have put in a load of females, well, not sure that all of them actually are.
Sorry, but having had a contraversial cousin in there ourselves, we find it quite fascinating as an exercise in human relationships, though this is between people who should know the score by now, not a sick scenario involving a life saving experience, or is it?
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