¡InvictaMoto!

After last week's brush with the Torch and holding the 1948 Torch I was a bit more enthused. Then the opening ceremony and the theatrics showed that in GB we can match the world. I'd like to have a look around the Olympic Park but on the website all the £10 admission tickets are either not on sale yet or are sold out. I shifted my search to the Paralympics. The only tickets for the 1st or 2nd September are for the 7-aside football. At £15 they are a snip. So I bought two. A chance to see the Paralympians do their stuff and a trip around the park itself. I can put this on the back burner now until after we get back from France. http://www.london2012.com/

As it was raining hard I decided to use the train. The slow train was on time and due to the Olympic timetable the Javelin was already on platform 6 at Ashford. As for the duration of the games it doesn't go any further I guess it is easier to have it there. The front carriage is usually full even at 0913. Today there were 5 of us. One got off at Olympic Park. Sadly, to accommodate the tourists and games visitors the regular commuters have been sold a bum deal. The last train back to Ashford on this route in 21st Century Britain is 2139. That's 9.39pm in real money. Disgraceful.

I have spent a few hours working on the Normandy trip. At least the part that comes after the trip to Disneyland Paris. Disney was all done and dusted months ago with the hotel booked nearby for the Sunday night so we can be at the gates bright an early (or as early as we can). The hotel is an ETAP, soon to be rebranded as an Ibis.  It's cheap, has a loo and shower in the room and is less than £30 for the night. Lovely jubbly. Of course you have to sort out a breakfast. A batch of Tesco vouchers accounted for about 80% of the fare and I had to add some cash to confirm the booking.  As we have all day to get down to the hotel at Chelles, I booked a slightly later crossing to save us getting up too early. I'll start to look for places to stop on the way to make a 200 mile motorway run a little more interesting. Maybe we'll try to avoid the A26/A1 or A16 routes down towards Paris. Plan A To make the most of the 5-day crossing I needed to look at alternatives, ...

I got up at 5am and rode up to London to beat the road closures that we were told were going to happen. They didn't actually!!  Traffic was heavy to the lights at Falconwood on the A2, but once some of us with the ability to read had seen the sign to say the Olympic Lane was open to all, we used that to go to the Blackwall Tunnel. Bikes no cars!  Traffic was heavier than I had expected for that time of the day though. On the north side the lane was being enforced but only had five empty buses crawling along in it. "Our Team" plus Robert on the right! Once in the office at 6.45am I answered a few work emails, yes, work emails and then went outside about 7.30am to meet some work colleagues, Gina, Julie and Mel with her boys Ronnie and Max that had come in early to see the torch go right by our front gate. We were later joined by Anne from our office too. Robert was the 5th person on the street after Mel and her boys and me. He joined our throng! We had a wait of about...

I have no idea if other countries have done this, but in the UK we have had the Olympic Torch doing a relay around the country. It has brought out the people of the areas it has passed through to support the idea. I missed it in Hythe last week as I have to work and can't be hanging about the street for a few hours on a weekday. So when it comes to a street right outside where I work I thought "Hell yes" I'd be there.   Today we have been told of the road closures in the area.  The parking at the back of our building will be closed as the road will be closed from about 7am.  So I checked about the other building that we moved from a few weeks back.  The torch will pass right in front of there. All front facing offices and meeting rooms are booked well in advance! But, if I arrive way before it is due the road will be open as the police have a rolling roadblock approach that is about ten minutes ahead of the torch.  Or rather ahead of the procession...

Today was the first offical day that many of the Stalinist "Olympics Only" routes opened and will be enforced.   I did as Mayor Bojo has suggested and varied my travelling time and if today is going to be the norm, it will be a doddle.  But why do I think that this is a one off? The ride home was a doddle too. Twenty minutes of light traffic to the petrol stop by the Dome in Greenwich. Fuel up and away again. Fifty minutes to home. If only every day was like this.

Was so warm today for my first ride on the bike for three weeks. So warm in fact means I wore my Joe Rocket mesh jacket. A bit chilly early on but arrived on my course pleasantly warm and not a sweaty mess. Yee hah!

Cruising seems to be a fine act of juggling eating with more eating with sleep and trips ashore mixed in. Since we boarded the ship at Leith we have had two lunches, two afternoon teas, two dinners and two breakfasts. On Saturday night we cruised south after we had slipped the mooring in Leith near Edinburgh at about 10pm and slowly navigated the harbour to exit via the lock.  Royal Yacht Britannia in Leith In Leith we shared the harbour with the retired Royal Yacht Britannia.  She still looks good but what a come down after the Queen was forced by the scumbag Tony Blair to let her go. Arrival in the Tyne was around breakfast and we didn't hurry to eat and get off the ship; in fact it was like the Marie Celeste. In the end we took the coach in to Newcastle and spent a few hours down on the quayside with the iconic Tyne Bridge as one of the attractions. For me, it's Gateshead on the other side of the river than wins the photo competition! The ...

 Cabin 206  Enjoying the cruise. Only two nights but met some very nice people and of course, the food is superb. The cabin isn't that big but is good enough for a short break. I guess if you pay more then you get a bigger more spacious cabins with a seating area as well as a desk. Whilst it is nice to meet people, it is also nice to have some space to sit and read or watch the TV.

What a grey day! It's July 18th. It's about 8.45a.m. It's grey. Thermometer is about 9deg centigrade. It's drizzling. Apparently we had the wettest June on record. July can't be far off as there have been no days without rain at least once a day! Summer? Good luck to everyone that is planning to holiday in the UK in the coming days. That includes me and Claire on our mini-cruise. As "Unlucky Alf" would say; "Bugger!"

I need to do something about this.  Until I get a letter to say my job is safe, there's no way I can extend myself with a loan.  The only change to this position will be if I win the lottery or inherit a stack of cash. However, it doesn't stop me fantasising especially when the America is actually £300 cheaper at Laguna than I had thought.  I guess that might not be the OTR price. http://www.laguna.co.uk/locator/112360/america.aspx

One of the irritations in this area has always been the crap provision of secure motorcycle parking around the country, and especially in Folkestone and Hythe where I live. Until Sainsbury's opened their new store,  provision in Hythe amounts to two small crappy spaces in Aldi car-park, one small space in the Waitrose car-park where you have to clear the trolleys out of the way. Where else? Shepway was grasping for cash a year or so ago and so the bike space in the car-park by the Imperial at the end of Marine Parade was replaced with the pay and display machine. Mind you, it always had some muppet in a car parked in it. I have had a few confrontations with errant motorists when sarcastically (not in the John Terry meaning of sarcasm) asking what make their four wheeled motorcycle was as mine only had two wheels. The picture is of one of the many secure parking places in Islington where I work. This one is a ten bike space with five upside down U-shaped metal bars to lock ...

During the damp sojourn to Laguna Motorcycles this afternoon I was rather taken by the Triumph Cruisers. I am quite new to the genre. Three test rides on Harley Davidson's in about 20 years doesn't make me anywhere like interested or expert. Back in about 1996 or 97  I had a Suzuki Marauder VZ800 on loan from Suzuki GB, for a fortnight. Although I got to appreciate how it worked it " wasn't for me " at that time. At that time, I commuted 90 miles a day round trip everyday of the year (bar snow/ice) and took holidays all over Europe and wanted more mile munching ability and luggage carrying capacity. But in the intervening 14 or more years things have changed: My daily commute is more like 155 miles a day. I use the train more. I do fewer vacation miles Ride for pleasure less often. So looking at the America in Laguna opened my eyes a little. Sure, the 1600cc Thunderbird is bigger and classier looking, and the 2300cc Rocke...

The summer has been going so badly in the UK. Usually on a weekend in July in Hythe (where I live!) the beach would be packed. Families enjoying the water and the sun. It's probably the weekend of June 2/3rd that we last had a decent hot sunny day. This is disastrous for the tourist industry and all the supporting areas like restaurants and other services. The cone outside the cafe on Marine Parade looks lonely and forlorn on its own in the rain. Taken by InvictaMoto http://www.flickr.com/photos/60261390@N00/7570610972

Caribbean today. Pattie with Levi Roots Reggae Reggae sauce (not shown). Spicy.

Pretty astute judgement. Claire and I went up to Laguna Triumph at Ashford to see if I had won the Speed Triple at the open day. Sadly not.  The numbers /4912 on the end of the registration number and you are a loser. The astute bit comes in after the Laguna visit; torrential rain started as we left. Visibility was down to less than 50 yards but still the knobheads with no lights or simply way over the limits flew past. Glad I was in the car.

I never tire from listening to this track from the "Led Zeppelin IV" album. In fact as I blog, I am listening to four versions in a row. I had it on an ancient "IV" CD, then digital downloads of "The Song Remains the Same" and "Mothership". Plus an intriguing Rodrigo and Gabriel Spanish guitar cover. The best? I would say the 10 minutes plus of the live version from TSRS. Surely this is the best crafted track of all time?

From Paddy Tyson - Campaigns Coordinator Motorcycle Action Group Earlier today I posted a link to the online MAG products shop and for some reason (probably my age) it doesn't go direct to the MAG products. If you go instead to   http://www.mag-uk.org/    you'll see a big black icon on the right, that says MAG SHOP. If you click that, it'll take you right there. One day I'll get the hang of this IT stuff. You can also order some products from 01926 844064 during working hours too. If you have a copy of The ROAD magazine handy to see what's available (page 3)

From Paddy Tyson. I reported February that EU Periodic Technical Inspections (PTI) for motorcycles seemed to have faded away. It is very rare indeed for over 18months to elapse between an EU public consultation closing and the subject to advance as a firm proposal from the Commission, so we felt able to contemplate that the Commission had gone off the idea, given that they were unable to provide any link between bike accidents and road worthiness testing. Nine countries in Europe have no form of PTI (or MoT as we refer to it here) and yet there is no instance of increased injury due to unroadworthy bikes. The 9 countries are Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Malta, the Netherlands, and Portugal. Given the problems the Commission is facing with its attempts to foist anti-tampering rules on us without any proof, we mistakenly thought they would at least attempt to produce some justification for a euro-wide PTI, but the power of the private PTI lobby...

In the wet and windy summer we are having in the UK, it is essential to have a decent pair of over trousers to keep the rain out. Sadly, my last pair of Tech-7 trousers got ripped when I caught the left ankle gusset on the foot peg and ripped a massive hole that renders them useless. The new ones are made by Held.   Let's hope they hold the weather at bay!

Had an invitiation to go on the Suzuki Triples Club de France Treffen next year. Sadly, I have let my old girl get in such a terrible state that it will need to some long days working to get her ready.

African marigolds. Instant garden. Buy 'em and bung 'em in the ground.

Never in my wildest dreams did I see myself on deck on a cruise.  Apart from ferry crossings in a variety of places in Europe, and a flirtation with the Merchant Navy that saw me weeks from a deck officers course when I left school, a life on the ocean wave was what my Dad did. So when Claire found a "taster" cruise on a Saga ship from Edinburgh to Dover, I was a little surprised to find myself calling and doing the booking arrangements. We are waiting for the travel info to arrive. It's two nights on the ship, all inclusive with a stop in Newcastle. 

Walmart turns 50 this week, but is it a "happy" birthday? The mega-corporation known around the globe as Asda, Walmex, Seiyu but most of all -- Walmart -- has over two million employees and $447 billion a year in revenue, making it the largest private employer and retailer on the planet.[1] But Walmart's expansion has come at a real cost, and communities around the globe are paying for it.   From the single mother whose sales associate wages are too low to afford health insurance for her sick child, to the debt-enslaved worker in Thailand who had his passport seized and can't return to his family. Help commemorate Walmart's 50th birthday by sharing this infographic of somber facts about the retail giant The sheer size and power of Walmart means it has an enormous impact on everything it does, from wiping out local jobs and guzzling more energy than 57 nations in the world combined, to making its founders, the Waltons, one of the wealthiest families ...

Or so the guy in the sandwich shop said this lunch time. Like a biker? WTF? You are a biker or not a biker! Maybe I should have printed this and stuck it in his hand or on his seat.

I have been after a CD or digital copy of this album for quite a while. Tapping up mates that have a flair for metal proved fruitless and then I found a copy. Not quite the perfect but unrestored rideable Harley in the barn, but the CD equiv. Ripped it as soon as I got home. Fanbloodytastic! I had it on cassette from when it originally came out in 1989. If you want a laugh at the pretentious shite that people write in reviews. Search for this album on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/cr/B000008MEX/ref=aw_d_cr_music Pure bollocks. The pseuds claim that Wolfsbane came late to metal, or one twat says 8 years late for NWOBHM. For christ's sake they were like a lot of bands, pub bands and local heroes playing music that people wanted to hear who managed to get a following and a record deal!!! What the Amazon reviews show is what dicks there are on the site!!!

Don't think I am goung to win! Mind you, I never bother changing my team so it's pot luck.