My bum hurts
Shame on you all for thinking THAT!
It's been a rather exhilirating weekend, all told. Let us begin with the traditional point, the beginning. Seems sensible yes? We like sensible. So Fridat rolled along nicely, quite warm by the end of the day. Much achieved, I'm in a real rolling place as for as work is concerned, this may have to change because people will expect too much! Anyhow, day was almost ruined by a collision at work, but that's another story. best be careful what I write here regards that, ruffled feathers are a bad thing and I can deal with it in my usual way of silent de-fusion. And on that note, wrapped myself up in leathers and hit the M1 south......quite a big rush to be heading away for the weekend with nothing in mind but bike riding. And I feel quite relaxed from it all, especially since I have only one day at work next week!
I've also eaten rather well, and not too expensively all told, though I shall be tightening belt for August. And beerage too, though wooziness was noted after only 2 pints and hence that was entire imbibage of an evening. So much for my wild young days of knocking it back, sic transit gloria Jon-steri.
Keith is very much how I remembered, I suppose people who dont move house dont change much within six months! Though he has been through the mill somewhat on the emotional side of things, but is very healthily through it. Good bloke. And I'm most grateful to him for the free night's stay, most generous!
Saturday we headed for the coast, out to the delights of Lincolnshire and Skegness. The county is rather flat, boring, and probably quite a nice pretty place to live (though lashed by the North Sea), but personally I'm not sure I'd enjoy it. Skegness is very much as you'd expect from an English seaside resort (cheap and tacky beach ball, tattoo, chips anyone?) with plenty to do if all you want to do is eat chips and play crazy golf. Amusement enough for an afternoon (and very good chips), but I dont think I'd stomach a whole holiday there. As a bit of light relief, half the promenade was closed off owing to an enormous bomb scare (nothing to do with me, guv), which had lots of police and fireman lurking about in their delightful luminous jackets, and in the case of the firemen, huge overalls. On a very hot humid day. Bet they were loving that. And hordes and hordes of people just standing about, watching to see if anything would explode! Typical.
Forecast for Saturday had been encouraging, but we drew a short straw in the end. Heading back westward we rode through a thunderstorm, most impressive (and far away, we only went past the edge) but very windy, enough to give me a huge sideswipe along an exposed bit of the road and move be right from one side of the lane to the other. Scary. And the rain, reminds me why biking in the wet aint so much fun. Though perfectly do-able, not so much fun and a lot more nervy at first. But settled into it quite nicely, especially once the rain let up! Home again, to lounge about and eat and more beer, though not very much more.
Today has been a mixed bag of weather. A lazy morning, we only headed out after 10 and went to Nottingham. Which is a most odd place and very badly signposted. Like all towns, really. A little brekkie (I now notice that I really dont like milky coffee) and then we parted ways, since K lives in Swindon and it would be daft for me to head too far south with him. So I trucked up to the M1 for a little bit of a ride in the rain, until getting to just before Sheffield where the sky opened up beautifully and it was glorious sunshine! Which it has remained for the rest of the day, most appreciated. Tootled back up the M18 for a bit of a change and then through god-knows-where and Wakefield to get home at just after three.
Not so impressed by what I found at home. Alarm had obviously been set, but incorrectly and so had turned itself off. This is because someone had decided to crack all the windows open, and leave my skylight wide open. So house with wide open skylight and no alarm. Now I will swear blind I closed that skylight, and the other windows certainly werent open before (and I've never seen them open since the rooms have been empty), which means one of two things. Either my housemate decided to open the windows and then forgot to close them (possible, but I cant see him going around all the rooms to open them in all honesty, though his was closed) or landlady has returned from abroad and decided to open all the windows (but she didnt leave a message and she usually does!). Puzzling. Nothing is missing though, and I've closed everything again and rebooted the alarm. All right again, but a worrying thing......
After coming home, went straight back out again for a bit more riding! I've covered another three hours and quite a lot more miles. Over the whole weekend it's been about 500 miles, and this is why my bum is so sore, I've got saddle sores. A bit odd considering I've never got them before, but then again I've always been wearing different pants so this could be the case. Or it's the temperature/leather/sticky combination. Anyways, I've got two tender ridges on my buttocks, which make sitting in certain positions most interesting. Shall have to be careful in future! Also noticed that with new pair of gloves I'm getting a lot more juddering through my wrists. Now this could mean my suspension is knackering or needs fiddling with (buggery knows how) or else these gloves are a lot less padded than my old ones. We shall see.
And now onto the driving rantage. Have seen some stupendously shocking work from people in cars, and have to say the main culprits are VW and Vauxhall drivers. Drivers, please do not sit so far up my bum that I could shit on your bonnet, especially in clearly signposted areas of low speed limit (and where I'm following another car). Also people, make sure you look around before you pull out. Let us list the main offenders here; there are four.
Offender the first. Traffic jam outside Newark, queue of cars going up to a roundabout. Me going quite slowly (no more than 40) up the outside, well over into the other lane since nothing else coming other way. Stoopid git just in front of a truck decides to do a U-turn right across the road immediately in front of me. The man is incredibly lucky not to have a Suz parked in his drivers door with a a nice tyre mark on his leg, and this because I was watching for stuff coming from behind said truck. Not that he actually did anything about it, despite me doing sharp braking to put my nose up against his side window. No, just very calmly continued his 3-point turn in the road and sped away. Now there's care for you.
Offender the second. Coming into Leeds off the M621, there is quite a stretch of road where you wind about with different routes going off all over the place. There are, however, ample signs and lots of lane markings to show you where to go. So Mr. Vauxhall this time decides that since he needs to be in my lane, he'll just pull across into it. Despite having just overtaken me after following me a long way. Here it is a very good job I spotted him moving early enough to check the leftmost lane and make an escape; but gave him a very annoyed 'oh look, it's someone there' wave in his wing mirror.
Offender the third. Pretty much the same situation, but coming from the other side, and this time I had nowhere to escape to! So had to parp rather loudly to stop idiot from pulling right the way over - fuck knows what he'd have done if I was a car.
Offener the fourth. This one was quite scary. A bloody bus this time, that decided to pull out right in front of me from a right hand side road - and here it is most fortunate that I was paying lots of attention and gave him a warning toot, to which he stopped dead - cant believe that one, because I was right in the middle of a moving queue of cars, no less.
Obviously my run-in with idiot lady in southampton last year has made me paranoid enough. This is good. But please, please please, dear car drivers, make sure you check where you are going into. And remember that which you have just overtaken and cant be bothered to check out for.
A few other bugbears. Why do car drivers insist on blocking the carriageway maliciously to prevent progression of bikes? So many people pulled out to put their cars dead on the middle white line and try and prevent overtaking, while they are sat in the queue. How petty is that? Just think, if I were not on two wheels, rather on four, there'd be another car in this queue of traffic you are in! To be fair though, I must credit the large number of very nice people who in the same queues moved over to the left to allow us to pass more easily. I doff my hat to you all. And the most irritating one of all........incredibly bad lane discipline on motorways. People seem to just sit in their own little world once they are on the M-way, hogging the middle and outer lanes; move the fuck back over!!! You overtake, you move back to left. Simple idea, isnt it? Admitedly it does break down a little when there are several large trucks crawling up inclines and everyone does tend to have to sit in the middle lane to get past them all, but not really on huge open stretches. The number of times today I've been tootling along at 70 (so not even doing silly speeds like a lot of people obviously were) in the left hand lane (hey - no other traffic ahead of me there!) and been going past people who resolutely cant face the shame of being over that side. In fact, going past huge queues of people doing this in the middle lane; why are you all there! You're actually causing more blockages that way as you're forcing others to all use the RH lane! Dammit, dammit dammit, that one is always going to irritate me and even did when I was in a car.......
I think that I've blogged enough for now, maybe I'll come back later this evening, but I dont think so! Have to miraculously create food and then get ready for tomorrow.....
It's been a rather exhilirating weekend, all told. Let us begin with the traditional point, the beginning. Seems sensible yes? We like sensible. So Fridat rolled along nicely, quite warm by the end of the day. Much achieved, I'm in a real rolling place as for as work is concerned, this may have to change because people will expect too much! Anyhow, day was almost ruined by a collision at work, but that's another story. best be careful what I write here regards that, ruffled feathers are a bad thing and I can deal with it in my usual way of silent de-fusion. And on that note, wrapped myself up in leathers and hit the M1 south......quite a big rush to be heading away for the weekend with nothing in mind but bike riding. And I feel quite relaxed from it all, especially since I have only one day at work next week!
I've also eaten rather well, and not too expensively all told, though I shall be tightening belt for August. And beerage too, though wooziness was noted after only 2 pints and hence that was entire imbibage of an evening. So much for my wild young days of knocking it back, sic transit gloria Jon-steri.
Keith is very much how I remembered, I suppose people who dont move house dont change much within six months! Though he has been through the mill somewhat on the emotional side of things, but is very healthily through it. Good bloke. And I'm most grateful to him for the free night's stay, most generous!
Saturday we headed for the coast, out to the delights of Lincolnshire and Skegness. The county is rather flat, boring, and probably quite a nice pretty place to live (though lashed by the North Sea), but personally I'm not sure I'd enjoy it. Skegness is very much as you'd expect from an English seaside resort (cheap and tacky beach ball, tattoo, chips anyone?) with plenty to do if all you want to do is eat chips and play crazy golf. Amusement enough for an afternoon (and very good chips), but I dont think I'd stomach a whole holiday there. As a bit of light relief, half the promenade was closed off owing to an enormous bomb scare (nothing to do with me, guv), which had lots of police and fireman lurking about in their delightful luminous jackets, and in the case of the firemen, huge overalls. On a very hot humid day. Bet they were loving that. And hordes and hordes of people just standing about, watching to see if anything would explode! Typical.
Forecast for Saturday had been encouraging, but we drew a short straw in the end. Heading back westward we rode through a thunderstorm, most impressive (and far away, we only went past the edge) but very windy, enough to give me a huge sideswipe along an exposed bit of the road and move be right from one side of the lane to the other. Scary. And the rain, reminds me why biking in the wet aint so much fun. Though perfectly do-able, not so much fun and a lot more nervy at first. But settled into it quite nicely, especially once the rain let up! Home again, to lounge about and eat and more beer, though not very much more.
Today has been a mixed bag of weather. A lazy morning, we only headed out after 10 and went to Nottingham. Which is a most odd place and very badly signposted. Like all towns, really. A little brekkie (I now notice that I really dont like milky coffee) and then we parted ways, since K lives in Swindon and it would be daft for me to head too far south with him. So I trucked up to the M1 for a little bit of a ride in the rain, until getting to just before Sheffield where the sky opened up beautifully and it was glorious sunshine! Which it has remained for the rest of the day, most appreciated. Tootled back up the M18 for a bit of a change and then through god-knows-where and Wakefield to get home at just after three.
Not so impressed by what I found at home. Alarm had obviously been set, but incorrectly and so had turned itself off. This is because someone had decided to crack all the windows open, and leave my skylight wide open. So house with wide open skylight and no alarm. Now I will swear blind I closed that skylight, and the other windows certainly werent open before (and I've never seen them open since the rooms have been empty), which means one of two things. Either my housemate decided to open the windows and then forgot to close them (possible, but I cant see him going around all the rooms to open them in all honesty, though his was closed) or landlady has returned from abroad and decided to open all the windows (but she didnt leave a message and she usually does!). Puzzling. Nothing is missing though, and I've closed everything again and rebooted the alarm. All right again, but a worrying thing......
After coming home, went straight back out again for a bit more riding! I've covered another three hours and quite a lot more miles. Over the whole weekend it's been about 500 miles, and this is why my bum is so sore, I've got saddle sores. A bit odd considering I've never got them before, but then again I've always been wearing different pants so this could be the case. Or it's the temperature/leather/sticky combination. Anyways, I've got two tender ridges on my buttocks, which make sitting in certain positions most interesting. Shall have to be careful in future! Also noticed that with new pair of gloves I'm getting a lot more juddering through my wrists. Now this could mean my suspension is knackering or needs fiddling with (buggery knows how) or else these gloves are a lot less padded than my old ones. We shall see.
And now onto the driving rantage. Have seen some stupendously shocking work from people in cars, and have to say the main culprits are VW and Vauxhall drivers. Drivers, please do not sit so far up my bum that I could shit on your bonnet, especially in clearly signposted areas of low speed limit (and where I'm following another car). Also people, make sure you look around before you pull out. Let us list the main offenders here; there are four.
Offender the first. Traffic jam outside Newark, queue of cars going up to a roundabout. Me going quite slowly (no more than 40) up the outside, well over into the other lane since nothing else coming other way. Stoopid git just in front of a truck decides to do a U-turn right across the road immediately in front of me. The man is incredibly lucky not to have a Suz parked in his drivers door with a a nice tyre mark on his leg, and this because I was watching for stuff coming from behind said truck. Not that he actually did anything about it, despite me doing sharp braking to put my nose up against his side window. No, just very calmly continued his 3-point turn in the road and sped away. Now there's care for you.
Offender the second. Coming into Leeds off the M621, there is quite a stretch of road where you wind about with different routes going off all over the place. There are, however, ample signs and lots of lane markings to show you where to go. So Mr. Vauxhall this time decides that since he needs to be in my lane, he'll just pull across into it. Despite having just overtaken me after following me a long way. Here it is a very good job I spotted him moving early enough to check the leftmost lane and make an escape; but gave him a very annoyed 'oh look, it's someone there' wave in his wing mirror.
Offender the third. Pretty much the same situation, but coming from the other side, and this time I had nowhere to escape to! So had to parp rather loudly to stop idiot from pulling right the way over - fuck knows what he'd have done if I was a car.
Offener the fourth. This one was quite scary. A bloody bus this time, that decided to pull out right in front of me from a right hand side road - and here it is most fortunate that I was paying lots of attention and gave him a warning toot, to which he stopped dead - cant believe that one, because I was right in the middle of a moving queue of cars, no less.
Obviously my run-in with idiot lady in southampton last year has made me paranoid enough. This is good. But please, please please, dear car drivers, make sure you check where you are going into. And remember that which you have just overtaken and cant be bothered to check out for.
A few other bugbears. Why do car drivers insist on blocking the carriageway maliciously to prevent progression of bikes? So many people pulled out to put their cars dead on the middle white line and try and prevent overtaking, while they are sat in the queue. How petty is that? Just think, if I were not on two wheels, rather on four, there'd be another car in this queue of traffic you are in! To be fair though, I must credit the large number of very nice people who in the same queues moved over to the left to allow us to pass more easily. I doff my hat to you all. And the most irritating one of all........incredibly bad lane discipline on motorways. People seem to just sit in their own little world once they are on the M-way, hogging the middle and outer lanes; move the fuck back over!!! You overtake, you move back to left. Simple idea, isnt it? Admitedly it does break down a little when there are several large trucks crawling up inclines and everyone does tend to have to sit in the middle lane to get past them all, but not really on huge open stretches. The number of times today I've been tootling along at 70 (so not even doing silly speeds like a lot of people obviously were) in the left hand lane (hey - no other traffic ahead of me there!) and been going past people who resolutely cant face the shame of being over that side. In fact, going past huge queues of people doing this in the middle lane; why are you all there! You're actually causing more blockages that way as you're forcing others to all use the RH lane! Dammit, dammit dammit, that one is always going to irritate me and even did when I was in a car.......
I think that I've blogged enough for now, maybe I'll come back later this evening, but I dont think so! Have to miraculously create food and then get ready for tomorrow.....
posted by J at 7:02 PM
1 Comments:
Wow, marathon blog! As a VW driver, I shall endeavour to improve ;)
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