Bank holiday weekend debrief

[guest7]

Well... what a busy weekend that was.

Saturday, spent the morning riding around doing job quotes, including one where some scummy builders had quoted £300 and parts for a job that I struggled to charge more than £30 for 

When I got home, a mate, BJ, called in to pick up some ladders I'd sold him and after a nice chinwag and cuppa I chucked him out and I headed off to do some more work at a nursing home (a bit depressing if truth be told, please let me shuffle off before that happens to me).

I got back from work late, just in time to leave again for supper with some friends.

Sunday was a hoot. I dropped wifey off at work, then I met up with a chap that I hadn't seen for 12 years (Boyd, it was the self same Toby that you were in college with). He had ridden back to Cardiff for the weekend on his 500cc Gilera scooter, which looked well tasty. Before we parted I gave him a spare oversuit for his journey home, he being surprisingly ill-prepared for the weather.

I picked wifey up from her shop job and we drove straight to Reading to stay with Simon Morgan and his wife Sarah. They did a marvellous job of pampering my family (me, Sue, Dylan, Dafydd and Honour). We watched some films, ate some great scoff and generally lazed around into the bank holiday. My daughter played lots of guitar and everyone had a go on their comprehensive Wii set-up. Who else but Simon would have a 42" telly dedicated to games playing? 

Simon dug out his Dragon and Elefant footage and stuck it onto disc for me. There is some superb on-bike camera footage showing the TC crew riding to the 2007 and 2008 Dragon rallys. I will post some of it on YouTube when I get a chance, but it needs editing first.

The obvious downer on the weekend is that it is (more or less) the first anniversary of Jethro's friend's fatal accident. Helen was in our thoughts.

Cheers
GC

[mini-thumper]

Rode 1200 miles to Scotland. Bucking Frilliant!!!!!

Boyd (Just call me Numb Bum) Brooks

[Steffan]

Drove (not rode as originally planned) to Oxford with a slightly mad if not endearing American for a one day colloquium on Heidegger (that's Martin the German philosopher) and contemporary religious thought. After a pleasant evening at my favorite hostel on the Friday, I opted to make the dash for home Saturday evening. I got back at 11.00PM and Sunday was uneventful and as usual these days bike free, notwithstanding that Mr M popped over for a cuppa and chat.

Steffan

[Andy M]

It started well, the Triumph passed it's MOT. As it was my birthday I then got rather ****ed on Port helped down by some very fine Shropshire Blue, which did sort of limit activities on Saturday!

Sunday though I finally got Karen and Gooner the Dog out in the sidecar. Only 25 miles round trip to Temple Newsam for a walk and a picnic, but it shows what it'll do. I wasn't happy going up the M1 until I got there and reaslised there was a very strong gusty wind which would explain the chair feeling even lighter than expected. With camping gear in the chair as well as Gooner it'll never be fast but it'll handle well enough. A decent ride out followed by a proper roast dinner and more port, about as good as it gets.

Monday was a complete bust; We've both got some sort of bug off Karen's sister and fall asleep as soon as we stop moving. What with the greenhouse blowing in and various other bit's that needed sorting it turned into a day where very little seemed to get done.

Andy

[guest7]

Steffan said: Drove (not rode as originally planned) to Oxford

Thinking of Oxford, have you visited the Pitt Rivers Museum? It is surely one of the UK's best museums. The collection is a bit bonkers, but worth an afternoon of anyone's time. Having said that, their website (see HERE) mentions that it will be closed for a while in summer '08.

And... as the stream of consciousness burbles gently through a field of morning mist... thinking further of university towns and museums, would anyone be interested in a TC day out at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge? It has loads of interesting polar exploration artifacts (Ranulph Fiennes fingertips, etc.  )

Andy... Happy Birthday fella. Mind you, you're probably still in your twenties aren't you 

GC

[Dave#22]

Hi all, Saturday was spent making my garden pond toddler proof, leaving the lillies, reeds and frogs to flourish, a service on Pat's car and fettling on various bikes finished off by taking the daughters whippet out for a good walk (run).
Sunday, some friends were off to Hawes and I arranged to meet them on the way (M58/M6), so off we set on DR BIG. It was so windy on the M56 that I decided to cut across to the M62 to avoid the Thelwall Viaduct and then cut the corner by Winwick. By the M6 junction on the opposite carriageway was a bike on its side with three people stood around, so I went to see. A young lad on a bike, had taken the corner too fast and hit the central reservation and crashed, landing in lane 2 with the bike pinning his arm to the road. A Doctor at the scene said not to move him, so I said Why is the bike still on him and they replied that they didn't know what to do, so I lifted it off him and wheeled it away from him. A paramedic arrived and checked him out, whilst Pat was on Traffic Control and declared him fit to move, so he did. He was okay, one of his trainers had come off and he'd ripped the ar*e out of his jeans.....silly boy but lucky. So we left, missed our connection and met our friends at the cafe at Slaidburn. From there we went over the moors (very blustery) to Ingleton, then on to Hawes, which was full of bikes due to the sunshine.
Monday was spent doing a couple of RBR (Round Britain Rally) landmarks and then family visits.
Fine weather all weekend apart from the blustery wind on Sunday and Monday.......I bet Boyd suffered in the wind as well.....nice one Mother.
    Dave

[Andy M]

Andy... Happy Birthday fella. Mind you, you're probably still in your twenties aren't you 

GC

Yep: Twenty-Fourteen! Cheers Mate 

Andy

[squirrelciv]

Took a crushing defeat in tennis on Saturday afternoon followed by the discovery of a fallen tree across my drive on my return home Sunday spent cutting up said tree and shipping it to the dump in the rain and Monday spent looking after the boys while wifey worked. Not the best bank holiday I've ever had to be honest, but going away with No2 son and SteveH (with his No2 son) this weekend so lets hope for a reversal of fortune.