Flying Colours

We popped up to Stoke Bruerne, north of Milton Keynes, to pick up the freshly repainted race fairing for the track-bike. Larry at Illusion Racepaint did a top job – I was stunned when I saw the finished article. Anything other than Orange and I would have been happy but the lines he has created on the front fairing really look the biz…

Since it was nearly lunchtime we stopped at the Navigation pub on the canal. Thankfully we were quite early as it soon became extremely busy – it was the first genuinely warm day of the summer. Had a bite to eat and then lounged by the canal for a while before heading back home via the Garden Centre where we picked up a small japanese maple for the planter in the front garden, some pansies, sweet peas and a really pretty tulip.

More Stoke Bruerne pics on Flickr…

Revenge of the Underdogs

I took Friday afternoon off to ride down to Bristol (the scenic route) to take part in Jon Fynn’s birthday Poker Night.

Having cleared Aylesbury the ride was good, heading north of Oxford over to the Cotswolds where I stopped for a doze in the sunshine near Burford. Then I found myself unintentionally heading over to Stroud, from where the traffic all the way to the outskirts of Downend, Bristol was heavy and a bit of a drag… Arrived at Adrian’s around 5:30, by which time he was preparing the half-time chilli.

The game itself commenced at 8:30: myself, Adrian, the just-turned-18-and-so-allowed-to-play James and Jon were joined by Paul ‘Cashpoint’ Strickland and Mike ‘The Professor’ Woods. We bought in for £25 each and Jon kicked off in his usual fashion by taking several of the early pots. Mike was – thankfully – having no cards, James was being wisely cautious and I had had several promising hands which turned to dust on the flop. Jon’s luck then run out – Adrian building quite a stack of chips, and Paul bagged a couple of big hands too. Prior to the second buy-in things were bleak for me and even after another £25 I was down to about £20 in chips when I suddenly took two big pots off semi-pro Mike: went all-in with a pair of Jacks and then I flopped a straight and played it softly to bag another £20 or so…

Paul had also strung some good hands together, as had James, and Adrian maintained his early lead, so by the end the usual two top-guns were the ones to lose out: Mike down quite a bit, and Jon had lost his shirt, so to speak. We finished at 2am and I was £35 up – more than paying for my petrol and beer 🙂 All agreed it was an interesting and enjoyable game.

The next morning I popped over to see Lucy and Bo before their 2-week holiday in the sun, and then set off up the M4, came off North at the Bath junction and found some brilliant roads through Malmesbury (B4040), past the airfields of Kemble and Fairford, before stopping for a break at Lechlade. Then over to Farringdon, Abingdon, Thame, Princes Risborough, Wendover, Tring and home. The bike was awesome as always – although I was a little knackered by the time I got back! I need to build up the ‘bike fitness’ with some more miles, before I take the track-bike for it’s first outing… 🙂

Lost a peg…! Gained a few pounds?

I took the Tornado out for what was almost the first blast of the year yesterday. It was sunny and dry, reasonably warm and I was enjoying whizzing around the local area, through Tring and out towards Leighton Buzzard when my left-side footpeg sheared off…!!! I was straightening up after a couple of bends moving my weight back to the centre of the bike when it gave way, leaving my left leg dangling in the breeze. Had it happened on the way into a bend it might have been a little more, er, dramatic!!

I pulled over to check and it had just sheared due to metal fatigue 😦 Not a great work from the Italians there then. Worse still I had plans to ride down to Bristol next Friday for Jon Fynn’s birthday / poker celebration hosted at Adrian’s place, so that was looking seriously in jeopardy. Thankfully, the BenelliForum legend that is Mr Angus Smith came up trumps and sold me the original pegs from his Tornado RS, so I now have a spare right-side in case that fails too! Unlikely – it was probably a duff batch of alloy castings and unlikely both pegs came from the same batch…

Spring is here…

We now have a bucket-load of frog-spawn in the pond, and all manner of flowers popping up in the garden: daffodils, bluebells, hyacinths, tulips; and the Magnolia is has burst into bloom (only a shame it flowers so briefly!). It is also just about warm enough to sit out and enjoy the spectacle…

We have also planted some Rhubarb and Asparagus (estimated harvest: 2011…!!) and Smeeta has germinated from seed some Methi, with carrots, and other veg on the way hopefully.

More pics here…