Here's the "Top Gear Gas-Guzzling Gits" ..... and here's two of the TBBR "Bird-Spotters" They look very different .... but are they really ? So ... let's look at the facts. [1] In the very first sentence of the introduction, there's a pub. The Star and Garter, to be precise. They refer to it as a "watering-hole" ... how very bloke-ish that is. [2] Just over the page, they say their team is "World-beating" ... how very Boris-like is that ! [3] And on the very next page we read that David Tomlinson ( described as "a Squire-like figure") is best known for his penchant for amazingly fast cars ... a theme that is rife throughout the whole book. [4] On page 18 this same D.T. " managed to borrow" an eye-catching Porsche from Porsche (GB) to satisfy his craving for fast cars. [5] This fast, expensive car theme is everywhere throughout the book. And it isn't just sports cars. On page 63, for example, where they encountered an RAF long-wheelbase Land Rover. [6] On that very same page, we find that the "other team" ( Country Life) had a Saab Turbo, but " it could not keep up with our 911 when driven in anger, but a helicopter could not only blow off the Porsche, but even blow it off the road." ( Are you getting the theme here ... they're not birders at all ... they're petrol-heads ) [7] On page 92, we find that in the 1981 competition, we read that they used an Aston Martin, " a lovely virility symbol", [8] And on p137 we find .." Mark Carwardine, whose Panda Mini understandably lags some way behind our Black Panther Saab" . ( What a loser, eh ? ) [9] On page 46, "supposedly" looking for a Little Owl in the darkness, they spot a parked car nearby ... " We drove closer, yes, the car was occupied. We shone our torch into it, expecting to find enemy back-up, carefully watching the nest hole. I will draw a delicate veil over what the torch revealed, but it is sufficient to say that the occupants of the car had other things on their mind than Little Owls." How very testosterone-fuelled are these so called " bird-lovers" ? Well, just after that encounter, we get this ... " I turned the Porsche south, through Westleton, and soon the machine was in full cry as I pushed it through the lanes towards Leiston, the big Pirelli P7's gripping the road as tightly as a singing Reed Warbler grasps its perch. " Well ...there's plenty more of "that sort of thing" throughout the book, But I think I've shown you enough to prove my case ... they're nothing more than Top Gear plus Scopes ! And to round all this off, here's the finest "petrol-head" song in the known Universe .... ..and here's the "sing-along-with-Bruce" version ... If you can find other examples of "Petrol-Head Birding", maybe you could tell me about them, as a Comment or at [email protected]
And if you want to read about more leisurely birding, just go to p14 of that same book and read about an ancient bicycle-powered day list by two Suffolk school-boys in 1957. ( 1957 !!!)
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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