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66Mustang
66Mustang Online Community Member Posts: 14,995 Championing
edited October 2020 in Coffee lounge
I’m perhaps not the best person to start this thread as I don’t really have anything interesting to share, but I thought this would be a good way to get to know each other a bit better.

The best I can do is that I have driven a Lotus on Lotus’s own test track where some F1 drivers like Senna have driven.

I’m sure people can beat me. I’m looking forward to reading your posts. :)
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  • janer1967
    janer1967 Online Community Member Posts: 21,922 Championing
    Nothing really exciting here 

    I have had my hair shaved off once for charity 

    I was awake for the surgery to amputate my leg and could see it all in the reflection from the overhead light 
  • leeCal
    leeCal Online Community Member Posts: 7,537 Championing
    When briefly working as a motorcycle messenger I had to deliver a credit card to the US embassy in London. Very exciting I had to ask to see his passport before giving him his card, I think he was quite high up since he had a very large office.

    a few weeks later I had a blow out and broke my bike and my collar bone. Also my belongings went missing from a hotel I was staying in. However, it wasn’t all bad because I’d taken out a really cheap five pound insurance cover and I claimed and received ninety pounds!  Things can always be worse you see.
  • 66Mustang
    66Mustang Online Community Member Posts: 14,995 Championing
    edited October 2020
    @janer1967 that is very selfless well done for doing that haha. Also that is really interesting about the leg and a bit scary. Were you interested in watching or did you prefer to look away? I have had a couple of minor procedures while awake (nothing like a leg amputation) and I was really interested to watch! Sorry if that is a bit personal of a question, no offence meant.
  • 66Mustang
    66Mustang Online Community Member Posts: 14,995 Championing
    @leecal that’s really cool. Typical as I think the American diplomats like to have everything large haha. Sorry to hear about the bike accident. Was £90 a lot of money when it happened, at least enough to pay for the damage to be rectified? (To be honest it is still a lot to me today but you know what I mean haha)
  • Cher_Alumni
    Cher_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 5,714 Championing
    @66Mustang Great thread and a nice way to get to know each other more  :)

    I must say @janer1967 your leg fact was hardcore.  I'm not sure I could have watched and I admire you for being able to.

    I'm still thinking about my interesting fact, I'll be back with it when I've thought of one  :D
  • janer1967
    janer1967 Online Community Member Posts: 21,922 Championing
    @66Mustang I didnt realise till part way through i was busy with my headphones in so i couldn't hear the saw going 

    Once i looked up i couldn't stop looking it was mainly where they were making the stump if you get what I mean 

    I am a bit weird I like watching medical procedures but never thought I would watch my own 
  • chiarieds
    chiarieds Online Community Member Posts: 17,107 Championing
    @66Mustang - I had a boyfriend who had a lovely bottle green Morgan in the early 1980's....sadly being driven in his car was more interesting than his conversation.
    Not long before that I drove a Bentley at just over 100mph.
    I had a Norwegian boyfriend that taught me how to swear in Norwegian.....apparently, as he knew I didn't swear, the words only roughly translated into 'go into the deepest, darkest pine forest.' This came in useful when another friend once stopped on a double yellow line in front of an off license, saying he would just be a couple of minutes. A policeman came across, & tapped on my window, so I 'swore' in Norwegian, phrasing it as a question, & when my English friend came back to the car, the policeman just waved us on! :)
  • 66Mustang
    66Mustang Online Community Member Posts: 14,995 Championing
    edited October 2020
    Wow those are some great stories @chiarieds and very interesting.

    I bet it was very interesting being in the Morgan. That is not too much of an insult that his conversation was less interesting than the car, in my opinion it would be hard to find a conversation more entertaining than one of those beautiful cars :)

    I hope you drove the Bentley legally i.e. on a private road B) I guess another fact of mine is that I have never exceeded the 3 figure speed mark despite being well into my cars. I’m not adverse to speed in any way I am just too cautious of losing my license as being caught at 100mph results in an instant ban! It is something I want to do though if I get the opportunity to do it legally i.e. on a track or in a country that permits it.

    Your last story made me laugh haha! Good quick thinking.
  • 66Mustang
    66Mustang Online Community Member Posts: 14,995 Championing
    edited October 2020
    janer1967 said:
    @66Mustang I didnt realise till part way through i was busy with my headphones in so i couldn't hear the saw going 

    Once i looked up i couldn't stop looking it was mainly where they were making the stump if you get what I mean 

    I am a bit weird I like watching medical procedures but never thought I would watch my own 
    Sorry I missed your post until just now! Wow reading the bit about the saw made me grit my teeth in real life.

    I must say I like how you are able to talk about something so serious as if it is just a light topic if you get what I mean. I have family who were in the police and NHS and it is common to get through those jobs by making light of very dark moments but to be able to do so with your own situation is very impressive. Sorry I don’t mean to sound patronising.

    I agree it is very interesting watching medical procedures, including your own!
  • janer1967
    janer1967 Online Community Member Posts: 21,922 Championing
    My dad was a fireman and think it was his attitude rubbing off 

    It wasnt my first surgery awake I had toes off b4 the first time i was a shaking mess 

    I like to share my stories to give a positive message to others and it wasnt the surgery more the rehab and getting used to being disabled 
  • 66Mustang
    66Mustang Online Community Member Posts: 14,995 Championing
    That makes sense - your dad must have seen some horrific stuff and the light hearted almost dark sense of humour is often the only way of getting through it. My family members who were in various services had it and it definitely rubbed off on me.

    I agree with giving a positive message :)
  • chiarieds
    chiarieds Online Community Member Posts: 17,107 Championing
    I can't answer your query about driving the Bentley (got to 103 mph), on the grounds that it might incriminate me.....it was a long time ago, on the Coast Road near Newcastle. Hope you get to do it legally! :)
    @janer1967 - you have an amazing attitude. Just as well you couldn't hear the saw. The first operation I saw was a hip replacement, & watching & hearing the saw cut off the neck of the femur was definitely the worst bit; the rest was intriguing. Being able to talk about what you've gone through is certainly very positive, thank you.
  • Dragonslayer
    Dragonslayer Online Community Member Posts: 2,164 Pioneering
    Once on a trip to America (Washington DC) My wife took me on a tour of the Capitol building and managed to get us into the underground area where the senators have their offices. ( An area many people never get to see, or even know excist ) We had to use a lift normally used by senators only to get there.
    When we got down there It was like being on the set of a bond film. We had board a small train to get us to the many corridors of offices and entered without being stopped into many of them and roamed around freely.
    Finally we met a secretary and after a little chat she gave us tickets to go into the main hall to witness them debating. A place we only normally see on TV. She also gave me a flag that has flown over the Capitol building.
    It is something I will never forget and was a once in a lifetime experience.

    In case you're wondering how she did this. She is American and (Sassy) 
  • leeCal
    leeCal Online Community Member Posts: 7,537 Championing
    Yes @66Mustang the £90 was almost a decent weeks wages back then. I don’t know what happened to the bike, I can’t remember. I think I put it into a garage and they told me it wasn’t worth repairing, I had to dive off it doing around thirty or so as it was going to go back into the traffic if I stayed on, hard to explain exactly. Wet weather too, I remember sliding face down across a grass verge and then I was badly winded and just layer there until an ambulance and a policeman turned up. Painful stuff.
  • Waylay
    Waylay Online Community Member, Scope Member Posts: 965 Trailblazing
    I was in a rollercoaster crash when I was 13.
  • Chloe_Alumni
    Chloe_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 10,506 Championing
    Wow @Waylay, I hope you were okay!

    Interesting fact about me... I've applied for a guide dog. :)
  • 66Mustang
    66Mustang Online Community Member Posts: 14,995 Championing
    Thanks everyone for posting, I really enjoyed reading all the answers :)

    I hope you get the guide dog @Chloe_Scope!
  • OverlyAnxious
    OverlyAnxious Online Community Member Posts: 4,748 Championing
    66Mustang said:

    I hope you drove the Bentley legally i.e. on a private road B) I guess another fact of mine is that I have never exceeded the 3 figure speed mark despite being well into my cars. I’m not adverse to speed in any way I am just too cautious of losing my license as being caught at 100mph results in an instant ban! It is something I want to do though if I get the opportunity to do it legally i.e. on a track or in a country that permits it.

    The 60/70mph limit didn't come in until 1965, main roads were totally unrestricted before that, I'm sure some of the older members on here will have done 100mph+ totally legally!!  :sunglasses:

    (I wasn't including @chiarieds in that comment lol!!)

    Too much traffic and too many speed cameras around to risk it nowadays, but I have done 'the tonne' myself...in a modern car it's not really any different to 70 due to the comfort and refinement we're all used to now.  Quite worrying really as you can easily creep to 90 on an empty road without noticing! 
  • janer1967
    janer1967 Online Community Member Posts: 21,922 Championing
    Good luck with the guide dog @Chloe_Scope
  • 66Mustang
    66Mustang Online Community Member Posts: 14,995 Championing
    That's very true, I am not even sure it's due to modern cars either, I got up to 85ish in a 1960s Mustang on a classic car day and that was so refined that it felt really slow! I guess that's a big comfy American car, though.

    I bet a Bentley was incredibly refined at 100mph as they are designed for high speed touring across continents. B)

    Strangely in my current, modern, car it is very hard to speed on the motorway without knowing it. The car has 6 gears but you can very comfortably be in 6th gear at 40mph - in fact it tells you to change to 6th at about 38-39mph if driving casually. What this means is by 70mph it's actually revving quite a bit so it is not hard to keep your speed down to 70. I don't really know why they geared it like that, I would have thought you could gear 6th gear a bit "longer" (I think that's the word for it) so you only change up to 6th at maybe 60mph+ for better fuel economy on the motorway. I'm sure they did their research, though, and the car is very economical anyway. :)

    Sorry, I went a bit off topic haha.

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