THE WALLABY TRACK WITH LIONEL MUSSELL
LIVING WITH MURPHY
WELL , YEMMY ’ S STORY CAME TO AN END LAST MONTH SO WHAT WILL TAKE ITS PLACE ? I THINK A FEW CHAPTERS FROM MY BOOK , LIVING WITH MURPHY , MIGHT CAUSE A FEW SMILES – SO HERE GOES !
I first became aware of ‘ Murphy ’ many years ago , probably long before he had formulated his law of ‘ what can go wrong , will go wrong ’, and he has been a faithful companion ever since .
Murphy is very versatile and his ingenuity knows no bounds . One of his first appearances in my life was on a dark Sunday night on a lonely road skirting the river Avon in Hampshire , England . I was about 12 at the time and I ' d walked from our home in Fordingbridge to the little village of Bickton with mate Ken . It was about three miles each way and when we got there , Ken said , “ Take my bike to go home , I wont need it .”
It was a new bike and had lights run from a dynamo driven by the back wheel . Making great speed along the deserted road , I
74 \ suddenly saw in the beam of light a galloping horse ! We lived on the edge of the New Forest and New Forest ponies were often wandering the area . I locked the brakes and this immediately plunged me into darkness as the dynamo was no longer turning .
What I hadn ’ t noticed was a second , dark pony galloping alongside the first and I hit it fair and square , sending me over the handlebars to land on my side on a bunch of very hard keys in my pocket that left a bruise for days . Unfortunately , it didn ’ t do Ken ’ s new bike any good either , so I was up for repairs to it as well as nursing a very sore leg !
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