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His stare radiated malice.....

I was interested to read an article about a motoring journalist testing a BMW's K1200 GT motorcycle visiting  the Battle of Britain Museum in Hawkinge. (motoring.co.za)

It brought back memories when the Hawkinge Gazette was but a mere fledgling.

I had the idea that the new villagers would like to know about the local amenities and somewhat foolishly, it turns out, visited the Battle of Britain museum in Aerodrome Road to take a photograph for an article extolling the virtues of the museum.

Unfortunately, my presence was unwelcome and I was told to leave in a less than polite manner. I was subsequently told by a number of people that others had also suffered a similar fate.

Which now brings me back to the article on the BMW.

Explaining that RAF Hawkinge was the British airfield closest to German-occupied France during the Second World War's Battle of Britain, it tells of many young men who died and the wreckage of their Messerschmitts, Hurricanes and Spitfires are still sometimes unearthed in fields.

"Many mechanical relics are on display at a museum that occupies part of this old airfield that is popular with men fascinated by the technology with which Winston Churchill's "few" fought.

"Perhaps I should have considered this before riding into the car park on a shiny German motorcycle but the duty not to visit the sins of the fathers on subsequent generations was inculcated in me during childhood.

"Apparently that was not the case for one visitor. His stare radiated malice. To this nerd, who imagined the defence of democracy owed more to horsepower than willpower, arriving on a BMW K1200GT exhibited atrocious taste."

I though back to my own encounter at the museum and concluded that the rider had got off lightly.

6 years ago things could have turned out far worse and 66 years ago worse still.

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