International Norton extravaganza

Well actually its the Tay Valley Brach camping weekend, July 20 -22 at Applecross Wester Ross, possibly the best roads in the UK and one (if not the) of the best pubs also. All Norton owners welcome, lesser makes also welcome and we'll try to convert you!
No Band or organisation, get yourself along to talk bikes and introduce yourself!
If you want to know what its like, the video from 2008 is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP60xiGl-Xo

I hate public transport

Why you may ask? Well its not the comfort, the train I got this morning to Glasgow was comfortable enough, no the journey was spoiled by the public. Now this is an unfortunate problem with the public in general, they tend to have some ignorant people amongst them. Todays prize goes to the fat guy in a suit who seemed to be terribly important sitting next to me. He was so important that despite the train being busy and having nowhere else to sit that when I sat next to him he never moved a millimetre, he continued to take up 1 1/2 seats and spoke in his phone in between doing the crossword in his paper that took up 70% of the table.
I did consider emptying my cup of tea in his lap, or even having a word but he was an ignorant son of a bitch and wouldn't probably have realised why I was complaining, the upshot  was I suffered in silence and put a small curse on him instead.
Please note the following;
Wearing a suit, shirt and tie doesn't give you any more rights than anyone else
If you are too fat to fit on a seat, consider your other passengers or pay for 2 seats!
If you think you are so important, go in first class!!
We (the silent majority) do not want to hear your terribly important phone conversations, consider this when you speak!
Rant over! Although I am pleased I never resorted to my base behaviour which would have been to have a go, to be honest I couldn't be bothered and felt sorry for the sad fat short guy really!! 

Making the most of it.

Far too nice an evening to stay in so after a bit of adjustment to the isolastics I took the Norton to South queen ferry for a chippy. Met a photographer from the states who is over to do a wedding here, pretty high profile guy, done Bill Clinton's birthday apparently. Strange he wanted a photo of us and not the bike! Me, i just like bike photo's.

A most excellent time!

Well thats us back from Applecross, we were so lucky with the weather, virtually a dry run up there and then it was hot enough to sunbathe for a while on Saturday afternoon before heading to the walled garden for afternoon tea and then back to the campsite for a couple of pints. Met a couple of guys from Lancashire, one of them on a T150 trident (one of four he's got) good banter followed in the pub later, they turned in about 10, the pub got quiet then busy again, we left about 1 am so plentiful drink was taken and since it was my birthday Judy (hostess of the year) got me a bit of cake with candles just to embarass me and a very nice dram (which didn't embarass me)
Again today a great run home, the roads were wet in bits but we got no rain, roads were quiet and most people moved over to let us through, doesn't get better really. Its funny, on Friday the roads were flooded and I wasn't really relishing the trip but it turned out great, the rain's always worse through the window, get out there on your bike and enjoy it! 

Just to prove it, sunshine over the Applecross area, fantastic

 I think this lamb was playing hide and seek!

The guys getting a feed in before the Saturday night Stag party!!!

Weather holding up.

We left Edinburgh last night just after another heavy downpour, I must admit I did think about taking the car but sense prevailed. What a brilliant run we had, dry roads all the way and apart from the 6 sets of traffic lights on the main roads, 3 on the A9, it really was an epic run,one of those that i'll remember. An overnight stop at invergarry hostel and today we're stopped at loch carron having a cuppa before heading to Applecross. Here's hoping our luck holds.

Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Back from Sunny Shrewsbury

We just had a overnight trip to see my daughter Micheala in a dance show she's in. I was very impressed, now theatre and modern dance aren't usually my thing but the show was excellent and of course I thought Micky was the star (well I would wouldn't I)
As we drove (no bikes this weekend) down the road we left a very wet and cold Edinburgh to magically arrive in a very pleasant and warm Shrewsbury 300 miles South, the temperature seemed to go up about 1 degree (C) per 50 miles. I have to say that I was impressed with Shropshire as a nice area, there is a recession on but judging from the amount of fancy motors we saw, Ferrari's, Lamborgini's, Bentley's not to mention a myriad of expensive looking Classic cars there are parts of the country where the recession appears to have missed.
I never knew until last night that Shrewsbury was the birthplace of Charles Darwin, it is and they have a very large and strange statue to him overlooking the river, the statue is supposed to represent DNA, I thought it was a fish skeleton until told otherwise! Oh well maybe I should stick to bikes rather than trying to be sophisticated! 

Quiet and back to rain

Well its been a quiet week bike wise, managed a short run out on Wednesday night on the Commando to restore my sanity after a particularly trying day at work. Apart from that its quiet, rain is hissing down outside and not looking great for the weekend so thats a bit unfortunate. Thought I'd share some more photos of the recent trip from the South of Ireland with you, just to show the sun does shine sometimes.

 Now how confusing is this corner if your looking for a sign!

Fi actually managed to start it but didn't take a run on it!

 The yellow Commando overlooking the Healey pass area

 This is the life, sunshine, motorbikes, good beer and good company!

The famous McCarthy's bar at Castletownbere made famous by the book of the same name