Only You

A quick questions and answers session for forum members
User avatar
Selby White
LUFCTALK Moderator
Posts: 17206
Joined: 25 Mar 2012, 11:32

Only You

Post by Selby White »

Simple Questions, Anything you've done or maybe somewhere you've been that you don't think anyone else on this forum has ?

Add the story could be some good reads :-

Here are a some of mine -
1. Attended a Gospel Church service.
A few years back travelled from Chicago to New Orleans and somewhere near Memphis got the chance to attend a real McCoy Gospel service, some very large ladies singers and band (guitarists, drummers) along with one crazy reverrand made it facinating. Not a religeous person but enjoyed the experience, good job realy because once started you are locked in.

2. Bought some Railway Gates -
Ok my Car insurance did, it was very foggy, I was very young had a very fast Austin allegro and I've nothing else to say about it. :oops:

3. Visited Bosnia (not long after Balkans war) -
Did a day trip to Mostar when in Dubrovnik, still plenty of buildings with bullet holes, sad that war reckon was a nice place before they wrecked it.
Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.
User avatar
johnh
Bielsa's English Teacher
Posts: 8522
Joined: 24 Jan 2012, 15:26

Re: Only You

Post by johnh »

Easy :D

1. Slept in the air-raid shelter every night for 6 months during the Blitz in Liverpool (1941).

2. Jungle patrols in Malaya (with West Yorks Regiment) during the emergency (1955).

3. Played football against Don Revie (1963)

4. Had the Prime Minister in our house (2018)
I once played against Don Revie.
User avatar
Selby White
LUFCTALK Moderator
Posts: 17206
Joined: 25 Mar 2012, 11:32

Re: Only You

Post by Selby White »

johnh wrote:
3. Played football against Don Revie (1963)
Think we need a match report John :thumbup:
Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.
Deleted User 728

Re: Only You

Post by Deleted User 728 »

Love gospel music.
Can't stand religion.
I feel you, brother !

1. Nearly died.
They say your life flashes before you and it was true in my case.
I'm a crap swimmer and can only really do it if I have a snorkel as I've never mastered breathing. Hate being out of my depth and, if I'm honest, the water scares me.
On holiday in Spain, aged 18, me and a mate were swimming out to sea from the beach and there were a few rope lines out to various small craft. My snorkel got caught in one as I went to pull the line up and my mate pulled it down. It came out of my mouth and I panicked.
Luckily, he was close enough to push me up on to my back where he knew I could breath okay and he pulled me to shore. Nobody around us knew, but as I lay on the beach everything I'd done in those short years flipped through my mind like someone holding open a catalogue of images and emotions, letting the pages fall open rapidly.
It was awful.
I still hate the water and I still can't swim without a snorkel.
I avoid it like the plague.

2. Been an "expert" on the radio.
I used to appear on both BBC Solent and a local commercial station, Original106, as a music reviewer when I ran record shops a few years ago.
It's quite hairy being live as you obviously have to mind your Ps and Qs.
Good fun though although it's weird when you listen back afterwards and hear yourself.
I actually did a desert island discs kind of show on 106 too, which was really cool. I had an hour of music - about 10 songs - and had to talk about their significance to me.

3. Been a best man 4 times.
Come on .. who can top that ?? :wtf:
User avatar
johnh
Bielsa's English Teacher
Posts: 8522
Joined: 24 Jan 2012, 15:26

Re: Only You

Post by johnh »

Selby White wrote:
johnh wrote:
3. Played football against Don Revie (1963)
Think we need a match report John :thumbup:
In 1963 I played for Yorkshire Amateur and we reached the quarter finals of the old FA Amateur Cup. The week before our match, Don Revie arranged for 'Ammers' to play a practise match against a Leeds United X1 on the training pitch behind the main stand at ER. I was playing centre forward that season and Don Revie played centre-half for the Leeds team so he was marking me. He had a whistle round his neck and every ten minutes or so he would blow the whistle, stop the game, and point out to us what we were doing wrong or what we could have done better. Fabulous experience. Les Cocker also played plus lots of young lads who were coming through like Paul Madeley, Paul Reaney etc., Can't remember the score but do remember scoring a header.
I once played against Don Revie.
User avatar
kk white
Raich Carter's Contract Agent
Posts: 3594
Joined: 12 Aug 2009, 14:23
Location: Galway

Re: Only You

Post by kk white »

johnh wrote:... In 1963 I played for Yorkshire Amateur and we reached the quarter finals of the old FA Amateur Cup. The week before our match, Don Revie arranged for 'Ammers' to play a practise match against a Leeds United X1 on the training pitch behind the main stand at ER. I was playing centre forward that season and Don Revie played centre-half for the Leeds team so he was marking me. He had a whistle round his neck and every ten minutes or so he would blow the whistle, stop the game, and point out to us what we were doing wrong or what we could have done better. Fabulous experience. Les Cocker also played plus lots of young lads who were coming through like Paul Madeley, Paul Reaney etc., Can't remember the score but do remember scoring a header.
Well I'm not following that with any of my (relatively) mundane stories... well done sir! :clap:
"An astonishing number of people despise Leeds United or what Leeds United stand for. But this club was never made for them." - Phil Hay
User avatar
mapperleywhite
Raich Carter's Contract Agent
Posts: 3670
Joined: 28 Apr 2012, 14:02

Re: Only You

Post by mapperleywhite »

Selby White wrote: 1. Attended a Gospel Church service.
A few years back travelled from Chicago to New Orleans and somewhere near Memphis got the chance to attend a real McCoy Gospel service, some very large ladies singers and band (guitarists, drummers) along with one crazy reverrand made it facinating. Not a religeous person but enjoyed the experience, good job realy because once started you are locked in.
Not especially religious myself either, but the American church experience is rather different from my childhood memories of Protestant austerity. Good friends of mine in Chicago are committed Christians and I've been with them at Easter and Christmas. Men dressed in designer suits, their bibles envelopped in fancy leather covers. But chewing gum during a church service?? FFS!

The music at Christmas was first rate - a guy on keyboard, backing tapes and a tuneful choir.
Might have to take an interest in the Premier League now....
User avatar
mapperleywhite
Raich Carter's Contract Agent
Posts: 3670
Joined: 28 Apr 2012, 14:02

Re: Only You

Post by mapperleywhite »

In no particular order

- Visiting the Taj Mahal. Many famous tourist attractions can be something of a let down, but the Taj Mahal most definitely is not - truly a thing of beauty dedicated to love

- Eating scorpion; was in Beijing staying with some ex-pat Brit friends and it was a bit of a competetive challenge on their behalf. Didn't taste like chicken, more like prawns

- Got married on a Caribbean island; appropriate it was the Colombian territory of San Andres. Mrs MW and I celebrate 11 years on Friday!

- Been in a synogogue; I was not working at the time and one of my kid's classes was going as part of their education. Given the historical animosities, unusual that it was designed with an Egyptian motif but that was the vogue during the early 1900's. More unusual still it was in Frankfurt and had survived Kristallnacht.

- My job at one stage required me to travel a lot in Eastern Europe. The situation arose that I was in Naples on Friday and had to be in Athens on Monday; as I was very single at the time I decided to spend the weekend in Tirana rather than head back to Blighty. Bizarre recollection is that as I walked the streets nobody took the slightest notice of me....no 'hey mister, you looky looky, good price'....

Drove from Bucharest to Sofia and back. At the time I was astonished how two bordering countries could be so indifferent to each other. Had to bribe people at the border both times.

Did many places in both Romania and Bulgaria. Most memorable was in west Romania - totally unspoilt Europe with bears and pristine forests and mountains. Marvellous!

- Met my musical hero Michael McDonald formerly lead singer of the Doobie Brothers.
Last edited by mapperleywhite on 07 Mar 2018, 10:03, edited 2 times in total.
Might have to take an interest in the Premier League now....
User avatar
NottinghamWhite
LUFCTALK Admin
Posts: 31307
Joined: 11 Nov 2009, 10:10

Re: Only You

Post by NottinghamWhite »

Touring Southern India & we changed our plans & headed for the hills a couple of days earlier than we planned. That night there was quiet a lot of 'rain' we were told by our guide this was indeed very unusual. The next day as we descended my mobile kicked into action with loads of text messages all pleading with me to contact them in particular there were a couple of really distressing ones from our daughters. As I started to tell other members of our party my mobile rang & it was the boss of the company we had booked with asking me if everyone was safe, safe I asked what did he mean only to be told there had been a terrible tsunami the day before & it had the area we were supposed to be staying in. I explained how we had changed our plans so knew nothing of it. The rain the night before was the after affects of them tsunami.


We were touring Peru & having just passed through a town where gold was prospected & was notorious for its violent crimes when we hit this incredible storm which began causing land slides. We reached a point in the road where water was streaming down bringing tons of earth & boulders. Our guide gave us the choice we could turn around & spend the night in the gold mining town but we would be targets for locals as we were tourists or we could attempt to get through the torrent that was getting worse by the minute. We decided to risk the torrent & luckily a minute later were back on track. How did we get through I've no idea I had my eyes firmly closed :D

Next stop,Kathmandu & unbeknown to us there's a general strike on. The Nepalese taking striking very seriously & we had to drag our bags to the back of the airport to get transportation to our hotel. My wife who is blond was told she had to sit in the front so the hostile locals would see we were tourists. We eventually arrived at our hotel & believe me it took ages as we were constantly stopped by rioting locals demanding to know why our driver was working. Once we were at the hotel we had only just managed to get through the gates when rioting started dozens of police officers appeared & it was clear they up for a good scrap. We found out later that in the rioting the Chief of Police was beheaded & head stuck on a rail for all to see. We were stranded in the hotel for 2 days before we could start our tour.

Finally Quito we were returning to our hotel when we heard these cracking noises one of our party said it was gunfire & we ran to the hotel & up into the bar where we could easily see a gang of men in a gun battle with police. At least 4 of the men were shot dead & 1 police officer. It was really scary & luckily we were so near to the hotel otherwise a couple of minutes earlier we would have been caught right in the middle of it.

Ain't travel great :lol:
Winner of the Europa League
Deleted User 728

Re: Only You

Post by Deleted User 728 »

4. Endured a swarm of locusts.
We were driving in Zimbabwe about fifteen years ago when I spotted a mysterious red cloud in front of us, some way off. It was low level, just above the ground, and moving weirdly like it was alive .. and that's because it was.
Before I'd finished the question : "What the **** is that ?" my sister told me to pull over at the side of the road and park up. There wasn't another car in sight and we were miles from the nearest town. She knew what it was and said we'd be perfectly safe if we just rolled the windows up, so we did .. and then we sat and waited.
It's so strange.
The noise.
The way they seem totally oblivious.
The way they move as one.
And we just sat there as they engulfed the car, with a few being splatted against the windscreen, and then just flew on past.

Really eerie experience and five of the most curious minutes of my life.

5. Went eye to eye with an elephant.
A few years later, we visited a lion and cheetah park. I was driving a pick-up with a bench seat in the front, my sister was at the other end of it and her three small children were sat between us.
The park's very natural and totally different to Longleat and places like that - there's no other attractions, just the animals and a small café.
Every time we drove to a dangerous part, there'd be someone at the gate of the fence warning us to stay in the car and keep the windows up. Boy, it was hot that day ..
I drove gingerly through the lion part and a massive lioness lay across the road at one point, just glaring at me. I say glaring, but she was pretty indifferent and wasn't gonna move. It was when she yawned that I gunned the engine and inched forward, making her finally get up and amble begrudgingly out of the way. By the time we got out of that part and into another safe bit, we were gasping and wound down the windows immediately. We drove along for a bit and as we came to the foot of a small rise, I spotted two adolescent elephants at the top, about to be walked down by their handlers so I pulled to a stop to let them past.
They were still a good six or seven feet tall and the park staff smiled and waved at the kids, one of whom was munching an apple.
The bigger elephant must've smelled it or spotted it and walked over to my window and promptly thrust his trunk into the cabin !
As he reached in for the apple, the kids were squealing with delight, my sister and I were just laughing while I stroked his trunk and turned from the children to the animal and found myself literally eye to eye with one of the most majestic beasts on the planet. He was calmness personified and just wanted to say hello and have a bite to eat. The apple was curled up and away into its mouth and my sister dug out some more fruit which he promptly gobbled up.
It was an amazing moment shared with nature at its finest. The skin, the hairs, the scent, the eyeball, the humour in the soul of that creature .. it was incredible. I'm sure he knew he was being cheeky and with all of us - the staff included - doubled up laughing, he knew he would be alright.

I absolutely love Africa and feel so privileged to know it properly without just being another tourist :)
Post Reply