MooN

well get your carcass down here and we'll go for a bimble. Now I have weekends off, and normal holidays and know in advance whet time i finish work, that sort of malarky should be easier to organise.

naaah, That's just me. I never seem to get to ride in on the sunny days. Saturday was lovely, but life got in the way. having said that, we do seem to be having a wet spring at the moment, one of the few regions not concerned by water shortages already.

the last but one time the french govt tried to bring in bike MOT's they wanted to make shear bolts and screws abligatory for everyting including fairings et so that only certified workshops could work on them. I seem to remember I joind the Paris demo for that one... One of the problems here now is that one of the largest mot empires, namely DEKRA, is owned by a prominent friend of the govt ( doesn't matter what govt) and is constantly lobbying for this to be made law, The govt are blamimg it on the EU but the french arent stoopid knowing full well ( as Tango rightly pointed out) that the Frech have been world champions at agreeing to, and then simply ignoring, EU rules for the last 2 decades. it was supposed to come into being end of last year but the govt said they'd shelved it as bien inapplicable but some cuntin the road safety organisation, backed by the DEKRA lobby took the question to the constitutional cout who decided that legally the govt couldn't do that so i t went back on the table and the govt keep trying to "forget" to do anything about it but the same bunch of cunts who are either financially interested or whos sole interest in life is fucking up everybody elses, keep bringing it up. The saga has been running for at least as long as I've been here.

I get it ( I didn't say I wanted to do it...). I have, in my misspent youth, ridden bikes and driven boats in apalling weather conditions and often found it exhilerating, sometimes frightening and nearly always uncomfortable. The sense of acheivement when overcoming the difficulty or risk is always a morale boost and confidence building, making a hardship, even if only a percieved or contrived hardship,worthwhile. This is why people climb mountains, swim rivers, sail single handed around the world, row the atlantic or whatever. Each man finding his own challenges to overcome. OR, he could just be a twat trying to get views on youtube.

I succumbed to the intercom thing 2 years ago, I was given a gift voucher from work and discovered it worked at the DAFY motorcycle shop in Dijon so that helped. I too got a sena 30 as being a much cheaper option than a cardo. I dont use it for music except maybe if I'm facing a long autoroute stint. I have the phone navigation fed through it if I'm using the nav, and the speed camera alerts from the coyote app on the phone. What it does do wonderfully is the phone. I dont phone whilst riding but when I worked on the boats, I was basically on call 7 days a week through 8 months of the year and when out on the bike if the phone rang I would have to find a place to stop, switch the bike off, remove gloves, remove helmet, remove at least one ear plug, take the phone out of it's holder and ring the person back ( cos they'd hung up or left a message by this time. Then they wouldn't asnwer so I had either to wait untill I could get hold of them or risk putting everting back on again to have them ring back in 10 minutes and havr to start all over again ( yes it's happenend). With the Sena I was able to answer, " don't hang up, gimmie a second..." al I had to do was pull over and I could talk freely with no palaver. It was an absolute Godsend for that.

weather was more than dodgy this sunday, but having missed the chance to get out on saturday due to No1 daughter being at home, I was determined to get out despite the weather. It wasn't cold (12 deg C) but heavy cloud cover and a number of fronts moving east or north east. As soon as I'd fed the animals kids, I headed for a tiny hamlet I know on the canal cos it's very pretty and gave me a turning point about 1h30 south of here, just in the northern limits of the Morvan and in a wee hidden curve of the canal at the top of a 16 lock flight and just before the deep cut leading to the 3 tunnels at the summit. I didn't know if I'd make it that far due to the weather, but that was the aim. I took the smaller back roads all the way there dodging the rain showers, I had a mooch round when I ot there, 9 houses, 1 bloke fishing. stunningly pretty, but the light really didn't do it justice. Great place to spend a quiet week end on a boat after slogging up the 16 locks though. as I started back, there was a black storm front coming at me from the south west so I took a faster route northwards, outrunning it to Clamecy where there's a coffee/ bakery run by an arab bloke who is open 364 days a year ( only place in the area that I knew would be open on a sunday). I sat and had a coffee and a pair of 2pain au chocolat" whilst the rain aquall went through, gave it a 15 minute headstart and set of behind it. all told, about 185km, in under 3 hours riding, quite a high moving average for me From the bridge at Port Brulé looking south towards the tunnels ( odd unintended effect in the photo that seem sto have distorted the rear wheel...) looking North towards the lock flight and you can see the WHOLE village. the route went something like this:

The twins 16th birthday today ( so where da fuk did THAT time go?) so ive been out with them to burger king and then the theater. ( burger thing was their idea not mine! )

aaaaand, what makes you think you have?

I certainly have days when I just can't be bothered togging up for an hours ride. I miss the time when a pair of army surplus army boots, jeans and a leather perfecto "bike" jacket were all that was needed to ride.to quote probably every generation since the dawn of time "Life seemed simpler then" I also now work only 10 km's from home so it'es not worth moving the car to get the bike out, putting the car back, getting togged up, organising a chenge of shoes and trousers for work etc for 6 minutes of riding. With the job change came the luxury of not working weekends... which means I no longer have a "me" day midweek when I can ride. I imagine that I will probably ride less this year than ever before, but losing the bike or stopping altogether has never been an option so far.

except for the renault 1.9 dci. which is renown for being an absolute peice of shit with top end lubrication problems and HUUUUUUGE oil consumption. Renault consider 1 litre of oil per 1000km to be " within tolerance" and " Normal for modern engines. F. T. S.!

in the family we've had 7 renaults, but the last one saw me crossing the counter and pinning the workshop manager up against the wall whilst threatening to trash the place and then burn the car on the forcourt. so, yeah.... never again a Renault.

well you wouldn't want either of them actually touching stuff....

my Toyota anus Auris has no ignition key or door key except the electronic thingummy. I just keep it in my pocket. Most keyless ignition cars have a slot or spot or specific place to put the key but it's in my pocket so dont lose it any more than I did a "proper" key.

I will admit that your name did not instantly spring to mind as a referee...

well the work in itself is easy enough and I'm still learning a lot about the machines, the computer systems and programs, electric motors and control systems. If I get bored I step into the workshop and annoy the mechanics till they let me take something apart . The atmosphere is good and it's pretty relaxed. What I miss ( and this was going to be the case whatever "other" job I got into) is being one of the best at what I do. I'm not blowing my own trumpet vainly but with over 40 years playing with boats, 30 of those professionally, having driven everything from dingy's to RORC Racing yachts and from canoes and kayaks to 60ton barges I know I wll never attain that level of competence in any other domain, and that competence brings a confidence that I have never experienced elsewhere and never will. that feeling, I will miss. apart from that, yeah I'menjoying it.

post apoplectic?... post epileptic? NOT A FUcKING CLUE!

I had a bit of good news today, At work I was on a 6 month contract (allegedly everybody does that here now because it's so bloody difficult and expensive to actually get rid of someone who's on an indefinate contract) but the boss, true to his word, confirmed today that he's signing me an idefinate contract from the end of this month, then I'll be able to breath again.

I strongly belive that this form should nit be giving apace, time or band width ( whatever the feck that is) to this sort of utter bollocks.

had great fun in Narfuk with furriners. they would never pronounce STIFFQUAY or WYMONDHAM or even NORWICH correctly, let alone HAPPISBURGH, GRUNDISBURY or NEATISHEAD @Catteeclan you're disqualified

I can confim that you DO NOT want to hit a boar... or get within about 300 yards of the bloody things, ( unless they're already on the barbecue) they are pure evil, mat black and heve eyes that don't reflect light like most other beasts so yo dont see them till it's too late...lat time a friend of mine bought me a hind leg he said it came of a 160kilo male...

it was but an old mill race ran along behind the factory and there were about 150 pipes into it running the marine engine test beds

well tell 'em to fuck of back to blighty where everything's wonmderful. , I would ( and do)

they're still not managing to impose mot's on bikes here yet, but they're working on it.

the engine builder I used to work with were in stroud, Beta Marine, dunno if they're still there though.

weather's due to turn to shit here again this week, we need the bloody water though so i's all good i suppose.