ABB125
Established Member
This thread exists for members to share things they've done which were perfectly legitimate, but for whatever reason would have seemed to be decidedly dodgy if a random person had seen it.
Hopefully that makes sense!
Here's an example to illustrate the concept.
It's a lovely late summer's night in the countryside. It's past midnight, the moon is shining and owls are hooting etc etc. Out of the darkness comes a slightly battered, long-wheelbase white Ford Transit. It turns down a farm access track, and drives down very slowly. At the end of the track, it turns around (perhaps ready to make a quick getaway?) and parks. Two people get out and start to wave torches about, seemingly looking for something. After a few minutes, they go back to the van and leave, again driving quite slowly. Rather suspicious activity, to say the least.
Alternatively:
One of my school friends is a hot air balloon pilot. Earlier that day, his older brother (also a pilot) flew their balloon and landed on the farm mentioned above. My friend and I were the pick up crew in the van. We collected the balloon and left. It was then noticed that the hand-painted magnetic sign on the van side was no longer there (having only been drawn that afternoon!). Therefore we decided to go and have a look for it after refilling the fuel tanks.
This took rather a long time: for some reason I can't remember, there were 13 LPG cylinders to fill, stored over two balloon baskets. Myself, my friend and his mum (also a pilot; three in one family!) spent getting on for two hours doing the refuelling at the regular petrol station (I can't remember quite why it took this long, but it was gone 2300 by the time we'd finished).
Anyway, my friend and I then went back to the landing site to look for the sign, because it had been on at that point. Hence the activity written above. We didn't find the sign there, but about a mile down the road, so it wasn't a wasted journey.
To top it off, had anyone come to investigate, they would have found two slightly tired 18 year olds giving the slightly implausible explanation above. I mean, would you seriously believe that an 18 year old can be a qualified hot air balloon pilot? Or that an 18 year old is insured to drive a 3.5 ton van?
I might as well complete the story while I'm here:
I look forward to hearing from other forum members about their similarly dodgy experiences, although by no means do you need to go to the same level of detail as I have!
Hopefully that makes sense!
Here's an example to illustrate the concept.It's a lovely late summer's night in the countryside. It's past midnight, the moon is shining and owls are hooting etc etc. Out of the darkness comes a slightly battered, long-wheelbase white Ford Transit. It turns down a farm access track, and drives down very slowly. At the end of the track, it turns around (perhaps ready to make a quick getaway?) and parks. Two people get out and start to wave torches about, seemingly looking for something. After a few minutes, they go back to the van and leave, again driving quite slowly. Rather suspicious activity, to say the least.
Alternatively:
One of my school friends is a hot air balloon pilot. Earlier that day, his older brother (also a pilot) flew their balloon and landed on the farm mentioned above. My friend and I were the pick up crew in the van. We collected the balloon and left. It was then noticed that the hand-painted magnetic sign on the van side was no longer there (having only been drawn that afternoon!). Therefore we decided to go and have a look for it after refilling the fuel tanks.
This took rather a long time: for some reason I can't remember, there were 13 LPG cylinders to fill, stored over two balloon baskets. Myself, my friend and his mum (also a pilot; three in one family!) spent getting on for two hours doing the refuelling at the regular petrol station (I can't remember quite why it took this long, but it was gone 2300 by the time we'd finished).
Anyway, my friend and I then went back to the landing site to look for the sign, because it had been on at that point. Hence the activity written above. We didn't find the sign there, but about a mile down the road, so it wasn't a wasted journey.
To top it off, had anyone come to investigate, they would have found two slightly tired 18 year olds giving the slightly implausible explanation above. I mean, would you seriously believe that an 18 year old can be a qualified hot air balloon pilot? Or that an 18 year old is insured to drive a 3.5 ton van?
I might as well complete the story while I'm here:
- That was the first time I'd ever driven a van
- I had a fun time reversing the van down the access to where it's normally parked: at the end of a narrow alley perpendicular to the road, with the narrowest point being at the start, between two brick buildings barely wide enough for the van straight, let alone one reversing into the gap whilst making a 90 degree turn. And as I said, I'd never driven a van before...
- We were out again the next morning, so I got maybe 3 hour's sleep that night.
- And again in the afternoon. Total awake duration of probably 40 or more hours, with around 3 hour's sleep. And I think I was driving the van again that afternoon...
I look forward to hearing from other forum members about their similarly dodgy experiences, although by no means do you need to go to the same level of detail as I have!
