The Constant Avenger

“Up, down or sideways?” 70's-80's drug memories.

2011-06-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

Had a chat with someone the other day about the 70's, they were not a friend and I do not remember meeting them at the time, but we moved in similar circles and appear to have known the same people at one time or another. During the conversation she mentioned a few clubs and pubs that we used to frequent and the phrase “Up, down or sideways?” came up and that got me thinking about the past. I must warn you though, I have a few memory problems so I may, in fact probably will, get some of my facts mixed up, essentially though what you are going to read here is true, maybe with a bit of artistic licence throw in.

I was brought up in Battersea, about 5 minutes walk from the park, as a matter of course I started my drinking in the pubs around Battersea park road, nice pubs and easy staggering distance, I wasn't really one of the 'bad 'uns' as my mum loved to call them, but I did know most of them. I was one of those youngsters that was badly bullied at school and a bit after, until I started to fight back, that old adage about bullies will back down if you stand up to them is utter rubbish! Most kicked the crap out of me until I learned how to fight... in a slightly different way.
My first experience with drugs came after I got a pasting by two blokes outside the Prince of Wales pub, a mate had helped me back to the my flat and on the way a bloke handed us a joint saying "You look like you need this more than me...", my first puff didn't seem to do anything, but it did take away the pain by the fourth or fifth, I have no idea what was in that joint and cant remember ever seeing that bloke again.
By now I had acquired my second motorbike, my first at 16 was a 1968 BSA Bantam, I had since moved up a notch and got a BSA 441SS (NPP 70H), on this I started riding around with some bikers I had met at the County Arms in Wandsworth and had started riding it up to the Chelsea bridge tea stall which was a common meeting place back then. I had been to Chelsea bridge a lot previously to watch the bikes, as I lived 10 minutes walk away.

Most of them smoked some form of cannabis, my mates and myself mainly stuck to types like cheap nasty soap bar (Cannabis mixed with.. well anything really.) or if it turned up and we had the money, Lebanese gold and a really nice type we called squidgy black, of course these memories may be a bit rose-tinted. We used to smoke either sitting outside pubs in the summer or if the weather was bad, back at a mates place, there were a few pubs you could get away with smoking inside, but most kicked you out if you were caught, nightclubs or music venues were better bets. Speed was another popular drug then, it was the party drug of the 70's from our point of view, it kept you awake all night no matter how much you drank and sex could last for ages, giving you a bit of a reputation with the ladies.
Around that time my friend Clive and I went to a party in the Mansions along Prince of Wales drive, I think we were invited by two very posh sisters, not really sure now, I was 17/18, had very long hair, deep blue eyes, blue velvet jacket and black satin loons (Very tight trousers), finished off with a pair of not very genuine cowboy boots. Well.. this was 1972/3.
We had not been there long just drinking vodka, when a joint was passed to us, cool we thought, of course by now we were now experts on the stuff!

I nearly puked my lungs up! Then my head felt like it was about 4 foot above my body, the room span around and I fell to floor freaking out. What the hell was in that? It frightened the life out of me, everyone was laughing and I could not controI my legs, I later found out that it was something called Banano (Cannabis mixed with cocaine? if I remember right) enough for four rolled into one joint apparently. The rest of the evening, once I calmed down, was a blur, I do remember laughing a hell of a lot and snogging some bird for hours, there is also a vague memory of someone threatening me with 'I'll cut your eyes out with a knife' I think it may have been his girlfriend I was having fun with.
The following Sunday I saw the person who's flat had been the base for the party, someone had told him my age, he could not apologise enough to me and he asked if I had got home ok, they had also told him it was my first time 'taking drugs' and he was mortified. He was quite a famous actor in some long running 70's drama (No more clues), but because I rarely watched television I had no idea who he was at the time, he bought me a pint in the Duke of Cambridge as a apology and it was then that I twigged he was gay! It was no problem once I made it clear I was not interested though. Pete (not his real name) and myself went to a few parties in the Battersea and Chelsea area in the early 70's, I think because I had long hair and blue eyes he liked to show me off to his showbiz friends, I never did ask if they thought I was his lover, I was a bit naïve then . It was certainly an eye opener, within weeks I had been introduced to a world very different from the one my bikers mates were in and the best thing is I don't ever remember having to pay for anything. Drugs were everywhere, coke was freely available and along with cannabis could be picked up anywhere we went, I met a lot of famous people at this time, but none really made an impact on me, although I was young and impressionable I thought most of the actors and big rock stars I met were twats. Worst of all were the managers, producers and hangers on, all riding on the coat tails of the famous and handing out drugs just to keep in with them. Some of the well known people I met were unpardonably rude to others, yet people treated them almost in a godlike way.
Now at this time heroin was rearing its ugly head in my world, a lot of the parties in the Chelsea seemed to have the same men at each one handing out 'free' samples and offering to show you how to take it, most started by smoking it off of tinfoil (chasing the dragon) I did not bother trying it after watching the state some of them got into taking it. To be honest I think I was too scared to try it.
There were always lots of very pretty and very stoned girls around, as a young man with normal urges it was a great time for me, although I did tend to wake up in strange flats miles from home on occasion. Once after getting completely mashed at a party in Kensington, I woke up in a very big house somewhere in Surrey with a gorgeous girl in her late 20's. I was still very high and crept out of the house to find a Rolls Royce, big American car of some kind, an Aston Martin DB3(?) and a couple of rare motorbikes parked outside. Must have walked for miles until I reached the A3 and then thumbed a lift, not a clue where I had been though, neither do I have any idea why I did not hang around or wake the girl up, Pete later thought that the girl was related to Keith Emerson, but I'm not so sure even though it was apparently one of his parties I met her at, I do not remember ever seeing her again.

I kept that part of my life separate from my other friends as I had started on the road to being a 'proper' biker and mostly we had drank alcohol, but now I started making inroads into what drugs were available in our circle, all of them as it turned out.
One of the pubs we frequented was the Fountain at the bottom end of Garrat lane in Wandsworth, I think it was Mondays we mainly went there, a rock and roll band called CSA played on a regular basis and were quite good, we scored a lot of dope there.
There were also back patch members in there, I had never really had any dealings with back patch club members until the Fountain, and to be honest I never really had a problem with them, one lived in Merton road and helped me a lot in finding bits for my BSA441SS, it was him that found a four valve CCM head for me. Can I remember his name? Nope, but that's probably not a bad thing.

Outside one particular pub in Tooting, there was always this skinny very long haired bloke hanging around, I think he was barred from entering the pub because I never ever saw him inside, someone would always take a drink out to him though, rain or shine he would be out there and he seemed to have loads of friends.
Of course, he was a dealer, and he would ask people “Up, down or sideways?” like a kind of catchphrase, when I started buying from him, I learned very quickly that whatever the first price he asked for, just turn and walk away, "15, go on you know its good stuff!" "Taking the piss mate, forget it..." before you had gone 3 steps the price had dropped to around half what he originally asked. I think it was just a silly game he enjoyed, everyone did it with him.
One day he wasn't there any more, I was later told he had overdosed on heroin, he was 32 and I never actually knew his name.

As I started to move in more exciting circles, I also started to learn which drugs were available and very quickly which to avoid, my favourite was speed, preferably in the form of small tablets called blues.
Weekends were this strange round of popping loads of blues on a Friday night, and then somewhere between 2am and 4am, depending on where we ended up, we would switch to moggies, (Mogadon or Qualudes in the US of A) so we could sleep, if we did not have Moggies, the next best thing were Tunial (I think we called them traffic lights) but they had a much harsher effect on me, if I had had any alcohol and took one I would go nuts before falling asleep wherever I was.
We also called moggies 'wobblers' as we played this game sometimes where we would drop a couple at home and then try to get to the pub before our legs gave out, they always seemed to work from the feet up especially if you had had a drink first, after about 15 minutes your knees felt like they were on the wrong way round. They were a barbiturate and we would have to pop some blues to make sure we didn't fall asleep, this led to some strange sights as the evenings wore on, I remember Gary outside the County Arms (by Wandsworth prison) he would be chatting away then his head would fall forward and he would start snoring, then after a few minutes his head would snap back up and he would carry on as if nothing had happened, he would repeat this for about an hour then collapse.
Mostly though we took speed, the downers, Moggies and Tunial, stopped us from riding, speed did not.

My first experience with acid happened outside the County, some hippies we knew had just driven back from Amsterdam (again) in an old Commer van, it had been sort of converted to a camper, well it had a mattress in the back and camping stove. We were all sitting on the grass outside the pub, when the van pulled up, two of the hippies, Mickey and Tarquin the poof (he wasn't a poof really, but come on, what would you call a hippie called Tarquin? We always though he was called Bob, until we all got pulled up by the police one day and he had to give his real name) Mickey was floating about 4 foot above the pavement, he seemed to glide over to us, he was laughing at the lamp post and talking to someone who wasn't there, Tarquin just stared at everyone, one after the other, then started asking if one of us was really a dragon in disguise, and they had driven to the pub!!!
We got them sat down and poured a few drinks down them, this seemed to help. Then Mickey started handing out some small bits of blotting paper with little faces printed on them, possibly fat Freddies cat? They were about an 1/8th of inch across and looked completely harmless, I stuck a couple in my wallet.
I had been given a lift up to the pub by Dave, for a big bad biker, Dave looked like a big cuddly teddy bear and was really quite a quiet bloke, we were chatting and he said why don't you drop a blotter and tell us what happens. I agreed and took out one of the blotters, putting it on my tongue I was now watching Tarquin, he was crawling around and muttering about living in the jungle and giant ants??? Er......
A took a big swig from my pint glass and sat back and waited for something to happen. Nothing.
This is a waste of time I thought, as I finished my pint about 20 minutes later, then stood up to go to the bar, I looked down and.. fucking hell, the ground was miles away, I grabbed Dave and started shouting at him to help me down, he just looked puzzled and a bit scared. He helped me sit down again on the grass, which was trying to pull me to one side, I was now getting really scared, I looked up at the parked cars outside the pub and one started winking at me, another looked at me disdainfully, as if it knew what foul illegal substance I had been taking.
Then a giant hand reached for me and a voice boomed inside my head "Are you alright Jake?" "Fuck no!! What's going on!!!!!!" Cars passing by on Trinity road seemed to take hours to go past, then they would accelerate until they were blurred streaks, the blurry streaks stayed there on the road, slowly fading away upwards into the starry sky. Oh, big mistake, I looked up into the night sky at the millions and millions of bright flashing stars, stars which had started flashing a secret message, but the drug was messing with my head and I could not understand the message, the stars started to flow into words, gradually they started to make sense.
Then a loud voice startled me and the stars went back to normal, Dave was calling to me, what was he saying? “Get out of the road??” Then a gorgeous angel appeared, it floated out of the pub, took me by the hand, walked me back to the grass outside the pub and sat me down, it talked gently to me and explained what was happening. The angel was actually a mates girlfriend, she had known a few people flip out on acid and found that talking calmly helped to bring them down again, she also poured loads of orange juice down my throat, vitamin C did seem to help.
Once I had calmed down the rest of the evening passed on cloud 9, I felt like I was wrapped in cotton wool and that at one point everyone was speaking in perfect German which I understood with no problem at all. The best bit was the ride home on the back of Dave's bike, this is one of the few things I remember very clearly about that trip, everything was the wrong colour, there was even a new colour, although I don’t quite remember what it was now.
Acid always had one strange effect on me, every time I took it I knew that there were green beavers hiding somewhere nearby, but I never managed to find them, this obsession with green beavers became quite a joke with my friends. Some people think of acid as a mind expanding drug, I never thought this, it was just fun, I never had any 'revelations' or suddenly understood the inner working of the universe like some people, it just made things different.

I didn't really bother going back to Pete and his group of friends after getting into the bike scene a lot more, I found the 'Chelsea' set rather boring and most were so far up their own arses it was just annoying being around them, especially after knocking about with the bikers I identified with now, you could not compare drug fuelled runs through the night with listening to some fancy actor telling you why his director was a gay little shit and that he could do a much better job. Yawn.

One of the bikers, who's name I'm definitely not going to use here, used to bring coke in direct from Columbia, I picked him and his girlfriend up from Heathrow once, you could not miss them in the crowd. Not realising his suitcase had around 2 kilos of coke in it, I only found this out after the second time I picked him up using his BMW (lets not mention I didn't have a car licence...) he would come to my house I'd drop them at the airport and collect them about a week later. £100 in my bin!! Easy money for the 70's. Last I heard of him he had been shot and wounded during a deal in Bogota around 1981. I never got into coke, the first time I tried it, it did not do anything to me, although every one of my friends insisted I never take it again, not sure what that was all about and I never did. Lots of people I knew were into coke though, I think it was more a psychological thing with coke, most was cut so finely I would have been surprised if any of the stuff floating around in the 80's was more than 5% actual cocaine.

Most of the 70's and 80's I spent working as a motorcycle courier, this was because I could work mainly when I wanted and if you put the hours in the money was really good, in 1975 when some of my mates were working as clerks or engineers for £40-50 a week, on a good week I could take home over £500, although in reality we never worked a full week, Hangovers and getting to bed at 5am put paid to that, usually though I would still clear £250 to £350 easily. Extra money could be made running gear for dealers, I had a nice sideline in delivering weed and coke to the money guys in the city of London, some times 10 -15 drops a night at up to £10 a drop, easy on a motorbike and hard to catch! You would not believe how many famous people were also on coke... or maybe you would. My best weeks were during the postal strike in the 80's, over 2 grand in the second week of the strike and maybe another £500 from the 'special' evening deliveries, but I do not think I got more than 3-4 hours sleep each night, I did a lot of speed those weeks.

I mentioned earlier my favourite drug of choice were blues (Speed), I was never a big bloke and looking like a bad ass biker meant living up to the perceived image, if you didn't, you quickly got made to look like a fool or worse, much much worse. Speed made me invincible, on speed I had no fear, was dangerously aggressive and could stay awake after ridiculous amounts of drugs and drink. After being awake on blues for 3 days some friends once took me up to the music machine in Camden, it was a punk night and the queue to get in had around 300 punks and us 5 bikers!! I was later told I terrorised the whole queue, pulling at spiky mohican hair and at one one point undoing this girls 40 odd zips on her clothes 'looking for the way in'. Once we did get in, after Benny the bouncer warning me sternly to 'behave' and took my knife off of me, I kicked off a massive fight by diving down the stairs into a group of around 12 punks coming up them, I remember nothing of the night at all, my mates told me about it all the next day, I also had a black eye and had lost two teeth.
I took speed for years up until one morning in 1981, when I got up out of bed and walked past a full length mirror, I nearly had a heart attack, I looked like a Belsen victim. I had to go weigh myself and found I was 6 stone 8, just over 44 kilos. I never touched it again.

Over the years my drug use just sort of faded away, I just did not bother with it any more, I suppose the fact that nearly 40 of my mates have died from drugs in the last 30 years may have something to do with it. Far more mates have died from drugs, or drug related incidents, than crashing motorbikes. Now that is a scary thought.

Immortality and the art of conversation.

2011-06-20T00:11:00.000-07:00

Have you ever thought about the fact that you could already be immortal?
In a way most of us who use modern technology are, if you have ever been on television or the radio, ever used a mobile phone or a computer then the odds are that your image or voice will be floating through space forever.
Ok, it will get fainter and weaker the further it goes, but it will go on forever, until one day an alien race picks it up, now at first they may not understand exactly what it means, but eventually either they, or another race, will translate your image or voice in an intelligible piece of data.

What then will they think? Think about the inconsequential drivel most of us churn out in the average phone conversation, all that is drifting through the universe, million upon millions of words saying nothing, nothing at all. The communication mediums that we all have at our fingertips are really wasted on nonsense 99% of the time. Even at work, how much of our time on the phone is spent talking about work? Not a much as you think.

Before radio communication writing letters was the only viable way of getting information information between any people separated by large distances, in those, most of the time, they had to be thought out very carefully as you could not correct a mistake for some time, if you got it wrong it could be weeks before you received a reply and realised your mistake.
With the internet people feel they can put down their thoughts without thinking too much about what they have written or even the effect it might have on others. I have been guilty of this myself once or twice, normally after a few beers.

Now our words are passing out through the outer reaches of space, my first CB transmission is just passing Delta Eridani 29.5 light years away, I wonder just what anyone there would make of my rambling chat about BSA motorbikes?

Every little piece of chat, every bit of gossip, even singing happy birthday down your mobile will be winging its way across space in all directions. One day someone or something may be listening to what you said, or seeing your image on a tv screen, what do you think they will make of it?

50 years since Yuri Gagarin leapt into space.

2011-04-12T23:58:00.001-07:00

This year the Americans will retire the Space shuttle, 50 years after Yuri Gagarin left this planet, the first human in space. So what is the future for humans in space now?
The Russians will still fly astronauts, including American ones, to the space station using Soyuz, which still lifts today on a variant of the R7 rocket that was used to place Sputnik and Gagarin in orbit. Other than that who knows, I believe this is a big mistake, we should be pushing forward into space, there are no frontiers left on this planet, we have plumbed the deepest oceans, climbed to the top of the highest mountain, Everest is now virtually a tourist attraction.

Once my ambition was to place foot on land no human had ever stood on before, now unless a new island appears from the sea that certainly is not going to happen.
We once, as a race, dreamed of new lands, of new challenges, not just physical but intellectual as well, we expanded across this globe like a virus, colonised new lands and subjugated new people.
We raped the lands of its riches and polluted everywhere we placed our mark. But is that not our destiny? Descended from animals our purpose was to breed and survive so that our progeny would carry on, to do this we had to live by the 'survival of the fittest' rule, the weak died so that the strong could live. As our population grew, more control and structure was needed to stop things becoming chaos, tribal leaders arose; normally the strongest bloke with the biggest stick, Then we discovered farming, this allowed us much more flexibility over our lives, the winter could survived with stored grain. As we grew more we had a surplus, this could be 'loaned' to others who needed it, to remember who we had loaned this surplus to, we needed records, hence writing began, once we had that, ideas could be written down and remembered, they could also be passed on much more accurately. Villages grew into towns, we needed more space and we pushed on until we met others, we either traded with or conquered them. The expansion continued, until compromises had to be met and that is where we are at today, becoming 'civilised' has allowed us to live together on this planet..... well almost, there still those who want more, still those who want to rule us all.

In the East the general public has now realised, with the help of global communication that it does not have to adhere to the strict rules most states have placed them under, therefore the unrest. It is not about freedom as such, I believe it is about want, they want to have the lifestyles they see on the television and to be honest, I can not blame them. In the West we have protected the under classes to the point where we have a substrata of moronic people who have no interest in anything but television, most have little interest in anything outside of their cosy little lives.

So what now for the population of this planet? Shall we stagnate here and wallow in our own filth? Or should we once again take that leap out into the unknown and become those pioneers that we once were?

The population on this planet is growing at a rate that will be unsustainable in the near future, do you really think those starving will be content to sit there while the west wastes so much? As global information becomes accessible to more and more people, the more situation will change, and to be honest I cant blame them.
Yet if we did redistribute food more evenly around the planet, the birth rate would climb higher, less people would die and the problem would grow exponentially at a frightening rate.
Humans have always been bred to survive, until relatively recently that instinct has been used to create soldiers, frontiersmen and explorers, even as recently as 40 years ago we wanted to be Astronauts, racing drivers or even explorers. I think the only thing left that kids aspire to these days is reality show plaything or rapper.
Becoming civilised has done us no favours in that respect.

We need to get off this planet, it is stifling us as a race.
Dreaming of going into Space was my dream, if I was told I could go tomorrow but I would die in the process, I would still go.
Looking back a this planet has to be the ultimate human experience,
(can someone lend me £175k so I go on Richard Branson's flight please?)

If is perfectly feasible to build a linear accelerator capable of launching ships into space at low cost, it is the initial cost and testing that puts off governments.
And Orion (google project Orion) was only dropped because of the radiation fear.

We must leave this planet before we all die in a war for food, or someone turns up and takes it from us.

The very secret life of Dan Jerrous, stunt man and womaniser.

2011-02-11T00:26:00.000-08:00

"I was born in the wagon of a travelling show" That is Dan's answer when questioned about his origins, Dan Jerrous is very secretive about his past, very little is known about him. We have more information about the Stig than him. Dan is the greatest failure ever, only one of his numerous stunts has ever been successful, we know of at least 50 stunts, including film stunts, that he has attempted and aside from the ones for the film 'Boots of Doom' nothing has gone right for him.
'Boots of doom' was the only film he ever finished for a company, unfortunately the film board refused to issue a certificate for this film, they claimed the stunts were so extreme that if anyone tried to copy them they would be killed. Even the company that financed the film refuses to have their name associated with it, we were threatened that if we even mentioned their name in conjunction with this, they would [quote] Sue our arses off[unquote].

We have no idea how old he is, estimates range from 35 to 55, as we have never seen his face; it is difficult to gauge just how old he actually is, we do know he first came to notice for his motorcycle stunts, turning up at motorbike events and really just showing off; in the late 70's, riding his bike, pulling wheelies, jumping over things and then normally falling off before disappearing. For the one thing we do know about him is that almost every one of his stunts has ended in failure!
The most spectacular being the failed cow jump in France in 1998, more about that later.
He is the Eddie the eagle of the motorcycle world.

There are rumours that Dan may have been two people though, there is a persistent rumour that he died in the same car as Princess Di and it was covered up.
Guesses as to who he was are numerous, most think he was a bastard son of a royal personage, which is why he never uncovered his face, others think he was just a chancer who could talk his way into anything, which could be true, he managed to talk a lot of famous people, nearly all women, into financing some spectacular stunts, all of which failed. Yet they kept pouring money into his projects.
There are a number of very famous women, who are believed to have had 'liaisons' with Dan, obviously a few actresses, but a number of other names kept popping up in our research, women from politics and certain royal families. We all know about the rumours concerning Dan, a certain DJ called David De Vynel, the daughter of the president of Patagonia, two nuns and a donkey. This story was covered by a national newspaper and then completely debunked by all concerned.

So just who is Dan Jerrous and what do we actually know about him?We know very little from his facebook page except that he seems to be incarcerated on a regular basis, due to his secretive nature it is suspected that he may either be someone quite famous or related to a royal family member, possibly a cousin of Prince Charles. One rumour hints that he may be the illegitimate son of the Prince of Monaco. Too many rumours and not enough fact, this is not unusual where Dan is concerned.

Whereever Dan Jerrous is talked about, myths abound, he was involved, albeit briefly, with a character called Pyro, we found this very suspicious, because dates where Dan was 'performing' coincide with dates of various pier fires, we know he was in Hastings in early October 2010, also he was on Brighton beach in March 2003 for a photo shoot, there is supposedly some film of Dan practising a stunt on a beach on the Isle of Wight. In the background of this piece of film can be seen Totland Bay Pier clearly on fire at the time. If any one has a copy of this film, we would like to see it to confirm this or maybe you know of other instances where Dan was nearby when fire broke out?

The great cow jump stunt in 1998 was another in a long line of spectacular failures, this one was infamous because it kicked off a massive row with the Animal liberation front, RSPCA and various other animal rights organisations.
Never one to dodge controversy, Dan's manager James Dayton has always been blamed for the rumour that Dan did the motorcycle riding for 'Long way round' this vicious and unfounded rumour has caused much consternation, Ewan Mcgregor and Charley Boorman definitely did the trip themselves, it is true Dan can be seen in the background of a certain piece of footage, but that's because we have discovered that they were filming the sequel to "Boots of doom!" in the same place. This was totally illegal and without the permission of the ruling government, it is believed the rumour about Dan being in 'Long way round' was started to cover the real reason they were there.

There are also many rumours concerning Dan's affiliation with G.O.D.S (Grand order of Divine Squid) this is a very secret organisation; who's members have a very odd way of greeting each other. Less is known about G.O.D.S than about the Freemasons or Rosicrucian's. On trying to find out more about them, I found myself on the receiving end of some very dire threats.

Dan has been associated with many famous women, Princess Di's name has cropped up on occasion as has Julia Roberts, Gloria Huniford and more recently Katy Perry, before she met 'that' twat.
Julia denied ever knowing Dan, but we know he was a friend of Hugh Grant at the time of the Notting hill film, as he was consulted on the more extreme stunts in that film. (Which were later dropped as not being relevant to the story line)

Dan has led a very exciting but secretive life, we are trying to document this, so if you know Dan or have had any dealings with him, maybe you were one of the many women who had an affair with him, then we would like to hear from you. In particular we would love to hear from Dan himself, James Dayton, Eddie Izzard (Yes we do know about 'that' incident Eddie) Gloria Huniford, Quentin Tarrantino, Julia Roberts, Princess Marina, Edwina Curry (We know about that one too), Kate Moss, Matt Damon (Dan was rumoured to have been the first chopice for the Bourne series), Katy Perry and Alan Carr*

*Nothing to do with Dan really, I want his address so we can send the boys round and get rid of him.

My Christmas speech.

2010-12-25T02:14:00.000-08:00

This has been a year of ups and downs for lots of people, some of us have lost loved ones, some have found new love. Some have lost jobs, some have found new ones, some have not, life is all about change, being human is all about adapting to that change, it can be much easier with good people around to help. Some of us do not have that option, there are people who have not got friends around to help and encourage them, I personally have a great circle of friends who have helped me through those times when I needed them. I hope I in turn have managed to help others as well. This has been the best year for me for some time in some ways, not so good in others, passing on help and the good feelings to others makes me feel good, there is nothing wrong in taking pride in helping others. This is something we should all do, at least one unselfish act every day.

We should all take a step back and look around us, far too many people have a selfish attitude to life these days, because they end up wrapped in their own selfishness they can miss how wonderful the world around is.
I am taking pleasure at this moment in the birds on the bird feeder outside my window, there is a massive woodpecker hanging from the peanut dispenser, simple things can give as much pleasure as the X-box or new mobile phone.

Are we teaching our children the simple pleasures in life? The pressure on kids and adults growing up to have the newest, biggest and best item on the market is now an endemic problem, IMHO anyway, we are constantly bombarded with the feeling that we 'have' to have the next 52" tv, or the new I-phone4.
I did not like being forced to upgrade to a frankly ridiculous level, it is this being pushed into having something that I don't really need that annoys me. How much of the capabilities of your phone do you use or even need?

As the market forces push us more and more into buying the latest and greatest new thing, are we becoming more insular?
There are people now who are getting to the point of only interacting with the outside world through their computer, I see this as becoming the norm in the next 20 years. Perhaps we should take a good look at our life's and see where we are headed?

The system of politics in this country will soon change, it has to, more and more people seem to be waking up to the fact that most of the current politicians are only in it as a job, politics is no longer seen as a vocation. There is so much prevarication and arse covering that nothing really gets done, the sooner we get in some MP's that will have the guts to say "Oops the economy is screwed, we had better sit down and do something sensible about it" the better, but it wont happen, mainly because to correct all the problems will upset too many people, most of which are in big corporates and will stand to end up paying the correct amount of tax instead of the paltry amount they pay now.
Sorting out the economy will hurt, but this papering over the cracks instead of knuckling down and getting it right is not the way to do it. Can someone also explain why we need nuclear weapons these days? Who exactly do we need to deter? More money that we cant afford to spend.
If you can, in the new year, please get involved in politics, the incumbents in the present government rely on the fact that most people cant be bothered, to keep themselves and their mates in jobs. The same parties and people are voted in time after time, what differences can you see between the main parties these days? The current coalition has already proved itself to be a sham, lies, deceit and backstabbing are worse than ever, is it not time to kick them all out and start again?
I think so.

Thank you for reading this rambling diatribe of a Christmas speech, if nothing else I hope it has made you think a bit, at least be grateful I did not sling in a few jokes.

Have a great Christmas and a very happy new year.

Fishing.

2010-11-06T06:21:00.000-07:00

Its been awhile since I last went, I used to enjoy it, so with a fair sized lake 5 mins away in the camper, reports of good sized Rudd, Tench and Carp to over 20lbs, off I went.
Bloody hell it was windy!! The lake is at the bottom of a valley near me, the wind is funneled down and gets quite brisk just where I wanted to fish, still I'm here now so lets get set up.Not knowing what to expect, I start out trying to freeline bread, which has been recommended as the favourite bait, under some bushes about 10 yards away, I'm using 8lb line with a 4lb hook to nylon and size 12 barbless hook, I am flicking the bread out 10 feet to the left of the bushes and letting the surface drift caused by the wind; take it underneath the edge of the bushes, I am also throwing pieces of bread into the bushes, this way it drops down through the leaves and looks more natural.

After 2 hours nothing, not a touch, I've tried from under my feet on the bank right across as far as I can cast. Time to switch tactics, I attach a small 1/2oz free running ledger to the line and switch to sweetcorn. Bingo, inside 5 minutes I have a strong run which unfortunately drops before I can strike. Never mind, I start rebaiting the hook when the bite indicator on the other rod shoots into the air, this time I am quick enough and and 2 minutes later I have a very strong fighting 4-5lb common carp in the net.

I rebait both rods and recast, one is straight out under the tress on the far bank, about 15-20 yards, the other is only 5 yards out to my left; back under the bushes.
Nothing for about an hour, then the bite indicator, which is a wine cork painted white with a hair clip sticking out of the end, starts to tremble, then rise very slowly, as I move over to the rod, the indicator smashes upwards and the line starts racing out of the open reel. Lifting the rod, I shut the bail arm and strike away from the direction the line is going, wallop! A fight is
on.

This is the rod with 8lb lne and 4lb hook to nylon, this might be a mistake, the fish is going nuts, I'm struggling to turn it without snapping the line, its a very good heavy ledger rod though, it is taking the shocks and allowing me to use the rod to take the strain rather than the line.
I keep turning him away from the over hanging branches and snag on the far bank, eventually I land a prime condition 10lb mirror.

Two weeks later, my mate Barry wants to have a go down here, so he turns up and we head off, this time to Pett, a village down by Winchelsea beach. There is a bit of the canal opposite the smugglers inn (very handy) so we set up there, this time after some jack pike.
I start pulling in roach after roach for live bait and a few skimmers, Barry gets nothing, the pike lines are picking up nothing. Then Barry's pike bung takes off down river at speed, he lifts the rod, give the pike time to turn the fish and strikes. Nothing, the pike let go, the bite marks on the roach show it would have been a good jack.
I get a couple of runs on the pike line but cant hook them, but I'm still hitting the roach on the light rod, had about 40 roach and skimmers now, Barry still has nothing. Oops.

Just as I pull in another roach of about 6oz, two blokes walk up and ask how we are doing, they have been fishing in a match about a mile up the canal and reckon that the roach I just caught would have won the match!!
They had been fishing the match all morning and no one of them had caught a thing.
As they are talking to me, off goes my pike bung, I pick up the rod and strike, its a 2-3lb pike, after that we packed up.
Final score, me about 40 roach, skimmers and one small pike.
Barry.... er... better luck next time mate.

Not that bad considering.

Top gear for bikes? or something similar.

2010-09-14T06:14:00.000-07:00

Top gear for bikes?
or something similar.
For some time Jamie and myself have tried to get someone interested in a project like this. In fact for four years now, with no success, we get the occasional interest from media companies, either no one wants to take a risk, or they just don't listen to us properly. Yet loads of people want us to make it, the ordinary biker in the street thinks its a great idea, there is even a Facebook group called 'The BBC should make a Top Gear for bikes' so on these bits of information it should be a popular programmes.

We worked out how to make a pilot at minimal cost, of course we will not discuss the details with anyone until we have some sort of agreement, that would be foolish. The idea is pretty simple, but you have to be a biker to understand why it would work, there lies the problem, the last company I had a meeting with to discuss the project, kept saying "How can we get it more like the Mcgregor – Boreman thing?" Yet when questioned, he had not even seen it. All he knew was that is was successful, the whole point of the our project is to move away from that kind of show, make it more like 5th gear or Top Gear than travelogue, but with a twist that would make it appeal not only to bikers but the general public as well.

Now you could say why don't we make it ourselves? Yes, we could, but unless we hired a load of expensive equipment, it would not look professional, the videos Motorsickle put up on Youtube are made in a short time scale; with pretty primitive equipment. As we have always said, we are professional bikers, not journalists, everything we have done so far, we had to learn from scratch. And to be honest, I don't think we have done that bad, considering the constraints and handicaps we have worked under.

With some decent equipment and a couple of professional people, I think we could make a pilot that would capture the interest of bikers and the public, we have been offered quite a few bikes to feature, getting a famous biker to appear would help immensely, although most seem reluctant, or least the ones whose agents I have spoken too, to get involved with a new untried project. No one wants to be associated with a failure, plus some want stupidly high fees to appear!

Getting bikers interested in a 'Top Gear' style programmes for bikes is difficult, while most are saying that they want one, strange that while a lot of programmes feature bikes (Hairy Bikers, American Chopper, Long Way Round, and recently David Jason riding a classic Triumph in his homage to 'The Battle of Britain') why is it, that none of the production companies want to make a programmes geared solely for motorbikes, or is it strange?

Think about this, most cars drivers will watch a car, any car being thrashed around a track. Clarkson and co have a winning formula of fun and information, but mainly its entertaining, nearly everything you see is set up, it appeals to all groups and is designed purely as entertainment, not a true car programmes as such. We know Clarkson will not allow motorbikes on 'his' show, except for the one off Vietnam trip, which strangely was one of the most popular they have done, he refuses to allow them on, not because he hates them, it is just part of his 'act'. He puts himself up as the ordinary man in the street, but it is all an act designed to court controversy and keep his name in public eye, it's a perfect win-win formula.

Now consider bikers, how many race rep riders want to sit down and watch a BSA bantam being put through it paces? How many chopper riders want to watch a Ninja being hooned around a track? See the problem, anyone who comes up with a format that appeals across the board will have a winning formula, which we think we have, but then you have to persuade them to make it.

Getting started is proving to be hellishly difficult.... Because persuading tv executives that people want to see motorbikes on the television is not easy. Even when you show them how popular some already are. As stated above, car drivers will watch any car, but bikers are more selective.

Surprisingly, there is not a lot of interest from manufacturers, I have not figured out why yet, I think it is to do with not having proved itself, maybe they also want a tried and tested formula before committing themselves.

Another problem is support from bikers themselves. It is notoriously hard to get bikers to work together at anything, Warren Djangoly has done a sterling job organising the 'Notobikeparkingtax' demo's, in fact they have been very successful.

What we need is for someone to organise a some kind of run in support of a 'Top Gear' style programmes, if enough motorbikes turned up surely someone would then get interested.

In the meantime I shall still try to drum up some interest in the media, but after all this time, I am beginning to think no media executive is interested in motorbikes, or believes that there is not enough interest out there to make it work.

Maybe one day...

Jake

The story so far....(Adoption)

2010-09-11T02:39:00.000-07:00

I have tracked down an uncle and two aunts, we recently moved to the south coast and we have discovered my uncle lives less than 6 miles from where we are now, and my aunts not much further!
How random is that?

No trace of my mother so far, very odd, I cant find her or Mr CQ her husband easily. The name is a bit too common, making it difficult to collate records, getting there slowly though.
I have found one of my sisters, or at least an address in 2002 about 45 miles away, she was difficult because she had remarried and it muddied the waters. My brothers names are too common to trace, but again I'm working on it.
No trace of the other sister yet.

I'm getting very good at this tracing people lark though, it looks like I have a new skill, it all depends on noticing correlations between datum, I have always been a good problem solver on limited facts. Putting together apparently unrelated information until something clicks, combined with years of searching the internet for odd pieces of information have held me in good stead.
It also means I have accumulated a lot of sidetracking (Husband of one aunt done for D&D after a family tradgey etc) info, but

you never know when it may become another piece of the puzzle.
What does irk me, is that you pay for the use of a website that has some info, then to get the next bit you have to pay again!
I used to have 'access' to a lot of, not restricted, but not public, records, this made things fairly easy, but back then I didnt really need it. Hindsight eh!
Still I have made a lot of progress and I am learning a lot, about how to acquire information in this country. In the USA it is much easier to track someone down.

I have also found a person for someone else, old school friend, they had been looking for 3 years, I found them in 3 days.

Maybe I'll find a use for this skill, maybe not, at present though it is helping me on my journey to find out more about myself.

My Adoption update (Long but worth reading)

2010-09-02T02:38:00.000-07:00

Just when you think "I'm intelligent enough to work out what has gone on, I could be Sherlock Homles!" You find out you are completely wrong, doh! Finally got the papers relating to my adoption, it was taking a long time to get them through, now I know why.
There is a stack of paper 3 inches high, it relates to nearly four years of me being unsettled and moved between my BM, a couple of children's homes and my adoptive parents.
From what little info I had, plus some help from a few people, I thought I had worked out the details of 'who' but not quite 'why', it turns out I was wrong, my father was not who all the evidence pointed to, my four siblings are only half siblings again and I have acquired another (and possibly one other) half brother.

The social worker who is helping me with this said; It was the most complicated case from that era (1955 - 1959) that they had ever seen. (It bloody had to be mine, didn't it...!) obviously I shall not name names, but a quick synopsis goes, BM (Birth mother) from broken family, Father had head injury in the war and has become a drunk and is unable to work, mother is of an 'erratic and nervous disposition' Her grandmother died in a mental hospital.
She ended up living with an Aunt in Brighton and 'got into mischief' with a gang who caused some criminal damage to the seafront. She later ended up spending some time in a mental hospital in Bradford somewhere around her mid to late teens, we feel this was because of teenage depression, but have no evidence as to the cause. I have not found any proper records relating to this yet.
Two years before I was born (aged 18) she was living in Folkstone, and 'frequenting the barracks and making undesirable friendships', during this time she met her future husband, CQ, a solider, who suggested marriage, CQ was sent abroad in early 1954, when this happened she carried on with her 'bad associations'.

During March to June she 'became friendly' with a married man, GP, this is who she stated was my father, she left Folkstone to move to Ashford to get away from this man! No idea why at present.

In October 1954, BM went to St Faiths, Brasted, Kent, I was born there in Feb 1955 , in March 1955 she married CQ and both felt that it would be better to put me up for adoption.
In April 1955 CQ returned to Germany and a couple of weeks later I was placed in Beckenham nursery in Kent (Being boarded out with view to adoption).
June 1955 I was placed with the foster parents who would eventually become my adoptive parents. Mr & Mrs W.

July 1955 BM returns to the Beckenham nursery and becomes upset to find I had been placed with foster carers.
August/September 1955 Social services are becoming concerned that BM may want me back, due to her history and the fact that I appear to have settled in well with foster carers, this is giving them cause for concern.
September 1955 BM rejects adoption and states she wants me returned. Legally at the time she had every right to me.
October 1955 adoption society receives letter from BM asking for me back.
October 1955 Letter from Church of England society stating BM has visited them and states that she definitely wants me back. She is now living with a Mrs L in Andover and has not heard from her husband since he lost his stripe (rank) in June.

Late October 1955 letter written to FP's (foster parents) to inform them of BM's wishes, they are understandably upset, requests that I should be sent back to the Beckenham nursery are rejected by FP's, they state they would rather hold on to me as long as possible.

Nothing heard from BM, letter is sent in June 1956 to the SSAFA (Soldiers, Sailors and Air force Association) attempting to track down Mr &/or Mrs CQ.
July 1956 Son born to birth mother, father Mr L, son of Mrs L whom she is staying with in Andover.

August 1956 letter sent to BM asking if she will agree to me being adopted.
August 1956 Letter received from Mr L stating he is my father???? (This was later found to be complete rubbish) and that they have no intention of letting me be adopted and want me returned to their care.

Between September and October of 1956 there is no response to any letters sent to BM.
Attempts are made to try and find her.
29th of October BM appears and states she will not agree to adoption.
November 1956 BM leaves Mr L, their son is left in his care.
November 1956 letter arrives from CQ, stating he is reunited with BM and that they want me back with them.

Are you still keeping up?

December 1956 Mr & Mrs CQ meet with Social services and state that they are reconciled and both wish to get me back, CQ is keen to adopt me and make a success of the marriage.
December 1956 letter to FP's stating the current position, both are very upset.
December 1956 Mr & Mrs CQ want me back before Xmas, the SS are reluctant to allow this as Mr & Mrs CQ are still waiting to move into proper army quarters. Mr & Mrs CQ are told they need to move into suitable accommodation before I will be allowed back.

April 1957 I was taken away from FP's who were distraught, and placed in Tunbridge Wells nursery in order to allow introductions with Mr & Mrs CQ, who did not turn up on the first date they were supposed to.
16th June 1957 first visit from Mr & Mrs CQ with me at Tunbridge.
29th June 1957 Mr & Mrs CQ took me home to Olney, Bedfordshire.

19th July 1957 letter arrives stating I have settled in well with BM and Mr CQ
(There appear to have been no or at least no recorded visits, by social services between June 1957 and February 1958)

November 1957 Baby girl born to Mr & Mrs CQ.

February 1958 letter arrives from BM stating she finds it hard with Me and her daughter, she now feels it was wrong to take me away from FP's.
March 1958 SS visit me and BM, they find me passive and unresponsive, pale, underweight and not interested in anything.
(There is a lot of medical and psychological info that I will not go into here)

April 1958 I am collected from BM's, who does not kiss me goodbye and is (according to the SS records) more concerned over what the neighbours will think.
May 1958 I am returned to FP's, initially SS were concerned because in the meantime FP's had adopted another boy 16 months younger than me. But visits show I progressed normally almost from the instant of being returned to FP's. In fact the records show that SS are completely amazed at my progress, fast weight gain, much more talkative and obviously enjoying being back with FP's.

September 1958 Case adoption committee approves application to adopt me from the FP's.
December 1958 visit arranged by SS with BM and husband, the records are unclear whether this actually happened or not.
January 1959 Adoption legalised by Wandsworth county court. Reading through the correspondence it appears the adoption hearing was not a clear cut affair and is unlikely that BM ever gave permission for the adoption. Although we have no evidence either way.

Writers block?

2010-07-28T01:05:00.001-07:00

Well we have finally 'semi-retired' into the country, a lovely little cottage with a really long garden, just a couple of miles inland from Winchelsea beach. Its a fabulous location, the people here are really friendly, the two pubs in the village are equally good (although one is literally over the road) and the view from the house superb.
We can be on the beach in less than 10 minutes, Camber sands is 15/20 minutes away, Hastings 10.
I no longer have to work for a while, so I am trying to put all my effort into writing, and there is the problem, writers block, I am actually writing this to try and get my creative juices flowing again, all the ideas I had for articles, and the books, seem to have evaporated away, or not seem as much as a good idea as I had originally thought.

I really cant work out why, I was all fired up to get started on my writing when we moved here, now I'm stuck in a hell of no ideas at all. This is quite unlike me, normally any excuse to write any old rubbish on the net gets me going, churning out long rambling diatribes has been my signature piece for years, yet I have hit this block, this brick wall of nothingness that stands between me and the many outpourings that I know are there.
What do I need to do to get things flowing again?
Even writing this seems an effort, could this change in environment have caused it? Does my more stress free lifestyle mean I have now lost the edge?

Possibly living and working in London, with a high stress job had a big influence on what I was writing, it may have been the outlet for my frustration, could losing all that have taken the bite out of my musings?
I think it more likely that my mind needs to adapt to the new life we have chosen, it will take a little time for my brain to adjust to not having any pressure, not having to worry about getting up to go to work (I still wake at silly o'clock in the morning out of habit) the only pressure I have is to get the garden watered, or to decide where to go for lunch, maybe I need more than that, maybe I need the stress to enable me to write? I certainly hope not.

Watch this space.

I hate kids.

2010-07-27T14:33:00.001-07:00

Looking after two 12 year old girls is not a job for an old school biker.
You cant take them to the pub or the local pole dancing club (although why anyone would want to watch polish builders dance in a bar is beyond me), me missus and her daughter buggered off to the pub last night and left them in my care.
Muhahaha.... or not as the case may be, I have never wanted kids, I cant stand them!!
But seem to have loads of the buggers around, I think Ruth has got about 50 kids!! Or it feels that way, moving to the seaside (or as near as damnit) to relax and review my life, may not have been such a good idea. Its the school holidays and Ruth has a granddaughter... ho hum... Megan and her friend are here for the duration, I now know how Eastenders felt in the blitz! What do you do with two pre teenage girls who going on 27. Answers on a postcard, and not crude ones please! (Shut it Jamie!)
And now I disover we get rid of her friend tomorrow, only to collect another one at the weekend, and she is staying with us, in the camper, until we get to Ireland in 3 weeks time!
I must have done something seriously wrong in a previous life.

Why you should vote.

2010-05-04T03:06:00.000-07:00

On the 6th of May, you all get the chance to vote for your MP's.
A couple of things to remember before you cast your vote, and you should vote, even if you cant think of who to vote for.

Dont vote against a good MP, if your MP is a good one, but you dont agree with the party, vote for him anyway and let him know you are voting for him and his good works, not the party he belongs too. There is no point in getting rid of one good man, maybe you dont agree with the party anymore, but that is no reason to dump someone who does a good job.

If you cant think who to vote for, then vote for the person who is nearest your views, I would even advise voting for an independent, if he is a local man or woman and knows his stuff, give him a chance. But dont vote for him/her if they are not capable of doing the job, this defeats the object of the exercise.

One of my pet hates, is people saying "I really like him but he has no chance, so I'll vote for someone else", I know from personal experience how this can work against, not only the candidate, but the people who would like him to get in.
Vote with your beliefs, not because you want to be voting for the winner or because you want to stop someone else, all the parties are saying what a disaster it will be if the other fellow gets in, they are not actually telling us what they will do.So go with who you think will do the best job in your area.

What they are also not telling us, is that whoever gets in is going to have to upset the general populace to get the economy back on track, believe me, when they get going it will hurt, unless we want to end up like Greece (and it could happen) then we have to knuckle down and get this country back on its feet. We really need to vote for people that will sort out all the problems, not just keep us 'comfortable', by continuing the status quo things will only get worse, all we are doing is pushing the problems further down the line. And the further we push them the worse they will get.

So get out and vote this thurday, but do it for the right reasons and vote for the people that you believe can do the most good.

Art, a personal view.

2010-03-31T05:12:00.000-07:00

Wandered around a couple of exhibitions the other day, art is a very personal thing, but sometimes I wonder if what we are sometimes 'told' is art, really is.
This is not meant as a proper review of any of the works here, this is a just my personal opnion of two very different works and a look at my own quirky view of art.
The first exhibition was by Norman Cornish, a very narrow view of his life in Spennymoor, I wont go into the details of his life as they are irrelevant, this is just my view of his work.
I had a problem at first with his distorted perspective, probably because of my engineering and technical background, then once I got past that, I found a wonderful series of studies of life in a mining village. His facial studies show he was a man who knew faces, there is a warm depth to his work that you feel, the street scenes have a sense of fun, I felt none of the bleakness that other artists of that ilk convey.

From Norman cornish I went into an exhibition by a gentleman called William Tucker, I had never heard of him, I hope not to bother again, I could not make head nor tail of his pieces at all, when I first view a piece, I always avoid reading any signs nearby, so as to form my own impression; of what the artist is trying to do, from the works at Kingsplace in York way, I can only assume he was constipated. The works were formless and made no sense to me. I got no feeling of, well, anything from them, they reminded me vaguely of an animated claymation series called 'Red and Blue' other than that, they did nothing for me whatsoever.

I have no problem with modern art, I love Rothko where as most of my friends dont get him, but the works of William Tucker did nothing for me, art should have an effect of some kind,
be it disgust, admiration or amusement etc, but to have no effect at all is wrong. Maybe its me?
Perhaps I no longer see art as I used to, I did have to 'learn' about art many years ago, I had a very good teacher in one of my ex-girlfriends, she helped me to 'see' art, whereas before that I would have dismissed most as rubbish.
Maybe I need to get out more, we do not get many chances to visit galleries these days, although that will change very soon. Personal perference can be a volatile thing, it can change from the smallest of influences, as I get older, I find myself drawn towards more traditional art over the modern, yet I suppose it comes down to what pleases my eye, our preference in art should be no more than that really, I always remember being told, if you are going to buy art, dont buy for investment, buy it because it pleases you. Very wise words.

Apathy poem

2010-03-31T02:10:00.000-07:00

Stand up stand up
be counted
Stand up stand up
this once.

Dont sit at home
dont sit and moan
dont be fool
or dunce.

Get out and
make the effort
get out and
join the fray

Content are you
to let others work
as your freedom
ebbs away.

Will you shout
about injustice
will your voice
be one that's shrill.

Or will you sit
in front of tele
while it slowly
saps your will.

Do you moan
about the petrol
your tax
and VAT

While you sit
in pub
with glass in hand
drinking G&T

We try to fight
your corner
but you think
we protest too far

The demo has
delayed you
stuck sitting
in your car.

You will never
join the demo
never make your
voices heard.

Content to sit
and complain
as your freedom
again is curbed.

I also know that
my poetry
will fall upon
deaf ears.

As you will
never change
its been this way
for years

The government
they have you
trapped in a
comfort zone

To rock the boat
un-nerves you
so all you do
is moan.

Jake rambles on again....and again....

2010-03-10T02:20:00.000-08:00

We have four years to prepare for the elections, as do the political parties, yet we do nothing until the last moment, we should be out there talking to our representatives, we should be pressing them on the issues that bother us. But no, we will wait and then get stuck with the same old boring/safe faces, we need new blood in politics, we need to get some MP's who are not scared to stand up and tell it like it is. Most are just covering there arses to get another 4 years in a secure and well paid job. The system is failing, yet we allow the current crop of politicians to keep patching the system with promises that it will get better, maybe we do not want our boats rocked, maybe we dont want any disturbance in our cosy little lives, yet we want them to fix everything, well let me tell you, when someone does get out there and attempt to 'fix' what ails our society, its going to hurt most of us.

This is what scares most people, they have got into a life style that is comfortable and relatively luxurious compared to most people around the world, they don’t want that to change, this life where people do not have to do much thinking for themselves, where they can get virtually anything they want, and I do mean anything, just by quoting a credit card number.

We have been led into a life where we are just to frightened to make any major changes, where our comfort zone is now so big that, any change, would bring our world crashing down around our ears.
50 years ago a car was a luxury item, as was a television and, believe it or not, even a fridge! (We got our first fridge in 1966, up until then everything we had was fresh everyday) The things we take for granted these days were not always freely available, we forget very easily that these things are transient, the government is quite happy to have you throwing stuff away and buying the latest gadgets, it keeps the economy going, but for how much longer?

How long can we sustain this insatiable appetite that is generated by advertising and the consumer society? How long before we wake up and say “I don’t care if Joe Bloggs has a car that is 2/10ths of a second faster than mine!” (Unless you are a drag racer)?
The whole of western society is driven by this consumerism, a consumerism that is created by market forces and designed to make money for the people at the top of the tree.
They don’t care about you, they just want you to buy, and buy, and buy, as long as we ‘think’ we need the latest gadgets then they will provide, how many of you actually use all that computing power at your fingertips? We sometimes forget that these gadgets are tools and not toys.

We need people in power than will look further than 4 years ahead, we need a long term plan to get us out of this downward spiral, I somehow doubt we will get it, so be prepared to be taxed even more heavily in the coming years.

Jake

The 2010 elections, get out and vote!!

2010-02-10T06:15:00.000-08:00

Get out there and vote, but first learn about the candidates even the ones you thought you knew, check their backgrounds, check their 'other' jobs, you might be surprised at what 'vested' intesterests some have and dont give me crap about "There is no one to vote for!"
There should be at least one candidate you could vote for, you just need to do the research first, there might be a great independent guy that you have not noticed, if not then get someone to run for MP, I bet you know someone who could do the job?
And I dont want to hear "Whats the point? He will never win!" FSS vote with your conscience, not because YOU want to win, voting for someone else 'because he wont win' is a pathetic excuse, if everyone who thought that, actually voted for who they liked, it would make a massive difference. It would also send a big message to the current incumbents.

Dont abandon your current MP though, if he does a good job, he may be Labour or Tory but if he does a good job, is it worth dumping him just for a protest vote? Do tell him you dont like the party politics, do tell him his party leader is a twat, make sure he knows you are only voting for him locally and not for his party.

We need to see how to change the way we look at our politicians, recent scandals about expenses (Funny that no one noticed when I was banging on about it in Feb 2008) the cushy lives and jobs after they leave, are all starting to make us sit up and think whats going on here? Politics used to be a vocation, now its just another job, is that the way we want politicians to see it? As just another job? All parties are starting to look the same, there are few differences now between the main two parties
But the general public will still wont make an effort, they wont get out there and question their MP's, oh some will, but not enough to make a difference, it is that lazyness that has always worried me, some dont even bother to vote, is this because they really believe it makes no difference or is it, as I believe, that they just dont care, as long as their little bubble carries on making their lives comfortable. People wont vote for a change that will inconvinience them or make them uncomfortable, never mind that the patches; that the current politicians are papering over the cracks with, wont last forever, at some point we have to a take a big fall to cure the ills of society. But we dont want it to be us, so lets keep pushing it back for our children to deal with it.
We have become a society of wasters, a society of selfish people who have lost the feeling of community, if we dont deal with it, our children will have too. So lets get out there and check out the candidates, lets take a good look at what we can do and what we can change, lets get together and discuss it, for we might find that the guy we wanted to for, but we belived was a waste of time cos he wont get in, is the guy we ALL wanted to vote for.

Make an effort for once, learn about the people who will be running your lives, with your money, before its too late (again).

Who am I? An adoption search.

2010-02-05T23:45:00.000-08:00

There are several threads on a forum I frequent about my adoption, I have decided to post it all on here as well.

So lets bring you all up to date on what I am doing and why I am posting this in the open.

My brother and myself are both adopted, we have always known this, I have never been interested in finding out about my history or family. I have never really been that family orientated, then a couple of years ago two things happened, first my daughter got in contact after 27 years and that started off a lot of thoughts in my head, then my brothers mother got in contact with him, only to die 8 months later. My brother found he had 7 half brothers and sisters and a myriad of relatives.

So I decided to do a little investigating to find out who I am and where I come from, it turns out, that my (adoptive) mother had put a block on any contact from our birth parents, which they could do in the 50's. It was only after her death that a letter was allowed to go to my brother from his original mother, with a bit of not very difficult detective work and a little help from a certain wonderfully resourceful person on volkszone.com, it looks like my mother and possibly my father are still alive, there are also possibly four siblings, not half ones, around as well.

At this point I stopped and decided to go through the proper channels, it would not be fair for me to just turn up (oh I have tracked them down and know where they all live) they might (though I doubt it, I have been very careful) be the wrong people.
On the 18th of this month I have my first meeting with the adoption counselors, I shall let you all know the result of this.

Now, why am I posting what is essentially a 'private' affair?
Because there is still this stigma attached to adoption, I have spoken to and had emails from a lot of people since starting this, most start by saying 'dont tell anyone but I was adopted.....etc' I find this so sad, why should there be a stigma? It is not our fault, I think there are a lot of people out there who would like to track down their birth parents, but are a little afraid/unsure about the process, so I hope that this thread will help them or at least help them decide what to do.

If any case your first step should be to contact your local adoption counselor, you can find them through google or ask at your council offices/doctors.

Fear and Loathing in St Reathham

2010-01-27T01:45:00.000-08:00

The air was cold, not as cold as a few weeks ago with the snow and biting wind, but still cold enough to add a bite to my lungs, especially after the warm air from the central heating, I had been using the tube to get to work in Kings Cross but I hate the tube and most of the people who use it.

I manoeuvred the bike backwards out if the front drive and started to warm her up, her being my ratted out ZZR1100, 20 years old and nearly 50k on the clock but still going well, she needs a new exhaust at present as there is a little hole in the collector... well when I say little, its about 2 inches across, so, a tad noisy then, but sounds great!

Feeling like I had half my wardrobe wrapped around my body, I climbed on and eased out the clutch, by the time I had gone half a mile I was cold, but feeling good, for the first time in ages the roads were clear and dry, ok some big potholes had appeared after all that snow and freezing, thawing and freezing again, but I could deal with that, or so I thought.

I started getting a move on once the tyres had warmed up, I have some mid-ranged priced tyres that were a bargain from FWR in South London (plug plug), and warming them up before you gun it is pretty essential, after a few miles the tyres were working and I was enjoying a bit of bend swinging and extreme filtering, getting up to Streatham I reached the bend by the church and found the road empty, I have never seen it this empty, so gunned the bike in second and held it as I passed the apex of the bend, I was quite a way over on the bike when the front suddenly went light, as I watched the front started to come up higher and higher and this while leaned over at about 45 degrees, the throttle just would not close, then it did, much quicker than I wanted and threw the front back at the ground, I blipped the throttle whilst slipping the clutch, to try and get control without losing traction or power at the back wheel. As the front end dropped back onto the road I saw with horror a pothole about 3-4 inches deep, right where the front wheel was heading for, there was nothing I could do, the crunch as it hit jerked my whole body, the front wheel bounced into the air again as I tried to wrestle back control, without the front wheel on the ground I was using my body weight to control the crazily bucking bike. As I threw my weight over to lift the back of the bike, the back wheel hit the pothole and tried to go in the opposite direction, I got a glimpse of people standing at the bus stop as I careered towards them, I think they thought they were going to die, I leaned forward hard and the front tyre bit into the road, then started a tank slapper that threatened to rip out my arms, I blipped the throttle to get the wheel off the ground again so I could straighten the bars without fighting against the weight of the bike. This worked, I eased off on the throttle and dabbed the back brake which brought the front end back down under my control and the bike settled down again.

I pulled over and found I had been holding my breath, I let in out in long drawn out sigh, then as I composed myself, a Jamaican with phenomenal dreads wandered over and said "Mon, you's going to need new underwear now!" before walking away with a big grin, and do you know, he was right!

Time for change.

2009-12-30T03:12:00.000-08:00

There is a change coming, I feel it in the air, I see it in the general population, there is a much greater dissatisfaction with the way our country and the world in general is being run, people are starting to organise to protest and fight back, the general apathy that makes people say “We cant do anything about it!” “What’s the point?” “You can’t change the way things are!” is dispelling.
More and more people are starting to ask the question ‘why?’ instead of just accepting the status quo, politicians have shown themselves to be working only for themselves and not the people they represent, this is not true of all politicians, trouble is they are now all tarred with the same brush.
I remember when politicians went into to politics to help people, to guide and help run the country for the people, lately all I see is people who want a bigger slice of a dwindling cake, the ‘notobikeparkingtax’ is a very good case in point, it started as a protest against an unfair tax, then as more information came to light, it became a crusade against a corrupt system that was just abusing its rights and power.
Traditionally motorcyclists are the hardest group to organise against any from of authority, not because they are scared, but motorcyclists are loners, they tend to go their own way, but the way Warren and his friends have worked to get so many bikers out on the streets is amazing!
I also see this as the beginning of a time of change, we should see more and more diverse groups of people starting to fight back against a giant rolling system that takes for granted that we do not band together and stand against our ‘betters’, the general feeling of “They know best” is giving way to a more subtle voice “Is that really in OUR best interests?” Whenever local council, government or any institution in a position of authority brings out a new scheme or law, perhaps we should all be asking “What does it really mean to US?” “Who makes the money out of this?” and even more important “Why were we not consulted?” for we are no longer asked our opinion on anything, we are just TOLD that this is the way its going to be.
We elected these people to work for us, not TELL us what to do, how did we let ourselves slide into this situation?

It is my belief that we should vote more independents into power, people that are local and not just candidates that are put into ‘safe seats’, I’m not saying that we should vote just anyone in, we have to look carefully at any candidate who might be voted into a position of power that could be abused, but maybe it is time we looked at how we can change the whole voting system?
At present we have a very limited choice, from a system that was designed to let anyone run, the rules have been more and more refined to only let ‘certain’ people run for office, this is wrong, I agree that there should be some rules, but the system as it stands actively discourages people from running, people that I feel would be good for the country, people who know the problems in their own area, people who know the local populace and local problems.

Politicians seem to have become more and more distant from the population, how many of you have even met your local MP? A quick straw poll at my office did not find one person who had met their MP, in fact I was the only one out of the 50 people I spoke to who had.

These is also wrong, people should be encouraged to meet their MP, in fact they should actively seek them out and question them, get to know them, find out what they are up to. These MP’s should be accountable, not distant.

End of year thoughts 1

2009-12-22T04:08:00.000-08:00

What a year this has been, up, downs and even the occasional sideways/off at a tangent thing.
Life for me in 2009 has been exciting, boring, surprising, disappointing and brilliant in fairly equal measure, but the good always outweighs the bad, the last half of this year was beginning to look like the end of a long line of disasters, that would never stop, then, with a bit of persistence and a determined nature, things suddenly changed around. I’m not out the woods yet, but can see a clear path.

Next year is starting to look really exciting, for Ruth and me, we have big plans to travel around the world, we want to see places that interest us, before we get to old to enjoy it.
I have travelled quite a lot when I was a bit younger, I loved it, seeing new places, meeting new people, trying new foods. The world is getting smaller all the time, soon anyone with a bit of cash will be able to invade the most remote places, I want to be able to see some of them, before people start throwing their rubbish on the floor.

We are not getting any younger, almost every month now I hear of someone who has died without doing anything with their life, this morning was no different, an old acquaintance from school, not a friend as such, died over the weekend, he had lived most of his life in Battersea South London, as far as I am aware he never left England in his 56 years, always went to Devon for his holidays, fair enough if he was happy with that, but I’m not,

I want to experience the scenery in New Zealand, which is as far as I can go from where I live now, and still be on this planet. I want to see where the Indian and South Atlantic oceans meet, I want to ride the train across Canada, I want to ride a motorbike across Europe again and see how the ride would have changed in 20 years.
I want to watch the sun set on foreign lands, I want to see it rise again elsewhere, I want to understand this planet that we live on, I want to feel it.

Hopefully next year we will do this.

I hope you all will be able to follow your dreams too.

We love you all!

Merry Christmas

Jake and Ruth.

Racism and the innate goodness of humans.

2009-10-28T01:16:00.000-07:00

Something I wrote in answer to someone who posted about believing that humans were 'innately good' I thought it might be of interest....

Brett, I have to disagree with you on a very important point, humans do not have 'innate goodness' this is learned behaviour, all behaviour and reactions to everything around is learned.
I held some very odd (racist??) views when I was younger, losing those views was nothing to do with my innate goodness, it was to do with seeing the world and learning more about my fellow human beings.
I was brought up in Battersea, most of the people I associated with were, or knew, members of the NF, so their views were pressed firmly on the forefront of my mind at a time (mid to late teens) when I was most impressionable, one of my cousins constantly referred to black people as monkeys, this was a barrage of racism that you could not escape and it became accepted and normal behaviour as far as I was concerned. Getting away from these views was hard (and a long story) it also meant leaving behind a large number of people with whom I had been mates since I was little, not to mention relatives.
But I 'learned' that people are the same everywhere, I had to travel to learn it though.
People learn how to behave, they learn this as they grow up, all their mores, morals and beliefs are gleaned from there parents, their teachers, their peer groups, its only when we break out into the world we 'can' start to learn about 'truth' of the world, and the truth is that human beings are the most destructively vile creatures on this planet, we rip each other off, we fight for no reason, we look down on those we consider beneath us, if (and I hate to say this)we had no bible, no Koran, no religious book and teachers to present us with our moral code, the world may have been a far worse place than it is today.
Those moral codes, however we got them, at least gave us rules to live by, before those, order was kept by rulers who wanted peace and quiet, but that came at a cost, take a look at any of the older civilisations, they kept slaves, they treated people like pieces on a chess board, to be thrown away if not needed, how many slaves died in the building of the Pyramids? How many died on the voyages from Africa to the Americas?
The changes to laws regarding racism had nothing to do with 'innate goodness' we just grew up, as world communication grew we (humans) started to realise that we are a global community, as the information age flooded our homes we started to learn more about the world around ourselves and we saw for ourselves some of the truth. Not everyone because it is also easy to capture and mold young minds and then it can be impossible to change those ingrained beliefs.

Leave a group of humans to grow up without teaching them morals and I bet you end up with none of them having 'innate goodness', sorry mate I just dont believe that the human race has it inside them to be good, they have to learn to be good.

Family and funerals.

2009-10-21T23:57:00.000-07:00

Been a busy old time for me lately, I had not realised how much hard work it was, being out of work, I seem to be running around filling in forms and chasing jobs all the time and its harder work than working!!

Tomorrow I am off to a funeral in Porchester, my aunt Amy. My family all know I'm a bit of a black sheep and I am totally unreliable in family matters, I do not get around to visiting anyone and do not see them for years.
I did promise myself that I would get down and see Amy after the funeral of my mother, which is now nearly 7 years ago. Where has the time gone?
Time seems to be slipping by faster and faster, maybe it is time to take stock and then make an effort to get out and see more of my relatives.

Amy didnt have the best of lives, her husband was a violent nutter who beat their eldest so bad he spent most of his life in mental institutions, the second eldest ran away because of him at 16 and never came back. Her youngest died of Luekemia 8 years ago. Amy was always pleased to see anyone who visited, she was a lovely lady who deserved a much better life, so tomorrow I will go down there and pay my respects.

I have never been back to my parents graves since their funerals either, despite them being only a 30 minutes walk away. If they are up in the sky somewhere (which they are not) then they would know I loved them, I see no point in keeping graves and tending to them, although my brother does. As I have mentioned before, I do not believe in god or any invisible being hiding in the sky, I believe that once you are dead, thats it, game over, so make the best of it now, in that respect I regret not having made the effort to go and see Amy.
And I am a man of very few regrets.

Micheal Jackson 'This is it'

2009-10-12T00:46:00.001-07:00

The media circus is in full frenzy again today, as the new single from MJ hits the airways, it is predicted to be the best selling single of all time. No surprise really, the hype surrounding it, down to the ridiculous amount of security that came with it to the studio, to the pre-release rumours and publicity, guaranteed this would be a cynical attempt at money making, And a very successful one a that, here you have a recently dead famous artist, with a massive (in my opinion deluded) fan base, an artist with so much controversy around him, that he generates his own publicity without having to spend loads on advertising.

So after listening to it, what do I think, now I'm not a fan of MJ, but some of his stuff is clever and well produced; just not my thing, 'This is it' though, sounds bland and unfinished, its more like a test run than a fully fledged single, there is none of the MJ feel to it, more like he ran this off to get the feel of it. Personally I think Sony have banged this out to try and recoup some of the dosh they lost, they know the fans will run around in circles praising their hero and snap this up in their millions.

Regardless of how I feel about Jackson, this is a poor single to release 'in his memory'

Motorsickle upgrade.

2009-09-24T12:24:00.000-07:00

Lots of stuff been going on behind the scenes at Motorsickle, we shall be revamping the site, lots of exciting new developments and plenty of new ideas.
Very soon I shall be going out on a trail day, courtesy of http://www.ultimateridertraining.com/ who have asked us to come out and video exactly what they do, I'm looking forward to riding a brand new KLX250 in the dirt!

We also hope to be getting some test rides on some fantastic bikes, the new 1800 Triumph cruiser, possibly the new Honda DN-01 (although that one is a bit pie in the sky) and just waiting to hear when I can take out the new K1300R from BMW.

We shall be doing a feature on crash helmets and winter apparel for you hard bikers that actually get out there in the winter!!

We also have a facebook group, yes I know... but hell it has picked up 150 odd (very odd) people in less than 48 hours!! How popular are we then!

More soon, remember the days are getting shorter and the leaves are falling, stay safe out there.

Jake (aka Pyro)

Market research......Orange

2009-09-22T09:31:00.000-07:00

I did this 'market research' thing, for Orange, I was asked how I 'felt' about what their ads were saying to me. I told them I liked the 241 ads as they were amusing, I told them I didnt understand the ones with those stupid cartoon figures making loads of silly noises and pointed out the ad team were either 5 years old or on coke.

Anyway after a load of extremely stupid questions they asked me what I wanted from a mobile phone company, so I told them, I want polite knowledgeable people who are not over familiar, I hate being called by my first name by people over a phone line if I have never met them.
You call me Mr Willis or I call you dickhead.
I also want them to stop this stupid thing of not using capital letters or punctuation in their ads, I know they are trying to be 'down with the textspeak kids' but I find it ignorant and insulting.

Was I wrong? Am I just being an old fart?

Falling leaves, Pedestrians and Light‑jumpers

2009-09-17T08:50:00.000-07:00

Another article from Motorsickle.com, but there is a relevance to some recent events, justs saves me having to write it all out again....

It's getting to that time of year again, when falling leaves make the riding very interesting, and there also seem to be conkers on every corner I try to negotiate at the moment. This is a dangerous time of year, when going to and from work the sun is quite low in the sky making it difficult to see properly, we have to make allowances for that as other drivers dont seem to think about it, especially if they have a car full of screaming school kids. I hate this time of year, the school runs clog up the roads and as most cars don't run long enough to warm up their catalytic converters the air is full of crap as well. Not to mention the greasy nature of the roads as there does nor seem to have been enough rain to wash them clear, funny that because it feels like we have had a lot of rain. Leaves on the road are scary, they build up just on the lines we would use on bends, in the middle of the road and in the kerbs, all places we use to pass stationary traffic. We need to look a bit further ahead at this time of year; to make sure we don't end up on the mushy crap that used to be leaves on a tree.

Maybe it's just me, but these days but I am finding more and more pedestrians wandering out into the road wearing those bloody ipod things, the number that wander around between cars without looking is growing, most seem to be foreigners who look the wrong way. I got another one a few days ago, luckily for him I'm experienced and was looking for prats. He got a nasty shock as I slid into his leg though, he then hobbled off screaming abuse at me, er… you were the idiot who stepped of the kerb looking the wrong way mate. I have also had a few running battles with cyclists. Don't get me wrong - most are quite sensible, there are a growing number though that think they have right of way regardless of the circumstances, especially when they change direction, no indication of what they are going to do and then swerve across your path, if you toot at them they get all aggressive!! Well next time mate, I just might not stop, we shall see what 600 lbs of motorbike using you as a brake does for your attitude. There used to be one or two of these a week at most, now I getting at least one every bloody day. Guess what, most of them are wearing headphones, you would think that riding a bicycle in London it would be far more sensible to listen for the traffic.

There are a growing number of pedestrians that can not be bothered to walk 35 yards to a zebra crossing, I have seen the same woman nearly every school day crossing the road near Rosehill, Morden with two young girls about 5 and 7 years old, she drags them by the hands across the worse bit of road along that stretch, sometimes forcing cars to break as she struggles with the kids, yet there is a zebra crossing 35-40 yards in one direction and a pelican crossing maybe a 100 yards in the other. She has to pass the pelican crossing to get to the school, so why not walk down and use it????

School children don't seem to have been taught to use them either, and the number that just walk out from behind buses is ridiculous, sometime just running out across the road without looking and guess what… wearing those damn headphones.

So much for all those expensive ads on the television then.

This morning I saw another smashed up bike in the middle of a crossroads, this is a notorious junction where at least once a week someone jumps the lights, this is a growing trend that does really scare me, everyday I see at least 2 red light jumpers, the main culprits being in Mitcham, Brixton and Streatham. One set is really bad at the junction of Westcote road and Mitcham road, I always hesitate here and several times it has saved my life, we are not talking crossing on amber, I mean up to 5 seconds after the lights have changed, although that is the worst one I have seen, 2 seconds is not uncommon.

The growing frustration on the part of motorists is partly to blame, there are far too many cars for our outdated road system to cope with, London is just now one large car park most of the time, yet when the schools are on holiday it is not that bad at all. Hang on are we missing something here, what if, now this is a bit radical, we had a dedicated school bus system, similar to what they have in America, would that not go someway to relieving the problem? I know a woman who lives near me and drops her kids off at school before driving on to work, the school is 400 yards away from their front door, she then has to turn around and go back the other way to get to work, normally doing a u-turn outside the school screwing up all the traffic, rather than drive another 50 yards to go around the block. Now, why does she not get up 5 minutes earlier and just walk them down? It's beyond me.

Frustration...

2009-09-15T00:08:00.000-07:00

At 54 years old and out of work, I have had a lot of time on my hands to think, this is not a good idea, where as before I could bang out a few written articles in a short time, now I’m thinking too much about them.
Writing is a bit of a weird thing for me, I do not feel I’m particularly good at it, I tend to just jot down whatever is going through my mind at the time and let my readers judge it from there. Since having mucho time to deliberate on my senile musings; I find I am starting to self criticise my work, this means I keep writing the same sentence over and over again in different ways, yet at the end I preferred the first one, how frustrating.

I have written all my life, ever since I learnt to read at a stupidly early age, I wanted to write, as a teenager all my angst came out in really bad songs and even worse poems, I remember finding some a few years ago at my brothers place, I burnt them!!
What rubbish was going through my mind in those heady days of youth, most of my puerile musing concerned girls, sex, drugs, drink and motorbikes, oh, hang on, I’ve not changed much really. I have never claimed to be good at writing, I have had a go at a couple of novels; I have some good ideas for plot lines, but I just cant seem to get them out in the way that I want. Short stories, poems, even songs, over the years I have had a go at just about everything, but finally I think I have found my niche. Motorsickle.com allows me to ramble on about every aspect of my life that motorcycles have touched, after 40 years of riding I am finding that I enjoy writing about the damn things. The added bonus is that the feedback we have had, shows that some people are actually enjoying what we write.

Destitute.

2009-09-03T02:32:00.000-07:00

Never in my life do I remember being quite this broke, until a few years ago I would always have money in my pocket. Now I cant even buy petrol for the bike.
Embarrassed is not a word people normally associate with me, I don’t give monkeys about most things and live my life as if today was my last day on earth. Having no money is putting a new perspective on my life, I feel I have to turn down invites to various functions, I don’t go to the pub because I cant stand my round, last week I went to a motorbike rally (tickets were bought in Jan) and was looked after by my mates, I spend the weekend in unusually subdued mode; because I felt embarrassed.
This weekend I have to go to a VW event up at Santa pod, I have to go because it’s the last chance I will get to see my Daughter for a while, so tonight I have to go and borrow some money off of my brother, god knows how much I owe him already.
After that I wont be going anywhere for a while, my motorbike has blown the exhaust to the extent where it is barely repairable, no point in selling it as it is not worth anything without the exhaust, besides … sell my bike? FOAD.

The weird thing is I feel in a kind of limbo, I cant seem to even pick up a job driving, I just applied for a job riding a 125cc motorbike (for gods sake don’t tell my mates!) to deliver car parts around London, bloke listened to me on the phone and said “Mate you are far too intelligent for this job…..” no matter what I said he was not interested, the money was also less than I used to earn in 1978.

Now I’m not proud, I have cleaned toilets in the past to earn money, I’ll do anything to get some money coming in, but there are so many people applying for every job, it is a lottery and you now what the odds on winning that are. One job I applied for, driving a van, had 118 people apply in the first hour of it being advertised, don’t believe me? Go to Gumtree.com and look at the jobs section, refresh the page an hour later and look at the number of hits for any job, I was astonished when I had this pointed out to me. Bar work picks up maybe 200 hits an hour!!

So where do I go from here, well bankruptcy is calling at present, I had tried everything I know to either get a job or earn some money, even 3 years ago I could have found a way to make some dosh, but now its ridiculous. So I just keep trying to look for a suitable bit of work, I have even started applying for jobs in Europe, I don’t really want to move abroad, but if I have too I will.

Back in the ‘bad ol’ days’ I never had less than £100 to out with (equivalent to about £4-500 now) but I was a ‘bad boy’ as my mum used to put it, since I have been legit I feel like I have been skint all the time, the government was quite happy to take all my money in tax and NI, but now I get back less than a third of what I paid in every week.

What price is ‘doing the right thing’ costing me?

Writers block....

2009-08-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

I seem to have been suffering from writers block lately, got loads of ideas, but when I try to put them on paper..... nothing.

I have updated a few old articles and posted a new one on www.motorsickle.com about Honda fours - a personal view. I need to break out of these doldrums I seem to have dropped into. Maybe I need a proper holiday.

Jake

Quality of life and death.

2009-08-03T01:15:00.000-07:00

Sir Terry Pratchett has made a good case for helping people who no longer have 'quality of life'.
Watching him on Breakfast tv this morning made me think of my parents, my father died of stomach cancer, it closed off the top of his stomach so he could not eat, he spent his last days looking like a Belsen victim, gradually starving to death while loaded with morphine for the pain.
I held his hand wishing he would die, just to stop his pain.

My mother died of colonic cancer four years later, but that was not the problem, for the last few months of her life she had no idea of where or who she really was, for the last two years of her life she dropped in and out of reality, sometimes believing the second world war was still going on. At other times she was just completely confused as to anything around her. She was also in pain from the cancer, like my father she was on a multitude of drugs, some of which I am sure did not help the situation. While she was still able to comprehend the world around her, even if only for a few days at a time, she was worth holding on to, but in the last six months of her life she was not my mother, she was a stranger who rambled on about nothing, she kept crying in pain and wept for her lost husband. Did we have the right to keep her in that condition? I know she would have wanted to stay alive as long as possible, she believed in god and I think that belief would not have allowed her to finish her life. But what if she had already discussed this when she was well? What if she knew what was going to happen and did not want to live past the point of no return?

Should we hold on to our loved ones when they have no quality of life? Should we keep dragging them back when they are not the same person we once knew? My wishes are well known to my other half, if my quality of life is so bad that I can no longer function as a human being or I am no longer recognisable as 'me', then I want to die. I have no wish to spend my last days as a vegetable or a useless lump of flesh, as long as my brain functions normally and I can at least read and communicate, then fine, but once that line is crossed then I do not want to live.

I am not talking about some minor injury, I have mates who have no legs and and except for the fact they wont go to the bar for their round, they are fine people, I used to know a bloke with a broken back, he was paralysed from the neck down, yet once he got over the shock managed quite well with the help of his wife. His brain functions were fine and he lived for 5 years like that, he finally fell prey to pneumonia.

When someone has left clear and plain instructions, when they have made their wishes clear as to how they want to die in dignity and not be kept alive if they have no quality of life, who are we to go against their wishes. I think the main fear is that older people will be pressured into it by unscupulous relatives, yet surely we can put enough safeguards in place to alleviate that worry?

What right do we have to prolong someones life once they have made the decision to die?
You could argue that someone who wants to die is not in their right mind, I can agree with that in a few cases, yet there are many many people who are completely sane and have the same desire as me, we want the right to be in control of our own bodies and destiny. Who really wants to suffer in the last days of their life? I would rather go quietly at a time of my own chosing, than fade away slowly in pain or with no concious idea of the world around me.

A really good article.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2004/may/25/health.medicineandhealth

Gary Mckinnon? What the hell......

2009-07-23T12:37:00.000-07:00

Why all the fuss over Gary McKinnon? Now there is a record being made in his support, I thought he had been found guilty? He admits hacking into the systems, but not to the extent that is claimed by the Americans, but he did do it. So why all the fuss over him, Marillion offered to do a concert, Dave Gilmour, Chrissy Hynde (Hi chris!), Bob Geldorf among others are all offering support, but why?
Read the following extract...

Representing McKinnon in the House of Lords on 16 June 2008, David Pannick QC told the Law Lords that the prosecutors had said McKinnon faced a possible 8-10 years in jail if he contested the charges (there were seven counts), but only 37-46 months if he co-operated and went voluntarily to the US. McKinnon also claimed that he had been told that he could serve part of his sentence in the UK if he co-operated. He had rejected the plea bargain offer as no guarantee had been given by the Americans.

So if the yanks had guaranteed he could do his time in the UK, he would have gone for it, this means that all those stars are supported a convicted felon. Does this mean that if I rob a bank in New York and leg it home, then get caught, the stars will support my request that I serve my time over here instead of the USA?

Or have I missed something here, Gary is trying everything to wriggle out of being sent to the states, Aspergers?? Autism?? I dont think he is doing those causes any good at all. But I dont blame him, he will get a much easier time here, but whatever happpened to 'If you cant do the time, dont do the crime' He knew what would happen if he got caught, and now he is upset. Well I hope I get the same treatment if I ever decide to break the law.

Unless of course, I really have missed a point here.....

Secrets and confidentiality.

2009-07-22T01:07:00.000-07:00

Recently I had a conversation with an old friend, we worked together as chauffeurs many moons ago, the topic of people selling their stories to the papers and computer security came up. Both of us know some details of famous peoples private lives that would be, if not earth shattering, of interest to the papers or certain magazines. There seems to have been a lot of people who have worked for famous people willing to sell their 'story' for money, I could never do that, it seems to me that there is no loyalty or discretion these days.
Now, as you may have gathered, I have a bit of a 'thing' about secrets and confidentiality, there should always be a degree of discretion in whatever you do, if you work for someone you have a duty to be discreet, I sometimes fix computers for people and have a reputation for being 'discreet' about personal photos etc. To be honest as long as it doesn't break the law I'm not interested in what people do in their private lives, but recently I have heard a lot of about 'private' photos being posted on various internet sites. I know of a site that had some pictures from a stolen camera posted on it, the soft porn pictures were removed when a work colleague of the girl in the pictures spotted them on the site.

The classic case is of course Gary Glitter, he took his pc into PC world and they found pictures that were wrong and illegal, they reported it and the rest is history, but that is an extreme case, quite a large majority of people have details and pictures that they would consider private and would not like to see posted on the internet, so why is their security so lax? Most people think having a complex password in windows is enough to deter anyone who wanted to look at the hard drive, it surprises them to see how fast I can get into their laptop or desktop when they have forgotten their password.
The number of people who pass on their old computers without removing the hard drives is ridiculous! The only way to be sure, unless you are an expert like me, that no one will recover your private or deleted data, is to remove and destroy the hard drive. I have recovered drives for people and they are quite surprised when I also recover old data, that they thought had been permanently deleted. Hard drives are so cheap now, it makes sense to replace it with a new one before passing on the computer.
I ws recently given an SD card for a camera, supposedly securely wiped, my friend was most surprised when I told him when he had been to Venice (the dates on the pictures told me when), I recovered his holiday snaps to demonstrate how easy it is to recover the 'destroyed' pictures.

People in the public eye should realise though that some people think that they are fair game, if you are in the media a lot you must be aware that the press would be interested in everything you do, keeping an affair or clandestine meeting away from them is nigh on impossible. Yes they are entitled to a private life, but they must understand that the public has an insatiable thirst for gossip, this makes it difficult for anyone in the public eye to have a normal life.

And the point I'm trying to make? It appears to me that a lot of people would sell out their employers or even their friends for money, so be careful what you do, you never know who is watching or has access to your data and how well do you know the guy in the computer repair shop......

More rambling for the main man!

2009-07-14T05:11:00.000-07:00

Sorry its been awhile, I have been busy...... so lets get on with it.

Slowly, inexorably our rights as citizens are being erroded away, from Westminister council not listening to people about parking charges for motorbikes, to the fact that MP's thought they could get away with their expenses without us noticing and just about ever other aspect of our lives. We elect our MP's and council officials to represent us, not burden us with extortionate taxes, not suppress us with laws designed 'for our good' or to control us. They are not there to rule, but administer, they are not there to tell us what to do, but to listen to us. Even the way officials are elected is designed to keep out people they do not want in with them, at least not without a disportionate amount of work and money.

Whoever we vote in to government or council should be there to represent us, yet our government seems to bent on controlling every aspect of our lives, freedom? What price 'this' freedom? we can barely move around the country without our every move being watched, we are tracked constanly 24 hours aday, yet has this made any impact on crime figures? I dont think so. What about terrorism?
This is a tricky one, officials say it makes a big difference in the 'war on terrorism' but we, citizens, have no way of guaging that, as we are not privy to any intelligence information, so we could be told they have stopped an alien invasion and we would be no more the wiser.

I do understand the value of keeping intelligence information secret, I know it would be pretty stupid to broadcast details of operations, it just does not feel right to me the way they just keep sucking money out of the kity without anyone, outside of the circle, knowing where the money is going.

More and more money is poured into keeping track of ordinary people, serious criminals have ways of staying outside the system, if you have money and dont want to be tracked you can make it happen. This means that, in the majority, the only people caught by this massive surveilance system are minor criminals, people who make silly mistakes, speeders and illegal parkers.
I wonder how many 'serious' criminals have been caught by these cameras?

We are watched constantly, we are tracked everywhere, through our passports, through our number plates and through any credit/debit card. The government can access any of this information, never mind the DPA, that is a joke, if somebody wanted to find out anything about you, using the surveilance system could reveal some very interesting things about you.

It is only a few of us that find this worrying?

Petrol prices

2009-06-29T23:40:00.001-07:00

Anyone noticed that the price of petrol is creeping up again?
Why no protests this time? I'm sure nothing has changed and we are all (Well... except maybe a few MP's) struggling in the economic climate.
As it stands petrol is 103 at my local garage, the cost of it breaks down like this

Petrol cost = 27.82p, Garage gets = 7.57p, Duty = 54.19 and VAT = 13.42p.
It is the duty and VAT that is the killer, petrol is an easy commodity to tax, almost everyone uses it and if you don't then any goods you buy must have been brought to you using it.
So when are we going to to see protests again? When it hits 105 or 110? And was has happened to the most vocal of protesters from the last demo? Suddenly its very quiet.

Recently I lost my job and had not realised how much a tank of petrol had risen, I used to put £10 in the tank of the bike and refill when the gauge told me I was low, sometimes it would not take the whole £10, now its costing me £14 to fill up, I had not noticed it creep up that much! Some time in the last two years it seems to have gone up an enormous amount.

A lot of people are struggling to make ends meet, they are trying to cut their costs to reduce outgoings and the price of petrol is not helping, most of the tax on petrol will probably get swallowed up in the spiralling cost of running this country, is it not about time government got its house in order and really clamped down on waste and inefficiency with our money.

I am absolutely certain that if our country was a business, the shareholders would be screaming for a change in the board by now. This country is run by civil servants, MP's rely on these civil servants to do the majority of the work in running the country, MP's come and go but they remain, without them the country would fall apart. Public servants though can increase their own power and budgets, who is watching over them? In the 80's Derek Rayner, the former chief executive of Marks and Spencer, was appointed as an efficiency expert and he pointed out that only 3 of the 8 BILLION spent by the civil service went on 'essential services' the rest was effectively frittered away. I wonder what that figure would be now.
Reducing that waste could allow our tax burden to come down dramatically, I am also sure that is not the only place we could reduce costs, ever wonder how much Trident is costing us? Look it up.

Rather than look at the problems logically, government tends to throw more money at them to mask the effects, this makes it look like they are doing something. They should really get back to the root cause of many of our money problems. They wont do that though, as this would show that all they have been doing all the time is quick 'popular' fixes, any government that did try to rectify the problems in this country would be very unpopular for some time as the cure will not be to the public taste, but we, or at least somebody, have to do something. This current situation will deteriorate further and further, the Labour government will just let it rot, they know they will lose the next election, so will leave it to the next government to sort it out, whoever gets in will also get most of the blame.

So when will we see the next load of petrol protests? I have no idea, I think the fight has been knocked out of all of us, we have too many other problems to worry about.

The power of dreams....

2009-06-26T04:32:00.000-07:00

Can someone explain this weird period of mourning for someone that most people have never met?
Sure MJ was a talented musician and a good song writer, but I really can not understand all this ridiculous crying and wailing over his death. Are some peoples lives so sad that they can only relate to a person of dubious moral standards, who was living a life so out of touch with ordinary people that he becomes a complete fantasy figure to some.
Where are we going with this adulation of pop stars and media icons? There have always been groupies and such but this is surely taking things much too far, we seem to be ruled by the television and the superstars that are created to fill our time. Witness the number of people walking around totally insulated from the world with their ipods and walkmans, they go home and talk via the internet and there some people who never seem to have human interaction in the real world. I do know someone who spends all his spare time in a virtual world, He is quite shy and has trouble talking to people, girls in particular, yet in his virtual world he is hero. He lives out his fantasies there instead of gettin goff his arse and living a real life.
He also is quite upset over the death of MJ, as far as I know he was not a big fan, but he is in mourning for him.
There is something wrong, IMHO, when things get to this state, I do not see him upset over the 1000's dying in third world countries for ,lack of clean water.
My father died at the same time as pricess Di, during my period of mourning I was bombarded by the media with images of people in mourning for someone they had never met, I did not understand this and did want this to intrude on my grief.
MJ lived a fantasy life style, rumours persist that he was was a sexual predator of young boys, whether this is true or not I suspect the truth will never come out, yet this is ignored by the general public. Imagine what would happen if the same accusations were made against an ordinary member of the public, adulation and the raising of these 'icons' to the status of gods is a bad thing. We think more about them than the people that we should be thinking about, people that could need our help and support. so befroe you rush out and buy the MJ compliation album, that will only have the same songs that you have already on other albums, think about the vast money making machine that he had become, he made enough money save a lot of starving people. He sold them music instead.

Bikes birds & blurry memories (an article written for Brit chopper magazine)

2009-06-12T06:32:00.000-07:00

Back in the 70's we (blokes anyway) all saw ourselves as rebels and adventurers, riding the lonely highway looking cool and most of all looking good to the chicks. Off into the sunset after pulling some amazing bird, with your mates looking on jealously, is really what most of us were looking for when we were younger, and I don’t suppose that has changed much. The biker image of good looking blokes pulling stunning birds was mainly gleaned from books and movies, but for some of us it all worked out amazingly well.
Riding the biggest noisiest bad ass bikes (or so we thought) in the neighbourhood, looking hard in our leather jackets with filthy denim cutoff over the top, disgusting jeans, open faced lid and cool sunglasses. We looked like a stereotypical biker gang and I suppose that’s what we wanted to look like if we were honest, we thought we were the dog danglies, until it rained, more of which later.
Showing off for your mates and the girls was one of the more popular pastimes, but it could drop you in it, pulling wheelies outside a sixth form girls college, my chain snapped and the bike hit the deck, as I was trying to pick it up, a police car pulled up and the two cops helped me to the side of the road, I was explaining that I had fallen off because the chain snapped, when this chorus of girls piped up “Pull another wheelie mister!” The two coppers laughed their nuts off.
Later that year I tried showing off to a crowd of girls on their way back from a party, they had stopped to watch the bikers on Chelsea bridge, by wheel spinning my newly acquired CB550 Honda away from the tea stall, unfortunately during the week the council had laid down an antiskid road surface and as the rear wheel drifted on to it, the tyre bit and the bike flipped completely, landing on top of me. Mind you I did get off with the nurse from St Thomas’s hospital, so that was alright then.

We were always cruising the pubs and clubs in South London, hoping to find a good looking girl to take home, or maybe to her place, because yours had engine bits everywhere and oil stains on the sheets. I once took a girl home to my place and as we fell onto the bed she screamed, not because I was huge, but because her arse had found the Mk 1 Amal I had left in the bed, so that’s where it went.
Mostly though it was trying to find a girl with her own place, the number of times I had taken a girl home only to find she lived with her parents/flat mates/husband was, to say the least, frustrating, and daddy was always happy to see his best girl turn up at 2am on the back of a 8 foot long purple chopper, god knows how many times I nearly got caught copping a quick consolation feel on the doorstep. I was once chased down the Kings Road at 3am by some loony parent wearing a Chinese style dressing gown and waving a 9 iron, he was wearing the dressing gown, not me.

One girl I pulled in the Saxon Tavern who turned out to be barely 16 and had 3 enormous brothers who rode scooters, that went down really well as I was 28 and looked like your mothers worst nightmare for a boyfriend, she did look about 25 though and I pulled her from some bloke about the same age as me. I never did have much trouble with the girls, despite looking like a refuge from some bizarre mad max type film. I am reliably informed that I was quite good looking when I was young, long flowing hair, slim build and intense Steve McQueen blue eyes. (What ever happened to that good looking chap...) The fact that if I sat on your mums sofa she would put newspaper down first, I am not kidding that happened several times, or that daddy would take you to one side and threaten all sorts of dire vengeance etc, just made it all the more exciting and gave the nookie a bit of edge, most of the so called 'good' girls were very good in my opinion. I remember getting noshed in a doorway by a girl everyone knew as fairly quiet, near the Castle pub in Tooting, when her parents pulled up in the traffic, they looked over but did not recognise her or me in the darkened doorway, that got the adrenaline going.

My mates in the 70's used to love going drinking with me, I was one of those blokes who would check out the women and know which group to chat to, I could nearly always get everyone a bird by the end of the night, mostly by making them laugh, get a woman laughing and you are halfway there. And if we tried to pull birds that were with blokes, we sometimes got in a bit of a punch up as well, all fisticuffs then, very rarely was a weapon used and you would probably be buying each other a drink the following week.
Posh birds were best, mostly after a bit of rough, no commitment and some excitement for the evening, hanging around the Drugstore in Chelsea was a good place at chucking out time, as was the Markham Arms, a gay pub that strangely always had a fair contingent of girls in there, you used to get the posh bints in the Drugstore looking for anyone to buy them a drink (they never had any money) or score some drugs (funny how they had money for that), the amount of herbal tobacco I sold to them was amazing and no one ever complained.
A fast adrenaline filled ride was always a good precursor to a, well, a fast adrenaline filled ride, you want a wild and rampant woman, then literally scare the pants off of her, riding fast always seemed to get them going, the vibration of some bikes helped as well. I had a BSA 441 SS for a while and when I bought a CB750 four the woman I was with at the time was most put out, she preferred the throbbing of a big single, to the high revving vibes of the Honda. Yet another loved the high frequency vibes of a 380 Suzuki I despatched on, sometimes we had to pry her off the seat with a crowbar.
After the first time a girl out rode me on the road I spent weeks trying to pull her, I had been on an Export Bonnie and she was riding a Ducati 750SS. It had had a lot of money spent on tweaking and handled like a dream, I drove her mad trying to get her to go on a date, but I think she enjoyed the chase more than I did, when we did get together we were both a little disappointed, we ended up as friends for quite a few years though.

There is a downside to all this, and it was rain, when it rained and it does quite a bit in this country, you have no chance, unless a bird was really drunk or stoned you could not get them on the back of a bike for love nor money. Trying to pull a bird while dripping water all over the floor tended to put them off, for example arriving a bit late at the County Arms one night I found my date getting in a Capri with some bloke dressed like something off Starsky and Hutch, when I queried this she told me in no uncertain terms "No way was she getting on a bike in this fecking weather" as she was getting in the car I asked her rather loudly if she needed anymore of her penicillin tablets. Chummy got most upset.
Looking like a drowned Roland Rat does nothing for your image as a biker, yet that is how we spent a lot of our time, I was a London courier for about 15 years and spent a fortune on the best waterproofs, it did not make a lot of difference, "Alright love, put all this stuff on." "'ere, are you kinky or sumfink?" "No, its raining outside." "Stuff that, where’s a bloke with a car!"
You cant look cool or glamorous when cold water is trickling down the back of your neck, although there were one or two girls who quite liked the feel of wet leather, 'cough' but that is another story.
There used to be an unwritten law, if you were far from home and it was raining, try to pull just so you did not have to ride home in the rain. When I was a courier I used to try and pull the receptionists at the drop off point on long jobs, if it was a Friday, so I would not have to ride home until the morning. Bizarrely the best town for this was Manchester, never failed there, I always managed to get a bed for the night, worst was Doncaster, but to be honest I never found anyone I fancied there.

Very un-pc now but in the 70's I pulled a hell of a lot of women, most were absolute stunners, or was that the acid? I did also have some horrendous episodes, like leaping out of a first floor window with my trousers under my arm, straight into some rosebushes, from which I still have scars, and having to try and keep very quiet. Or waking up one morning and staring into the eyes of the hound from hell which looked like it wanted to tear me to bits, as my eyes left the dog, I saw hanging on the bedroom door the biggest pair of pants I have ever seen in my life. As I lay there wondering what part of hell I was in, a girls voice called out, "The dogs fine, just dont make any sudden moves, I'm just in the shower." I grabbed my clothes, crept out the door and just legged it.
Then there was the weird episode where I was drugged by a bird at a party in Mornington Crescent, she locked me in her bedroom and told my mates I had gone home or so they said, thanks for the rescue guys, she turned out to be a distant relative of Princess Di!!!
The Sunday night after a heavy weekend could be amusing for my mates, "Look out, here comes that bird you pulled the other night." "What bird?" "Hello Jake, buy me a drink then?" And I would have no idea who she was, so it was pretend to have a bad hangover and bluff my way along until I sussed out if they were bunny boilers or worth another go.
We were in a pub called the fountain one night when this stunning bird walked in, we were all completely gobsmacked, not the usual girl you found in Tooting at all, she looked around, then saw me, walked over planted a big kiss on my face, put my garage keys on the table said "You dropped these in my place, thanks for Saturday." All I could do was mumble incoherently.
She then strolled calmly out the door and all my mates started questioning me, unfortunately to this day I have no idea who she was, I still suspect it was a wind up.
Or another time after a particularly stonking weekend, I was standing at the upstairs bar in the Music Machine in Camden when in walked ******** ****** (famous 70’s 80’s female singer, I am not going to name her) as she walked past she looked daggers at me, then disappeared into the crowd, I was completely puzzled, a few days later I found her name and phone number in my little black book and after questioning them, was told by my mates that I had spent a whole night buying her drinks until I had no brass in pocket. I remembered nothing of it and felt that there was a missed opportunity.
I once wrote Debbie Harrys name and phone number (made up) on a piece of paper and left it in a mates wallet, we had been drinking in a club sitting next to her band Blondie the previous evening, he never had the bottle to ring it and boasted for ages that he had got her number, I never told him what I did because he was so chuffed about it.

The 70’s were a very hedonistic time, everyone was experimenting with life, drugs and values. There was a lot of perceived freedom and some very liberated women, I felt that although they had women’s lib, most women still wanted to be dominated and looked after, but they also wanted excitement and fun, the restrictions of previous few decades had been lifted and they wanted to get out and experience the world in their own way. This made it a lot of fun for people like me, good looking and not looking for any commitment. After the first time a girl out rode me on the road I spent weeks trying to pull her, I had been on an Export Bonnie and she was riding a Ducati 750SS. The Ducati had had a lot of money spent on tweaking and handled like a dream, I drove her mad trying to get her to go on a date, but I believe she enjoyed the chase more than I did, when we did get together I think we were both a little disappointed, we ended up as friends for quite a few years though.
Most of the 70’s is actually blurred for me, I do remember that we did a lot of drugs, drink, built CB750 Swedish style choppers, BSA café racers, Z900 streetfighter (we didn’t call them that then) with reversed Ace bars, a 400/500/550/750 four Honda with Vespa badges on the side panels (that one really screwed with the brains of the police as they checked it out), a bike built from left over bits in my mates attic and from 1972 until 1979 I clocked up well over quarter of a million miles, I suspect it was nearer the half million mark but cant be 100% sure, I was a courier for most of that time.
I look back on the 70’s with genuine affection and more than likely rose tinted glasses, the summers were hot, the winters snowy and it rained a hell of a lot. Those were good days.

The tube strike.

2009-06-10T05:42:00.000-07:00

What wonderful chaos on our roads today, drivers coming in who have obviously never driven in London before, millions more pushbike riders with no road sense, long queues at the busstops. Traffic problems were caused by the sheer weight of stupidity on our roads, if you cant get anywhere, why block the road for others? Most of the problems were caused by a lack of patience and manners rather than anything else.
I watched a bloke in a van, move forward to turn right at some lights, his exit was blocked so there was no point, when the lights changed the traffic from his right started to move forwards and guess what? There was a van in the way, now the traffic has gridlocked itself and lots of drivers started hooting and shouting, I just manuovered the bike around the obstruction and cruised up the road laughing.
I was amazed at the number of full motorbike parks though especially because it had been raining, it took me 20 minutes to find space to park in one. I dont have a problem with that though, the more people who use their motorbikes the more bike parks they will eventually put in and it reduces congestion/pollution.
I did have a few 'moments' with people though, two bike riders who were under the impression that because they were riding bikes they did not have to look behind or sgnal before moving across in front of me, I am sire the second one got into work with messy trousers (Tip for riding a bike in London - dont abuse the big bloke on the big nasty looking motorbike).
A car driver who was stuck illegaly in a bus lane tried to push me out of the way with his bumper, I hope you managed to find your keys in all that traffic. Frayed tempers apart it was an interesting ride in.

Smells like history.

2009-06-09T05:42:00.000-07:00

For those regular readers of this blog, you may know that I have some memory problems, due to an accident in 1988, just recently some memories have started coming back, I have now noticed that smells have started triggering memories as well. Some smells have always set off some memories, but just lately almost any smell has triggered a memory or two.

I really noticed this the other day, I got a waft of what I assume was popcorn, suddenly I found myself walking through Battersea funfair in the late 60's, very odd feeling, especially as I was crossing the road in Kings cross. Later a smell I could not identify (possibly glue?) took me back to a holiday on Hayling Island aged around 7. I have no idea why the smell of glue would trigger that one, looking into this I find there are lots of examples of the link between memory and smell, if fact there are 1000's of different texts on the subject, some make sense, some dont.
There are a myriad of theories as to why this happens, my favourite is that it is suvival based, having smell linked to memory allows us to remember what bad food smells like, or maybe a saber toothed predator. Some foods can look quite good, until you smell them. Smell is definetly an important sense, as much so as sight and taste and I think more so than touch, smell triggers more memories than any of the other senses, so our bodies must think its an important one. Back when we were single celled animals, smell was the fist sense to tell us if something was 'safe' to eat, and still plays a big part in safeguarding us from bad things.

What I dont understand is why some of the memories are so intense, during my reading I came across this by Karl S. Kruszelnicki

This kind of memory, where an unexpected re-encounter with a scent from the distant past brings back a rush of memories, is called a "Proustian Memory". It's named after Marcel Proust, one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century. He describes this phenomenon in the opening chapter of his novel Swan's Way, the first novel in his mammoth seven-part work, Remembrance Of Things Past.
He writes how the smell of a madeleine cake (a small, rich pastry) dipped into a lime-blossom tea, unleashed a rush of brilliantly-clear memory: "and as soon as I had recognised the taste of madeleine soaked in her decoction of lime-blossom which my aunt used to give me ... immediately the old grey house upon the street, where her room was, rose up like a stage set ... and with the house the town, from morning to night and in all weathers, the Square where I used to be sent before lunch, the streets along which I used to run errands, the country roads we took when it was fine."

This is almost exactly what happens to me, not that particular memory but one of my own,
the scene is almost real before me, non of them last long though, maybe a few seconds, but its all helping to bring back memories long lost. This may take some reasearch.

MEP elections.

2009-06-04T07:27:00.001-07:00

I hope you all voted today, because if you didnt then you have no right to complain about .... well anything. People died to make sure that you could vote, they fought for your right to vote and you should not waste it. I am sick of hearing excuses, "I dont know who to vote for?" "Whats the point? The bloke I want wont win..." etc You vote for the candidate who is nearest your ideals, you are never going to get someone who is perfect for you, but you could help keep out someone you dont really want in.
Wasting your vote is pointless, it is there for you to make a statement, even if that statement says 'keep this man out'.
Not voting is laziness of the most insulting kind, insulting to the people who died for that right, insulting to the people who work hard to get your vote and most of all its insulting to yourself. You are saying to yourself, 'I dont care who wins, I dont care who controls my life, I dont even care if my bins get emptied.' If you cant take time to have say in who runs the country or the EU then you throw away your right to complain if it all goes wrong, but you will anyway... wont you?

Responsibility.

2009-05-26T07:48:00.000-07:00

What has happened to responsibility? Do we not teach responsibility anymore? Do we not pass on to our children that actions have consequences? That we are all responsible for our own actions? Two phrases come to mind, the first is a little used phrase that used to be applied to young men (or women) who broke the law or maybe were a little rebellious, ‘juvenile delinquent’ this term has fallen out of use, it is a contradiction in terms I believe ‘juvenile’ means below the age of responsibility, and ‘delinquent’ failing in duty. How can anyone be both? The other phrase is well known but not many people really understand its meaning, ‘responsible for your own actions’ this phrase is normally negated by another one ‘it wasn’t my fault’ or even ‘I didn’t do it’
That last phrase is churned out almost by rote as a defence for almost any action.
This morning I was sitting on my bike at the traffic lights in Brixton, two youngsters (around 17 maybe a bit older) were eating Maccy D’s, they finished and just threw the rubbish on the floor about 10 foot from a litter bin. I flipped the front on my helmet up and asked why they couldn’t walk a few feet and put it in the bin. One turned and said, ‘Were’nt me…’ I was gobsmacked…. I replied that I had just seen him throw it on the floor, he shrugged his shoulders and just walked off with his mate and kicked the rubbish as they did so.
He just denied committing any anti-social crime as a matter of fact, he didn’t even have to think about it, his friends reaction was also interesting, now years ago if you were with a mate who was accused of … well anything, you either looked shifty because you knew he was guilty or you backed him up, this guy just looked bored, it was the look that said this is a regular occurrence and I’m bored with it now.

This cavalier attitude to responsibility seems to now pervade our whole lives, from not caring about anything around us, dropping litter etc to health and safety laws that have now absolved us of all responsibility, the more we are cosseted by the state the more our sense of responsibility is diminished. Yet; does this not go all the way back to parental discipline? How many parents actually teach their kids the difference between right and wrong? How many set them a good example. Last week a very large bloke walked out through the traffic into the path of my motorbike, I was not filtering just riding normally towards the lights, which were red, he appeared between two vans and walked straight out dragging his (3-4 year old?) daughter, I sounded the horn and moved to the left to avoid them, he started shouting at me, with language I certainly would not use in front of a little girl. As he got to the pavement he was still shouting abuse at me along the lines of ‘Come on then if you think you are hard enough’ I asked him if he thought abusing people like that, especially when he caused the problem was setting a good example for his little girl, this seemed to make things worse ‘Are you telling me how to bring my kid up’ etc. What was wrong with just holding up a hand and saying ‘sorry mate!’ he was in the wrong, he risked his little girls life to cross the road less than 20 feet from a crossing. Yet he has a go at me.
He obviously thought it was my fault for having a motorbike on the road. FFS.

Youngsters learn a lot from what they see around them, no matter how many times we emphasise to them about manners, morals, or common courtesy, if they see others behaving without such etiquette they will think it’s the norm.

We all need to think about our behaviour, even in the little things. But as things stand, I can see a very long slippery slope ahead, with no way back.

Safe, safer and safer still...

2009-05-21T03:29:00.000-07:00

Has life passed you by? Do you feel that you have missed out on something?
A few days ago I was chatting to a bloke at work, he has spent his life working between Edinburgh and Kings cross, yet has never really gone outside of the stations. He is in his late 50's, he lives in Stevenage, goes on holiday to Torbay and thats it. He has never been out of the country! While seemingly happy, he did say he feels that he has missed out a bit, a bit?
When I suggested he try going abroad for his next holiday he changed the subject, muttering something about not like foreign food, so you wont be going on the curry night next week? Oh yes he will, he loves curry. Go figure. Ruths daughter Amy is 19, so far she has been to India, Germany, Australia and next week flies to Canada for 3 months, all on her own. She has seen more of the world than I had by the time I was 25 and I like travelling! We cant say that older people get set in their ways, I know loads of people of retirement age that travel all over the world. Many years ago I offered to take my father to Canada (he was Canadian) to see his fathers grave, he refused to go because my mother would not go, I know this upset him a lot, Mum totally refused to leave the shores of england, we never did find out why as she would not talk about it, I think it had something to do with the war. My dad was in the army and was one of the few who was abroad for almost the whole 6 years, he travelled everywhere ending up in Burma.
I do not understand why some people these days do not travel, its perfectly safe these days,
anywhere you want to go will have some sort of package deal

The downside of this is that there is no new lands to explore, where are the modern day explorers, 50-60 years ago the world was full of explorers, on this planet and the moon.
One of my ambitions was to set foot where no other human had stood, not much chance of that now, have we got to a point where it is easier to take a package holiday to lands which were once inaccessable to ordinary people, than make our own way? Health and safety has made places that were dangerous, nice and safe, we are wrapped in cotton wool and herded around in cosseted little groups, I hate that, I ride a big fast motorbike because I want excitement, I want adrenaline. I could not live in a closed off little world.

We are slowly being pushed into a world where rebellion is rare, where conformity is the norm, where to do something different is seen as unacceptable. And what a sad world it is.

Think before you vote!!!

2009-05-20T14:07:00.000-07:00

I hear a lot of people getting very angry about the scandal of the MP's expense's, I hear a lot of rhetoric and very little substance though. Calls for parliament to be dissolved, sack them all and get new people in. Knee jerk reactions when you are angry are not the way to go, what if we did dissolve parliament? Where would we go from there?
One of two things will happen, either people will vote in the same people again, because they dont know who else to vote for, or, and this is the worrying bit, they vote in someone else just because they want someone different and its the local loonies or BNP candidate. This is a dangerous time, the BNP has a voice now with its party political broadcasts, the fact they they spout nonsense does not matter, they will pick up votes from the disaffected, the unhappy, the downright pissed off.
So if we call for a general election and it happens, who do you vote for? Gordon Brown is now so unpopular, I suspect that the votes for labour will just disappear, the Tories are in the same boat, the expense's scandal has tainted everyone in the house of commons and now the house of Lords.
People wil start looking for someone they can trust, and that's the problem, the taint has now spread so far that people see anyone running for office as a free loading scumbag. Trust has been lost, we used to trust our MP's to do what is right, to see the back-pedaling as they all claim "But we played by the rules..." is disgusting, they set the rules (or people under their control) and to have most of them flout them is not only morally wrong, its breaking the trust that people have in their MP's.

What can we do? I don't know to be honest, we cant let in a load of inexperienced newbies to take over, although there are 'advisor's' who run the country, don't forget that anyone you vote in will have a lot of power. Especially if they align themselves with others. If a load of new guys get in, then they could be advised and handled by the civil service (nothing new there) but, if they get together, they could be a destructive force that might be hard to control.
So before calling for the dissolution of parliament, think carefully about where we go from here, the cure could be worse than the disease.

A few thought on MP's expense's

2009-05-14T03:34:00.000-07:00

Nearly everyone fiddles their expenses, this is to try and claw back a bit of the extortionate amount that the government takes from our hard earned money, now most will snatch back a few quid, but some corporations have such big lawyers who know the tax system inside out, that they pay virutally no tax at all. The MP's that have 'fiddled' their expense statements are only playing the game, BUT they fixed the rules, THEY know the law and had probably passed on the info to each other on how to get what they can.
Most of the claims that have surfaced are indefensible, this means they have commited fraud in my eyes. So what should be done about this? We cant just sack every MP, chaos would reign and leave the door open for some even more unscrupulous demons to creep in.

Firstly any MP who has blantantly taken the piss should resign and put himself up for re-election, secondly we should take a long hard look at any MP who has been involved. Thirdlywe need a review of the tax laws/rules as they stand, I would suggest that we have a 10% single tax band across the board, EVERYONE pays 10%, companies, big corporations, no expections, you pay on any earned income. Then disallow any expenses, you cant claim for anything!
But then you are only paying 10% in tax, why would you need to claim anything back? Think about it, how much it simplify the tax system, take a look at how much tax some of the big corporations pay in tax after allowances, dont take my word for it, look it up some pay 0% tax.
I think this is a viable idea that should be looked at... and I'm sure some more knowledgable people will shoot me down if my figures dont add up, but maybe this or a similar way of dealing with taxes would simplify the issues.

First impressions.

2009-05-06T06:32:00.000-07:00

When you meet someone, do you make a snap judgement and then find it hard to shake that first impression? Would you assume all bikers wearing a denim cutoff are chicken raping lunatics who ride far too fast?
That everyone with dreadlocks smokes cannabis? All skinheads are racists?
We base our first impressions on what we have learnt through everyday experience, this is also modified by what we pick up from the media, the tendency is to lump people into recognisable groups, this gives us something to work from; when we evaluate those people we meet for the first time. Unless we have prior knowledge, i.e. have been told what to expect, we judge initally by appearance, as that is the first thing that makes an impact on our conciousness, next would usually be voice and then what people say and do.
Making snap judgements on what we see is a survival tactic, to evaluate any threat we need information and normally the only available information is what we see before us. This information is processed against what we have already filed away in our heads, when we acquire some input, this is compared to any available information stored in our minds, from there we draw a conclusion that provokes the appropriate response. All living things have done this since they first became aware of the world around them, the difference here is that humans can use intelligence to collate and refine the information to a higher degree. This allows us to modify our first impressions somewhat, we can draw on far more resources to make a much better judgement call on the person we are observing. Even so, until we have sufficient facts we are still guessing; and those guess's are based on experience and/or hearsay. This means most people are pre-judged before we have time to form a proper opinion, once that first impression is made it can be hard to shake off.

You might be the brighest bloke in the world, but if you turn up for an interview looking like an extra from Mad Max, then you are not going to make the sort of impression you need to make to get the job. We dress as we feel we need to match the occassion, or used to, I have noticed a marked change in the way people dress these days, mostly they dress down, now I'm not the best authority in the world, I have the dress sense of a deranged gibbon and tend to look like a reject from a 70's biker movie in my everyday clothes. When going out I rely on Ruth (my better half) to arrange the appropriate clothing, but I do make the effort, it is polite and courteous to dress for the occassion, this way people also get the wrong first impression of me. Many moons ago when I met my wifes parents for the first time, I remember the look of horror on her dads face, he was standing by his car outside and this leatherclad nutcase pulled up on a ratted out, matt black, CB750 Honda, with open pipes and rather tall apehangers. It didnt help that she was 17 and I was 27.....yet it was not long before we became mates, even though I have been divorced from his daughter for nearly 20 years, he stills calls me now and again.
He gave me a chance to prove myself and it worked out, thinking back, if I had been him; I would have chased me off with a big stick!

In this modern world, we seem to have so little time for others, we are constanly rushing around and making instant judgements on everything, should we not slow it down when making those judgements on fellow humans? Have you missed someone who could have been a new friend, lover or even soulmate, just because you didnt take the time to slow down and evaluate them properly.

Next time you meet someone new, take the time to talk to them, get to know them, you just never know......

The Plan

2009-05-05T02:33:00.000-07:00

Buy camper - must be a VW T2 Bay window camper with a pop-top - travel around visiting everyone/everywhere we can think of in Europe, writing a daily blog and videoing the experience. Then if it all works out then head further afield for the next trip.

This is not going to happen straightaway, not for about 3-4 months, we have spoken to a couple of people about sponsorship, although I'm not sure about that at the moment, because they want to 'interfere' and we are going to do this our way and not anybody else's. (Same thing happened with a similar idea on motorbikes)

I have travelled and lived in a VW camper for up to 3 months before, having also done some very strange repairs to keep going. We want to visit places off the beaten track, there are loads of places in Europe that never get seen by the normal tourist. I discovered some weird and wonderful places travelling in campers before, we want to go back and see how they have changed, as well as discovering new places, I'm sure there are still loads of little out of the way places; that are just as fascinating as the main tourist attractions.

The way we look at this is this, we want to get out there and see the world from our own perspective, we also want to show that getting older does not mean you have to follow the boring old routes and package holidays, people are living longer and have more leisure time, we want to show that there is a big wide interesting world out there, one that is full of surprises even just a few miles away over the channel.

So next we will probably be looking for a good condition (not perfect but roadworthy) left-hand drive T2 with pop-top, reasonably well kitted out, decent awning, cooking facilities, power hook-up etc. It’s going to need a quite large lockable safe that will take a laptop and several cameras. I shall build my own anti-theft and security devices.

The whole trip from start (buying the camper and planning) to finish returning home, will be documented.

Anyone interested in becoming a sponsor can email me captainjake<@>gmail.com (remove anti-spam <>)

Jake

What is a biker?

2009-05-01T08:19:00.000-07:00

What is a biker? (Taken from Motorsickle.com)
How would you class yourself in the world of bikes?
This has to be one of the most asked questions, after "How fast does it go mate?"
Defining exactly what a 'biker' is, is probably an impossible task, everyone has a different opinion and to try and lump them together to make a stab at what a biker really is could be very difficult, so guess what I'm going to do today…

Bikers or motorcyclists have quite a few diverse groups that you could belong to, everything from Rocker to Scooterist (different from Mods I'm told) to commuter, I know there are a lot more but I'm not going to list them, these are just examples to give us a feel for how we perceive ourselves. The way each of us sees each other is crucial to this debate, humans are notorious for fitting themselves into categories, different groups that either bind together or are constantly at war, human conflict has been going on since we discovered that bashing someone's brains in with a rock was fun and we have not really stopped since. We all like to belong to group of some kind, even the self proclaimed 'lone wolves' amongst us still like to be classified as bikers which therefore put them into a 'group', there is a kind of camaraderie and comfort to be found in belonging to like‑minded group, you can observe this in other groups as well. Anti‑vivisectionists, football supporters and Freemasons for example all work together for a common cause which they believe in, we are not any different, most of us ride bikes because we enjoy it, even the most hardened commuter will get some pleasure out of riding a bike and when push comes to shove people from the same group stick together and help each other.

Belonging to a group defines our boundaries which show where stand, we wear the uniform of our tribe to show where our loyalties lie, to show other tribes or groups that we are one of a particular band of brothers.
Bikers are one type of tribe that has within it various groups, just like football supporters are the main group that can be broken down into sub groups of the teams they support, bikers can also be categorised further into various sub‑groups. The word 'biker' can mean different things to different people, ask any typical man in the street what a 'biker' is and you will probably get an answer that is not far off from describing the average persons vision of a 'Hells Angel', ask a motorcyclist the same question and be prepared for a completely different answer depending on what he may ride. One will tell you that a biker is someone who rides everyday whatever the weather; another that it is someone who belongs to a club, maybe another view is that a biker should only ride British bikes. The viewpoints are many and varied, leading me to suspect that this question will never be answered to the satisfaction of all.

So I'm going to tell you what I think a biker is, a biker is someone with passion for two wheels, it does not matter to me if he rides a scooter or a Ducati, he may have owned the same RD250 since 1977, keep it polished and running and only take it out on Sundays, or he may like riding everyday whatever the weather, maybe not cleaning it but making sure it works and runs using anything that happens to do the job. It's the passion for the ride that in my humble opinion makes someone a biker, not what they ride, there are lots of riders out there who don't have the passion, they bimble along in their own little world treating their two wheels like an object and not a bike. The passion means they experience the thrill of the ride, whether it's a fast ride through the twisties or the thrill of taking a 30 year old bike on the road after restoring it for years, or maybe just the feeling that comes with going on a run with your mates, it's that adrenaline rush that keeps the passion alive and kicking within us.

Even after riding for over 35 years I still get that rush every time I get on a bike, it makes me feel alive and ready to take on the world, that first spin of the engine in the morning lets me know that I'm ready to rock and FTW!! It's my escape valve from work and the troubles that try to get me down, it lets me feel alive.

Do I class myself as a biker? Yes, because I feel I have a passion for bikes that has never left me ever since I first sat on one as a fifteen year old dreamer, motorbikes allowed me to be someone else, someone different from the small bullied youth that dreaded going out in the early 70's, that passion has never left me and I hope it never will.

At a funeral in January I met Rick, I have not seen Rick for 15 years, he is my ex‑wife's uncle, he had been a biker for years, not in the same sense as most of us, but still a man with passion for his bike, two years ago he T‑boned a car that did a U‑turn and has not ridden since, talking to him was quite sad as I could tell the passion had gone from his life, he asked me if I was still riding with a wistful look in his eye, I could also see that his wife was nervous about us talking about bikes. Such a shame that he has given up but once that spark has gone it's not the kind that can be rekindled, Rick is in his mid 60's and has had a good run though, I don't intend to give up until I am unable to get on a bike! Even then you might have trouble with me.

In my eyes bikes are my life, over the years they have got me into trouble and out of it, they have lost me partners and helped me find new loves and best of all I have met some great mates, mates who I would trust with my life, about how many other 'pastimes' could you say that. I class myself as a biker as I would anyone who has the passion for two wheelers, the rush is the best feeling in the world and I hope all of you who understand what I'm talking enjoy it too, and will do so for many more years.

Jake

Hell 'aint a bad place to be.

2009-04-29T12:03:00.000-07:00

What do you do when the past comes back and bites you in the arse?
Things you had tucked away or were thought lost come back and you have no one you can talk to, who will understand. You have to sit back and let it roll over you, absorb the impact then take a step back and evaluate what has happened. Tonight a load of lost memories returned for me, not forgotten things, but memories that I thought were lost forever after an accident. These memories have unleashed a flood of emotions I am having trouble dealing with, memories that have not seen the light of day for over 20 years, memories that I thought were lost, things I never expected to remember are now banging away in the front of my brain. Not all are real, and thereby hangs a tale, some are memories are confused with other forgotten memories, to the point I no longer am sure which are real and which are either imagined or composite, by that I mean mixed up memories that may be a combination of past events.

Trying to sort them out on my own is a nightmare, really odd moments are popping into my head, moments of love, moments of violence, moments of hate, moments of guilt. It will take time to sort out all this new information that has invaded my head, it will take time to heal the feelings that now plague me. But do I want to heal? Do I want to lose them again? They were all part of an earlier episode of life, a life so long ago that even people with good memories would baulk at recalling them, yet right now to me they are fresh, some feel like they only happened yesterday, this is what is causing my confusion.

At the moment my head hurts with all this new info, I am glad its back, loads of new memories have suddenly filled in some big gaps in my life, the past is the past, I cant go back so I will not regret anything, I will use this info to look forward.

Once I have sorted it all out and come to terms with it.

Jake

Gurkha justice

2009-04-28T22:58:00.000-07:00

The way the Gurkha's are being treated in this country is so wrong. I have heard so many stories about their bravery, until just after his death I had never realised that my father served in Burma, he never spoke of it, but he always had something to say whenever Gurkha's were mentioned. He spoke of their bravery and selflessness, told tales of their prowess, I had always assumed that these stories were passed on from someone else, now I know different.
The Gurkha's have been a loyal people to the United Kingdom, I will leave it to you to look up their history, which is glorious, their regiment has been sent into every conflict that involved our country. Never faltering, never questioning but often dying.
They need our support, for some obscure reason our government sees no reason to let them settle here as proud British citizens, I can think of hundreds. This treatment of them is a disgrace, public feeling is so high on this subject yet the government cant seem to see why.
Put pressure on your MP to correct this miscarriage of justice.
Sign up to the campaign here Gurkha justice
and also find and contact your MP on here They work for you
and let him know how you feel about this.
The government should be listening to us, not ignoring us.
I shall be at Westminster to protest at some point today, if you are near then pop down to Old Palace Yard, Westminster at noon.

Off for a few days.

2009-04-24T05:54:00.000-07:00

I shall be on my way to Santa pod for a few days, to watch nutters throw the old VW campers and bugs up the strip, it is gonna be awesome!!!

Laters dudes!

Jake

Move forward, dont look back.

2009-04-24T04:26:00.000-07:00

If time travel was possible, would you go back and change anything?
Recently I have had reason to think about this, and my answer is no, the past makes us what we are now, if we changed something then we would be different and would you really be any different to what you are now? Think about your answer carefully, you would not have your kids, your friends, your job. Small changes can be make bigger ones down the line, this is known as 'the butterfly effect' in Chaos circles.
All of our life we are ruled by the past, what we learnt at school, the mistakes in our teens, how we grew up, the morals we acquired from our parents and peers. Morals and attitudes do change as we grow and learn, we take different paths as we learn more about life and base our decisions on how we compare the present to the past.
Friends reunited has a lot to answer for, apparently is has caused more marridge breakdowns recently than any other cause, I met Ruth (my partner) through FR she tracked me down more to see what I was up to these days, I have now lived with her for 5 years. I also know two families that have been completely wrecked by friends reunited as well, in one the husband contacted his first girlfriend from school and within a week they had embarked on an affair, he says it made him feel young again, but how long did it last? 6 months, they are not the same people as they were 25 years ago, the initial rush of lust died down and they came to realise that their lives had changed long ago, the are now both living alone, their families are not going to forgive them in a hurry. Yet at the time they were so sure it was the right thing to do.

Humans are creatures of emotion, little chemicals changes can make massive differences to the way we react to situations, adrenaline is a good case to cite, it is what gives us our 'fight or flight' reaction to danger, the problem is, especially if you have lived a bit of a humdrum life, the bloke cited above worked in a office for most of his life and to be honest was very boring (I hope he does not read this..), suddenly getting some exciement can get the old adrenaline flowing and adrenaline is highly addictive, well I believe it is, I may have to check that .
There are other emotions as well, things that can well up from the past and haunt us, or in my case make my life more complete and interesting, as in the case of my daughter, who I had not seen for 28 years. Wishing that you could go back and change things will just make you bitter, you can not go back and change anything, so it is better to look forward and work on making your life and the lives of people around you that much better, why look back when you can move forward.

Jake

Memory, dont take it for granted.

2009-04-22T05:29:00.000-07:00

Some years ago I was classed as insane, or as good as, I had had an accident which bruised the front of my brain and scrambled loads of memory. It took a long time for some of those memories to reappear, just recently I have had a flood of confused memories triggered, they are so jumbled up I do not know what is real and what is either fantasy or a combination of memories that have got mixed up. I still have virutally no recollection of most of my childhood, when people say things like "I remember it like it was yesterday" I cant even imagine how they see such a clear vision. To me anything before 1988 is wrapped in guaze, my memories are like looking through a swirling fog, now and then you get a fleeting glimpse of something, sometimes it triggers a better memory, mostly it just leaves me with a feeling of being completely lost. A good exapmle of this is when riding my bike, if I pick my route before I leave and just automatically follow the route, then just concentrate on riding, I get there with no problem, but sometimes, not always, if I have to change the route, because of roadwrks or an accident or maybe just stopping at lights and getting distracted, I can get very confused. It does not happen often, it happened this morning, riding up to Alexandra Palace I stopped at some lights and when they changed I had no idea where I was or where I was going. I had to pull over and just think about for a minute, I was completely disoriented and that can be quite scary. It normally sorts itself out very quickly
though and I'm back to normal (of course with me 'normal' is a very relative term)

When I was still under the doctor, he recommended I get loads of photos from my past to help bolster the memory system, turns out there are very few pictures of me in the early days, not really sure why, I did knock about with a crowd who didnt like having their pictures taken though.
Two or three years ago I met a bloke from my past, apparently we were good mates for about 6 years, I sat with him and chatted and it was like talking to a stranger, I still have no memory of him and have never gone back to see him.

So treasure your memories, you wont miss them until they are not there.

Jake

Do you believe in god?

2009-04-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

Why? Could you explain this to me because I see no reason for believing in something I cant see touch or hear.
The whole concept of god is just too weird for me to accept, I'm told you have to have faith, but why should I? Why should I take on faith something that plainly does not exist?
In a court of law we have to have proof before we can accept any sort of evidence at all, so why is god exempt from this? I have never seen any proof of his existence, yet I am asked to just accept that he does exist.

My girlfriend believes, she is Catholic, and come to think of it most of my girlfriends over the years have been Catholic. Dont ask me how that happened, perhaps deep down I want to believe, perhaps I need to hang on via someone elses belief? Nah!

Lets just take a look at what we have to prove his existence, exhibit one, the Bible, a book that has been rewritten a few times whenever it didnt quite say what some people wanted.

Er... thats it .... I cant think of anything else that could be used as evidence in a court of law. I'm sure I will get a few emails from people that will beg to differ, but none will be able to offer me any tangible evidence other than to say "you must have faith!". Well give me a reason for having faith!
You can not just say to me, have faith, it makes no sense to me.

Perhaps I have missed something, the only time my father disappointed me was a few weeks before he died, he suddenly discovered god after a lifetime of being an agnostic. He could not explain to me why he suddenly found god, I know why though, humans can not envisage their own death, they need to believe they will go forever, this is why almost all religions have a belief in an afterlife or reincarnation. Myself? I accepted a long time ago the fact that when I die that is it, finito, the end, nothing more. This may seem quite bizarre to some, but it suits me, I suppose I could become a catholic, then I could go out and commit the most heinous of crimes, then confess all on my deathbed and join the rest of the Mafia in heaven. What bollox!
Karma? I know some right nasty people that have done well over the years, karma does not affect them!

And what if I'm wrong, well hopefully if heaven and hell exists I'll go to hell, if I dont end up ruling it, I have this plan to make a fortune selling ice creams....

Jake

Have you ever danced with the devil by the pale moon light?

2009-04-16T14:39:00.001-07:00

Or do you always take the safe option?
Risk. That taste of copper in your mouth as the adrenaline hits.
Maybe you took that corner a lot faster than normal, or maybe just threw all your wages on red 6. (I dont know if roulette actually has a red 6), stood up to the geezer giving it large in the pub,or maybe just told your mother-in-law to "Shut it for once!"

Most people are quite happy to get their kicks from films, I believe this is why horror films are trying to get more shocking, more gruesome.
Because we now live in a society that mollycoddles (look it up) us, we need more and more shocks in our safe little homes. Saw is a good example, the films got more and more gory because they thought the punters wanted more gore, yet the people I know who watched the first said that was clever, the rest were just gorefests, of course I must admit I have never seen it, Friday the 13th or Halloween, so I have to go on what others tell me. The concept just does not appeal to me, is that because I get my kicks on a 170mph motorcycle? or is there another reason? I quite like some of the zombie films, Dawn of the dead and a few other, but horror films dont really do it for me.
Could the reason be that I dont believe in ghosts or monsters? Do those of us that do like them, belive in monsters and ghosts? Some amongst us dont need horror films to supply that fear.

As our world gets safer and safer, or so they would have us believe, do we need to get our shocks by proxy? Yet, there is more than enough terror in real life to horrify us, we dont want to know about that though, the atrocities carried out in certain african countries, for example, when red nose day comes around, how many of you actually watch the films from countries that have suffered so badly?
How many of us just give our credit card number over without really thinking about what causes it is going to? Do we even care a week later when its over? do we even notice the amount on our credit card bills?

There are people who live in fear out there, some are probably not 100 yards from you right now, terror is not just some thing people in countries far away experience. The wife being beaten in silence, the school boy who makes himself ill so he wont have to face the bullying, the young girl terrorfied her stepdad will come home drunk or drugged up.
They have to face their adrenaline levels rising everyday, they live in horror and fear most of the day.
Other people just watch it on a screen and then can turn it off.
They cant, from the african children who have their limbs chopped off, to the terrified child left on their own, we cant even imagine their fear, we dont even really think about them.
But we dont want real horror, we want to be able to turn it on and off when we have had enough.

I'm not really sure what the point of this blog is, something must have triggered this today, its been preying on my mind all day but somehow I cant quiite explain what I mean, maybe it will become clearer tomorrow.

Jake

A few thoughts on revolution

2009-04-16T00:13:00.000-07:00

I am getting loads of requests to sign various petitions on the good old internet, there seems to be a new generation of armchair protesters that cant be arsed to get out on the streets, they are content to protest from the 'safety' of their own homes.
This unfortunately has several consequences.
1. Petitions are the lazy way to protest, it makes people feel like they doing something/having their say without actually doing anything at all.
2. The real malcontents get more and more frustrated by the watering down of the effect of these petitions (Please protest against the ants on my lawn, sign up here...)and have to find 'other' ways to get their point across.
3. In the old days these issues were discussed in person in pubs with people who you knew, outsiders found it hard to infiltrate, now its all done on the internet, know one really knows anyone else, most seem to be keyboard warriors.

Signing petitions does no good, especially those ones on the government site that request you to put in a legit email address and name... no one monitoring that then. ("Oh look another one for the list...")

Do those calling for 'revolution' or radical change, really understand what they are calling for?

You cant bring down the government without severe disruption, most people do not want radical change, most want to pay less tax to carry on buying stuff they dont need, things that are now thought of as essentials.
Very few of us are actually unhappy with the way we live, most are really comfortable compared to others around the world. Sometimes we forget this.
Our freedoms being eroded is entirely our own fault, I did my bit to fight years ago and last year had, what I suspect was my last one, another go to get my voice heard.

Radical change will cause much chaos and hardship, do you really think the man in the street wants that? He wants his cake and to eat it as well, getting people to understand that if they do want real changes to be made, things will get a lot worse before they get better, but they dont want that sort of medicine, they want a magic bullet, one that gives them what they want without disturbing their nice little lives.

Do you think that the average joe who is halfway through his mortage wants to risk losing his house for the sake of 'your' freedoms'?

Most do not want freedom, they want MTV, flash cars and the latest music system, good luck with your revolution.

Balance.

2009-04-08T05:15:00.000-07:00

Do you believe in Karma? That there has to be 'balance'?
Why?
It is fairly self evident that there is no such thing, we look for little things that indicate that there may be 'balance' or Karma in this world, we do a good deed and something nice happens, but are we looking for that something nice because we feel we have earned it? When bad things happen we look at the culprit and wish 'Karma' upon them, but it is just wishful thinking.

How often do we hear of someone getting their just desserts? Not that often, we want it to happen because deep down we want revenge, pure and simple, wishing Karma existed is really just another way of wishing for retribution upon a, in our eyes, wrongdoer.
We like Karma when its good, we want to believe that if we help someone we will be rewarded in some small way, but this rarely happens, the best bit is feeling good about yourself when you do the good deed, why should a 'reward' be necessary?

Doing a good deed should be reward enough, wanting Karma for it is selfish, but how many times can you say you have done something good and not expected a bit of karma back? Or even more.

There is no balance, things happen and then other things happen, there is no rhyme or reason for it, other than cause and effect. Some families have loads of bad luck, some have good luck, most just cruise along in an average way, the good and the bad are purely ends of a spectrum that must exist to show the mean.

If there was such a thing as Karma, I think someone would have proved the concept and bottled it by now.

Jake

It was long ago and far away...

2009-04-07T04:17:00.000-07:00

Repairing broken objects seems to take up a fair bit of my time, we have a 'K' reg Nissan 1600 that we bought as temporary car 3 years for £300, it is still going and just passed its 4th MOT snce we have had it. We recently took some rubbish down to the dump and could not believe some of the things people had just thrown away, do we really have that much disposable income that we can throw away a washing machine with a spilt door seal (£9 and 20 minutes to fit) can we no longer use tools? Last week I repaired a digital watch for a bloke at work, he was going to bin it and I asked if I could take a look, it had a corroded terminal, a quick scrape with a nail file and it works perfectly again.
We seem to have lost the art of repairing anything at all, just think of the money saved if we repaired instead of buyin a new one everytime, and it would also help the enviroment.

The lost art of repair would be a good one to find, it would reduce the amount of waste and could help a few new business's get started, we seem to be sadly lacking in what I call break/fix engineers, most have only been taught to replace parts. In a world where even a simple car breakdown can cost you loads in time and money, remember when we used to bodge sets of points to get the sparks working again? Once we araldited (a type of glue) a ten pence piece into a holed piston to get an RD250 home, there were lots of things we could do to get home in the event of a breakdown. Now with the complexity of todays vehicles you just have to sit and wait for the RAC, the interesting thing is that even though the engines have become more complex, they do not seem to have increased the perfomance or fuel econmy by much. For example my 1976 Honda 750 F1, top speed of 120 (you could make it go a lot faster but no point), 45mpg if you used it in town, 60-65 mpg on a motorway run. The modern equililant would be the CBF600N which does 125 miles per hour and 55mpg overall. What price 30 years of progress?

The 750 was SOHC and could be fixed at the side of the road in the event of most breakdowns, the regulator was mechanical as were the points, the carbs uncomplicated and when it bent a valve (I missed a gear), I removed the tappet adjuster and used a jubilee clip to hold up the valve to stop it from dropping into the cylinder, removed the plug (and ground out the HT lead) then drove it home on 3 cylinders.
If anything goes wrong with the modern CBF600N then its a phone call to the AA. We regularly rebuilt topends, replaced and reground valves, changed pistons and rings even bigends without so much as a torque wrench. The only job I really hated doing was changing steering head bearings and still hate it now. But then again it can be cheaper to buy another secondhand bike than repair it these days, so when does repair become a viable option?
There are very few people these days who can do a roadside repair, there are even less willing to have a go at repairing just about anything, perhaps we need to teach youngsters that engineering is cool, then they may not throw away so much perfectly good, if you fix it, stuff.

Jake

Tell them now.

2009-04-06T05:57:00.000-07:00

Back in the late 70's there was a group of us on motorbikes, the group changed, people came and went, in the beginning though their were 40 of us, all around the same age. Today I heard that one of the original group died from a heart attack in his local pub. That means there are now only 5 of us left, I have no idea about 3 of them, Tony, who informed me of the death of Ray, has had no reply from the email address'es of the other 3. We have to assume that they are still alive though.

Tony and myself and in our early 50's now, this does not bode well for our odds, we did live hard early lives though, 1 of our number was shot dead over a drug deal in Columbia, two were stabbed etc, but strangely only a few died from motorcycle accidents, most died from heroin.

I was very lucky not to end up as an addict, it could so easily gone the other way for me, hearing about the guys go one by one over the years, it does not really sink in, but after my heart scare in January (false alarm) the reality of my advancing years is sinking in. For a long time now I have accepted that one day I shall no longer exist, not believing in a god or an afterlife means that when I die, thats it. Nothing. Having accepted that there is no afterlife for me has made me want to make the most of my life on earth, I treat most people as I would like to be treated and try to enjoy as much of life as I can, there are still places I would like to see, people to meet and new experiences to ..... experience.
My life has been a roller coast ride, there have been some scary downs and some very spectacular highs, I have never regretted anything I have done, you cant go back and you cant catch up, look at your own life, have you done anything to be really proud of? I hope so, most people waste their lives in the pursuit of what they believe will bring happiness, I no longer need to find that elusive piece of nonsense, realising that just to be content is enough.

Let me once more see a spectacular sunset, feel the road as I corner on my bike at high speed, enjoy the camaraderie of good friends, the love of a good woman, the taste of a fine wine. These may be small pleasures to you, but they make my life what it is, tell the people you love that you do love them, tell your friends that you are proud to know them, do it now, while you can, for tomorrow may not be for you.

Jake

Dont leave it until its too late

2009-04-02T02:18:00.000-07:00

Looking through the Youtube videos of yesterdays protest (1st April 2009) and reading the comments thereon I noticed that a lot of comments were from foreigners, mostly urging people to 'smash' the police, destroy the government etc... yawn.
Lots of rhetoric and little substance, most have no idea what they are talking about when they say smash the system, lets take a scenario, enough people gather together and smash the banks up, force the government out and take over, what then?

Have they thought this through at all? Complete chaos would reign if they actually managed to bring down the system, but that is not what they really want is it, what they really want is not clear at all. Oh I'm sure some of them have the good of the people at heart, but most are in it to just have a go at any one who represents authority, talking to the real protesters, they are there because they are frustrated that no one is listening to them, they feel ignored and that government is now so remote from them that this is the only way for them to be heard.
Then the rioters kick off and it is all for nothing, if you could guarantee a peaceful protest against the government, I am willing to bet you would get many thousands more turn up, people are scared to go on protests because they are fearful of the violence that inevitably happens, there are lots of unhappy people around that feel the government just ignores their voices.

There is a solution, I keep going on about it but it is a viable one, get out there and vote!
If all the people that were unhappy with the status quo, got together, supported and put forward a candidate that they felt would be better at the job than the current incumbents, I'm sure they could make a big difference, we need to get people into power that are accountable to the people, not that just think "Nice cushy job, lets see what I can get out of it".
That is how I feel most politicians now see the world of politics, just another job and it is not just another job, it should be a vocation, you should be there following the wishes of the people, instead of lining your own pockets. The people only see the failure of this government to help them, they do not see any party as better than the others, they are all now seen as having virtually the same policies anyway.
We need change, we need to look harder at the people we elect to govern us, as more and more people grow unhappy at the way we are governed, the more we need to look at making a change for the better, each successive government is just patching over the mistakes of the other, if we do not force a change whereby we stop the patching and actually fix what is wrong, eventually the whole system will collapse and take us with it.

All the protesters will achieve is to alienate themselves from the people they are supposed to be 'fighting' for. Lets get out there now, not a few weeks before the elections, but now, get moving and motivated now! As usual I suspect the British public will not get out there and do anything until its too late and then complain even harder, its your country, its supposed to be your government, take it back while you have the chance. Dont leave it until its too late.

Jake

Oops I'll pay that one back...sorry....

2009-04-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

How many politicians are panicking over the imminent release of the list of their expenses? Why should they get away with not having their expenses scrutinised by the people who gave them their cushy little jobs?
Do they now believe they are better than us? Perhaps one of us should have the job of going through their expenses, I bet they would be correct then, but then I dont believe they should get 'expenses' its just another 'perk of the job' along with loads of others that makes life a hell of a lot easier for them, than for us.
We have to live in the real world, do they actually understand that?

Jake

No to bike parking fees (tax)

2009-04-01T01:39:00.000-07:00

Last night I attended a demo against the motorbike parkings fees that Westminster council have imposed on the motorbike parking bays, 4500 bikers turned up and hardly a mention on the news, in fact they reported 'hundreds' the fact that there was no trouble did not make it news worthy apparently (from a source of mine who works for ITN).
Counncilor Chalkey has made it quite clear that he will not drop this 'experimental' charge, I would have thought there were 4500 reasons to do just that last night.
How out of touch is this man to ignore the wishes of the public, there was a vast array of people from all walks of life there last night, including a few celebs who wanted to stay low key but turned to show their support, I was also very surprised and pleased by the number of women riders who turned up, women are becoming a large force in the biking world these days.

Around 50 bikers where allowed in to present their case, unfortunately I could not get in to hear the procedings, the reasons given by the council have been covered very well on http://www.notobikeparkingfees.com/ by the guys so I will not reiterate them here.

This post is just to point out that 4500 bikers bought London to a stand still and there was no trouble whatsoever, they came out to protest against a 'tax' they they feel is unfair, the council will rake in 1 million pounds a year from this, I wonder what their real incentive is, it certainly is not to reduce pollution, bikes do not create much, reduce traffic maybe? Bikes take up far less room and help the trafic to flow better. The excuses for this tax make no sense, the only outcome from this is more money for the council, so it is in fact a tax.

I would also like to thank everyone who turned out last night, excellent show everyone!

Jake

An alternative to protest marches?

2009-03-31T06:15:00.000-07:00

Protests no longer have the impact they used to, except maybe in a negative way, is protest still a viable form of opposition to the government? Can protest still get its point across without being hijacked or 'used' to cause trouble thus reinforcing any bans regarding all forms of protest?

Whatever happened to voting? Remember that? When we all use dto get off our arses and pop into a polling booth and vote? Ah I remember, '"It wont make a difference who we vote for they are all the same." and thats your excuse is it? Sitting on your arse letting other people run around to do the work and then just complaining because the same old faces get in time and time again.
I hear this so often, "Wont make a difference" "No point in voting for him, he wont get in..." but just think ... what if, just maybe, you voted for someone like the monster raving loony party? What sort of message would that send to the government? I'm not actually saying you should vote for them, thats an example....

Complaining that someone will not get in, so you will not vote for them, does not make any sense! Of course they will not get in if you do not vote. You want to make a difference, you make an effort! Get talking to your friends, ask them what they think and then if you have one friend who sounds like they could do the job, raise some funds and get them in as a candidate. If enough of you do this you could really frighten this current government and possibly get someone in, if you campaign hard enough.
The system in this country is designed to put off timewasters and loonies, but it also stops legitimate people from running as they cannot afford it in time or money, to this end they either have to have a large amount of disposable income, be sponsored by a company, private individual or by donations, but who will give money to an unknown?

If you really want to change things then YOU have to get out there and do some work, find someone you can believe in and support them, help them, even if you just offer a little time. Then talk to your friends and work mates, tell them you believe in this person and get them to help too, persuade them, if you believe they will believe. Enough of you together can change things, but you have want it very badly, sitting back and not helping because you might miss Coronation st or Eastenders, or want to go to the pub instead of handing out a few leaflets, or even not bothering to vote, this is what keeps the current incumbents in power and while you do nothing, nothing will change.

Jake

G.20-Are you going to demonstrate?

2009-03-30T23:53:00.000-07:00

I'm not, I have a feeling it will get hijacked again, I was distressed at the way the poll tax riots reduced a very large protest which would have made a big difference, into a riot which helped the government ignore the wishes of the people.

I was very pleased at the Sunday demo, very big and very peaceful, lots of ordinary people came together and showed the government their unhappiness with the way things are being run, problem is, the government does not listen, even with that large turnout, this is why 'others' turn to more direct action, they feel they are not being listened to. In amongst them are those who enjoy violence and this is where it starts to fall down, once the hijackers take over events snowball, more and more people get caught up and the situation deteriorates rapidly, fear makes the less inclined to violence panic, once fear and panic sets in, the ones that want to take advantage make their move.

I really hope there are no problems on Wednesday, I hope that it is a massive peaceful protest that puts across a strong point, but I doubt it, it is too good an opportunity for those with hidden agendas.

If you are going good luck.

Jake

Do you know you MP?

2009-03-29T15:17:00.000-07:00

Is it not time we had a facility for impeaching or sacking our MP's? Do we not feel that they are really now taking the mick with their expenses?
As more and more cases come to light, perhaps we should stop our MP's from having these outrageous expense claims, or perhaps we should stop paying them expenses altogether.
Stop paying them expenses? Think about it, MP's are voted in to work for us, that does not seem to happen any more, they treat it as a job rather than a vocation, in my minds eye I see MP's having a flat wage and no expense's or outside income, by that I mean not sitting on the board of some big corporation as 'an advisor', they should have a flat income from the state coffers and no other income.
I do not like the idea of MP's having 'outside' interests, no matter what they say it must influence them, getting rid of these influences would not stop corruption or the odd 'bung' but it would help.
MP's should become MP's because they want to help and support their constituents, not because they want to make loads of money.

A friend of mine has a son at Cambridge studying politics, when I asked him what party he supports or would join, when he finished his degree, he looked at me rather oddly “Whatever pays the best!” would be the summing up of his reply, he really did see it as a job for life and could not even understand my concerns about his attitude. I remember MP's having some gumption as well, although I did not agree with much of his politics Tony Benn was always a forthright and honest politician, he always believed in what he was doing and saying, how many of today's MP's could you say that of?

The party system seems to have changed for all parties, in days gone by the elected members would have dictated the policy, now the way they work comes down from above and anyone who goes against the party line is not tolerated, I believe the main political parties have got far to big and cumbersome, we need to return to a more independent system, one where local people run as candidates for the local area, no more 'safe' seats, if a politician can not be trusted to get voted in where he lives, then why on earth should he be allowed to run elsewhere?
We also need to make it cheaper for people, who really believe that they can do well for the people in their local area, to run for government, local or national, some of us just can not afford to give up our day jobs to run, why not make it fairer by dropping the amount needed for a deposit and make the candidates collect 500 signatures from registered voters. If they can convince 500 people to sign for them, I think they would be worth listening to.

Becoming an MP is very difficult if you do not have a) Money, b) the support of big party, c) the wherewithal to get publicity. This means, IMHO, that is now an a virtually exclusive club!
Very few people, who are not rich or media personalities, can get through to even get in the voting, this is not fair, there are a lot of people out there who have been prevented from even managing to get far enough to say their piece, I'm not just talking about my failed attempt, I have listened to a lot of people in the last 12 months who have a lot to say and plenty of it makes sense, I'm not saying they are all brilliant politicians (I have also met a few loonies...) who have been sidelined, just that sometimes we need to listen to the man on the street, not the isolated politician with only the party viewpoint and an expense account. When was the last time you saw your MP in the local pub? Or in a local restaurant? In fact when was the last time you saw him on the streets of your town?

Politics needs to change, politicians need to listen to the people again, politicians need to be local, accountable people, people we can see and trust.

Jake

More rambling from Pyro (From Motorsickle .com)

2009-03-29T14:22:00.000-07:00

A series of unfortunate events could be the title of my life at the moment, from not getting paid to not riding the bike for a while, those are just a few of things that have built up for me in the last couple of months. This has led me to take a look at why things just seem to go from bad to worse and how we sometimes do and don't pick up on the clues around us. It can't all be luck, good or bad, so I thought I would take a bit of time to just ramble though the woods of my mind, waffle on a bit and ponder this issue.

Let's take one day some time ago when things went from mildly annoying to life threateningly dangerous, it started with a mysterious misfire on my then ride, which I had bought for a ridiculously cheap price from a friend of mine called Wobbly Bob, it went like a scalded cat but handled like a stoned badger on an ice rink, it was a Kawasaki Z1000ST with stage 2 Moriwaki conversion, it had been bored out to 1175cc with an almost straight through exhaust and Z9 bars. The misfire drove me mad for a few hours then just disappeared, on taking it out for a test run it immediately managed to get a puncture in the rear wheel. 30 minutes later the puncture is fixed and I start off again only to coast to a stop as the engine died completely. Puffing, panting and generally unhappy I pushed the bike back to our workshop in Leatherhead and shouted at it for a bit. Brian then leaned over and pointed out that the vacuum pipe for the petrol tap was hanging down under the tank… after shouting at myself for a bit I tried once more and was rewarded with a run down to Boxhill that, aside from the iffy handling, was good fun.

On returning home as I pulled back into the garage I dropped the damn thing by not making sure the side stand was completely down, no damage except to my pride and the fact that half a dozen mates were standing there pissing themselves laughing. Being a Wednesday it was decided to have a run later to the Mucky Duck (The Black Swan) for a pint, so I headed off home to get dinner and around 8pm I thought it was time to head off for the pub. So I head out for the M25 at Junction 9 and quickly blasted along up to around 125mph just to check the engine was not misfiring anymore, coming to the slight uphill section, a line of lorries was completely filling the inside lane off into the distance, so I had dropped my speed down to around 70mph to enjoy the ride as the traffic was getting a bit heavier. I glanced in my mirror and noticed a black Lexus? (Maybe) with a bloke on his mobile (flash for them days and about the size of a brick) very close, he was about a cars length behind me and I was just going to pull away from him to open the gap when the engine misfired, a slight feeling of panic wafted over me, if the engine died he would run into the back of me before he had a chance to react. So I cracked open the throttle in the hope I could clear the fault, the bike took off and as the revcounter hurtled across the dial I moved into the outside lane and shut the throttle down a bit, nothing… it didn't move, the bike was still accelerating, I glanced at the speedo which was approaching the 135mph mark and tried to pull in the clutch, that didn't move either!

The bike was still running as if the throttle was fully open, I squeezed the brakes to try and reduce speed to get near the hard shoulder, as the speed dropped to nearer the 100mph mark flames suddenly appeared between my legs… I let go of the brakes… I had a full tank, about 4 gallons of fuel on board!! Because of the lorries in the nearside lane I had no chance of getting on to the grass verge at this speed and there was now vapour coming from the fuel cap and my arse shouted, "Get off now!" so I jumped…

The idea was to jump straight up on the pegs and let the bike go its merry way, bend me knees and roll with the impact, I should have realised this was not my day, as I tried this the bars twisted in my hands and sort of Irish‑whipped me over the bars in front of the bike, which promptly crashed on top of me, I looked at this flaming lump of metal that was crushing my ankle into the tarmac and put my hands down on the road to try and drag myself from under the bike, this worked but I was still moving at well over the speed limit as my right glove was torn off and I watched a line of my skin and blood appear on the tarmac, the bike carried on down the motorway and as I came to a stop I realised I was still in the fast lane! I half dragged half rolled myself under the barrier of the central reservation as cars came pass with brakes squealing. As I lay under the barrier there was an almighty "wooommppphhh" not an explosion as I had expected, like someone slapping their hands over your ears as the bike blew up, it covered both sides of the M25 in burning petrol.

Laying there, I could not feel my right leg from the knee down, my left arm would not move and as I raised my right hand to lift my visor I took one look and put it down again, I could see it had no fingertips, part of the palm was missing and I could see tendons and bones in the wrist joint. I thought I would just keep still and wait for an ambulance. Strangely at this time I felt no pain, just numbness all over. I heard someone shout, "Quick, get his helmet off!", I shouted back "If you touch me I'll fucking kill you!" and someone else then knelt down and asked if I was alright! Silly bastard! Things got a bit hazy after that, and the next thing I can clearly remember is being put onto a backboard, then as I was put in the ambulance the pain hit, I never want to feel like that again.

Final score, shattered collar bone, ground off right kneecap, ripped and torn right hand/wrist, just under a pound of flesh gone from right buttock, and an unbelievable number bits of flesh removed from various bits that hit the deck; both ankles, elbows, and shoulders. You name it, I scrubbed it; and I truly believe the Aria Giga I was wearing saved my life. The only things salvageable off the bike were the front brake callipers and, weirdly, the tail light bulbs. I found out a few months later that one of the cameras on the M25 had videoed the last few seconds of the accident, I declined the offer of a copy.

The point of this tale is to try and decide at what point I should have written the day off as a bad one, do you think that maybe the bike had been warning me all day with its little foibles. I don't believe in fate or any other of that predestined shite, if life is predestined then there is no point to it. Yet somewhere in the back of my mind I do feel that something was warning me not to use the bike that day, do I heed those warnings these days? Nope, because I only recognise them as warnings in hindsight and that's where this all becomes annoying, you have all had the feeling when riding that you know something is wrong, sometimes it's a slight tremor through the bars that indicates the bike isn't that well, sometimes it's a feeling that you should slow down or turn off of the road you are on, mostly I think we take those feelings seriously and do consciously or unconsciously change the route, slow down or stop the bike and take a look at what could be wrong.

To illustrate this I was once chasing a mate on our Bonnies through Battersea one night, when Dave just pulled over and stopped, I pulled in behind him and as I did a car came straight through the lights we would have been stopped at and smashed into the shop on the corner, he would have taken us out had we not stopped 50 yards short of the lights, Dave could not explain why he stopped and was completely puzzled. I have no explanation either and probably never will. We hear about this kind of thing all the time, but it is nearly always in hindsight we realise what has happened, realise is the wrong word we associate the event with the warning after the fact, although how many times do we have the feeling and nothing happens, as bikers our senses are much more attuned to the world around us, we have to be if we want to survive out there, millions of tiny little bits of information are processed through our brains every millisecond and even more when we are riding at speed, this subconscious information is also processed as move through the day, stuff that we never realise we had even picked up on consciously, it must be enormous amount, we could never bring that information to the forefront of our minds as our conscious minds would collapse under the pressure of it all. It's like breathing, totally automatic and hidden in the background.

So do we really sometimes have visions or thoughts that are warnings of future events? Do our brains process unconscious information then past it on as a felling of unease? Or is it all just co‑incidence? I don't know but I wish it worked with the lottery numbers…

Jake

Virtual bikers?

2009-03-29T01:08:00.001-07:00

In the last few weeks, I have been hearing more and more complaints about 'virtual' bikers (and others types on different forums), these guys appear on various forums and do not appear to exist in real life.
Most seem intent on stirring some form of trouble or spreading rumours, I have already had a couple of 'virtual' run ins with two of their ilk, to the extent where I have sent a private message, including my address, asking for theirs in return with no response at all. Both seem to have disappeared from those forums, although I suspect one has reappeared in a different guise (I am watching you) what was the point of coming on all keyboard warrior? Did they not think they might be caught out?
They could talk the talk .... and thats it, these keyboard warriors are starting to really annoy me, they feel safe behind their keyboards, in their little fantasy world they feel secure, they feel they can insult and deride anyone they like, to what purpose though? I really do not understand what they are trying to do, is it that their own little lives are so boring this is how they get their kicks?
Well if they want a little bit of adrenaline they have to remember a couple of things, some of the bikers on the internet are experts in computer technology, most keyboard warriors are not, tracking people down via IP addresses is not easy, but combined with a bit of intelligence and the fact that most keyboard warriors let a few 'facts' slip it can be remarkably easy, if you know how, to track people down.

So Bad Dog Triker or Dave ******* of Ruislip and Phychorider (SIC) or Clarence (I kid you not) ********** of Dudley, be very careful, some one is watching you.

Jake

What has happened to rebellion in this country?

2009-03-27T03:42:00.000-07:00

Is it me or do young people have no gumption nowadays? Up until the late eighties we used to rise up and fight back everytime the government tried to step on us, witness the poll tax riots, I know they got hijacked, but lots of ordinary people tried to make their voices heard from the young to the old. It used to be the young that stood up to be counted, but where are they now? All the time I hear young people whinging about this, that and the other… well not so much the other! Mainly it's to do with the fact they are bored!!!

I listened to a group of early 20's punk‑looking blokes couple of years back, in a bar talking about Tony Blair, slagging him off, going on about the war and how no one does anything for the youngsters, after listening to this for about 20mins I asked them what they were going to do about it, the blank stares told me a lot, they didn't understand why 'they' had to do something, they thought sitting on their arses complaining would do it for them. One of them had a t‑shirt with the anarchy symbol on it and I asked him what it meant, he replied 'no rules' so I asked him what would he would do if I hit him, he looked worried and his mate said he would call the police, I laughed and walked off.All youngsters today seem to do is get a) drunk b) stoned c) pregnant d) lazy, I did my time as an 'activist' and don't see why I should have to go back to it to help these lazy arseholes, but I do worry that no one is really questioning what government is doing any more, take the smoking ban, I agree with it to an extent but the number of people who have been complaining about it is huge! So why haven't they done anything about it? No marches no dissent… nothing! Is it because they are all stoned?
I blame the New Romantics, before them we had punk, rock & roll, OI and Ska, all types of music designed to make you feel something, go back far enough and you will find songs that stirred the blood, marching songs that called everyone together and helped them fight as one! What song have you heard in the last 20 years that has made people stand up and be counted? Ones that hit the news! I'm not talking about the odd song that a few people get up and dance to, but about songs that hit the headlines, the last song I can remember that caused some proper consternation was 'God save the Queen' by the Sex Pistols and how long ago was that? Since the New Romantics came along and made everyone go a bit wishy‑washy music has become bland, exicting music just doesn't get the chance it used, most money is made by churning out pap for the chav generation, rebellion is being choked for the sake of cash and our kids are letting it happen!

What happened? did the whole country go to sleep and never woke up? Where is the gumption, the tenacity, the sheer bloodymindedness that the British were famous for? If we all did get up and protest, we could paralyse this land of ours. 'Land of ours'? not any more, you are all too lethargic to do anything but moan.Well, at least thats what it feels like to me; were the 70's and 80's the last decades of rebellion? Are you all now rebels without a clue? Then fuck you all, you kids on your scooters, chavs in your Saxos, just you let your freedoms get eroded away, I did my bit and now I have no cause left worth fighting for, my generation is either deserting the country for pastures new or being ground down from lack of support. But I still sling my leg over my black rat of a bike, I still shout the odds when I can and most of all I know I can say that I once stood my ground for what I felt was right, can you say the same?

Read this while you are still allowed to…

(Paraphased from an article from Motorsickle, written by me)

Adendum.

I reproduced this article because with G.20 coming up I feel that people should take notice of what is happening around them, see the history of protests that have disappeared, I have recently seen posters around encouraging people to turn out and attack banks, bankers and worryingly, bank staff, why attack people doing their jobs?
Attacking the banks will solve nothing, but it will give the government more fuel against us, ultimately it is the fault of the government, show them how you feel by writing to your MP, tell them they no longer have your support.
Protest if you must (or while you can) but peacefully, every time someone on a protest commits a crime, it gives the government more ammunition to stop any protests or demonstrations.
Also to be sucessfull you need to mobilse lots of people, unfortunately that will not happen until it gets really bad and by then it will be too late.
While people are content to sit back and let government erode away their freedoms, then it will slowly become the country that no longer allows you to do anything 'for y0ur own good'.
"I have nothing to hide, doesnt affect me!" is so shortsighted, does no one study history any more?

Well I think its time to get out of this country, as I said in the article above, no one will care until its too late. Good luck and thanks for all the fish.

Jake

The Dance of Death

2009-03-25T03:01:00.000-07:00

You have your Ipod blaring tinny music into your ears, you are wearing those trendy sunglasses with the big bits at the sides so you can only see forwards. You are concentrating on listening to the latest pap about living in the ghetto, churned out by musicians who take a limo to the studio.
This is when you enter the ‘Dance of Death’ with your world firmly closeted around you, you step off of the pavement straight in to the path of my 600lb motorcycle.
The (luckily for you) very loud Fiaam horn breaks through your bubble to inform you that the rapidly approaching object WILL KILL YOU!

Thus begins the ‘Dance of Death’, forward onto the left foot, then back onto the right, repeat this action faster and faster so you end up looking a bit like someone from Riverdance, but with no style. As indecision cuts in, fear starts to push harder and harder, which way will the bike go? Which way should I go?

Paralysed, you just freeze as the front end of the bike dives hard, the rear wheel starts to leave the ground and at the last second I flip the bike around the back of you and skid to a halt.
What is your reaction? You start shouting abuse, swearing and flipping me the middle finger, it then dawns slowly that the bloke you are giving all this abuse to is walking towards you, wearing an armoured jacket, denim cutoff, black crash helmet and wearing armoured gloves, people on the pavement start taking bets on your survival rate. Your heart rate goes through the roof, the fight or flight adrenaline takes over and your survival instinct cuts in, you run away, and in those stupid trousers that hang lower than your knees, you run like a girl.

I raise the front half of my helmet and laughingly bow to the audience on the pavement, one man starts applauding, within seconds 15 people are clapping and laughing, one even cheered, what a great start to my day.

Stay safe out there

Jake

Taken from 'articles' at Motorsickle.com

2009-03-24T15:03:00.000-07:00

More rambling from Pyro

or "How visible am I whilst riding?"

This morning I nearly ran into a car in the fog, I was doing 35 in a 50 with dipped beam on when I glimpsed something in front of me, it was a grey or silver car doing 20 miles an hour in the outside lane of a dual carriageway with no lights on!! When I sounded my not very discreet horn he looked at me as if I was mad, at the traffic lights I shouted across to him "Lights!" he didn't respond, so I got off the bike and walked across to him. As I approached him he wound down his window and said "What's your problem mate?" I asked if he realised why I had sounded my horn, he looked blank, I told him it was because he was driving in fairly thick fog with no lights on, he still looked blank and then replied, "Well I saw you ok." What was that supposed to mean? at this point a very polite man asked me if I could move my bike as the lights had changed, I just walked back to my bike and rode off.

I pondered the reality of that moment when I got to work, that driver had no idea how invisible he was, which got me thinking about how visible I was when riding. I pass one of the other workers nearly every night in his car and went to ask him how he saw me on the road, his answer made me think a lot, he said when I come up from behind he can see me very well due to the way the headlight shines out of the fairing and from the back the twin bulbs show up well, but he said from the side he can't see me at all in the dark if there are other lights around. I ride a matt black FJ 1200 and tend to wear dark clothes, denim cut‑off and black helmet, I had never even thought about how invisible I looked from the side, I have a 55/100 headlamp bulb and twin bulbs at the rear (that are soon to be changed for a set of high intensity LEDs) this got me looking at some of the other riders on the way home, since the weather has turned a bit chilly, a lot of riders have disappeared, although there is a hard core still out there. Tonight I tucked in behind a very obviously advanced rider (sticker gave it away) now I usually catch this bloke on the way to Hampton bridge in the morning, a very good rider if a bit (IMHO) over cautious, so I thought I would tuck behind and watch how traffic reacts to him and how they appear to see him on the road.

The rider didn't stick strictly to the limits but 'made progress' not nearly as much as I would though, but then I have also done the advanced and was a courier in London for 15 years (insert big wink here).

He was wearing a high visibility jacket and rode a big Beemer with dipped beam on. After following him for about 10 minutes I was bored silly, he sounded his horn only to get cars to move over a bit, I do that by roaring up and locking the rear wheel, he waited for gaps I could get a mini through and eventually I got bored and sodded off, I rarely exceed the speed limit by more than 10 mph in traffic yet that's enough to get me home in around 25 mins. I once rode home obeying every law to the letter, it took me 45 mins and I got hooted at, shouted at and swore at by a myriad of cars drivers not to mention some odd looks from the riders I usually overtake.

Undoubtedly he would be seen as a much safer rider than me…. but is he? The last time I crashed was because of a driver who didn't bother to look out of his driver's window while I was alongside him when he did an illegal right turn, the one before was at ten mph when the front tyre let go on a flattened coke tin that was hidden in a puddle (broke my bloody leg!!) and one more when a car stopped in front of me then suddenly reversed straight into me…. that's it in the last ten years or more, none of which could have been predicted, all the ones I did predict I avoided.

I ride between 15k and 25k a year in all weathers and conditions, I know a bloke down the road who only rides to work (about 10 miles there and back) and crashes about once a month, never serious but still worrying.

But back to the point, how visible was I and is it all about what you wear? When I ride I imagine a circle around me of about 50ft in diameter, this circle changes depending on how I am riding, in town it's a perfect circle of which I am (hopefully) aware of everything around me, on the motorway this circle would deform into a cone that is projected out more in front, the faster I go the further the cone extends, inside this cone, which takes in anything that could possibly be a danger or obstruction, I create a map of everything that is there, every few seconds the data is updated in my brain. Now most of you will do this without even realising that you are doing it, when you ride (or drive) most of you will go into automatic mode and do this without thinking, I make a conscious choice to think about this on the bike. This is what I feel keeps me safe. Thinking about how I ride made me list the things I do on automatic things that I thought I thought about, one is watching drivers faces in their mirrors, if they don't look at me I assume they haven't seen me, I ride in the places that I can see them in their mirrors because it means I'm not in their blind spots, at junctions I place myself so I can avoid anyone who can't stop from behind me, when stopping to turn right from a side street I stop slightly before the white lines in case someone cuts the corner (isn't that right Jay?) Lots of little things that I really should think about, I do on automatic, which means that my mind is not fully on my riding, tomorrow I shall ride to work with all my senses on full blast and see what happens.

So does it matter what we wear? Do we need bright clothing and lights on? I agree with having your lights on during the day because there are a lot of myopic twats out there, but I'm not convinced about the bright clothing, some time ago I stopped wearing my filthy denim cut‑off to work for about 5 working days, during those 5 days everyone and his brother pulled out on me or cut me up. The following week I put the cut‑off on again, no‑one and I mean no‑one did it, I know the cut‑off does not make me more visible, but it sure makes the drivers think something.

I wish I could bottle it I'd make a fortune.

So I have reached no real conclusion regarding this, I need to do a bit more research, trouble is that to research it properly might endanger my life, another catch 22 for the biker…

Jake

Titles that mean nothing?

2009-03-24T05:12:00.000-07:00

Just what does the title of this blog mean?

Nothing. I just made it up, all the ones I wanted have already been snatched and used (very badly I might add) for the most ridiculous of pastimes... blogging.

As you may have guessed this is my first blog, I have no real plan for it, except maybe to rant a bit and reproduce some of my inane ramblings from other websites here. Hopefully this will keep one or two of you amused for a few minutes, maybe it will make one of you think, whatever it does I hope it will, if nothing else, help me remain sane. There are things that I sometimes need to get off my chest, ranting to my mates on the forums I belong to does not seem fair on them, so I'll just post on here and save them the barrage of vitriol thats exudes from me everytime I see an MP on the television.

As for the title, perhaps there is a method in my madness, we shall see.

Regards

Jake Willis