Tango

It's not always blue skies and sunshine here!

The first thing YOU'D do!?!?

That's awesome, Bob.

Maybe they were busy or something. I started Lois on the Loose but I must finish it.

I'll look forwards to that. Was Austin Vince at the show? He's normally at these sort of things.

Awesome write-up mate. Yeah, I guessed that Ted Simon must have been knocking along a bit now. I guess I was about 22 when I first read Jupiter's Travels.

Sounds legit!

Fourth time lucky then, Clive?

The Martini racing stickers and the prancing horse may be a bit optimistic, but it looks clean enough. I'm guessing that it runs OK?

Yes, that's some amazing footage there! Brave buggers, all of them!

Thanks for posting this, Bob. Definitely whetted my appetite to go up there and visit the beaches.

When I was in the first year of my apprenticeship we were in the training school, which was an old building in what they called the mill on Trundley's Road in Deptford, south London. At lunchtime we would shoot over to the works canteen in the main factory and bolt our dinner down and then head to a small park nearby to kick a football around. Some of the older guys from the main factory also used to get over the park for a game of footie, so it wasn't long before we were involved in daily matches of the apprentices v the guys from the various other departments. One of the guys, Ken, was the senior shop steward for the site. Everyone called him Hippo, but he was pretty light on his feet for a big guy. He was pretty fearsome too and the management at the factory hated dealing with him, because most were scared of him. Anyway, after one lunchtime footie match, we got back to the training school a little late. Shortly after we got back the training manager stormed into our training room and started ranting about how he'd seen us get back late. So he told us that from then on we would have to clock-out at the clocking station when we went to lunch and clock back in when we got back. We did this for a day or 2, when at one of our lunchtime footie matches we suddenly grabbed our stuff and said we had to get back. Hippo said "come on lads, let's finish the game. There's no rush" But we said that we had to get back to clock-in after lunch. "You fuckin' what?!!!" he said. We then explained what had happened a couple of days earlier. "OK lads, leave that with me" That afternoon we saw Hippo and a couple of the other shop stewards heading towards the training school. A while later we heard shouting from the training manager's office. It eventually went quiet and the door of our training room opened and in walked Hippo. "You don't need to clock- out at lunchtime any more, Lads, and if that cunt tries anything like that again let me know" We didn't see the training manager again for a few days after that, but he was very sheepish when we did see him!

This is my great-uncle Albert, my nan's youngest brother who was killed near St Valery-en- Caux during the BEF retreat to Dunkirk in 1940. His grave is in the commonwealth graveyard there, which is another place that I want to visit.

Excellent report, Pedro. I think that the history lesson is interesting and gives context to the photos, so keep it going.

Even more poignant for you then, Pete.

Awesome report, MooN. My ambition one day is to visit the D-Day beaches.

September can get very wet, Pete. I keep getting adverts on Facebook from the government giving advice on what to do and how to prepare for flooding, so I'm guessing that we're in for some pretty wild weather coming up.

Went to the beach today, but unfortunately no bikes involved. Weather is looking a bit shit for the next week or so, so runs on the bike may be limited then too!

Love me a bit of Motorhead.

It works!!!!!! Had a message from my Independent Financial Adviser this morning to say that he has been informed that the transfer of my pension funds is going ahead! So, the power of this thread is not to be underestimated!

There was a lad that I did my apprenticeship with called Micky. His knickname was Desperate, after Desperate Dan the comic character who ate cow pies. So, Milky was a big lad, 6'3" at least and probably around 18 stone. On the rare occasions that he shaved before work he'd have a really dark 6 o'clock shadow by lunchtime. He also had the thickest NHS glasses that I'd ever seen and his eyesight was still shocking. He used to ride a CZ 250. Anyway, he went on holiday from Kent, where he lived, to Norfolk broads with his mum and brother. Because his mum's car was a bit small for them all to fit into along with their luggage Micky volunteered to follow his mum's car up there on his bike. When they got to Dartford tunnel his mum stopped at the toll barrier to pay, but Micky didn't and ran straight into the back of the car and ended up on the roof! They had hired a boat on the broads for a week, but because of his shocking eyesight, he hit a bridge and took all the windows out down one side of it within a couple of days. I think that Micky's CZ had the forks bent more often than they were straight!