yen_powell

I was a trainee in the Main Drainage team for 6 months. I am a bit claustrophobic and I asked to go down one to try and convince myself it was just a passing phase. Not a problem they said, I went to our supply depot and was issued with a yellow rubber immersion suit, super long white socks and thigh length rubber waders (when we still had such things, nowadays you have to find your own stuff and order it yourself). I'll bet the thought of me in that lot is getting you all going. Actually at the manhole I was given a hard hat with head lamp and a belt with a battery pack which gets in the way all the time. They didn't want the suit or waders back for some reason after I came back up and was hosed down to remove the clinging turds?

Not down there. I once walked the Victorian sewer that runs under The Highway in Wapping. It was small so that you had to waddle along with your hands against the sides so you didn't fall into the grim contents. You have to waddle through water, wall to wall turds and toilet paper. The stench when they opened up the manhole covers to vent the sewer is appalling. I was told that my nose would switch off when I got down there and they were correct, quite amazing.

I thought I would fit my Altrider bash plate today. I had everything set up. Attempted to give myself a hernia moving the bike ramp more to the centre of the garage to give more room around the front of the bike and then on attempt number 5 managed to get the XT onto it with a shorter run up than usual. Had the music on, a cup of tea, really good paper instructions and I'd watched the installation video which is most excellent. I was all set. Firstly. off came the plastic excuse for a bash plate, then the two alloy brackets that it mounts to, all going well, tea only halfway down, bagged the bits and labelled them. Then the next task was to remove the two allen bolts holding the side stand bracket on. I started hopefully with a ratchet and and allen bit socket. Hmmmm, that seems a bit tight. Switched to a 3/8 breaker bar. More hmmmmming, the breaker bar was starting to curve a little and a small vein was showing on my forehead I reckon. The I got out that impact driver, the really cheap one I got in my teens, at a market probably. Much kerbangingin time to the music but nothing is moving. Time for the next stage, Roxette by Dr Feelgood came on just as I plugged in my B&Q electric paint stripper and gave one of the bolts a going over for about 30 seconds, back in with the impact driver and club hammer, nothing. Then a full minute of heat gun and tried again, it started to move thank god. A minute on the other one and that started to move. At one point I though the bike would rotate the opposite way if I put any more force into my hammer. Removed the two bolts and bagged them when they were cool. Side stand now only supported by the electrical connection, so I found something for it lay on and switched sides to the exhaust hanger bolts that needed to come out. Tea now drunk, Nightboat to Cairo by Madness is playing, love that song. A 10mm bolt about 4 inches long and a smaller 8mm bolt came out with no arguments. Time to start fitting the first bash plate bracket bolts in their place. I found the two replacement bolts which are slightly longer to allow for the thickness of the brackets. The larger one goes in and I start to turn it, but it doesn't feel right. I always put bolts in by hand so as not to wreck a thread and it wouldn't even start. I took it back out and compared it to the Yamaha original. I'm no thread expert and I have middle aged eyes these days but the pitch looked closer together on the original bolt. Bad picture below, the grubby one is obviously the original bolt. I found a nut that would run down the Altrider bolt, it wouldn't go near the Yamaha one. Anyway, out came the plastic bags and I refitted everything. I've emailed the manufacturer for advice. Worst case scenario, I buy my own bolt, but I could have wrecked the thread on the bike if I'd gone in gung ho with a ratchet.

Braintree

I had a colleague who claimed that he was inside the concrete walls of a flyover in Barking when they were due to fill it full of wet pour concrete without realising he was there. He obviously made it out alive though. This is him https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoxton_Tom_McCourt definitely one of life's characters, first person I sat next to at the council, I never understood one word in 10 most of the time. Years later when he had risen through the ranks his P.A.s struggled when he dictated letters and when they brought out MS Office that could type what you said it failed miserably. I used to have to collect/put back traffic counting machines from a basement room with a steel door about 18 inches thick. I was paranoid about the door accidentally shutting on a Friday afternoon and being stuck there all weekend.

You've got to give yourself room to work. I'll see if we have the original drawings scanned anywhere, they are a work of art, back in the days when draftsmen took pride in their work or maybe just paid by the line. I've got a print but it's the size of a desk top, the original is drawn on linen.

Up the road from me is a place called Furneaux Pelham. Never known how that is pronounced. Do you say the X (Furnex) or say it like a French person would which I am only assuming is Furno.

It's a keeper that one!

I should mention that there is a sign outside these toilets that demonstrates that sometimes people just don't think things through before acting. I can't find my picture of it, but you can just about see it on GSV.

I gathered from the locals attempting to communicate that the ferry had been out of action for a long time and I was lucky it was actually up and running. I'd never been to Bungay before so as I say, I just tore a page out of an old AA map and headed cross country. My mate, for reasons known only to himself, had just uprooted himself and moved there because he could buy a bigger house, He had no job to go to, his wife was still working in Barking so they ended up staying at her parents in Dagenham and visiting their house only at weekends???? When he told me where he had moved to I thought he was making the name up or mispronouncing it! Thought I would drop in on my way home.

They did that with one in Whitechapel. A large pink coach full of commuters went out of control, hit the part that was above the footway and demolished it, I don't think it ever re-opened. The one at the top of Brick Lane is now an estate agents. The one in the pictures has something planned for it I hear on the grapevine.

It was a bit of a shock to me, I was expecting just a country lane not a body of water to get across.

I think he had a couple of striped bikes at one point. I met him one lunchtime in Greenwich and he'd turned up on a push bike, he loves 2 wheels. He's also a member of the XRV 2 stroke club, we both had one whilst owning an XRV, only he was riding in France when he had his.

Looking for the pictures of the Norfolk rally on my back up drives and found the toilet pictures Pete keeps mentioning. Everyone should have a hobby and mine is old toilets. This is Leyden Street toilets, built circa 1910 according to the drawings I have on my garage wall. It's been closed up since about 1970, but I persuaded my mate to let me have a look round. They don't build them like this any more. It used to have urinettes in the ladies according to my drawings. This is for ladies in Edwardian dresses to wee standing up by standing with a leg either side. Unfortunately even the local prostitutes the area is famous for refused to do this as they considered it unladylike and they spent a penny instead and used the normal cubicles. The urinettes were removed after a few years.

Aha, found the pics on my back up drive.

Possibly! It was on a camp site with very warm weather despite it being nearly winter and in the evening there was a fog so dense I got lost walking back to my tent. I rode to Bungay afterwards using a torn out page of an AA road atlas which seemed to show a direct route but was a bit misleading. Ended up on a very small ferry for a pound (Reedham?).

I've ridden that in a 'going slow between the cones' competition somewhere on the Norfolk Broads. I was trying to do it on my glitchy Varadero which did not like slow riding until I added a power commando and I asked to try again on Chris's bike. The winner rode a bloody Varadero!!!!!!!! I have video of it somewhere, the bloke just stopped all the time and stayed still without putting his feet down, it was amazing to watch. Sadly he died on the same bike later on I heard.

Is that Whealies old bike?

I think I may have already told you about the time they put a health testing machine in our town hall for a few weeks. I put my money in and stood on the scales. The instructions were in tiny writing and I bent down to see that it said to press this large red button which I did not knowing that this measured my height as it was pressed. The piece of paper it printed out said I was 12 stone but only 4 feet 8 inches tall and I was morbidly obese. I did it a few weeks later properly this time, a vast improvement and without even dieting or going to a gym.

Flares on the kickstart era!

They look like a trip hazard to me!

Laugharne?