InvictaMoto's On The Road Again!

Everything has to be sponsored now. You can hardly turn the TV on without advertising as programmes are sponsored by some product or company. Mostly nothing to do with the program or the product? Maybe it's cheaper than simply paying for an advert slot? And so it is with football.  Long after shirt sponsorship became the norm the stadiums themselves started getting new names. My Arsenal are currently playing at "The Emirates Stadium" in Islington, North London. Sponsored by the airline of the same name.  I suspect the trend came from the US, and has taken over all across Europe. Schalke, where we go next week in the UEFA Champion's League, have the Veltin's Arena. Many German clubs have modern stadia built for the 2006 World Cup, where sponsorship was the business plan. The Football League Cup has been sponsored for years, by the betting company Littlewoods, by the Milk Board, by Coca-Cola and now by a bank - The Capital One Cup. The bigger clubs that hav...

  Castle's Camden NW1  I was at a school doing to work and when it came to lunch I thought I'd try Castle's in Royal College Street in Camden. I've been here before but it would have been twenty five or more years ago when there was a bike dealer nearby called Maitland's. It's a more modern shop than the other local shops in Islington, no tiles and no old fashioned wooden benches but the pies are nice and it is cheaper than Manze's in Chapel Market. All in all a good excursion and nice to find a street or restaurant/cafe not filled with yuppy pillocks like most areas where banks have located their new offices!   Double Pie & Mash and Liquer

A few more Zombie (Nurses) from the Alice Cooper concert on Sunday.

After a few years since I last took part in Movember I have signed up again.  Nowadays the pledging of money is done on the Internet and the hassles of collecting money has been shifted to the charity and off the person that takes part. I have posted my link - http://uk.movember.com/mospace/2865109  - on my Facebook page but forgot about Blogger!   Although I have slightly more FB friends than blogger followers and to be honest you wouldn't fill a small room with them all added together, I have managed to get £55 pledged. This heady amount means I am currently #1815 in the UK. Much better than my standing in the Fantasy Motorcycle Racing........ So if you want to contribute, feel free.  They take dollars and euros and all kinds of convertible currencies...... I have also joined a team called "She Wore" that represents one of the supporters groups at Arsenal - http://uk.movember.com/team/581661 .

The EU Parliament has issued a press release saying they are happy they've now closed a deal on the Type Approval Regulation and seem pleased that they've got the EU Commission to promise it will have done a cost analysis in 4 years time. Perhaps that'll be enough time to ensure they have gathered some evidence to justify the move... Even though the European Ombudsman found that the Commission had a case to answer as it had failed to supply supporting evidence for the proposals on anti-tampering, and even though the UK Government felt it necessary to do its own impact assessments as the Commission's offerings weren't robust, the EU Parliamentarians have pressed on regardless. Campaigning to date has certainly lessened the blow and now the anti-modification rules included in the regulation will only apply to bikes under 48hp (as opposed to all bikes as originally intended), but this is still a terrible day for 'project Europe'. The Internal Market a...

Wembley Stadium A few pics from last night. Blogger has it's own way of organising photos uploaded together from the iPhone app. The first one was above. Wembley Stadium playing host to an NFL game between Patriots and Rams. The pics below not quite in the order as taken though.... Performers at the Arena Spider Zombie Nurse Ghoul In keeping with the Halloween theme the foyer was filled with performers dressed as zombies and other undead.  My favourite was the nurse.......  ;) Loaded were good as the first support act but to be honest I only knew the Guns 'n Roses numbers. They did suffer some mixing problems as the vocal was almost obscured by the band. Ugly Kid Joe were better than I expected after the two singles from 15 or more years ago. Sound was better too. Another Zombie Nurse Another Undead and Me!  Alice was simply superb. A show as well as music. He played all the classic hits plus some less well known songs....

Earlier in the week we heard that the French Assembly had rejected the proposal by Euro bureaucrats to introduce the so called super MoT. Two other countries had also rejected the proposals. And then this week the UK Government's Select Committee on Europe also rejected it. We already have a testing regime that has annual tests for road worthiness and it has worked well for us. Maybe only a battle won but the war continues.

It's that time of year again when we tog up into the horrible conditions and go on the Toy Run. It is the same date as most years on the first Sunday in December. Hopefully it will be a mild day and people will turn out as usual in the many hundreds to make the day a success.

Clubs have US owners. Now we have a US brewery sponsoring the Football Association Cup aka FA Cup. The FA Cup is the oldest football competition in the world and pre-dates everything except the formation of the very first clubs, after all, you need clubs to take part. More here: http://www.thefa.com/thefacup/more/history Okay the beer purporting to be Budweiser is made over here and used to be owned, along with Pillsbury and Burger King, by a former employer of mine called Grand Metropolitan. My interest died in 1991 when we were laid off. I have rarely drunk the brand. The US version was a cross between a chemical spillage and washing up water, albeit after the dishes had been removed. The UK version is bland and just another pilsner/lager. The Czech version is however a different proposition. A decent strong flavoured pilsner not from Plzen (the city that gave its name to the type of beer) but České Budejovice in southern Bohemia. Not an attractive town but worth a...

Three days away and I hadn't really thought much about it until an email arrived on Monday from Wembley Arena. Even then I printed it and promptly forgot about it. Checking the Transport for London (TfL) website reveals engineering works on London Underground set to start about 2300 on Sunday. Or about the same time as 10000 people spill out of the Arena! So drive. Checked local parking and the nearest one to the arena is £20. I usually baulk at that, but given the alternative hassles booked it anyway.

This is the third poppy posted.  Sgt Timothy O'Leary is Claire's Grandmother's older brother, killed at Windy Corner near Bethune in September 1915.

Charles Devall Pictures courtesy of the Royal British Legion's "Plant a Poppy" website. I did three one after another but only two made it through the moderator before close of business. William Devall You can have a look here .

InvictaMoto: Overall Points:             742 Overall Position:          40998 Game Round Points:    100 Game Round Position: 31709 Consistently score higher in the round but never get much higher overall. Proves I am not a very good chooser of race teams!!!

At Casa Aranda in Malaga. Churros and me

Bikers lead protest against Cleddau Bridge tolls - Wales News - News from @walesonline The nearest bridge to me is the Dartford Crossing. Originally just a double tunnel under the Thames and then they built a bridge as the tunnels couldn't cope with the traffic. About three years ago they dropped charges for motorcycles.  There was another concerted action by local riders to hold up traffic, the police did get a bit lairy but in the end, charges were dropped. To get through the tolls now you are expected to queue up with the other vehicles and then the barrier is raised and you can proceed. Not ideal.  There is plenty of room to have opened a lane or two that were big enough for bikes, even fat arses like 'Wings, and save us queueing. But that is way beyond the comprehension of the private company that the Government sold out to.

With the "Indian Summer" not really going to happen the decision to take the car rather than the "Wild Hogs" bike trip is now a reality. Shame, but safety and comfort have to come first.  It should be comfortable in Neill's Avensis! Plus the car will give us room for a little shopping! Christmas is coming. Beer. We have decided to stay in the hotel right by the Veltins Arena. It's a short walk across the car-park and means we have a quick exit after they let us out! We booked two as soon as we knew the date of the game and as it was booking.com we could cancel right up to the day before. I might suggest that Neill takes the Arsenal stickers out of the car. You never know! The hotel is the Arena Hotel . The car is booked on the Shuttle for 0920 on Tuesday and back on the 1820 on Wednesday. Now which shirt shall I take for this game? The Legend's Number and my nom-de-plume

Have had a bad headache for the better part of 36 hours. Went to the docs and sent on to the ER. Been here six hours in William Harvey. Great care from all the staff but no nearer yet finding out what is the cause Tramadol are quite slowly working. Updated:  In the end after an MRI scan and a cardiogram they decided that maybe the problem was associated with my ear infection of a couple of weeks ago and maybe sinusitis or migraine. I already suffer from a version of migraine where I have the headache and associated flashing aura and tunnel vision.   Usually I pop a couple of pink Migraleve and in a couple of hours we can kiss the problem good bye. If caught early enough, then it is gone quicker. This time it is different. Five days since the headache started and it is still pulsing through my head but the drugs seem to have lessened the pain. The hospital said that if the headaches continued into or even beyond the weekend that I should contact my...

Photo Album  on Flickr.

I was hoping that we could have a "Wild Hogs" sort of adventure on the trip to Gelsenkirchen for the Champion's League match on November 6th. At the moment the hope level is fading after frost this morning that was just about melted to slush on the windscreen meant that winter has arrived. I do have the bike gear for cold weather but have become a fair weather biker again! Maybe as I was in Spain in mid to high 20's (centigrade) temps that I am feeling it more than I might otherwise. Let's see how the weather progresses....

The 2013 Kent Pet Food Run will be the same in format as last year's.  I have been running Pet Food Run's in Kent, since I returned from Bedfordshire, since 2003.  Each year I keep sating it will be my last and I think this one will be. Despite publicising the run to local clubs and branches of local one-make clubs the run is mainly a few if us from the Kent Centre SOC and the Kent Riders. This year I have invited my local MAG group to join us.  It is also advertised on http://www.bikerspost.com/event/84 The run will start from Maidstone Services at 1200 for the ride down to the Blue Cross at Northiam.  Full details in the link above.

Luggage loading! I used to love watching all the activity of the airport and as a family we would get the bus to Heathrow for an afternoon of plane watching from the Queen's Building. It's not as fascinating now but still interesting to watch the activity surrounding the grounded aircraft.

Last view of La Colina , originally uploaded by InvictaMoto . (Click to view original) The last view as we sat waiting for the train to the airport. Although the ticket said T2 it was actually T3. Queues long as expected as it seems Monarch have one set of check in desks that take all flights.... In the end all safely aboard and away on time, packed like sardines in the A300 with nine seats across the body!!

The last view as we sat waiting for the train to the airport. Although the ticket said T2 it was actually T3. Queues long as expected as it seems Monarch have one set of check in desks that take all flights.... Turned out okay in the end, although it was very cramped on the plane. Monarch cram nine seats across the body of the plane making for narrow aisles and even narrower seats with little or no leg room.

Sunrise at La Colina, originally uploaded by InvictaMoto. (Click to view original)