ON THIS DAY
peter wilkins
On July 27, 1949, my wife's brother, Stephen, was born. I am
reminded of this every year, and for those slow at maths, today
makes him 69 years old.
On the very same day, all those years ago, a strange being
arrived on this earth, the purpose of which has not yet been
identified. I have come across it in Shrewsbury, in Chippenham
in Wiltshire, and I have also seen it in Eastbourne. There are
reports that many years ago it was discovered in Malta, and has
also been reported in eastern Mediterranean countries. It has
even been spotted in America, so President Trump is not the
strangest character to be seen in the States.
Now back in England, this creature has been known to visit shops,
and regularly visits ale houses and eating establishments,
especially where there is real ale.
Howard's Way is its code of practice, and Howard's End is not
expected for some time yet.
It has a nest in Southampton, from which protrude strange metal
objects which occasionally rotate to point in different
directions.
You may have heard of the Howard League for Penal Reform, but the
Howard in this case, the strange creature I am referring to, is
known as Colin.
Happy Birthday Colin.
Best wishes,
Peter
Chris Biles
I can also confirm sightings of said specimen in parts of south Germany, and very occasionally in northern Switzerland and south eastern France close to the banks of the upper Rhine valley.
As for Your reference to sightings of this specimen in and around its Southampton based habitat, and in particular the protrusion of "strange metal objects", the ones which "occasionally rotate to point in different directions", I might venture to comment on one specific sighting observed some 17 years ago to the day.
The event in question took place on platform 1 at Southampton Central station at roughly 6.15 pm on 27 July 2001. Things got particularly interesting when a relatively simple attempt to demonstrate the robustness of one of these metal objects to which Peter referred backfired rather spectacularly.Unfortunately, the object in question sustained catastrophic metal fatigue, and was thus no longer able to perform the task for which it was designed. If Twitter was around back then, such an event might have carried a hashtag like: "cane but unable". Perhaps these details may be familiar to a select few on this list?
Cheers, our part time Germany correspondent.
David Stephenson
I am Glad Peter got in first and sent his message before I had composed mine. Happy Birthday Colin, And, I am sure although we will not meet on this day we will meet, during the weekend to drink and toast your birth.
Dave Stephenson.
Chris Biles
A slight modification to my previous message on this thread.
I now realise that the metal objects I referred to in my recent post were not the same was the one Peter alluded to, which is in effect, a variation on the theme of a sattelite dish. More haste less speed, (smile).
It was the rotating feature Peter mentioned which caught my attention, leading me to impulsively think of the metallic antennae like protrusions such life forms often carry as an extension to their abdomen for the purposes of navigation, including the deployment of echo location.
It was one of these objects which sustained a catastrophic failure as previously reported, the 17th anniversary of which occurs to day, rather neatly coinciding with the 69th anniversary of the birth of its owner.
Sorry, that was rather a mouthful, so I'd better go and lie down in a corner somewhere.
Cheers, CB.
Co...@pobox.com
Thokz ver yar gud fingz ver me barfday! Oi ope Peel Common's ready ver it's
onslaught!
I'm going to have an "Oh Kevin! Oh Kevin!" whilst FiJi handles his ships,
Alan Smith wrote hoping I would have an enjoyable barfday! I wrote to him a
while ago and he told me I'd not be Clugg'd or Lee'd on my barfday, he'd be
Smithing me Thursday into Friday.
Well, if you lot can be daft, I can be dafter!
An "Oh Kevin! Oh Kevin!" is a goodly slug of Jameson's Irish Whiskey, into
which I was enveagled by a certain Green ex-chair of the organization from
which AVIP has been formed.
I will partake of my "Oh Kevin! Oh Kevin!" along with FiJi's handling of the
ships, in order to help him, especially if he plays Sailing By and my duff
note.
Now, to pour my "Oh Kevin! Oh Kevin!" but will add some ice! Kevin says
this is sacrelidge.
---
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Stuart Jones
I am Glad Peter got in first and sent his message before I had composed mine. Happy Birthday Colin, And, I am sure although we will not meet on this day we will meet, during the weekend to drink and toast your birth.
Dave Stephenson.
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Sheila Garbutt
Co...@pobox.com
No, not 27 July, it took place on 20 July, I had just returned from Sight
Village 2001, with the new cane, whilst trying to bend it round in the
mistaken idea it would spring back, it snapped cleanly with a loud bang like
a gun shot and a couple of station staff came running across to see what had
happened. In due course, Queen Alexandra College replaced the damaged part
and returned the cane to me.
As I write, thunder storm is just starting here.
Cheers.
Co...@pobox.com
I plan shortly to put the July edition of Radio Memories together and post
off Saturday.
Colin Howard
Well, Chris, glad you came back to Peter, with your usual manner of
delivery!
Colin Howard
Yes, it was, for anybody interested, I intended to demonstrate to Chris how
such objects can or I thought could, be bent but not so far as I tried,
resulting in a loud bang like a gun shot, bringing a couple of railway staff
running, I suspect thinking something nepharious was afoot
instead of which, my newly acquired white stick or rather long cane, was
cleanly snapped in half.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Biles" <chris...@guidemail.co.uk>
To: "'peter wilkins' via AVIP" <avip...@googlegroups.com>; "AVIP World"
<avip...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2018 12:19 AM
Subject: Re: [avip] ON THIS DAY
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Colin Howard
Chris, Peter, my reply later on my actual barfday!
----- Original Message -----
From: <Co...@pobox.com>
To: <avip...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2018 2:59 PM
Subject: Re: [avip] ON THIS DAY
chris biles
A few things to comment upon here.
Firstly, it was interesting to recall the metal fatigue incident at Southampton station, almost 25 years since the event itself. How time flies.
Next, upon reading Peter's post after so many years, it occurs to me that Peter might have originally been referring to the motorised rotating roof antenna on Colin's house, rather than the mobility implements previously mentioned, which operate very much at ground level. In the final analysis, I would suspect that both concepts of rotary movement would retain a measure of validity.
Finally, permit me to mention my own cane story, which similar to the incident involving Colin's implement which I happened to witness, was very successful in attracting the attention of facilities personnel, in ways where a general appeal for assistance might be considered on a discretionary basis, depending on staff availability among other variable factors. Anyway the incident in question, which happened over a decade ago one wintry Saturday evening, involved my attempt to access the main sales area of a certain sports retailer, in which an escalator ride from a small, unstaffed display area on the ground floor was required.
Things proceeded routinely enough, until when nearly half way up the ride, I decided to transfer the long cane I was using from my right hand, so I could adjust a conspicuously sagging shoulder strap on my back pack. Although it was very much my intention to transfer this cane back into my right hand once this most incremental of adjustments was completed, the coldness of my little used left hand, resulted in my cane falling to, not so much the ground, but a selection of metal steps, which were still in a self elevating state of movement. My assumption at this point, was that if the cane remained in a sufficiently static position, I could retrieve said object, before the steps began to level off.
The first suggestion that this task might prove to be more tricky than I was hoping for, was when the tip of the cane made contact with the step below, indicating immediately that the rubber grip section of the cane would no longer be where I'd been expecting it to have rested. The second complication, detected around a couple of seconds later, was that the handrail was already entering its levelling off phase, which in turn meant any residual chance I had of retrieving the cane in a state of relative safety, was diminishing very rapidly. To compound matters further, any hope I had that the flat lining phase would enable the cane to drift its way onto the static floor space at the end of the ride, was effectively dashed when I heard the cane slip its way down yet another step level with a similar metallic clash effect to the first, and then another, then yet another, with my cane now gathering its own gravity induced momentum at a considerably faster rate compared to the relative consistency of the escalator's own rate of self sustaining movement.
Meanwhile, one consequence of this unexpectedly sudden surge of sonorous intensity, to an otherwise routine shopping soundscape, resulted in one staff member rushing from his habitual sales point location with a state of counterintuitive urgency, compared at least to the time normally required to attract assistance in a shop normally known for its 'pile em high', and sell em, well not so low as the time the shop in question opened its doors some 20 years ago. Such digressions aside, the precipitous urgency with which this staff member almost fled to the discharge point of the escalator, may have been prompted by a fear, that these spontaneously accelerating clashes of metallic percussiveness, might be a warning, that some kind of catastrophic mechanical failure might be in the offing, unless evasive action was taken to disengage the escalator's power supply by activating the emergency stop button forthwith.
As things turned out, the staff member spotted my run away cane, by now near the bottom of the ascending conveyor, by the time the button was pressed that would put the system into freeze frame mode. Luckily, no other passengers had stepped onto the escalator since the moment of my fateful mishap, so all that was now needed was for the sales assistant to walk the length of the now static escalator, to return into my possession what might otherwise have turned into a dangerous projectile. And then, once a few apologetic pleasantries had been exchanged, I witnessed my first ever occasion of observing an escalator being returned to active mode, with the shop employee no doubt relieved that an emergency call to the relevant service engineer, was no longer necessary.
So, if I had some 8 years ago, shared what might have gone down in history is one particular tale of the unexpected, my curious incident of the cane on the escalator, might be another story, for the AVIP equivalent, of the Tales of the Unexpected archives.
Oh and by the way, if you wanted a pop song which might serve as a match for the story just regaled, you could do no worse than go for an early classic by Suzy and the Banshees called, "Staircase Mysteries".
That's All Folks!
Chris B.
---Original Message---
From: Colin Howard <colinho...@gmail.com>
Sent: 2026-06-04 17:58:05
Subject: Re: [avip] ON THIS DAY
Chris,
Yes, it was, for anybody interested, I intended to demonstrate to Chris how
such objects can or I thought could, be bent but not so far as I tried,
resulting in a loud bang like a gun shot, bringing a couple of railway staff
running, I suspect thinking something nepharious was afoot
instead of which, my newly acquired white stick or rather long cane, was
cleanly snapped in half.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Biles" <chris...@guidemail.co.uk>
To: "'peter wilkins' via AVIP" <avip...@googlegroups.com>; "AVIP World"
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2018 12:19 AM
Subject: Re: [avip] ON THIS DAY
Hi Peter and all.
A slight modification to my previous message on this thread.
I now realise that the metal objects I referred to in my recent post were
not the same was the one Peter alluded to, which is in effect, a variation
on the theme of a sattelite dish. More haste less speed, (smile).
It was the rotating feature Peter mentioned which caught my attention,
leading me to impulsively think of the metallic antennae like protrusions
such life forms often carry as an extension to their abdomen for the
purposes of navigation, including the deployment of echo location.
It was one of these objects which sustained a catastrophic failure as
previously reported, the 17th anniversary of which occurs to day, rather
neatly coinciding with the 69th anniversary of the birth of its owner.
Sorry, that was rather a mouthful, so I'd better go and lie down in a corner
somewhere.
Cheers, CB.
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