yen_powell

I was late back from lunch at work because I'd been skiving and thought I would be in trouble. But I walked in to find a portable tv had been set up and everyone was gathered around it and all telling me that a plane had hit a building in America. I think I was there when the second one hit, not sure.

I did see it live once, in Plymouth. I had to have therapy for years afterwards. Very steep bank of seats so the row behind was at crotch level to my eyes and I made the mistake of turning round when I heard a loud noise. What some blokes will try to pack into unsuitable underwear is unbelievable.

Getting a phone call mid week whilst on a day's leave to be told that my work colleague had hung himself the afternoon before just after he left work. A few hours later having trouble trying to decide if I had really taken that phone call or was remembering one of those realistic dreams I sometimes have but wondering how you can call people and ask that question.

I have learnt a new word "patootie". Now, how to slip it casually into a conversation?

You can leave it on the bike, the ferry has plenty of life jackets available.

I am sure that some bike tail lights double as reflectors, but I might have dreamt that. Worth a try with a torch in the dark though eh. I had a similar circular doodah stuck onto my DR350 number plate many years ago whilst it was being MOTd. The bloke was just finishing up and he reached over to a box, grabbed one and just stuck it on. I asked and he said my bike needed a reflector and that's what they did when the bike didn't have one rather than fail it.

I don't think would even know how to do that, never had to bother before, but you're right, life's too short to do anything else, thank you for a good idea.

You know all this constant sniping back and forth is getting a bit wearing now, I've mostly been reading around it, but if anything it's getting worse. Why don't the main contenders just pm each other so the rest of us don't have to read it?

Once his balls dropped he sat higher on the seat.

I spoke to the mechanics in one of the SL articles today to find out what days they were closed so we can do stuff to their cross over. The place opened up at the end of the war as a workshop and in the fifties and sixties they were working on Police cars and the local villains get away cars at the same time. https://spitalfieldslife.com/2012/06/17/at-the-mansell-st-garage/

I've heard about people doing that quite often. It's usually people not in their usual sleeping place though, in a hotel or staying with other people. My mate Charlie woke up in a tent at a rally and proceeded to piss in a pair of Ugg boots the girl he had brought had placed there. She was not best pleased (her only footwear that weekend) and they were placed on his wing mirrors for a few hours to dry out and I nearly had a coronary next day trying not to laugh when she proudly showed me photos looking down from the ski lift on the Isle of Wight and a stained pair of ugg boots were in shot.

"I only had a hundred quid but I made it to Kashmir by hitch-hiking, where my sister sent me another thirty quid to get home. It cost me six quid to get from Istanbul to London and I sold my blood to do it. When I got back, it all fell into place." https://spitalfieldslife.com/2021/10/19/rodney-holt-designer-set-builder-x/

This was a band who busked all over London, first one of their videos, good car driving song, singing the chorus as loud as you can when I'm in the mood. Then them busking and Arnold the passing dancer.

No idea why this popped up, but I know the song from the UK TV series (comedy?) MUM which is brilliant and well worth a watch, by the same writer as Him and Her I think.

Cambrian Rally in the 90s. Where the photographer knows if he makes you look like you're going for it he is guaranteed a sale. Bikes are CRM250 lent by The Container Company and my first DR350, the one that was kickstart only and wasn't that keen on the whole starting thing anyway.

Oh yeah, Riding my XL250R along a city street and there was a man standing with his back to the kerb looking at his roof. Just as I passed he stepped back to get a better look and my left handlebar gave him a crack and I wobbled to a stop fighting my handlebars which were going everywhere. On my FJ1200 riding along a busy shopping street just coming up to a zebra crossing. From behind me on the right a large dog was running like a loon. He passed me and turned suddenly left across the zebra. Just as I was thinking, 'I'm going to hit him', a car coming the opposite way ran him over, went over his back legs and belly. I stopped the other side of the crossing shaking like a leaf, when I looked round the dog had got up and was running in circles yelping. Pedestrians dragged it into the vets right next to the crossing, no idea what became of him.

Going too fast on my CX500 on a dual carriageway, saw a queue and started braking, brakes not up to it so carried on down the middle still braking like mad, reckon I passed about 15 cars before I got to the speed I should have been filtering at. Riding into the Blackwall Tunnel when a metal hub cap came flying at my face from traffic going the opposite way. I jerked my head so quickly to avoid getting knocked out I had a bad neck for about a week afterwards. On my GPz750 late at night, I came flying round a corner on a dual carriageway hill in town. Two cars had stopped for no apparent reason so I braked and came to a nice controlled stop. Looking in my mirror I saw a Ford XR3 Turbo thing with all its wheels locked up screeching up behind me. I clenched everything and it stopped gently touching my number plate.

That was most marvellous!! I was a bit embarrassed reading the sign in the convent. More room was taken up with all those ridiculous titles than the main text. I think the Duke of Wellington was Irish so I can't imagine he used all the titles in day to day conversation, it would interfere with drinking time.

There are shitloads of you tube clips of mad inventions and if you look at one the place will plague you with suggestions for others. Honestly, how did we not get a man on the moon before the Yanks I'll never know.

I've probably told this before, but just in case I haven't. A well known character I worked with bought a house cheaply because of the shocking state it was in. He added an extra level in the roof and extended the basement out the back, the place was huge when it was finished. Next door was the Bishop of Stepney's official residence, huge garden full of old fonts I recall. It ended up worth a small fortune and he was very proud of it. The well known character came wandering in to our office and my boss at the time shouted out, Boss: Oi Grouty, I hear your house value has dropped down. Grouty: What do you mean? Boss: I see in the papers that there has been a new Bishop appointed. Grouty: So? Boss: Well he's a black bloke. Grouty: You're talking out of your arse, what difference does that make? He's a man of God AND a Bishop. Boss: Well yes, he is, no denying that, but you're not telling me that you won't be bringing your car stereo in at night from now on.

It's a fine art and there's going to be mistakes during the training period, that's just a fact.

Stinky Sheridan had one leg and used to sell matches in Whitechapel Rd, I mean, this stuff is gold. I'm also going to dig out some of my old school reports and post them up I think, then you can see what a truly lazy bugger I was at school. https://spitalfieldslife.com/2021/10/14/barbara-jezewska-teacher-o/

I only had a bike licence for years and then one day two blokes who had moved to a different new bit of the council came to see me when I was a trainee and asked me if I would like to go and work for them. You'll get a pay rise, a new donkey jacket and a car they said. I don't have a car licence I said. Well get one and watch out for a job advert they said. My first lesson was a few hours after the 87 hurricane, shit, trees and water everywhere. The job advert was so specific it was embarrassing, only myself an a chef at Sainsburys applied. The interview was worse, I was rung up the night before and told what the 5 technical questions would be. Then at the actual interview, the same silly sod asked me the whole 15 on his sheet because the HR person was looking over his shoulder. Luckily she didn't know the answers and I could make stuff up. For the next few years if I mucked anything up they used to moan that they should have had the chef. I did eventually get the car, it took a lot longer than they promised and then the tax man crucified me over it a few years later.