Bell's Banter 2021

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by Lancsbreaker

You're forgiven, Peter - I was a bit "on the minutes", and you've had an increase in board management workload - for which work, many thanks


I should of course have added to my post that I was about to formally open the calendar and now have, instead of Mike's truck, Mike's smiling face overlooking my laptop The first couple of months are looking a bit empty, but I've a fair few race dates entered from March onwards - lets just hope we can all enjoy them

🥂🥃🍺🍻🍸🍹🍾🍷

[midgetman]

Ooh I forgot the calendar. Best pop into the office and open it

Thanks for the good wishes.

M


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[E.B]

Happy Birthday Max.

[GORDON STREETER]

Happy birthday Max, you're still only a lad though
Hopefully I can attend a few meetings this year and meet up to tell you how to do it !
Lets hope that this virus will be got on top of and bring some sort of normality back into our lives

[Gerard C]

Happy birthday, young Max! Seems you are the youngest of "the" Club!
Bachi-bouzouk!

[GORDON STREETER]

Well if Lewis can do it then so can I

Actually it's an Emmy that belongs to a friend that lives up the road that is an editor on Game Of Thrones :laugh
https://www.emmys.com/bios/tim-porter-ace

[MGDavid]

Happy (almost belated) birthday Max, and HNY to everyone else.
Couldn't get up until midday - haven't had a hangover like that for a few years!
Went to my storage unit this afternoon, had a good tidy up and put antifreeze in the Lenham. Then back home, put the engine & box back in my old FISC racer so I can shut the garage door and work in the warm. Start as you wish to continue is this year's resolution, must keep busy.
Happy days.

[Gerard C]

David, une fois n'est pas coutume, I'm jealous, really. The two cars I wanted to use are in bits, I'll forget about the third, and the first I'll use will probably be the Mazda. Not a really exciting idea given the poor p/w ratio. But, all in all, much better than nothing. Lest go racing. Happy sideways, merry kerbs, blessed curves and f... the apex!

[Cliff Ryan]

Belated birthday wishes Max and a HHNY to all.

Mike would have been flattered & slightly embarrassed by the title, what better way to keep him in our thoughts.

Be careful out there people, hope to see some of you at a race circuit as I’ve had my V12 race engine rebuilt for my XJS, ‘just’ need to have it installed now, as unfortunately it didn’t come with free fitting.

[Mike Harte]

Something that annoys me more than a lot is reading, as one does from time to time, that due to climate change we will never see snow again. This came up, yet again, on a few sites only about a week or so ago, but it frustrates the hell out of me because, at this moment, I am looking out a virtual white out.

Up here, it has been snowing off and on, since Boxing Day with between 4 and 6 inches dumped on one day alone. And it has been snowing off and on all day today, so far, and looking at the leaden skies, that looks set to carry on for some hours.

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Something that annoys me more than a lot is reading, as one does from time to time, that due to climate change we will never see snow again. This came up, yet again, on a few sites only about a week or so ago, but it frustrates the hell out of me because, at this moment, I am looking out a virtual white out.

Up here, it has been snowing off and on, since Boxing Day with between 4 and 6 inches dumped on one day alone. And it has been snowing off and on all day today, so far, and looking at the leaden skies, that looks set to carry on for some hours.

Mike, I suppose it depends just where you live, at the moment we are stuck in Kent where I have lived mostly for the last 73 years. We certainly don't have the snow and long periods of freezing weather that we used to have when I was growing up in the 50/60s.
I know that our minds do play tricks with us as the years go on but our local "rag" often prints old pictures and stories from years ago showing huge snow drifts and frozen lakes that we certainly haven't had for years.
OK so we have over wintered in Spain for the last 20 odd years but with modern technology I have been able to keep an eye on our UK property from a distance.
What I have also observed is the rising sea level around our Spanish residence by looking at old cine film and photos that I have taken since 1973.
As the Mediterranean doesn't have any tides to speak of I can tell that we have lost about 2mt of beach over that time and some of our favourite "secret" skinny dip ones have disappeared altogether.
As I am typing this we have blue skies and no snow, saying that I might wake up to a foot of it tomorrow

[Mike Harte]

Gordon, I'm 74, so we share the some of the same memories from years gone by. In fact, I travelled through Kent by train on Boxing Day every year on my way via Dover to catch a ferry over to France on my way to skiing in either Switzerland or Austria for the winter. And you could almost guarantee that we would see snow as we went through Kent.

Now, I am not in any way denying that the weather hasn't changed over the years. Even up here, and I am a softie from North London, I would say that the winters are certainly milder than in years gone by. Conversely, I can state that categorically that the summers are not nearly as hot as they used to be when I was 9 or 10 years old; so hot that it was impossible to sleep, some nights.

During my teen years, I went to school not very far from Delta Towers, in Wallingford, alongside the Thames in Oxfordshire. One winter, we had so much snow that the coaches couldn't get in to the school at the end of term so we were stuck there for days when we should have been going home for Easter. And another year, the reverse happened; we were unable to start the Summer term because the school was snowed in, meaning that our coaches wouldn't be able to drive in.

No, what gets my goat is the exaggeration by the journalists in the media. Yes, it is probably a tad less cool in the winter than in years gone by, and overall a fraction warmer during the summer, but I think that we are a long way from a time when we wouldn't see snow in the UK.

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

I think that we are a long way from a time when we wouldn't see snow in the UK.

Should you be proved wrong, Mike, you can now import some snow from Austria or France with a preferential import tax rate…*From Switzerland will be another story! Happy NY to you, keep safe and smiling.

[Lancsbreaker]

Sorry about the snow, Mike - must have been my fault - here East Lancs we had a beautiful sunny (if -5C cold) morning.......until I went down to our local Tesco where as I queued outside - for the first time since early lockdown days - it started snowing. By the time I got out with the essentials of life (bacon, eggs, mushrooms, muffins and milk, and of course cheese) it was settling quickly.


Fortunately I'd gone on my trusty Freelander (the only one that had defrosted in the sunshine ) so I was able to battle home through the 2" drifts


Milady of course being some 15 years older than me waxes lyrical about the winter of 47 - from which time she has a photo of her brother leaning with his elbow on the top of a telegraph pole as he stood on top of a drift.


Actually the most snow I've seen in recent years was when we were on Tenerife in December a few years ago and the snowfall in the Teide caldera was so deep the roads were closed - the locals thought it fantastic - loading up pickup trucks with snow to drive at pace back down the mountain to build snowmen back at home.....I even saw one with a snowman built on the bonnet as he drove (rather more slowly) back down the hill!

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by Lancsbreaker

By the time I got out with the essentials of life (bacon, eggs, mushrooms, muffins and milk, and of course cheese) it was settling quickly.

Even though you obviously forgot the beer, you know how to treat yourself, Richard! After such a diet, dont come and complain about the seconds it takes to change the driver during an enduro! Serious!