Dabooka

So the second then. I think. I may need to get the Cougar back on the road for the next meet to hear it live. We can all take a vote

Moving up here I could never understand how it's pronounced. Chi-chester or Chich-ester. I seem to get mocked regardless 😃

Anyone in the market for a '89 'Metro'? Open to offers so get in quick to avoid disappointment Friendface Marketplace

I heard exactly the same story about Newcastle, 'met off the train and told to go straight back...'

I don't know where you're from but Hartlepool has a marina and I'm sure that big old Cummins had marine applications so....

Well best of luck, hope it works out.

I don't have the pump but work ten minutes from Blunderland's branch of Random Car Parts if that's any use?

Glad it went well, and that the weather behaved itself. 🙂 How many made it total then?

That Justy has given me a semi. My old boss had one in the 90s and I thought it was the ultimate small car. Oh man. Where can I hide this from the missus...?

That bus station, Malborough Crescent, was also the home for various coach outfits too, including the infamous Barton Bus. As a kid I'd be chucked on that on my visits back to the midlands to see family and friends in Nuneaton with nowt more than a few Commando comic books (remember those?) and a couple of cheese butties. It took about seven and a half hours and even now I see places like Worksop and Worsop and it brings memories back of that coach journey. When building the Centre for Life they also discovered a load of human remains there too which needed forensic archaeologists to remove and relocate them, allegedly it was a dumping ground from a cholera outbreak. One chap in particular used to come to the Dog frequently for the months and months it took to do, it really pushed the development back. Lovely chap and always very interesting, even to a 20 something barman. I was also responsible for the coloured lights in the mesh stairway at either end getting rearranged; I got a lift back from Sunderland one day with one of the architects on the project and I commented the sequence meant a few of them merged and looked odd (yellow and red and the green and blue). The next day she said she agreed and had arranged to get them switched to be better contrasts to each other. 😆 /waffle

Not any more. You're correct about the (heavily scratched) glass panel in the floor near the door to the ladies which allowed a view down into the cellar where the setup was. However that got royally fucked in the 80s when a relief manager whacked the heaters on without any water in the jackets. Burnt out the elements and basically killed off the gimmick as it was. The tanks needed to be cut up to be removed and that was the end of that. It did mean the cellar was lovely to work in, three rooms and great setup for the stillage too. Best setup I've seen in an 'old' pub. Just read the link above which is nicely detailed. I thought it stopped in the 80s, not 1990, but my memory back then is somewhat addled. Partly due to the copious amounts of lager and Castle Eden I consumed in that very boozer.

He's absolutely fine thanks, he's one of twelve or thirteen in his class. A couple of kids have a rash or a light cough but no one seriously ill (they're ten years old). He was tested positive last Friday, the missus got the all clear and I'm fine too. Plus both double jabbed. What's annoying is that if we return from a holiday in some countries we can have a test on day five, get the all clear and be free to do as we please. We have to wait the full ten. 🤬

Gutted I can't make this, I'll still in bloody self isolation as my lad contracted the plague in his last week at school. It'd be good to get the Cougar back out again. 😕

Just catching up after being AWOL for a couple of months and had to comment on this. The Dog and Parrot was a very popular haunt of mine back in the 90s when it was renamed Tut n Shive (part of a chain owned by Whitbread. Remember them?), and I also worked there for about 7-8 years or so. Part time to fit around my other work, bloody loved it. Renamed back to the Dog again now of course, has been for quite a few years, but it's lost all of it's charm from the 90s as have many a boozer.

Good spot, certainly looks that way to me. That lovely '1.5 DIN' stereo format that Ford rolled out. I looked at something like this for the Cougar a couple of years ago (just because) but gave up as I couldn't find a complete and working one that wasn't megabucks.