yen_powell

My dad had a few RAF Association magazines knocking about the house. There was usually a funny story or anecdote in there somewhere. The two I recall are a Shackleton pilot having to constantly adjust his control surfaces during a flight as the plane seemed to be getting tail heavy and then suddenly it wasn't. Turned out his crew were playing a game of darts at the rear of the plane. The second one was reported from an an aircrew survival training course. A pilot was heard to say that he had an advantage over other air crew as he flew a Tornado. When asked why he said it was because in the event of a forced landing and no immediate help you could always eat the navigator.

I had a quick scan through and I can't see it, maybe I wrote about it somewhere else.

I only went in a helicopter once and swore never ever ever again. I think I wrote about it in my yen's Stories thread.

There was a major cock up here as well, one of the reasons my boss was there as they frantically tried and failed to address the issue. Previous pad was reachable by crane if removal of a dead helicopter was required. The new pad was so high up that any suitable crane could not negotiate the tiny surrounding streets without being in broken down into so many pieces it would be necessary to shut those same streets for a few weeks. Apparently just having a warning light refusing to go out even if no problem is found grounds a helicopter over London.

When they shut down the old Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, they built a new one with 18 floors right behind the redundant building. This heli-pad is built on top of the new building for the air ambulance. I thought you'd enjoy the photos I got off my boss today which I asked for when I found out he had been up there. I imagined a nice chunky handrail or wall to stop people falling off the edge but it seems I was wrong.

The first bloke I sat next to at my current job in 1986,he was later our chief exec, wrote a song called ACAB. Not my cup of tea, but I would never tell him that, he's still a big fucker.

To put you out of your misery it was Lemuel. A biblical king but probably more familiar as the name Lemuel Gulliver in Gulliver's Travels.

No to Luke and Lucifer. A clue is that it is also the first name of a literary character from a famous book written in the 1700s.

You're on the right track, it is a biblical name and you have probably got the other L name there.

No, think biblical.

After my incessant badgering got no results I asked him what the first letter was and he told me 'D'. I knew it couldn't be any usual name like David or Derek or he wouldn't be worried, hit the right one in a few guesses. Had a similar thing with a bloke at work called Steven Tebbett, he wouldn't reveal his middle name either but fell for the 'what is the first letter' ploy. His answer was L. Got that one as I had heard his parents were a bit bible crazy. Have a go and see if you can work that one out.

Probably just stuck a wall around the battle site then popped a roof on, lazy sods.

I used to know a Ray Ling many years ago. I had a friend called Aelwood who wouldn't tell me his middle name (I guessed it eventually, it was Desmond). A friend's other half's first name is Woods, he's a Canadian orphan so not sure how he ended up with that. 'Dead' Ted, my late contractor supervisor's real first name was Enda, I found this out when appealing all his parking tickets.

No chance! The shame is too great.

You got your money's worth in the old days.

I used to ride to Devon every Friday evening for about 2 years for the weekend. Plymouth in fact. Most Saturdays we would ride across town and get on the very quick ferry across the river and into Cornwall and just explore. I like them both equally.

Those are my grand daughters. Known to me inside my head as GD1 and GD2 because their real names are too embarrassing. When GD1 ran ahead near the edge of the harbour I hesitated before calling out her name aloud.

Yes, you can't buy a house there and there are no holiday homes, just a hotel and the odd B&B.

I asked about snow and ice and one of the people I spoke to said that as it is sheltered from behind and the sides and faces the sea it is very rare to get snow or ice even when surrounding areas do. It pissed down both before and whilst I was there so I walked very carefully on the cobbles, break a hip at my age and it's curtains. The water goes into the joints between the pebbles and so the tops dry quickly.

It wasn't too bad, the rain helped keep numbers down. To answer Pete's question, everyone that lived there I spoke to loved it. They said if anyone moves the whole village pitches in and uses the sledges when required. The super rich landowner walks through asking if anything needs fixing and sorts it straight away, rents are not too bad and if they work there as well pay is good. If residents get too old to walk the hill they get moved to the bottom of the village so that they can use the single access road in a vehicle if required.

Taken on my work phone, don't have a phone of my own.