What have you done to your bike today....

[DD67]

Oh, mines loud... But it's quieter than the testers. In his words, "cannae fail ye fer thot. "
Edited, cos I can't spell kwiyeter.

Where's the nearest MOT station to you Sandy? Do you have to pack a tent & Kendall mint cake before setting off, just in case of bad weather or a landslide etc

 

[Big Sandy]

100 yards, give or take! Shocking, huh? No kendal mint cake... But a survival tin and choccie coated peanuts!

It's a really good proper garage, old fashioned, the bike tester has a GSXR750, well, 2, an older one and a new one he got last year.

They still have the S2 land rover the garage bought new in 1952.

They also run a haulage company. Proper garage that can fix just about anything. Getting rare now....

 

[Big Sandy]

I don't know which hell I'm booked in at

There is a consensus of opinion that we are already there.

Still, if you don't believe in heaven, you can't go to hell, can you?

 

[MartytheMartian]

I was talking to a local fella and I think he was trying to get me interested in a Harley Davidson Super Low he has and you know there was a teeny, tiny little bit of me that was every so very slightly tempted to think about it but, I would have to sell one of my Bonnie's to raise the necessary cash and that, I realised, was the deal breaker. I couldn't part with either of the Bonnie's ever! I realised yesterday when I was out on Britt that she is a 'perfect' lady booming along at a couple of thousand revs or roaring down the road at over 100mph and just so confidently planted on the road. Even with the rear skidding on gravel she feels like she'll still take care of you and make sure you come through OK.

 

[DD67]

100 yards, give or take!

WHAT?!?
I thought you lived in the land that time forgot?
Dodging attacks from wild beasts everytime you go to the bottom of the garden to use the lav
Your water supply looks like something from an Oxfam advert begging for £2 a month. So that little Umbongo doesn't have to walk 35 miles each way to the well twice a day.
A trip into town for a prescription takes weeks of planning with military precision.

Yet the nearest MOT station is 100yds away!

 

[Big Sandy]

WHAT?!?
I thought you lived in the land that time forgot?
Dodging attacks from wild beasts everytime you go to the bottom of the garden to use the lav
Your water supply looks like something from an Oxfam advert begging for £2 a month. So that little Umbongo doesn't have to walk 35 miles each way to the well twice a day.
A trip into town for a prescription takes weeks of planning with military precision.

Yet the nearest MOT station is 100yds away!

LOL.

Duke of Sutherland had a shooting estate near here...

Well. Full story, he built a lodge and insisted on a railway station. So he'd travel by train to the village, and stay in the lodge for one night on his way to the shooting estate (Loch Choire.... I used to work there. Put KW116UD in Google maps. The lodge burnt down about 10 years ago. Wasnae me!). That lodge was fully staffed all year, he used it for 2 days a year. The railway also was used to bring trout... From Staffordshire... To stock the lochs with! So all along the roadside for miles there are small ponds, mostly empty of water now, that they used to keep the fish in overnight before moving the next day.

There are 3 more estates within 6 miles of the railway... The local garage used to be the grocer, ironmonger, filling station, and post office. They also had a mobile shop... Now its just the garage and haulage business. For a village of 9 houses, its now a 75 mile round trip to a fuel pump! Or a 40 mile round trip to a post office, the doctors, and spar shop! Nothing else here! Well, the railway is still here, but the timetable is arranged in such a way that you can't actually get anywhere useful in such a time to be convenient. Couldn't use it to commute to work unless you want to be an hour late, or two hours early... And even then you wouldn't have a train to come home on!

I still wouldn't want to live anywhere else!

Fuel pumps.... We used to have one here, in the village, and then there was one at Forsinard up the road, and one in Helmsdale on the coast in the other direction. All gone now....

So yeah... Wild beasts and planning just about sums it up... But sometimes we drop lucky!

 

[DD67]

LOL.

Duke of Sutherland had a shooting estate near here...

Well. Full story, he built a lodge and insisted on a railway station. So he'd travel by train to the village, and stay in the lodge for one night on his way to the shooting estate (Loch Choire.... I used to work there. Put KW116UB in Google maps. The lodge burnt down about 10 years ago. Wasnae me!). That lodge was fully staffed all year, he used it for 2 days a year. The railway also was used to bring trout... From Staffordshire... To stock the lochs with! So all along the roadside for miles there are small ponds, mostly empty of water now, that they used to keep the fish in overnight before moving the next day.

There are 3 more estates within 6 miles of the railway... The local garage used to be the grocer, ironmonger, filling station, and post office. They also had a mobile shop... Now its just the garage and haulage business. For a village of 9 houses, its now a 75 mile round trip to a fuel pump! Or a 40 mile round trip to a post office, the doctors, and spar shop! Nothing else here! Well, the railway is still here, but the timetable is arranged in such a way that you can't actually get anywhere useful in such a time to be convenient. Couldn't use it to commute to work unless you want to be an hour late, or two hours early... And even then you wouldn't have a train to come home on!

I still wouldn't want to live anywhere else!

Fuel pumps.... We used to have one here, in the village, and then there was one at Forsinard up the road, and one in Helmsdale on the coast in the other direction. All gone now....

So yeah... Wild beasts and planning just about sums it up... But sometimes we drop lucky!

Amazing!
I've always been a city boy (well, large town actually)
I like living on its edge though & near a bit of countryside, but the town centre is still only approx 5 miles away.
But it's like taking a trip to numerous parts of eastern europe, Africa, Afghanistan & Somalia though these days
Northampton is currently applying for city status. But if the adjudicators of said award pay us a visit? There's more chance of me be awarded UK diversity champion of 2022. Than Northampton achieving city status. The town centre is a genuinely awful place to spend time Sandy!

Mrs DD says she'd happily live in the middle of nowhere. But I reckon that's just pub talk?
She'd miss her ludicrously expensive Costa Coffee stop on the way to work

 

[Big Sandy]

The town centre is a genuinely awful place to spend time Sandy

I nearly did time because of a town centre.

Big group of folk blocking the town Square, there was a comedian. Apparently.

I was having a bad day... They were in my way. So I walked between him and his audience, which apparently is very poor form. Bad enough for him to call me an ignorant lady part.

Which was when the fight started.

Did you put KW116UD in Google yet?

We had no mains electric, just a generator which came on at 7am and went off at midnight.... Great stuffs! Quad bikes, Argo's, lots of firearms.... Just rotten with toffs.

 

[Big Sandy]

. Just rotten with toffs

The stalker used to say "ye can suffer a loon for a week."

Trouble was, it was a different party of loons every week! One of them gave us a £300 tip one week. 3 £100 notes. All forged! Nuff said... Yup, I shopped him, and also drank all the booze he left behind for the next party.....

 

[DD67]

Did you put KW116UD in Google yet?

Aye!
But I thought it was an unusual turn of phrase from Google Maps?

 

[Sarky B’stard]

WHAT?!?
I thought you lived in the land that time forgot?
Dodging attacks from wild beasts everytime you go to the bottom of the garden to use the lav
Your water supply looks like something from an Oxfam advert begging for £2 a month. So that little Umbongo doesn't have to walk 35 miles each way to the well twice a day.
A trip into town for a prescription takes weeks of planning with military precision.

Yet the nearest MOT station is 100yds away!

In these parts it's not a lav but a 'cludgie'. Happy to help.

 

[half ton]

Full of anticipation this morning, Got to run the wife to work then ....... the day is mine , lube chain and fuck off in any direction, 95mpg means it's still a cheap day out I know Marty hates anything Indian or Russian but I still love it

 

[BAD LUCK DUCK]

I nearly did time because of a town centre.

Big group of folk blocking the town Square, there was a comedian. Apparently.

I was having a bad day... They were in my way. So I walked between him and his audience, which apparently is very poor form. Bad enough for him to call me an ignorant lady part.

Which was when the fight started.

Did you put KW116UD in Google yet?

We had no mains electric, just a generator which came on at 7am and went off at midnight.... Great stuffs! Quad bikes, Argo's, lots of firearms.... Just rotten with toffs.

Someone mention lots of firearms looking for a good home and free delivery and no charge for the Peasant Army...

 

[Big Sandy]

In these parts it's not a lav but a 'cludgie'. Happy to help.

Cludgie in Cheshire and Lancashire too, closely arseociated with 'ginnel'.

 

[Big Sandy]

Someone mention lots of firearms looking for a good home and free delivery and no charge for the Peasant Army...

Aye... Shame the place burnt down. None stored there now.

There was a big fireplace in the lounge, 6ft Square job. Above the mantle was a stags head. The fire safety guy was visiting, I had to escort him round. He points at the stags head above the fireplace "that's a fire hazard," he says. Needless to say it was left where it was.

Ironically, the best surviving part after the fire struck was that wall with the stags head, still intact, on it!

 

[Don the Don]

I was talking to a local fella and I think he was trying to get me interested in a Harley Davidson Super Low he has and you know there was a teeny, tiny little bit of me that was every so very slightly tempted to think about it

You "Thought" about it @MartytheMartian Get yourself booked in for some therapy before it's too late and you start having thoughts of Tartan chaps and handle bar tassles and such and rides out to Thunder in the Glen with all the other Hardley Ableson folk

 

[MartytheMartian]

Well the fellow is a 'Brit bike' fan normally but he bought the Hardly off another guy who was moving away from the village and he claimed it was a 'hoot' to ride which did slightly catch my interest. The fellas other bikes are Meriden Bonnie's, a Bonnie chop and a new Trident. The bike I'd really have in a blink of an eye is a 1957 Ariel Square Four that he bought a wee while ago but that's not for sale, even if I had twelve grand or so.

 

[Don the Don]

Well the fellow is a 'Brit bike' fan normally but he bought the Hardly off another guy who was moving away from the village and he claimed it was a 'hoot' to ride which did slightly catch my interest. The fellas other bikes are Meriden Bonnie's, a Bonnie chop and a new Trident. The bike I'd really have in a blink of an eye is a 1957 Ariel Square Four that he bought a wee while ago but that's not for sale, even if I had twelve grand or so.

Just joking as usual @MartytheMartian some of the old models are nice bikes, One of my older brothers had an Ariel square Four I bet the sod wishes he had it now

 

[Big Sandy]

My ol ganger had a square 4. The tank had a leak, so he asked a garage if they could weld it. They told him in no uncertain terms that it was full of fumes, and would be well risky....

So he went home and put it in the garden, and dropped a match in it.

Boom.

Tank in 2 parts, like a sunflower.

 

[Tallpaul]

A lovely ride into Welsh Wales. Paused for a look at Cynghordy Viaduct. Fantastic bit of engineering. Rose posing at the foot of one of the pillars for scaling.