What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[richardmorris]

On 2/8/2021 at 9:08 PM, Stanky said:

My grandfather, in the national news

https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2021-02-05/suffolk-war-veterans-love-affair-with-cycling-still-going-strong-at-99-years-old

99 not out

And on road.cc too ( I did email them the above link, but no idea if they had the story independently).

https://road.cc/content/news/if-you-dont-exercise-you-rust-280895

Keep breathing,” is the top tip for a long and happy life from 99-year-old Norman Gregory from Cockfield, near Bury St Edmunds. He also goes out on his e-bike pretty much every day.

Gregory first started riding his mother's bike when he was eight years old and was soon doing 100 miles a week riding between his village and his grammar school in Sudbury.

He still aims to ride at least 10 miles a day.

“At 99 you're not physically and mentally what you were when you were 19,” he told ITV(link is external). “If you don't make yourself get up and go out when the weather is okay, physically and mentally you just get worse – so you have to keep at it. If you don't exercise, you rust.”

Gregory’s view of ‘okay’ weather should perhaps be set in context. During World War Two his Lancaster bomber was shot down and he was forced to march through Eastern Europe as a prisoner of war.

"There was a metre of snow and it was the worst winter for 40 years", he said.

"Day and night it was freezing, often blizzard conditions. We marched for 21 days, sometimes we marched all night.

"I had four pairs of socks – two pairs on my feet and the other two pairs were inside my shirt against my body to keep warm.

"I was never, never frightened. The reason I can say that was that I knew all along that I was going to be killed. Because I accepted that fact, I wasn't afraid."

Gregory went on to say that he considered a Dawes bicycle he once owned to have been his most prized possession.

Sadly, he lent it to an Australian crew member, who left it unattended outside a dance, and it was stolen. He seems to favour a Raleigh e-bike these days.

If Gregory does ever come to feel the onset of rustiness, he could do worse than look to Robert Marchand for cycling inspiration.

In 2017, the Frenchman set an Hour record of 22.547 kilometres in a 105+ age category specially created for him by the UCI, and a year later he celebrated his 107^th birthday by going for a 20km spin.

 

 

[nomiST]

Ha! 

 

Nice, just read that on Road.CC - awesome story and proof, if needed, that cycling* keeps you young at heart!

 

*and probably other exercise too.

[MrDuke]

[MrDuke]

[hairnet]

holding it in or trying not to let it out

 

[MrDuke]

[MrDuke]

[MrDuke]

(Sorry*)

[somewhatfoolish]

Make me a Celebrity Centaur!

  

19 minutes ago, MrDuke said:

 

[myglaren]

 

[Remspoor]

UK during the cold spell.

[Wack]

 

Married and struggling during lockdown

I recommend 

Not only do they sound fantastic the noise cancelling is epic 

She's sat 4ft away and the only indication she's speaking is her lips are moving 

Fantastic 

 

[artdjones]

[Wack]

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, Wack said:

Pretty much exactly what I was thinking I should do a couple of days ago before breaking the news to the family that I had an automotive refugee in need of safe harbour inbound towards my driveway!

[High Jetter]

5 hours ago, Wack said:

 

Married and struggling during lockdown

I recommend 

Not only do they sound fantastic the noise cancelling is epic 

She's sat 4ft away and the only indication she's speaking is her lips are moving 

Fantastic 

 

I'll have 2, her sis keeps coming round!

[gm]

This was just posted over on the bini fb group - not sure if europarts or amazon are to blame !

 

[warch]

Some early BINIs did have the Chrysler L-shaped cylinder head.

[Wack]

12 hours ago, High Jetter said:

I'll have 2, her sis keeps coming round!

They come in 2s , one for each ear

[Wack]

African reporter struggles with UK Town names, Sheffield proves especially difficult 

[Stanky]

6 minutes ago, Wack said:

African reporter struggles with UK Town names, Sheffield proves especially difficult 

 

Many years ago I had a Luxembourgish girlfriend, she said that even her teachers at school had no idea how to pronounce 'Leicester' or 'Gloucester'

[myglaren]

[wuvvum]

He does look cold, bless him.

[artdjones]

4 hours ago, Stanky said:

Many years ago I had a Luxembourgish girlfriend, she said that even her teachers at school had no idea how to pronounce 'Leicester' or 'Gloucester'

If you split them up like you have to do with German words they're quite easy to work out.

[SRi05]

23 hours ago, Wack said:

 

Married and struggling during lockdown

I recommend 

Not only do they sound fantastic the noise cancelling is epic 

She's sat 4ft away and the only indication she's speaking is her lips are moving 

Fantastic 

 

I bought a pair of these a few months ago, they are tremendous. Can go out a walk with traffic whizzing past and hear nothing but the sweet moozak. 

[cobblers]

15 hours ago, gm said:

This was just posted over on the bini fb group - not sure if europarts or amazon are to blame !

 

I've told this story before somewhere, but about 15 years ago I worked at Halfords. One wet sunday afternoon at about 4pm, a bloke came in after a head gasket for a Nova. By this point, Halfords had long since stopped actively stocking anything like this but I was sure I'd seen one in a stack of old dead stuff in a dusty box in the back. The bloke was covered in oil and clearly mid-job, I think he'd got the wrong gasket or something. He was really desperate as he needed the gasket to put the car back together to drive to work in the morning.

So I climbed up the racking in the back and sifted through the big box of old stock and sure enough, a gasket for a for a 1400 cavalier masking taped to a floppy bit of cardboard! It was still on the stockfile, but since it'd been sat around for so many years, it had eventually automatically been reduced to 50p which was the default end price for anything obsolete. The bloke was absolutely made up! I couldn't take cash on the parts desk so I sent him off with it to the tills to pay for it, where the old dear took his 50p, and then neatly folded the gasket in half to put it into a carrier bag.

[LightBulbFun]

22 minutes ago, cobblers said:

I've told this story before somewhere, but about 15 years ago I worked at Halfords. One wet sunday afternoon at about 4pm, a bloke came in after a head gasket for a Nova. By this point, Halfords had long since stopped actively stocking anything like this but I was sure I'd seen one in a stack of old dead stuff in a dusty box in the back. The bloke was covered in oil and clearly mid-job, I think he'd got the wrong gasket or something. He was really desperate as he needed the gasket to put the car back together to drive to work in the morning.

So I climbed up the racking in the back and sifted through the big box of old stock and sure enough, a gasket for a for a 1400 cavalier masking taped to a floppy bit of cardboard! It was still on the stockfile, but since it'd been sat around for so many years, it had eventually automatically been reduced to 50p which was the default end price for anything obsolete. The bloke was absolutely made up! I couldn't take cash on the parts desk so I sent him off with it to the tills to pay for it, where the old dear took his 50p, and then neatly folded the gasket in half to put it into a carrier bag.

I recall another shitter working a halfords type place also had a similar story where someone sent their wife for a head-gasket and she duly took the gasket folded it up stuck it in her hand bag and went home only to sheepishly return later for another one

 

ah here we go from the motor factor moments thread  by the sorely missed Dave of many numbers

On 22/07/2018 at 21:34, dave21478 said:

Woman came in with a note from hubby with the car details for a head gasket (that dates these stories - remember when Halfords actually stocked stuff like that?) she paid for it, folded it in half and slipped it into her handbag. 

She was back the next day for another one.

 

[andy18s]

How much wood,would a wood chuck chuck,if the wood chuck drove an Espace?

[myglaren]

What language is that in?

[andy18s]

36 minutes ago, myglaren said:

What language is that in?

Facebook/Google from Bulgarian

Some of the automatically translated news stories are hilarious!