3 Counties

2012 Achievement: Added three new counties to my Geocaching profile over the last week and a bit; Nottinghamshire, Suffolk and Greater London. To be honest this was kind of unintentional so maybe I should increase my target for the year. So far I've cached in 13/46 counties in England. I'd love to go beyond our borders, but that's going to take a lot more cleaning and ironing!

Motorcycle Geocaching

I fear my new sport may not catch on until the warmer months. Is pretty good for cache and dash ones though, although the dashing is not that dash like when you have to faff with helmet and gloves and squeak along in big boots and... Got caches in Ruddington and Keyworth out on the way to Nottingham today. (And got one on the 29th Feb very near my old house).

Views are definitely worth the effort...

Poo

Went into work with Pops, he fixed an isolator switch in Bumble to counteract the elusive drains while I went into the city to find magnets for Bumble's curtains. Took ages to find them, the pack of 30 looked like they wouldn't even hold themselves on a fridge, so just got one pack of the stronger ones to test. Got somewhat sidetracked in the Disney store (once they let me in, as big people aren't allowed to don the Mickey costume and cast the spell to open the store)

 Just made it home in time to play with JJ. He is so lovely. Thought he would maybe be talking a bit more, but it looks like Jon has got him trained with several comedy routines. Let's hope he learned from his nasty experience with Dobby.

Jay Jay likes his Thomas spaghetti too..

The three 'big boys' went down to Carrow Road all hopeful. Came back gutted. Can't believe Norwich are out of the FA Cup. They played rubbish. Lost 2-1 to flippin Leicester. Am not looking forward to school next week after all the winding up I did. Why oh why did he not play Holt??

Sunday. The usual indecisiveness about where to go out and the usual mad rush to finish jobs. Managed to fix the PC by getting one of the new RAM chips to work. Earned my exploding egg banjo hehe. Chalkie suggested Tattoine as our Sunday drive destination. Ended up taking us to Pakefield, just south of Lowestoft. He'd been working there recently and thought he'd take us somewhere new.

We were thinking of selling her off as a Garden Gnome...

 Had our usual superbowl on the beach, then me and Chalkie found a cache, adding another county to my list. Me and Nan must have been shaking, as he then drove us up the coast to Hemsby for a bit of kite flying and our bingo fix

It's curtains for you

No Jay Jay today (sniff) so a slow start with a secondhand bath then a carefully worked plan to get all our jobs done. Got the PC memory then into the city to buy curtain material and magnets and replace Mr Duck (good excuse to go into the Animal store. Should I worry that I know the products and prices better then the guy who works there?) Plan fell down when B+Q and Screwfix didn't sell magnets.

Londinium

Having driven to Norwich Wednesday evening me and Ma went to Londoninium on the Megabus (well, quite average bus) very early on Thursday. (Short break blogging this to blub to Adele live at the Brits last year) First stop was the Tower.. (not sure what that face means)

Only us complete country bumpkins could struggle to find Tower Bridge.

Much to Mother's amusement I was repeatedly foiled in my attempts to get a photo of a London bus on the bridge. Got there in the end. Sort of.

 The Shard. Tallest building in Europe apparently.

Hmm even I am going to get fed up with photos of the bridge. Some great views from the top. Weird how close together all the 'sights' seem.

Mum insisted that I was in at least one picture.

Add your own caption. I don't dare!!

Bumble posing by Tower Bridge... 

Me and Robbie Maddison did a flip while jumping the gap, just for a giggle..

Cold and hungry by the time we'd done all the bridge exhibit but had to grab a couple of cache's first. One was right by the river outside city hall, the one that was named Tower Bridge was actually even further away. Was amazed to find a cache big enough for trackables in the City. Thought they'd all be micros. Even more amazed to find inside the exact same cachekinz bee that is attached to Bumblebee the TB... and it started in Texas USA and came over from Germany via the rest of the world! There was also a swap that was from San Diego; a Dubvan/Caching rally souvenir poker chip. Was just putting the cache back inside the hedge and walking away when two guys approached. I somehow knew exactly what they were doing there, and said 'yeah you're in the right place'. I ended up having to fish the box back out for them as they were too scared to stick their hands in themselves, having found a rat trap with poison warnings on it the day before! Happy to make friends with these lovely guys from Germany..

Nice lunch in the Spoons we found somewhere near this sign...

 Good job we filled our humps then, cause we missed out on our planned meal at the O2, in fact missed out on tea completely. Then on to the Monument. Not part of our plan, but it was part of the Tower Bridge ticket, so it would be rude not to. Mum did brilliantly. Not many people would queue in the cold for the privilege of climbing 311 steps! I did count them, but I made it 309. Let's not tell the Maths Dept.

 

On to the O2 to visit the British Music Experience, a very cool museum. I'd never been to the O2 before. Very impressive. Was hoping to get more photos after, but didn't. Disappointed we weren't allowed to take photos inside the bme. There was some cool Queen stuff for starters.

Here's a little fact for you...

 Possibly the closest I'll get..

Hopefully when I upload the stuff stored on my smart ticket I'll be able to link to the bme website. Could have spent the whole day there. Nearly spent the night there due to my inability to read an analogue watch. I thought we had ages, then I looked again and asked ma 'does that say 7pm?' It did. And our bus left at 8. From nowhere near us. It didn't help that we went round the O2 twice trying to find some toilets. Bless poor Mum, not only did she have to climb the monument I then route marched her through the Underground and we were practically running the last bit to the bus station. Oops. Once on the bus it was an uneventful trip home. Mum didn't even snore this time. I amused her doing Sims fishing thought. Feasted on my usual emergency rations. Needed our horlicks by the time we got home. And the lie in next day.

Long time coming

Dreamed of pulling up at church on a big motorbike since I was about 13. Finally did it today. And they loved it. Feel so blessed by God that he has given me the bike, and blessed that He has given me a church family that seem genuinely excited and pleased for me. Loved how many secret bikers there are, and how excited Louise was to sit on it. Who knows, Tyler may get to have a bike again now!

It really growls!

2012 Achievement: rode a proper big real motorbike for the first time. Oh AND IT'S MINE!!!!
Had to stop when I couldn't feel my hands anymore. I hardly roared off into the sunset, more pootled around quorn and loughborough for a bit, trying not to fall off and failing miserably to find anyone in to show it off to.

Admitted to the boss at Arnold's that I was excited and scared in equal measure! He left it at the car park exit, shook my hand and walked away. Good man! When I went back in a minute later to ask how much has was in it the lady looked horrified and asked if I'd dropped it!

Prayed aloud while sat on it 'please don't let me drop it and please don't let me do anything stupid'. Pulled away so gingerly utterly frightened. Big grin on my face within 5m! Reached 70 so easily on the A6. Don't think the restrictor will be a problem. Was bloody cold though.
So worried about dropping it wheeling back in by the bins that I forgot to take photos first. Will get some tomorrow... and here they are..

First the trusty steed...

And now, presenting Gladis, Queen of Speed!!!

Swaps

Today I swapped my trusty steed and all my money for....

See the ice.. that's why I paid for it Friday and didn't collect it till Saturday. Still a nightmare to get into it's parking spot.

I also swapped this..

 For this..

Not quite a suicide run

Drumming at church then sledging at Beacon Hill. Tried to fit in with two other people's plans, so naturally I ended up on my own.

Left the snowboard in the van (bloomin long walk!) and just took my spade sledge. Chose a spot over the summit and went for it. Slid about an inch. Scooted my way down, avoiding the rocks and small trees, then trudged back up. After about 5 runs it started to slide. Which means that you go further and hit more obstacles.

Break for snickers bar and hot chocolate. TGF my flask! Few more runs then Paul arrived. He definitely encourages bravery/stupidity. Ended up hanging my best ear-ring on a small tree. I guess it's my fault for telling kids every day, then forgetting to remove my own jewellery.

No commentary needed. Oh dear and oof sum it up...

Was lovely watching the clouds descend over loughborough. Not so nice not being able to see through the fog by the time I got home!

Finished Morpurgo book in the bath. Discovered the dangers of hot chocolate in the bath. Not wise to spill it. Tidying up and washing, then Sunset Boulevard. Must have a been a trivial pursuit question that led to that rental.

He didn't land that

A trip on the train to London's Excel for the MCN show, hoping to see cool bikes and replace some of my cheap/naff/worn out kit. Turned out very successful on both fronts.

Met Pops and Chalkie in St Pancras station. I was going to say I'm not sure who was looking after who, but the phrase of the day was "Good job Trev's on the ball" so I think that answers that.

No HD stand but there were some lovely bikes. I think Chalkie wants a Triumph, or his old Suzuki back..

I (luckily) didn't see anything that tempted me away from the Gladius, although I do like the purple Street Triple.

 
Chalkie got his new Rossi gear, I replaced all my kit (huge thanks to Chalkie and Santa)  and had a few t shirt related accidents, Pops got helmet and jacket. Him parting with money must mean he is serious about doing his CBT!

The Revolution show was brilliant. My camera was not. Oh well. Seems good bikers never grow up. There was a lot of cheating and shoving each other into tyre walls going on from John McGuinnes, Chris Walker et al. The freestyle guys were awesome, although we discovered why the landing ramps had black curtains in front of them. As one guy disappeared behind them I said to Chalkie 'he didn't land that', well, he kind of did, but not with feet on pegs, more like nuts on tank. Ouch.

Lovely walk home as it had really started snowing by the time we caught our trains. Was beautiful going through Lufbra with that eerie orange glow and walking through deep (ish) fresh snow. Luckily my new gear wasn't too heavy and also luckily the guy that threw snowballs at me couldn't hit a barn door at three paces! Made a snow bumble before going upstairs

Then sat on my windowsill watching the snow.. and praying for the guy on the motorcycle that slowly slithered past! Snow always makes the world look amazing..

Oops.. lots of new stash...