Bike Show Review

Well the show was pretty fantastic to say the least. Dave and I met my uncle at about 10.30, and we went in. The first thing that struck me was the lack of direction. I remember from years ago being thrust a bag which contained amongst various items a map of the show. However we had to locate the cheap nasty paper maps which were sponsored by the Sun newspaper. I would rather chop of my limbs than read the Sun, so it was painful to pick that up. I ignored it for the duration of the show.

All the stands were good, and I don't think I have the inclination to review everything. However, two things did stand out: a clear love of cruisers on my part, and a complete disinterest in scantily clad women trying to sell the bikes.
The cruiser thing is interesting. I love them: I love the feeling of being sat back, and the idea of blasting along without worrying about having to be as fast as possible. It seems like the ideal way to visit people in summer.
The glamour girl thing is even more interesting. I'm used to seeing women in Zoo or Nuts magazine, and in those they are all airbrushed and touched up. You see the women in real life and there are folds and wrinkles and they're very average.
What did impress was the lady at the Suzuki stand who chatted with my uncle. She was intelligent and knew about the bikes. It was a breath of fresh air. I say keep the girls off the bikes and let the smart ones wearing clothes do the talking.

So it's not much of a review, but I do recommend going on preview day and leaving it until later in the day. It was very quiet and easy to sit on all the bikes. Bike of the show? For me it was the Triumph Speedmaster. I love it, and I plan to buy one next year to sit alongside the Daytona.

I'm off to the Bike Show!

In five minutes Dave arrives and we're off to the NEC for the bike show. I can't wait!

My Current Baby

This is a picture of my current bike, the Daytona 955i. It is lovely, and it does have a very nice British flag on it. And look how shiny the exhaust is - hours of polishing there. I'm just glad you can't see the back wheel too closely.

Not Enough Sleep?

God I'm tired. Late nights and early mornings have contributed to this, and it's my own fault.

I test rode the Daytona 650 yesterday, and it's awesome. It rides so well, and now I'm really torn. I've not had my bike that long, so should I replace it? The idea was to buy a bigger bike so I could travel further, but how much travel do I do? Is it worth having a big continent blasting bike when you live in England? Maybe not. I'll take the 955 out for a spin today and have a think about it. The deal at Webbs is pretty good, so we shall have to see.

I'm off to the NEC bike show tomorrow, and I simply can't wait. All the new bikes, and you can sit on them all. Fantastic!

Whilst doing this post I've done some sums, and realistically I can't justify the extra expense. So I'll look after my baby for now, and see what happens in the new year.

The End of an Era

My housemate and I called in at the letting office yesterday to sort out a couple of things, and ended up discussing a date for when we will bring our contract for the house we rent to a close. The date has been set - 31st August 2006. We based this on the fact that him and our other housemate are teachers, and that will be the end of the academic year. Neil is planning to go abroad, Dalts isn't sure but wants a change, and as for Wayne and I, we'll just have to see.

It's all a bit strange really. Let the countdown commence.

Horrible Winter Evenings

It would appear that I had forgotten how unpleasant winter evenings are in England. It is dark and wet and horrible here at the moment, and it goes dark so early. I can't be bothered by this now - it's going to become worse! I also don't think I'm coping to well living with other people at the moment. The TV churns out crap all day, it's noisy, people do things that are just random, it's always a mess and I can't be arsed. I'm going to have a look at the old house again and see about moving back in to it. It would piss the lads of though, so I'll have think carefully about it. Not only that, but I don't have much furniture any more. However, I want to live in a house without a TV. Not only will it save me money every month, I think I'd be a better person for it.

As I work from home, I need to reorganise my day so that I work when it's dark and play when it isn't. If I started working Spanish hours, I could enjoy the afternoon in daylight, and then work from 5 'til 9 or something. Nice idea...

Nice Try

I went out last night with the plan of not drinking. It didn't work. We went to a party in Rasen which was ok until I began chatting with one of the old support assistants from the school where I used to work. She was pissed and talking crap, and decided to let me know that my old head of departement believes that his wife is having an affair... with me.

The guy is off work ill at the moment, and not because he's hurt his leg or something, and he is also one of only two people in the world who I call my 'boss'. He was an excellent head of department and leader of our team, and he really inspired me to do well in my job. His understanding of the line between his role and our friendship was simply perfect, and it hurts me so much to think that someone would say this. I don't know if it's true that he does believe it, but the fact that the rumour is doing the rounds is horrible. The problem as well is that it isn't an easy subject to broach, and I don't think that I would. I wouldn't guess that he has a problem with me, and to be honest if he believed this then he would simply beat the crap out of me, so I guess it's just an unpleasant rumour that I'll have to ignore.

Never live or work in a small town!

Saturday Morning

This use of Flock means it's rather easy to post a blog entry. As a consequence, I'm probably going to move to blogging rather regularly!

Saturday morning is here and we still have no hot water or heating. I think I'm going to risk another cold shower, rather than leave the house to go to the gym and shower there. Sheer laziness I fear.

I've decided that I need to ride the motorbike more, so I'm going to blast on it again today - the trick is finding some nice new roads!

Motorbikes

I've just been out for a blast on the bike and it was great. It ended up raining, but it wasn't a problem. I even started shifting my weight around a bit in the corners - very interesting stuff.

I made the huge mistake of calling in at Webbs of Lincoln, where I bought the bike from. There's a demonstrator Sprint ST there which is very tempting...

Flock Together!

This is quick post that I've generated from Flock. Hope it works!

Technology and Stuff

Well bugger. I was doing a big list of stuff that I use on the computer, sites, useful programs and the like, and Firefox crashed and I lost it. So here it is again.

Programs:
Firefox for browing (with loads of extensions).
Thunderbird for reading emails.
Feedreader for reading news feeds.
Trillian for chatting.
iTunes for listening to music.
Skype for internet telephony.
OpenOffice for writing, spreadsheets etc.

Websites:
Blogger for blogging.
Plaxo for organising my life (I like this a lot).
del.icio.us for organising my bookmarks (I'm new to this but it seems good).

News Feeds and Blogs:
Random Thoughts and The Separada Chronicles.
Various BBC News Feeds.
Engadget (great for knowing what's going on in the world of gadgets).
Other less exciting things.

New Stuff I'm Trying:
Flock - a new browser based on Firefox but centred around blogging and sharing. Very much a beta version but worth a look.

Looks like I've made the blog without crashing. Enjoy!

Stuff Happens - at last!

Alright, alright, I haven't written anything for ages, which makes me a completely half hearted blogger. I shan't apologise, I'll just continue!

I've just had a quick look at what I wrote last time, and the bar idea is on the back burner, but this is good because the reason is that work is going well indeed. I became pro active and sent out a mail shot to a load of companies, and one came back very interested indeed. As a consequence I visited Exeter on Wednesday (which was very pleasant), and to make it even better I visited my cousin in Taunton who I haven't seen for literally years. It was great to see her and her family again, and if the work takes off in Exeter, I'll see her a little more often.

The 'female' front is interesting (and I saw that with a slight smile of contentment). I've been looking very hard recently, trying to find a lady. I'm a believer that you don't need to look for this kind of thing, it just comes along, but it had been so long that I decided a little bit of looking couldn't hurt.
Last Saturday I went on a blind date with a girl in Lincoln, and it was ok, but there was no spark. That's a shame - we'd met online and chatted a couple of times, and all seemed good. I guess you can't tell what someone is like from what they type (pretty obvious really).
However, last week I stayed in a Travel Inn on the M6 Toll Road (not quite the Ritz...) while I was doing some work for my dad. The Travel Inn was pretty grim, but the receptionist who checked me in was just lovely. I can't really find the words, so I won't bother, but we chatted and did the whole 'chatty chatty flirty flirty' thing (that is my own expression).
Anyway, when I checked out I filled in the comments card berating the fact that the smoking rooms downstairs are before the no smoking rooms: when you wake up in the morning you have to walk through the smelly bit and it just seems odd. The last section on the comments card was asking about a member of staff who has been particularly helpful, so I mentioned this girl Clare and basically said she was the nicest person in the world!
I thought little of this until Sunday night when I was checking my emails, and there was one there on my work email from someone I didn't know. About to delete it as junk, I read enough to realise that it was from the girl at the Travel Inn!!! Now, this is a little naughty because she nicked my email address, but I don't care: I've spoken to her since and we're meeting up on Monday, and I can't wait to be honest. I'm not one to become carried away (not anymore, anyway), but there is definately 'something' there: a spark, a something.
So we shall see, and I shall tell more on Monday.

Happy Days!