Welcome to our new blogger, Robert Dean
Welcome everyone to my blog on the lovely Lee Pegrum's web site. I’d like to start by introducing myself and hope she asks me back.
I have over the years done an enormous number of things to make a living and to have a bit of fun, most of them have been to do with classic cars and bikes or steam engines and heritage railways, also recently machinery called Stationary Engines.
For the last 24 years I have worked for Mr. Ecclestone (yes the Formula 1 bloke) looking after his collection of classic cars, bikes and race cars, before that I had my own restoration business which failed when the classic car market crashed (along with the stock market at the end of the '80s) between that and working for Mr.E I built Caterham Seven kit cars for Raceline Cars.
I worked for Brabham F1 in the '80s and had a turn as a financial consultant, which I was terrible at because when prospective clients told me they had no money for a £20/month savings programme I believed them and my manager used to give me hell.
After school I worked at the London Coliseum Theatre for the English National Opera in the wardrobe department and had the funniest year of my life preparing costumes and making sure the singers had the correct wigs and props before going on, I truly had a marvellous time and considered a career in the theatre but it is a calling and the pay in those days was a disaster area, I left the theatre camper than a row of tents to go to Guildford Tech to do Motor Vehicle Engineering which caused a few raised eyebrows amongst my new peers I can tell you.
It was a blinkin’ difficult course and had about 14 parts to it, each part had a City and Guilds exam and so having learnt how to drink, smoke and party heavily I finally left with an ONC, an HND and 14 C & G qualifications, it always amuses me when young people say “oh yes I’ve done my C & G exam in Burgerology” I think, hmmm just the one then??
So what does the future hold for ‘yours truly’, well the outside world is a glaring and scary place after the cosseted safety of working for one man but I have started my own business (Curated Vehicle Management) in which I shall be helping people, who spend too much of their time working, to manage their collections of cars and other vehicles so that when they do finally come home they can jump into something without the fear of it being illegal or not working. You can look at my bright and shiny new website if you like, thanks to David Marsh at Wallgo.
Off to Goodwood for the Members Meeting on Saturday then the HGPCA test day a week later, I also model railways in a scale called Gauge 1 which is live steam and there is a big show in Shepshed which I have to attend to help out.
Towards the end of the month is Lee’s Drive It day event which was in my diary to attend but one of my clients wants me to go to the Bonham's sale at the Stafford bike show and since he is paying me I have to attend that instead.
I hope to meet some of you at one of Lee’s lovely events, in the meantime Safe Classic Travels.