• You will of course have noticed that winter is
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here. That means that Australia is tanning itself 'neath a daily dose of 16 hours sunshine. Kids from all over the show are throwing their surfboards into their Hoidens and heading for the big breakers. Some will go to Bondi Beach, others will pose in Marychoodore, but those who end up at Surfers' Paradise are in for an extra treat. There is at Surfers' Paradise (that's right folks, it is the real name of a real town) a vintage transport museum and this museum has plans to restore one of the country's most historic and certainly rarest trucks — a 1910 Caldwell-Vale.
This project (for which the museum is seeking sponsorship) will be part of Australia's bicentenary festivities.
I understand from our
contemporary Truck & Bas Transportation that the Caldwell-Vales were the first production trucks in the world to have both power steering and four-wheel drive. About 40 of these advanced heavy-duty vehicles were built for on and off-road duties, mainly in the construction, mining and wool industries.
• To most of us the season of goodwill is one we recognise and sometimes attempt to extend throughout the year. For others goodwill is . . . well . . . for others.
On Christmas Eve Elena Pauley, a passenger wishing to travel home from Nottingham to Northampton, turned up at the coach station bags packed and presents wrapped. When she tried to buy a ticket for the journey she discovered that the ticket office was closed. The Northampton bus was ready to leave when she asked the driver if he could sell her a ticket for the trip. He refused to let her on, despite half the seats being empty. She insisted that she wanted to pay the full price and implored him to take the cash. The answer was still a flat "no" and with that he drove off.
Another coach arrived in the station a short while later. The distressed passenger asked its driver for information. His coach was clearly marked "Not in service" but yes he was going back to Northampton. Fearing for his job the gentleman nevertheless did enter into the spirit of the season and drove her home. He even refused the bottle of whisky she offered him, which is a good thing really as it still had "Happy Christmas Dad" written on it. • Some 300 little piglets went to market just before Christmas — and over 200 of them escaped from their artic after it crashed and overturned. First on the scene of the crash near Brithdir in Wales were ambulancemen Dewi Ellis and Ivor Breeze and a local policeman. They found the cab empty and about 300 piglets trapped in the lorry. Ellis says that the trapped animals were terrified. "The three of us managed to open the rear doors and about 300 of them surged forward. Most of them escaped into the fields but sadly we found 30 animals had died."
The driver of the lorry which was travelling from Oxfordshire to Anglesey had been able to leave his truck and had gone to the police station to report the accident. He was shocked but uninjured.