Oh my cod indeed......

[Kevin Farnell]

Oh, I nearly forgot. If you like malt vinegar on your chips there is something better. You know that when you've finished a jar of pickled onions and there is about half a jar of vinegar left - do not throw it away. Put it in your vinegar shaker and apply to chips. You can also go a stage further, if you like a little spice. We used to get spiced pickled onions (that also contained black peppercorns, chillies and other spices - although I haven't seen them on the shelves for a while). This is also excellent sprinkled on chips.
My Dad and I were always complaining to my Mom that she kept pouring these vinegars away.

Kevin

[Tomliner]

Amazing. Who would have guessed that there would be epicures and bon viveurs around here. Nigella would be mightily impressed! EricT
Thinks Reusing picklng vinegar on chips is a great idea
Of course there is another important thing to consider here and that is whether to put vinegar or salt first on the fish and chips. My preference is vinegar first because the salt doesn’t then get washed away.

[Nigel H-J]

Oh, I nearly forgot. If you like malt vinegar on your chips there is something better. You know that when you've finished a jar of pickled onions and there is about half a jar of vinegar left - do not throw it away. Put it in your vinegar shaker and apply to chips.

As I don't like pickled onions would pickled eggs do the same? Oh, I just remembered. When I worked for British Road Services on the Grimsby Fish, on the night run my last drop was at the BRS Depot at Wrexham. On Friday nights (I cannot for the life of me remember how this arrangement came to being) but used to park up my artic outside Wrexham Football Club where I would get a free drink in the clubhouse (one pint of Coca-Cola) then after that I would drive down to Holt to a fish and chip shop and be given a free fish and chip supper before making my way back to Lincoln. This was the same every Friday night. I also used to go to the fish merchants when on days (we did 2 weeks about) when I went home to see my parents and used to get no end of freshly caught fish for a fiver, think it used to last them quite a while!!!

Regards
Nigel.

[511Flyer]

I used to know a girl called Lily, and she was very often pickled.

[FlyTexas]

Oh, I nearly forgot. If you like malt vinegar on your chips there is something better. You know that when you've finished a jar of pickled onions and there is about half a jar of vinegar left - do not throw it away. Put it in your vinegar shaker and apply to chips.

As I don't like pickled onions would pickled eggs do the same? Oh, I just remembered. When I worked for British Road Services on the Grimsby Fish, on the night run my last drop was at the BRS Depot at Wrexham. On Friday nights (I cannot for the life of me remember how this arrangement came to being) but used to park up my artic outside Wrexham Football Club where I would get a free drink in the clubhouse (one pint of Coca-Cola) then after that I would drive down to Holt to a fish and chip shop and be given a free fish and chip supper before making my way back to Lincoln. This was the same every Friday night. I also used to go to the fish merchants when on days (we did 2 weeks about) when I went home to see my parents and used to get no end of freshly caught fish for a fiver, think it used to last them quite a while!!!

Regards
Nigel.

Those sound like they were happy times, Nigel.

Brian

[Filonian]

I used to know a girl called Lily, and she was very often pickled.

Graham

[Nigel H-J]

Those sound like they were happy times, Nigel.

Looking back as a HGV Driver yes, starting in haulage after the RAF I drove many types of vehicles firstly with British Road Services Eastern Division in general haulage then Grimsby Fish contract as well as bulk sugar deliveries, then to Tank-Freight on the Liquid Sugar Contract. Both companies were under the National Freight umbrella i.e. public owned or rather, subsidised by the tax payer!! Some of the trucks in the seventies were literally 'orrible but then again, I was always the one who never really had my own truck but a number of cast offs from other depots which were changed frequently for another 'orrible truck!!

When at Tankfreight things changed after a while and we got some really nice trucks my last one was a Mercedes with 16 gears with electronic power shift and heated sleeper cab which was a delight to have, no more winter nights spent in a sleeper with no heating but unfortunately only had that for six months until a dog ran across the road right in front of me on Christmas eve as I was riding my Honda VTR 500 back home and spent the whole of Xmas in hospital!

Selection of trucks I have driven, there were more but don't want to bore you with them.

First one I drove before going onto artics had 6 speed.

AEC delightful to drive with 6 speed 32 ton max.

ERF with 8 speed fuller gear box with range change and it did have a Rolls Royce Engine fitted but only 220 HP the cab was made of fibre glass which was not good if overturned as one did in front of me after a head on with a car at night, stopped and ran over to the truck, the roof was crushed and could only put my arm in to try and locate the driver when he showed up, he had been thrown out of the cab, the other female driver was badly hurt as were another driver who had collided with the HGV after impact

The next version of the ERF still with crash gearbox and 8 speed range change gear box. the Fuller gearbox was very good.

2 types of Foden that I drove, did not like them!

The Guy, OK but nothing special, the ones' with larger engines were better!

Seddon with 6 speed crash gearbox as were some of the previous ones. Drove one without power steering and that was a beast!!

The next model up was much improved with larger cab though the gear box was the opposite way round to the ERF but still an 8 speed range change crash gear box. One problem with it was that it was top heavy so driving solo you had to be bear it in mind.

Scammell same type of gear box as the ERF, the one I drove was 'orrible, carrying 20 tons of concrete blocks and come to a hill then it was down through all the bl**dy gears!!

3 versions of Volvo I drove, far superior to the above trucks, quieter to drive much more power especially with the 88 version (last picture) which had a 16 speed gear box which was a range change with splitter. Loved it!!
The smaller version

One up from the smaller version and newer

The 88 with 16 speed great drive

Finally the Mercedes, this one appears to be the 1625 version with a straight 8 gear box, in other words push the gear lever through the gate by pushing it away from you towards the left when in neutral then when having gone to 4th gear pull it through the gate when once again in neutral and into 5th gear all 'H' block type changes. the next model up I cannot find but it was the one with electronic power shift with 16 speed and also an indicator on the instrument panel to show which gear you were in. These were early models and one time the computer controlling the gear changes failed on me as I was turning right at traffic lights near our depot. So there I was, in the middle of the road holding up a number of vehicles, grabbed hold of the manual (yes we needed one with us for when this occurred) and followed the instructions to reset the computer to the gearbox and from memory it went something like this. Switch off all electrics then wait (I think about thirty seconds) turn on the ignition push the lever fully to the left with the clutch down then count the number of times the gear selector moves against your hand after so many (cannot remember) then it was reset. Thankfully it did reset and was able to drive clear and back to the yard.


Regards
Nigel.

[Filonian]

Waht an interesting "collection" Nigel


Graham

[Kevin Farnell]

Amazing. Who would have guessed that there would be epicures and bon viveurs around here. Nigella would be mightily impressed! EricT
Thinks Reusing picklng vinegar on chips is a great idea
Of course there is another important thing to consider here and that is whether to put vinegar or salt first on the fish and chips. My preference is vinegar first because the salt doesn’t then get washed away.

Thank you! I'm a very very enthusiastic home cook. I'm pleased that you think Nigella would be mightily impressed. I'm hoping she will pop round to thank me personally.

It has also got me thinking further about pickled onion vinegar. Would it make a good vinaigrette dressing?

Definitely vinegar first, it wets the chips allowing the salt to stick.

As I don't like pickled onions would pickled eggs do the same?

Regards
Nigel.

I don't know, as I've never had a pickled egg. The onion vinegar gives a mild onion flavour so I guess you'd get a slight eggy flavour from the pickled egg vinegar. There's only one way to find out.

Kevin

[FlyTexas]

Thanks very much for sharing your stories and the pics, Nigel. I've only been behind the wheel of a truck once...back in the 80's. A friend and I were hauling pig feed to a farm. The truck had a high and low speed for each gear. I'd never dealt with that before. Braking was also a surprise for me. When I would brake it felt like a giant (who didn't want me to stop) was pushing the truck from behind. The experience gave me a whole new appreciation for those who drive the really big trucks.

Brian