Report - Part 3

Sunday was met with thunderous rain showers before dawn, I was hoping that this meant that it would clear by late morning after the saying rain before 7, fine before 11; and this proved to be the case.

We chilled out by the main reception, drinking coffee and being sociable, watching the others trying the new bikes out and catching up with old friends. SOH had Ultraseal fitted to his tyres, this is a substance that hopefully will provide some protection in case of punctures; it allows a slow deflation rather than a fast one and mean less worry.

We watched the skills contest in the afternoon, 20 brave souls riding an unfamiliar bike on a testing course on wet grass - but everyone survived and no one was injured - not even the marshalls.

We had planned in the evening to go for a thai meal with some friends, and met up with them at 6pm. Many people were not very happy with the meals at the campsite, preferring to eat in town instead and it seemed that we were not alone in booking into the thai restaurent. There was a choice of dishes in the buffet and it was eat as much as you like for £9.95 a head; very good value for money.

Because I was going to be riding in the morning, I stayed off the alcohol but the rest of the group imbibed a couple of beers each along with the meals and we all tried some of most of the dishes, to see which ones to go back for more of. The honeyed chicken wings really seemed to go down well with most of us though the bones ended up in a bowl by my plate for some reason. Note to self, it is better not to over indulge on rich spicy food :-(

We returned to the campsite to find the raffle being drawn, though sadly SOH and I were not lucky enough to have won anything this time. The disco we passed on as neither of us were interested and it was too loud to talk over it.

Monday morning was dry and packing the tents away was quite sad as it is nice to catch up with friends at these events and we had been blessed with some really nice weather. A slow journey home along the same route saw us arrive in plenty of time to relax before having to prepare for work.

Report - Part 2

Saturday dawned fair and bright and SOH and I had a breakfast of Sausages and Bacon with cereals washed down with a coffee together with some fellow campers.

We met up with Sam Manicom, and I brought a folding wash bowl (very useful) and had a chat; he gave me a copy of Under Asian Skies - Thank you Sam and the inscription reads

To a friend who knows the value of two wheels and an open road

I am saving it as my book to take to France which scarily is just over a week away.

Saturday afternoon we decided to go on the organised walk to Broughton on the Heath, the temperatures were well up at this point in time and we anticipated a gentle stroll to the village followed by a refreshing drink at the local hostelry.


Afterwards we could laugh, but at the time it seems more like a route march and having arrived at the village green we eagerly looked around for a pub but this was a dry village.. so another 2 1/2 miles back to the campsite in the heat before we could assuage our thirst.

As we cooled down post the walk we noticed a lift of gliders in the skies above the campsite, although I have posted the photograph I took here, you won't see all the 16 aircraft until you click on it. lift = collective noun for a number of gliders flying the thermals.

Saturday night found us back in the Wellington, along with both new and old friends, for a steak and pint before we headed back to the campsite and the evening entertainment of the Yetties - who were really very good and had all of us singing along by the end of the night.

Looking Back

Ooops sorry for the late report :-)

We set off on Friday morning, well actually afternoon, to the rally over at Moreton in the Marsh (Glos) a scenic route and only ~65 miles to go. Even so it was eventful, I led the first part of the way as I know over to Aynho and then SOH took over with the GPS leading us through Chipping Norton and inviting back roads to our destination.

Somehow en-route the trailer connection seemed to loosen off and it was dancing around behind SOH like a whirling dervish. We stopped at one point to check the tyre pressures thinking that was the problem but when we reached our destination a friend and fellow K1100LT rider, Tim found out that the nuts had loosened off. Another friend, Graham is going to weld a goose neck onto the trailer to raise it to the height that we need for the tow bar fitting.

The campsite was spread over a wide area, and typically we picked a spot the further from the toilet block. Now riding a bike on grass is harder than on a road as you have to be extremely careful not to hit the brakes as it would duck out from under you, luckily my wits were about me and we safely navigated the length of the field.

We pitched the tents up and booked in for the rally acquiring a yellow plastic bracelet and a pack of a programme as well as some fetching polo-shirts in grey. We were being frugal and didn't want to pay for meals so later on meandered into the village and picked up some supplies to have later on.

A couple of drinks in the local pub, I had Hook Norton a nice hoppy bitter and SOH drank London Pride and we meandered back to the campsite where we had a late night supper and then bed.

Saturday Humour

SOH and I are at the National, but rather than take a blogging holiday I have put some posts together in advance; normal service will resume on our return.. in the meantime.. enjoy

A young man named John received a parrot as a gift.The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird's mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity.

John tried and tried to change the bird's attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to 'clean up' the bird's vocabulary. Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. John shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even ruder. John, in desperation, threw up his hand, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer.

For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed.

Then suddenly there was total quiet. Not a peep was heard for over a minute.

Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door to the freezer.

The parrot calmly stepped out onto John's outstretched arms and said 'I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and
unforgivable behaviour.'

John was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude. As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behaviour, the bird continued, 'May I ask what the turkey did?'

God Bless you and Goodnight

I heard today that Adrian Sudbury has lost his battle to Leukaemia; he was only young (late twenties) and had tirelessly campaigned for more information about bone marrow donors to be given to 6th formers and leaves us with the task of carrying it on in his memory.

To Adrian's family my commiserations, his endless humour and charm made him someone special and he won't be forgotten, nor will his endeavours.

BMW National Rally

Each year, at the August Bank Holiday, the BMW Club for Motorcycles organises a national rally. We all arrive on the Friday night, set up either in tents, caravans or in the accomodation blocks and check in to get our rally shirts, and goodie packs (if we are lucky). We will be camping as it is the cheapest option but also means you get to congregate round a cup of tea in the morning or a bottle of drink in the evening and is usually a source of amusement trying to find the tents when you need to go the toilets in the middle of the night.

Meeting up with other members, both from our Section which is the Midland area, and all the other 12 sections of the club gives us a chance to catch up with all the news of what they have been up to on their bikes from previous years.

There is also a chance to ride new bikes during the weekend brought by a local dealer, me I'm too short to feel safe on anything but my bike so I watch with envy. Though there will be some rideouts to see the local scenery as well with many people opting to go and ride around by themselves rather than in a crowd (That will be me as I don't like riding in big groups).

Saturday night is normally bar night and this year we have the Yetties doing two sets so should be good for a laugh.

Sunday is a skills competition, I have never had the courage to do this on my bike though I do tend to watch those that have the skill to do it, but it is played for laughs though some have a tendency to take it seriously. It involves riding under an arch while popping balloons which filled with water so you can get very wet.

Sunday evening will be the final night of the rally and we have a raffle and any prize giving (best bike, furthest rider etc to be followed by a disco.. hopefully it will allow some of our creaking joints to join in as the BMW club is fondly nicknamed the pipe and slippers club as we are more for comfort than for speed.

Monday we will return home, ready for the week ahead and our next weekend away making it three in a row.

The weekend part drei

We packed up the tents early Sunday morning, the footprint ground sheet I mentioned in my first post about the weekend really was helpful as all the rain on saturday had left the ground sodden in the campsite and the side of the car was splattered with mud on Saturday night when we returned.

Taking down the tent we could drop everything on to the footprint and that kept the marjority of the tent clean of mud. The foot print can be wiped over with a mop and then put away ready for the next time.

After last farewells to family and dropping in on the football tournament run by SOH's friends we headed for the long drive home. Stopping at Sedgemoore services on the M5 for a well earned coffee and bite to eat as we were both starving and the last meal we had was breakfast. We finally arrived home last night just after 7pm and unpacked the car, just to empty it as tonight will be sorting out and doing the washing ready for the week ahead.

Next weekend we go to the BMW National rally in the Cotswolds. We are hoping for good weather as that will be the first outing for the trailer and bikes together.

The Weekend part deux

Saturday saw us drive into Falmouth as we wanted to visit the Cornish store and Trago's (just think wilkinson's if you are from the UK) the weather wasn't very nice, but not heavy rain just a heavy drizzle at times. We stopped for a pasty brunch and coffee but mainly to shelter from the rain.

We got a couple of t-shirts for the french trip, and a mascot for the bikes. Crofty (named after South Crofty Mine which recently re-opened) is a black bear with a cornish flag and a scarf of cornish tartan. I have taken his picture here with the sticker which is going on the trailer and is on the t-shirts. I had seen him in one shop window which was saying he was a limited edition and would cost £25.00.. way too much. Crofty came from the Cornish Store and didn't cost anything like that much.

The afternoon cleared up and we even had some sunshine for the Rugby match Cornish Pirates vs Redruth. SOH was hard put as to who to cheer for as he comes from Redruth but it was a good game, a pre-season friendly which Pirates won 34-8 but it wasn't all going the Pirates way. Some good plays from Redruth given they are two divisions below the pirates.

I forgot to take my camera, so borrowed this image of the game and you can see how many people turned up to support the game. They had over 2000 people there.

Despite the weather turning to drizzle during the game it was good fun and SOH caught up with some old friends.

After the match, we went back to his neice's house for a meal, and I was so hungry I cleared my plate which is always a good sign.

The weekend part uno

The purpose of the weekend was to travel down to Kernow to watch the Cornish Pirates play Redruth on Saturday. We started off at silly o'clock on the Friday morning and was in Redruth to meet SOH's family. We arrived at 10.30am after just over 5 hours driving to find they had gone out to see another member of the family, our fault we did say we would be there for 9.30am so we couldn't complain.

We headed over to the campsite and pitched the tent, though we were early they were obliging in letting us set up early. So we headed to our pitch and got out the tent, putting the additional groundsheet down was a great idea as it proved really helpful later on. Then the outersheet before the inner fly. Blow up the airbed, lay on the sleeping bags, put up the chairs and the table and a cup of coffee later we were enjoying the warm sunshine.

I had, in my usual way, forgotten to bring the bacon and butter so the bacon banjos were missed, but we had a supermarket nearby and soon stocked up after meeting up with the family and giving them some of our homegrown veggies.

We had a late lunch/early dinner of a ham bone with bread and butter, which was lovely and I kept the bone to make some soup stock at home later putting it back in the bag it came in and left it on the floor in the porch area. Shattered we had an early night, I didn't even manage to finish my glass of wine before I curled up for a restful sleep.

We were disturbed a couple of hours later by some significant rustling in the porch area, and despite shining the torch couldn't see what was there. We got up and I moved the bag with the ham bone to find a critter hoping for a free food. Not phased by us humans at all, it took a number of gentle pushes with a trainer to encourage him to leave us and the food alone. We then transferred all the food to the car as it was obvious that the wildlife were used to foraging in the tents for sustenance and we had no intention of encouraging him.

Henry (the hedgehog or hedgepig), as he was nicknamed, came back in the wee small hours of the morning, but other than scuttling through the porch area he was not any trouble and made for a great talking topic.

Two things

Just to keep you interested, while I watch the rugby :-)

Two names I go by: "Hey you" and "me"
Two things you are wearing right now: Pirates Rugby shirt and blue gul surf watch
Two things you would want in a relationship: hugs and love
Two of you favorite things to do: read and surf the internet.
Two things you want badly now: a hot tub, neck massage
Two pets you have had: monkey (fifi - actually she belonged to my brother), dogs (Sam and many more than I can mention)
Two people you hope will fill this out - WOW and Janet
Two things I did last night: ate beans from the garden, played addictive computer game
Two things you ate today: cheese and ham panini, taxi biscuit
Two things you are doing tomorrow: teaching and preparing for the BMW National
Two longest bike/car rides: Detmold to Lake Garda (Italy) with parents, Newton Stewart to Home (bike some 440 miles - we detoured to see Hadrian's wall)
Two favorite holidays: Toronto with some girl friends, any bike trip.
Two favorite beverages: Fruit Tea (Rhubarb and blackberry) and coffee
Two people no longer alive you would like to talk to : My parents come to mind, but I would love to know more about my family history so my great grandfather on both sides.

Who would you invite for Dinner?

If you could have a dinner party and invite anyone living or dead, who would you invite and why?

My list, I restricted it to 6 people plus me and SOH, are :

Tom Reynolds, he sounds fascinating and more than just another blogger he was also the one who inspired me to start.

A Cowboy's wife, it seems to be a hard life, but what tales she might have to tell and I would love to hear about their early years setting up in the homestead.

James Mitchener - novellist of Chesapeake Bay, Texas, Centennial etc... I love his books and would like to know what made him write the way he did.

Randy Pausch, sadly lost his battle against Pancreatic cancer last month, I was fascinated by his 'Last Lecture' and I am going to buy the book but he can hold an audience in his hand so easily.

and lastly my parents, who I lost 16 and 6 years ago this year. I would like to know that they are safe and happy where they are and that they are still loved very much.

So who would be your six? go on, be my guest put this on your blog or comment on this one.. no pressure.

Residing on my Bookshelves

I got told that to get to know someone look on their bookshelves, so here is a glimpse of mine..

I have an eclectic love of books, from the antique to the modern classics most of which are read at least twice if not more often; occasionally I haven't managed to read something the first time around (like A Suitable Boy) but haven't been ready to admit defeat.

So in no particular order:

I have the majority of James Mitchener, the Herrano Legacy, Vatta's War series by Elizsbeth Moon; Most of the Wheel of Time by the Late Robert Jordan and I will never know how he planned to end it but after 14 books he beat me as I could no longer keep up with who was where etc.

I have Robin Hobbs Farseer Trilogy, Alexandre Dumas Musketeers books and the later ones, plus the Man in the Iron Mask; Dickens Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, Dombey and Son; Elizabeth Gaskell; Jane Austen Novels; Kathy Reich Novels a match for the Patricia Cornwall series and to go along with these a book on the real Body Farm and its foundation.

Dick Francis sits alongside Nevil Shute collection (a bargain from a charity shop as we had all the novels in red leather hardback editions for £5) which accompanies my books on archeology and astronomics; also the complete Harry Potter books, of which the 5th book took me just under 3 hours to read the first time.

A full set of the BMW Journals from 1980 sit with Terry Pratchett (not yet a complete collection, but getting close); a miscellany of novels about Arthurian times sits next to similar historically veined books by Anya Seton and close to Novels by Diana Gabaldon, Barbara Erskine.

I have 3 full (groaningly) bookshelves and also books which are on temporary loan (I had to promise that once read they have to move on)

So what does this say about my personality?

The Other half

Sorry were you expecting a picture of SOH? you will be disappointed.. this is Perky's other half Pinky.. so named because the red has faded to a more pink (fuschia) version.

I chose these pictures, that SOH took, because you can see the trailer Hooked up to to the bike.

The trailer is tilted at a higher angle that we would have liked which means getting some welding done to create a step up tow hitch to try and create a more level trailer but it is getting there. Just need to do the wiring up now for the electrics.

That work has to wait until after the weekend as we are off to see a rugby match between the Cornish Pirates and Redruth on Saturday. Although it is a pre-season friendly I expect there will be blood spilt during the process of the game. Pictures and report to follow

I have a favourite book...

No I mean a favourite, all-time book, that fascinates me enough to have read it about once a year (at least) since I first read it in 1971. I can remember finding this gem in King's School library (Gutersloh, Germany) on a dark winters day. I have been a bookaholic as long as I can remember, which I don't intend on changing anytime soon.

I picked it up, tired old rag-eared book, from the shelves - Katherine, Anya Seton - and it caught my imagination right from the word go. It tells the story of Katherine Roet who had a long lived affair with John of Gaunt and bore him a number of children, and it is from these get that ended up on the throne of England.

It wasn't just the topic, to a young teenage girl, that was fascinating. Anya Seton had a way of telling the story in a way that the characters who existed in real life, mingled with some more fictional characters in a blend that captured my attention and I love books that do this artfully. Michener, Rutherford, Follett have the same creative ability; I labelled them as faction (the blend of fact and fiction).

My own paperback copy is battered and falling apart, and I purchased a second-hand hardback edition from ebay to replace it, but I can't bring myself to send it to bookcrossing, bookswap or even to a charity shop because it holds such wonderful memories of my last excursion to the lancastrian history vaults.

My bookshelves groan, but they will have to continue doing so as my old favourite is here until the end.

Max is back home

Max (the motorbike), is home from the garage, after almost two weeks.

Because I wasn't well enough to ride him back, he stayed there to have his mot and a new front tyre and rear brakes done. When we went to pick him up last Monday, I was offered a new top box.

You can't see it very well in the picture, but the top box is a small Givi box, just about big enough for a helmet and gloves, while the side panniers are actually Hepco & Becker junior style. When I brought Max, they actually didn't do hard luggage for him and they fitted the top box with the panache of Heath Robinson.

I had a Kappa (cheap Givi) box given to me by a friend, and this was fitted in March, but SOH had his eyes on it but the soon-to-be French trip meant that I needed to have a larger top box.

So a year later, and hard luggage was available, but rather than a new top box, I stuck with the Givi one.. Max and I spent an entire day at the garage while he was fitted with his new luggage, the autocom system and an annual service for a bit of change under a £1000 (expensive hobby this let me tell you).

So 4 years later, and the garage in which he is now being serviced had a H&B top box, with a rack fitting for sale for the sum of £50 (I beat them down from the asking price of £70) and Max stayed another week to let Ian configure the base plate and wiring for the new top box etc.

He came home this morning, I dropped off SOH at the workshop, and he is now home and being washed and polished (thank you SOH - love you xx xx).

SOH has got the Kappa top box for his bike which has kept him happy, and I now have a small Givi box for sale, together with the base plate if anyone wants to make an offer, let me know.

Just finished reading

Katherine Howard by Joanne Denny.. this was about the 5th wife of Henry VIII and one of my favourite periods of history. This wasn't a novel, but gave you more of the detail behind how Katherine was influenced by her upbringing and sacrificed by her family to gain more honours following the loss of fortunes when her Cousin Anne Boleyn was beheaded for adultery some 6 years previous.

Now while Joanne doesn't disguise the fact that Katherine was guilty of adultery (unlike her cousin), she does investigate the upbringing and that there were no suitable female role models for her to shadow. Her placement with a distant relative was more as a favour than intentionally looking after a young female relative and it was left to her household to influence the 7 year old Katherine; was it any wonder when male visitors were permitted access to the womens's quarters than she knew no better than to join in.

I have always wanted to know why at such an early age (15) she was wedded to King Henry, and this book gave me a better understanding of the men of the family using women/girls as chattels to be brought and sold on marriage markets or sent to convents if they were disobedient.

Katherine had no options of whether or not she married the King, but it was doomed to fail from the outset.

An interesting read if you haven't come across this book before, and unlike her previous book on Anne Boleyn, Joanne Denny does write elegantly about this historic figure.

ps - reading this was instead of the 'A suitable boy' which is as gripping to read as watching paint dry in my eyes... so I picked up this instead.

Plentiful Produce = grateful thanks

Thanks to Leanne over at Somerset Seasons; I have a freezer full of plentiful produce.

I had to go into the local market town this morning, as I needed to get to a post office for a passport application form for SOH. Walking through the town market I noticed they were doing bowls of bell peppers for £1.00 and each bowl had about 8 peppers in it. Having seen Leanne's blog and taking her advice I purchased a bowl and spent a happy afternoon, cutting them up into small pieces and putting them in a bag.

Now when I want to have some for a recipe, I can take out a bag (containing the contents of one pepper) and use it. Cheaper than buying it from the supermarkets.

Love the ideas that I get from reading all these blogs, many of which I can put into practice in my own life.

Thanks

Introducing Perky

The trailer that we picked up on our day trip to Harrogate, which saw us take in the famous Tea rooms, has been brushed up, repainted and generally mostly restored. We only have to paint the internal part and we haven't yet had chance to find some gold paint.

It is only a small trailer, well you don't want to take too much with you when you are camping using a motorbike, but will enable us to use the new tent, and have a table to eat at.. still trying to track down a pair of chairs that are both comfortable and fit in the trailer; but you do need to have room to bring those essential things home you buy on holiday (or take for that matter)

SOH has now fitted the towbar to his bike, he just needs to wire it up for the electrics and we are still waiting for a book to arrive from Amazon with the required wiring information in.

Hopefully I will get a picture of the bike and trailer attached so you can see the two together as it is hard to tell from this picture, what the size of it is.

Hmmm.. to grow garlic

Out of the 7 plants we purchased (half price in March from a garden centre) we got a little stash of bulbs..

Lessons learnt, garlic seems to like it quite dry, so the bulbs planted in a container, which is roughly 12 inches in Diameter, and 12 inches in height (filled with gravel at the bottom and then a layer of compost) did better than those planted in the ground which was probably too wet for them.

Now according to here and advise from Elaine's TBSITW (thank you very much was very helpful), we harvested the garlic way too late as TBSITW states harvest by the longest day (umm we were about a month late) and set them by the shortest day. Our excuse is we had no idea of what we were doing when we purchased them just it was on sale at 75p each for two pots of 3 plants in each pot and seemed like a good idea at the time. Perhaps we should have asked for advice earlier, still not all was lost and we are better prepared for next year.

So the conclusion is that garlic does grow well in a container, wants watering but not too much (or too little) and you should end up with some homegrown garlic to use in the kitchen by the end of it for very little effort really.

We received an Invitation

Yesterday I got an email from a published author (and I hesitate to say friend as that would be presumptious of me) who has invited us down to a launch of his new Book.

Sam Manicom's first book, Under African Skies was a story of his travels with a bmw motorbike in Africa. Full of humour and sketches as well as photographs it makes you laugh, cry and wish you were in his shoes all at the same time.

He wrote a follow up book Under Asian Skies, which had I had the money to spend on it I would have brought it when I saw him again at the BMF show, but the good lad he is he will be attending the BMW National Rally later this month and has promised he will bring me a copy to buy.

We had a long chat with him at the BMF show, asking what he is going to do next, and he said he had a book in the pipeline which is where the invitation comes in. He is doing a book launch for Distant Suns at the Ace Cafe on 1st November 2008 and wehave got a personal invitation to go to it.

Hopefully SOH won't be working as Sam no doubt will present some of the background to the book and he is a cracking good after dinner speaker and a very unassuming person whom you can't fail to warm to.

I will re-read Under African Skies and post a review on here for those that are interested and would like to read an excerpt you can follow the link in this post (at the top) to Sam's Website and he has reviews and excerpts on each of the books.

Garden News 2

This is the garlic when transplanted back in May to a container, we grew half the plants in a pot and half in the ground.

The results were that they did better in the container, probably because they were drier than those in the ground. We are looking forward to trying these out in the culinary sense as I haven't tried growing garlic before.

This is the pepper plant together with the fruit on the plant later on, it is a D'Asti Giallo Yellow pepper plant and has a few more flowers and fruits growing on it.

Garden News 1

The garden has been blooming marvelous... the sunflowers are out (which is more than can be said for the Sun today, but nevermind).

This was the first of the five that appeared from seeds and it has been fascinating watching the heads follow the sun, now it is in flower the head stay facing East and the buds on the neck try their best to catch some rays.

We have been living on the largesse of the produce, namely beans and carrots with the odd courgette thrown in for good measure, this was one evening's work and it tasted lovely with some nice lamb chops and new potatoes.

We harvested the onions and garlic over the weekend and they are drying off nicely in the tunnel before being used in the kitchen. Thanks to Elaine's TBSITW as we had no idea that the garlic was ready as nothing really seemed to happen above ground. Silly us, apparently the garlic grows underground.. still we will know better for next year and I would like to grow some Elephant garlic as it sounds nice and can be used in many more culinary delights.

Next year, we plan to do some of the same things, and try some new things, namely potatoes and more peppers (trying to persuade SOH that pepper does not always mean hot). I would like to have some peas, though I usually eat them raw as they taste that much nicer than when cooked.

On the flower front : The fuschia's and sweet peas have done well, and as I type I can smell the ones I brought into the office, sadly they don't last very long, but while they do they scent the office nicely. The fuschia's are not really an indoor plant, but they look stunning in the garden and we have a happy variety of bees and butterflies rummaging around in the buddlea(sp?), the lavender and other plants.

We are hoping to take some of the goodies down for the SOH's parents/family when we visit them soon, and bring some Cornish ware back with us... it will also be the first official outing for the new tent; which is a whole other story.

Out of the Wilderness

Sorry to any visitor's to my blog, life caught me on the hop recently.. for reasons I would rather not go into and I had to have some downtime. Not to mention that the painkillers were so strong that one of them knocked me out for hours at a time; not a bad thing as the pain was worse than the drugs.

But no longer... I'm back and waiting to write on so many things.. the garden, which is producing all sorts of goodies for us to eat namely beans, carrots, onions and garlic not to mention tomatoes are ripening nicely and I have some peppers on the pepper plant.

The trailer has been painted, and decorated with all sorts of reflective tape (all the better to see us with) and the towing bar has been fitted to the bike. We just need to repaint the inside of the trailer (which at the moment is blood red) for a new gold colour to match the cornish pirates scheme and the trailer has a name.. notably Perky (which is why the GPS unit is now going to be called Porky)..

Pictures to be here soon.

3rd August

Today was the anniversary of two things:

16 years ago I had to say goodbye to my Mum. She was only 61 and right up until her death was full of energy and life; she died because one of her heart valves failed as a result of rheumatic heart disease as a kid. Dad and I missed her very much, it was a shock then but we both felt blessed because she didn't suffer.

18 Years ago Sam and Tegwyn were born, we became their family about 8 weeks afterwards and though neither of them are still alive, today would have been their birthday. We only found this out when we were tidying up paperwork after Mum's death and it seemed appropriate that she slipped out of this earth on the anniversary of their entry. Particularly as Teg slipped away on the anniversary of Mum's birthday - 9th July.

Announcing : The Tent

Well the new tent arrived, did I say it was a nice grey/lilac combination? well this is her..

Actually it's tent no 2, but that's a whole 'nother story.. namely the first one appeared to have bloodstains on the inner sleeping compartment. The company quickly sent us another tent and DVD.

The first DVD was broken, so we used trial and error to help us set up, but the second DVD proved we did it mostly correct. Just didn't get the internal porch support pole through the rings but all sorted now.

She is quite big, taking up the majority of the lawn (excluding the water feature) and not all the guy ropes were put in place only just to establish that we knew how to put it up in case the next time it was raining.

The bedroom comes with a dividing sheet, as it is a 5 person tent, but me and SOH + all biker gear are as good as 4 people so we are having it all to ourselves. First outing will be to Cornwall to see SOH's family and then the National Rally in the Cotswolds will be our next venture. Hopefully next year it will see more outings.