Modern Vespa

i have been away a lot so not as much as i'd like to.

will be taking a couple of bottles of beer down there tomorrow night. it's time to earth up the spuds and get the old scythe out on the weeds.

Bummer. I bet you know the law and your rights better than he does though.

tell him you'll DIY it with a blowtorch and a sledgehammer to get rid of the health and safety risk of mould spores.

we just went to try and see star trek and it sold out with about 3 people in the queue ahead of us .... so it's back to the cinema to try again, this time on sunday morning.

Meh, wait for it to be on TV.

Yes, I do. And I gave him a Samuel L Jackson style warning over the phone today that it had better shape up. I am all out of nice cartoonist and have got the lawyer fangs out.

Mr WM rates Star Trek at the IMAX.

My house is so well insulated I have to have the windows and the front door open in the summer or it turns into a green house.

I've often thought about inviting all of the DSSC here for tea and biscuits in the Summer and see just how many people I could get at my little house.
Talk of a sleep over as well.

I was supposed to go and see Terminator this evening but woke at 3am this morning staring at the ceiling and didn't get back to sleep so I've been walking around in a zombie like state all day.
Got home curled up on the couch at 7pm and woke at 945 so maybe it's best I did. Going to go and try and see it after work on Friday.

Bill X

Awesome fangs!

Ah, IMAX, OK then.

I got inspired fang wise by watching SJ in "Snakes on a Plane".

"I have had it with this motherfucking mold over my walls"

So, pints soon? Maybe next weekend?

I'm out of England for most of the month. Scotland in a few days for a week, then a day off, then MAG National Committee meeting in Rugby on the Saturday, Belgium and France for nine days, three days off, France again for four days, just too much riding in fine sunny weather.

So if you go for pints/gallons let me know when; and wherever I am I'll try to do the decent and raise a toast. "Au Regiment!"

I'm at Le Mans with Nik all of next weekend.

Bill X

I'd normally be hating you for that taxing schedule, jim, but then I've still got good Greek vibes.

Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiints! God knows when, mind.

I'm going down to my mum's this weekend. The other day I asked her if I could have a go at driving her car, as previously discussed:

MUM: Oh. I'm not sure I want you to.
ME: But you put me on your insurance!
MUM: That was for emergencies.
ME: So you want me to be driving your car for the first time, in an emergency?
MUM: All right, all right, we'll see.

Honestly. What would she have been like if I'd passed my test at 18 like everyone else?

Mmm. You can ride a motorcycle which is more difficult than a car!

I finished your Molesworth so maybe meet for a quick pint post your work next week?

The problem may be that I drive as if I was riding a bike, which is not always appropriate behaviour on four wheels.

Ooh, ooh! Mon and Fri would probably be best for a swift one post-work, but since you are the Bringer of Molesworth I am at your command.

And we, leaving Belgium next tuesday. Driving with the vespa to Austria ( Zell Am See) for vespa world days, and coming home over France to visit Nancy.

i could do pints next weekend. a poncey downtown venue this time perhaps, seeing as mr. village is going to be at le mans?

Ah the poncey venue of choice... do you have somewhere in mind?

I'm good at wallet raping cocktail joints or old man pubs.

i'm all for a happy medium although i'm having trouble thinking of a wallet raping old man pub something with seats that don't smell of wee would be good.

They all smell of wee since the smoking ban.

Beer garden would be nice if the weather holds out.

Royal Inn on the Park? Nearer to you than me but Viccy Park is a pretty good beer garden...

Royal Inn on the Park is very nice indeed and within close cycling range of mine which means that i can take advantage of the Fruuli on tap. I"m all for it They've also got very passable pub food.

Fruli! Yum!

Which day were you thinking of, or is Saturday night the only possible night for putting away boozes? Next Sat I'm going to a party for my former boss's 5th wedding anniversary, and all I can think is "No WAY is it five years since your wedding! It feels like last summer!"

Oh hang on I was going to write something amazing and then the phone rang from Amsterdam and it all went out of the window.

Back soon.

Yeah sorry about that. Next Friday Nik and I are driving down through France to stay over at Laval for 3 nights and commute to Le Mans to my 21st Le Mans in a row.

Don't book anything on the 25th and 26th og July either because I'll be in Spa for another 24 hour race.

Such a shame that I can't be joining you for your beer session. I feel like I'm missing out now. Tears coming to the eyes.


Bill X

Tomorrow is the start of my final exams, I'm sure I will need a drink by the end of them

bugger.

While we are over there for the Spa race shall we book up some rooms for the 2CV 24 hour in October ?

Bill X

depends when exactly in october. i have to check my schedule as i may be at a conference in fascinating Durham. i'm really excited about going to Durham after hearing kate's ringing endorsements of the food, culture, nightlife, etc.

The 17th and 18th of October. Sail out on the 17th and the race starts at 5pm then stay over one night and maybe one more on the Sunday evening.

Nik and I will be going regardless.

Anymore for anymore ?

Bill X

October not on my radar yet. I'm a possible.

Nancy is lovely

'I'd Do Anything, Graham Norton, Andrew Lloyd Webber search for a Nancy'



(Sorry, it was the first thing i read when googling nancy + oliver..... its made me larf for about 5 mins straight )

Nearly got pulled by the fuzz this morning

Going round Buck Palace towards Hyde Pk Corner. Black Beemer is first at the lights, followed by black Range Rover, followed by me. Lights at red. Lights go green. One lane splits into two. Black Beemer takes LH lane, Range Rover follows Beemer, I take RH lane. So far, so good.

Then Beemer decides to waver into RH lane ahead of me (not surprising. Something like that happens most days.) I've left room for it to act erratically, so there's no problem with that, UNTIL the Range Rover (who's alongside me, but in the LH lane where I'm in the RH lane) decides that it wants to pull into RH lane as well. I.e. it decides that it wants to be WHERE I AM on the road!

I give it a toot on the Stebel. Driver turns to look. Sees me, and then decides to carry on pulling over into my space!!! WTF and all that, so I make sure I've got enough safe space (there's plenty of room between lanes on that road) and give them a longer blast on the Stebel, throttle on, and overtake. As I was considering whether I'd missed out on the opportunity to practice my hand gestures, imagine my suprpise when the Range Rover puts its blues and twos on

I pull over, and the RR just passes me without stopping. By this point, I've worked out that the RR is sat on the backside of the Beemer, and so it's probably an escort job, which makes me think they'll be less keen to waste time on me, so I carry on.

At the lights below Hyde Pk corner, I come to a stop alongside the RR and the driver lets his window down and says: "What was all that about?". I say: "I was using my horn to let you know I was there, because in my mind you were about to drive into me. And then when I saw you actually take my space, I used the horn again because if you were going to run me off the road I at least wanted some witnesses".

Policeman says: "We are police officers, carrying out [I can't remember whether he said "escort work", but it was words to that effect]". I say: "I realise that now, and I'm sorry I got mixed up with it, but I had no idea at the time I thought you were going to run me off the road".

Lights change to green, so I couldn't hear what he said as I went on my way.

Don't know that this story has any moral, other than that people do notice the Stebel 8)

....and most some coppers are arrogant idiots

just because they were on 'escort' duty doesnt mean they have the right to drive like pricks and potentially kill someone. You should report them.

Yikes - I'd have been scared stiff when the blue lights came on!

Here is my horror story from yesterday - I'm still livid:

I pull up outside the church hall where I do karate just as a group of teenagers holding bottles of Stella stroll past. They do the 'nice bike, can I have a go, ha ha' thing, I nod and smile at them - then one of them snatches the key from the ignition and they all run off.

I know that makes me sound like a total numpty, but it happened so fast! I went into the hall and got Sensei, figuring an ex-army bloke covered in tattoos and wearing karate kit would be a useful person to have onside. He told the lads they had five minutes to cough up the keys before the police got involved. Lads say 'oh, we don't have them any more, who's got them? Where's that toerag who took the key?' (yeah, right) and depart.

I lurk just inside the hall. A few minutes pass, then I hear stealthy footsteps and then somebody starts the bike engine. I barrel out yelling "OI!!!" Toerag leaps off the bike; bike goes over and piddles some petrol; toerag runs for his life. (Bike is fine.)

I'm sure they were just messing about. But in a vile, nasty way. Thought I was going to have ET4 #3 nicked before my very eyes!

What a bunch of pricks! Well handled though - I would probably have gret/shat ma breeks.

I felt totally useless just standing there then running for the big grown-up! But I knew he'd handle it better than I could.

Alice, how awful! Well done keeping possession - and I'd have run for help as well!

I think I can imagine the "sick to the pit of the stomach" feeling one must get when the pride and joy goes missing and if it's already happened to you more than once I daresay your mind was probably already marching towards that place when this started to kick off.
No damage from the drop at all? If not that's pretty good fortune - maybe this one's your lucky bike.

Well done Alice for defeating this bunch of little shits.

Nearly getting killed on the way to works seems to be a recurring theme here.

I came incredibly close to being knocked off at 60mph on the A40 yesterday and am now seriously considering selling the scooter and buying a car instead.

The only problem is that last night I composed an advert to sell my gts, attached a nice photo but couldn't click 'submit' for fear of bursting into tears.

Oh Kam what happened? The "I will pull into your lane and there's nowhere to go" horror?

Give it a few days. These events can give you serious collywobbles about riding. Then see how you feel.