S-Westerly

Moi?! Cynical and sarcastic? I am deeply hurt. And BTW did you know that Danish Butter cookies are for some obscure reason the standard biscuit provided to ships? Unfortunately these days they are often Danish Butter "style" and are neither Danish or butter. Truly horrible.

Chocolate Hobnobs. Anything else is just dross.

You were robbed. I paid 1.84 for petrol in Heathrow area. Our local cheapest is 1.82 at Tesco. Even the Shell and BP garages are only 1.84.

Yesterday, fortunately not as hot, I got caught up in the Green idiots blockade of the M25. Being on a bike I could pick my way through the stationary traffic and get off the motorway. On it was like being barbecued and could easily have been life threatening for people travelling in vehicles with no aircon and small children or pets. All the smaller roads and towns / villages were also totally jammed up to the extent that even on a bike it took 2 hours to get from Staines to Maidenhead. The utter irresponsibility of these f**k wits is mind boggling. They are so sanctimonious and fundamentally stupid. Fortunately for them I'm not the man in charge as sniping them off the overheads is not considered appropriate.

Picked it up from my son in law, took it for MOT at MD Racing at Walton on Thames , passed with one advisory I already knew about. Then rode it to Cheltenham to book it in for its desmo service. Got caught up in a road closing incident on the M25 which gave me an average speed over 100 miles of 29 mph. The shame of it.

Why not buy a French registered bike as if you keep a British reg one in France you'll soon be in a welter of red tape woes. Probably cheaper too.

Calais to Epinal on day 1. Epinal to Ulm on day 2 and Munich on day 3. Spend a week giving moral support to my brother and drinking beer. Then home probably by way of the Ardennes spending my last night in Namur.

Well I'm currently drinking a strong hot coffee and thoroughly enjoying it. I also don't find it that hot as I spend a lot of my working life in temperatures well over 40. That said I sleep in air conditioning with a temperature of 22.

I've got an after market exhaust which is maybe 1 Decibel louder than original, is fully homolgated and is completely legal. However it does sound different not louder but richer somehow.

Forme it depends on howmuch winter riding I do as if I ride in the winter it seems to get scratched more.

We seem to suffer with media inspired weather panic in this country. Right now it's heat but I'm pretty sure in the last 12 months we've had cold, wind, snow, rain and fog. In other words weather.

Thanks. Was thinking of heading for Colmar on day 1 and as the roads across northern France aren't generally interesting the autoroutes may well get used for part of the journey. My crossing to France gets me there at 0830 so I've the full day to use. On the way back was thinking of the Ardennes as I've only skirted them before and I know they are interesting. Half the fun is planning a route.

Given the number of bikes sold in tropical countries where this kind of temperature is pretty normal I'd say no.

Fleetwood and a good day is a difficult concept to reconcile.

It's a 1000 km give or take so roughly 500 km a day so not too bad. Working on an equivalent to A roads route. Going on the bike too.

Turns out I'll be doing an unexpected road trip from the UK to Munich in mid August. Got my reservations on the Channel Tunnel but now deciding how I'll do it. Want to avoid autoroutes/ autobahns but I haven't got that long. Crossing early morning on the 12th and need to be in Munich on the 14th. So basically 2 stops on the way and similarly on the way back. Hopefully will be fun though.

Mars bars.

It's quite shocking how much British infrastructure is owned by foreign entities- a goodly percentage of our water companies as well as energy and I believe train companies too.

There's quite a lot of mess to clean up, but with inflation and energy prices pretty well outside any governments control I'm not seeing any politician in any flavour you like actually coming up with solutions to the problems we have. Let alone the uniquely British issues which a brave enough government could address if they moved beyond polls and Twitter but which they won't. Maybe I'll emigrate to the Falklands or perhaps South Georgia.

I just got a letter from County Court for a claim dating back to 2016 when I was involved in an incident on a very icy road where 4 cars were involved in a shunt. I was no. 3 of 4 and ran into back of car in front before being rear ended by one behind. Car 2 is trying to claim 7k off me for which he can piss up a rope. I was in a hired car and the 3rd party insurance from the hire company should have settled this ages ago. Waiting to see what happens and then will be taking legal advice and claiming costs if necessary. But generally if you run into the back of another vehicle regardless of circumstances you are at fault.

And I'll be flying!

Knew there was a reason I didn't like Eccles cakes.

I love em!!!

When I came back to biking after years away I swore I'd have nothing to do with filtering. This lasted until I met my first tail back and after inching along for about 10 minutes watched a couple of bikes nip through the gaps. I followed and have filtered ever since when it's safe to do so.

I'll be on the daily Emirates into London on Saturday. A380 too.