Words in Hand

Hello and welcome to the second tape. You remember that in the first tape Martin mentioned about Clive Mason's joke? I was wondering did you manage to get it and then laugh at the end? I don't know, but I wondered if you were able to get three or four points and got the end and found it very easy?

But what did you see at the beginning? What was it trying to tell you? Well, think about it hmm... wait... Well, at the start, you know that there are hearing people's ways of saying 'Hello' and 'You're alright?' Did you get hold of a hearing person's way, or my way as well? Did you get hold of that action? That gives you an idea of what he's trying to say... come on, think! Maybe you thought 'Oh, it must be something motorway, or somewhere that there were cars passing, it must be hitching'. So you thought there's someone standing there and thumbing, you've got it, that's right.

But what about others? What about the other parts? Did you notice, was it a car or a coach or a motorcycle? What was that coach traveling? If you've seen a motorcycle you know that they're holding the handlebars and what's that? He's turning the accelerator and if you're sitting on a motorcycle that's the accelerator where you rev up and you can feel the power of the bike going through, and the speed of the bike as it zooms along the road.

Now you saw the man thumbing and something stopping alongside him. Why do I say that (sign)? Should I have said that (signs)? I should have said that (sign), but I used that (sign). Now it should give you an idea. Those actions, and then this action, you don't know? I don't have to say motorcycle in this way, I can say it because you might not know what that (sign) meant, but it's exactly the same, so there's the motorcycle stopping.

Were you wondering who was on the motorcycle that was actually riding it. Was he, was he clean or was he a punk rocker or what? Can you guess? I'm sure that you could see that he looked dirty. But where did you get that information from? It was things dripping from his face and there were chains across his body and studs on his sleeves, and there was a cigarette, that was a cigarette... ah, get it? Now who was it?

You saw these things, these signs on the tape, but did you notice Clive's face changing from the thumbing person to the person who was on the motorbike? Could you really pick that up, or not? You saw the way the person was thumbing and then suddenly it changed to the person on the motorbike... that's interesting... if you got it and that means you should continue watching.

Did you see what happened? The bike stopped and the man got on the back, so they both went away and they were on the bike as it was traveling along the road. And you saw they had to stop again, why? Because on the back, the man on the back was tapping the man on the front saying 'I'm cold, I'm cold!' Did you notice the face again? So he had to stop and got off the bike and he got on, but remember there's the motorbike, so the person said 'Take off your jacket!' Because he was going to turn it around. He didn't understand and you don't understand? Look, the jacket, the V and the buttons, but why turn it around? Come on, think! What do you think? Yeah! You turn it around and put your sleeves in your arms in through sleeves and button up at the bank. Well have you got it?!

And did you see what happened at the end? I think, oh there must have been something, it was really terrible! Did you see anything, anybody falling? Now the bike was traveling along the road and you saw it rise in the air because it hits something. Do you think it could fly? No! It means that there was something there below the bike and the bike hit something and it'd gone into the air and they come down, and then it swerved all over the road. If you're riding a motorbike and you see something and you go into the air, you expect it just to come down smoothly and you carry on riding? No! You've got to control it, you've got to get your balance, so he was trying to keep his balance. What about the face? Clive changed his face to show you the way he was controlling the bike. But who fell? Well I'll leave that to you.

You can see that I've mentioned things in the story and the gestures, like the thumbing and the bike, those sorts of things. Wow! Let me tell you, I'm trying my best to stop, because I want you to enjoy the joke and we're going to show it to you again, but this time we're going to give you a chance to listen, but please don't fall off the chair, be careful!