Suedehead:
adr:
Got the M/E look.No tax or op licence
Minor details 
Why complicate the things 
Nice turnout of Drivers to wish Lenny Venables on his way to the Truckstop in the sky well done to them that made the effort as it was a distance for some ,I have a few pics will post ASAP R.I.P Lenny
Roger Haywood
Suedehead:
adr:
Got the M/E look.No tax or op licence
Or upper bunk which surely would have been handy.
Mushrooman, hello Steve am going to UK for Xmas will meet up with Corrie and give you latest update on his well being. Have you noticed that at last Loosewire has admitted at last that he is who we all suspected Rita.With no disrespect to Jazzandy I really can t be bothered to read his rambling dialogue, have read his first episode and maybe the last few lines of his last, I hope he concludes with the standard authors statement that all characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. Have a nice day mate. Crow.
Hello Geoff, I hope that you have a great Christmas in the U.K. and that Corrie is well enough to go out carol singing with you to earn a couple of extra bob. Please treat Ken to a pint from me and pass on my best regards. Have you sold your house in Spain yet and are you thinking of moving back to the U.K. in the new year. Maybe if you and Ken put your heads together and get your memories of being down the road on paper then I am sure that there are loads of us on here who would love to read about them.
Geoff, I just canât understand why you donât appear to enjoy reading articles from people like Jazzandy or Chris Arbon. 
Whenever somebody mentions place like Rotterdam, The Amstel Inn or De Beers Seamans Mission which are all places which I had forgotton about for over twenty five years, the memories for me and no daubt some others just keep flowing back.
Was it really thirty years ago when Old Jock, (Ken knows who I mean ) and myself were Christmas shopping in the duty free shop in De Beers when Jock asked me did I want to go halves on buying a blow up doll 
and do you know what, the old (z.b.) was serious.
Jazzandyâs mention of driving under the runway at Charles de Gaulle airport while a Jumbo jet was taxi-ing over the top had me going through all my old photos trying to find that photo of mine which I took of an Air France jet as it taxied above the road but could I find it to stick it on his thread, no I couldnât but I know that itâs in the house somewhere.
Itâs surprising the things that people mention on here and because they didnât do the job like the way I did it or remember it doesnât mean that they didnât go to the same places that I did and I still find peoples experiences of travelling fascinating.
Have a great Christmas Geoff and a Happy New Year and let us know how your trip to the U.K. goes.
Best regards Steve.
Sorry youâre not enjoying my âramblingsâ Geof. Either I can tell the whole story of the trip in one paragraph with 'Got up in the morning drove 300 miles, had lunch, drove 300 miles, had dinner, slept, got up in the morning etc. etc. " or I can try to set the scene and give people who were not around at the time the flavour of what it was like to drive a truck in the early seventies and the reaction Iâve had so far has been very positive. The timeline, the places, the people are all pretty much accurate. Obviously the conversations canât be remembered word for word after forty years but everything Iâve been describing did actually happen.
I only drove for six years after which I went into management so youâve got far more experience than me and, I would have thought, a great many more interesting stories. Please share them!!!
Look at the view count from your âramblingsâ Jazzandy, you can see from those that theyâre getting a very good reception, but they wonât be to everyoneâs taste, some just like a few brief words and lots of pictures, others donât care for either, whatever the case, keep on as you are, if you try to please everbody youâll end up pleasing nobody, especially yourself
Jazzer I m not meaning to upset you or your readers who in the main don t appear to have done the job, however my literary bent is obviously not the same as yours. I did so many trips that i ve forgotten most of them, I do remember my first trip which was to Dunquerqe in a non sleeper ERF reload Belgium not very far but far enough in winter in that freezing cold motor. My first real trip was to Romania the following year 1976 in that famous non sleeper Rolls Royce powered Scania, I must have had a penchant for non sleeper motors, it was nt until the arrival of the 88s and 89s that I got a really good kip. May be one day before it s too late I ll have a go at emulating your prose but don t hold your breath, kind regards Crow.
I dare say that every ex middle east or continental driver from any era has stories to tell.The Crow certainly has although I suspect he is just too lazy to write about them.Of all the drivers who read this thread how many put their exploits on paper?,only a very small number,and the reason is that most drivers (myself included) canât remember the details of their trips or think themselves not articulate enough to write an interesting story.I have no doubt the majority of stories told on this thread(and that includes Chris Arbon and Jazzandy) have their basics in fact, but are then embellished(sometimes to the point of absurbity) to make for interesting reading for those drivers who havenât done the job or those who would look backwards in nostalgia.
I think if you locked the Taylor brothers in a room with a couple of cases of beer and a tape recorder; you would get enough stuff for a book. A lot of stuff that went on in Eastern Europe and the Middle-East is unbelievable but true. Take the story about the guy who ripped out the clutch plates; yet found the exact spares that he needed, a couple of hours later, under the bunk of a Turkish Volvo who just happened to stop to see what the matter was. Or the time that an Army tank rolled up and pulled a Brit out of a ditch.
Jazzandyâs writing is good stuff, itâs not easy to read off of a screen and you need to give yourself time to read it. But it is worthwhile reading and itâs good that he takes the time and trouble to do it.
My old mum always said, " If you cant say something good about someone then dont say nothing at all."
I know that doesnât make for interesting posts on a forum and everybody is entitled to a point of view; but Jazzandy is documenting an important era in transport history and should be given every encouragement.
I have trouble sometimes understanding why grown men , and quite old men argue the way some do on here . FFS grow up a bit more and if you dont want to read something then dont read it ⌠it aint rocket science .
What next Zimmer frames at 30 paces âŚ
Thanks Newmercman, crow, tony, Chris and bowser. Good points all.
I find that if you start to write the basic story an awful lot of detail comes back to you. My only embellishments are the conversation but I do try to put into that, explanatory information about the job such as why anyone would want to use overland trucks etc.
ChrisArbon:
I think if you locked the Taylor brothers in a room with a couple of cases of beer and a tape recorder; you would get enough stuff for a book. A lot of stuff that went on in Eastern Europe and the Middle-East is unbelievable but true. Take the story about the guy who ripped out the clutch plates; yet found the exact spares that he needed, a couple of hours later, under the bunk of a Turkish Volvo who just happened to stop to see what the matter was. Or the time that an Army tank rolled up and pulled a Brit out of a ditch.
Jazzandyâs writing is good stuff, itâs not easy to read off of a screen and you need to give yourself time to read it. But it is worthwhile reading and itâs good that he takes the time and trouble to do it.
My old mum always said, " If you cant say something good about someone then dont say nothing at all."
I know that doesnât make for interesting posts on a forum and everybody is entitled to a point of view; but Jazzandy is documenting an important era in transport history and should be given every encouragement.
We must have the same Mum Chris!!!
David
bowser:
I have trouble sometimes understanding why grown men , and quite old men argue the way some do on here . FFS grow up a bit more and if you dont want to read something then dont read it ⌠it aint rocket science .What next Zimmer frames at 30 paces âŚ
Some people just like to argue for the sake of itâŚvis carryfast !!. I have nothing against Chris Arbon(I appologised for taking the pâŚs) or Jazzandy,itâs just not my cup of tea.I read these kind adventure stories in the Wizard and Hotspur comics (who can forget âI flew with Braddockâ or âthe tough of the trackâ) when I was a youngster.I suppose Chris Arbon is right Geoffrey and me could probably find enough material to write a book,but I would find it pretty uninteresting and the Crow just wouldnât be bothered to do it.Chewing over old times and experiences with your mates,where you have a conversation, is, I think a lot different than trying to write a book about a job that is in the main mundane and boring,hence the need for embellishment and exaggeration,I donât think anyone can remember exact occurances and conversations,and in that context(except for the bones of the story) the book becomes a work of imagination and fiction and should be rendered as such.
Dont worry Guys Ive been to six funerals in the last 2 years,no arguments,no stories,no B u l l ,as there will be no one left to do the writing,I wonder exactly how many are left now.
Roger
Hi All the way I see it you should all get together someone like Jazzandy doing the writing short stories just like the Turk with the clutch under his bunk that saved the day!! You guys must know dozens of em, there is all ways intrest in Middle East stories ⌠In a book youâd all make a small fortune !! Happy days !
Regards Jimski
I think that all of the experiences posted by the lads are of interest although most of us have done it, and the stories always nudge the old memory box, I for one have been taken back in time with many of the experiences that I have read on this forum and they are all interesting
so just keep them coming - Regards to everyone, and have a great Xmas and wishing you all that you would hope for in 2013 - Fred
freshir:
I think that all of the experiences posted by the lads are of interest although most of us have done it, and the stories always nudge the old memory box, I for one have been taken back in time with many of the experiences that I have read on this forum and they are all interesting
so just keep them coming - Regards to everyone, and have a great Xmas and wishing you all that you would hope for in 2013 - Fred
Well said Fred I totaly agree. For us old men that have been there and done that, experiecing much of the unbeleivable our memories are stimulated.
I just got through watching Destiation Doha and chuckled, remembering how they faked getting stuck in the sand only to realise they were for real . Memores, I consider my self fortunate to have been involved in so many adventures, experiences, brawls etc, like the time Kemal (S.I.) Ronnie (R&R), Billy (S.I.), Dave the Arab and myself tried to use parking above the Londra Mocamp, NO TIR parking all hell broke loose. Dave got locked up for pullimg his knife ( more like a hatchet ), we all and others chipped in to get him out. Wild, crazy, fun days theyâre missed, keep your writing going jazzandy.
Wishing Everyone a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year, or as we taught the turks one christmas âŚWe wish you a merry syphilus and a clappy ghonerea 
Well Bowser you ve got a good point there , no one is making you read these tales of derring do and Zimmerframes not quite yet but not far off.These are only my and Tonys opinions obviously far outweighed by the number of drivers or others who are enthralled.On the subject of writing our own memoirs just like any other members of this once select band of brothers of course there were incidents which are worth relating and one such Tony is when we picked up the New Zealand girl Nicky and her Australian mate Kim she of the biggest pair of Knockers I ve ever seen. That was at Kavala circa 1984, they were both nannies for some mega rich Irish race horse owner and were on their way back to Ireland but we were going to Istanbul from whence they had just come and because of Visa restriction on Antipodeans had to go back via Italy France not Commie Bloc were nt they lucky we were one of the very few using that route consequently they had to go back to istanbul with us and then home, we had them for 10 days, what transpired in those 10 days is another story but as Maurice Chevalier said are yes I remember it well. The story of the Turkish tank and the clutch plates are 100 percent true we ve no need to prevaricate. Jazzer if it makes you happy and your die hard band of followers by all means carry on. Regards to all Crow.Avery merry Christmas to every one.
geoffthecrowtaylor:
Well Bowser you ve got a good point there , no one is making you read these tales of derring do and Zimmerframes not quite yet but not far off.These are only my and Tonys opinions obviously far outweighed by the number of drivers or others who are enthralled.On the subject of writing our own memoirs just like any other members of this once select band of brothers of course there were incidents which are worth relating and one such Tony is when we picked up the New Zealand girl Nicky and her Australian mate Kim she of the biggest pair of Knockers I ve ever seen. That was at Kavala circa 1984, they were both nannies for some mega rich Irish race horse owner and were on their way back to Ireland but we were going to Istanbul from whence they had just come and because of Visa restriction on Antipodeans had to go back via Italy France not Commie Bloc were nt they lucky we were one of the very few using that route consequently they had to go back to istanbul with us and then home, we had them for 10 days, what transpired in those 10 days is another story but as Maurice Chevalier said are yes I remember it well. The story of the Turkish tank and the clutch plates are 100 percent true we ve no need to prevaricate. Jazzer if it makes you happy and your die hard band of followers by all means carry on. Regards to all Crow.Avery merry Christmas to every one.
We âDEMANDâ to know more about what happened during those ten dayâs Geoff - your secret is safe with us - regards Fred