Nose Job

I bought a used front fairing for the Ducati – an 03-04 nosecone with the extra air vents either side of the headlights. I like the look of the extra vents and I picked one up on ebay for about £40, and have been trying out various different colour-schemes by applying some red black and white electrical tape. I haven’t quite decided which I prefer yet…

The current 05-06 nose:

The 03-04 nose

Finally settled on this…

Goodbye Golf

Part of the reason for getting on with finding a new car was that Mum’s Agila is barely usable now – the engine is worn and it’s drinking as much oil as petrol…! So, having discussed it, we thought Mum could have the Golf, once we’ve found a suitable replacement. Which we didn’t waste much time over, so this weekend seemed an ideal opportunity to drop the Golf off with Mum in Brecon, as I’d already planned to be in Wales to help Priten move into his new (old?) flat.

That was the plan. Unfortunately there were heavy snowfalls all over Wales and England on Friday, and we weren’t sure if it would actually be possible. In the event, I drove the car to Brecon on Saturday and then got the train from Abergavenny to Cardiff on Sunday morning to help unload Priten’s van and he then dropped me at the station to get a train back. Roads were actually not that bad: mostly clear carriageways and no sign of ice. There was more snow on Sunday and I ended up walking the two miles home from Hemel Station in the dark, but got home 6:30ish at least knowing that all had gone well.

Well that was quick…

And it is quick 😉

We’ve been thinking about replacing the Golf for a while but not actually done much about it. Until Sunday, when we popped over to CarGiant HQ in North London and came away having put a deposit on a lovely mid-grey Mercedes SLK. Smeeta had wanted a convertible, and we’d considered the BMW 1-Series, Audi TT and other soft-tops like the Mazda MX-5. CarGiant is MASSIVE and they had good examples of each but the SLK really stood out, and being a folding hard-top it’s a bit more practical long term than a cloth roof. The price was keen and we both loved it, so we put a deposit down and picked it up the following Thursday…

Fuerza Bruta @ the Camden Roundhouse

We met up with Mr & Mrs Smith (Alien & Charlotte) and Jenny K on Saturday to go and see an amazing piece of performance art at the Camden Roundhouse: Fuerza Bruta!. It’s impossible to describe, you’ll just have to go and see it for yourselves. Well worth the trip certainly. Managed to squeeze in some very good Pizza too beforehand.

Alien’s Speed Dreams

Last summer our good friend Alien and his mates achieved their objective of racing an old Triumph at the Bonneville Salt Flats. That Triumph had belonged to their old friend Mike Page, who sadly died suddenly of a heart attack. He’d planned to restore the bike but had never completed the job so they decided to do it in his honour and take the bike to Bonneville where they would scatter his ashes.

The story was taken up by the BBC who were filming other British Teams taking bikes to the Salt Flats and the resulting two episodes were aired on BBC2 at 10pm on Sunday 6th and 13th Jan.

We watched the first show tonight and it was absolutely brilliant: well constructed, funny, interesting and moving, all in one. It’s always weird seeing friends on TV, but great at the same time, and the Mike Page team were great, as were the other crazy characters.

A New Year – 2013

We spent this new year’s eve with Lee & Julie and Phil & Fleur, which was a lovely way to kick off 2013. Phil & Fleur were over from Aus with the lovely and lively little Grace and were staying with Lee & Julie over New Year so we were very pleased to be able to join them for some food & drink at Chez Pickrell in Teddington.

No photos of the party itself, but it was a lovely evening 🙂