Davies Int. Southampton. With photos (Part 1)

hi buzzer. i thought all the drivers that worked for you at the time dun it for love of the job. :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: not the money. did we get payed■■?. :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile: .loved it.

Ocean Clipper:
hi buzzer. i thought all the drivers that worked for you at the time dun it for love of the job. :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: not the money. did we get payed■■?. :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile: .loved it.

Hi Nifty as Horry calls you,i remember you coming in one night to ship out and the load was prawns from Lyons at Codford but it had about six drops on it and off you went, fired up to such a degree that i told you to drop the trailer and pick up one for Liverpool market but you didn’t want that either and shot out the gate but getting to the top of lances hill bound for Pompy docks you realized you had no running money so had to return to the office to pick it up.The thing that ■■■■■■ me off was that i had spent 2 hours finding all the places on my detailed French encyclopedia,photo copy every drop and blown it up for easy reading ,of course the job went like a dream but i dont remember you saying sorry to poor old Buzzer,another Mary Hopkin moment and oh how we laughed.

Whos got a sense of humour,cheers Buzzer.

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hi buzzer. always go for the best pictures. love it lol . :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: .hm :neutral_face: :exclamation: :sunglasses: :sunglasses: erry xmas allof you happy new year.

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I used to love the multi drop prawns to Italy. The first few times you’d tear your hear out, now I know who to blame, but most were regular tips and once you got to know the drops you could plan the job almost to perfection. Start in Turin and 10 drops throughout italy ending down near brindisi.

It took a few days doing it legally but the beauty of it was that most drops were little small places so 1600 was the latest you’d get tipped. Run on to the next drop and be parked up at a sensible time. Once you got to know people you worked out who would help you out and if you had 3 drops in a town then often a certain drop would take all three for you.

Depending on the time of year you’d either load fruit or out of season it would be pasta from near Salerno or my favourite, a crossroad to Spain. Bog roll and washing powder were usually one drops or it could be kiwi or chestnuts with 3 or 4 drops to the Spanish markets.

IIRC we used to load the chestnuts for a couple of brothers and quite often they would turn up when you loaded. One who always made me chuckle used to dress like some 70s mafia godfather with the cashmere coat over his shoulders and leather gloves in his hands. Never was to sure if he was genuine cosa Nostra and daren’t ask because a bloody horses head would make an awful mess of the quilt cover.

Cheers
Neilf

Hello Neil. The gentleman in the Delboy coat was Mr John Solami. His company name was Verona Export. Yes that was his brother with him all the time. We would load from ‘PAF’ at Lugo for as you know ‘M-V-M’ (Madrid, Valencia and Murcia Markets) We havent done anything with him for over ten years now and would not even know if he is still in the business. Always very helpful in the past and had on more than one occasion arranged to meet our boys with running money if on a changeover for Greece and as you know back then it was all cash for the ferries.

I must have got the good loads out of Codford…One droppers!

I’m sure it was Chestnuts I was tipping at Warspite Road one night when a rat jumped out of the trailer and ran up the road…I managed to kick it and it “played dead” in the gutter and scarpered when I walked away. Mappo may have been there…we kept looking for the rest of the family to come out!

gazzer:
I must have got the good loads out of Codford…One droppers!

I’m sure it was Chestnuts I was tipping at Warspite Road one night when a rat jumped out of the trailer and ran up the road…I managed to kick it and it “played dead” in the gutter and scarpered when I walked away. Mappo may have been there…we kept looking for the rest of the family to come out!

Hi all I remember we once loaded chestnuts from in the hills in north spain,it was a tin hut on the side of the road only used for that purpose and some times you had to wait a day but luckily there was a bar restaurant about a mile up the road,you did not go for a crap in the woods up there as it was frequented by wild bears,Any way when the load came back to england Denny Belbin was on hand to tip the trailer but on arrival at its destination the cold air had made all the maggots come out of the chestnuts and they absolutely covered the fridge floor and cosequently the load got rejected,after some deliberation it was decided the load had to go back to spain,not to the loading point but merca Barcelona cos they do like a bit of protein with there nuts.
Another MH moment ,cheers Buzzzer.

Buzzer:
Whos got a sense of humour,cheers Buzzer.

Ha! love that turkey gag, an oldie but goodie JD , am using it as my Chrimbo Card this year…

I’m outa here until the New Year as no internet ‘til then ( am on a mates pc down on the coast ) …telephone companies up in the hills are slower than the old French customs and they dont take " Un Cafe’ " to speed things up…

Happy Christmas to all wot knows me… Balders.

Buzzer:

gazzer:
I must have got the good loads out of Codford…One droppers!

I’m sure it was Chestnuts I was tipping at Warspite Road one night when a rat jumped out of the trailer and ran up the road…I managed to kick it and it “played dead” in the gutter and scarpered when I walked away. Mappo may have been there…we kept looking for the rest of the family to come out!

Hi all I remember we once loaded chestnuts from in the hills in north spain,it was a tin hut on the side of the road only used for that purpose and some times you had to wait a day but luckily there was a bar restaurant about a mile up the road,you did not go for a crap in the woods up there as it was frequented by wild bears,Any way when the load came back to england Denny Belbin was on hand to tip the trailer but on arrival at its destination the cold air had made all the maggots come out of the chestnuts and they absolutely covered the fridge floor and cosequently the load got rejected,after some deliberation it was decided the load had to go back to spain,not to the loading point but merca Barcelona cos they do like a bit of protein with there nuts.
Another MH moment ,cheers Buzzzer.

They loaded from a village called Trabadello which is between Lugo and Ponferrada. We would dleiver them into Superior at Offord Cluney when they were still operating out of there. I can remember Jocky Clarke took them back to Merca Barcelona, just before Xmas.

Hello Horry, Verona Export definately rings a bell and your spot on with the name Solami. Always very nice people and as you say always both brothers together.

I just googled PAF at lugo and although the road in has changed the view through the gate is exactly as it was 14 years ago although I guess there would be a few less GB registered trucks on the bay these days.

I remember arriving early one evening and parking outside with one of Ralph’s, can’t remember who. We sat and chewed the fat over a few beers and then I retired to the cab and watched a video. Knowing that the older 12V TV and separate video player could knock the batteries I fired the truck up on fast tickover for 15 mins while I cleared away and got ready for bed. Just as I was about to knock it off somebody tried beating the door off the cab and when I looked there was an Italian stood there in his undies ranting and raving. I’ve no idea what he was saying but as soon as i killed the engine he disappeared into the night. Having loaded there loads of times before it was only the next morning that I noticed a house almost opposite where we were parked. The Volvo was always sounded like a bag of bottles on tick over and I guess in the middle off the night it was too much for luigi to bear. Fair point really and another lesson learned. Great days.

Cheers
Neilf

Ocean Clipper:
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Oh too own this truck now, would be bliss.

mappo:
Hya Spit, I,ll keep you informed mate.
Paul is in touch with GIbbos other half, so will post any progress.

mappo had an update on gibbo ,spoke to wee jock and he told me he spoke to gibbo in hospital and should have gone home yesterday !

spit the dog:

mappo:
Hya Spit, I,ll keep you informed mate.
Paul is in touch with GIbbos other half, so will post any progress.

mappo had an update on gibbo ,spoke to wee jock and he told me he spoke to gibbo in hospital and should have gone home yesterday !

Hi Spit good to here Gibbo’s on the mend,but i did not know Wee Jock was a doctor you learn something new every day cheers Buzzer.

Buzzer:

spit the dog:

mappo:
Hya Spit, I,ll keep you informed mate.
Paul is in touch with GIbbos other half, so will post any progress.

mappo had an update on gibbo ,spoke to wee jock and he told me he spoke to gibbo in hospital and should have gone home yesterday !

Hi Spit good to here Gibbo’s on the mend,but i did not know Wee Jock was a doctor you learn something new every day cheers Buzzer.

no end to wee jocks talents john you should know that mate lol ,

Spit…good news about Gibbo mate, thanks for letting us know.

Gazzer…I don’t remember the rat incident, but it was a while ago now.
I do however remember loading chestnuts at that place Buzzer and Horry mentioned.

Hi all,this was taken on a recent trip to Greece.We had a regroup at Esino services just before going into Ancona en masse!

In Ancona waiting for boat.

Boarding boat,

& on the boat!