He's up from the smoke!

[gon2seed]

Hopefully some of you remember this early post:

"But the mention of the Legend that is Cocker and Sheffiled made me smile ....... alot.

Mr Cocker lost his virginity in the Botanical Gardens in Sheffield, lovely spot. I found out this delightful fact while watching a brief documentary about him on late night TV a good few years ago. This fact had me scrabbling for my phone, and here is why ....

I was an undergraduate at Sheffield Uni 81 -84. I stayed in Halls of residence along with another Staffordian Dave. We were best muckers. Anyway to say we were both a bit naive would be like calling Oliver Reed a moderate social drinker.

Anyway it didn't take long for the bohemain atmosphere to work for young Dave, and during an indian summer he met the delightful Phillipa. Vicars daughter from down South. To cut a long story short, she may only have been a vicars daughter but she certainly knew the way to heaven! Dave was enticed into losing his cherry al fresco, beneath a statue of Queen Victoria, who was no doubt not amused! I don't know how most people first experience the joys of carnubial bliss, but this one certainly impressed me.

To get to the seductive spot Dave had had to assist Phillipa over a 7ft fence, no mean feat as she was built for comfort! The 7ft fence of course surrounded the Botanical Gardens in Sheffield!

And what was the name of the adventurous seductress who plucked the bespectacled, gangling, songsters cherry? Phillipa, one and the same!

"Dave you'll never guess what" I shouted down the phone. We worked out that he had been there first, which tickled him pink. How many other boys became men in the hands of the formidable Phillipa we shall never know, but though Dave has gone on to be a succesful fellow in his own right, he still drags this tale out from time to time and basks in the reflected glory.

Well Dave is up this weekend from London, and it will be time to chew the fat. We are both sprogged up so a night of debauchery is out of the question, but it will be great to see him again.

I think I have an interesting tale or two, but Dave makes me feel really boring, He has just got back from his job in Cambodia, before that Ethiopia, East Timor, Nigeria, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Australia, France, etc, and he started it all working in Greenwich Village to raise the money to get his 12 month round the world air ticket just for pleasure.

Yeah! he's pretty well travelled, and he works in International aid for NGO's, it makes you feel kind of envious at times. My favourite tale of his, is his Balinese beach experience, he met a glamorous older woman on the beach while out for a early hours stroll. They shared barely a word, headed back to the hotel, couldn't wait for the lift, and started right there in the deserted lobby. Dave's attention was caught by a cleaner arriving for work, but seeing as the good lady was blowing Dave's trumpet at the time, and he thought it would be rude to interrupt while she was doing such a good job! He let her carry on. Priceless!

 

[db]

all that, and he plays the trumpet as well?? strange that he should take it to the beach with him, though.. maybe he should have asked the cleaner to give it a french polish..

 

[MISS T]

Well . . . Gon2seed give us bored Staffordians some stories. How is Dave a.k.a Dirty Rotten Scoundrel ?

 

[gon2seed]

Not that easy at the moment, three kids, I am on nights, and Mrs Seed has gone to Sheffield with her mates.

Perhaps they should be telling the stories because they are on the town trying to forget that one of the gangs husbands has run off with a secretary from work! Pretty tawdry stuff really, they had been married for 17 years and were going to go to Venice to celebrate this fact. The night before his conscience gets the better of him and he confesses his two year affair. As my mate said "What and they didn't offer any of us the free holiday?"

So it'll be lock up your sons, the cougars are out tonight!

Cougar Night is a Canadian concept, which comes from the predeliction of female Cougars / Mountain Lions to eat their young if extremely stressed. So a Cougar Night is one where women of certain age, usually 40+ will go along to a club and meet young men! No they don't eat them, so the analogy kinda breaks down, but that's the idea. I learnt about Cougar nights when I visited Ottawa, Canada while representing the Staffordshire and the British Fire Service at the World Extrication Challenge, which I may tell you about another time if you are nice to me!

So Mrs Seed has hit the streets of Sheffield and last texted me from a wine bar in Ecclesall Road (No not Eccleshall!) I am sure Cookie will be familiar with that part of the city, it brought back a few memories for me. I lived not far from Ecclesall and once spent the entire night up a tree with Dave a.k.a. Dirty Rotten Scoundrel booing passers by, and scaring the bejeezus out of them with raspberry's and other daft sounds. For some reason people never worked out that the sounds were coming from high above their heads! We slunk off home after witnessing an awesome sunrise.

The 272 bus also used to depart from this Road, and it was known as the flying bus because for the princely sum of 10p it transported you to the mushroom fields 5 miles away on the edge of the city. After a morning collecting and sampling a few, you literally flew home! It was a popular route!

25 years ago when I was a student in Sheffiled the buses were 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 pence a trip. 12p got you 8-10 miles. Everyone went on the bus, you couldn't afford not to. The traffic flowed, the city was relatively unpolluted, and the night buses at 2.00 & 4.00 AM were an incredible experience. But the governement insisted that the subsidy of £50m a year was too much, and that rates were too high, and you could see their point of view. So buses had to try to make a profit and a wonderful system became much less used.

The lad who lived next door to me was doing a PHD in transport studies and he was obsessed with buses. (Looking back I think he had Aspergers Syndrome) His prized possession was a photograph of a bus stop with four No' 52 Buses at the same stop. One arriving, two stationary, and one leaving. Now that is a Geek Jimbob! The 52 used to pass by Cookie's former abode at Tapton Hall, and was the most frequent bus service in Europe, with a bus every 4 minutes!

One day I might tell you about my appearance on stage with Darts at Sorby Hall Ball, or my encounter with the Fargate Fountain on Pyjama Jump night, but all in good time ...

Night night all!

 

[db]

So Mrs Seed has hit the streets of Sheffield and last texted me from a wine bar in Ecclesall Road (No not Eccleshall!) I am sure Cookie will be familiar with that part of the city

as am i, alas.. the only "wine bar" i can think of on eccy road is menzel's, and even that is stretching the definition a bit lol.. mind you, they called Props a wine bar i suppose lol..

eccy road is a good night out, but as you can imagine it's full of fop-haired students and rugger buggers more often than not.. still, a good night out as long as you're willing suppress the natural instinct to murder almost everyone in sight

The lad who lived next door to me was doing a PHD in transport studies and he was obsessed with buses. (Looking back I think he had Aspergers Syndrome) His prized possession was a photograph of a bus stop with four No' 52 Buses at the same stop. One arriving, two stationary, and one leaving. Now that is a Geek Jimbob! The 52 used to pass by Cookie's former abode at Tapton Hall, and was the most frequent bus service in Europe, with a bus every 4 minutes!

that's my local bus, but from what i've seen everyone in sheffield can make that claim.. i hate public transport, so i have thus far managed to avoid actually making use of a bus in sheffield, but it seems to me that no matter where you are up here if you look around you will see at least one no. 52 bus!