yen_powell

I'm Popeye the sailor man, I lives in a caravan, There's a hole in the middle, through which I piddle, I'm Popeye the sailor man. At least that was how we sang it in the school playground.

You know I'm wearing the 'pants' under those jeans don't you.......

I'm going somewhere, probably tomorrow, depends what time I get up.

If it's a draw then a tie breaker would be who can produce the best mange photo.

That is Scruff. He belongs to the owner of the motorcycle workshop, but would wander into our contractor's yard (which was attached) all the time so everyone knew him. He liked to chase lorries and attack them, the bigger the better. He also bit quite a few people. The old man looking down the hole is/was Ted. Now known as Dead Ted. He was actually in his early 80s but kept it a secret so he could still work. He loved that dog and would feed him every day during the week, the dog knew which car was his and would come running whenever he saw it. After Ted died the dog would be waiting for him every day for a few weeks. I used to bring a tin of dog meat and feed him whenever I was in for a few months afterwards. He learnt to recognise my bike, a clever thing considering there was a constant stream of bikes in and out all day. He bit one person too many though and he and his mum (an Alsation believe it or not, she chased motorcycles only) were retired to live at their owner's farm instead of coming to work with him. I took the picture for Ted's funeral service card, it was the best I could do as he kept jumping up at me to see if I had a tin of dog meat the whole time.

They'll eat anything round there, curry sauce hides a multitude of sins.

Before my time, but you always hear people talking about the old animal market, I gather it got shut down due to all the cruelty. Google throws this up, it doesn't sound pleasant, boot polish top cover up sores etc. https://www.eastendreview.co.uk/2014/06/09/club-row-market/

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2022/09/29/the-return-of-sue-hadley/ I will try and see if I can find the staircase in the first picture, it'll have a security lock on the door nowadays, but there are a few tricks to getting past vthos I know from years of carrying out letter drops. A name is mentioned in the text, Angela Burdett Coutts, she seems to have been a one lady charity phenomenon, there are so many things connected with her all over the borough. Coutts is the royal family's personal bank. I don't think they do cash machines though.

No chance, they are both bad.

My ID card failed to work this morning. Unfortunately I found this out when already half way down the ramp to the underground car park. Result, one motorcycle blocking everyone's way in till someone took pity on me and let me in with their card. The reason?? Some twat decided that anyone with an ID picture taken more than 10 years ago needed a new one. Be nice if they had mentioned it first though before I put a 1/3 of a ton downhill with no reverse gear available. Anyway, I now have a picture of an old man on my new card, replacing the previous one which was taken circa 1997, so probably a bit over due!

Don't fuck with the Wongs.

I did go out today, but only locally. Same here, bikes everywhere, I think they are panicking it's the last sunny day of the year.

Smooth as a cashmere codpiece.

It took me a while to pronounce Cross Hands, at least it did without doing the action and nearly crashing the bike.

I know, it's fascinating hearing other peoples' stories, not often they get written down. I had a meeting with residents in Mile End Place many years ago, something to do with traffic calming I think. The wall at the end of the street is part of the boundary wall of a very old Jewish cemetery. In use from 1697 to 1852. I was told that the descendants of the buried visit from all over the world and whilst trying to find the entrance they sometimes end up in Mile End Place, the real very small gate is 3 streets away. He said they sometimes run up and down praying due to some sort of time contraint, not sure if that is true or not. My then boss said what the street needed was Jew calming rather than traffic calming. This is the same boss who attended a meeting with the Buddhists and the owners of a vegetarian restaurant whilst eating a bacon roll.

Uncle Harry came back from the Boer War when he was not allowed to sleep with the other boys. For reasons left unexplained, he was banished to the front room and told he had better get married sharpish – which he did. Another cracker. Mile End Place is still there, I know it well. In the late 80s I had to a street light scout in the area every 2 weeks and I learnt early on to park in Mile End Road and walk in, because if the lights were out you couldn't see to turn the car around without taking out a garden wall. Spin round to see the covered entrance. https://goo.gl/maps/ZX54kF36Nw66iMgcA https://spitalfieldslife.com/2022/09/22/at-mile-end-place-x/

Pictures and video were excellent. I wouldn't worry about falling over at a stand still, I think I have seen that happen more then when people are actually moving. I once fell over when when I stopped to look at my map and a little dog barked at me down by my feet. I think I jumped and lost my balance and over I went. I nearly squashed the dog he was so small.

I forgot to mention, I bought a book when i was inside the church, they had a cardboard box to put the money as no one was in there. Things I leant from the book that I thought was interesting:- When they hollowed out the tree in the very early 1800s to make a meeting room inside, they found a cannon ball believed to have been fired during the civil war (the real civil war, not a later copy). The last vicar died in 1983. Since then they have shared a vicar with a few other churches. This last proper vicar studied engineering at Oxford University before WW2, then joined up and took up defusing bombs for the duration, then he returned to Oxford university to study divinity and became a vicar. Tree experts believe the tree has only another 50 years life left due to damage caused by the hollowing out in 1803.