Just had a E mail off our Kid ? He was a driver so I though I will print his words .he cares passionately about our country as I do, Ron
Just to prove that it wasn’t all work and no play and that the old adage, “only mad dogs and English men go out in the noon day sun” was also very true, I present, for your delectation, a few pictures of barking Englishmen doing leisure activities.
Included is a photo of myself and ( I think), the Trans Arabia Dammam fixer? Or was he the Binzager “hurry upperer!?” All I can remember about him is that he would breeze into the office in a swirl of body odour and heavy perfume, waiving a thick wad of collection notes and shouting…10 trrrruck…15 trrrruck…20 trrrrruck or any other number he could conjure up out of thin air!! This excitement was swiftly followed up by…"Yella!..Yella!..hami!..Hami!..quick!.. quick! before he would turn on his heel and depart as rapidly as he had arrived, his work for the day now complete. I would leaf through the notes then sort the job out with maybe 3 trucks. Heady days!!
Mirlin , I thought That young man is ALI ■■? , KB,s Chauffeur Unless I am mistaken His native tong ? Was sum what coloured by our drivers !!! He was heard to blaspheme his fellow man when cut up? like get out the R/d you F–kin Bl^#%+*=Bbb stb we where crying with laughter when he shouted these words ,knowing he did it when driving round with U know who , JD. And I went round his house for chi,we sat on the floor of his mother house the women where all masked up with red die on there hands,in another room ,our hopes where dashed when we saw them ■■? And had to make do with doe nuts Har Har Ron. Ps I remember you running in saudi coming back in looking for your Yogert , !!!
Ron,
was Gypsy Dave a German?
Just wondering!
Ronaldo, you are right. That bloke was Ali, KB’s driver. It’s strange how memories come kicking and screaming out of the mist.
And yes, I remember the regular case of the missing yogurts as you and the Hill Billy tried your best to thwart my master plan of living solely on expenses, whilst sticking all my wages in Jersey. Little did you know at the time but when I realised what was going on, I introduced strange substances to my last yogurt purchases before changing my strategy and moving to eat in the TCNs’ kitchen where, in retrospect, I can now imagine that they probably introduced strange substances into my chicken and rice as well!!
As I write this, through the mists of time come memories of the sound of all the kitchen knives being embedded in my room door as I slept, that strange smell of burnt bum hair as you lit another of your amazing ■■■■■ ( courtesy of my yogurts no doubt!) and that banging about and giggling as you and the Hill Billy returned from another visit to the Aramco compound on an endless quest for more Sid! Oh yes, and when I told you I was going on leave in a couple of weeks to meet up with some pretty maiden and was thus " saving my energies" you thought it was a jolly jape to then subject me to days of ■■■■ on a permanent loop on the video player. That was hellish I can tell you!!
I attach some more pictures, but I have a horrible suspicion that I may have put some of them up before. If that is the case… tough!. I’m not scrolling through 37 back pages to check!
Mirlin ? What’s happened ? With this on surge of pictures and memories ■■? Every Time I come up from the shed there’s another ? Well done I am pleased to read them , but then I wonder if thing are OK ? Like!!! has that young Maiden left you ? I hope not she is Special , knowing your track record !!! you are better off than that Lotto winer,of cause this is nothing to you with the off shore secrets, I have been up the Beacon hill near to us ? Digging for treasure? there was a maiden there and some one Said she was sitting on a fortune , there’s holes all over the place Har Har Ron ,5th photo down? Keep the little Pgs at bay , I loved it,fantastic memories !!!
I will explain how the police came to be on my tail ? This KW c500 oil explorer was in our workshops for a PD inspection ? it was found to have gearbox problems , " Alison semi auto "the air supply pipe to 3rd gear that went through the steel plate floor was found to be blocked ? The brass union that joined this pipe had not been drilled through,? finding this out, the fault was rectified and I was keen to road test this truck !!! Getting up at the crack of dawn I got to work about 5am, driving out of GCC in this monster truck ,I went down the duel carriageway for about 5 or 6 miles , I turned off Rd and went into the desert, It was brilliant without a care in the world It really felt comfortable up and down the dunes , turning back the Sun was up on my right side , back on the Tarmac I was approaching Damman ■■ There where lots and lots of trucks parked up with police in attendant ? They waved to me I waved back ,!!! and trundled on with about 2 mile to go I can almost see GCC at the 1st island near Damman I thought l will be there soon I had no intentions of Stopping ■■? The Police by now had fired up there little cars !!! And began to chase me ,■■? And where now on my tail , I was on the path of No return !!! with the cops in both Mirrors they tried in vain to get round me the sirens and lights flashing , there was three or four of these cop cars, I am now in traffic with cars disappearing under my front end !!! I kept getting closer to the island ? The racket behind me !!! Almost drowned the Purring of The 550 ■■■■■■■ horses it was brilliant , i CROSSED the Duel and pulled up at the barrier of GCC The Pgs surrounded me and were screaming trying to jump up to where I was sitting praying for the Barrier to be lifted , it never did ? I am sure that if they had got guns they would have Shot Them selves ■■? !!! it was bloody marvellous , there fan belts where jumping up and down on there heads they where going berserk I got away with it Har Har Har Ron ( true true. Story )
Great stuff Ron. I’m glad I never actually got to travel with you, you were obviously a good friend to have if you were constipated - instant laxative!
Those massive desert trucks used to pull the oil rigs as well. The rigs were two lanes wide and on the Riyadh road they took no prisoners. A Jimmy pick up would travel in front, headlights on, middle of the road, waving everyone off to the side. Even on the stretch out of Riyadh where there was just banking and only about 5’ of hard shoulder. One came at me one time on that stretch and when I held my hands up in supplication - ‘where do you want me to go?’ - he just moved over into my lane, heading straight for me. I pulled off, with the Saviem and trailer hanging at 45 degrees. Luckily I was empty - loaded I would have rolled it for sure! The rig, something like the one in the picture (another occasion, but with more desert to play with) hurtled on by a few seconds later, and I managed to get back on the Tarmac.
Thanks to Merlin for your photos. That is indeed the Caravan dining room. Circa 1981?
JDLonghorn was always camera shy.
The smiling face with the moustache is Ted Thomas from Clitheroe. I can’t see who the guy behind JDL is. I recognise the bloke in the far corner, but can’t put a name to him.
I thought the bloke in the middle was Geoff Collins at first, but it isn’t. I think it’s Jessie James. I can’t remember if Jessie worked for himself or for MSN (one of our customers) in Riyadh. Either way, we saw quite a bit of him for a while.
He got banged up down near Khamis - I may be wrong, but I think he did the same thing as JDL, hitting the barrier at the police post in the pitch dark. He told us that there was a Saudi or Yemeni in that prison who had murdered someone. He was due for execution, but nobody was telling him when. Since the executions were always held after Friday prayers, he awoke every Friday not knowing whether today would be the day or not! Jessie got out before the man got the chop.
Some of the nurses from the Riyadh hospital spent Fridays around the MSN pool. Since it was a high walled compound with only westerners, they could wear swimsuits.
A guy from Leicester, whose name I can’t remember drove one of the MSN Kenworths, told me that Jessie and one of the nurses became quite close. They were stretched out next to the pool, oiled up, and Jessie was stroking her leg. After a long period of quiet, Jessie said in his North eastern accent ‘Ah’m getting a new gearbox in the Volvo tomorrow’ .
Surely has to rank among the greatest chat up lines ever!
John.
That’s what I love about this thread it evokes memories from way back , the chat up line was brilliant ,!!! Thanks for that John , I was laughing out loud when I read it , there are many encounters which are unprintable,!! Ron 
Apologies for any repetition of things said before on this or any other thread.
Merlin has told me the tale (and he may have said it on here) of Ron in GMC pick up, with Merlin in the passenger seat, heading towards the two grey Mercedes, side by side, as they did so often on those long straights, where one thought he could overtake, but found when he was level, he couldn’t. they used to travel like this for miles, neither one giving in. When you saw them coming, you pulled off into the desert and let them go by. Discretion is the better part…
Ron didn’t. Merlin says he just said 'f*** ‘em’ and carried on, moving to the middle. Poor Merlin thought these were his last seconds! Moments from oblivion the trucks peeled off either side of them! So, not a friend - more of an enema! (sorry).
MSN wasn’t MSN - it was MSI! I can’t remember what it stood for, or even at this late date what they did! This was an American customer. They dealt with Behring in the States, so naturally we got their work in Saudi.
At one point I had a Kenworth on trial for two weeks. I absolutely loved it. I should have bought it, it was ideal for Saudi. Not a good lock, but that didn’t matter there. ■■■■■■■ 290, Fuller gearbox, full width bed, inbuilt air conditioning that worked - not like the roof additions! the radiator was 6’ tall. when you headed out of Riyadh for Dammam, there was a long gradual climb. In Summer, you couldn’t get the Saviem anywhere near top gear without the temperature gauge heading skyward! Even loaded the KW gauge didn’t flicker. I bottled out. I think it was 180,000 Saudi Riyals - about £30,000. Peter Best talked me out of it, he asked me why didn’t I just keep the Saviem and send the money home instead, and that was what I did.
While I had the KW, MSI had a trailer which had been shipped in from the states. This may have been before they imported their own trucks and drivers, I can’t remember. The trailer, just a standard American two axle flatbed, with 11.00 x 20s on, and load weighed over 50 tons. Nobody wanted it! I said I’d take it, but wanted double rate. Middle of summer, the tyres were hot before you set off! MSI agreed the rate but sent an English lad in a pick up to accompany me. I didn’t want him with me, but he loaded 4 spare wheels in the pick up and followed me. I kept the speed low and stopped every 1/2 hour or so to let the tyres cool. I got there in about 12 hours without a single puncture. At this point the Brit started telling his management not to pay me double, we hadn’t had any problems!
I was a touch angry - and they did pay the agreed rate. He and I weren’t friends after that!
The lad from Leicester that I mentioned was, I now remember, called (I think) John Woodhead. Known to all as ‘Woody’ he drove one of the MSI KWs. He was highly amused to find that the Americans at MSI called people they disagreed with ‘cs**s’. Woody used the term (not heard in England often at that time) frequently in an American accent.
Woody drove this KW (I think, it’s a long time ago and I wasn’t taking notes) seen here driving out of our Dammam yard. Yes, that is how we fastened containers on at the time, and no, we never lost one!
Woody was a competition road racing motor cyclist - I googled him a while ago and found his race history on a site somewhere. Ironically, he died in about 1981, not on the death track circuit of the Riyadh road, but while he was home on holiday on his bike. A motorist didn’t see him and pulled out in front of him at a junction. We had a collection and sent his widow a cheque. She sent us a lovely letter of thanks which had us all in tears. She called him Woody as well. Anyone from the Leicester area remember him?
John
I have had a couple of mishaps on bikes ?!! The first was when a truck turned into me he saw me at the last second and i skidded round his radiator and hit the wall ? I had a bag of gooseberries on the tank ? They went all over the road with me trying to eat them !!! another time a car came out of a junction and the bike was embedded in saloon I had my brother John on the back !!! We both went over the top of the car , i could go on and on , (and hope I still will ) I will be on the bike as soon as the weather improves ,this photo was in Scotland my wife was not so intrepid as myself !!! But she was a pillion passenger all over this beautiful country , Ron
jmc jnr:
Hello Backsplice. Time dims the memory, but our travel arrangements had to keep being delayed because the airport was flooded, I think for about a fortnight. As for the footy - No idea - But it was certainly that time of year, and the plane was a Lockheed Tristar (LA1011) cos I started in industry at Rolls Royce Aero Engines in the late 60’s and the RB211 engine for them was nearly in production. It broke the company and I finished my apprenticeship early and went to Ben Wyatt Plant. Jim.
Hi JMC, Ron and Back splice,
Despite paying many times more than passengers on more popular routes, we were always treated as second class citizens on the Saudi run. We had the VC10s - no films and they handed out the rugs as you set off because they couldn’t get it warm enough unless it was full.
For a couple of years we had our own BA747, Paddy Zulu. This was leased from Aer Lingus and on its last legs - I always used to say to anyone scared of flying, ‘Paddy Zulu is in the air 14 hours a day, every day (it did London-Dhahran-London daily) it’s over 20 years old and it’s never crashed yet!’
It even had a sign inside the door - ‘Dhahrans own 747, Paddy Zulu’. I can’t remember if it had in flight movies, but we might have been lucky!
I always used to ask to go on the flight deck and in those pre-terrorist days, spent many a happy hour chatting with the pilots and flight engineers. They loved telling me flying tales and I used to bore them with trucking stories, which they seemed to enjoy - it was certainly an alien world to them!
Flying over Saudi at night there was an occasional gas flare, or a small town lit up, but almost total darkness below.
When the L1011 Tristar was new, we got one on the Dhahran run. I went up to the cockpit somewhere up the tap line and finally returned to my seat over Germany. This was total joy! The pilots were on their first ‘real’ flight on the L1011, and kept saying ‘let’s try this’ flicking a switch and hearing a sort of ‘whoop, whoop’ noise - flicking the switch back and saying ‘hmmm, maybe not’. Luckily, none of this could be heard back in the passenger cabin, where everyone had finished their meals and were trying to get to sleep.
When we were approaching Istanbul, they started wondering if the Air Traffic Controller would be a particular woman. Her English was marginal and they liked to confuse her as much as possible. Sure enough it was her. Since we had taken off at about 10pm and it was now approaching 1 in the morning, I guess they just enjoyed anything that kept them awake!
Eventually I would return to my seat, having enjoyed a completely different world from my own.
As we drove up the TAPline, we would often stop at about 12.15pm to have a cup of tea and watch Concorde fly over us. The ‘crack’ of the sound barrier breaking airwave was nothing like as loud as the ‘dog in a manger’ Americans made out.
Concorde left Bahrein at Midday and arrived at Heathrow around the time it set off! I sometimes felt a bit homesick, knowing that they would be home in Three hours and I wouldn’t be home for three months!
I did travel home on Concorde once, just for fun. The 737 from Dhahran took about 10 minutes to Bahrein, then we waited in transit. Sadly, the Concorde was delayed and sat on the Tarmac for several hours. It was one of those that was BA on one side and Singapore Airlines on the other (no, I didn’t take any photos!)
Trip of a lifetime and went up on the flight deck at twice the speed of sound!
Happy days,
John
Am liking the way this thread weaves about like that famous John D. Longhorn when he had been on the Sid, that well known home brew ( made from sugar and potatoes…I think?). ( Ronaldo Hawkins used to test it for purity by lighting it on a spoon. He told me, the better it was, the less blackened residue it left behind. I took his word for that and never bothered with it)
Anyway, for those that can still remember back to those crazy days, I present, for your delectation, pictures of the infamous JD and my good self, taken in the early 80’s, followed by pictures taken relatively recently of JD and I on a visit to him at his pub The Horseshoes near Diss, some year or two ago.
What a interesting story John, enjoyed reading it with thoughts of my own experience of flying ,although I never had the nerve to go into the ■■■■ pit , I was on a flight with A man who was a pain in the arse ? When he was around ? Things sometimes did not go to plan?? and when he asked to see the flight deck ? and disappear up the gangway with our BA girl I was uncomfortable waiting for the plane to start diving about , he told me that he asked if he could see the bridge that would be visible lit up at night spanning the sea at Istandbull the captain said NO !!! and would not open the shutters on the windscreen ? By now the captain had seen the light ?!! When boarding this flight in Jeddah there was a ruff sort of a chap ? Looking for his seat n/o finding this the fellow sitting next to him had on a big white Stetson hat on !!! He shouted. Out !!! F**king hell ,I’m, not sitting by a F–k Yank am I ,!! flying was not my favourit Ron
Mirlin just seen your photos , the name of the Pub is very good , longhorn as tails to tell ime sure ? Your stance , I remeber well !!! that’s more than the tank will hold , !!! tight tight you where tight the swine that you are Ron , ps do you wear Spures
TMS where paying for there cesspit to be emptied ,so I was asked to find a tank that we could modify to do the job ,I searched around and found Two cement trailers that where parked up in Alkhobar just off the duel carriageway they where in good order?but on inspection looking into the tanks ,There was a small amount of cement left in and it had gone off , the price was negotiated and I got them back to the workshops .Removing all lids and inspection covers ? I got the Thi workers to get inside and clean them out ? They where hitched up and drove over rough desert for a week or more knocking and banging, the trail on the desert floor with the cement dust was better than the road outside finally they where clean fitting a pump on the side they where really good , the place we used to empty was just a dip in the sand this turned out to be the place for photos ■■? It just looked like a blue pool in the desert ? With flies , talking of this ? Check point office was full of flies, and these where smashed onto the office wall with fly swats the wall was Red with there blood Mirlin will remember , Ron
Fiddling fuel receipts ■■?..allah shuft !! JW you were lucky to get up to the flight deck but then you had “Frequent flyer privileges” not so for us chappies … I had to draw some cash out the bank today and I thought about something earlier in this thread about the way we counted notes and lo and behold I found I was doing it just the way we did it out there !! folded over the index finger and flicked with the thumb ■■? strange the habits picked up while out there !!.. i ve been away for a week so the brain is still n holiday mode and my first port of call was here…disd any of you buy the little whistling reversing accessory for you car back home …had to wire it into the reversing lights …I did had lots of sales inquiries but never followed through I also had a SA sticker which seemed to baffle a few !!.. anyway I,ll get back in here again
Welcome back Backspice. Trust you enjoyed your holidays.
Your mention of whistling reversing bleepers reminded me that many of the Tonkers had very loud bird whistling Klaxon horns piped into their brakes. If you were walking in the street and one braked right by you, the sudden unexpected noise plus the blast of dust kicked up by the escaping air was enough to jolt you out of your heat induced torpor. Sometimes, being in a congested area was like being in the jungle!! Bloody parrots and canaries everywhere!!
Ronaldo, I liked your motorbike pictures. The last one reminded me of that Steve McQueen movie…but I always did have a good imagination!
Now I present to you, a swift resumez of my life through “Trucks I have known”. ( You can tell I have too much time on my hands at the moment can’t you?)
Maybe this might progress to “motorbikes I have known” then to “Idiots I have known” swiftly followed by “Cars I have known” and ending in "Crumpet I have known! "
This thread could just keep on going!
■■■■! I don’t know why those first two pictures fell over!!
That’s better!
Just as a matter of interest, even though I uploaded my pics correctly on the previous post, the first two “turned!” By a process of trial and error, I have worked out the problem…I think if the pics are too large, the site uploads them the best way to fit. I reduced the size by 50% and Hey Presto!! This is the first time I’ve come across- Smaller is better! Ha!
