Posted in Uncategorized, tagged driving, trailer, uncoupled trailer on December 14, 2012| Leave a Comment »
The Iron Cove Bridge – taken from approx where trailing rejoined Nissan.
Nissan Patrol trundling along
Empty trailer trailing.
Speed good, no traffic.
Onto Iron Cove Bridge.
Unusual rattle. Hmmm.
Check mirror. Nothing!
Glance right,
Motoring along alone, the trailer.
Hits edge, heads left.
I stop.
Trailer careens toward its uncoupled partner
Slows & gently nudges.
Not another vehicle in sight.
Re-couple, double-check, continue.
Going their separate ways.
Posted in Riverside Rd, tagged driving, Ralph McTell, Under Age Driving, Unlicensed Driving on December 2, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Phil & I, in Mum’s Red Datsun
After Ralph McTell performance
At Macquarie University.
Late, tired.
Suburban route navigated
Finally finding home stretch
The route home – Suburban Roads then F4.
F4 sweeping off GWH near Blacktown.**
Phil, I’m tired, you’ll have to drive the rest! Can you?
Phil, fourteen.
Yeah, course I can!!
Early driving lessons pay off.
Home safely.
Note & Extra:
* This Memory is a couple of years after I’d completed school. Phil would have been in lower Higher School and he could drive better than most adults. I noticed a news article a few weeks ago where a bloke landed in all sorts of bother and a big PR mess because he allowed a car to be drive by an early teen.
** The M4 was known as the F4 (Freeway) and it’s most eastern limit was near Blacktown where it joined again with the Great Western Highway (GWH), the suburbs there now are Arndell Park & Huntingwood.
This is Ralph McTell on Top of the Pops in 1975 introduced by Jimmy Saville whose reputation has recently been severely tarnished.
Posted in Nepean High School, Riverside Rd, tagged 360 degrees, concerts, driving, Horden Pavillion, marijuana, oil on road, Parramatta Rd, Yes on November 20, 2012| Leave a Comment »
The Horden Pavillion
After YES’* Horden Pavillion performance
Crowded car, burger stop, time distortions
Lengthens drive home.
Smoke-filled Red Datsun carrying 6.
Light rain oils road.
Turning right at Vauxhall Inn
Parramatta Rd into Church St.
Traction slips
Slow-slow-motion slide,
Rear pivots around front
One-eighty, three-sixty.
A moment.
“Wow, man!”
Ignorant inches from tragedy.
Note & Extra:
* I am pretty sure it was YES that we had been to see. The support band was Mother Earth whose lead singer was Renee Geyer.
Posted in Nepean High School, Riverside Rd, tagged darkness, dirt road, driving, night challenge on November 18, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Riverside Road dips steeply into the bush
And tar gives way to dirt,
Heading home, a hard right turn
Into a kilometer of potholed road
Snaking through overhhanging bush.
The night-time challenge:
Headlights off!
Only celestial light guides.
Mind’s eye map
Keeps us on track (easy)
Instinct avoids potholes (hard).
Posted in Nepean High School, Riverside Rd, tagged breaking records, coasting, driving on November 17, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Flatten accelerator, build speed,
Over the “twin hills”
Starting Wedmore Road.
Bottom of hill two,
Release accelerator,
Shift to neutral.
Coast.
For how far?
Will record be broken?
Past Balaclava Road (easy)
… Alma Crescent,
Momentum slows
Brothers jumping, lurching, pushing, rocking
Urging.
Striving for another inch.
Deafening cheers.
Go! Go!
GOOOOOOOH!
Posted in Nepean High School, Riverside Rd, tagged crash, driver's imagination, driving, Emu Plains, Great Western Highway, Jack Brabham, licence, Old Bathurst Rd, Victoria Bridge on November 13, 2012| 1 Comment »
After Victoria Bridge – Imagining Brabham
Solo drive home.
Highway – westbound.
Over narrow Victoria Bridge into
Sharp curves, left, right,
(Imagining Brabham).
Bump over Emu Plains rail-crossing,
As Old Bathurst Road starts its climb.
Right turn, Wedmore then
Left into Riverside,
Dirt road, dry weather, sweeping turn.
Dirt road, dry surface, sweeping bend, slide, crash.
Oncoming car
Slides,
Swipes
First licensed drive, crash.
Posted in Nepean High School, Riverside Rd, tagged driving, gears, learner, learning to drive on November 12, 2012| 2 Comments »
At the outskirts, there is no transport
No buses, no trains
No traffic, no hitchhiking.
Licence to drive: necessary.
Skills learned early
In the green Holden, column shift – three on the tree.
Mum’s little red Datsun (four on the floor).
Test taken on automatic, around Lemongrove.
Easy streets.
Licence granted!
Posted in 138 Station St, Nepean High School, tagged driving, entertainment, family holidays, friends, Led Zeppelin, water-skiing on October 6, 2012| Leave a Comment »
School breaks, family holidays,
8 Track Cassette of LZ III
Car (towing boat) trip.
Destination: skiing venues – south, west, north.
Friends invited to join holiday
Squeeze in bulging car.
Kid-bulging car on long drives
In-transit entertainment becomes vital.
This trip:
New released album on 8 track.
Played, repeated, again & …
Led Zeppelin III
Hats off to (patient) Roge & Mum.
Extra:
Friends …
Posted in 1 Guildford Rd, Penrith Infants, tagged cars, driving, swearing, towing on May 20, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Homeward bound,
Pacific Highway
Winding, snaking South.
Caravan in tow, a weight
Dragging, destabilising.
Roger driving.
Down the mountain into
Bulahdelah.*
A slight slip, shift.
I feel it, sit up, lean forward.
Slip amplifies into sway.
“Shit!” – softly but seriously.
My back stiffens.
Roger’s knuckles harden.
Car straightens.
Relax again.
Note:
* This section of the old Pacific Highway hosts an annual motoring event called the Bulahdelah Hillclimb. Here is someone going through the section of the highway in an MGB – this is the section of the highway we fishtailed our way down.
Posted in 1 Guildford Rd, Nepean High School, Penrith Primary, tagged driving, teacher on May 1, 2012| 1 Comment »
Roger driving to school, arriving.
Relaxed.
Right elbow resting on open window.
Right hand holding apple.
Left hand controlling steering wheel.
Door not properly secured.
Opens. Out falls Roger, landing seated.
Calmly continues eating apple,
Watches car careen into chook pen.
Feathers fly.
Cheering, hysterical shool-children.
Note:
This event was immortalised by one of the art students who witnessed the event. I hope we can locate that sketch and reproduce it her.
Here is an aerial view of the bus bay at Nepean High School … where the event above went down.
The car drives into the chooks while the driver sits on the tarmac eating an apple.
365 Short Memories 