No I’m sure I must have had some, but they have been lost .
I had her done in the same “livery” as the four wheeler and with " On Contract To LST" in the side panels.
She was a pretty powerful six wheel unit 420hp I think, or may even have been 450.
You asked where we are in Spain Alan. We are at the top end of Andalucia in the Province of Almeria just north of the desert area of the ‘Cabo de Gata’. Weather conditions have been bad here for the past year with very little rain and high temperatures. Last November the local farmer prepared his land and planted grass seed but the rains never materialised but last week the weathermen forecast a spell of heavy rain for yesterday and today. This prompted action and tractors and the drilling machines have been out replanting the barren fields before it arrived.
You could almost hear a collective sigh of relief from the locals as the rain started to fall but you didn’t hear it from us. Its nothing out of the ordinary though. We have had some winters here since 2006 with no rain at all. However, one thing you can guarantee is that the sun will be back in a couple of days and this wet spell will be history.
Would love to hear your sisters story Alan. One of our drivers, Ray Capon and his girlfriend, were learning Spanish when I worked for Mitchell & Robertson in 74. They were moving to Spain. Wonder if they’re still here?
Please click on a photo to enlarge.
Crickey! family histories?
It’s a long story, but the the short version is my older brother (an ex Merchant Seaman) was managing an English owned boat yard in Puerto Pollensa Mallorca servicing holiday yachts in the late 1950s or early 60s.
My sister (also older) went out to visit on holiday and met Alfonso, who was the Reservations Manager at the Hotel Formentor. After a couple of visits she had fallen in love with both him and Puerto Pollensa and decided to move out there, marry him, and make her life there.
She took Spanish nationality, learnt Spanish to a level of fluency where she taught many local children English.
She has lived there ever since bringing up her family of four children, and, with Alfonso, (now sadly deceased) built up a successful business as a travel agent and villa rental company
I have visited her numerous times over the years, I love it there and missed being able to go last year.
I am hoping things will be sufficiently back to normal to be able to go out around September this year.
In the mean time I have covered my bets by planning a couple of weeks touring Cornwall in June
Hello Alan. Your sister’s had a good life by the sound of it. Good on her.
I’ve just dug out a couple of photos taken in Tehran in the early 90’s. I know one’s been seen before but I don’t think both have. They are of Bobby Keen and he’s driving a Mack, only round the fairground though. We were at the Tehran International Trade Fair and it turned out to be my last exhibition before I called it a day.
I’ve also taken the liberty of borrowing some of Jazzandy’s photos of Macks from, I think, his ‘Fifty Shades of Tarmac’ book. I hope thats ok Andy. Don’t bother complaining if you’re not happy otherwise I’ll have to write a bad review of your new book ‘You Your Mack Tehran and Back’ (I hear its good though).
However, I reckon Bobby’s Mack is far superior to any you had Andy. It had charisma. It gave you a buzz just standing near it.
sandway:
Hello Alan. Your sister’s had a good life by the sound of it. Good on her.I’ve just dug out a couple of photos taken in Tehran in the early 90’s. I know one’s been seen before but I don’t think both have. They are of Bobby Keen and he’s driving a Mack, only round the fairground though. We were at the Tehran International Trade Fair and it turned out to be my last exhibition before I called it a day.
I’ve also taken the liberty of borrowing some of Jazzandy’s photos of Macks from, I think, his ‘Fifty Shades of Tarmac’ book. I hope thats ok Andy. Don’t bother complaining if you’re not happy otherwise I’ll have to write a bad review of your new book ‘You Your Mack Tehran and Back’ (I hear its good though).
However, I reckon Bobby’s Mack is far superior to any you had Andy. It had charisma. It gave you a buzz just standing near it.
‘Charisma’ just looked up the meaning; ‘compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others’!!! You can read it in Bobby’s eyes.
Give me my Scannie any day.
Had someone from home saying how sorry they were to hear about the snow and bad weather we are experiencing here in Spain. I think they were secretly gloating but I just let it go over my head. Still wearing my shorts and lazing on my easy chair.
Plenty of old drivers in the area including Bill Hook, Murfitts, Geoff Frost, Astran and our own Stevie Smith. All here for the same reason, the sun and warmth. Have attached a screenshot of the weather here for the next couple of weeks. Not mega hot but comfortable.
Back to the “old days” a couple of pictures here from another Xerox tour I did, this time with Trevor Thayer, to Paris, Barcelona and Lisbon, there could of been other venues I’m not sure, I seem to recall southern Germany maybe Frankfurt or Munich.
Nice fella Trevor I enjoyed working with him, steady as they come.
We were a couple of days behind a pop group (Iron Maiden I heard) at Badajoz and the customs were a bit over the top with us. They insisted we needed an officer in the cab with us down to customs in Lisbon.
I suspect they just wanted a lift home for the weekend, put us way behind schedule and had us buying Lunch for them, cheeky b**tards.
Thought they would take the pss a bit more, offered to order for us as we didn’t understand the menu. Half way through they were laughing and asking “good yes?” realising something was going on I said “yes, what is?”
With sign language, pointing down and grunting, they indicated it was pigs bllocks.
It back fired on them though, I didn’t give them the reaction they hoped for. Just said “humm nice and tucked back in”, in fairness I was already half way through and was quite enjoying it.
They also indicated, to much hilarity, it would be seriously advantageous to our married life.
Truth is, one of the things I liked about the job was the opportunity to try out local cuisine.
Probably wouldn’t have knowingly ordered Pig nuts though 
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Nice photos Alan. Used to love working with Trevor. Quiet and unassuming but always got the job done. He and his wife Maive stayed with us when we had holiday cottages on a number of occasions. Lovely couple but unfortunately lost contact with them years ago. Must dig out some photos of them when we return home.
Have attached a few more photos from the last Tehran Fair I did in the early 90’s. Bob Keen and I handled the onsite work together with plenty of labour supplied by our agent, Bijan Nabavi. We no longer handled the travel arrangements for the exhibitors. Our competitors were fighting back and had the ear of the BOTB who ruled we weren’t ‘bona fida’ travel agents. Hadn’t been for a number of years but we always did an excellent job and looked after our customers.
Because we no longer handled the travel arrangements for the exhibitors we no longer had free rooms in the big hotels so Bijan found us a nice comfortable little hotel where the owner was saving up for his retirement to the States, know what I mean, nudge nudge wink wink. It was somewhere down Vali-e Asr Street which ran north to south from the Chamran Expressway down to Vanak Square. I’ve tried to locate it on google earth without success.
Do we know what happened to “Bob the dog” Keen? Very nice fellow indeed.
I seem to remember running back from Baghdad with Bob one time and we took the day off in Istanbul and saw the sights, the thoroughly impressive Hagia Sofia, the amazing market where I bought a fine leather jacket (actually two jackets over the years), Pig Ally (gasp with horror), the less than impressive Pudding Shop etc (I still have the Pudding Shop stickers they gave me). Alas there were no beautiful hitchhikers advertising at the shop wanted a lift back to the UK. Even now I wonder why the Pudding Shop was famous?
I think that trip is the only time I can ever remember working with Bob (although the memory is not what it used to be). I had no idea he did all the Tehran stuff with Andy Mclean and George Fardell or perhaps I just forgot
Bob and I took the bus back to the Londra in the evening but by that time he was somewhat addled after a severe Efes Kontrol and I had job getting him off the bus and into the Londra.
By Mike McBey - commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.p … d=96447257
Wiki says: "In its first few years, the Pudding Shop was the only place in the area where direct transportation to Asia and tourist information on Turkey were readily available. With this knowledge, the Çolpan brothers put up a bulletin board inside the restaurant so that travellers could schedule rides with their fellow travellers and communicate with friends and family members. This board was very useful to the tourists, and eventually became notorious for the variety of personal messages that were posted alongside the transportation notifications. These included love and apology letters; one of the board’s most well-known posts was an open love letter from “Megan” to “Malcolm” in which she asked for his forgiveness and apologised for “the business down in Greece.”
Oddly enough I was with Bugsy on the way home from Baghdad at Kavala where we met up with the TopDeck travel bus (an old London bus converted into a home for mostly female Australians to view Europe safely). It was there I met Megan a second time (she sat on my knee at the Londra making me most hot and bothered) and we had some “fun” on the beach at Kavala in Greece (Bugsy most put out). I wonder whether she’s the Megan alluded to above I doubt it but who knows? I met her again in Italy in the bus a few months later and then in a bar in London completely by chance. Very fit indeed!
Happy days!
TopDeck travel is another story all together…
Does anyone remember the Harem Hotel in Istanbul?
Cross over the Bosporus Bridge going east and drop down right to a big car/truck park on the waterfront. Use to stop off there, do a bit of routine maintenance and an over night stay just up a little side road to the Harem for final personal maintenance.
There was a little ■■■■■■■ lad who seemed to live among the trucks, when you came in he would greet you “hello mister, what’s your name? Me Ben Fck Off". Some of us would bung him a few lire on the pretext he would guard our truck overnight. Others were perhaps not so generous so he had got the idea that was his name, from their response, "hello Ben, "Fck Off”.
I’ve wondered over the years what became of him. With his entrepreneurial spirit and happy “can do” nature he probably became a multi millionaire. I like to thinks so.
Ha ha Efes. Who you trying to kid. Oh, I met her in Istanbul then Kavala then again in Italy and oh yes I bumped into her in London. I’d have thought the odds on that were longer than winning the lottery especially as the lottery didn’t start till 94. Do you remember the ‘Bruce and Sheila’ Aussie jokes told by John Preece. Every Aussie bird was Sheila. You sure you didn’t fraternise with four different Aussie birds but called them all Megan.
Bob Keen and I did a trip to Baghdad in 82 via the Koper/Tartous ferry. This wasn’t long before the route was suspended by the shipping line as not being economical as most haulage firms were once again transiting Turkey. I didn’t realise he did another trip later with you Efes. Later in the early 90’s he accompanied me to Tehran. He wasn’t a M/E man and as far as I know they were the only trips he did. The attached photo shows what type of work he enjoyed doing. Mainly roadshows where there was plenty of birds and booze.
Last time I heard of Bob was around twelve or fifteen years ago. Christopher, my son who had driven for Promotor was driving for Samways out of Bridport delivering wet fish to Den Haag in Holland. There was an accident whilst unloading and Chris was hit in the nuts by a large plastic barrel. He was in a bad way but managed to get back to the tunnel and onto the train. There was no way he could drive back to Dorset and Bob (whom he kept in touch with) volunteered to come to his rescue and drive him back to the depot. I believe Bob lived in North Kent and was driving for a bakery firm.
Talking of Multi Millionaires.
Back in the mid/late 70s there were two brothers, on the Bagdad run, who “hot bunked” one driving and one sleeping. Dan and Don Ham from Hawkhurst Kent, they drove non-stop to get the loads in.
When they had made enough money Dan bought a couple of Lorries, I did a bit of Italy for him.
Don bought a couple of old banger coaches, and the rest as they say is history.
Don is the multi millionaire owner of Hams Travel, one of the biggest, if not the biggest independent coach operators in the south of England.
He allowed me to use his yard as my registered Operating Centre for my Operators licence when I went Owner Driver.
When I had had enough flogging trucks up and down motorways, towards the end of my working life I went to work for Don.
Nice job, take a few “old people” to the seaside for the day, few day trips over the water, couple of skiey trips to Austria with school kids in the winter, educational trips down the Mosel Valley in summer.
Did that for 5 yrs until I retired.
> Alan Grant:
> There was a little ■■■■■■■ lad who seemed to live among the trucks, when you came in he would greet you “hello mister, what’s your name? Me Ben F*ck Off”. Some of us would bung him a few lire on the pretext he would guard our truck overnight.
I remember him being part of a group of three: Fck Off, Pss Off & W*nker - good lads, trucks were safe, they would clean your windscreens & polish your shoes too.
It was said they took the names from the first English words they heard from drivers 
Hi Geoff,
Seems your memory is a bit better than mine. Thanks.
You’re welcome to post those Mack photos Brian. Those books sold out the first print run of 1500 although I have about ten left which are still gradually being bought.
Here’s the cover of the new book. The first copies arrived with me today so I’ll have a sore right wrist from signing!!
I recently showed a photo of Bob Keen and myself about to open a wooden crate of standfitting material for ■■■■■■■ Engines at the Tehran Fair. I said we both had expressions on our faces that at that time I couldn’t interpret. However, after enlarging the photo I remember it all too clearly.
You have to remember Iran was, and still is, a dry country. No booze whatsoever which was not something our Bobby wanted to hear. But of course there’s always some around even in the harshest and strictest of regimes and in Iran it was the Armenian community that were the people who had a still in every home. Bobby soon sniffed it out and his supplier would let him have as many bottles as he wanted. I say sniffed out advisedly as It was Vodka they produced and we know it as a clear liquid with hardly and smell but the stuff they produced was not clear and had a very pungent aroma.
Back to the photo, which I have enlarged, you will see Bobby on the right looking slightly worse for wear and me looking ‘■■■■■■ off’ because of the state he’s in. This was eight o’clock in the morning and he reeked of home brewed vodka and was having a job to hold a screwdriver let alone find the head of a screw. Our agent Bijan understood exactly what the problem was and advised I keep him hidden at the back of the pavilion which didn’t help me when it came to building ■■■■■■■ stand. Luckily I found a couple of willing Yugo’s and I got around the problem
There was one other occasion when Bobby turned up still ■■■■■■ from the night before. He had found another Brit working at the Fair and they both turned up in a haze of vodka fumes. It was when the exhibition was open and there was very little work to be done so I told him in no uncertain manner to get back to the hotel and sleep it off.
This Tehran International Trade Fair in the early 90’s was my last big job. Perhaps Bobby had something to do with my decision!
Few more pics from the ‘■■■■■■■ Engine’ stand at the early 90’s Tehran Fair. I remember the guy that gave us the job of fitting out his stand at the fair saying to me before I left the UK, “you won’t let me down will you Brian”. As if I would. He was one of my best customers.
