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So, today was a special day! I have been wanting to try off road ridding on a motorcycle, something I never did before, and it so happens a customer's mate is a professional motorcross racer and of I went to have a go with this loony that took me through rocks, mud, rivers, Sea cliffs, rickety bridges, forests and even someone's vegetable patch!! In my head we were going on a gentle ride through the countryside, but no, he decided my confort zone needed to be expanded by a considerable shunk!! We climbed and descended things I never imagined I could possibly manage, but somehow I did and the only time I almost didn't, I remembered Elisabeth R "Keep calm and never give up". I'm 3 month short of 50, going through menopause ( I hope it's that, or else my brain is deffo gone with the fairies!!), after a few years of emotional turmoil and copious amounts of anxiety, I really thought I could not hacket anymore, but today I realised I can and actually what is needed is to go, push harder, go further, face the fear, accept the falls and rejoice with the rising from them, believe we can, because we will achieve more then we thought possible!! I'm pretty shuffed with myself today and here are the pictures to prove it!! But because I'm not one for just showing off, there is also evidence of one of 3 falls, this an hilarious one, specially for the Green Laning pros amongst you!! Laugh away, it's funny! Thank you to Michi Kunz , crazy good at what he does and a very kind soul. Interesting project, worth checking out: https://sharebus.ch/

I forgot to mention, I bought a book when i was inside the church, they had a cardboard box to put the money as no one was in there. Things I leant from the book that I thought was interesting:- When they hollowed out the tree in the very early 1800s to make a meeting room inside, they found a cannon ball believed to have been fired during the civil war (the real civil war, not a later copy). The last vicar died in 1983. Since then they have shared a vicar with a few other churches. This last proper vicar studied engineering at Oxford University before WW2, then joined up and took up defusing bombs for the duration, then he returned to Oxford university to study divinity and became a vicar. Tree experts believe the tree has only another 50 years life left due to damage caused by the hollowing out in 1803.

I left home at 07h00 friday morning, and drove to Liverpool, I had reckoned it would take about 10 hours... it actually took 14! just because the traffic in the UK is soooooo slow and dense. The brits drive like complete twats on the motorways too, any time there's 4 lanes, lanes 1 and 2 are completely empty with everybody driving 4 inches from the car in front in lanes 3 and 4. I lost count of the number of times I just played the ignorant foreigner and overtook everyone on the inside... wankers. On Saturday I drove from Liverpool to Louth and had a wander round the town but apart from the chinese restaurant, the indian and the "Mr Chips" chip shop i recognised none of it. Did the high school reunion thing sat night which was amusing and drove home sunday. 2200km in all. that's why I wasn't on here this weekend.

Pictures and video were excellent. I wouldn't worry about falling over at a stand still, I think I have seen that happen more then when people are actually moving. I once fell over when when I stopped to look at my map and a little dog barked at me down by my feet. I think I jumped and lost my balance and over I went. I nearly squashed the dog he was so small.

Thanks! Oh, I liked it alright! Although the boulder section wasnt my favourite, there is nothing I would say never again. For sure would rather it was all fast dirt track, with some mud and water crossings, not rocky 15% to 20% incline cliff hedge over the Sea kinda thing!! Like these pictures but worst and on the hedge.

Thanks!! No, actually im not and that has surprised me a lot. Yes, im really thinking a 2nd bike is the way forward, I realized I prefer ridding on the road and would never try this with anything heavier.

Thank you @Pedro. For sure would not feel confident enough to try it if it wasnt for your continuous support and how you make me believe in my self on all aspects of life, business and personal. Credit where credit is due!! Now, all going well in 6 month I ll give you a beating on a dirt track somewhere!!

Great effort, the first time is always the key time…….you’ll either go back for more or walk away for good. Now you’ll have to buy a dirt bike!

Saw this in my odd places book (like the one Bob bought, but for the civilised counties) but didn't tell my mate where were going, just that it wasn't too far. He lacks my love for old trees or church yards. Supposedly the oldest Yew tree in England, I have seen estimate of 4,000 years, but also only 1500 years. I climbed inside, the odd looking pictures are of me looking upward. I went inside the church, it was stunningly beautiful inside, painted walls. There was a picture of the Queen and a book of remembrance for her so I filled that out. My mate sat outside, he fears the inside of holy places. The weird well with the conical thatched roof is near where I live, I keep meaning to stop and take a picture every time I go past. Today I tried but discovered there is a deep nettle filled ditch on the road side and a big hedge stopping me getting any closer or looking down it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowhurst,_East_Sussex

dunno mate, i wasn't taking in the atmosphere. didn't notice any particular mood in the hotels and restaurants, the brits I saw seemed to me to be as loud, ignorant and vulgar as ever. but then I was brought up in genteel lincolnshire villages, not big inner cities. N0 1 says that she was shocked last night when they went out for a drink around 9 pm and there were already girls her age absolutely legless lying in the gutter outside or stumbling around the bars screaming at each other with piss stains running down their legs... it's not so much the state of them that shocked her but that they were in that state by 9pm. To be fair, I saw no evidence of this in the Lincolnshire countryside I spent saturday afternoon walking around.

Well done. I'm still debating responding to grasshoppers pie antics.

You fell off into a nice soft bush i usually land on rocks or mud LOL your now in a good position to answer Pedro's question of what the fascination with riding through water crossings is

I guess I'm the same. Although christened I go for the architecture and history.

Thank you!! Really liked the KTM, felt super easy and didnt find it tall. I love the torque and power to go over stuff, amazing! And was not boring on the road either. Good machine. No idea which one it is, just that its 250cc

Thanks Pete, unfortuently we have been saddled with the rejects of the rejects of the internet, im sure those two boZos up derre think we landed on the moon too.

I may go to lots of churches but I'm not going in to pray

It's like every other bike he's had, it's the best thing since sliced bread except cheaper to run

I presumed he meant this guy

Drop some coin in the collection box and you'll be good to go Pedro. As the late, great George Carlin observed: “Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time! But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money!”

Better then what happens in Spain

Not like that! Thats too easy

Crossing water is so nice!!! Felt like Moises! Its like having extra powers, really liked it. There were a lot of stones there, it was a little path only a bit wider then the bike with 2 rocks sticking out on the side. I think you call what I fell on reeds, or canes (?) . They are actually invasive, like notweed, and have been used as fences to divide properties or pieces of land the same way you have blackthorn. They just grow out of control and spread throught there rhizome, almost impossible to get rid off. Around here its so common to see lines of them and in this case someone had cut a lot to open up the path and left them there to hold me like a mattress! Still my foot has 100% trapped between the rock I was trying to negotiate and the bike that had its swing arm balancing on the rock and my ankle. Those boots are really good!

Wish I was that lucky!

Absolutely superb Sofia, you'll be wanting your own bike now, it's very addictive. The KTM's are tall bikes as well so not the easiest bike in the world to ride, I'm very impressed

WHOOP WHOOP So happy for you. GO SOFIA GO SOFIA GO GO SOFIA

Well done. You'll be hooked now and time for a second bike. Hope you're not aching this morn.

Great stuff Sofia!

Tim Allen had a good one. "Biden was on 60 Minutes. I heard he asked how long the show was."

Way to go!

Did you go back to 1974 and get that one

Sad news today from the Nestle factory where a member of staff was seriously injured when a pallet of chocolate bars fell nearly fifty feet from warehouse shelving and crushed him beneath. The problem was further compounded by his fellow staff members taking so long to help him. Every time he shouted “The Milky Bars are on me!” everyone just cheered.

Took the Qween passing real hard... Crying like a lost soul non stop... Shit my pants twice.... But I'm doing better now.... And I'm busy with you know who...

Most of us will be dead.....

Food festival near where I live in October has revealed why zzzak is the way he his. He bakes 'brownies' for a living https://bakedbyzak.com

Ah and there our loon is.

I am not a believer in god, I would not usually mention that unless asked though, I think everyone should have their own beliefs and not try and convince others that theirs is the only way. I think behaving decently is mostly common sense, you know when you are doing something wrong usually, you shouldn't need to follow a strange list of instructions from an old book written in a hot environment and then retranslated over and over again.

That's not my take on god, though. My views on god are not certain and do vary according to what day it is, but mostly I believe that we do have values that take hold of us and make us feel guilty for doing shitty things and push us to do good things, regardless of god and a higher power and more according to what we feel as individual humans. I sometimes (rarely) feel there might be a higher being (an entity, not dictator), and on those days I will either feel curious about it, or angry and in need of having serious words with whatever. My feelings when entering holy buildings do exist though, regardless of what my brain thinks.

What a cool tree! To a smaller degree, I share an uneasiness with holy places with your friend. I can go into a curb for a service, a funeral or whatever, and feel normal and welcome, but there's something wrong when I go into a church or a cathedral by myself as a tourist just to look at the building and I feel I shouldn't be there. Maybe god doesn't like that I'm there unsupervised.

This one is WILD GUIDE (London & South East) https://wildthingspublishing.com/product/wild-guide-southern-eastern-england-book/ Scrolling down, they do one of southern Spain.