Picture(s) of the day....

[Dormouse]

And as for preselector Wilson boxes - do not try and use the "clutch" and change gear at the same time! Your left ankle will thank you for it. I had two Daimler Consorts with Wilson boxes. Lovely machines.

[Dormouse]

Hi. Thought I would put this picture up. Can anyone guess what the couple with the dog do next?

How is this for a well behaved dog! all impromptu, I kid you not.

[Dormouse]

My cellar only has Fior Fettercairn in it just now. Not a patch on Old Fettercairn and I haven't sampled the newer offerings, yet.

[mickthemaverick]

I'm a bit rusty on dogs, is that a Cairn Terrier or just a very old dog?

[mickthemaverick]

No, it must be a very old dog!!

Cairn Terrier

[Dormouse]

The dog in my picture is a brown and white springer spaniel I think, if I remember my spaniels.

[Dormouse]

Springer Spaniel ?

[mickthemaverick]

I'd have to agree with that and there are some interesting facts about them in this short video including how they got their name!:

[NewcastleFalcon]

The Water of Tyne.

REgards Neil

[Stonehopper]

Two jobs I most hated;

As a building site labourer shifting hundreds of 'face' brick by hand (wore the fingertips away to smooth skin). Lasted two weeks.
Rootes Group, Dunstable, on the production line for Commer Spacevans. Down a pit fitting; accelerator linkage, steering box to chassis, torque up drop link - dob with blue paint, connect rear shocks, torque up and blue paint - on to next vehicle as it moved overhead. Just enough head room to ensure you hit certain items beneath the vehicle. Hard hats supplied, but meant you hit more items. I wore a wooly hat as best option. Walked off the job after two weeks.

One of the better ones:


Not me in this shot though.

[Dormouse]

Two jobs I most hated;

As a building site labourer shifting hundreds of 'face' brick by hand (wore the fingertips away to smooth skin). Lasted two weeks.
Rootes Group, Dunstable, on the production line for Commer Spacevans. Down a pit fitting; accelerator linkage, steering box to chassis, torque up drop link - dob with blue paint, connect rear shocks, torque up and blue paint - on to next vehicle as it moved overhead. Just enough head room to ensure you hit certain items beneath the vehicle. Hard hats supplied, but meant you hit more items. I wore a wooly hat as best option. Walked off the job after two weeks.

One of the better ones:


Not me in this shot though.

I had a family friend, Ron, who worked at London Zoo and became a keeper for Guy the Gorilla. He was always smiling, God rest his cotton socks. He was a built like Guy, ex Navy, and the two hit it off. Guy, despite his "gentle" demeanour, could be "troubling" for some keepers, apparently, but Ron managed him fine.

[Stonehopper]

I had a family friend, Ron, who worked at London Zoo and became a keeper for Guy the Gorilla. He was always smiling, God rest his cotton socks. He was a built like Guy, ex Navy, and the two hit it off. Guy, despite his "gentle" demeanour, could be "troubling" for some keepers, apparently, but Ron managed him fine.

Good to hear. Can't place that Ron exactly, but do remember a Ron Dumbledon, but he was Aquarium IIRC.
Your Ron would have come under Head Keeper George Callard, he was a great character too. George had a BSA and sidecar with which he would take his family on holidays until it was replaced with a Hillman car. The outfit lay languishing in the staff car park for ages, becoming the sleeping quarters for some vagrant. The BSA was a Road Rocket which I fancied. Bought it off him for a fiver, cleaned out the fag ends and bottle caps, got it running and rode home. Kept it for years.

Ken Alibone was another Monkey House Keeper. It was he who heard cries of help from the adjacent Panda pit when Chris Madden got attacked by Chi-chi the Giant Panda. Ken jumped into the pit and kept the Panda off Chris with a broom while help was summoned. Chris is still around, lives in Norfolk. Ken sadly not.

Chris and I became good pals after convalescence as he came to us on the Giraffe section under George Robinson aka - 'The Joint'.

The name Figgis has come into my head - was that your Ron? The Zoo was full of some interesting people. Some would travel in from the Home Counties, others lived local.

A Cornish Sunset from 2014:

[NewcastleFalcon]

...and you don't get that sort of stuff on any other car forum on the internet....quality contributions Derek and Dormouse

Its what makes the FCF so enjoyable, so if you are just a viewer and not a poster as yet, to paraphrase Nike

"Just join in"

Regards Neil

[Dormouse]

I had a family friend, Ron, who worked at London Zoo and became a keeper for Guy the Gorilla. He was always smiling, God rest his cotton socks. He was a built like Guy, ex Navy, and the two hit it off. Guy, despite his "gentle" demeanour, could be "troubling" for some keepers, apparently, but Ron managed him fine.

Good to hear. Can't place that Ron exactly, but do remember a Ron Dumbledon, but he was Aquarium IIRC.
Your Ron would have come under Head Keeper George Callard, he was a great character too. George had a BSA and sidecar with which he would take his family on holidays until it was replaced with a Hillman car. The outfit lay languishing in the staff car park for ages, becoming the sleeping quarters for some vagrant. The BSA was a Road Rocket which I fancied. Bought it off him for a fiver, cleaned out the fag ends and bottle caps, got it running and rode home. Kept it for years.

Ken Alibone was another Monkey House Keeper. It was he who heard cries of help from the adjacent Panda pit when Chris Madden got attacked by Chi-chi the Giant Panda. Ken jumped into the pit and kept the Panda off Chris with a broom while help was summoned. Chris is still around, lives in Norfolk. Ken sadly not.

Chris and I became good pals after convalescence as he came to us on the Giraffe section under George Robinson aka - 'The Joint'.

The name Figgis has come into my head - was that your Ron? The Zoo was full of some interesting people. Some would travel in from the Home Counties, others lived local.

A Cornish Sunset from 2014:

Ron Couch was his name. Great sweet natured guy (excuse the pun). loved big cars like Jags. Stayed in Greenford if I remember correctly.

[Stonehopper]

...and you don't get that sort of stuff on any other car forum on the internet....quality contributions Derek and Dormouse
(snipped)
Regards Neil

Thank you kind Sir! Life is a collection of incidental anecdotes and memories, long may it be so.

Ron Couch and Greenford rings a bell.

Guy the Gorilla I remember well enough. Quite a character. Members of the public were apt to complain at some of his antics, like catching small birds and detaching their wings. I won't go into the more ruder ones.

The chimps were good performers. On hot crowded days, they would kick up a ruccus to draw a crowd many people deep, with small children being sat on shoulders for a better view as the chimps would rush backwards and forwards, front of outside den to back wall where one in particular - the biggest - would hit the metal slide with a huge bang, clapping his hands - to which the crowd would copy. Reaching a screeching climax as he rushed front to back as more and more gathered to see what was occurring. Then the coup de gras - scooping up a handful of sloppy wet monkey faeces - throw it an an arc through the bars to cover the unsuspecting viewers, then sit quietly, watching the reaction of his unfortunate victims.

We had a Lion at one time, 'Ceasar' by name, who would perform a similar feat. He would roar as only big male lions can, and the crowds would gather. Ceasar would then turn majestically, and spray them with urine.

And they say 'we' are the intelligent species.

Of better things:







Cornish cliff path