Chris my old mucker, 
it just goe’s to prove that we are not " Cuckoo" over this neck of the woods. 
harry_gill:
Chris Webb:
Dave the Renegade:
hiya,
No not Cuckoo’s Dave but there’s a bleedin Heron that’s cleaned my next
door neighbour’s fish pond out over the last few weeks , it is a big bugger
I’m determined to get it though I’ll have to get myself a gun, just land my
friend and your breakfast.
thanks harry, long retired.Heron’s are a nasty vicious killer of anything in a garden pond or small birds Harry.There’s a brook at the bottom of the field in front of our bungalow.We see one go there regularly and one has cleared a garden pond in the village.Another bird that is creating havoc around these parts are Goshawks Which are killing a lot of birds and even taking chickens.Perhaps we should shift them all over to the I O M for Chris to deal with the Cuckoo’s.
Cheers Dave.Don’t send any Goshawks over here
,we’ve plenty of raptors like Hen harriers,Sparrowhawks,Kestrels,Buzzards,Merlins etc…
Surprised to hear Goshawks are in your area Dave,they used to be a very rare bird,a few couples in the Peak District where I lived usually taking Wood Pigeons. They will be protected like Kites in your area.
hiya,
Chris there’s been a programme going on up way this to reinstate the Red Kite back
into the wild and I have heard it has been very successful they are breeding well and
are doing fine now that they are protected, and we do still have pockets of the red
squirrel knocking about not where I live but I do know where they are, the wood just
below my house is teeming with the grey variety must get an air rifle they aren’t
protected and would give me something to do, just bushy tailed tree rats, wonder
what they taste like, times is hard.
thanks harry, long retired.
[/quote]
The Red Kite are a regular sight in this area and if you go 20 miles further into Mid Wales you will see lots of them.There are several feeding stations and visitor centre’s where you can see about 200 at certain times of day.
The Goshawks are around here in the wooded areas.Don’t see them much as they are in and around the trees most of the time.A friend of mine has lost most of her chickens with Goshawks killing them.
Got a few grey squirrels about here,but like the Rabbits the cold winter of Nov/Dec 2010 killed a lot of them.Plenty of Badgers and Foxes about here.Someone was lamping around here last night,we could hear the rifle and see a big torch.Loads of Buzzards ad a few Sparrow Hawks here and Peregrine Falcons at the quarries.
Cheers Dave.
Hello lads I have been struck down by a chest virus, and with my asthma it has not been too good, it felt like Harry was standing on my chest, 
and when I coughed it was viberating to my bellybutton, and phlegm by the buckt full 
, but the good or bad news is I seem to be feeling alot better. But I see nothing has changed, on here chris & dave talking about birds, but the feathered kind. On the old ■■■■■ thread, Harry , Dennis & Larry talking about the racy birds that bring your blood pressure to a boil, but Ang is so innocent that she said she don’t know what they are talking about. I do not believe Ang being a lorrydriver is so pure! But then to think of it again, I may be wrong, for in my reign of a lorry driver I must have been the most purist one in the land! 
Oh my god where is my mirror, I got it from the sames makers who supplied the one for " Snow White" !
Norman Ingram:
Hello lads I have been struck down by a chest virus, and with my asthma it has not been too good, it felt like Harry was standing on my chest,
You’d be better off getting one of them highly polished Aluminium ones Norm,they won’t shatter with fright each time you look in one !! Cheers Dennis.
Evening all, this thread caught my eye what with being from nottingham. I started driving vans when i was 19 at my local firm and started doing a bit of shunting round the yard, and soon realised i wanted to do the extra step so took my class 2 and class 1 when i was 21, 1 of the main reasons being that i love travelling and seeing new places, and i would love to be able to look back and have a whole catalogue of memories when im older. Norman, some of your stories are amazing i must say, i have got great respect for anybody with that kind of experience. Nowadays we are spoilt, i have a scania topline with all the extra gadgets, a decent sat nav (not that i swear by it!) its like a home away from home. Everything is so different to back then, i couldnt imagine what some of you ME and european trampers went through back in them days, but i suppose thats what makes you who you are. You’re either cut out for trucking or you’re not! I love it, and having recently started doing european work im starting to add a few memories and pictures to the collection. I cant see myself coming off the road anytime in the near future im hoping this is just the beginning of my story book, i just hope these office wnkrs dont kill it for us by bringing in more bullsht like the driver cpc etc… But i suppose thats another story. Anyway, just wanted to pay my respects and say what a credit some of you boys are. And i know some of the older generation or the ‘been there done that’ kinda people look down on us and think we dont have a clue, but not all of us youngens are arrogant and unappreciative! Thanks, Dan
Good post Dan.A lot of us on this thread are interested in the newer stuff as well as the old motors.So lets hear a bit more about your adventures in this country and Europe.As for legislation like the DCPC and all that stuff,we didn’t like a lot of new things introduced in the 60’s.The HGV licence finished a lot of the drivers through various health issues due to having a medical.,Then when the tachograph came in that wasn’t popular,but it soon became the norm as did speed limiters etc.
Cheers Dave.
Thank you Dan for your comments, I owe a lot of my confidence to the army, after three years in the REME trained as a recovery & vehicle mechanic, if you done the M/E trip twice, you was hooked, but I will be the first to admitt I done it for the money not glory of doing it. But I did enjoy it, and never, due to my army training I was never affraid to show the way,all my sandmen mates used to let me lead, especially through cities, once I asked going through Buda Pest, why me, they laughed and said we have noticed you have a photographic memory and you travel through a place wherever it is and never lose your way.AS I have stated before I would never have missed the army & M/E adventures for all the tea in China. all the best Norman
Another episode in my time I was stranded at Londra Camping after my accident, I was in the hotel, I said about the aussie girls from Queenlands, also the ■■■■■■■ the foyer in the hotel was a lovely girl, and we had many talks together, and she introduced her boyfriend to me, and I had a invite to the wedding, on the day I got a shock, for they toid me his brother had had a car accident and he wanted me to be bestman, I said surely you want a family member 
He said yes but they won’t fit into the suit, I did and got the job. One of the guest at the party asked me who I was, I replied just a english TIR driver. He told me he was a doctor and gave me his card, and said give me a call and I will take you fishing on his launch, my time sorting out the custom problems, seem to fly by when I had other activaties. At the same period while in the swimming pool I met a young arab girl about five or six, who would sit splashing her feet in the water, by sign language I ask her if she could swim, she shook her head, so in two days I had her swimming & diving in and out of the water. Then she came with her parents, and dived into the water and swam a couple of lengths, and surprise on their faces, they must have asked her where she learnt, she pointed to me, they came over and shook my hand and was jabbering, but I could not understand, so I beckoned to them to follow me, and at the foyer the girl found someone who could speak arabic,then it transpired that they was there for a month and had three weeks to go,they wanted me to teach both of them to swim, they would pay me, I refused, I will teach you to swim, but after a long discussion, it was agreed no money would be paid, but they would take me out for a meal every day while they as at the hotel. The arab man swam ok, but the mother swam like a fish, just like her daughter.So thinking of others certainly paid me for my kindness I shown!
Hi boys
Norm thats typical just my luck I used to stop at the Harem if I’d stopped at the londra you could have taught me. Had lessons in our local baths but after nearly drowning and had to be rescued twice decided to give up while I was still alive
Regards Keith
dessert driver:
Hi boys
Norm thats typical just my luck I used to stop at the Harem if I’d stopped at the londra you could have taught me. Had lessons in our local baths but after nearly drowning and had to be rescued twice decided to give up while I was still aliveRegards Keith
Keith I would have certainly got you swimming, every holiday I went on I had at least two or three, in Pageria near Magiluff I taught this young girl, her mother from brum who worked in social services said I wish I could swim, what is wrong with right now, by tommorrow you could be swimming on your own. All I ask is you trust me, I showed her her arm strokes and her legs, then I held her under her stomach, and said practice your two strokes together, after a hour she said I shall never be able to to it on my own, without you holding me, I think you will, why Norman, because you have being doing on your own for the last half hour, and I moved away and she was still swimming and the smile on her face was so broad, the rest of her holiday her daughter and her was never out of the sea.when she left on the coach I went to wave goodbye, and she nipped off the coach and gave me a kiss and a hug,and her seven year old girl did the same.
hiya,
Norm, I too am a non-swimmer when I chucked the coalmines aged 18 I asked
to be considered for the Royal Navy I wasn’t even considered when the question
of, can you swim ■■, came up, when exiting the recruiting office I asked one of
the sailors if they’d run out of ships.
thanks harry, long retired.
harry_gill:
hiya,
Norm, I too am a non-swimmer when I chucked the coalmines aged 18 I asked
to be considered for the Royal Navy I wasn’t even considered when the question
of, can you swim ■■, came up, when exiting the recruiting office I asked one of
the sailors if they’d run out of ships.
thanks harry, long retired.
It would be to far for you to swim to the shore if they made you walk the plank anyway Harry. 
Cheers Dave.
Hi boys
I can see why all these woman flock to you, practicing two strokes at once didn’t she wonder what you had been doing with your hands for 1/2 hour
Mayby you could teach Harry and me in time for the Olympics
Regards Keith
hiya,
Keith no way am I letting our Norm attempt to teach me to swim, he’d get
me down the deep end then leave me to teach a damsel in distress the
breast stroke, I did a short spell at sea in my late 20s, fishing boats and not
being able to swim never entered my head, but we was working not too far
off Iceland and had I fallen overboard in those cold waters the chance of getting
out alive was just about zero you would only last a few seconds or so they told
me, so I did my best to stay on the deck, good money at that time about six
times what I was making as a driver per week on average.
thanks harry, long retired.
Hi Harry,
You must have been a tough nut to work on those fishing boats.I remember a couple of young blokes from this way going to work on the fishing boats in the late 60’s,going to earn big money they said. One trip and they were back.It frightened them to death.They were hard working blokes on the pick and shovel mostly,but not hard enough to stick it on the fishing boats like you Harry.
Cheers Dave.
Dave, no way would Harry had frozen if he had fallen into the sea, alcohol don’t freeze that easy, and knowing Harry he would have sunk enough to keep his cenral heating going! Also Harry how could you say I would let a mate down for a woman, you shoul be ashamed of yourself 
now if you had said two or three beautiful ladies, if you was not a fast learner, you might have had to go to the bottom of the pool and walk to the shallow end.
Norman Ingram:
Dave, no way would Harry had frozen if he had fallen into the sea,
hiya,
Norm, what’s this about walking from the deep end to the shallow end,
I might be called " Gill " but not even I can breathe under water.
thanks harry long retired.
Dave the Renegade:
Hi Harry,
You must have been a tough nut to work on those fishing boats.I remember a couple of young blokes from this way going to work on the fishing boats in the late 60’s,going to earn big money they said. One trip and they were back.It frightened them to death.They were hard working blokes on the pick and shovel mostly,but not hard enough to stick it on the fishing boats like you Harry.
Cheers Dave.
hiya,
Nowt tough about it Dave the, cold is the worst thing, I could live with
heavy weather but keeping everything ice free was a nightmare I could
have made a career out of it but the boat changed hands and was then
crewed by the new owners family which is normal," keep it in the family "
did four trips all good payers and lived on the proceeds for a while before
needing to take up driving again, in real life I’m a ■■■■■ cat soft as butter.
thanks harry, long retired.
harry_gill:
Dave the Renegade:
Hi Harry,
You must have been a tough nut to work on those fishing boats.I remember a couple of young blokes from this way going to work on the fishing boats in the late 60’s,going to earn big money they said. One trip and they were back.It frightened them to death.They were hard working blokes on the pick and shovel mostly,but not hard enough to stick it on the fishing boats like you Harry.
Cheers Dave.hiya,
Nowt tough about it Dave the, cold is the worst thing, I could live with
heavy weather but keeping everything ice free was a nightmare I could
have made a career out of it but the boat changed hands and was then
crewed by the new owners family which is normal," keep it in the family "
did four trips all good payers and lived on the proceeds for a while before
needing to take up driving again, in real life I’m a ■■■■■ cat soft as butter.
thanks harry, long retired.
You are a proper lorry man Harry unlike a lot of the blokes who drive these days.They are only driving lorries because they can’t get anything else.I was offered several jobs back on building sites after I went lorry driving,but even though in most cases the money would have been good.All I wanted to do was drive lorries.
Cheers Dave.
Hello lads sorry I have not been about, chest infection would not clear, went to doctors wednesday, got a course of capsules to take for a week.