jsutherland:
Was there no such thing as a mosquito net back then? Sorry for my ignorance [emoji5]
Hiya Johnny,
I’ve no idea why we didn’t use mosquito nets. I don’t remember ever seeing one for sale, though I guess we could have got one somewhere.
See how well someone with your brains would have done out there!
John.
ronhawk:
Is that you ? John West !!!? There was a pickup truck with a smoke Machine On the back that came round every night belching out smoke up and down the streets in Jeddah if the Mozes did not get you the toxic smoke will Ron
That would have kept the mozzys off Ron!
Yes we too had the smoke wagons in Dammam and Khobar. That reminds me, if you got the ‘Raid’ out to clear the cab of flies or mozzys, Ginger McNeil would say 'I don’t know about the flies, but it’s F****** killing me! Then proceed to smoke a King Edward VII cigar, which were cheap as chips out there !
Oh, and the bins were emptied every day, including Friday if I remember correctly!
John.
[emoji1] [emoji1] not too sure how practical they, mosquito nets, would have been. One thing in a house or tent, but something else in a cab.
Johnny
John West:
ronhawk:
Is that you ? John West !!!? There was a pickup truck with a smoke Machine On the back that came round every night belching out smoke up and down the streets in Jeddah if the Mozes did not get you the toxic smoke will RonThat would have kept the mozzys off Ron!
Yes we too had the smoke wagons in Dammam and Khobar. That reminds me, if you got the ‘Raid’ out to clear the cab of flies or mozzys, Ginger McNeil would say 'I don’t know about the flies, but it’s F****** killing me! Then proceed to smoke a King Edward VII cigar, which were cheap as chips out there !
Oh, and the bins were emptied every day, including Friday if I remember correctly!
John.
They were still sending the mozzy smoke wagons round the streets of Cairo until the 2011 revolution, after which I never saw one. I always kept a can of Raid and a mozzy-burner with tablets in the cab when I was driving. Robert
robert1952:
John West:
ronhawk:
Is that you ? John West !!!? There was a pickup truck with a smoke Machine On the back that came round every night belching out smoke up and down the streets in Jeddah if the Mozes did not get you the toxic smoke will RonThat would have kept the mozzys off Ron!
Yes we too had the smoke wagons in Dammam and Khobar. That reminds me, if you got the ‘Raid’ out to clear the cab of flies or mozzys, Ginger McNeil would say 'I don’t know about the flies, but it’s F****** killing me! Then proceed to smoke a King Edward VII cigar, which were cheap as chips out there !
Oh, and the bins were emptied every day, including Friday if I remember correctly!
John.
They were still sending the mozzy smoke wagons round the streets of Cairo until the 2011 revolution, after which I never saw one. I always kept a can of Raid and a mozzy-burner with tablets in the cab when I was driving. Robert
I’d forgotten the burners Robert - don’t think I ever had one. We also had a twin engined plane fly back & forth, low, over Khobar, about 5.30 most evenings spraying something down on us! Not sure what it was, but we went inside if we saw it coming!
John.
John West:
robert1952:
John West:
ronhawk:
Is that you ? John West !!!? There was a pickup truck with a smoke Machine On the back that came round every night belching out smoke up and down the streets in Jeddah if the Mozes did not get you the toxic smoke will RonThat would have kept the mozzys off Ron!
Yes we too had the smoke wagons in Dammam and Khobar. That reminds me, if you got the ‘Raid’ out to clear the cab of flies or mozzys, Ginger McNeil would say 'I don’t know about the flies, but it’s F****** killing me! Then proceed to smoke a King Edward VII cigar, which were cheap as chips out there !
Oh, and the bins were emptied every day, including Friday if I remember correctly!
John.
They were still sending the mozzy smoke wagons round the streets of Cairo until the 2011 revolution, after which I never saw one. I always kept a can of Raid and a mozzy-burner with tablets in the cab when I was driving. Robert
I’d forgotten the burners Robert - don’t think I ever had one. We also had a twin engined plane fly back & forth, low, over Khobar, about 5.30 most evenings spraying something down on us! Not sure what it was, but we went inside if we saw it coming!
John.
It was probably DDT, which was banned in UK in the early 'fifties but still appeared on cans in the M/E in the late 'nineties to my knowledge! I used the mozzie-burners with the little rectangular tablets in the lorry, but also in my bedroom when I lived out there. You can get very effective ones now without the harmful (to us) ingredients. Robert
To be perfectly honest I Carn’t remember ever being bitten by a Mozzie But I think I know the reason why , being a driver mechanic I was always covered in something horrible, axle grease engine oil ,even the HP 1/40 which you could never wash off with the cold water especially with the soap Trans Arabia supplied ■■? , after the drivers had run off all the hot water !! .the sweet seller women who sold sweet to the girls school from her glass covered trolley , right outside our villa I remember her small child who was with her, having dysentery And she scraped her down with card board from our water boxes ? And through them back on the ground !!! We used this to lie on the road to get under the trucks !! It’s a wander JD & me did not get"galloping choky "It was a dirty job but somebody had to do it "I still have the memory scares to prove it !the dead cows on the road bloated like a balloon one day and then collapsing eventually in to skin and bone this was JEDDAH Ron. !! Ps we still have the ■■■■ Roaches and the hot walls of the villa & Henry the Gecko to come? !!!aint life grand Har har , ttfn
Hey Ron and others…I am confident you were familiar with quite some tools as per attached pictures.
It was ‘only’ a grab in some bins…the Lockheed-folder gives a nice UK-atmosphere…
Hey Ron, did you support the soccer-team (Saddlers) in Walsall or more dedicated to Wolverhampton?
A-J Walsall of course !! Coming back home to day after spending the Euros off the money tree I came across an antique market in a small village called San Cuat just north of Barcelona in the mountains in Spain an look what I found a1926 Marchal supper phare Tryilux lamp , it will light up my life just thinking what to build round it ■■ I admit when I bought it, I thought A-J will be interested in this lamp, ? I did barter and it came at the price which I could afford , had Wirlinmerlin been there he would not have bought it ? He is like ,tight as a ducks you know what,!!! Ron
Glad you’re back home, safe and sound. Good for you to travel and what nice you found this rather rare lamp!
What a coincidence…not from 1926 as yours but herewith a scan from the 1931 leaflet. I found it between
some old ‘electrical’ leaflets like Bosch, Scintilla and for the enthusiasts also nice to see.
Take care Ron, indeed a magnificient lamp! Let it shine!
A-J
Somebody was asking whether we had fridges in the trucks (lorries ) we at SARAMAT did have fridges mounted on the passenger side floor but they were,nt much cop but were good for food storage anyway as long as it was canned etc !!! as for keeping things cool on the road the A/C was good what I did was get the cage off the front of a pedestal fan and suspend it up under the A/C blowers in the cab roof that kept the VIMTO cool and there was a lot of that stuff we carted 40 ft containers full of the stuff …it was a different life then and to appreciate it you had to live it it was hard to get a start but once there the job offers were plenty …Me I was happy with SARAMAT lots of back up in trouble better the devil you know than the one you don,t … can somebody remind me what was the visa that was important multipal exits and entries
wasit "INGAMAH or ENGAHMAH something like that Iseem to remember once it was in the passport you were made ■■?
Imust say though the equipment and conditions we had at SARAMAT were ok pretty good in fact good well maintained gear made for the job although sometimes off the asphalt you might lose a tail light or something but no commissioners to worry about !!!
backsplice:
Somebody was asking whether we had fridges in the trucks (lorries ) we at SARAMAT did have fridges mounted on the passenger side floor but they were,nt much cop but were good for food storage anyway as long as it was canned etc !!! as for keeping things cool on the road the A/C was good what I did was get the cage off the front of a pedestal fan and suspend it up under the A/C blowers in the cab roof that kept the VIMTO cool and there was a lot of that stuff we carted 40 ft containers full of the stuff …it was a different life then and to appreciate it you had to live it it was hard to get a start but once there the job offers were plenty …Me I was happy with SARAMAT lots of back up in trouble better the devil you know than the one you don,t … can somebody remind me what was the visa that was important multipal exits and entries
wasit "INGAMAH or ENGAHMAH something like that Iseem to remember once it was in the passport you were made ■■?
Imust say though the equipment and conditions we had at SARAMAT were ok pretty good in fact good well maintained gear made for the job although sometimes off the asphalt you might lose a tail light or something but no commissioners to worry about !!!
Those on overland who had A/C used to pinch the stretchy overhead luggage netting off the DB trains as they attached nicely under the roof A/C blowers for keeping the vimto cool. Saramat definitely spoilt you Backsplice. A/C and a fridge, sheer luxury - you were lucky!
As you say, Saramat always looked like a good outfit to work for, with good equipment.
As owner drivers we were definitely poor relations equipment wise, but boy we did make good money!
As you say, there was nobody hounding you about servicing or drivers hours. We drove long hours, but we did regular servicing on the trucks - you really didn’t want to break down 500 miles from anywhere!
I particularly liked the oil bath air filter on the Scania 110. Somewhere else either on here or one of the other threads someone wrote about a know all who removed the air filter ‘because it went better’. But not for long of course!
I think I cleaned the Scania one weekly and it always contained a large portion of desert!
The multiple work visa was called an Iqama. (Pronounced igama). It meant the end of applying for a visa at the Saudi Embassy in London when you were home, but I think it was a bit of a double edged sword at some firms. Because you received a document (or was it a card, I can’t remember) the Saudi could take your passport off you, and anyway, it meant you couldn’t leave the country without an exit visa.
When Behring went bankrupt in the States, they owed Caravan a lot of money and Sheikh Ali refused to let their representative leave. By then, through dead men’s shoes I was the General Manager at caravan and Peter O’Rourke thought that I should persuade Ali to let him leave and even got a very snotty guy from the embassy to call me to demand that I get him an exit visa. There was no budging Ali and I think he kept him there about a year before finally relenting.
John
A-J , this lamp is very heavy with the side mounted ears as you can see its makes an ideal table lamp ,!!! The festoon side light with the patana of the reflector just gives a soft glow , the dip is wide and bright the main beam is fantastic !! Do you think it may have been on a something other than a road vehicle ? Luckily I found some single contact bulbs ! which did the job Ron
Wow Ron, you didn’t have rest to put it on the attic…well done and it will give you quite a beam of light!
I only know of this type that they were dedicated for the high-end cars like Bentley, Hispano Suiza etc and
attached I grabbed an illustration as well as a sample (which did GBP 300) auctioned at the Hereford Vehicle
Auction. So you have not only commercial value, but for sure historical. It could be the case that some people
are really looking for this gem! I don’t know of any other applications that automotive.
Well thanks A-J for putting me on the right track , I have just found the vehicle with the very same light !!! And I am printing this message with the light from the same !!! Ron
Well, what a treasure…probabbly Stanley Mann sold this one to the proud German owner!
Nice that a lot of the jig-saw is complete now…your lamp has something to do with Aladin?
Oeps, I now read the name of Stanley Mann was on the hood!
I remember his beautiful stands at TECHNO CLASSICA in Essen (Germany) with one year also
his MB-transporter (in british green) to ship some gems. That was quite some years ago and
I also remember he distributes the Bentley-almanac (bible)…
Back to SA …did anyone notice that when heading somewhere off the asphalt that the mountain range never seemed to get closer …drive for 3 or 4 hours somehow the mountains still always seemed to be just as far away !! here are a couple of pics that might show what I mean !!!
backsplice:
Back to SA …did anyone notice that when heading somewhere off the asphalt that the mountain range never seemed to get closer …drive for 3 or 4 hours somehow the mountains still always seemed to be just as far away !! here are a couple of pics that might show what I mean !!!
It was the same with ‘approaching’ towns on the TAP-line. It seemed even worse at night (sometimes you couldn’t avoid a bit of night driving, even though it was a bit dodgy 'cos of the loony drivers). Robert
