InvictaMoto's On The Road Again!

It looks as if I will miss the rally again. It's a week tomorrow, but I am bikeless. The GS is still at Cooper Motorrad and not ready for collection. I needed to collect it this weekend as I have no time in the week. Sadly I have to work and getting to Tunbridge Wells before or after work is a no-no. So I am f*cked. I missed it last year as I was Tom and Dick. There is a window on Wednesday as I have a medic appointment. There may be time after to get the train if it is ready. Fingers crossed.

http://www.mypicsmap.com/photos/pauldevall    

Blimey.   I ordered the screen online at about 3.30pm yesterday and it arrived today at lunchtime.   I can thoroughly recommend HPS and their service.     http://www.bikehps.com/mra/

Where to start? Following the accident or should I say incident, with the Polish girl on the Honda back in September, the GS went into Cooper Motorrad for repairs. They had quoted for a new screen as the MRA fitted is broken in two places. But as a BMW dealer they couldn't order a non-standard part. After a few weeks it has been decided that I will order and pay for a new screen and claim it back via Carole Nash. Cooper's will deduct from the invoice. At last.

And to think some people do this for a hobby!

Art on the train , originally uploaded by Invicta Moto . Visualised by me. Created by Morris Pina. With some input from Karen Hamer.

After call after call waiting in queue after queue to speak to a human call centre person my billing problem is finally sorted. By logging on to Facebook. Amazing.

IMG00014-20091104-1208.jpg , originally uploaded by Invicta Moto . Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

On the "Wipers 2" trip our first stop was ostensibly for a coffee and this extended to frites for lunch and then a walk up to Mont Cassel to walk off a few of the calories. The steps up to the heights above the town are a bit overgrown and in UK with our greater "Elf and safety" culture they would have been closed years ago. The French get on with it and even let their dogs crap on them too. Talking of closed. At the top is huge hotel building boarded up and decaying. The Mont is in fact a narrow ridge, no more than 100 metres across at the top. On both sides are panorama tables pointing out places locally and fancifully, places further afield like New York, London and Leeds. There is also a windmill that judging by the electric sound was not being powered by the wind any more. The plain below is littered with mills. During WW1, Cassel was the HQ of the British Army fighting in the Flanders area. The statue is to Marshal Foch, who took over Supreme Commander of the ...

Not a theme park, although it sounds like it may be, but actually a recently rediscovered (in the 1970's) formation of trenches from WW1. These are around Messines Ridge to the south of Ypres. The trenches point northwards as this area was part of the bulge to the south the city. Entry is supposed to cost €1.50 per person but when we got there the gate had been wedged open and there were some other people already inside. The GPS location for the site is N50.80135 E2.87708. More reading http://bujold.co.uk/html/bayernwald.html