Blimey!
Kin reckons that there was so much interest in my train journey, it caused the server to fall over. No wonder there were no replies.
Today I went to the Travellers Times office in Birmingham to listen to to a speicial guest speaker. I have never heard of him before today, but he gave one of the best talks it has ever been my privilege to hear.
He was born in Notting Hill when it was a slum. He said it's still a slum, but now you have to be rich to live there.
He was a petty criminal and an inveterate fighter in his teens, and did his first stretch in prison before he was 20.
When things got too hot for him he moved to Edinburgh where he quickly learned that, unlike London, when you smashed the window of an antiques shop, nothing happened. No alarms went off.
He said he robbed so many antiques shops that the police said it was the work of a highly organised gang, when actually it was just him on a stolen girls bike with a sock on one hand so as not to leave fingerprints on the brick.
He told at least a dozen more tales like that, all involving crime, fighting or getting a young lady pregnant in a lift.
He was such a bad influence on her that she stole £80 from her grandmother and offered to give it to him if he would stay away from her for a year. He told her to make it £100 and he would stay away for two years. She agreed.
Eventually he made good, becoming a very successful entrepreneur and founding The Big Issue.
His name is Mr John Bird.
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