Mark, being in the military, I'm surprised you've never heard that expression before
Andy - probably something to do with the sheltered existence of a crab rather than a pongo, much more refined and educated you see my dear chap, and swearing is so frowned upon in these PC days. Marvellous tale from Sennybridge though - certainly made the rest of the office wonder what I was cackling at. You're right that the place was a rather a god-forsaken dump and I don't think it has changed much since then. The Light Blue "mots juste" in tricky situations tend to be more brief and pithy, like the time a Jet Provost was getting airborne from Cranwell, one of our primary flying training stations. Now, the Jet Provost was not endowed with a surfeit of power and thus had rightly earned its title as an aerial vacuum cleaner - variable noise, constant suck. Off the end of the main runway was a nice line of poplar trees that had grown taller over the years, and one of the old and bold pilots had not factored this into his take-off calculations on a hot, windless day, which led - unsurprisingly - to a lack of adequate height to clear the trees. In the midst of working like a one-armed paper hanger in the cockpit and just before the aircraft ploughed through the trees, the last call from him to Air Traffic on the radio was a cheery "Timmmbbbeeerrr!"
In case anyone was wondering, he did survive as an older, bolder and wiser pilot.
Glad your SOH has returned - keep up the fine work and remember the other fine mechanics saying
If you can't fix it then bodge it.....
