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I thought someone said Pete lived 150 miles away? I’m now confused. I couldn’t decipher this angry sign in front of the mushrooms. The f’in smart phone with its Google translate camera app sorted it out for me in no time. @XTreme when did you visit this supermarket ??

My first proper boss was from Aberfan. She was friggin scary, completely bald, hunch backed, spindly with eyes like fire, intolerant of stupidity and sharp as a knife. For some reason I still can’t grasp we got on well and in one of her softer moments she told me about the tip sliding into the school. It’s still gives me goosebumps now. Her father had to go to London for work for a year and took his family with him so she survived because she wasn’t there when it happened but all her classmates were dead. They went back and she said the place never recovered. A black cloud hung over everything everyday. She was racked with guilt she survived, she’d bump into the parents of her friends who had all been killed and find it unbearable. It’s a historically shameful time. But as a result she turned into one of the most fearsome, unbeatable, powerhouses the NHS will ever see. So I suppose in a roundabout way she balanced out all that bad quite literally single handedly

White tailed Sea Eagle in Lofoten, Norway.

Where? If it's Swansea say goodbye to the van and bike!

To a local car park for a ride report with a pic

Would he like to hold my targets for me when i sight in my scopes?

wont have time for that shit ... be riding me bike, unless weather is shit.

Action

It’s a shame the fucker never drank it.

Semi-quiet weekend. Test rode this: would say about 10x more comfortable than my R18, as would be expected. Wonder if this model should have come out first?

When our kids were little, we had a huge 3 bedroom frame tent, had some good hols in that, but then we had a holiday in a B&B and tenting did not seem so much fun after that.

My first couple of days were great, but the third day was dire. I tried to do some sightseeing, but the rain was coming down horizontally. In the end I wimped out and found a guest house in Barmouth for a couple of nights so I could dry my gear out. After that it turned nice again, so I headed down to Tenby and stayed in a pub there for a couple of nights and then headed home.

I did a tour round Wales a few years back on my Speedy and stayed a night in a camping field belonging to a pub in the Snowdonia Park. Food and beer were pretty good in the pub and the campsite was alright too. Great place if you get the weather.

Was only thinking of your welfare......cos when we go away the weather usually turns to crap.

Snowdonia , wouldn't go down that shit hole part of Wales , i do have some standards.

Palenque, Mexico

Try XVideo instead. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01529-3

The pain in Spain falls mainly on the insane.. though being forgetful can have the same effect.

I really think the EU should have more draconian standards for non EU citiZens, because well, you know because we can.

That’s nothing … have a look at bender boys Glide fairing … it’s the size of a small country .

I managed to remove the Martini racing stickers today, even with my daughter hairdryer warming the adhesive up they kept flaking into small pieces, but managed to do it without marking the paintwork.

I love camping, but if the weather is bad on the bike it soon becomes miserable. I've grown soft in my old age!

A bit like saying Syphilis is more pleasant than Gonorrhea.?

Recognising it’s pissing down and won’t be fun in wet gear is not wimping, out it’s acknowledging reality

It's more pleasant than Rhyl......but that's not saying much!

We had a very nice few days in Tenby (years ago) and Saundersfoot, had a few days in Porthmadog, but the weather was very grim there, spent most of the time indoors. So hoping Prestatyn is not too bad, if it,s not up to spec it will be back to the east coast next year.

Fingers crossed for next week..........unless @Tym sends one of his used storms our way.

Their still about i was riding across two of them last Friday, only difference now is the trees have taken hold on a lot of them so their not so open and don't look so ugly

Can’t get into Facebook. Get locked out with password reset bollo everytime. I don’t think people understand that Ive genuinely gone the extra mile to wish them happy birthday on that vain shallow shitshow

You don't have a fucking clue do you? Portmeirion is only 20 miles from Snowdonia National Park on main roads.....and none of it is falling down you stupid cunt!

‘Slag heap” that’s a real thing is it? Occasionally my dear ol’ pops would refer to a woman as a slag heap

Make sure you visit Portmeirion!

TOTY right there , game over

Put him on a bike too.

Hope he ain't there the 2nd week in October.

This is true, I haven't been out on the bike at all in 6 months, needs an mot and insurance but I don't have the money just yet

You im not sure, one second you know everything the next, oh look at this, good old Buddy is attit again... https://buddycarter.house.gov/news/email/show.aspx?ID=U5HPQ7LZCUCMJXO6YADRU4BVPQ You guys should realize watching porn hub isnt watching a relibale news source, change the channel once and awhile.

Yes, he bought loads of shares in bleach just before it kicked off................

James wasn't there, he was at the magazine at that time though I took James out for Supermoto magazine when he got hold of a BMW Megamoto before they were launched, took them up over the blacks, around Llyn Brianne, Devils staircase, up to Elan Valley, then back down via Devil's Bridge, Tregaron and the Sennybridge ranges, 180 miles of supermoto terrain

I used to be a lab technician in a cigar factory in Bristol. When Imperial tobacco decided to close our plant and move production to Spain we had some our equivalent workers from the Spanish factory come over to learn our tests and tecniques for quality control in the lab. They threw their arms up in the air with shock when they asked how many different tests we did (200) as they did just 10

Rains fine as long as it never touches my motorcycle im fine with wet.

You sound like me in 2005!

We all have different ways of planning a trip like this, My way is to treat it as "MY Holiday" and I invite people to come along.. on the understanding that they get what they're given and if plans have to change.. then they have to accept that. For instance a few years ago we were all set to go to Austria. HOWEVER the weather was terrible.. rain from Belgium all the way to Munich and so literally last minute I told them that I wasn't prepared to have 3 days of solid rain and so we went to the Vercors in the south of France instead.. which was hot and dry and totally gorgeous. Nobody was disappointed. Though we missed the high passes, The Vercors and Ardeche were great as a second choice. The high point being the Combe Laval balcony road.

Hopefully yes. There has been much talk for the past few years of the Dolomites. (mostly because I tend to wax lyrical about that region - I've been 3 times) via the Black Forest and Austria. over a fortnight. A big effort to start.. get down to Austria in 2 days and then spend the next 12 as a slow return, staying in various places for a few days. 3/4 days in the Dolomites. few days in Austria and then on to the Black Forest before returning to the Uk from calais using the tunnel. Go to 3 places. Dolomites. Austria and the Black Forest. All very German.. even the Dolomites, though in Italy has a very German ambience.. all the signs are bilingual. See how the weather is 'on the day' and possibly reverse the itinerary if need be. This is normal for us as we chase the sun, If the weather at the start of our week is glorious in the BF then we will start the trip there.. or if not, head for Austria. If Austria is dodgy, we will race through and over into Italy. Obviously, once we get to Austria then everything else is practically on the doorstep. If the worst happens and the Dolomites has rain, then we could easily go further east and into Slovenia. Take it day by day and see how it pans out... as always, following the sun. Obviously camping gives us this freedom without the stress of finding rooms for a group of (max) 8. I tend to look for campsites with decent supermarkets close by, for beers and eats. helps with the overall budget, That was why I chose Killarney as a base as there was a lidl just a mile from the campsite. as well as a pub just up the road. Jack, who came with us to Ireland came with me to the Dolomites 6 years ago and is very keen on going back. Here he is gesturing down the road to Cortina d'Ampezzo. "its all thattaway".

I did almost 1500 miles over the week. I'm glad we went, but its not something I would choose to repeat, by which I mean it wouldn't be a normal option for our yearly getaway. Mainly due to the highly unpredictable weather. Also, its not the best place to go if you want to avoid tourists. One example, The Gap of Dunloe was a nightmare due to the sheer number of tourists there.. several horse drawn traps, which were as wide as the road, though we were lucky to be able to squeeze past them at passing places. People on foot, on bicycles (mostly hire bikes) and those who had driven there and all this on a normal working weekday, a Tuesday. It must be 100 times worse during the holiday season. Its a fantastic road, but one to be done in the evening and hope for the best. We had a much better time of it elsewhere, The Dingle peninsula was great so was the ring of Kerry and the ring of Beara, but, its not where you want to be in bad weather, also.. to fully appreciate it you really do need an adventure style bike as a lot of the very minor roads were pretty bad, and going off the main roads is really a must for this region, otherwise you miss so much. For me it was a cheap holiday though, After all the initial expenses were paid, the ferry. I took €550 and came back with €180. Camping was cheap, so was shopping at lidl. eating out wasn't horrendous except in central and extremely touristy Killarney. A lot of the larger fuel stations did some quite excellent food.. not the sort of stuff you would normally expect either. They reminded me a lot of Tebay services. local produce really to the fore. When we were at Kilkenny, we had a walk to the nearest bar, very much a local pub. we had 2 pints each, 4 pints of Bitter and 2 pints of Guiness in total and the bill was €26. After that a visit to the chippy over the road and then came the most pleasant surprise. Fish and chips and not by any means a small portion. €4.90 and very nice too. A few other things that struck me. Car drivers were very very considerate and 9/10 would move over.. or even pull over to let us pass. people waved at us all the time, on foot, on bicycles in cars.. didn't matter. 'Friendly' doesn't do it justice. We saw a lot of speed camera signs.. but never once an actual camera. My guess is there aren't any.. the signs were more about being a deterrent or to warn of the occasional mobile Gardai with a radar setup. (possibly) I loved the signs.. like on the tarmac. "Lane in Stay" and "Yield" rather than give way. Speed limits were very much in line with here.. 60-75 out of town. rarely 50 due to bendy roads. other signs were rather more 'inventive' than the boring ones we have here.. with a sense of humour to them. I lost count how many times I was asked what part of the UK I was from. There were a lot of brits there on holiday. a lot, probably for exactly the same reason we were.. as its so easy. no fuss, no testing. nothing, They do take Covid very seriously though.. much more so than here as it is now.

Well then, tell your wife Well Done! I appreciate it when someone goes above and beyond for a nice photo!

Had a grey day ride yesterday on my Honda, Charlotte. Almost made it home before the rain started, but not quite. The bike handles great in the rain! I love the Michelin Road 5 tires too!

Yep all good TLDR It was a bit stressful but turned out dandy in the end. Yesterday was a bloody long day though. Up a 3am finished signing the contract etc at 9.15pm as the landlord didn’t finish work some way away in Madrid until 5. Came painfully close to missing our flight as the passenger locator form that aeromedical consulting supply isn’t correct for what’s needed to board so a very lengthy online form (that kept glitching and making you start again) had to be filled in and varified before they send you the QR code you have to have other end. I got stuck in security as I’d put a sewing machine in my hand luggage (yes I like doing girly shit like cooking and sewing) and the gate closing time soon passed. I asked the security guy if the gates usually close on time, he helpfully replied yes or often early. This was a bit stressful, especially as our checked bags had already gone through and would be landing in Spain without us Mr Slowly had given up all hope but but I persuaded him it was worth hoofing it the million miles to the gate as quickly as a fully loaded cabin bag complete with sewing machine, a leather bike jacket and an under seat bag with every heavy item you could find stuffed into it would allow. My swollen ankle can confirm trying to run in inflexible bike boots fully loaded with multiple heavy bags is not good for you The flight passed quickly due to all the adrenaline but sore and sitting in sweat drenched clothes heading towards a ‘feels like’ temperature of 35 degrees wasn’t on my to do list especially as I’d been laying kitchen flooring for the previous 3 days and my knees n back we’re already not happy, rest was what I craved Suddenly the ‘Pain in Spain’ took on new meaning and I felt I had probably made a mistake with this venture. I was also uncertain if I’d actually managed to book a car, Mr Slowly had been tasked with finding a car (because he wanted an automatic 5 door with more than 1litre) and appeared ashen on Thursday evening saying there was absolutely nothing at all available apart from one car with Sixt for £1800 I found a hire comparison website which had a car available for a third of that but as I was unfamiliar with ‘holidayautos.com’ I went directly to the car hire company ‘Thrifty’ who said nope sorry no availability for those dates. After checking tripadvisor I went ahead with holidayautos anyway but how exactly they had a Thrifty car available when Thrifty say they dont was more than a little concerning. I needn’t have worried, we arrived and the ‘Thrifty’ person was just lovely. She saw we had a lot of luggage and said “ooh um I’m going to upgrade you to a bigger car, no charge” so the piddly little 3 door manual was suddenly a 5 door automatic VW T-Cross (a small 4x4) so Mr Slowly is happy. We wasted time checking out the nearby supermarkets and picking up supplies until Pedro (no not that one the landlord one) arrived. Having been seriously shot in the foot once before by the phenomenon known as “absence of gating” (Id believed a nice online person was actually nice in real life) I was apprehensive about meeting him because he came across in his emails as a really nice guy. It turns out he is. Even Mr Slowly commented saying “He seems really decent” So at 9.30pm we finally kicked off our shoes and had a G&T and said “Cheers” Pedro said there was a water leak in the kitchen which he would get fixed as soon as possible, I thought “yer right” but this morning a plumber (who is also a nice bloke) turned up and fixed it. I don’t think the contrast between the shitshow getting here and the lovely reception could be greater, I woke up feeling pretty damn good. Mr Slowly is happy with the little house and the area we are in, apparently it’s not that well known as a tourist destination which judging from the pleasantness of the locals must be true. The sea, restaurants, cafes, pharmacy, some shops and a supermarket is all only a 5 minute walk so I think just maybe fingers crossed we maybe onto a winner

In the most touristy places €5 is about average for a pint. However… we Lidled. €1.99 a can .80c for a bag of ice and used one of my panniers as an impromptu ice bucket to chill the beers, worked very well. We got to Bray and to our dismay found there were no campsites at all, most had closed down due to COVID, gone bust. So…. We gave up and crossed to Holyhead last night and stayed at my sisters house - who conveniently happens to live in Holyhead. I’m nearly home, just having a break near uttoxeter. The guys enjoyed our week away, something a bit different and better than expected with the great weather and even the bad weather wasn’t too terrible.., though I’ll never enjoy packing up a tent when it’s raining. A deep breath and start thinking about the Dolomites and Austria/Black Forest next year. All being well and we get back to some form of a normal life. my left ice bucket as mysteriously acquired a souvenir!!