curlylegend

Round here, in the sticks in West France, nobody turns a hair if someone brings a well behaved dog into most restaurants. I couldn't say what happens in the snooty Michelin starred ones, because they're a bit thin on the ground here and they probably wouldn't let me in, let alone a dog.

Well I always travel solo so a set of Bluetooth helmet speakers does me fine. I listen to music mostly but it can allow my Garmin satnav to shout at me or pester me with phone calls. I can assure you there are no phone calls ! Bloody last thing I'd want.

So that was yours that turned up in our garden after a stormy night. Jings, Yorkshire to West of France , must be a record. If you'd put your name and address on it, like you do with your underwear, I'd have waited for a good southerly wind and sent it back to you.

Any supermarket in Carlisle, it'll be cheaper there.

I think it's just another silly fashion. Doesn't matter how stupid it is, as long as it's in fashion. Look at the number of people walking about with chunks of metal embedded in their faces. And don't start me about the Illustrated Men and Women prowling about Glasgow in the middle of a Scotch winter dressed like they're in Majorca for the summer, just to show off acres of tattooed flesh !

That odd wee Swedish lassie that's always on about Save the Moon or something. You must admit she does look like a bloody goblin !

Greta the Goblin must really love you !

Me neither. You never know how long that foods been lying out there with god knows how many people coughing and spluttering over it.

Have you watched that German lad on a Zero thing going round the world ? His channels called Marc Travels. He's be doing it for over a year now, sett off from Germany last year and he's now in India. I honestly didn't think he's have got that far but he seems to get by. I, personally wouldn't have one of these things, and I certainly wouldn't be going to the places he goes to. But it's interesting, horrifying sometimes but interesting.

But you've never needed a licence to have kids. And they can be a lot more dangerous....

Certainly no beating about the bush there !

Maybe they are ?

Do as your wife tells you, you know it makes sense. My wife told me that. If your test is thorough enough and nothing turns up you'll feel great ! And if something does, is it not better to attend to it and nip it in the bud ? Just don't forget your common sense .

Firstly, I've no medical qualifications whatsoever apart from a First Aid Badge from the Boys Brigade in 1960. So anything I say will be purely personal. Do remember though that the medical trade move very slowly, it was only a few generations ago that they would still bleed you to relieve a headache. And sadly in the last fifty years Drug companies have had a very powerful influence on general medicine. And they don't always get it right, remember Thalidomide ? I know, I know, but this isn't a Big Pharma Conspiracy rant. So, Cholesterol. Have a read up about what people say regarding Ancel Keys and it might allay your anxiety about High Cholesterol. You don't smoke, that's good, you don't appear to drink much, but no alcohol would be better. When you say you lost 3/4 kilos do you mean 3 to 4 kilos or three quarters of a kilo? My weight is stable within a 2 kilo band . What age do you have and how is your blood pressure and average blood glucose level ? The big propaganda battle at the moment is between the Seventh Day Adventists pushing Veganism and the American Cattlemens' Association wanting us all to eat hormone enhanced beef. Why not eat as our ancestors did ? Australian Aboriginal people didn't know what diabetes, heart disease cancers, and obesity were until they gave up their normal diet and started eating a standard western diet. Artic people like the Inuit lived healthily for many years without ever even seeing a piece of fruit or a vegetable. Check out Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879 – 1962). When I was nearly seventy I got a similar result from my doctor and was encouraged to take statins etc for the rest of my life. I'm 175cm. 5'9 , and at the time weighed 110 kilos. Since my thirties I'd struggled with my weight. Weight Watchers Scarsdale Diet vegetarianism, I was even vegan for a couple of years ! And I was active, I regularly cycled 200km a week and more in the summer. The only result I really got was the Atkins Diet when I lost quite a lot of weight without feeling hungry but I was pressured into giving it up because of all the scare stories. I now realise they were all nonsense . And later I started to carefully examine what I was actually eating and what effect it was having on me. My research really opened my eyes and the way I eat now caused me to drop from 110 kilos to 85 kilos. My blood glucose is now normal, I was pre-diabetique and my blood pressure is pretty stable at 105/70. So that's what happened to me, but I'm not you. All I suggest is go and do some serious research into what you're eating and reserve a bit of scepticism for what doctors tell you. And never, ever believe an advert for HEALTHY food. Remember Edwina Currie ? Best of luck.

Good choice.

Ravi Shankar's lassie !

It doesn't normally sit there, it was only there because I'm shuffling stuff about at the moment to get a suitable point for M.Orange to supply me with a Fibre Internet port. The wee Douk is a real bargain. That's in the kitchen driving the DML's, because for one reason or another it's where I listen to most of my music. The salon, where the Rodgers and Jamos are, is a Hi Fi nightmare because of the size and shape. I really just sit in there to watch TV now and I'm actually using a pair of quite good Bluetooth headphones for the audio. The kitchen isn't a problem due to the shape and where I sit. With the DML's you could close your eyes and you could believe the musicians were in the room.

A souwester .

Well done Sir, that's the kind of thing that makes my heart soar like a hawk !

Why ?

Same here, lasted about a week and took about a month to very slowly go away. But the last couple of days it looks like it wants another go. I think I'd rather have the Black Death, you only get that once !

A pal of mine turned up for his test on a BSA C15, heavily modified as we'd say nowadays. A hint of alloy mudguards, clip-ons a miniature hand painted rear numberplate and a silencer that was obviously missing it's baffles. He was decked out in a Lewis Leathers Highway Patrol leather jacket covered in studs and badges a pair of winklepicker shoes and of course no helmet. I was there for moral support and remember well the look of disgust on the examiners face when he looked at my pal and his motorcycle. There were a few questions, the eyesight test and then the examiner asked him to start his machine. To some of my friends at the time, the epitome of cool was to be able to do a stylish bump start. Hence no kick start. My pal lit a cigarette, clamped it in his teeth and grabbing the clip-ons launched himself up the road to leapt side saddle onto the bike and drop the clutch. He cracked open the throttle and shot up the road to do a perfect foot peg scraping u-turn. He roared back to the examiner pulled up and said " Right pal, whit's next ?" The examiner replied " The next thing you can do son, is go home and re-apply ! You've failed on at least four counts within the last two minutes and I can't be bothered filling in any more. There's your fail ticket. " He did eventually become a highly qualified IAM instructor... but that's another story.

I understand that. It's the main reason I don't have a dog, although I would love one !

I agree wholeheartedly !

Passed mine, or rather was given a full licence, in November 1976 in Glasgow. My appointment was in the Shawlands Test Centre at 13.30 . It had been snowing that morning and beginning to lie. When I slithered along to the test centre the roads were pretty diabolical. I went inside expecting the test to be cancelled. The examiner who was crouched over an electric fire and really looked like he didn't want to be there gave me the choice. Did I want to cancel and rebook or just have a go at it, despite the weather. I was keen to get it over with so nothing ventured nothing gained. He asked me a few Highway code questions and then told me to just ride round the block a few times and he would step out at some point to test my braking skills. Well after six or seven circuits of the block with my heart in my bloody mouth I eventually parked up and went back inside. The examiner told me he'd looked outside and decided an emergency stop wouldn't be fair under the circumstances. He asked me if I'd fallen off. When I told him I hadn't, he reckoned that I'd demonstrated that I was capable of riding a motorcycle and handed me a Pass Certificate. Certificate stashed in an inner pocket, in high spirits I set off for home. And immediately slid of on the next bend.... and the next !