¡InvictaMoto!

Or maybe #ARSWOL? Saturday's visitors are Wolverhampton Wanderers  at the Emirates. The game on November 2nd is the first 3pm kick-off of the season at home. Saturday football was traditionally always a 3pm kick-off.  And then once the Premier League was created to make football into a business rather than a sport for the working man, it all went to shit. TV money may have given us the chance to see talents from across the globe, but it has corrupted the sport. The match going fan is the least regarded.   We still pay a high price for our tickets and yet at the whim of the TV companies, games are switched to extreme times and places. Often far away where public transport is not available.  A trip to Liverpool with an 8pm kick off.  The return to London when the match finishes nigh on impossible. TV and it seems the Premier League doesn't give a shit.  So let's make the most of the 3pm kick off.  We don't know...

The Old SOCS Facebook group came about when a few of us after years of being ex-Suzuki Owners Club members (and some ex life members) decided on a ride up to the National Heritage Motor Museum near Warwick, to surprise long term mate John Storrie. From that humble beginning the FB morphed in "Old SOCS" and the idea of a weekend was floated.  To appeal to a larger audience it was decided on August and Vic Dunckley came up with a place, Coniston in the Lake District. Accommodation is somewhat on the pricey side in the area in August. But luckily there is a youth hostel in easy walking distance from the venue and the pubs/restaurants. So I am booked in there. It is £30 a night in a dorm. 😱 The only fly in the ointment is whether I am holiday with Claire in August and dates that might conflict.

It looks like I won't be Billy No-Mates this year. CHEERING!!  Not at the moment anyway. Not a Meldrew's member but Tony Young. We first went in 1985.  This is sadly the last ever rally, or at least Sinterklaastreffen, so quite fitting we are both going 34 years later! Screenshot as original is pdf I was looking at the P&O ferry this year but although cheaper than the Shuttle it takes longer.  So I have booked 0836 out and 1850 back with Eurotunnel.  Tony will go over Friday and so could book in then. He's staying outside Ostend in a B&B.  If I was able I'd have stayed at the Polaris/le Parisien for old times sake. In term time I can't get away on a Friday.  Inscription is €15 for the weekend and €10 for the day. There are also special t-shirts for the event. I have loads but "I was there" shirts are good!!  So end of November and my mo should be luxurious. 

Now that is frightening!  Sorry if you were eating when this popped up. It's the shave face.  In the previous post asking to you sponsor me for Movember   I showed the full beard face. That was shaved off without too many injuries although I nicked my bottom lip and it has been bleeding on and off since. By Friday, the official starter's gun for a month of tache growing, I'll have shave again to start off smooth.....  So please, spare even the minimum £3 and sponsor me.  My links are all over the place. It's 15 years since I had my first go and that was a charity called Tacheback. Pretty much the same ideals as Movember but now defunct.  Shame as I raised a good few quid in the two years I did it. Maybe this year's Movember will morph into Decembeard?  

Tell Me I'm Wrong by Adam Croft My rating: 2 of 5 stars A very popular magazine in the UK has a section called "Pseuds Corner". It highlights some of the inanities of life and the people that fuel them. Some of the reviews I read on this forum (Goodreads!) are pretty much there too. I admit that I have enjoyed all of Adam's Culverhouse and Knight books. In fact I expect I gave them 4* on completion. I am a little saddened that finishing book #8 led to no #9. This one I found very hard to get my teeth into. I don't mind a murder strewn book, but for some reason I was a bit queasy about the child killing as the opening murder. From there I read on and as some others have said the twist wasn't that much of a twist, more a spotlight shone and not difficult too guess. Not Adam's best book by a long chalk, View all my reviews

No Rest for the Wicked by Adam Croft My rating: 4 of 5 stars A really interesting short story. I got this free as I subscribed to Adam's VIP club. I had a bit of a struggle to get it onto my Fire but in the end it was worth it. A local murder, across the road from the copper's house. Who could have done that? Read it to find out. View all my reviews

It's hard work trying to think of an abbreviation for Stevenage Borough that fits into three characters for a hashtag.  No doubt some expert will come up with a better one. Anyway. Some 28 years ago I worked for Grand Metropolitan in Harlow.   My work colleague Nigel was from Cambridge but lived in Stevenage. Rather than take his kids to Cambridge United he opted for his local, then non-league, club, Stevenage.  I went a few times.  They won the Conference one year but weren't allowed into the EFL (Football League as it was then) as the ground wasn't up to the right standard. In 2011 and in their first year in the fourth tier they beat Premier League Newcastle 3-1 in the FA Cup. So a £20 concession ticket bought.  Let's hope for good weather on the day! The match on November 16th will be my first visit to their stadium since 1990.  Now.  Where to park? Had thought of going on the bike but the weather in November is lia...

Today's visitors to the jelly strength Fortress Emirates was Crystal Palace FC.  Unusually though we find them only a point and a place behind us in the league table. More often than not they are in the relegation places at this stage of the season.  Their manager Roy "Woy" Hodgson, former England manager, has them working well. Or so it seemed until Arsenal took a two goal lead in the 7th and 9th minutes. Goals from set pieces not from forwards but from centre backs Sokratis and Luiz.  On 30 they were level when VAR, Video Assistant Referee, overruled the onfield referee and awarded a penalty to Palace after Zaha seemed to dive over to get it. Onfield ref, Martin Atkinson, had already, showed Zaha the yellow card for the dive and given a free kick to Arsenal.  The annoying thing is not VAR itself but the time it takes to make a decision. If the muppets watching on TV are quick to contact the ref, why the long delay? They will have seen something to have queried the ...

Getting closer.  The rules are that on November 1st everyone should start with a clean shave and that entrants  keep growing a tache for the whole month.  From what I have seen there are people whose facial hair grows like quickfire bamboo. I mean that within a few days they have a lush tache.  I am starting from a full beard position. More to shave off....  Please sponsor me:   https://uk.movember.com/donate/details?memberId=2865109 This year is also FIFTEEN years since I grew my first tache for the Tacheback charity.  I followed that early success up in 2006 -  http://invictamoto.blogspot.com/2006/08/tacheback.html

After reading some very low opinion reviews of Drivefly Gatwick on Google Reviews I decided that maybe I was lucky in early 2019. The car came back undamaged and clean. Or at least as clean as it was when I dropped it off! Instead I have booked with the airport's own long term parking solution. We have used this many times before. Except this time, I have signed up for their meet and greet.... So that's another thing checked off the list.  We've only flown into Alicante once before although I had a few times in the 90's when I went quite often to visit ex partner in Murcia. Then I used the bus to Murcia and didn't hire a car.

So it's Meldrews Sunday again. Whether it is the time of year but there were only two of us out.  And we were separated. We decided on The 2-Stroke Cafe at Greatstone. It was closed.  I checked on FB and they had posted on Friday that it was closed for a leaking roof.  Cal headed off to another cafe and I went to another one as I didn't know where he was going.  I gave the Yamaha My Ride app a chance and it finally worked. Okay. A two mile ride in a virtual straight line shouldn't have taxed it.  After coffee at the "End of the Line" cafe at Dungeness Light Railway station I set off for home. I tried the app again.  After a longer ride I expected to see a full journey. No.  As it had done last time I tested it and it effed again. Packing up after less than a mile and a half.  I'll give it one more go...  Update 21/10/19 Posted a question on the play store and the developers replied and suggested making some changes to the phone setup and batt...

Finally. The new Elsemade fabricated seat is fitted. It's wider and deeper than the original, with an added gel layer.  Next. Get Claire to try it out. 

An annual service costing £254 inc taxes. Not bad. Dropped Pepé off just before 9am. We did a few errands and shopping and then home. I called just after half time in the rugby where New Zealand were annihilating Ireland to find it was ready. Changing back into bike gear we headed off to Laguna Ashford.  The ride back was quite boring on the A20 but the bike pulled nicely. 

With all the scare stories surrounding where to park at the airports, especially Gatwick, I might revert back to the long term parking on the airport where I park the car on concrete and take the key with me. The bus from there to the departures takes only a few minutes.  The problems surrounding "meet and greet" seems to stem from unscrupulous people with a website and a field taking people's cars and leaving them in an unattended and unguarded field. This is one of the cases that was brought to national attention -  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2nY7zwtVKkhl134HBvWhcPy/park-direct-gatwick-ltd When we went to Florida earlier in the year we booked a "meet and greet" service at Gatwick with DriveFly . The car came back to us as it was when we left it and wasn't damaged any more than it already is.  No mud. So we will possibly go with them again in the future. Reviews on Google not good though. They score 2.8 out of 5 stars.  There's plenty of ...

Still plenty of time before I become Billy No-Mates again for other riders to stand up and join me on the run across to Ostend.   Of course, we may have Brexited on October 31st and the EU might have erected a sea-wall between us and the mainland of Europe..... Or then again, everyone might see sense and carry on as normal and allow tourism to take place. Might. It won't be too bad. I will meet up up with long term biker buddy Tony Young and family on his trike.  When we went for the first time in 1985, Tony and Heather were there I think on his Aspencade or maybe a BMW RT.  My memory has faded. My partner at the time, Audrey, was on the pillion of my almost new MZ 250ETZ. Two up with luggage was a struggle. Back then we used to stay the weekend from Friday to Sunday at the Hotel Polaris.  It became "our" hotel and over the years we stayed there as a Suzuki Owners Club group we tended to meet the same  group German riders year in year out. Tony will be doin...

Derbyshire Police have contacted MAG to apologise for an administrative error that resulted in bike theft stats being quoted incorrectly.  The revised figures see Derbyshire tumble in the rankings from 1st to 25th. Meanwhile Thames Valley Police has revealed data that allows MAG to rank them 29th. Derbyshire Police's Freedom of Information Officer explained in a letter to MAG's central office that: "As a consequence of further searches by our analysts it has been established that the original figures as supplied are wrong and, therefore, should be disregarded. The revised figures are: 2017 - 437 2018 – 414 This revelation strips Derbyshire of its top rank in the Bike Theft Rankings, with the new figures revealing a theft rate of 1 in 62 bikes stolen as opposed to the originally published 1 in 776. Meanwhile, despite communications from Thames Valley Police to MAG stating an inability to provide the data within the constraints of the FOI legislation, ...

Seems like a lifetime ago that I went to my 5th and final FIM Rally and earned my Meritum Award. 

Well. After the old two-stroke down the barrels it's time to see if (after a few weeks leaving it to seep through) the bugger will turn the engine over. By hand or foot of course. Plugs out and oil in the bores. I have seen a few basket cases online going for decent money and that's what Mrs D would like to happen to mine! She doesn't understand the deep relationship a man has with his bike.  I had hoped to get it sorted for this year in time for the 35th anniversary of buying it. But I suppose 2022 is a target when it will be 45 years old.  By then I'll be retired and even less of a distance biker than I am now. So fingers crossed.

The Motorcycle Action Group appeals to Anne Sacoolas: "do the right thing" On 27th August 2019, the car being driven by Anne Sacoolas, wife of a US Diplomat, collided with a motorcycle being ridden by 19 year old Harry Dunn near to RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire. The car was allegedly being driven on the wrong side of the road at the time of the collision.    Tragically Harry died shortly after the collision.  Despite informing the police that she had no intention to do so, Sacoolas left the country before an application by Northamptonshire Police to the US Embassy to waive diplomatic immunity had been considered. This story has been well covered in the media with Harry Dunn's parents appealing to Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to intervene.   The response from Donald Trump has infuriated many with its  insensitivity. There are a number of aspects to this story that MAG intends to address at a futur...

That is the question.   After a wander around the new Saga cruise ship "Spirit of Discovery" all other summer vacation options are pretty much nullified. The "Cruising!" blog is linked on the right -----> I had hoped to have a bike holiday but we'll have to see.  Maybe I'll have to look at a short break somewhere. I had looked at Czech for the MotoGP and France for maybe a tour.

On Saturday 28th September, at their 45th Annual Group Conference (AGC), MAG members generated a strong and uncompromising message regarding what hey see as unworkable and unrealistic transport policies that are being promoted by politicians of all colours. During the Conference, a series of proposals made by former MAG National Chairman, Neil Liversidge, were discussed and put to the vote.  All passed; most by an overwhelming majority. The proposals progress and solidify MAG's position, which promotes freedom of choice in personal transport, and an integrated transport system that works for all members of society, the economy and the environment. The position defined by these proposals rejects the proposed 2040 ban on the sale of internal combustion-powered vehicles, or any similar ban at any other date.  Promoting freedom of choice, the position rejects assumptions that electrification of the entire vehicle fleet in the UK is achievable.  It does, howev...

Firstly. Let's get this out of the way.  The lunch was absolutely bloody marvellous.  From appetiser to the cheese and then a light sorbet for dessert.  The Angus steak perfectly cooked for me.  Cut like velvet.....  There were veggie options too. The service from the crew was as expected top class.  It sounds snobbish (for a working class bloke!) to say that although I enjoyed last year's Norway cruise with P&O, Saga tops them for service and that idea that cruising is still a rich person's holiday. It's not of course. Before that we had a coffee in the cruise terminal.  We went with friends, Ulli and John, but didn't get on the tour with them. The ship is really nice and we had a trip around all the decks and a view of the cabins. This will be an all-inclusive ship and for us oldies, it's free of children!   As it is almost new the show cabins were actually just cleaned as the ship was just back from a cruise, in fact there were many ge...

Another sunny day at the Emirates. We had expected a rainy cold day but in the end it was glorious. Unfortunately the game wasn't as good. Arsenal dominated the first half but only had David Luiz' first Arsenal goal to show for it.  Plenty of huff. Little puff in the end.  Second half was Bournemouth on top. Both sides kept on huffing but neither looked like scoring. Pierre Emerick Aubamayang struck a post in the dying seconds. Three points in the bag. Up to third behind Liverpool and Manchester City.

Although I tried a similar idea some years ago I thought this was worth visiting. The previous attempt involved using a "named" maker. That wasn't much of a success. Sandisk 's support was totally shit = s ell a product. Realise it is rubbish and then don't support it anymore. So surely only an idiot would try again. Well. Idiot or not I bought one. The unbranded Chinese version came in a few days from an English mailing point.  It works pretty much the same as the WiFi in my Samsung compact camera. Power on and it broadcasts a wireless signal.  Check the WiFi on the phone and choose the SDWiFi option and then open the app to copy the pix across to the phone or tablet.  The card is actually an adapter and takes any size Micro SD card and I have a 128gb card in the slot.  So far it works. 

Tonight at The Emirates we entertain Standard Liege from Belgium in the Europa League.   Their fans have been arriving all afternoon and as I sit in the office preparing this and getting ready to head up to the stadium, they are on the newly paved area outside Highbury and Islington Station singing and generally enjoying themselves. The drum is a little annoying though.   As is usual the police presence is very light and they are keeping a watching brief. Maybe a lesson to be learned from this instead of the almost Nazi tactics employed across Europe. A few of them were a little naughty earlier as they let off fire crackers in the tube station at Kings Cross. So let's have a good game and hopefully no surprises like the one our neighbours from nearby Middlesex got when they were on the receiving end of a 7-2 thrashing, at home, from Bayern Munich. The starting eleven featured Bellerin returning from long term injury. Also starting were Tierney, signe...

In the Name of the Father by Adam Croft My rating: 4 of 5 stars The usual fare from Adam and his pair of mismatched but oddly symbiotic coppers. A bit more personal detail added for curmudgeonly Jack though to open things a little. View all my reviews

Strap yourself in, things are about to get hairy... Can't see any images? Click here Paul Devall mobro.co/invicta-grow-the-mo    Donate Paul, you're back. We're chuffed. Let's do this. Congratulations, straight off the bat. We've said it before and we'll say it again: you're changing the lives of men across the world by raising lifesaving funds and awareness for prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health and suicide prevention. It's huge – be proud. Where to start this year? We...