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!
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
Time for change.
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.
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.
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
End of year thoughts 1
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.
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.
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Racism and the innate goodness of humans.
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.
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.
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Family and funerals.
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.
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.
Monday, 12 October 2009
Micheal Jackson 'This is it'
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'
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'
Thursday, 24 September 2009
Motorsickle upgrade.
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)
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)
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Market research......Orange
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?
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?
Thursday, 17 September 2009
Falling leaves, Pedestrians and Light‑jumpers
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.
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.
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Frustration...
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.
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.
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Destitute.
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?
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?
Sunday, 23 August 2009
Writers block....
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
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
Monday, 3 August 2009
Quality of life and death.
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
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
Thursday, 23 July 2009
Gary Mckinnon? What the hell......
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.....
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.....
Wednesday, 22 July 2009
Secrets and confidentiality.
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......
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......
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
More rambling for the main man!
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?
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?
Monday, 29 June 2009
Petrol prices
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.
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.
Friday, 26 June 2009
The power of dreams....
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.
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.
Friday, 12 June 2009
Bikes birds & blurry memories (an article written for Brit chopper magazine)
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.
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.
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
The tube strike.
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.
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.
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