¡InvictaMoto!

This years competition started on August 1st. The day I had my MoT. Since then I have done very little mileage with the terrible weather and a few weekends away in the motorhome. So today I filed the end of September odometer readings. Vera Strom  Kettle  That will be all for a while. Holidays coming up.  Current standings: https://www.kilometerfresser.eu/kf/kilometerfresserrangliste.htm

 Today was supposed to be raining. Then yesterday the forecast changed to sunny intervals but dry. As I missed going on the bike to Ebbsfleet yesterday, I decided to give Vera a run out. Only to Jo's Café at Brooklands to give her a run out. It's probably the last chance for a while as we are away for three weeks in the Moho next weekend. As usual Vera started on the button. As far as New Romney the speed limits are either 30 or 40mph. This doesn't stop Willy Wanker with his loud exhaust pipe from riding like a cretin in the villages.  Once away from the towns and built-up areas in Kent, there are few cameras and fewer chances of meeting a police officer. Yet these dicks still seem to be unable to find a higher gear than 3rd or keep to the limit. Jo's parking was pretty much packed when I arrived. The adjacent model car race track was open and the majority were in there. The newly concreted bike park was chokka too. I found a space. Inside there were a few t...

After the hassles of the train journey and the fast walk to the ground I needed a pee and then got lunch.  Okay tea as we call it in the south. Dinner to northerners. Very good it was too. The Oldham fans standing had only about a third of the open end behind the goal. It was pretty packed and so I went into the seats.  In total there were maybe seats for 100 and there were never more than 8 of us. The man I see at lots of games and his little dog were there again. The game was far better than the last time in February. Latics on the front foot from the off, but neither goalkeeper had much to do to save any goals. Lots of huff and puff. Ebbsfleet weren't very good in the first half and Latics had a few chances. The second half and the blues were out nice and early and were made to wait longer before Ebbsfleet bothered to come out. Maybe they thought the could "check out" early like one of the online betting companies offers gamblers. Latics went ahead from a c...

Whose great idea was the train?  I arrived at Folkestone West in good time only to find all the trains were delayed due to trespassers on the tracks near Dover. The information boards seemed up to date with slow trains, but not for the High Speed service I needed. "Delayed" isn't helpful. When the boards did update, the 1601 High Speed service would not arrive until at least 1629. So I got the delayed by 20 minutes 1540 slow train to Ashford International. It crawled along. It would be a tight squeeze to get from Ashford Platform 1 and across the Platform 5 for the 1640 HS, that had come via Canterbury and not Dover. On a good day I should have been stepping off the train at Ebbsfleet International... In the end it was fast walk between platforms as we had been sitting alongside the rail works admiring the new German built equipment for cleaning the rails and removing the slippery leaves and ice, for ten minutes. Platform 5 was packed. The announcements confused the late ...

I decided that with the terrible weather we are having that maybe it would be better to go on the train rather than the bike to the ground.  So ticket for the train bought.   Luckily, as I don't trust e-tickets on my phone, I printed the match ticket and the QR code earlier today.  Luckily, as I say as I saw kick off is 1730 and not 1500 as normal for a league game. The reason? It's on TNT Sports on the TV! After three wins on the bounce it would be nice to see a 4th!  Ebbsfleet were in the bottom three the last time we were here in February, and it was a terribly dull game and 0-0 draw! Ebbsfleet are bottom of the league this time, 24th from 24. Hopefully a rejuvenated Latics can batter them!   Oldham Athletic Official Website

The faux sheepskin ones that we bought and had fitted previously in Suki have done approximately 25000 miles with os sitting on them.   The problem is that they have become very baggy and have stretched,  To try and keep the seat part (rather than the back) comfortable I have had to push the excess material through the gap in between the back and the seat!   So before we go away to France and Spain in October, I have ordered some different style covers from Amazon. They arrive tomorrow on Prime.  Molly though is in the secure storage yard until next week! Maybe these will fits a little better and not stretch.  Reviews have said they are a tight fight on the captain seat that UK motorhomes have fitted in place of the usual van seats. And that they look a little wrinkled in places but that disappears with wear. So fingers crossed. They are simply to stop the original upholstery on the seats getting dirty or having stuff spilled on them. I guess until Mol...

Well that was a really bad year. I finished 118th! And the new 2025 event hasn't got any better" with hardly a mile done on either of the bikes. End table

 Checking that should I wish to enter the Greater London area in Molly that I can without incurring the #ULEZ charge.   It's a daily charge rather than the reasonable French Crit'Air system that is about protecting the environment, and not like London, at making money to bale out the local government by fraudulently claiming it's about health... It would appear that Molly meets the emissions standards, until they move the goal posts again, but should I venture into the inner shithole it will mean paying the congestion charge.

This was a last minute decision really.  After having the last two trips cancelled by the weather and then a few dental emergencies we wanted to get away.  I chose the Premier Parks site at Fishery Creek on Hayling Island primarily as it's not that far away, not north of the Dartford Crossing and had hardstanding! We picked Molly up from the storage site on Thursday afternoon and then started to put the stuff we'd need for a weekend.   Friday   The plan was to leave on Friday morning, late enough to avoid the traffic.  Claire had a massage booked for 10am.  I was putting stuff in the van when the carbon monoxide detector started to beep. A single beep every thirty seconds is, according to the Kidde website, showing that the battery has expired or about to expire. So whilst she was being pampered I drove to Wickes in Folkestone and bought a new one. It's not that long ago that the one in the house had the same problem. The van version wa...

This Facebook page is full of moaning.  Seriously!

It seems like weeks if not months since we last went away in Molly the Moho.   Our asy couple of trips have been cancelled either by the weather or by Claire's emergency dental appointments.  We are still out of pocket after giving Nelson's Patch plenty of notice that we couldn't make it.  As their park wasn't full it wasn't as if they couldn't have let us change the booking until this coming weekend. Instead, they didn't bother to even acknowledge my emails.  So in future they can get stuffed.   So where to go. We have left it a little late as we still have the ongoing saga with Claire's dental appointments.  I locked around on the various camping websites and there wasn't much that caught my attention.  In the end I discounted the Caravan Club sites, not where I wanted to go and the costs seem to grow to be nothing like the "from" price you start with. In the end I had a look at " Premier Parks " and chose a large site in Hampsh...

It is that long ago. It's 50 years ago since holiday on the scooters. The four of us, Steve, Chris  and Geoff on a variety of Lambretta scooters and me on a Vespa SS180. Me on Geoff's SX200 We went to Newquay in Cornwall. From our homes in the Thames Ditton, Claygate and Molesey in Surrey. The trip was mostly done by train to Exeter St Davids station. The scooters were loaded onto the guard's van at Surbiton.  Those were the days!  The ride from Exeter is now shown on Google Maps as 83 miles and under two hours. On ten year old scooters it took longer than that! We were there a week. The first holiday I had without family. Great times. Sadly a few weeks later I got dumped by my first true love. The SS180 registration MGX 78D was sold soon after to a neighbour. The Google Map The photos were taken on a Kodak Instamatic and were scanned this afternoon from Kodachrome slides that have been in a slide box for years. It's the o...

Great result. Crap journey getting there.  I set off in my car at 1120 rendezvous with my brother at our Aunt's in Maidstone.  First problem. The M20 junction for J5 was closed so we had to detour through the town centre. Had they bothered to signpost simply going around the Running Horse roundabout and back onto the motorway would have saved 45 minutes in solid crawling traffic. Second problem. Roadworks on the M25 leaving traffic queuing in one lane on the M26 for two miles.  This is because the useless bastards activated "smart motorways", doing away with the hard shoulder without building emergency areas in case of breakdowns. Now they are retro fitting them.  Third problem. "The improvement" of the junction with the A3 from the M25. One lane again. This time everyone, no not everyone, queuing to get off. Other arseholes coming along in lane two to force their way in, often stationary in an active lane two with traffic moving at 60mph.  We eventually got awa...

Molly went into the storage place today.  For some strange reason I went the wrong way!  We had a tour of Romney Marsh and passed the storage on the "wrong" side! I had to do a U-turn and go back!  DOH!  So 10 miles instead of 6! On the way the "range to empty" showed the most we have had in miles since we got Molly. She'll be there for a few weeks I think until we know more about the trip to Spain and Claire's root canal treatment. Hopefully, the dentistry will go off okay and we will be able to go as planned. The current plan doesn't allow much time to relax on the way to Alcoceber as we have four overnights to get there. Before she went in I drained the fresh water through the waste water tank by running the tap in the bathroom with a little disinfectant to run through the pipes and go into the waste tank. Whilst that was emptying I topped up the wash/wiper bottle. It took 2.5 litres to fill that from the 5 litre container I bought in Spain earlier in...

I had an email today thanking me for staying at Nelson's Patch recently. Err. I didn't. It looked as though they wanted me to review my stay but rather than do that and be churlish and leave a 1* review, I simply replied to the email. In my reply I stated that as per their cancellation policy I had let them know I couldn't make it due to my wife needing emergency dental treatment, and as the site had lots of empty pitches for the duration of our stay, maybe they could have let us change the date until later this month.  They never bothered to reply. I doubt they'll reply to this email either, sent to the address on their booking confirmation.  Very poor indeed. There is no way I am going to book with them again. It's a simple courtesy to acknowledge receipt of an email.   F**k them.

We had just packed up the van and were just having lunch before setting off when we saw on Facebook and then an email came through that the event was cancelled! There was always this chance after the torrential rain we had had in the south-east over the last few days. Yesterday though, we both thought little of it and if it was cancelled, so be it. We would simply let the tickets roll over to June when the next summer event was on. That was one of the options we were given. Then today, after loading the van with everything we'd need except for us and Reggie, we saw the notices.  Bugger. Disappointed! Molly unloaded.  Camping "treat" crumpets out and in the toaster! 

Maybe. Maybe not. I had an email today from the apartment reception and then are happy to let us change the booked dates as they have vacancies. We won't know until after September 17th when Claire has the surgery to know if we need to change.  Fingers crossed that we don't need to move the trip to a date any later in the year. Changing to a later date will mean messing about to get my Arsenal ticket changed as I am currently down on the spreadsheet to go to the game with Liverpool on the 27th October. If the worst comes to the worst I can always move the holiday back a few weeks and I am certain Phil (who I share the ticket with) won't mid attending the Liverpool game instead of me! I can change the P&O dates although it will cost an amendment fee.  But at least the Spanish part of the trip will be saved.

Typical. With an away weekend on grass at the Campers and Coffee Rally coming up in a few days.... the weather has turned and we have torrential rain coming from the north-east.   We have had sunny conditions for a few weeks but this week it's lashing down! What luck! Last September's video....

This years team photo.  Many of us had been hoping that we'd be signing a decent striker. Whilst Fondop puts himself about he's not the prolific goal scorer we need to get us out of the National League.

The country getting what the idiots voted for.

When we go away in Molly we see many of the other campers and motorhomes have an array of flags and lights. After the Norfolk Showground event, I saw these lights advertised and decided that the 🐝 lights would be good. So I bought them for Claire. They arrived at the end of July. We have had them in the garden and at first they were very good.  As we haven't been away in Molly that had to do. As they seemed to be a permanent fixture in the garden I decided to dip into the SPV website and get another set for our trips away. Enter the Dragon (fly) lights. Last week the bees didn't come on at all. I turned them off in case there wasn't enough sun. But after a couple of days of sun they were still dead. I emailed SPV. They replied to say leave them off for 48 sun hours and if still dead to start a return claim. Today is 9 full days. They are dead. So I have started the return claim. They are boxed and Yodel ready. Let's see what happens. It's a ...

The toothache and abscess that caused the cancellation of the last weekend's "Out with Molly" trip to Norfolk, has escalated into treatment for root canal surgery. Claire has a root canal appointment in mid-September, just under three weeks before we are due to leave for France.  We have to hope the surgery goes off first time but need to plan ahead just in case.  What would we lose? We have travel insurance to cover the loss of the Alcoceber apartment cost, but the excess on the policy is more than the RCI exchange fee! I have dropped the reception at Playa Romana Club an email to see if the worst happens if we can change the date? Hopefully that won't trigger them to cancel.... That's the only part of the trip other than the ferry that we have paid for. If we have to delay we can no doubt change the ferry dates and it might cost us extra. Until she has the op we won't know anything for sure.

Campers and Coffee is coming up this weekend.  It's a one day get together on the Sunday but with off grid camping for anyone that wants to arrive on the Saturday. We decided to have a go this time. We saw a vlog about the June camp out and thought it looked a good friendly vibe. I am charging up the Bluetti to give us some electric power as there's no hookup on site. Hopefully the weather holds up although it's not that great a forecast.

Another chance to see my boyhood club in action in the South-East of England.  There are a lot of the National League Premier Division clubs dotted in and around London and the Home Counties . The away fixture at Ebbsfleet was back in February 2024 during last season. Ebbsfleet at that time were in danger of relegation to the National League South but staged a comeback tour that meant they stayed up with games to play.   Oldham on the other hand went the other way and dropped out of the play-offs for promotion back into the Football League to finish mid table.   That game was a dismal affair with neither team actually having a clue.  I went by train and walked across to the ground. This season the game is at the end of September.  The Arsenal game is also at home to Leicester City but it is Phil's game rather mine on the shared Gold Season Ticket. So I am free to go to Ebbsfleet. As it is still early enough in the year I would prefer to go on the bike ...

Only four dogs at the foster home. Sadly Julie's older dog Cyder went over the rainbow bridge. He had developed a cancerous growth alongside his left eye. It was inoperable and so his last months were made comfortable. Last week he deteriorated and the vet out him to sleep. So at the moment we have Tyrone, who would be mine had Reggie not attacked him on the trial day (barking and growling - no contact) and three dogs needing new homes, Bark Obama, Uma Furman and Michael Canine. Tyrone Bark Obama Uma Furman Michael Canine

The end position for 2024. My worst since I started taking part.