Name three things you'd take when going on an adventure with Biggles and Co....
My three picks:
1. A cigarette case, preferably filled with cigarettes
Useful for dropping messages, blocking bullets, and reflecting the rays of the sun to make a signal. Plus the boys can never have too many ciggies...
2. A gun
Pink or any other color...
3. Matches
Useful for starting a fire, making some light, and you can rip up the matchbox to leave a message as well. Plus the boys will need some to light the cigarettes.
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Biscuits are one essential I should think. Are we presuming they already have an aeroplane?
ReplyDelete1. Emergency rations - lots of 'em! Those boys are ALWAYS running out of food on their adventures.
ReplyDelete2. A camera - just think of all the amazing moments I could capture if I took one along on our adventures - might even get Algy to sign some of them - they'd be worth more than their weight in gold....
3. An EVS detector alarm - he's sure to be sneaking about somewhere
- Biggles and Co. would be impressed if I was able to give them an early warning of his whereabouts - might even ask me along on another adventure : )
1.My face cream 'cos I'd hate to get all wrinkled in front of them.
ReplyDelete2. A handheld compass, so we could take shortcuts without getting lost.
3. A hairpin for picking locks. For getting in and getting out of all those rooms.
P.S. I wouldn't need to take a gun because Bertie would be there and we all know he's a crack shot. As a gentlemen he would naturally protect me :)
ReplyDeleteI forgot about needing food. Yes. The boys do very often run out of food.
ReplyDeleteI'd like a gun for those times when the boys have their hands full with something else. I wouldn't want any of them (even Algy) to be paying attention to me and my well-being in a dangerous situation!
I certainly don't want togive the impression I would be cowering behind Bertie when pinch came to shove. But the Army tried to teach me to shoot, my husband tried to teach me to shoot and I still can't hit a barn door at 30 paces. I would be more of a menace with a gun. I could, however, with my compass and hairpin (aka lockpick) be the fifth party member EVS doesn't know about and createlots of havoc.
ReplyDeleteSo you know how to pick locks? That's a useful skill!
ReplyDeleteI can't aim over long distances either, but if someone was in my face it would be fairly hard to miss. (And after I'd done the shooting I could hug Algy and cry in his arms with shock. Ahhhhhh)
Lest it be thought that I'm frivolous in wanting to take my face cream with me (I have very dry skin) and I have to leave it behind for something useful my third item would be bandages to stuff in my pockets. They always seem to be tearing off strips of their shirts for one reason or another.
ReplyDeleteBut if you bring bandages you won't be able to see any of the boys shirtless (which is the whole point, isn't it?)
ReplyDeleteTrust you to think of that, Soppy.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so no bandages - good point Soppy :))
ReplyDeleteMy three picks are:
1. Definitely a compass (or a solar powered GPS - then wouldn't need to worry about an annoying paper map)
2. Chewing gum so Ginger could plug up the bullet holes in the fuel tanks
3. Definitely a handgun so I could impress Biggles with my brilliant marksmanship and sneak up on an unsuspecting evs and rescue them and so have Biggles in my debt forever (of course, I'm overlooking the minor detail that I'm currently pretty hopeless with a firearm - but I'm a quick learner)
I presume Ginger would know to bring his own chewing gum? (Oddly enough, never seen any of them chewing any gum ever...)
ReplyDeleteI've known them (well, Ginger anyway) to chew gum for the specific purpose of fixing holes in the fuel tank / lines.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they should take this up as a way of giving up smoking. If Biggles dropped chewing gum on the floor the way he does with cigarette stubs, the crooks might get their shoes stuck....
In Orient Biggles talks about how pilots often chewed gum on long flights, but strangely none of the four (despite taking famously long flights) seem to have developed the habit! Ginger as you say did chew gum, but only for the purpose of fixing planes, not for mere enjoyment. In fact, other than chocolate they don't seem to eat too many sweets--Biggles didn't even know what humbugs were called--he just referred to them as lumps of toffee with stripes on!
ReplyDeleteand, of course, they had lots of chocolate because it's a high energy food! (That would be my excuse).
ReplyDeleteOh, definitely chocolate. A really great cup of coffee with high energy chocolate would definitely energise me to keep up with the boys and their escapades :)
ReplyDeleteIsn't that what we do now when we read about their exploits? Or even when we're writing them? :)
ReplyDeleteI wonder what kind of chocolate they kept in the emergency rations? Just plain chocolate or something like Mars Bars?
ReplyDeleteProbably Cadbury bars, things like fruit and nut for extra energy.
ReplyDeleteAll depends on when they were on their adventures. Post-war Britain had sweet rationing up till 1953. Unless they saved all their sweetie rations and pooled them for when they went away. I'm going for milk chocolate bars, nothing fancy.
ReplyDeleteYou are right FB.
ReplyDeleteIn the early days, they might have had Fry's chocolate bars - they were around decades ago!
Goodness, I remember them!
ReplyDeleteYou can still buy them I think!!!!!
ReplyDeleteIt seems strange that they would take pure chocolate bars with them instead of something easier to handle such as chocolate biscuits. Wouldn't chocolate bars be very prone to melting?
ReplyDeleteGood point. I Googled it and found WW2 emergency ration military chocolate.
ReplyDelete1) the bar must be temperature resistant so that it would not melt in the field (resistant to about 120F).
2) it must provide approximately 1800 calories
3) it must taste only slightly better than a raw potato.
So no one was going to get fat then.
Sounds about right!! I'm not sure when rationing finished in Oz, but I'm a Baby Boomer and I clearly remember being able to buy chocolates and a wide variety of lollies (sweets) when I was a small child in the early 50s. Not that I had much pocket money to splurge, but you could usually buy 6 spearmint leaves or 4 red raspberries or 6 licorice bullets for 1 penny in those days. Chocolate frogs were threepence each and were in plentiful supply if your parents were obliging. So, I didn't ever think of rationing when I was reading Biggles (or any other English based books) when I was a child. Very interesting to realise this.
ReplyDeleteAnother point, regarding chocolate biscuits. These didn't put in an appearance here till the late 1950s / earl;y 1960s if memory serves correctly - and they were chocolate coated digestive type biscuits and wouldn't have travelled very well - would have crumbled more easily than chocolate bars. Have no idea when they were introduced in England?
I remember rationing in England. My parents knew a sweetshop owner and we used to get extra! Then the family went to Australia for 2-3 years and (1) no rationing (2) there were BANANAS which as children we adored and could rarely get in England.
ReplyDeleteEven when we went back to England there was still rationing - it didn't stop till long after the war. My mother's memory of the war was that "we were always hungry".
Very interesting insights, SA. Strange to realise that bananas were rare in the UK then. We always had banana trees (Lady Fingers only, because it was against the law to grow Cavendish privately because of the risk of bunchy top disease infecting the commercial plantations). We always had mango trees, too...and a mulberry tree (both wonderful for climbing in). But back to lollies - I remember being given two shillings for my birthday from an aunt and promptly taking it to school the next day and taking a group of my friends over the road during big lunch to a shop that sold an amazing variety of lollies. I bought a huge amount and still had change in my pocket....and an irate mother to face that afternoon (she had other plans for my two shillings).
ReplyDeleteYes, mothers do tend to have boring plans for other people's money, for some reason...
ReplyDeleteI grew up (and am still growing up) in a subtropical region so we've always had bananas and mangoes and pineapples and whatnot. Not so much in the way of berries and apples, but what can you do?
Am I to understand then that rationing chocolate is nothing like the chocolate we have now? And how on earth do you make chocolate taste bad???
I hope not! That spec was for Military issue high-energy, pocket-sized emergency rations for going on missions with. Which could possibly be an explanation of how Ginger could nibble on chocolate in desert/tropical regions without it being semi liqiud. Unless of course Biggles did just pick up several big bars of Fruit and Nut with his case of ciggys on his way out.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is weird that the chocolate doesn't seem to melt even after hours in people's pockets!
ReplyDeleteI don't know why, but the idea of "military" grade chocolate makes me laugh. Imagine a box of chocolate labeled "top secret"!!!