Thursday 31 December 2015

A Guid new year tae yin and awe

Well almost 2015 over, apologies for the lack of blogging in December but its not been that busy on the motorcycling front and I don't suppose you log in to hear about my shopping trips to Morrisons or my moans about the M8, Forth road bridge, extortion of fines on unsuspecting Edinburgh tram users or our Government (that's what twitter's for right?).
Motorcycling wise the weather in Scotland this year was dire, I had two sets of visitors from Europe to stay, Dan and Sara (www.worldwideride.ca) on part of their world tour and Tomas and Andrea from Germany on their first break for a while, we also holidayed in the outer Hebrides in the Summer and Scotland North at Easter, The scenery was spectacular as always, just that you couldn't see it most of the time due to the rain and wind, oh and it was bloody cold, thank you Scotland for living up to the cold bleak and dour reputation we have worldwide. We were though blessed with a milder Autumn and Winter so far, the massive downside being the constant storms which have devastated the lives of so many people and must be driving many to despair, of course its been a great opportunity for our politicians to get out and kiss babies and say "more must be done", bullshit!
It's been a good year though, we got through with some fun, some stories to tell and a clean bill of health. Fiona and I both mastered??? the sidecar this year, great fun and a pain in the ass at the same time, I didn't expect to spend so much time working on it , that's why I have Nortons and Moto Guzzi's, having said that its now ready for the Elefanttreffen in January in deepest Bavaria and our wee camping trip this Saturday in deepest Peeblesshire.
Next year we look forward to some better weather, some more great motorcycling, hopefully some sense in the world and less misery for the less fortunate,
We're planning a trip to Sicily in the Summer via Croatia and Bosnia in an effort to top up the tan, just so its not too much of a holiday I intend taking the V11 Guzzi which should ensure my stress levels are kept high and our local chiropractor is kept busy!
The other good news is the book of the big trip has been dusted off and I'm making steady progress, I need to get it finished before we bugger off on a biggie again.
Have a great 2016, I hope you all have good health, and lots of fun (and sunshine) Some photos to finish off 2015


Breakfast at East Fortune on the 27th, obligatory photo of the Vulocan
Thats me in the sidecar behind it, it's huge 
North Berwick, Heidenau M&S tyre fitted on the front now
Clear day, nice view of the Bass Rock
Sittin chillin, hanging around in the (cold) sun
Changing the battery on the BMW means a right pain taking the tank off, not a 5 minute job
Engineered to make sure BMW dealers get rich from servicing costs
Have a great 2016!

Sunday 6 December 2015

Lull in the Storm

After a horrendous week of rain and winds which has left hundreds of people homeless with flooding, and the closure of the Forth road bridge for the foreseeable future due to incompetence and mismanagement there was a blue sky today. The first blue sky in a while so we made the most of the day by wheeling out the sidecar and heading to see the Kelpies. We've been meaning to visit this engineering marvel for ages so today was a fine day for it. As we arrived we met Ian Ross who was with a contingent from the 2CV owners club, he is also a fellow sidecar owner who's also going to the Elephant rally in January, its a small world. The run home we went via Queensferry to take a photo of the closed bridge, The fact that the main arterial route linking the North to the South of Scotland is closed for at least the rest of the month is nothing short of a National disgrace, it is causing chaos and will continue to do so until its open again. What amazes me is that the government don't have a plan B ready for this eventuality, scurrying about now trying to come up with a plan isn't good enough, every large business should have a contingency plan for when they have a major failure, why don't the politicians and civil servants have a plan yet?
The good news is we had a great day out anyway and the plus side of the incompetence is that the Queensferry road now deprived of the bridge traffic was eerily quiet, a braw day oot.

Sunny day = happy smile
Ian took oor photo
2CV club lineup
A rainbow breaking over the Kelpies
A marvellous feat of engineering and art
Spectacular
One head up the other down
Selfie time
The calm after the storm
3 bridges in the distance, the only one working is the oldest and it only takes Trains