The Doctor (Anne Murray) has passed on a message the Steve Hamer has died.

He survived a massive heart attack in his mid 30s. I visited him in
hospital but cannot remember the date, 15-20 years ago. I am guesing he was
in his early to mid 50s now.

We had become good friends as he had a job that brought him to Cheltenham a
couple of times a month. I enjoyed drinking beer on his expenses in the
National Hunt pub in Benhall. He changed jobs and I did not see so much of
him.

I last saw him in 2019 when he bought a Benelli TRK502 from my local dealer
in Cheltenham (was Skellerns Yamaha).

Not long after that, during the Covid lockdowns he had a big flounce and
left UKRM here and blocked people on Fb. He had gone down several
conspiracy rabbit holes and I never heard from him after.

RIP Steve.

On Fri, 12 Apr 2024 16:11:42 -0000 (UTC), wessie
<willnotwork@tesco.net> wrote:

>The Doctor (Anne Murray) has passed on a message the Steve Hamer has died.
>
>He survived a massive heart attack in his mid 30s. I visited him in
>hospital but cannot remember the date, 15-20 years ago. I am guesing he was
>in his early to mid 50s now.
>
>We had become good friends as he had a job that brought him to Cheltenham a
>couple of times a month. I enjoyed drinking beer on his expenses in the
>National Hunt pub in Benhall. He changed jobs and I did not see so much of
>him.
>
>I last saw him in 2019 when he bought a Benelli TRK502 from my local dealer
>in Cheltenham (was Skellerns Yamaha).
>
>Not long after that, during the Covid lockdowns he had a big flounce and
>left UKRM here and blocked people on Fb. He had gone down several
>conspiracy rabbit holes and I never heard from him after.
>
>RIP Steve.

Some of you will recall the time in Caudebec when he ordered a bottle
of wine, getting the decimal place wrong in the price list (in francs)
- not £8 odd but £80 odd it was. Neil Murray and a few others bought
glasses of it off him to help alleviate the cost.

--
Colin Irvine
R1250RS

In article <XnsB152AEEABB6E6wtymmmsas@135.181.20.170>, wessie says...
>
> The Doctor (Anne Murray) has passed on a message the Steve Hamer has died.
>
> He survived a massive heart attack in his mid 30s. I visited him in
> hospital but cannot remember the date, 15-20 years ago. I am guesing he was
> in his early to mid 50s now.
>
> We had become good friends as he had a job that brought him to Cheltenham a
> couple of times a month. I enjoyed drinking beer on his expenses in the
> National Hunt pub in Benhall. He changed jobs and I did not see so much of
> him.
>
> I last saw him in 2019 when he bought a Benelli TRK502 from my local dealer
> in Cheltenham (was Skellerns Yamaha).
>
> Not long after that, during the Covid lockdowns he had a big flounce and
> left UKRM here and blocked people on Fb. He had gone down several
> conspiracy rabbit holes and I never heard from him after.
>
> RIP Steve.

The old pump finally gave up the ghost then.

/me wonders if the hearse will be based on a Golf floorplan

On 12/04/2024 18:02, Colin Irvine wrote:
>> RIP Steve.
> Some of you will recall the time in Caudebec when he ordered a bottle
> of wine, getting the decimal place wrong in the price list (in francs)
> - not £8 odd but £80 odd it was. Neil Murray and a few others bought
> glasses of it off him to help alleviate the cost.

Was it worth the £80 though?
This is SteveH? or another Steve?
Worked on petrol forecouts iirc, and had a Ducati 750ss at one time.

On Fri, 12 Apr 2024 19:01:06 +0100, Alan Lee <alan@darkroom.plus.com>
wrote:

>On 12/04/2024 18:02, Colin Irvine wrote:
>>> RIP Steve.
>> Some of you will recall the time in Caudebec when he ordered a bottle
>> of wine, getting the decimal place wrong in the price list (in francs)
>> - not £8 odd but £80 odd it was. Neil Murray and a few others bought
>> glasses of it off him to help alleviate the cost.
>
>Was it worth the £80 though?

Dunno!

>This is SteveH? or another Steve?

Steve H.

--
Colin Irvine
R1250RS

The very one.
By chance we met end March, first time in years. I do believe he was the first UKRM'r I visited, he lived in Milton Keynes when I moved to Oxford.

Had just taken Tog's old K1100RS for MOT.

Lot of heart trouble and was being sized up for an ICD. Chatted yesterday and had been for pre op scans, but felt good.

Shell are welching on their EV commitments (manager EV development, global) had just been offered a peachy number elsewhere.

RIP

wessie <willnotwork@tesco.net> wrote:
> The Doctor (Anne Murray) has passed on a message the Steve Hamer has died.

RIP Steve.

[snip]

> Not long after that, during the Covid lockdowns he had a big flounce and
> left UKRM here and blocked people on Fb. He had gone down several
> conspiracy rabbit holes and I never heard from him after.

Sorry to hijack this thread but I must get this off my
chest. USA-centric stuff to follow...

Re: rabbit holes- two days ago, while helping a very good friend
build a shed, I was informed:

Ivermectin is a proper treatment for Covid, but the clinical studies
to determine whether it could be used to treat Covid were deliberately
mismanaged in order to discredit it as a treatment, for political
reasons.

After contracting Covid-19, my friend cadged a prescription for same,
but was enraged that no pharmacist was willing to fill it.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is at best a fraud and at worst a criminal. Ditto
for the NIH, CDC, WHO, et al.

He emphatically says he will never get a vaccine or booster, and that I am
a victim of Pfizer and Big Pharma, and "you will suffer" for having received
the vaccine.

A couple of years ago, I was also told by him that the 2020 US
presidential election was 'stolen' from Trump, and Biden was in
office illegitimately.

The final straw was, when I asked if after knowing all that has
been revealed about '45', was he planning to vote for Trump in
November. After some hemming and hawing, I asked again. He said "Yes,
I don't have any choice."

I said "Fuck" and without another word, and I left his property. I
don't know if our friendship can survive this level of fuckwittery.
He's an otherwise intelligent person. It scares me how this can happen
to someone who you'd think was smart enough not be fall for such crap.

I think I'm grieving more over this than my mother's death in February.

Colin Irvine wrote:

> Some of you will recall the time in Caudebec when he ordered a bottle
> of wine, getting the decimal place wrong in the price list (in francs)
> - not £8 odd but £80 odd it was.

He also bought a Burwin's MZ ETZ 300 from me and left it idling until
it seized.

He was a fucking idiot [1].

[1] For leaving an over bored aircooled two stroke idling on its stand
until it seized not for buying a bike from me, or that it was an MZ.

--
Simon

In article <uvc245$2hau3$1@dont-email.me>, Mark Olson says...
>
> wessie <willnotwork@tesco.net> wrote:
> > The Doctor (Anne Murray) has passed on a message the Steve Hamer has died.
>
> RIP Steve.
>
> [snip]
>
> > Not long after that, during the Covid lockdowns he had a big flounce and
> > left UKRM here and blocked people on Fb. He had gone down several
> > conspiracy rabbit holes and I never heard from him after.
>
> Sorry to hijack this thread but I must get this off my
> chest. USA-centric stuff to follow...
>
> Re: rabbit holes- two days ago, while helping a very good friend
> build a shed, I was informed:
>
> Ivermectin is a proper treatment for Covid, but the clinical studies
> to determine whether it could be used to treat Covid were deliberately
> mismanaged in order to discredit it as a treatment, for political
> reasons.
>
> After contracting Covid-19, my friend cadged a prescription for same,
> but was enraged that no pharmacist was willing to fill it.
>
> Dr. Anthony Fauci is at best a fraud and at worst a criminal. Ditto
> for the NIH, CDC, WHO, et al.
>
> He emphatically says he will never get a vaccine or booster, and that I am
> a victim of Pfizer and Big Pharma, and "you will suffer" for having received
> the vaccine.
>
> A couple of years ago, I was also told by him that the 2020 US
> presidential election was 'stolen' from Trump, and Biden was in
> office illegitimately.
>
> The final straw was, when I asked if after knowing all that has
> been revealed about '45', was he planning to vote for Trump in
> November. After some hemming and hawing, I asked again. He said "Yes,
> I don't have any choice."
>
> I said "Fuck" and without another word, and I left his property. I
> don't know if our friendship can survive this level of fuckwittery.
> He's an otherwise intelligent person. It scares me how this can happen
> to someone who you'd think was smart enough not be fall for such crap.
>
> I think I'm grieving more over this than my mother's death in February.

:(

On 12/04/2024 18:02, Colin Irvine wrote:
> On Fri, 12 Apr 2024 16:11:42 -0000 (UTC), wessie
> <willnotwork@tesco.net> wrote:
>
>> The Doctor (Anne Murray) has passed on a message the Steve Hamer has died.
>>
>> He survived a massive heart attack in his mid 30s. I visited him in
>> hospital but cannot remember the date, 15-20 years ago. I am guesing he was
>> in his early to mid 50s now.
>>
>> We had become good friends as he had a job that brought him to Cheltenham a
>> couple of times a month. I enjoyed drinking beer on his expenses in the
>> National Hunt pub in Benhall. He changed jobs and I did not see so much of
>> him.
>>
>> I last saw him in 2019 when he bought a Benelli TRK502 from my local dealer
>> in Cheltenham (was Skellerns Yamaha).
>>
>> Not long after that, during the Covid lockdowns he had a big flounce and
>> left UKRM here and blocked people on Fb. He had gone down several
>> conspiracy rabbit holes and I never heard from him after.
>>
>> RIP Steve.
>
> Some of you will recall the time in Caudebec when he ordered a bottle
> of wine, getting the decimal place wrong in the price list (in francs)
> - not £8 odd but £80 odd it was. Neil Murray and a few others bought
> glasses of it off him to help alleviate the cost.
>

Oh! Anne and I were on that table. Condolences to his family, RIP Steve.

On 12/04/2024 18:02, Colin Irvine wrote:
> On Fri, 12 Apr 2024 16:11:42 -0000 (UTC), wessie
> <willnotwork@tesco.net> wrote:
>
>> The Doctor (Anne Murray) has passed on a message the Steve Hamer has died.
>>
>> He survived a massive heart attack in his mid 30s. I visited him in
>> hospital but cannot remember the date, 15-20 years ago. I am guesing he was
>> in his early to mid 50s now.
>>
>> We had become good friends as he had a job that brought him to Cheltenham a
>> couple of times a month. I enjoyed drinking beer on his expenses in the
>> National Hunt pub in Benhall. He changed jobs and I did not see so much of
>> him.
>>
>> I last saw him in 2019 when he bought a Benelli TRK502 from my local dealer
>> in Cheltenham (was Skellerns Yamaha).
>>
>> Not long after that, during the Covid lockdowns he had a big flounce and
>> left UKRM here and blocked people on Fb. He had gone down several
>> conspiracy rabbit holes and I never heard from him after.
>>
>> RIP Steve.
>
> Some of you will recall the time in Caudebec when he ordered a bottle
> of wine, getting the decimal place wrong in the price list (in francs)
> - not £8 odd but £80 odd it was. Neil Murray and a few others bought
> glasses of it off him to help alleviate the cost.
>

Ah, that Steve.
Yes, remember that well.

Used to get on well with him.

RIP

--
Bruce Porter
"The internet is a huge and diverse community but mainly friendly"
http://ytc1.blogspot.co.uk/
There *is* an alternative! http://www.openoffice.org/

On 12/04/2024 19:41, Colin Irvine wrote:
> On Fri, 12 Apr 2024 19:01:06 +0100, Alan Lee <alan@darkroom.plus.com>
> wrote:
>
>> On 12/04/2024 18:02, Colin Irvine wrote:
>>>> RIP Steve.
>>> Some of you will recall the time in Caudebec when he ordered a bottle
>>> of wine, getting the decimal place wrong in the price list (in francs)
>>> - not £8 odd but £80 odd it was. Neil Murray and a few others bought
>>> glasses of it off him to help alleviate the cost.
>>
>> Was it worth the £80 though?
>
> Dunno!

TOG bought a glass off him and reckoned so.

>
>> This is SteveH? or another Steve?
>
> Steve H.
>

--
Bruce Porter
"The internet is a huge and diverse community but mainly friendly"
http://ytc1.blogspot.co.uk/
There *is* an alternative! http://www.openoffice.org/

On 13/04/2024 10:04, YTC#1 wrote:
>>> Was it worth the £80 though?
>>
>> Dunno!
>
> TOG bought a glass off him and reckoned so.

I like a nice whisky. Typically £5- £8 a shot for run of the mill malts.
I did try one that was £20 a shot, cant even remember its name. Was it
worth £20, no way. It's quite common to see bottles selling for £6k. To
notice any difference to an £80 bottle, your taste buds must be in
perfect condition, as I cant see how anyone can firstly justify paying
so much, and how they can tell there is that much difference between the
two.

On 4/12/2024 12:30 PM, Mark Olson wrote:
> wessie <willnotwork@tesco.net> wrote:
>> The Doctor (Anne Murray) has passed on a message the Steve Hamer has died.
>
> RIP Steve.
>
> [snip]
>
>> Not long after that, during the Covid lockdowns he had a big flounce and
>> left UKRM here and blocked people on Fb. He had gone down several
>> conspiracy rabbit holes and I never heard from him after.
>
> Re: rabbit holes- two days ago, while helping a very good friend
> build a shed, I was informed:
>
(deleted a list of insanities)
>
> I said "Fuck" and without another word, and I left his property. I
> don't know if our friendship can survive this level of fuckwittery.
> He's an otherwise intelligent person. It scares me how this can happen
> to someone who you'd think was smart enough not be fall for such crap.
>
> I think I'm grieving more over this than my mother's death in February.
>
I was talking to an acquaintance at the cafe. He is an executive in a
company developing Artificial Intelligence. He says the potential is
truly scary. We are rapidly approaching an era when we wont be able to
tell the difference between fact and fiction, or the validity of any
news source.

--
The erstwhile Thomas
FJR1300, R1200GS & ST1100 (in memoriam)

Turby <xsurf@xmail.com> wrote:

> I was talking to an acquaintance at the cafe. He is an executive in a
> company developing Artificial Intelligence. He says the potential is
> truly scary. We are rapidly approaching an era when we wont be able to
> tell the difference between fact and fiction, or the validity of any
> news source.

I can see how faked audio and videos will be impossible for the layman
to detect. It's already past that point for most people, they fail to
detect even obvious fakes now, and they're getting better by the day.

That said, I believe it will be possible for a chain of trust to be
maintained between a source of information and the consumer, for those
who want to maintain a healthy level of skepticism.

What my experience with my friend proves, an above average IQ is no
guarantee against an organized campaign of disinformation, and once
you fall into one of these rabbit holes, the next one is just that
much easier to succumb to.

Alan Lee wrote:

> On 13/04/2024 10:04, YTC#1 wrote:
> > > > Was it worth the £80 though?
> > >
> > > Dunno!
> >
> > TOG bought a glass off him and reckoned so.
>
> I like a nice whisky. Typically £5- £8 a shot for run of the mill
> malts. I did try one that was £20 a shot, cant even remember its
> name. Was it worth £20, no way. It's quite common to see bottles
> selling for £6k. To notice any difference to an £80 bottle, your
> taste buds must be in perfect condition, as I cant see how anyone can
> firstly justify paying so much, and how they can tell there is that
> much difference between the two.

With whisky, the price - once you get over a certain amount, anyway -
isn't to do with quality but rarity.

A few years ago, I bought a Caol Ila 18yo for about £80. A couple of
years later I baulked at spending £125 for another. Now, if you can
find a bottle, it will be £several-hundreds.

--
Chris

On Apr 12, 2024 at 12:11:42 PM EDT, "wessie" <willnotwork@tesco.net> wrote:

> The Doctor (Anne Murray) has passed on a message the Steve Hamer has died.

It's sad. Like many of us, he had the ability to be a bit of a tit on the
internet. But I really liked him irl. I saw him on a number of France Trips,
including the infamous decimal place wine trip.

Where is the customary queue to comfort the widow?

On Apr 13, 2024 at 5:11:20 AM EDT, "Alan Lee" <alan@darkroom.plus.com> wrote:

> I like a nice whisky. Typically £5- £8 a shot for run of the mill malts.
> I did try one that was £20 a shot, cant even remember its name. Was it
> worth £20, no way.

I don't drink brown spirits, but a few years ago someone at a work party gave
me a sip of a 20 year old Pappy Van Winkle bourbon, which was $250 a shot. It
was smoother than any brown spirit I've had before, such that I could discern
some flavor - rather than just a horrible burning sensation. It was...not
unpleasant, but I wouldn't pay $250 for it.

On Apr 12, 2024 at 3:30:13 PM EDT, "Mark Olson" <olsonm@tiny.invalid> wrote:

<snip madness>
> I said "Fuck" and without another word, and I left his property. I
> don't know if our friendship can survive this level of fuckwittery.

I had exactly the same situation after J6. A guy I've known since 2000, and
liked enormously, posted on facebook - apparently seriously - that it was an
antifa and FBI false-flag operation. I've unfriended him everywhere. He tried
to get in touch a couple of weeks ago, and I deleted the email unreplied. It
is sad.

I keep wondering if I should in fact reply, and ask him if he still believes
what he wrote, or if the ~1000 convictions of publicly Trumpian people have
changed his mine. But I haven't.

On 13/04/2024 17:58, Ben Blaney wrote:
> On Apr 13, 2024 at 5:11:20 AM EDT, "Alan Lee" <alan@darkroom.plus.com> wrote:
>
>> I like a nice whisky. Typically £5- £8 a shot for run of the mill malts.
>> I did try one that was £20 a shot, cant even remember its name. Was it
>> worth £20, no way.
>
> I don't drink brown spirits, but a few years ago someone at a work party gave
> me a sip of a 20 year old Pappy Van Winkle bourbon, which was $250 a shot. It
> was smoother than any brown spirit I've had before, such that I could discern
> some flavor - rather than just a horrible burning sensation. It was...not
> unpleasant, but I wouldn't pay $250 for it.

Yes, you are right, but if you shop around and search reviews, there are
soem excellent whiskies for £60-90 for the bottle. They are brilliant in
taste compared to a standard £30-40 bottle. The local distillery to us
sells its raw spirit, few distilleries do that, Ive been told that its
because its so rough from some distilleries that it is almost
undrinkable (think paint stripper et al), but for a quality distillery,
they are quite happy to sell the raw spirit, as they have taken care
with the ingredients, filtering etc to give a pleasant drink, even at a
day old. Lying in the cask for 10 years adds the complex flavouring, for
cheap brands, it disguises the poor original product.

Alan Lee <alan@darkroom.plus.com> wrote:
> To
> notice any difference to an £80 bottle, your taste buds must be in
> perfect condition, as I cant see how anyone can firstly justify paying
> so much, and how they can tell there is that much difference between the
> two.
>
>

I’ve had some really quite expensive wines in the current job, and I’ll be
the first to say that know fuck all about wine, but I’ve definitely raised
an eyebrow at a couple of really nice wines that have turned out to be
quite expensive.

In article <uvedcv$33m5n$1@dont-email.me>, Ben Blaney says...
>
> On Apr 12, 2024 at 12:11:42 PM EDT, "wessie" <willnotwork@tesco.net> wrote:
>
> > The Doctor (Anne Murray) has passed on a message the Steve Hamer has died.
>
> It's sad. Like many of us, he had the ability to be a bit of a tit on the
> internet. But I really liked him irl. I saw him on a number of France Trips,
> including the infamous decimal place wine trip.
>
> Where is the customary queue to comfort the widow?

Pretty sure there was a divorce in there somewhere

On 13/04/2024 00:11 wessie penned these words:
> The Doctor (Anne Murray) has passed on a message the Steve Hamer has died.

Saddened to learn that.

> Not long after that, during the Covid lockdowns he had a big flounce and
> left UKRM here and blocked people on Fb. He had gone down several
> conspiracy rabbit holes and I never heard from him after.

That would have been about the time he binned me too

--
Ian

"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of
the last priest"

petrolcan <petrolcan@gmail.com> wrote in
news:MPG.4085145a340430479897a6@news.eternal-september.org:

> In article <uvedcv$33m5n$1@dont-email.me>, Ben Blaney says...
>>
>> On Apr 12, 2024 at 12:11:42 PM EDT, "wessie" <willnotwork@tesco.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > The Doctor (Anne Murray) has passed on a message the Steve Hamer
>> > has died.
>>
>> It's sad. Like many of us, he had the ability to be a bit of a tit on
>> the internet. But I really liked him irl. I saw him on a number of
>> France Trips, including the infamous decimal place wine trip.
>>
>> Where is the customary queue to comfort the widow?
>
> Pretty sure there was a divorce in there somewhere
>

I know they split up for about 6 months a decade ago but reconciled as I
was doing pro bono social work. They were still a couple when he flounced
in 2020. Were there later developments?

On Apr 14, 2024 at 2:34:55 AM EDT, "Boots"
<news@millhouse-communications.co.uk> wrote:

> On 13/04/2024 00:11 wessie penned these words:
>> The Doctor (Anne Murray) has passed on a message the Steve Hamer has died.
>
> Saddened to learn that.
>
>> Not long after that, during the Covid lockdowns he had a big flounce and
>> left UKRM here and blocked people on Fb. He had gone down several
>> conspiracy rabbit holes and I never heard from him after.
>
> That would have been about the time he binned me too

I don't know if I was ever facebook friends with him, but if I was he probably
binned me about that time. He'd said something here on ukrm about lockdowns
being bad - and it was clear to me that his position was entirely selfish -
concerned with his own job and bonus...and I called him out on it.

The most savage, of course, was Dodger, who once referred to him as
"Arkwright", which I've always found hilarious.