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  <TD HEIGHT="19" COLSPAN="1" ALIGN="LEFT"><DIV CLASS="head"><b>Bangtao Tales</b></DIV></TD>
  <TD HEIGHT="19" COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="RIGHT"><DIV CLASS="head">September 4th 2016</DIV></TD>

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<!-enter verse here  ************************************************* ->
<b>Chapter 90<BR><BR> Three strikes and......
<BR></b><BR>

<br>
In each of the last three weeks I have somehow managed to achieve on at least one occasion a level of stupidy which impresses even me.
I have no excuses, except advancing age and a mind which, perhaps is not where it should be. 
The first one was about 3 weeks ag0: The phone I bought in Thailand had a Thai/American
plug so I decided to cut it off and replace it with an English one. I plugged it into a socket in my house and it went BANG!!!!!! I had forgotten that the original plug included a transformer. The phone was expecting about 6 volts and got 220.
Sh*t!!!!!!!
The second one was last week in Oxford. We decided to visit Oxford so I decided to use the 'Park and Ride' whick involves parking the car near Oxford and taking a bus to the centre. Well worth doing because the traffic is horrendous. We spent a happy day viewing the colleges and churches and river and then, very tired from all the walking, caught the bus back to the car park. We couldn't find the car. After about an hour of searching I was beginning to believe that it had been stolen when my companion asked if I still had the bus ticket. Yes you've probably guessed, it was the wrong car park. 
Oh Sh*t Sh*t!!!!!!
Yesterday I parked my car at Ivinghoe Beacon, a place I have probably visited more than 1000 times as it is the place where for the past 50 years I have been flying model gliders.
The car park is on a slope so as always I engaged 1st gear and applied the handbrake. 
Except that I  didn't.  As I walked round to the back of the car and opened the nearside  passenger door to pick up my model plane the car started rolling forward. I tried, but did not have the strength, to stop it. Ahead of the car was a gentle  but increasing slope of about 20 metres to a small gate. After the gate is a rapidly steepening slope of about 150 metres to the bottom of the hill. I don't know whether the gate would have stopped the car but either way it was going to be expensive. Fortunately there were some young guys playing with a frisby in the car park. I yelled for help and one of them was quick enough to run round to the front of the car and between us we just about held it until another guy put the handbrake on.
Oh Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t!!!!!!!!
I can only hope that these things (caused by my stupidity) come only in threes, like London buses and bad things generally.

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