Looking for the real Red Robbo (my book). Thursday 25th Sept - Northants BOOK LAUNCH

[Wibble]

2 minutes ago, motorpunk said:

Thanks so much. I hope you enjoy it.

PS - There are other events at other locations where it’s just me talking bollocks, probably you saw that. Thanks again for buying my book!

I’ve no doubt I will. I had hoped to meet you but now have a GP appointment on the 30th which I don’t want to miss. The other locations aren’t really feasible but good luck and I hope this book is your best selling to date, which I reckon it will be. I’m looking forward to the distraction, so thank you.

[AnthonyG]

Ordered as I doubt I will make it to any of the events. 

This reminds me that about 25 years ago I worked on a motor industry research programme at Cardiff University, and there were a bunch of ex BL/AR people associated with the research (it was sponsored by various European manufacturers).

This included Derek Whitaker, who was no2 in BL in the short post nationalisation but pre Edwardes period. Whitaker and the no1, Alex Park, were ex GEC (the go to company for decent managers back then) and were bought in by an increasingly desperate Labour govt to try and bring some much needed management skills post Stokes, who I think walked away post nationalisation. 

Trouble was, GEC, being a well-run company, had good industrial relations, in fact bloody amazing ones considering the era, and the two were soon out of their depth with all the BL shenanigans and sheer bloody mindedness of many, both of unions and management. 

The two things I remember about Whitaker were, he thought Gerald Ronson was a good bloke (I got a shirty response for calling him a crook), and he got a free lease Toyota every year, as after BL he went to Toyota GB, which in the 70s was Inchape. I assume by the late 90s Toyota GB was factory owned, but he still got the free new car every year. These were usually boring things like Corollas sadly, although he did give a Lexus a go one year. 

[motorpunk]

Wanky box-opening video and me mumbling about the content of the book in my echoey kitchen. Instagram link - https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNko1mkIAgf/?igsh=cXptdTV2c3dkcHp5

[motorpunk]

[DaveDorson]

I believe my copy is being delivered today.

[DaveDorson]

5 minutes ago, motorpunk said:

I may well pop along to the Oundle one if I can.

[LoftyvRS]

Ordered for delivery from the Jungle website.

The scumbag bastards I work for have put me (and a load of others) on Garden Leave for 3 months so I'll at least have something to read in the garden when the inevetable drizzle starts.

I might fire our wood burning patio heater thing up and pretend it's a brazier for full effect.

[kirton]

Received and blurb on back cover read, it's very red

[motorpunk]

55 minutes ago, LoftyvRS said:

The scumbag bastards I work for have put me (and a load of others) on Garden Leave for 3 months 

Am sadly in a very similar boat. 

[Snipes]

Oh yeah

 

[FakeConcern]

[Stinkwheel]

Ok, so got carried away and have ordered not only the Robbo book but the Weasel one as well AND the quality control confessions one, should keep me busy 👍

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, FakeConcern said:

Ooh, I had one of those Minis

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Stinkwheel said:

Ok, so got carried away and have ordered not only the Robbo book but the Weasel one as well AND the quality control confessions one, should keep me busy 👍

Hire car one is entertaining too!

[Datsuncog]

10 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Ooh, I had one of those Minis

You can buy newly remanufactured ones - at a price.

334 - BMC Mini Magnifique – Corgi Model Club

Rather like MG, they're nice enough but tragically they're made in China these days.

[Datsuncog]

Amazon Man in the hellishly dented Amazon Van comes good with a teatime delivery:

Lovely!

[richardmorris]

Can’t make a launch talk, but have ordered the book.

[Wibble]

My copy arrived tonight too. 

I’ve read the back, looked at the photos and read the forward. Looking forward to getting stuck in when wifey’s back at work next week.

[High Jetter]

56 minutes ago, Wibble said:

My copy arrived tonight too. 

I’ve read the back, looked at the photos and read the forward. Looking forward to getting stuck in when wifey’s back at work next week.

Copy? Demand an original! 🤣

(Bump)

[Noel Tidybeard]

on strike cos no kindle option 🤪

[motorpunk]

1 hour ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

on strike cos no kindle option 🤪

Sorry, Kindle just isn’t worth the hassle (to me as the author). You wouldn’t believe how much hassle it is.

I have a few copies I can sign and sell direct to folks (if you’re patient, and can pay by bank transfer). My cock and balls doodling is world class (or I can just sign it if you prefer).

Rich 

[richardmorris]

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

on strike cos no kindle option 🤪

TBF, if you took the time & effort to compose a book would you give copies away for peanuts?

[motorpunk]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

TBF, if you took the time & effort to compose a book would you give copies away for peanuts?

Scab!

[High Jetter]

5 minutes ago, motorpunk said:

Scab!

Am on your side!

[brownnova]

Just ordered, and looking forward to Monday when it shall arrive. Try to make sure I’ve finished my current book by then so I can move seamlessly on to this! 

[colnerov]

 

 You do know Monday is a bank holiday, don't you?

[vaughant]

Mine arrives Monday too 😀😀😀.

I loved the "confessions of quality control" book, fucking amazing. 

Being ex-ford the Dagenham story was so incredibly typical of how they did things and that Y2K compliance was literally what I walked out of my time in 1999 to witness.

The utter fucking nonsense of "the chosen few" who got to wear a shirt and chinos along with retaining shift rate to work days or as many of the other trades put it "those fucking useless suckhole cunts have had a 12 month (Wenglish for a year) on cunting days to tell us a machine made before their gran got fucked in a back lane by some stupid twat who didn't pull out won't fall out of it the fucking sky at midnight on the 31st?"

And the killer line was always, ALWAYS, down to just one word.....

OVERTIME

"FUCKING CUNTS doing fucking NOTHING all week then still getting a Saturday and a fucking SUNDAY. Should be off the rota until this shit is over... And get booked 3"

The Ford overtime rota made the Da Vinci code look like basic arithmetic.

Some examples:

- if your line was in, you could come in, if it was related to your shift....but if you'd done nights on a Friday, you could only come in at 6am Sunday 🤔🤔🤔🤔

- you could do 6pm-12am Sunday, but not 12 hrs, well, you could, only if nobody else wanted it in the rest of the department, but they could only come in after midnight.... Well, 10pm, because when they were due to come in years ago at midnight, they generally failed, as you'd of course stay in the pub then until closing and not want to come in, but if you had to be in for 10pm, then there was a chance you'd maybe get there as you'd most likely stop drinking then by say 8pm and probably sober up by midnight when the other guy went home. So that's double manpower for double pay for 2 hrs 🤣🤣.

- can't even get into shutdown rotas because they're too complicated to this day for anyone to understand 

Production was even more fucked up:

- work all week on the drum line, heavy, shitty,dusty, covered in paint, noisy, fast, hard going BUT when you wanted the overtime on a Friday night to make up for it...... Someone who'd sat by a machine elsewhere all week changing a tip every 6 hrs would get the overtime at time plus 7/8ths because..... He was on the disc and drum rota when he joined in 1990 and the other guy wasn't 🤣🤣🤣.

Painful and hilarious in equal measure. 

Ford ran things generally well, but fuck me looking back did we make it hard for them 😬😬.

[richardmorris]

Whoop, whoop.

[richardmorris]

14 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Whoop, whoop.

Just noticed he looks quite like Roald Dahl -someone with completely the opposite philosophy.