Yo quiero morir...de sentimiento

I like Irish didley-didley-dee music, I'm very fond of Mexican mariachi and baladas, and almost always like Ry Cooders guitar work - so here's an Irish-Mexican-Ry Cooder fusion. I'm lovin' it - well worth a listen.

Long train a'coming......to Manchester?

So here's before and after photos (well, after and before..I can't get the hang of this insert HTML thing) showing the new tyres. Me and the boys went for a ride yesterday - first proper cake run of the year. There was plenty of crap still on the roads, so I was suprised the owner of the rather posh restaurant in Dinnet let 3 mucky bikers in for coffee and cake, although we were ever-so well behaved. The new tyres are quite confidence-inspiring, so I managed to keep up with the others, although to be fair, Andy was leading and he is a bit of a wimp (allegedly).

The problem I have is - and here I am expecting comments like 'you're a big girls blouse' from a well-known lady biker - the problem is that Charles Atlas course I enrolled in didn't give me the bulging biceps I expected, so I'm...er...struggling with the weight of the bike. Yeah it's great once I'm rolling, but manoevering it around is an excercise in panic and fear. So, deep breath here and speak really fast, Iwenttothebikeshopandtestrodeanotherbiketoday.

I know, I know, I've just got it and I should give it a chance and it's a really great bike... but if I'm honest I convinced myself I wanted a tourer, when all I want to do is loon around and pretend I'm 18 and pull wheelies down Union street.

I've got a couple of days to decide what to do - I'm off tomorrow on a train to Manchester, which seems like it could be a great adventure as I'm not a public transport sort of person. And I have to take buses when I get to the other end and stay in a hotel, the organisation of which has severly taxed my patience as I make it a rule NEVER to book anything in advance, then visit my favourite hospital, Christies. I also thought to hire a car and visit some classic bike shops in the area, but lost my powers of organisation after the rigours of ScotRail online booking system so I'll probably just take a taxi to 'Curry Mile' and avail myself of some fine ethnic food. Blimey, I'm exhausted just writing about it!

New tyres

Went to my local independant tyre shop to get the new Bridgestones fitted yesterday. Of course just as the final nut was being torqued-up it started to rain; still better than snow, eh? I decided to put some miles on the tyres to scrub them in, just in case the weather was fine the weekend and I could get out for a ride. There's some brilliant riding roads just a few miles outside Aberdeen, so I set off North then turned inland. Yikes! All the side roads still have snow/ice/crap on them; so it was a sort of tippy-toe ride. I was going to take a photo of the rear tyre to show off my riding skills to everyone, but the wear strip is only about half-inch wide so that'll have to wait.

New tyres for the BMW...and maybe a hearing aid.

I've been sitting looking out of the window waiting for the snow to stop. Now it finally has and I can get the bike out of the garage, I was thinking of getting some different tyres for the R1200GS. Its fitted with Metzler Tourance, they're knobbly and look like they'd be OK offroad. I want to change them for a pure road tyre 'cos I know I'm never going offroad on it - if I dropped it I'd never pick it up, it's all I can do to push it backwards across the gravel drive. And my riding needs all the help it can get. So if anyone has any recommendations I'd be pleased to hear them. Thankyou.

Oh and I must remember to wear the ear-plugs when I'm out riding; I have noticed my hearing getting worse, although to be honest lots of other body parts are wearing out too so maybe it's just my age, anyway, I was listening to the radio while getting ready for work this morning when they announced the tragic death of a young television presenter who presented a programme called "Die or don't die". Now I don't watch much TV, my viewing being limited to re-runs of American Chopper, American Hotrod, Biker buildoff...you get the idea, so I did wonder what kind of programme that would be with such a title as "Die or don't die". So when I got to work I asked the other boring bastards - you know, "what type of programme was that, the one called "Die or don't die?" which by the way sounds like it could be pretty exciting, I must admit I spent the drive to work imagining all the different scenarios you could explore with a programme like that.

Turns out the programme was called "Buy or don't buy"; it's about buying a house and evidently I'm both deaf and stupid. According to my co-workers. And my ex-wives.