dessert driver:
Hi boys
Yes Harry i’ve got a old lady and like you she takes all my money.If she does leave any I’ve got two teenage kids that will cleen it up.Do you think Norm would give me any, I cannot believe you’ve had it all, the amount he’s had with all that wheeling and dealing.
PS It seems all quiet this morning, havent heard any gun fire yet.Regards Keith
I expect the boy with the bugle is on holiday Keith.
Cheers Dave ( David J Lloyd )
hiya,
Keith i’ve noticed the silence too do you think they are all tuckered out with battle stress and having a lie in it is a bank holiday, now to the serious stuff Norm could loan money but the best offer i’ve had is that should i go to Northhampton he’d buy me a half the moment i walked in the pub but added there would be half a dozen burned out sand wobblers with him who i’d have to feed and fill with booze,can’t wait.
thanks harry long retired.
hiya,
think your correct Dave nobody to blow reveille, but at least Keith’s up and about and ready to dive for cover.
thanks harry long retired.
I reckon Norman is hunting out his old tin helmet Harry. 
Cheers Dave.
hiya,
Dave i believe the tin hat is always to hand, but he could be doing his Francis Drake act and playing big boys marbles whilst the enemy is forming up.
thanks harry long retired.
Hiboys
This peace is unnerving Dave there not regrouping in them there Welsh mountains are they, keep look out… By the way I noted you signed your full name, like me trying to keep in with them. Mayby Chris could keep an eye out over the Irish sea and Harry look out for a Northern invasion. 
I’ve just had a thought mayby they are regrouping over the other side of Tahir. 
Regards Keith
hiya,
Welsh mountains maybe IOM possibly the frozen north no chance they’re not hard enough to survive up here, but certainly not Tahir it took the fast guy a while to get there and old Norm would have to stop off and do his caberet act en-route, hope he remembers the eggs, still think they’re having a lie-in.
thanks harry long retired.
dessert driver:
…I wanted to post how long it took us to go to Bagdad but the thought of getting into a pond filled with parana fish came to mind so I thought better of it
Keith, post the story mate, dont be intimidated by some individuals. 
Personally I cant see WTF all the fuss is about, all you old chaps have actually been there and done it unlike so many of the rest of us who never will. Why some people want to start doubting what others have done, picking pathetic holes in peoples stories and memories and generally casting doubt on what an individual might or might NOT have done or where they may or may not have been to etc is beyond me!!
Cant you lot stop the back biting and just enjoy and contribute to what others have taken the time to post■■?
Rant over, now lets hear some more M/E, near East, Asia Minor or Major memories…and some more pics please!!
hiya,
Bullitt bravo.
thanks harry long retired.
Bullitt, this is the problem with forums. It is so easy to get invloved in an argument even if that was never the intention.
As we all seem to use nicknames it is difficult to know whom one is speaking to as I am quite sure that I will know many of you on here, but cannot put a name to a fce unless it is real.
I have many interesting stories I could place on here but I am sure I will be ridiculed by those who just do not understand.
This particular job was done by many different types of individual all with their own outlook on how they felt it should be done. I have met some great guys who did the job, just for the craic, the adventure, and the special times that occassionally occur when drivers get together. Many of these drivers, although great guys did the job entirely differnet to the way I did it and so would be unemployable for many different reasons.
I have had drivers working for me, some good and some not so good and some just downright useless. Any driver who drove for me had everything at their disposal to ensure a nice smooth easy run to Baghdad. Paperwork was always complete and correctly filled in as well as Arabic manifest already done so that they did not have to worry about this at the Zahko border. I provided good trucks on good tyres with spares, belly tank and two excellent lcokers on the trailer. All tyres were new Michelin all round.
When I get a phone call from the Kent Police telling me that one of my trucks has been stopped because it has a bald Firestone o the trailer, immediately tells me that the driver has sold a good tyre and replaced it with a dud. The fact that I had invoices to show that I only purchased Michelin, prebvented my comnpany from being fined, the driver was not so lucky.
I have no wish to get into any kind of argument on this forum as life s too short.
Hi boys
Right Bullitt you asked for it…
1st load…
Picked up trailer ex Chapman and balls yard Stoke on Trent 16/3/1976, loaded with General Moters parts,went vie train through Germany, then comi block to Tabriz Iran. reloaded out of Rumania, back on train, tip London drop trailer in CandBs yard … no hold ups on boaders, 1/2 day in Istanbul, 1 night in Haream hotel …3 weeks exactly,one week off to get visas.
2nd load
Picked up trailer again CandBs yard,loaded with a shoe making machine, train and comi block again this time to Bagdad,tip, return empty through Austria and reload Germany, tip uk ? return trailer, again no holdups, 1 night in Haream, 1 lost day changing clutch plate ( will explain later) …20 days, one week off to get visas.
3rd load
Picked up trailer,loaded Birmingham,engine parts, train and comi block and Bagbad again, tipped and reloaded Yugo,returned comi and train,tipped Manchester, returned trailer.lost 1/2 day Irac/turkey boarder, 1 night Haream,…19 days.
As i,ve posted on here before I went two up with my father and I was 19 at the time.Even doing these trips in these times we were not making money.We had not got a new motor to pay for and little overheads. Someone was making money and it wasn,t us.
By the way the clutch…
On the first trip we stopped just out side Tabriz to talk to some of your croud Norm, one might have been you who knows, but anyway as we came to move off the clutch would not clear to get in gear,after working it for a while it cleared and was ok for the rest of the trip.So my father said for the next trip we will take a disk with us,and a good job we did because 80ks this side of Ankera as we were going along we lost all drive.We coasted onto the side and took stock off what had happend. Soon after another English lad stopped and gave dad alift to the Volvo agents in Ankera. He would’nt take him in as he said he had done that for another chap who had had the work done and then done a runner without paying.So dad arranged for the agent to send out fitters the next day.He then got on one of the camicarse buses to come back to me.He had left me there to undo the box ready for lifting the next day
hiya,
now then Keith there’s no bones anybody can pick out of that story, well told and even an old thicko like me can understand everything being said,well done pal.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi boys
Part two
Dad said when he got on the bus they came around with scented water for every one to put on their hands,to make everyone smell the same 
The bus dropped him off at the truck and next morning the fitters duely arrived, 5 lads not one older than 15, and one jack and a lenght of chain.By putting the jack bar accross the chassis and suspending the box on it with the chain they managed to remove it enough to take out the pressure plate and change the disk.It had worn through the spring holes untill the centra was spinning without the outer. They refitted it all encluding using a mic to set up the pressure plate.We paid the lads and were back on the road 24hr after braking down.By the way that disk had done 750,000 miles. not bad a.
Regards Keith
Hi Fella’s,
Just been all over the welsh hills,lot of woolybacks but no sight of any arabian mercenaries. Very wet conditions,probably to much peat for their liking,no sand or cement.Will go to Heysham in the morning and cast my eye’s towards the IOM.
Hope Chris will keep a look out from this end.
Cheers Dave ex uk driver,sheep herder and village idiot.
hiya,
Dave pleased you referred to yourself as sheep HERDER you know the English do say something else but not me, now did i hear you say “spelling is wrong” but here goes yaki da bob ■■■■■■ tulldene bob syse by the way once taught a guy in a pub in Ynysybwl the words to the song sas pan bach, pub was chocker not one person spoke Welsh this is totally true never got to buy a pint all night, so if i ever pop down Rad way and drop into your local tell the customers to talk Chinese or something if they want call me names, PS i could be useful in your search party speaking the lingo so to speak.
thanks harry long retired
Hi Harry,
Born and bred in Wales,lived here all my life,but one mile off the English Border right on the famous Offa’s Dyke. I know Ynysybwl Leighton Rhys the dart player came from there.There are lots of Wales where no Welsh is spoken. I can understand bits of Welsh. The North and West Wales areas are probably where the Welsh language is their first and English second.
Cheers Dave
Dessert driver, your father did well considering the route that he went, after all the train only went as far as Ludwigsburg at that time and then to go via the Commi bloc and still do it in a 19 day return is very well done. It was always very cold in Tabriz at that time of the year.
I would be interested to know what your father got for the round trip, to make it that unviable.
hiya,
Dave my first wife came from Penmaenmawr North Wales and everybody spoke the Welsh language so really it was fair to try and speak the lingo it’s over 40 years ago now but i can say the odd phrase or two although my daughter and son who all live in that area speak Welsh all the time but are gentle with me.
thanks harry long retired.
Colonel, John I am not nit picking, just telling it as I know, Train from koln to Jubljana, or Cologne to Lubijana, or you could go to Munich ( Munchen), then change train, and continue to Yugo, I used these trains three times, I just thought,you would like know, tell Rita, or he might think I will be writing a fictitious book ha ha ha. Sandman Norman
Hi Harry,
You are right in real Welsh speaking area at Penmaenmawr. I like it around that area Porthmadoc and Cricketh and not too far on too Caernarvon. I had a partner for a few years who was originally from Cardigan,she spoke Welsh as first language.
Anyway I had better stop going on about Wales,Norman will be banning me off his thread for not including an ex from Nottingham.
Cheers Dave.