terry_rory Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 Pete is describing mid 1980s London and specifically a population of people (financial traders) who - were it not for Margaret Thatcher - would still have been East End barrow boys trying to rip off housewives with Korean made 'genuine Wedgewood' dinner services rather than making their millions from stripping newly privatised public assets. Back in the glory days when the drunken yawps of yuppy unto yuppy were heard throughout the land. It does not suprise me that Pete's London memories were tinged with coke, puke, vintage alcohol and the newly rich trying to ape the more disgusting rituals of old money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terry_rory Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 The ones that did not burn out have probably all 'downsized' to live in thatched Cotswold cottages and potter around in their organic smallholdings with whatever minor 'deb' they managed to collect along the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewlamb Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 Trevor, do they stagger around their Cotswold gardens muttering 'hahahahahaha' to no one in particular? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewlamb Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 You'll be laughing even more after today's rugby match...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terry_rory Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 Luckily my profession of the last 27 years (in IT) was a lower pressure boom activity of the 1980s where a lot of us upstart council estate kids with our welfare state provided A levels and degrees (thanks to post-war state education and grants) were 'imported' into the middle class by virtue of the fact that the real middle classes were too stupid or were still studying classics and PPE and computers were considered beneath them. It only got me (so far) 27 years of house ownership, being able to raise kids in comfort, paying all my bills and a decent pension (big deal soon). It has not made me filthy rich but it got me out of the dirt and into a suit and (for the first twenty years) some bewildered respect from people who still needed a secretary to to operate their 'word processor' and would take one look at a machine room the size of Buckinghamshire full of blue mainframes costing zillions and feint on the spot! Then I moved into networks when the old game got sussed as not being as difficult as we made it look. The state sector (which I avoided like the plague to work with big Yank companies) still cannot get a computer system to work without it going 10 years over target and billions over budget so Orwell's 1984 is still in the hands of a bunch of underpaid incompetents backed up by a flock of overpaid 'consultants' which is why those 'cradle to grave' databases are still all but fantasy fanned by paranoids in the BBC, The Guardian and the Civil liberties movement who cannot get their head around the fact that '1984' will emerge from the Corporates and not the state. Efficiency does depend on getting the right staff and treating them good. A mystery to the state sector. I worked out at 19 the only way to escape the ravages of 'computerisation' was to DO the computerisation. But yes, the REAL money is in Peter's game and Law and Arms. Peter must be just a couple of annums short of 50 by now so kudos for still being a force in a young bucks game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Herbert Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 The Diary of Allen Herbert Awoke at 9.45 had a quickie thrash with my Leica M6ttl. 10.02 Applebury my manservant arrives with breakfast( kippers, toast, marmalade, scrambled eggs with a touch of sugar ). He arrived 2 minutes late flicked his ear until it turned a lighter shade of pale and then bright crimson. He made the necessary pain sounds to please me. Visited at 11.45 Madam Tory Hacker with my friend Cameron. Both of us enjoyed exposing our buttocks to her energetic vigour with my old Etonian willow cane....I wore my beige frillies and Cameron was in blue...for those who are interested. Most satisfying. 1.45 Monday Club for lunch, Venison on the bone with the necessary bullet wound, with mash potatoes and Brussel Sprouts�..Boy Scouts in Cockney rhyming slang. 2.38 note slipped to me informing me of my latest 007 mission with my Leica. To be continued�� Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terry_rory Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 We hope so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Herbert Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 007 Herbert your mission Take passage aboard HMS Francis and proceed with all possible haste to the penal colony Australia. Australia An island which has developed mutated life forms unlike any other living life forms on the planets. For example huge rats with enormous back legs which hop around and store things in huge pouches. Yes, unbelievable but true! Be careful. Your mission is to bring back a convict from the penal colony to see what effect the mutation process is having. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Herbert Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 The following day........... Arrive at Tilbury docks in my Bentley De Ville at 12am midnight. Trouble getting aboard as the famous photographer Rogering Hickson was already mounting the HMS Francis. Rogering was going to take a photograph of the whole of Australia in one snap on his Alpha Mega plate Camera. Eventually my manservant Old Jiffras pushed his way forward scarring other folk with his stutter in his left eye. Aboard at 3.89 pm�� Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Herbert Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 Memoirs of Voyage in the year of our Lord 2005 3rd of April 2005. May the 9th I sent my manservant Applebury to remonstrate with Captain Guy about his attire. Wandering around the ship in your all together is not expectable even if you are wearing cowboy boots and a hat. Captain Guy felt that by displaying his manhood to the ladies they would feel secure in his abilities to Captain the ship. One finds such behaviour totally unacceptable and it will be reported to the Authorities. Appleberry was involved in a altercation with the Captain resulting in a bloody nose. As a special treat for him I gave him the left overs from my evening meal. One has to display acts of kindness on occasion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Herbert Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 19th of April 2006 Accidentally pushed Appleburry overboard due to his numerous typo errors in my diary. He kept snivelling about some large fishes with fins circling and biting him. For goodness sake man, pull yourself together, i told him, fish don�t eat you, you eat fish. Unfortunately on this occasion he was right.....must have been mutated Australian fish. Arrive on Island, send Jiffras due to the demise of Applebury ,to inform Governor Marc Wilham of our arrival. Apparently he was too busy opening his presents to be able to greet us for at least several months. To follow confrontation with the mutated convicts!?!? To be continued..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terry_rory Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 Superb Allen! Most enjoyable to read whilst I am programming and registering new DAB radios (Pure Evoke) for every bedroom and kitchen in house and having to use headphones for this (I am surrounded by people watching Dr Who and they grumble if I make a noise) "Oh there's a pink one and a cherry one and even a glossy bla-ack one" (Sung to tune of 'Little boxes, little boxes, all made out of Ticky Tacky'... but only in my head of course.) Carry on. So sorry for interrupting old chap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terry_rory Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 I have never had a radio that can have it's software upgraded via USB ! Our trusty kitchen Roberts is looking very sad and it's little wooden end cheeks are all flushed and I feel sort of sorry for it and a little guilty. Anyone want to make a home for it? (R737) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Herbert Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 on. So sorry for interrupting old chap Knackered with writing it all...maybe another day,another time, another place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Herbert Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 A bit too much like hard work with Applebury carping it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terry_rory Posted June 18, 2006 Share Posted June 18, 2006 What about the rugby? Who cares? Who the @@@@ is watching rugby? Lets see what happens when Oz play Brazil today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nesrani Posted June 18, 2006 Share Posted June 18, 2006 Fascinating thread. Andrew - I wonder if as a London based snapper you know an old friend of mine who I've lost touch with, Kareena Miller. She used to be over to Bombay quite regularly, but I haven't seen or heard from her for quite a while. Guy must have pounded his keyboard to shards of plastic by now. Pity, I was hoping to hear more from him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewlamb Posted June 18, 2006 Share Posted June 18, 2006 Another Bob, there is a Kareena Perronet-Miller who has a really tricksy, irritating, website. Do you mean her? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewlamb Posted June 18, 2006 Share Posted June 18, 2006 Trevor, before settling down to watch Brazil outclass the Land Down Under, I spent some looking at a book, Robert Doisneau's Paris. Have you seen it? It's joyous and one of the best photo books I've looked at in a while. Probably my favourite book of Doisneau's work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terry_rory Posted June 18, 2006 Share Posted June 18, 2006 Yes that is the one I have. (I was a fool and bought it from a local bookshop for 35 quid rather than get it from Amazon.) Superb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terry_rory Posted June 18, 2006 Share Posted June 18, 2006 Lee Miller's 'Portraits from a life'. Very nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewlamb Posted June 18, 2006 Share Posted June 18, 2006 Got the Miller book, as well, very nice but I have a preference for the warmth of Doisneau's work. Having said that, we've got a very nice Miller print on the wall that we bought from the Photographer's Gallery many years ago. It's a superb photo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewlamb Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 I'd fallen over like a bunch of daffodils if I had my shins scraped by boot studs which was what Ronaldo suffered from one of your less charming players in the first half. 2-0 flatters Brazil who were not at their dazzling best. Harry Kewell missed a sitter to equalise when the score was 1-0. Gus huddink is a genius manager and, if the English FA had even the smallest scrap of common sense, he should have been made the next England coach. You're right though, football is a silly game. The world should take up Aussie rules instead, hahahaha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brambor Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 I thought Australia played very well and had a lot of quality scoring chances. I was impressed by Brazil and Australia for their lack of falling down and embelishing penalties. You should have seen the Italy USA game. The players were falling down like dominoe's in the wind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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