I'm bored....

[JP53]

Originally Posted by paulmariner

2 things I suppose;
1. I used to work for a meat delivery company driving a truck many years ago (23 years ago actually, where's the time gone?). One of my deliveries was to smithfield meat market in London and to get there for 2.00a.m. I used to leave the depot at Midnight. Pure pleasure driving down the M11 and then part of the newly opened M25. At times I could be the only vehicle on the road it seemed. Much more traffic around now and it's as busy at midnight as it used to be mid afternoon nowadays.

2. I'm a youth worker. There are bad young people out there but in my experience they usually respond to the right "handling". e.g. treat them respectfully and as equals they'll usually reciprocate the behaviour. Give them constructive tasks, let them decide the things they think are important to them and assist them reaching those goals, they develop a sense of "being involved". Unfortunately the societal habit of "knocking" all they do and focussing on the bad behaviour of a few tends to stigmatise all of them and this just "embeds" the faults of a few into the good of the many (if that makes sense). Our media loves the easy headlines and ignores loads of young people who work inside their communities doing good all the time.
But, investing in the young takes time (no easy, quick fixes for the Sun newspaper here) and a lot of money (not popular in a country with the predominant economy based on low taxes and "pile 'em high sell 'em cheap" economics). Finally, on this point, what about the parents? If there are groups of young people hanging around and being a "nuisance" in the early hours then what are the parents responsibilities? If we accept these parents see this behaviour as normal then surely this suggests they too have done the same? If that's the case then we have a problem that's 10-25 years old? So the policy of spending little and not investing in good worthwhile facilities and projects for young people has failed??

My thoughts alone and thank you for the time. I enjoy this website, keep up the good work.

pm

It would not make for interesting reading if they printed stories about good kids.

[JP53]

Originally Posted by Pete

I work with kids. Well, they behave like little children sometimes.

Never had any problems with local youths either. Whether it's because I used to have two extremely large German Shepherds (who were actually very docile but my word did they look fearsome!) and word got round rather quickly I don't know......

They have both sadly passed away now and I still hugely miss them. Never had a day when they didn't make me laugh with their antics.

'Local youth eaten by two giant German Shepards.' Now that would make it into the Sun.
I still miss my old dog 'Tilley' and I had to have her put to sleep 4 years ago.

[paulmariner]

Originally Posted by John Phillips

'Local youth eaten by two giant German Shepards.' Now that would make it into the Sun.
I still miss my old dog 'Tilley' and I had to have her put to sleep 4 years ago.

Excellent John,

But, imagine the headline;

"Local youth eats dog!!"

even better description of how media depicts young people??

[JP53]

Originally Posted by paulmariner

Excellent John,

But, imagine the headline;

"Local youth eats dog!!"

even better description of how media depicts young people??

Looking at some of the many take away places around here, I reckon some of them already have

[Ken]

Originally Posted by Simon W

Pedestrians on the M27?

Not very often but I have seen quite a few over the years at that time of the morning. Its a bit of a short cut for youngsters going home from the Southampton clubs I believe. Its also because the M27 cuts through one or two villages and people think its a decent way to get to the other side. You never see it during the day though only in the very early hours

Ken

[Ken]

Originally Posted by Simon W

Sounds extremely dodgy Ken.

.

Indeed it is, a couple of years ago I think it was a chap was killed on the same road when walking home.

I hate stopping on the hard should let alone walking on it

[paulmariner]

Ken, Simon,

interesting debate about motorways in the early hours.
Going back to my original post I also had to go around the newly opened M25 from the M11 to the Dartford tunnel southbound (as it then was). This stretch of the M25 was very new (just a few days opened at the time) during the following three months or so, before all and sundry realised it was usable, there was a regular moped rider who would ride along the hard shoulder anti clockwise every morning between around 0300 and 0330!! I kid you not, he had an open face helmet and a ciggy in his mouth and would often grin and nod his head at me as we approached each other. I often wonder what happened to him (probably squashed??).
How the worlds changed in 25 years or so.

[Ken]

Originally Posted by paulmariner

he had an open face helmet and a ciggy in his mouth .

Thats because the ashtray was full!

He's probably not squashed but in charge of handing out the penalty notices on the M25 :lol:

My old man worked on building J16 of the M1 back when I was about 8 or so. I would often go with him in his lorry and sit on the dirt banks or walk on the motorway never realising what it was going to be like in the future. I remember where Watford gap services are today was a small greasy spoon set up just for the workers building the future M1.

Ken

[JP53]

Originally Posted by Simon W

Another dodgy motorway escapade (well dual carriageway actually).

I was drivng a Volkswagen LT with high-roof back towards London from Fords at Dagenham. We were on the A13 in the fast lane when an artic pulled out just in front of us.

I spotted something flashing between the right hand pair of tyres on the truck's back axle. Just as I was thinking 'What the **** is that?', it disappeared.

Milliseconds later a brick crashed straight through our windscreen, passed between the passenger and me at an enormous rate of knots, and smashed into the back doors of the LT (about ten feet behind us). It left a huge dent in one of the metal panels.

What was left of the windscreen went completely white and for a second or so I actually thought I was dead. I couldn't see a damned thing but I managed to drift over into the slow lane and stop. (Luckily a quick-witted taxi driver had seen what was going on and had dropped back to give us some room).

The truck had obviously run over the brick which had promptly wedged itself between the rear tyres. Centrifugal force had then launched it at us at precisely the wrong moment. Needless to say, this was one of my closest shaves ever.

Having smashed the rest of the windscreen so we could see where we were going, I had to drive all the way back to Pinewood Studios with a gale blowing straight into the cab. NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD- uncomfortable it was too!

That was a close call Simon!

[JP53]

Originally Posted by Simon W

It was certainly no joke John. Another 15 inches either way and the brick would have hit one of us in the face at around 130mph*. Even as it was, the chap with me was cut to bits by flying glass.

(*We were doing 65mph when the lorry moved in front of us, so he was also doing 65mph. If my physics is correct, the brick would have been flung backwards at the same speed - 65mph - therefore so the combined collision speed would have been 130mph).

Thank goodness for laminated windscreens!