Well the text on his site regarding the phone call in Sydney is –

“1976 – Thirty Four Years Later Douglas Bader visited Australia (where I live as a permanent resident) in August 1976 to participate as an official in an air race from Perth, Western Australia to Sydney, and I discovered that he was staying in a Sydney Hotel during his visit.With the full knowledge of my wife Joan, I decided I would try to make contact with him “For old times sake” and phoned his hotel when I was fortunate enough to be able to talk to him albeit very briefly. I asked him if he remembered being in Liverpool some time in 1942, and did he recall a young man helping him at The Stork Hotel each morning to dress and fit his legs –To all these questions he replied, Yes, he did remember being there as I had described in my website book. I then told him that I was that young man, hoping he would show some enthusiasm and perhaps arrange for us to meet and have a drink and a chat.To my complete amazement he responded by saying words along the lines,”Well, that’s very nice and thank you for calling me, goodbye!”My wife Joan who heard my side of the conversation will testify as to how disappointed I was at the reception I was given but the incident passed without any further thoughts on the matter. AT this time I was still not aware of any apparent anomaly in my story regarding Douglas Bader.“

Which seems to me as a neutral observer to be nothing more than a polite response with no hint of recognition.

But I could be wrong. 🙂

Bader Doppleganger?

Interesting suggestion – he does bear a passing resemblance. Also given the nature of the print media of the time perhaps Mr Williams could have made a simple misidentification which was compounded by someone telling him it was Bader as a joke.

After all Mr Williams was, what? 17 at the time. It is a bit of a gullible age. I shudder to think how easily I was fooled at that age – damn long time ago now. 😮

I see the Bader TV programme thread was locked.

An interesting document to hand this week.

Mark

In answer to Dave H’s heartfelt plea, I woud suggest that we have followed the plot, and we have discovered another fact, a pair of bollox were dropped in a brown envelope marked OHMS.

This is indeed truly Karmic. Last week the Dalai Lama and I once again meditated over the tin appendage and clearly saw the brown envelope and saw that it was indeed bolloxs.

Ohms Mane Padme Um

That would be a low ball.

So there is truth in the rumour that Chiang Kai Shek’s personal pilot One Hung Low was seen at the Stork hotel in 1941. This explains the rumour that, late at night, someone was playing chopsticks on the the piano in the upstairs parlour.

It also answers the other question as to who flew Bader back to Germany because the Chinese had not declared war on Germany at that stage. Obviously a pilot from a neutral country was the answer.

However the posting of the bollox must have come later – truly a miracle of war time surgery to make them detachable in such a way that they could be fitted later.

😀

transmogrification

Is that the process by which one becomes a moderator here? This is all so mystical how the random threads come together to create unity.

:dev2:

the Royal family really being lizards.

Damn and here I had it on good authority that they were King Penguins – so hard to keep up these days.

😀

Damn James its my high horse and I’m enjoying the view 😀

I put my ascerbic response down to several years spent dealing with the “authorities” in my day job on behalf of a large number of people. I have seen the official mind at work and it is not pretty.

On the topic, it seems to me that the risks of radioactive instruments needs to be known among those in contact with them, and also needs a degree of legislation to protect the general public, plus guidance and legislation to protect the professionals. What we have in the UK (from the EU) and elsewhere seems somewhat over-prescriptive, which is a pity.

Which is the point I was making – the difficulty of breathing in Melbourne at the moment due to the smoke from the horrendous bushfires is perhaps making me a trifle grumpy.

My apologies – however I do prefer to have the ultimate choices left to me.

🙂

As a retired Health and Safety Professional, I take exception to the negative attitudes displayed in this thread. It is so easy to ridicule those who, working in your best interests, in most cases have training and knowledge that justifies their actions.

Some rebuttals:

“C” grade passes – Have you any idea of the training required to be registered as a Safety Professional? As well as being retired from IOSH, I was also a Chartered Engineer.

Asbestos – why don’t you try discussing this with the family of one of the thousands who will die this year from the effects of working with asbestos?

Radiation – Can you guarantee without a simple radiation measurement that there is no leakage or cracked glass or external contamination. – and yes, I do know about radiation, having worked in a company that made radiation detectors.

I agree that a sense of proportion (officially called risk assessment) has to be applied, but just consider what your reaction would be if one of your children became ill after visiting an Air Museum (or any other Museum for that matter)?

Cheers,

Ian. (Whose Enstrom was fortunately built in the late 70’s!)

Sorry but that’s the Nuremberg defense made famous in the late 40s by a number of Germany luminaries who claimed they were only doing what they were told.

There comes a time when plain old common sense must overrule public servants.

Revenge of the C pass students rules 😡