Around town...

I 1 am hardly believe it but it's ala'ady November. Where does the time go? It only seems like vesterdav that I was writing about being on the beach, warning about being careful in the sun and suggesting the use of plent) of sun oil. And now all that seems like nothing more than a distant memor) and already sun tans are beginning to fade. Mind you, up until now the weather hasn't been to bad(famous last words) and most of us are still wear ing shorts and summer clothes even if swimming gear has been put awaj until next year. But it was good while it lasted and the way time seems to fly, it won't be teio long before summer comes around again.

Winter Warmers

For some of the "jack the lads" around town it doesn't matter much if it's summer or winter, they wear shorts all the year round. I bumped into one such fellow just recently and it was noneother than the infamous"Sparky". Now I hadn'tseen mv old mateSparkv for some time — he's either been very busy or for some reason or other he's been keep ing a very low profile — but he diwsn't change much. There he was riding along on his scooter until he saw me then he pulled up to say "hello". Now sometimes when some body in a crash helmet says hello 1 don't always recognise who they are but there's no doubting the identity of Sparkv —he's easily recognisable as the man with the fat test ugliest knees on the Rock and his use or is it mis-use of the English language is colourful to say the least. But he always makes me laugh and usually has a story to tell and this time was no exception, and it was all to do with his new crash helmet. He went on to tell me that some wretched person had stolen his old crash helmet from his box and that it had been difficult for him to get a new one, mostly because he'^ got such a big head and partly because he's tcx) mean "OMw Spend much on a new one. He even admitted that he'd tried to get a kid's push bike helmet on his bonc< but it was too small so eventually he'd had to splash out and buy a proper one. And if you had heard his thoughts about the cost of it you would have fainted and with his expletives still ringing in the air he w-as off into the wide blue yonder, what a character he is. Sparky wasn't the only fellow baring his knees to the world just recently Norrie of Blanch was also seen with naked knees at thi wedding of his daughter Laura — liku a true Scot Norrie wore a kilt and ver\ smart he looked as well.

Bad Leg Club

One of the things I'm often aske'. about as I walk up and down Main Street is how I find out about so man\ people who have hurt their legs and become members of the "Bad Leg" | Club(which has so many members that 1 couldn't tell you exactly just how man\ there are now). But the answer to the question is of course if you spend as much time on Main Street as 1 do sooner or later vou bump into just about evervonv and so it was recently as I was walking across Casemates Square and saw comiiv,', towards me none other than "Storming Norman Bradbury" golfer extraordinain on crutches."What have you been up to?" I asked and he went on to tell the sorr\ story about how he'd fallen off a ladder while working and not only broke one le.; but injured the other one as well and very painful it looked. Norman's golf wil certainly be curtailed for quite a while but he can console himself with the fact that he is the first double member of the Bad Leg Club once for each leg. Now there'^ also another first for the club this month and the next proud new member is none other than "Charlie" who hasalsosuffered a broken leg, but what makes Charlie unique is the fact that he's a dog and he belongs to Natalie of The Dental Practici-. just exactly how poor old Charlie broke his leg I don't know but however it happenc\i he becomes the first member of the Ba^i Leg Club with a waggly tail.

Yet another way I find out about broken legs is because the office.s of The Gibraltm are situated on the 2nd floor oi the I.C.C. and every time I go in or out of the office I have to go past the health centre so I'm always running into people limping in and out of the doctors. And so it was just recently when met Peter ofSecurity Express moving about very gingerly on crutches,now if there wasever a prize for honesty Peter would win it because when he told me just how he'd hurt his leg he was honest enough to ad mit that he'd come a cropper on his motor bike and it happened because he was going too fast.So for his honesty and his broken leg Peter becomes the 3rd new member this month. I hope all this month's new members will soon be back to full fitness and ^in Peter's case have learned a valuable lesson.

Congratulations!

Birthday boys and girls this month include Barbara Dunn, Wendy, Amber, Jayne, Ben, Dave Evans, Ray Langham,judy Whurr, young Sally of Wyse Hire, Big Bill, Trevor, Heidi and last but not least Mr.Denis PenaJver who is teaching his fianc# Dominique to drive would you believe. Now just what sort of teacher he is 1 can only imagine but on only her second lesson he taught her how to crash into a wall. Fortunately both teacher and pupil survived unscathed and after that I can hardly wait to hear about the third lesson. Congratulations to Louis and Zoeon the birth of a son to be named Max,and toAimeeand Mark who also had a son to be named Bailey. Best wishes also to Mr.& Mrs J. Drury who were married in September and to Ken and Laura, also married recently David of the Hong Kong Restaurant has now handed over the prem ises after many,many years of trading. He would like to thank everyone for their support over the years, and promises he will be back soon!