I am a rock climber in my spare time, at least I used to be, the fella that I used to work with and climb with on weekends now lives year round on a ski resort, so very hard to tee up now. Would love to get back to it, still got the $3,500 rack in the cupboard.

Another great thing I used to try and do was surf a white water kayak at a surf beach. I was a fair monger at that and couldn't do it when there was people surfing 'cos I might have done them a mischief fly out of control down the front of a wave.

Are there any kite surfers here? I think that would be a real buzz to try.

Oh, and I once kept a library book a full week longer than I was supposed too!

When I went to high school, my parents sent me to a posh private college in the eastern suburbs.

All the other guys at school either drove their parent's jags, beemers or mercs with a few guys actually having their own sports cars like triumph Tr3's and bug eye sprites.

There were 4 of us from the western suburbs, and catching the bus for a 3 hour round trip every day was a curse.

As we each turned 16 and got our driver's licenses, we yearned for our own set of wheels.... Gary bought a 1949 Ford Prefect, Bob an FB sedan, and I scored one of our old farm trucks.... It was a 1.5 ton 1952 Morris Commercial. A PMG truck modified with a steel tray with drop down sides. Big huge guards and 20 inch rims with Gillette crossplys. Gives a man the feeling of "tall in the saddle"

Anyway, back on topic, biggest most extreme activity (where I've survived to tell the tale) was coming down the windy Greenhill road (Adelaide Hills) in the Morris Commercial having NO BRAKES!

I hit the brake pedal too hard at one corner, and pedal went to the floor. (blew the seal on the brake cylinder..... no dual line brakes on this baby.... NO BRAKES.

I yanked on the handbrake lever, but that did absolutely nothing.

I was gaining speed and was doing about 40mph approaching some very tight 15 mph corners.... Back in 1972, Greenhill Road was a lot narrower than it is today, and there was NO steel armco rail to keep you from falling down the side of the cliff.

I was petrified. All I could do was double declutch and get it back down through the gears... 2nd gear was OK, and speed was reducing, but motor was screaming.

Got to the first left hander, and hugged the inside edge of bitumen... felt the truck beginning to tilt heavily and actually lift the inside wheels.... edged out to the right to keep it fro overturning. Luckily No cars were coming from below, and I ended up totally on the wrong side of the road, still doing about 35 mph and the motor screaming its guts out. The next turn came up real quick and was a right hander....

As I was taking it, the right side lifted and I was looking out the passenger window at a drop of about 100 metres down the cliff side. I held it in a semi balance for about 20 metres and edged off the bitumen before the truck settled on 4 wheels, and went through about 4 of the white marker posts on the edge of the road.

The corners eased up a little, and straightened up and elevation reduced a bit such that the truck began to slow a little. At about 25 mph I revved the $hit out of the motor to try and get the gearbox into first.. First gear was pretty low, and only really supposed to be used to about 15 mph. A bit of crunching and grinding but finally got it in. Motor must have revved out to about 9000 rpm. Some funny sounds came from under the bonnet, but it did begin to slow me down.

After what seemed an eternity (but was probably only about 15 seconds) I managed to pull the truck up.

I was shaking and pale and wobbled out of the truck.

A group of guys in an EH Expensive Daewoo pulled up behind me... high on something.

All they were saying was ... WoW man, that was sooooo cool.

You were up on two wheels man.... fantastic.....

Little did they know that I was sitting in a very damp pair of Bonds underwear.

PS

Would I recommend it.

HELL NO!

he wins...

Can I play?

Ok

I got stabbed in the chest on New Years Eve 1990

I have been in a very large number of high speed pursuits, one of the longest being from Molong to Wellington at 180kmh + chasing a 351 Falcon with an armed robber in it

Having a lose at 195kmh in the middle of a corner that was being repaired and was covered in dirt and the gumbies at the RTA hadn't signposted the roadworks

Absolutely belted black and blue every year since 1987

Held balloons for the snipers to shoot at a distance of 100m to 600m

Been shot at 5 times in seperate incidents by crims

Shot back (and missed unfortunately)

Forced entries on premises using flash bangs etc with the occupants armed

Got up to 258 in an unmarked SS and 252 in an unmarked AU XR8 as well as regularly hitting some serious speeds in pursuits/urgent duty in the middle of towns

Negotiating with a mental patient that escaped from a hospital and took two people hostage, tied them around the hands and feet and used them as cover whilst holding a knife to their throat and drawing it across to cut the skin and being filmed the whole time so that if I did shoot her (and it would have to be a brain shot to cease all movement) spend the rest of the year at Coroners Court whilst the media and the uninformed community convict me

Rapelled out of helicopters

Rapelled down the sides of buildings

Spent two days in a hide on a crop with cold food, cold water, no coffee etc etc etc

Driven a Carrera Cup car on a race track

Driven an M3CSL on a track

Raced motor bikes for two years

Died

No really, In March 2002 I had a near fatal accident and I was found 4 hours after it happened, I was flown by helicopter to Hospital and died for a minute on the chopper (heart stopped for a minute) and spent 12 days in a coma on life support. Had my right arm ripped off, broke four ribs, punctured both lungs, shattered my left femur, broke my hip socket off, broke my pelvis and all the bones in my left hand.

Because I'm such a forthright, bombastic, single minded SOB I am now walkign and talking.

I don't have much sympathy for people because the only place I can find sympathy is in the dictionary...between sh*t and syphillus

pffff....

Is that the best you can do Plonky? Sounds like a typical weekend for me!

Seriously though I take my hat off to you guys, out there saving lives while the rest of us sit back and whinge about the small insignificant things in life.

Trent.

Ok

I got stabbed in the chest on New Years Eve 1990

I have been in a very large number of high speed pursuits, one of the longest being from Molong to Wellington at 180kmh + chasing a 351 Falcon with an armed robber in it

Having a lose at 195kmh in the middle of a corner that was being repaired and was covered in dirt and the gumbies at the RTA hadn't signposted the roadworks

Absolutely belted black and blue every year since 1987

Held balloons for the snipers to shoot at a distance of 100m to 600m

Been shot at 5 times in seperate incidents by crims

Shot back (and missed unfortunately)

Forced entries on premises using flash bangs etc with the occupants armed

Got up to 258 in an unmarked SS and 252 in an unmarked AU XR8 as well as regularly hitting some serious speeds in pursuits/urgent duty in the middle of towns

Negotiating with a mental patient that escaped from a hospital and took two people hostage, tied them around the hands and feet and used them as cover whilst holding a knife to their throat and drawing it across to cut the skin and being filmed the whole time so that if I did shoot her (and it would have to be a brain shot to cease all movement) spend the rest of the year at Coroners Court whilst the media and the uninformed community convict me

Rapelled out of helicopters

Rapelled down the sides of buildings

Spent two days in a hide on a crop with cold food, cold water, no coffee etc etc etc

Driven a Carrera Cup car on a race track

Driven an M3CSL on a track

Raced motor bikes for two years

Died

No really, In March 2002 I had a near fatal accident and I was found 4 hours after it happened, I was flown by helicopter to Hospital and died for a minute on the chopper (heart stopped for a minute) and spent 12 days in a coma on life support. Had my right arm ripped off, broke four ribs, punctured both lungs, shattered my left femur, broke my hip socket off, broke my pelvis and all the bones in my left hand.

Because I'm such a forthright, bombastic, single minded SOB I am now walkign and talking.

I don't have much sympathy for people because the only place I can find sympathy is in the dictionary...between sh*t and syphillus

SOFT!

Car accident Plonky? Work related?

I could go on if you would like....

Did I tell you about the time when I was working at Mt Druitt, Janine Balding had just been murdered and we had to go to a house in Whalan.

We had to break in, the stench was extraordinary, but we took a deep breath and walked inside.

Saw a guy sitting up in bed with throat cut.

Walked back out side, tripping over the dogs and cats that were inside the house and b**ching about the temperature of the house inside (the heater had been left on)

Called the Homicide Squad down (Graham Rosetta (hi Rosie) and Tom Sharp from Mt Druitt.

Initial thought of a serial killer, but myself, George (now a Det Sgt at Homicide) Tom and Rosie go inot the house. Look at the guy laying in bed with his 'throat cut' and all of a sudden the body jerks forward. One of the dogs in the house that was under the blankets got scared, tried to run out off the bed and in doing so, dragged the body along causing it to jump.

So did we. All four of us, thought the bloke was still alive and was jumping out of the bed.

Turned out that he died of a heart attack and the dogs and cats in the house got hungry and the cats had eaten away his face and neck.

Though I must admit it was pretty spooky at the time and we do have a laugh about it occasionally.

The crash was on a day off and I still haven't sued State Forest for the unsignposted roadworks (I was ejected 70 metres off the bike)

Probably will though

Absailed down a cliff from a helicopter as well as fast roped from Helos onto ships to board and seize them.

Was chased in Manila by an angry crowd armed with machettes and sharpened bamboo sticks until the Police arrived and put a gun to my head to make me put my clothes back on (it's a long story)

Had a contract put on me in Thailand by a transvestite prostitute (an even longer story)

Tried to "borrow" a helicopter in Vanautu that was tied down on a wooden pallet. Only managed to get the nav lights working before I was dragged away.

Was a passenger in an AUII XR8 Highway patrol car doing 180 in a 60 zone.

Was again a passenger in a police car during a high speed pursuit.