Steve_M

Now you tell us. We’d have bought that when we lived in Norwich.

Look what’s turned up. I just need to tax it and carry out POWDERS checks before exploring some of the local roads on it. It’s a bit different to the GS. Speaking of the GS. Do I have to acknowledge other riders now?

Hopefully meeting and riding with some former colleagues who are doing the RBLR Iron Butt. I haven’t met them since I “retired” nigh on ten years ago but we’ve kept in touch. Should be fun.

Late night or early start? Good morning.

I’ve mentioned before that we’re renovating our property. We have so much to do, and doing 90% of it ourselves (plus the garden which is quite a challenge) something had to give.

I’ve fitted three kitchens myself, plus a couple of utility rooms, and several bathrooms. This, though, is a big job, and would take me substantially longer to do. On the bright side, the guy is a local sole trader with a reputation to maintain, I’m on site and will be monitoring both progress and quality. The bit to cringe about is how much it’s costing

3 weeks is good going. We’ve planned for a month, though the installer has mentioned that he’s been having issues getting some of the white goods, particularly ovens. We’ve specified a Neff oven and, yes, that’s the make he’s having trouble getting.

Ours was a high quality but poorly designed kitchen that was all a bit knackered. We’ve redesigned it to work for our needs and are paying someone vast sums of money to make it happen quicker than we could do it ourselves. We have relocated kitchen activities to the utility room which we’ve kitted out with an air fryer and microwave. I’ll be cleaning up the BBQ and for days when we want something burnt..l

We had a kitchen this morning. It’s been dismantled and put in a skip. Not looking forward to a month without a proper kitchen (microwave and air fryer cooked meals for the intervening period).

After my divorce I started looking for a car for myself. I spotted our old 1.6l Peugeot 205GTi in a garage. At a decent price. Knowing it’s history I was tempted so went and had a look. The interior had been changed to a scruffy 1.9l interior (the interior was immaculate when we sold it two years previously) and numerous little dents and poorly painted scratches had appeared. Then I spotted the mileage. It must have been reversed quite a lot as the mileage was about a thousand less than we sold it.

It was for the best. The new owner has the time and skills to fettle it and get it back on the road. I have neither. Slightly sad to see it go given how much I’ve enjoyed owning it. I was actually more sad when I sold my ST1100 ‘cos on that occasion the guy actually rode it away from the house. At least this time it went on a trailer.

The buyer for my VFR collected it today. A sad moment. Having bought it in 2002 it’s been used to tour (photo in the Pyrenees), commute, skills training and track days. On the other hand, the new owner will refresh it and get it back on the road, which is pleasing.

Exciting weekend in store? Not here. Emptying the kitchen and relocating the contents ready for the people to arrive on Monday to demolish / dismantle in prep for a new kitchen being fitted. Here starts 4 to 5 weeks of having minimal cooking facilities, dust, noise, etc.

Good morning. Freshly picked strawberries for breakfast.

We had a circuit fuse due to water in one of the sockets (long story involving stone walls not allowed to breath, leaking guttering and heavy rain) and we’re quite surprised to discover sockets in various parts of the house not working as a result.

If roughing it means using the spa, swimming pool, sauna, hot tub. Yes. We can’t afford to stay in the hotel, though. That’s way out of our budget, especially as we have family with us. We’re in the timeshare we have* on the site. *inherited - we get to use it once every 5yrs.

Good evening. We’re on holiday in the Lakes. Just popped to the on site swimming pool and as we came out I spotted a couple of McLarens in the car park. A quick nose around and I counted nine in total (I assume the drivers are staying in the hotel).

If you’re absolutely confident that you have the knowledge and experience to deal with a claim in full, keeping appropriate records and being sure the other insurer will update the MID correctly then, sure, don’t go through your insurers. Personally I would always go through my insurers but as someone who worked for Aviva (and worked with the Claims / Complaints / Fraud and Liability areas at one time or another) I bow to their greater experience.

A guy I knew (RIP) rode an unmarked bike in Norfolk in the 1990’s. He occasionally turned up at meets with it. He thought it funny to switch on the blues for fun when following you while “making progress”

Good evening. A fine day spent wandering around Langdale (Great and Little). We had an interesting little diversion to the Little Langdale quarry. What a place. Suffice to say we had a fine time exploring this disused quarry, and the huge cathedral sized cave . Well worth a quick explore (you can ride right by it on trail bikes, or mountain bikes).

Heading to the Lake District for a couple of weeks walking the fells, and some family time.

Ah, girls from Coventry. Oh happy days… Sorry, I got a bit carried away there. Congratulations.

I was tempted by the Crossdresser, sorry, Crosstourer but the bikes on two test rides I’ve had - one manual, one DCT - both had fuelling issues. Really quite disappointing.

I work on the basis that I don’t care what it looks like. It rides well and I can’t see it when I’m riding.

Bad news. I pulled up in Middleton-in-Teesdale the other day and I’d hardly got my lid off before an old chap (and given my advanced years, that’s saying something) asked me if it was shaft drive, and did I know what the first shaft driven bike was. Clue. It isn’t my guess at Ariel Square four. I didn’t want a GS. I tried a host of other bikes when trying to find a replacement for my FJR1300. I tried the RS… lovely bike but the riding position wouldn’t have suited me for long distance rides. Then the bar steward salesman said “try the GS”. What a git. Why would anyone do that to another human being? I bought one from a different dealer just to get revenge. Ha!