Modern Vespa

Saw the trailer at a small art house cinema I sometimes go to, while watching The Monuments Men (true story-ish, but lightweight). Looked great, might catch it in a few weeks.

Awesome news on the house Genie, very pleased for you. You are now a woman of property

Fixed my broken laptop keyboard yesterday by installing a new one with a little help from my techy cousin and a You Tube video. Total cost - £25 for the new keyboard. Result. Every day's a learning day...

Great weekend for bike lift testing, scoot tinkering and sunny riding... 8)

Yeah, Sun's out and the "This is what you could have won" will see the light of day once more.

I'm such a lighweight.

Bill xxx

Congratulations Genie, what a lovely house!!



I really like the modern claw foot tub!

Have fun!

Very nice house Genie. Congratulations

Congrats GENIE. what a lovely house. I love the way you guys have bricks on the walls between the houses. 8) Have fun and am looking forward to pics when you make it your own. Make DOG do all the moving for you.

Had an Associates day (read newbies) with the LAM guys. Was awesome actually. Great weather, great roads and great company. Got to see Doug's Triumph up close as well. Its a very capable bike but I'm too biased towards the GTS to be envious. The good news is that I kept up with all the larger displacement machines to the extent that they mentioned how fast my 'moped' goes!
Looking forward to more of the same next weekend.
Oh and I finally got to dechrome Ruby. What do you think?

Congratulations on your new home, Its a fantastic feeling moving into a new home and this one looks like a nice one. Is it semi detached or end of terrace? what ever it is its just lovely. well done

A big thanks to Lawrence of Scootech who got me acquainted with his friend Stan the seat man. Stan did a lovely job on my seat and topbox backrest. My pictures do not do them justice.

I could buy this if I sold my London house and moved back to recession hit Northern Ireland (just down the road from my dad)... Prices there are crazy low...

Had a great morning on an AOR with LAM

Here's a pic with Ashbrook in the lead, me in the middle and Peter the TEC:

Doug, did I hear that they are bulldozing all of the new towns they built with EEC money because there weren't enough people to move into them ?

Wilson Granite. x

There are empty new towns, but only in the the Republic of Ireland and it was nothing to do with EU money but the banks and bad loans. I'll bet that the UK was heavily involved, as the two countries are inextricably linked.

i did 'twisties' today with my ELAM observer, and his observer (all of the observers have to be observed and requalify at certain intervals). we visited some absolutely beautiful towns in north essex - Thaxted and Finchingfield are postcard-perfect. Rural twisties are my least-familiar terrain, so I got off to a bit of a rocky start, with mediocre road position and a rather sedate pace a few pointers and many miles later, and I was doing much better. at the end of the ride both of my observers agreed that had it been a test, I'd have passed with flying colours that was encouraging news. i followed them both back to the M11 (one on a BMW 1200R, the other on a Triumph Sprint) and managed to keep up for nearly all of it. a lovely day out

ashbrook ... ruby looks amazing. are you absolutely sure there isn't any chrome left?

Sounds like you did the B1057 if you went through Finchingfield... it's lovely isn't it? That was my plan for tomorrow.

ooooo. that's very tempting. birreh and i have interested looks on our faces. what time were you thinking of setting out?

terryvanman.... it's a semi. i still giggle every time i say that.

I need to sort out the car in the morning... So anytime from about 12.30 onwards. I'm fairly easy with the timing.

Plan is Abridge to Great Dunmow, then on to Finchingfield and perhaps a little foray to the NE of Cambridge and back. No motorways but plenty of fast sweepers, no lanes and no big PUDDLES.

yes please!! we're going to do a short trip to westfield in the morning to get birreh some new trousers, but will text you when we get back aim to set out around 1ish?

Sounds like a plan. Looking forward to it!

Not much!
PS. I've got a semi.......

This weekend we've been kicking around the idea of cashing out our SF home and buying the top of a mountain.

Where is that?

Hey Ash the seat looks really choice. The footpegs finish the look. Nice job.

Santa Cruz mountains.

Boulder Creek?

A Frabjous day. 75°F, T's, shorts and sandals from sun-up to sun-down. Did loads of gardening, including preparing more greywater distribution. The exterior of the house needs repainting - we've organised this to be done (at a cost, by others) late August. OMG, the things that need to be sorted before that can happen!

The US (well most of it) gets Daylight Saving Time tomorrow morning, that will mean loads of unwanted mental arithmetic to co-ordinate phone calls etc to the UK.

Either do away with it, or stick to the days that the ROTW uses, FFS!

Glad to hear the AOR's went just fine for the LAM/ELAM folks - I always found using a scooter for IAM stuff worked a treat.

That looks very pretty- can you build on the plot? When I was over last I rode several times from Lexingon Reservoir over Summit Road the down the Soquel San Jose Rd. No intention of cashing in as I still need my job for another ten years at least, unfortunately.

Big thanks again to you and Stan-You were right he is a craftsman and a reasonably priced one at that.

I meant to ask, Patrick: what's with the parrot?

Ladybird/bug infestation.

We are plagued by ladybirds which seem to to have over wintered in any small cracks in the windows. The are all of the US variety (harlequin) that seem to have displaced our native ladybirds (seven spot) .

As a child I remember the "ooh a ladybird!" and the pleasure it bought to see the occasional ruby and black jewel crawling over your hand.

In our house it is more a kin to "get the dyson out we've got more of the buggers". I have just "dysoned" (not hoovered) 36 from second son's room and 32 from first son's room.

Apparently our problem is small. I've just seen some pictures of thousands of the little blighters!

And they smell!!!!!!

I spy a legshield badge and horn grill that haven't been stealthed yet

Just kidding Ash - seat looks great, that red trim really pops 8)

Nice work with the LAM rides people

@ Oops - mountain life sounds bliss (I trained as a mountain leader and love the peaks...)

Christened the lift today for a couple of simple jobs - I'm sure it'll be used loads this year. Then got out for a beautiful sunny ride around my local patch. Lots of bikers out but mostly the serious 'no nodding' types. Tried my little digital camera on the RAM mount and it works pretty well to take stills and short bursts of ride video without too much 'shakey cam' or motion blur, so not bad for occasional use. So a pretty good day, wish it was a three day weekend...

I gave the GTV a spit and polish today then a very brief ride.
Gonna use her to ride to work this week I think. 8)

Doug, Birreh and I spent a happy afternoon riding around Essex, on many of the same roads I did yesterday. I think we did about 150 miles in total, with a brief break for tea in Finchingfield Doug's new bike is a sexy beast indeed

Indeed, it was a lovely afternoon. Not even mid March and it was 18 degrees and felt like summer. My left leg hurts though. For a brief moment, I thought you had described me as a sexy beast, but hey, I can only dream...

Here is the beast... sorry I thrashed it and left you in a howl of Triumph!

Should have told me

I would have come along

oh, you are too that goes without saying. Birreh and i agreed that you looked very fine in your gear

How many bikes have you got Doug? I've lost count.

We did... there was an open invitation above... do keep up at the back!

Oh, just the one. Fast turnover, as they say...

There is also an Aprilia scoot in the household, which I sometimes purloin...