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Old 6th July 2019, 20:49   #11
FLYING BANANA
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Cool So there I was giving travel directions....................

...................................... to a party of Americans at Leytonstone station this afternoon. Not bad for a bloke living in Cornwall eh!. They were lost, well and truly lost. Still with some help from me plus showing them how the tube map works they were soon on there way back to there hotel in South London.

Both Michael and I set off together at 09.30 this morning, he was going to a transport bazaar in Chiswick and I was going to visit my cousins in Hackney East London. Last time I saw them was at there Mum’s funeral in January 2016. A few phone calls have kept us in touch. But I thought I would make the effort on this visit to go and see them. It riles me that over the years it has always been me that had to go and see them. The last time they visited the flat in Barkingside was my Val’s funeral in 2011.

Still I don’t expect to see them again for sometime. Chances of them coming down to Cornwall are highly unlikely. Still at least I made the effort. Left there place at about 3pm and headed to my next appointment in Barkingside. I had to change trains at Leytonstone hence my meeting with the Americans. They all said thank you for helping them out.

Soon on my way to meet up with my mate Bob, we have known one and other for almost 40 years. I got to the pub and he wasn’t there yet. So I ordered some food, not eaten since breakfast. Burger n chips in the Wetherspoons is cheap and cheerful. Filled a hole.
Then Bob turned up just time to buy the beer. Handy that. We sat and chatted over a pint or two, well three actually. But no more for me as I had a 2 hour tube train with no loos on any of the stations.

We said our goodbyes, again unless I come up to London we will not meet again. Bob does drive to Herefordshire to go on holiday but that’s it. We’ll keep in contact by letter. Again Bob does not have a mobile or a computer.
Whilst we was in the pub it rained. I had no coat or brolly. But when I left it had stopped. Started again when I got off the train at Totteridge But not bothered as it’s only a short walk home.

When I got to the house Michael was eating his dinner. We had a chat about our day. I got the full story about the delays that Michael had encountered on his trip. He said that he had not bought any books at the bazaar but looking on the table there seemed to be some books I’ve not seen before. Still, that’s down to him what he buys.

Now the day is coming to an end. I’ve got a early start tomorrow to get to the car show at Clandon Hall. According to Google it’s roughly a 2 hour run. I’ll need to get some Banana juice first.

Thanks for reading and the kind comments.
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Old 6th July 2019, 22:33   #12
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Originally Posted by FLYING BANANA View Post
Ok, I’ll endeavour to attend one weekend. Got a busy schedule over the next month or two but I’ll see what I can arrange.
I hope you can Bob. It would be nice to see you again. Last time was at Llangollen, a few years ago now. There is also a chap round the back of where I walk the dog that has a yellow ZR. Often speak to him about cars. I could ask if he could make it. Three in a row would make a nice photo opportunity. Let’s see what happens.
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Old 7th July 2019, 21:33   #13
FLYING BANANA
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Cool The rain is certainly different...................

.......................................... London compared to Cornwall.

Early start for me this morning, out of bed at 6am to get ready for the Macmillan Nurse Charity car show at Clandon Hall Park. Michael made a brief appearance on his way to the kitchen to get his tea. I drank mine and loaded Banana up with my camera gear. And it was raining.

Set off with our lights on towards the A1, sat nav was on. We had the postcode, and I checked it on Google maps. Sadly my sat nav didn’t agree with that. Anyway the M25 was quiet and the traffic running smooth. And the rain was getting heavier. Past Heathrow ok and onto the A3. Still the sat nav was working ok. Still raining.
I followed the sat nav directions and it announced I had arrived at my destination. Someone’s driveway, and with that it shut down. The sat nav’s attitude was “I’ve got you here, please do not ask me anymore”. Wonderful, and it was still raining.

But not one to give up I carried on. Got to a t junction and turned right, saw a sign for Clandon Hall and as went down the hill so Keith 24 and John drove towards me. So obviously I was going the wrong way.spun round at the bottom and tore back up the hill. And it was still raining.
After 3 or 4 U turns I finally found the show. Still raining but was easing. Keith and John were cleaning there cars, in the rain.
Banana parked up. And I started cleaning her, in the rain.

Soon the others pulled in and Peter, our leader, was soon getting the 16 cars into some sort of order. Only Rick and I were the only ZT’s. Outnumbered again, but we held our ground. And it was now drizzling. Lots of interest about my new home, lots of photo’s were shown. Meanwhile Cliff gave Banana the once over, he checked everywhere for the orange peel effect on the paint job. He looked at it from every conceivable angle. But just passed his careful eye.

The rain started to ease, and then that Yellow orb appeared in the sky. Went from being cold and damp to getting sunburnt.
You can read about the show on the Clandon Hall thread in the events page.
Banana was in her element, all the kids were out and sitting in the back. She had her show “Yellow” mats fitted. Her screen banner was on.

The show was good with a vast amount of various makes of cars. But we had the most cars on our stand with the Ford Granada’s coming in second. We bought our raffle tickets. The sun was beating down and before you knew it the raffle was being called and we was packing away.
We said our goodbyes, and I made arrangements with the New Owner of Redfive about the collection. Oh! Did I not mention he was at the show.

Found my way back onto the A3 then the nose to tail slow crawl on the M25 all around to the M40 then the traffic eased and Banana was able to lift up her skirts and Warp Factor 3 was achieved.
Parked up on the driveway just after 6pm.

Not sure what is happening tomorrow but Banana will get the water, oil checked and refuelled ready for our epic return journey to home via Dorset.


Thanks for reading.
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Old 8th July 2019, 06:02   #14
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Bob, you made me laugh AGAIN! Thank you. I gather it rained there...

Oh, and the satnav game - mine led me down a wet grass covered single track in Slovakia one time. That turned into a footpath with a dropoff to a small river/creek on the left and a cemetery on the right. In the dusk/dark. Alone. I tried to reverse, but the wheels spun. Finally managed to get turned around where there was a foot bridge. I was preparing to spend the night in the cemetery.

Cheers,
Glenn
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Old 8th July 2019, 09:31   #15
FLYING BANANA
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Originally Posted by slovcan View Post
Bob, you made me laugh AGAIN! Thank you. I gather it rained there...

Oh, and the satnav game - mine led me down a wet grass covered single track in Slovakia one time. That turned into a footpath with a dropoff to a small river/creek on the left and a cemetery on the right. In the dusk/dark. Alone. I tried to reverse, but the wheels spun. Finally managed to get turned around where there was a foot bridge. I was preparing to spend the night in the cemetery.

Cheers,
Glenn
If I can make one person laugh then my day has not been wasted
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Old 8th July 2019, 10:01   #16
FLYING BANANA
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Cool Oil and water checked.....................

......................................... along with the tyre pressures and the washer bottle topped up. Then recovered Banana from the overgrown garden and took her along to the Shell garage and topped up the tank. She is now already for our homeward trip tomorrow. The shop at the garage is a Waitrose so I was able to get a nice bunch of flowers for my Val.

Stopped off at the cemetery on my way back to the house. Missed out on a few insignificant anniversaries this year, but now I’m here I can make up for it. I had packed away in the car before leaving home a small pair of secateurs so that I could trim the flowers. There is always a watering can by the tap at the cemetery so no need to carry any extra water.
I walked down the remote path and turned right near the end, down the slope to where my Val lay.

Michael only ever comes here twice a year but when I’m here I like to tend the grave, Val’s Mum and Dad are here as well. Cleaned around the grave, cut the grass, threw away the remnants of the old flowers and plants. Trimmed the new flowers and spoke my words that I have been storing up in my head. Told Val about the New house. But I know she has already “seen” it. I often feel her presence within the house or smell her perfume.
Once I had said what I had to say then picking up the rubbish I made my way back. Rubbish in the bin and watering can topped up and put back by the tap.

Then back to Michaels to park Banana up.
We are off to my niece’s new flat today. Not expected till 15.30. So we are going to take a leisurely walk across Hampstead Heath, have a spot of lunch at Kenwood House then onto Laura’s flat.

Many thanks for reading and the kind comments.
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Old 9th July 2019, 06:27   #17
FLYING BANANA
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Cool Leisurely walk, ha! ha!.......................

........................................ every time I go for a leisurely walk across Hampstead zheath with Michael we get lost, and yesterday was no exception.
We got the tube up as far as Highgate then walked up to Hampstead Heath, done this walk loads of times so not bothered about the distance. I had my £5 paper sun hat on so my head was protected from the sun.

Onto the Heath we went, our destination was Kenwood House. Well worth a visit to the house and it’s free to get in. The cafe subsidies the house, well at there prices I would expect so.
We made it ok to the cafe. A Salmon and dill fish cake was £11.95, bowl of tomato and coriander soup £6.50, quiche and salad £13.50. Tin of Coke Cola £1.85 or a bottle of water 1.65.
We had two rounds of Ham sandwiches and two packets of crisps and that came to £13.50. And did not bother with a drink.

So then we set off for Hampstead except Michael was convinced that we just need to follow the path and bear left, we should have gone to the right but we did not know that at the time. Now I love walking, it’s never bothered me. Have walked many a mile when I lived up in Essex. Done a bit of walking in Cornwall.
But not having brought my walking boots just my leather shoes my feet were beginning to suffer after an hour, yes 1 hour of us getting lost. I started to get annoyed with Michael.

We finally stopped and asked a dog walker who said that we needed to retrace our steps back to the crossroads of paths and take the right hand path. Which we did. Still no sign of where we was. I finally stopped two young ladies who showed us on the map where we were and where we was going. We thanked them and continued and came off the Heath in front of the Freemasons Inn.
The first pint of Aspall’s cider never touched the sides.

The second pint was well needed as well. We sat outside and watched the world go by. And then Michael produced a map of the Heath.....................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU HAVE A MAP?
“Oh! Well! I wasn’t sure whether to produce it as you seemed to annoyed with me”.
ME ANNOYED? I just laughed and he joined in. A third pint was soon sitting in front of us.
The plan was now to walk back towards the Heath and bear right towards where Laura lived.

(Now Laura is not living at her flat as her boyfriends father unexpectedly passed away a week or so ago, so they have been living back at the parents house helping to sort out the various things that had to be done. Her future father in law had died on a cruise in the Caribbean. So the problems getting the body back. Her mother in law had flown back a few days ago. Ollie, Laura’s boyfriend, is not the best of people to have in crisis. So it has fallen on Laura’s shoulders to help.
Plus Laura has a part time job in the jewellery trade, so she has to cope with that as well).

So our plan was to meet Laura at the flat then go for a bite to eat and maybe a beer or two. Michael had to find Laura’s flat using a map, although he goes there every two weeks, he still needed the map as we was approaching from a different direction.
We arrived at the flat just as Laura did, she had come by cab. We went into the very small but light and airy flat.
Kettle on and I got the guided tour, Michael was left in charge of making the tea.
When we was alone in the bedroom, no no not like that, she burst into tears and she hugged me. She said that she was finding hard to cope, Ollie and his sister were useless at organising anything. After awhile she wiped the tears away.

I left her to get herself back together again. Michael had made the tea and had poured the tea out. We chatted whilst we waited for Laura.
She wanted to see the pictures of the new house and we chatted about that and a few other things.
Then time for us to go and find food and a beer.

To be continued.........
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232750. Over 3 months since I drove Banana.

onen hag oll

Last edited by FLYING BANANA; 9th July 2019 at 07:29.. Reason: Additions
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Old 9th July 2019, 08:03   #18
FLYING BANANA
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Cool Well I never.....................

.................................... knew that Laura knew so many pubs.
We left the flat and ventured into the nearest pub. Aspall’s on draught, again. And Laura had a glass of red wine. We were not impressed with the pubs food menu so we left there and walked along to another pub, this time on the main road. Here the food menu was a bit more detailed. Laura went off to phone Ollie whilst Michael and zi ordered the Tapa’s and the Nacho’s as we was going to share. We got Laura another glass of wine, I stuck with the cider but Michael switched to the Estrelle, a lager type beer.

Laura came back and said that she might return to the family home later in the evening. So I said my piece, that Ollie was now the man of the house and that he should be sorting out the issues and not leaving everything to Laura. After all along with his sister they both run their own companies. This is life, you cope as best you can. Families need to work together.
Looking at Michael and Laura’s faces I was not sure I should have said all that, but it was how I felt about the issue.

Michael agreed with me and Laura threw her arms around me and gave me a big kiss and a hug. She totally agreed with me. And so the pub crawl commenced. We went to two other pubs before stopping off in the Washington in Belize Park where we had a steak meal. By now Michael was a bit tipsy, Laura was still drinking the red wine and I was still on the cider.
After a long chat she phoned Ollie and said that she was returning to the flat and not to the house. She explained that she needed a bit of time on her own.

I insisted that we walked Laura back to her flat before Michael and I returned to the station. Once back we said our goodbyes I walked up the street a bit so that Michael and Laura could have a few minutes together.
Laura ran up the street to me and gave me a hug and a kiss and thanked me for my speech. She did not want to let go, mainly because her hair was caught in my glasses. Oh! How we laughed.
She left us and went indoors.

And we found our way back to the station. Got on the train where Michael promptly fell asleep. I just sat there and reflected on the evening. Was feeling a bit tipsy myself. Once the tube emerged from the tunnel into the open air my mobile buzzed. A text from Laura thanking me for a lovely evening, signed off with loads of kisses.
I had to wake Michael as we approached Totteridge station.
We then wandered back to the house in the cool of the evening , and I still had my £5 paper hat on.

Cup of tea before bed, need to take my tablets. Then my head hit the pillow and I never stirred till 8am this morning.

Thanks for reading.
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232750. Over 3 months since I drove Banana.

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Last edited by FLYING BANANA; 9th July 2019 at 08:05.. Reason: Spellin’
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Old 9th July 2019, 08:15   #19
FLYING BANANA
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Cool Homeward bound with a twist............

.................................................. not returning directly to Saltash but visiting Ian and Jan in Weymouth on my way home. Ian very kindly has got me a set of 4 hand made printed “Poppy” t shirts. Ian got them when he and Jan attended the Armed Forces day on behalf of Derek “Windrush”.
And I’ll be staying for a bite to eat with them, saves me worrying about cooking when I get home.

So the trip home will start roughly at 10am. A1-M25-M3-M27 and onto the A35 and onto the A354 into Weymouth. If I’m early then my annual visit to Portland Bill will be on the cards.

So should you see us don’t forget to toot, wave or flash those restored headlights.

Thanks for reading and the kind comments.

I’ll post up some photo’s on this thread and over on the Clandon Hall thread later today, or tomorrow.
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Old 9th July 2019, 21:21   #20
FLYING BANANA
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Cool We done a Jumbo jet.....................

............................................... of miles and she never missed a beat. 747 miles covered and she ran as sweet as always. We hit Warp Factor 3 and a bit on out trip home from Weymouth. Banana pulled like the proverbial train. Gave an Audi a run for her money. We even got a wave from the driver as we parted company near Exeter.

The trip from Michaels to Weymouth was pretty straightforward, usual holdups on the M25 but clean most of the way. Onto the M3 and again no hold ups. Stopped at Winchester services for a sarnie and a drink, plus a wee. Carried on towards Weymouth. I was running well early so I knew a visit to the Bill was on the cards. Traffic started to get heavy around the Wimborne area. But Banana was running ok except for the outside temperature sensor. It started to fluctuate a lot.

Once I was on the Tolpuddle by pass I stopped in a lay-by and phoned Matt. He said not to worry about the sensor, he would sort it next time he saw ole Yella.
Carried onto to Portland Bill. A mobile crane was travelling ever so slow on the way up with a line of cars following. But Banana took it all in her stride, the fan did cut in a few times but once we parted company with the crane all was ok again.
Parked up at The Bill and with camera in hand I walked towards the pillar on the Bill.

I always touch the pillar, my way of remembering when I used to go there with my Dad. I then took some photo’s of the flat calm sea. Wandered into the Lobster Pot for a bottle of water before returning to the car. I set the sat nav up for my trip to Ian n Jans.

To be continued, tired now.
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