So why your username? (with a prize)

[tractorboy]

I think your one of them Ipswich town supporters is tractor boy the nick name like arsenals gooners or totenhams yids

Well done fixer - here's a wiki explanation:

A recent nickname for Town is "The Tractor Boys", which was coined during the club's brief period in the Premiership (2000–01 and 2001–02) when the team regularly competed against more fashionable clubs. The nickname is an example of self-deprecating humour referring to Ipswich's agricultural heritage.[64] The origins of the nickname are not certain, but the first generally accepted use of the nickname appeared at a losing away game at Birmingham City late in the 1998–99 season, with the home fans chanting "no noise from the Tractor Boys", a name which stuck.[65] Barracking by supporters of more established Premiership clubs during Town's spell in the Premiership lent the ironic chant: '1–0 to the Tractor Boys' increased potency and publicity, and the nickname is commonly used by the media.[66][67] Former Town manager Jim Magilton commented, in the local press, that he disliked the nickname and said that it conjured up, "images of carrot-crunching yokels"[64] while players such as Matt Holland accepted the chant with good humour.[64]

[Idris]

My username is in memory of my dear departed Birman cat, Idris. They really did break the mould when they made her.
She was named Idris after the dragon in Ivor the Engine whom I erroneously remembered as being female. (In those pre-Internet days and living in The Netherlands, it was effectively impossible for me to double-check such things.)
Idris chose me at the age of six weeks when we went round to view the litter. We sat down in the lounge and, whilst her sister ignored me, Idris came running across the floor to me with her tail straight up. (Always let a cat chose you, never the other way around!)
She was always my cat and mine alone. She would follow me round like a dog and would only sit on my lap. Somehow she always knew when i was almost home and would go and sit on the doormat by the front door waiting for me. When I started working from home, she would sit in the office with me (usually on top of the radio – a big, old-fashioned, ghetto blaster - often knocking the tuning dial on her way up and replacing whatever program I was listening to with white noise). I got a mention for her on BFBS as “Idris, the office cat”, but she missed it because she was away downstairs having some cat crunch.
She saw me through thick and thin and was always there for me whenever I needed support, especially during the upheavals of my divorce and my subsequent move back to the UK. (In fact, I even delayed selling the conjugal house for six months until her rabies vaccination was valid so that she wouldn’t have to go into quarantine.) To many of you, this probably won’t sound credible, but she was much more than a pet, she was genuinely my friend.
Sadly, she’s now long since departed for the great litter tray in the sky, but I miss her each and every day. I know that i will never have another cat like her as long as I live.
i really would do anything to have just one more day with her.

[matchbox_n_molars]

Having lived through the sting of lost pets too many times I'll never discount the genuine sense of loss connected with such happenings. Thanks for sharing Idris' story Hugh.
And by the way, my son Ryan came home from his year in Botswana with a Rhodesian Ridgeback dog as a souvenir of his time there. Like 'Idris', his dog is a female. Ryan named her 'Marlow', a tribute to the ship captain in Joseph Conrad's novel, 'Heart of Darkness'. So she too is gifted with a male moniker. I doubt that it ever gave either of them a moment's fret.

[fixer]

Looks like I could be getting a pressie from down under

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Looks like I could be getting a pressie from down under

It certainly does Fixer, a box of spirit-level bubbles perhaps, or a set of left-handed screw drivers or something really useful like a long wait...!!

Ghosty.

[johnboy]

Looks like I could be getting a pressie from down under

It certainly does Fixer, a box of spirit-level bubbles perhaps, or a set of left-handed screw drivers or something really useful like a long wait...!!

Ghosty.

Or a gallon of tartan paint, maybe a bucket of steam, a tin of elbow grease or even a glass hammer.

[tractorboy]

Looks like I could be getting a pressie from down under

Quite correct Reg - Fun Ho tractor is yours - PM me your details

An additional prize to Greg in Cincinnati matchbox_n_molars for your lyrical explanation
Choose one from the following & PM me your details

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tractorboy - username

I grew up in a small Suffolk village in the 50/60s. On Saturday a bus came round to take fans to the football at Norwich.
As my school had lessons on Saturday morning & sport in the afternoon I never got involved with village friends who went to support the 'Canaries'
I was the first person from the village to go to Grammar school, some 13 miles away which also separated me from my friends.

I happened to fall in with a group that supported Ipswich and tagged along with them.
Growing up and working on farms from early teens and being allowed to drive a tractor (classed as an agricultural vehicle and no licence required) on the road during harvest meant my first road vehicle was a blue Ford(son). It wasn't unusual to see tractors rather than cars parked outside peoples homes.
Felt like the bees knees when the farmer said "Take the tractor home boy so you can make an early start in the morning.'

That and the Ipswich Town connection were the reasons for my username

The whole issue of farm vehicles & weird licensing saw me at 18 driving a tank transporter (similar to the Antar), on local A roads, carting bales of straw at harvest time.
I think the farmer got a good deal at the local army base. I do remember that the transporter had something like 14 gears involving 2 gear levers and I had to stand up on the pedals to change gear - took forever to get up to any kind of speed.
Yes, I was that %$#@&%# holding up the traffic as you made your way to the coast on your Summer holidays all those years ago.

[shockwavediecast]

Shockwave Trading?
Well its my business name & I'm not ashamed to self promote. Please click the link underneath for more information.

But Shockwave came from my initials S W

Ste

[fixer]

Rodger
trying to send you a pm don't know if it's going through as not confirmed my end as sent

[Idris]

trying to send you a pm don't know if it's going through as not confirmed my end as sent

PMs sit in the outbox until they have been read by the recipent. Only then do they become sent.