Modern Vespa

Thanks for all the well wishes.

Back quickly to say that the Mr WM passed his IAM (1 year!) and deemed an "excellent ride in very difficult conditions". How brilliant is that!

I didn't doubt it because after being flung when preggers around on the back of the Kwak in France at some mph where it was all sideways and blurry and a time tunnel appeared, you've got to have faith in the abilities of your rider. So, really it was a stamp of approval...

Charles is right - that bike was spanked hard as it could go because we knew it was very unlikely we could that again any time soon.

So pleased for Mr W - I can attest to the fact that the test is highly demanding, not to mention nerve-wracking, so to get such praise is really ace. I reckon that weekend in France was excellent preparation!

Re. teeth: over here they seem just to use the plastic filling stuff that has to be baked with a UV pen thing.
The whole side of one of my crucial teeth broke off recently - having dinner with friends and struggling through an ostrich steak with chocolate sauce, an experience never to be repeated if I can help it - and the dentist fabricated a new side in situ.
It cost a packet but is worth every penny.

Well done Mr WM!

The tooth has gone, I'm now dribbling with a gauze thingy stuck in the gap. There was no way to repair, what remained of the tooth had split apart front-to-back. It came out pretty easily, considering there was bugger-all to get a grip on. Looks like a diet of smoothies for the rest of the day.

It cost pretty much the same as an extraction in the UK, and as efficiently done.

On a side note - Freddo must have been eating grass or cat-shit, as he's just vomited and then licked the whole lot up again...

Go Freddo. Don't you just love it when they do that.

Lost a tooth eh Jim ? Sorry mate but welcome to my World.

When are you returning to these shores ?

Bill X

Sorry about the tooth Jim. Costs the same? I thought that kind of stuff was free in London.

WM and Mr. W,
Congratulations on Baby A!

If you can find an NHS dentist without a huge waiting list - then you are very lucky AND you'll still have to pay part of the cost. Dental care hasn't been free for more years than I care to remember. So most of us in the UK use private dentists.

Today's charges covered a quick exam, an X-ray and the extraction all for $281 OTD. Less than some pay for the first service on their scooters!

Now I just have to take care of the jelly-like clot until it hardens up. Anasthetic now all worn off, zero pain, excellent job.

Currently gingerly munching my way though some cold new potatoes with a Tuscan dressing. Ah! Food at last!

Way to go mr wonder! One day I will do iam ... One day

My news is that I now have brakes on my scooter again! What I'd been calling 'spongey' was deemed 'non-existent' by others (ta Doug and bill) so I handed it over to Lawrence at scootech and I can now stop on a dime. All sorted for an extremely reasonable price too.

Have spent the past 3 days gradually painting my second bathroom. It was a horrible magnolia-on-magnolia scheme, the most constipating of colours and as a result I rarely used it. Now it's a beautiful gentle grey with gloss White trim. Well it will be when I finish painting the 15 or so miles of woodwork

Re dentists, I am extremely fortunate in having an NHS dentist 5 minutes' scoot or 15 minutes' walk away. My dentist is I think Polish and looks like a Bond villain - on my first visit he loomed over me as I cowered in the chair, cackling "Niiiiiiice teeeeeeeth!".

Also have an NHS doctor's surgery round the corner with only two doctors (my previous practice, in Catford, had about a dozen and I never saw the same one twice). Very very lucky.

More IAM - David passed in a totally amazaing grade 1 for the lot when I came home and looked at the results. He is a First candidate and got told he should be an observer.

I have guilt feelings about getting my cat the snip - I have to take him tomorrow and he's such a character(hellohellohellowhatareyoudoingwhatareyoudoingcanicometoowhatisthishellowhoareyouwhatisthis)

that I feel utterly rotten about getting his nads taken from him. He doesn't smell and doesn't spray. I can see why his last owner didn't bother because he's a sweetie. He's not a big tomcat, he's teeny (albeit with a fat head).

David says I must but then he's not acting the Brutus by shoving him in a box and taking him to the vet.

Ha, usually it's men who have qualms about getting the snip done. Harden your heart and do it - he won't notice any difference and it's much less invasive/risky than spaying a queen. (Though my dad reckoned our Abyssinian, Rufus, had such a fine pair of balls it was a pity we couldn't keep them in a jar afterwards.)

After seeing David ride in France, I'm not totally surprised at the Grade 1 scoring; he rides better than any of us, a complete natural. You must get the little boy snipped no matter how guilty you feel about it. If he isn't spraying now, he will start at some stage.

I didn't like the idea either Kate but it really is for the best. Even the nicest toms are still toms. My vet told me the tom cats in Florida, unless they are completely kept indoors, have only a few years life expectancy if they are not snipped.

Don't know what an IAM is but based on the reaction here it sounds like a big accomplishment for your Guy.

He really won't miss his nads. I have this on good authority from my two neutered toms, Felix and tripod. It also keeps them from wandering too far in search of 'tail'. And it only took one heartbreaking visit to a cat shelter to convince me of the need to reduce the number of unplanned litters of kittens.

WM, you could always get the little man some prosthetics... 8)

http://www.neuticles.com/

I kid about the implants, but definitely get the lad snipped before he starts spraying.

Follow up...

Noticed that the Neuticles website has promotional products!!! WTF!

Think I'll get my lady friend a pair of these for x-mas:

I've got two front teeth that have been repaired by this method. I recently had to have one of them re-done - it had lasted about 18 years. If they're done by a skilled technician they're unnoticeable and practically indestructible. definitely worth the eye-watering price.

Okay, okay. I feel like Judas.

I don't keep cats indoors, stickyfrog. They are kittens at home but cats outside. They have to go out to be cats and not go crazy. I've never had one in London until I had a garden and the cat could be let out.

At once stage we had 7 felines in our house when I was small and anyone who says they don't want to go out has not seen a pack of cats climbing curtains, fighting each other, destroying sofas, jumping at windows to scare birds etc - great entertainment but they assumed the status of a tiny pride of lions and keeping them inside would have been insane.

Yeah Buddy is already bonkers and he is mostly outside. Would hate to see the result if he were kept in all the time. My other cat Suki is mostly an indoor cat and she does not possess the skills to be outside in cat world without supervision.

Congratulations Kate!

Those kids play havoc with your scooter riding plans but sure are worth it.

45 minutes more of WERK, then tomorrow morning I'm catching the Easyjet to Copenhagen for a weekend of airshow fun with my propellerhead friends.

Oh, and this is our hotel. It's an Arctic trawler. How cool is that?

HUSKY sounds like fun. That's a neat place to stay. What are the rooms like? Very cool. Take some pics to show us when you get back.

Certainly will!

Rooms are cabins and I'm sharing a 6-berth one with my 4 accomplices. Dreading this slightly - I'm a bit old for sleepovers - but a couple of them are notorious for oversleeping and I want to make damn sure we're up and out on time in the morning

Bring your whistle. That'll get them up. I stay in hostels when i travel and you can get used to it, i think. Just pray that nobody snores. Sounds like fun. Enjoy yourself.

On the Janus, no less, Alice. I wonder if it is a Hugh Janus by any chance?



Off to Stuttgart in the morning for a bit of MV friends catch-up...

Rockhopper says you are a few bottles behind.

Looking forward to catching up on Rockhopper's gossip...

Woah, remind me to ride like a complete arse when I eventually ride with you lot. I quite enjoy my jumblies. And I too have not started spraying, apparently.

So because I was a lazy arse last night I woke up at 5.00am this morning and ran around my local park for about an hour while talking to myself and watching the sun come up. It was bliss being the only person around at that time with no one to judge a lonely man jogging in bright orange..
Later I rode up to the East End to those lovely people at Scootech who gave the GTS it's 6000 mile service.
While it was being done Genie and I rode down to the Museum of London at the Docklands to learn stuff while it shat down with rain outside.
It was all very interesting but about 3/4 of the way around ( just when it got interesting) both of us got information overload so we both went shopping instead.
Got dropped off at Scootech a bit early so while Lawrence was rebuilding my CVT David offered me a ride on the Beverly 300.
Granted it looks like a 2 wheeled Chrysler Mini Van but it rides beautifully.
Those big wheels really help the handling and with a fair size screen I could ride one of those for miles.
I also liked the seat base which makes you straighten your back so it doesn't slouch which could be a real advantage riding long distance.
Yeah liked it a lot but it's styling isn't classic enough for me......yet.

Later in the day something so hideously funny happened to me in the local Co-op I'm not even sure I should post it but bugger me it was priceless.

Good times.

Bill X

PS The only downside about today is that I'm not at Spa Francorchamp in Belgium for the F1 Grand Prix.
It really is the best motor racing circuit in the World plus it's only 3 and a half hours away from me.

watched the challenge cup .... even though im a yourkshireman and could walk to leeds i wanted wigan ...... yeehaa they won ... thank you

Too much beer Saturday night led to a somewhat subdued Sunday morning, with enormous hunger pangs setting in at midday. Every suitable eatery was closed, the buggers, but eventually we found a taqueria where enormous burritos were consumed. The afternoon was then quietly spent letting these slowly re-form. So Sunday evening there was nothing for it but more beer - but this time I wisely chose a lower ABV IPA.

So all chirpy today, and I heard from my Ape importer chappie - the factory re-opens this week, so there's a small possibility of getting something moving on that score!

Also now properly investigating getting my CA motorcycle licence [sic]. Although the written exam and practical tests are somewhat less demanding than doing a CBT, the bureaucratic paperwork looks a complete 'mare! More later as that progresses.

What bureaucratic paperwork? You show up, fill in the form, hand over $27, take the written, and off you go.

True for a US citizen who already has a driver's licence. Trickier for someone on a 'visa waiver' program that doesn't match the behind-the-times CA DMV requirements, which 'demand' a 'green card' (I-94W) which I don't have of course.

I suspect if the person behind the screen is the one person in the DMV who actually really knows the current rules and regs, then all might be plainer sailing, but legend has it that that person (if there is one) is very elusive.

When you arrive under the VWP, you should still have the I-94 stub, correct? Your passport plus I-94 are adequate according to the DMV website.

(ETA: I see now that it's gone paperless. In that case, the passport stamp should suffice. They just need the end date of your legal stay. That creates a problem for you in that the license will only be valid until your visa waiver expires, max 6 months.)

No, no 'green card' has to be filled in at all under the visa waiver program, so no stub has ever existed.

Plus licences are only valid for the 'length of the legal entry' - now is that the expiry date of the visa waiver, or the 90-day stamp in my passport?

Who knows. I think I might have to actually get a 5-year visitor's visa from the London US Embassy before any of this can work. Regardless, I'll be popping into the DMV to see if it can rattle through regardless - you never know!

You know, having been through the San Francisco office many many times, I would suggest you go there. Chances are they won't even notice.

Also, I'm sure they deal with a lot of undocumented immigrants so they'll know how to get around the regs.

Well that's a relief. Glad we have workers in Gov. offices that know how to get around the regulations.

I think I definitely caught up. Rockhopper was strangely quiet, but Stuttgart and its Weindorf were truly wonderful. Well done Patrick for introducing me to a multitude of Germans, like Trollinger, that you can't get anywhere else...

The only bad thing about the trip was getting off the Heathrow Express in Paddington and ending up in the on-the-way-home remnants (and drunks) of the Notting Hill Carnival. Should've got the Picadilly Line.

You know, with a lead line like that, you have to post it now. The mind boggles at your every-day adventures as it is.