¡InvictaMoto!

Happy New Year

It's been a mild winter so far this year. But since I got back from Ostend, Pepe has sat in the garage unused. With work and then Christmas, allied with miserable drizzle, I've not been out. This needs to change. During a routine in-garage check I found one of the grub screws had gone AWOL from one of the screen brackets. Dashing off a quick email to Skidmarx resulted in a couple of spares arriving g in the post. Now maybe I can get out for a ride before the end of the year? Happy New Year everyone.

Day 29 Well, day 29 of Decembeard is almost over and this is where I am at beardwise. Although I did get it trimmed a week or so before Christmas, otherwise it would be more woolly. The justgiving page (https://www.justgiving.com/Paul-Devall-Beardy) has achieved 120% of my target. I know I set it a little lower than I wanted but it looks better this way. Thanks to everyone that contributed.  :) The picture shows me in a Motörhead T-shirt in memory of lead singer Lemmy Kilminster who died today of cancer. Planet Rock made today Lemmy T-shirt Day. #decembeard #lemmytshirtday

Finale Snow White and the Seven Dwarves at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury. Another excellent production again.

With a limited number of tickets for the main Thiepval commemoration we were going to be lucky to get any. So when our group was successful twice, winning four tickets, it was amazing. Now there needs to be some working out who will go with Cal and Trevor. I have begun looking at other commemorations in the area for those of us not lucky enough to get to Thiepval. More to follow.

We already have Ian and Paul joining the group and now Trevor Rice has signed up.

Movember has been and gone. So why stop there when you can do Decembeard instead. So far, the beard is coming along okay.  I took one at the St Nicks last week and another today. Fund raising not going that well so far.....  So click and donate. And I have set up an SMS donation system as well.   A suggested $1 but hell, you can choose any amount.

After the trials and tribulations of the Hudl last year, this year I went a step further and bought a Nexus 7. Again powered by Android. This one (for my sins) is a factory reconditioned model despite this upgrade not being out that long. The drawback against the Hudl is that there is no micro-sd slot to enhance the disk space and I am stuck with the 32GB onboard memory. Although compared to the iPhone 5S I currently have the apps seem smaller and run more quickly. The problem is that many of the iPhone apps I use aren't replicated for Android. The unit is very well made. It feels more substantial and better made than the Hudl.  The screen colours are far better and the operating system seems quicker. As it is Google a lot of the things, like Blogger, are available. The app though isn't that good and has many shortcomings whereas the iPhone app is far better. Work that one out! Let's see how we get on with this!

Friday . I like to prepare for a trip and usually lay my riding gear out the day before to look for any defects. So this was a job for Friday. We were both home as the night before we had been to see Deep Purple at the O2 in London, getting home in the wee small hours. Claire then had provided the extra hands it takes to adjust the Skidmarx windscreen. Loosening off most of the fittings needs a pair of hands to hold it in the right place, and another to tighten the bolts and Allen bolts. In fact I did the holding as the new position meant my hands were too big to get into place to tighten up the lower mounting points. Once completed,  I was almost ready for the run to Belgium the next day. Saturday . I had everything laid out for a 7.30am start but as usual I had forgotten some things. The alarm went and Reggie was up wanting to go out. After a night on the bed he needs his "garden break" before his breakfast. I double checked the Givi tankbag. All the bike's documents an...

Charidee Mate I didn't take part in Movember this year. I have directed my fundraising towards heart related charities as a result of the heart attack I suffered in April. I did however make a donation,  but of course, I don't like to talk about it.

Over a period of weeks I have been in email communications with the hotel in Amiens booking the rooms, directly instead of using booking.com. The hotel is fully booked and we have most of the rooms currently: Central Anzac currently: David Robinson - single Ken Fulton - single Calvert Price, Neil Dalton, Ian Gardner - triple Elaine Constable   & Ken Sole - twin Paul Devall & Claire Devall - double Ian Jenkinson and another - twin Trevor Rice - double Thirteen of us going. The largest turnout ever.