"The Tube Pigeon" .....are you really ready for this!

By are you really ready for this..... I mean, please read it and let me know if you think the story is true or false!

 The Tube Pigeon........ 

I think before writing this piece, the only other person I have mentioned this extraordinary story to is my sister; she told me categorically, that if I wrote the piece, folk would think me totally ‘off my rocker’.

I related this story to my wife Ruth on my return from the memorable day and she did not turn a hair; so here goes, the story is quite true.

The actual day was sometime in the November of I believe 2003 It could have been 2002.

I had been National Chairman of the National Farm Attractions Network for several years and enjoyed the chance to meet other folk from various parts of the UK who were engaged in opening their properties to the public as we were doing at Northcote.  Barry Davies a surveyor and rural planning consultant from Kettering was our Secretary and hardly a week went by when we were not engaged together in some issue or other of concern to our national membership.

On the actual day of the story, I was travelling to the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London to assist on the NFAN stand at a national Trades Fair. My aim had been to arrive in good time to set up the stand before the centre opened to visitors at 10.00am. As usual I had to travel half the distance from home by car, before I could board a train at Peterborough at about 6.30am.  By 7.45 am I was entering the Underground station at Kings Cross well on time to arrive at Earls Court by my target time of 8.30am. Then things went awry.

TRAVEL  STRESS

It could have been my lack of concentration, or just the fact that I had visited the capital so often in the past I thought I knew my way around the Underground perfectly. I bought a ticket for Earls Court and boarded a train that looked as if it was going in the correct direction. West was good and I was casually watching those unique long thin maps above the windows opposite, counting off the stations as we passed.

There were only three more stations to go, when the train suddenly turned off and headed away from my destination.  I studied the map more intently and realised we were heading for a dead end. My best laid plans were in tatters and I was not going to get to my destination on time.

The train duly stopped at the buffers, by which time I was the only occupant. A ticket collector was manning the barrier awaiting the first customers of the day and quickly explained that the train I needed for Earls Court was on the adjoining platform and would be leaving in just a few minutes.

MY ONLY COMPANION

I found the train and it was clearly marked ‘Earls Court’ on its marker board. All the carriages were completely empty; it was just as if I was the only human on the planet. This made me rather uneasy and sapped my confidence somewhat. I entered a door in the centre carriage and chose a seat three down from the doors and on the opposite side of the train facing the direction we should be going to travel.

I waited and waited, perhaps for 10 minutes. No other passengers came to join me in any of the carriages and then the whole train began to tremble as obviously the driver had arrived and activated the train systems. We were going to move shortly.

Quite suddenly and to my absolute surprise, through the same door as I had used, which was still open, a pigeon walked off the platform and into my carriage. As you probably know, some birds hop and some walk on the ground. I distinctly remember this pigeon walking. It came into the centre of the carriage, looked up and down then chose the first seat in the row in front of me, quickly flew up and perched on the hand rail on top of the seat back.

The pigeon was happily perched on the seat rail facing forwards just as I was, in the direction the train should be going. I suppose my mouth gaped open; first thoughts were to find an attendant and ensure the train did not start with a distressed pigeon fluttering about in the carriage.

It was then I realised that the bird was not distressed at all. It behaved just like any normal commuter; the only difference being I was the only human in the carriage and the pigeon my only companion. The doors closed with their usual swish and gasp of air and the train moved out of the station. 

As the train gathered speed and smoothly twisted and turned on our journey, my companion remained on his chosen ‘perch’ and simply leaned left or right as the curves came and went. It was a commuter and had quite obviously done this all before.

Still not believing, my eyes glued on the seat just six feet in front, it came as no real surprise when we stopped at the next two stations, doors opening and subsequently closing and the pigeon resolutely still remained on the seat of his choice. The pigeon obviously knew where he wanted to be and was clearly watching through the windows at everything we passed.

Earls Court Station was the next stop and as the doors opened, my friend hopped down from his seat and walked out of the door.  I was still so astonished, I almost forgot this was my stop too and only managed to get off the train before it was once more on its way.

I think the most astounding thing about the whole episode, was not that the bird had actually chosen his seat; sat on the seat back facing the direction he was going and swayed with the train motion; that all seemed so natural after the bird actually walked on board.

Everywhere you see birds, they are normally flying; in and out, here and there, they fly. This bird never flew that I saw at all, except to get on and off the seat of his choice.

It actually walked on board from the platform and then when it arrived at the bird’s destination, it walked off again onto the platform and disappeared.

As I have been writing; all the time, I have been wanting to write ‘he’ or even ‘she’, but of course we did not actually have a conversation.

Few Londoners do, do they?  

 ks 2010

If you like it please "like"!

Short story published on the web!

Canalside' Angels'  published on the web!

http://catalog.etherbooks.com/products/3107.

I submitted this ages ago and completely forgot about it!

It' a start anyway! I hope you enjoy reading it too!

Regards from

Keith Sanders

NATURAL PREVENTION OF GETTING COLDS REMEDY!

I jest not gang, but reading on facebook about my friends mucking out in the cold with colds etc prompted me to tell you of this remedy.

Everyone should know about this...... it is simple, natural and works!
Ruth and I both have different systems, what "gets" one of us misses the other...fortunately, but this is our second year using RAVINTSARA without any colds or flu!

It's the name of the oil you need..RAVINTSARA.
Last year , our pharmacy held an afternoon meeting for ladies interested in Essential Oils. One of the staff is a registered herbalist. This oil was one of the ones mentioned, so nothing to loose we began.  Firstly it tastes foul... I take it with nutella!

We have three drops morning and evening for the first ten days of each winter month. You can use any ten days but you must take it consecutively each of those ten days. Ruth uses sugar cubes!
That's all there is to it, good bye to colds and flu!
The name on the packet is the maker in this case, there will be a producer in UK.

another blog from Keith the ex horseman

Cracker Books has its own Facebook page.

It's under construction but worth a look and perhaps you may "like" it for me please?

 www.facebook.com/pages/Cracker-BOOKS/420521048076622?ref=hl

There are lots of pics of vehicles, but this one isn't there yet!  
A 1966 Ford 105E Anglia with a pair of "wellies" on the bonnet? Why?  
The answer is one of the 40 or so stories in, "It's a Rum Life" Book 2 just in the formatting stage for publishing as an ebook asap!

As the car in question belonged to Firestone GB it's bound to involve tyres in some shape!

Another blog spot from Keith and Cracker Books.

THE LORRY

Following the previous story, I promised pictures of the lorry in question and the reason for my wife Ruth's initial reaction to the purchase.

First pictures below showing the lorry at The "Novartis" Summer show at Immingham on the Humber Bank. The horses travelled in the trailer, (the reason for buying the lorry as tow truck). We performed a musical drive with the three horses ( 1 Shire, 1 Suffolk Punch and Jupiter) on long rein.
The Lorry with its curtainside body was used as a shop to promote the centre and sell gifts and cards to raise funds.

The reason for Ruth's initial response was that she and I had spent over 12 years of our life previously operating a small fleet of lorries on national distribution, unfortunately when our contract finished we could not sustain the business and it closed and we lost our home too! But she did agree that the small lorry for the Horse Centre did make good sense!
ends KS
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It's a Rum Life!

Some readers might be interested in my idea for a series of books about the incidents that have influenced my life!
Even my wife Ruth will admit "it has not been boring!"

There are five books planned covering different stages; they are not very long books and full of "connected" incidents. Some are very funny, others are weepingly tragic. The experiences could well be of help to folk encountering their own problems!
In an endeavour not to bore you silly with this intro we will go straight into a short story from Book Four ( from the year 2001) as a taster! This one is all about "family relations".
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WE BOUGHT A LORRY TODAY!       (FEB 2001)

 We bought a lorry today!

 Terena and John had been on at me for some time!  

“When are we going to get something to pull that trailer?”

    The trailer is not exactly a normal horse box. Its 20feet long and 8 feet wide. It is 9 feet high inside and must weigh over a ton. Previously it was used to carry the wedding carriage and one horse. It will also take about 120 bales of hay (3.5 tons). The trailer was basically all we had at the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre to cart anything about. It was being used only very locally at present pulled by the centre’s agricultural tractor.

   The land rover that used to tow it had been specially converted. It had a 3 litre Ford Essex v6 petrol engine that did 28mpg running without a trailer and 9mpg with THE trailer and full load.

BUT it would pull it! In top gear too.

 The land rover died of rust worm several years ago and we just did not have any funds to replace it.

   After a land rover and trailer hit the national headlines earlier this year by running off the road near Doncaster and derailed an express train killing a large number of folk, we have been thinking again!

   A lorry was what we really needed. Something with a large capacity engine and not expensive.

I had seen one advertised in the Farmers Guardian. But it was in Lancashire.

   Foot and Mouth was all over the West Country and North West at this time but not in Lancashire!

If we were going to do anything it had to be quick.

A week or so passed and I said nothing, could we really afford £500?

   Friday arrived and John was day off. They both tackled me again so I told them about this lorry.

Within the hour we had phoned and it was still there. We are very democratic here at Northcote!

The majority decision was go for it if it is any good at all!

  We took the little red Subaru truck and by 2pm we had arrived at Garstang. By gum it is hilly up there. Right on the edge of the Moors almost on the way back into Yorkshire we found the mill.

   The Lorry had been used for local deliveries but they had been encouraging farmers to collect for themselves more and more.

   It was a "curtainsider", 16-foot body but the cab was filthy. Inside that is.

The lorry ran well, big 6-cylinder engine and its maintenance record was up to date despite not being taxed for six months. It was out of test too, but I suppose you can’t have everything for £500.

  We did the deal, loaded the little red truck into the back of the curtainsider and drove home, (about 300 miles).

  We hadn’t had time to tell my wife Ruth! She was the wage earner in our marriage!

She was expecting me to be at home and coward that I am I asked John to phone her and explained that we had been delayed.

   He explained it like this.  “We’ve been held up.”

Ruth,”held up where?”

John, “In Lancashire.”

You can imagine Ruth’s tone, “Lancashire!!” she choked” “Where are you now?”

John, “Well somewhere south of Ferrybridge on the A1.”

John was not one to let it all out at once.

Ruth, “What are doing on the A1?”

John, “Well Keith is driving a lorry!”

Ruth, “A Lorry? What on earth is he driving a lorry for?”

John, “Well we’ve bought it.”

You can imagine the explosion at the other end.

“What do you want a lorry for?”  or words to that effect followed.

John, kindly finished with something like, “Keith will explain when we get home,”

Before the phone at the other end was dropped loudly!

  The explanation was relatively easy after I had the rest of the journey to think about the “problem”.

“Well you see,” it went; “ John and Terena………….. and finished with something about the Land rover wrecking the express train and us not wanting to do something similar!

   All seems to have ended well so far as in March, Novartis at Immingham approached us to do a display at their summer celebrations in July and sent us a cheque for £400 in advance!

   In fact it has been a good thing as we have been to three displays using the lorry and trailer and even managed to dislocate my shoulder at one in the process!

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copyright ks  758 wds

Tomorrow I will sort out a picture of the lorry in action with its trailer and explain why Ruth was so "explosive"!