New Moped

Smeeta drove me up to Bromsgrove, South of Birmingham on Sunday morning to pick up an immaculate Ducati 999S which I’d been unable to resist having viewed it the previous Sunday. We put the bits and bobs (paperwork, road exhaust & ECU, battery charger) in the boot of the Golf and Smeeta then drove off to do some shopping at the Bullring, in Birmingham, while I set off for home – gingerly at first…!

I have to say it’s even better than I expected: the bike feels light and nimble, whilst the engine is just a BEAST. It pulls smoothly but strongly and the race exhaust sounds amazing: a real ‘roll-of-thunder’ boominess at lower revs, rising to a sort of thudding metallic bark of epic proportions! If you’ve ever heard a World Superbike-spec Ducati accelerating hard out of a corner you’ll know what I mean.

The rear suspension is a bit harsh over bumps, and the underseat exhaust generates a lot of heat – you really don’t want to be caught in traffic for long on a summer’s day, but aside from that it’s actually quite relaxing to ride: the bucket-loads of low-down torque means that you don’t have to fuss about being in the right gear, you just roll on a bit of throttle and you’re heading for the horizon… It’s really quite easy to ride, and as happy lazing around as going flat-out.

And it looks gorgeous in black 🙂

A tale of two Italian Superbikes:

BBQ with Rav-isha

On Saturday afternoon we were invited over to Ravi’s place in Iver, Bucks – a secluded development set a in green and wooded area just inside the M25/M40 junction. It was a lovely afternoon to be outdoors, not too hot but bright and pleasant. Alpesh spent a while cleaning the grill of the communal BBQ, and we then set about cooking the lamb burgers, chicken wings, sausages, courgettes, peppers, aubergine, chicken thighs… and tamarind-soaked salmon.

Wow!! Beautiful food: the lamb burgers, with cumin and coriander, and the salmon were particularly good. So were the chicken thighs. And the mango salad. Come to think of it – it was ALL superb (thanks Bhavisha!!). After the food had gone down a bit we even had the energy (if not the skill) for a bit of tennis. Tennis really is much more difficult than it looks and I certainly didn’t show any particular talent for it, sadly!

Duxford Visit

On Friday Smeeta and I both took time off work so that we could accept Andy’s offer of a flight up to Duxford Aerodrome. The annual Duxford Flying Legends airshow is taking place this weekend so Andy wanted to pop up the day before and hopefully see some historic planes either parked up or perhaps practicing their display routines ahead of the weekend.

The weather has been rotten of late and it was decidedly touch and go weather 😉 we would be able to get off the ground. We picked Andy up from Gt Missenden around midday under grey skies, but with rain holding off, and Andy checked the forecast at White Waltham and announced our chances were 60:40, so worth a try…! It was very blowy as we unwrapped the plane but takeoff was fine and we set off to the NE at about 1,800 ft with pretty good visibility below the cloud layer. We could feel the blustery conditions bouncing the plane around though!

The prevailing wind was behind us and we entered a busy Duxford circuit after only 20 mins in the air, keeping an eager eye out for other traffic. On final approach we were almost sideways with the wind coming from the SE, and Andy did a great job of straightening her up just as we touched down on the vast tarmac runway. That’s known as a ‘sporting’ landing apparently…!

We parked up on the grass apron on the far side of the runway, on the end of a long line of other visiting light aircraft. Whilst we waited for a minibus to come and pick us up we were indeed treated to some spectacular sights: a Junkers 88 landed in front of us, as did a DC3 Dakota, and overhead a Douglas A-1 Skyraider fighter went through it’s display routine – it was fantastic to be able to watch from such a great vantage point.

Eventually a minibus appeared and deposited us ‘land-side’ (ie: at the ad-hoc border control on the edge of the runway!) and we grabbed some food before setting off top pay our landing fee and explore the excellent Duxford Air Museum. The big domed American Air Museum hall is absolutely packed full of historic US airframes – including a B52 (!) and my own favourite: the very spooky and still-futuristic looking SR-71 ‘Blackbird’ spy-plane.

In the main hall we were able to explore the inside of one of the original prototype Concordes, and there were other memorable sights such as the Vulcan and Lancaster bombers.

We flew out of Duxford at about 5pm, the wind against adding a good ten to fifteen minutes to the return journey and we landed at Waltham for a bit of food and caught up with ‘Big Steve’ who’d also been at Duxford ahead of us. Finally headed home about 8pm after a great day out: many thanks Andy!

These three pics courtesy of Andy Randle:

And the rest are mine:

Lazy Sunday

We stayed with Alien & Charlotte on Saturday night and after a hectic day we weren’t in a rush to get away so we sat around chatting and playing with their ever-so-cute new kitten, ‘Bear’. The long grass in the back garden was a bit of a challenge for the little thing – she didn’t seem sure of her footing so would barely move and kept wanting to clamber up onto the wooden beams, or onto my foot. She gradually got used to it though and after a while was confident enough to chase the feather-on-a-piece-of-string.

She’s a really gorgeous little thing – I’ve always wanted a silver-grey tabby, like Mike and Rachael’s Henrik (as in Larsson – Mike is a Celtic fan!). Bear purrs almost constantly, plays a lot and is very good natured. Top Cat!

The garden is looking fab now that Mr & Mrs Smith have finished it – a huge improvement, and seems to be so much more spacious. The stacked beams and sharp angles give it a great architectural feel and the veg patch puts our efforts to shame! Was great just to hang out with them as always.

Bear. The Cat.

New, fresh garden layout

Crazy Saturday

Having driven down to Alien & Charlotte’s on Friday night, the four of us spent a full day at a hot and sunny Goodwood Estate for the 2011 Festival of Speed, often described as The Petrol Head’s Garden Party. Its become almost the premier Motorsport event in the UK with huge crowds pouring into the magnificent grounds to see a wide variety of cars and bikes from different eras and different branches of motorsport. The cars blast off up ‘the Hill’ in themed batches (eg: “1950s Sports Cars”, or “F1 Past and Present”), so theres a never-ending stream of amazing, noisy, beautiful machines heading past on a slim ribbon of tarmac, barely 10 metres away, with just straw bales separating them from eager spectators.

Some cars are just cruising by ‘on show’, some piloted by their amateur owners, others by famous racing drivers – past or present. Other cars are actually trying to set a competetive time up the course – the fastest time of the weekend is a matter of some prestige. Either way it’s a great opportunity to see some of the most important machines in the history of Motorsport. AND you can see them close up: all the cars are parked in open paddocks where the general public can wander through and talk to the owners, mechanics and drivers, and take a real close look at the cars themselves. It’s a fabulous event!!

We left about 5pm and headed into Brighton for another special event: “Lucha Future” – Mexican wrestling: a crazy, colourful, noisy spectacle where the fighters wear the famous capes and lace-up masks. This was a surprise Birthday treat for Alien, and it was genuinely MAD, but a lot of fun…!! <More details here>

These next two pics courtesy of Andy Randle: