Tango

Gary Larson, one of my favourite cartoonists.

A few years back we went up to Squires cafe in early March for a meet up in remembrance of a young lad we knew who'd been killed in an accident on his bike. The run up there was cold, but ok. On the way back, on the A1 just north of Grantham it sleeted really hard and it was like marbles all over the road. I was in front and Mandy was following on her Bonneville. The temperature drop was really sudden. My visor steamed up and it was literally like riding on marbles. Visibility dropped to nearly nothing too. I really couldn't see much either in front or behind. It was like that for about 10 miles. Once I'd got through it I realised that Mandy wasn't behind me any more. I stopped and checked my phone and had a missed call from her. I called her back and she said that her bike had stopped and she had to try to push it off the road, which wasn't easy because it was up a slight gradient and the road was covered with these beads of sleet/snow. Fortunately she wasn't too far from an exit off the A1 and a guy in a car had stopped and helped her push the bike to safety. I said that the best bet was for me to carry on for home and then pick up some tools and head back up in the car to sort her bike out. On my way back up she called to say that she had managed to get the bike started and was heading back. I'm guessing that the carbs had iced up due to the sudden temperature drop and whilst the bike was stationary the heat from the engine had thawed them out. But, riding on that busy road on what felt like riding on marbles, with near zero visibility and then losing Mandy wasn't the most pleasant experience on the bike!

Unfortunately it's a 2 day drive each way and it was thick snow crossing the Massif Centrale when we came back last Christmas. We can get flights from Montpellier to Gatwick for less than €100 each return at the moment! But with the risk of getting pinged attached.

We were weighing up heading back to the UK to visit for Christmas, but it seems like even though we are fully vaccinated, if we get pinged by the app we'd have to isolate for 10 days, but if we'd been vaccinated in the UK we wouldn't have to. Seems like quite a few people are getting pinged after flying into the UK because someone on their flight has tested positive. This is likely to get worse if/when they drop the PCR test before travel. So, we don't want to arrange and pay to travel over to then have to spend the whole time isolating in a hotel room! Hmmmmm!

I was at college in Lewisham, SE London during the winter of '76/'77. It was a bitterly cold day and during the late afternoon there was a bit of snow started to fall, so I decided to bail out of college and head for home in Kent. I was on my RD350B and the journey started OK, but as it went on the snow got worse. By the time I got to about 10 miles from home I was riding in the ruts left by cars, with both feet down! My visor wouldn't stay open because of the ice on my lid and I couldn't ride with the visor down because it was steamed up and the snow was just sticking to it. In the end I ripped the visor off and slung it. My mum and dad lived at the bottom of a hill on a housing estate. I took a look at the hill when I got there and decided that I'd leave the bike at the top of the hill and walk the last bit home. The journey, which normally took me about 30-40 minutes had taken not short of 1.5hrs and I was frozen to the marrow by the time I got home.

Been to Narbonne today. Mandy wanted some new shoes and we needed to get some food shopping done. Tomorrow's plan is to cycle to the next town for lunch to celebrate our first anniversary here. Got wine and beer in, to continue the celebrations when we get home! Sunday? No plans yet, but Mandy's got to leave home at 4am Monday morning to take the TGV to Paris for a meeting, so I don't suppose we'll be partying on Sunday!

We've got 5 year residency permits which, when we renew them, can be 10 year ones or we could then apply for citizenship if we wanted.

I've always worn a full face lid, but in my younger days I always rode with the visor open. Back in the early '80s I had an XS1100 and my mate had a CBX1000 and we used to head out into Kent for a blast a couple of times a week after work. One evening we'd been for a blast and were heading back to our hometown up the M20 on the London bound side. It was late evening and getting pretty dark, but the motorway was empty so we weren't hanging about when something fairly large hit me in my left eye. I guess it was probably a large moth or something like that, but for a second or two I didn't know where I was. I probably blacked out for a second or so! Fortunately we were on a straight stretch of motorway with no other traffic around so, once I got my senses back, I backed the throttle off and pulled over. I composed myself for a short while and then carried on home at a much lower speed.........and with my visor shut! I never ride with the visor open since that incident!

Have you had a moment or moments in your biking time that you look back on and think "how the hell did I get away with that!"?

The tester didn't notice that I didn't have one at all on the Speedy at it's last MOT!

You think that Brexit was mainly to keep him out?

Well, Pete, it's a lot different to 16 years ago, mate!

Cheers mate. Unfortunately it has taken so much effort to actually get the bonneville registered here, that it's staying.......forever!

Yes, we had to sell our house in the UK before we could buy here. We "sold" it late last year, but the "buyer" messed us around until March this year before he then decided he didn't want to buy it! Fortunately it sold within a week of being put back on the market, but because of the buying rules here, we couldn't make an offer on a place until we had the money in the bank. When we first planned to move over early last year it was for Mandy to take up a job in the European headquarters of the company she worked for. We got things in place and I took early retirement, then a few weeks before we were due to move, Mandy's company imposed a global headcount freeze, so the job offer was withdrawn. We decided that, as we had already made the decision to move, that we'd do it anyway. Mandy volunteered for redundancy from her job and we went ahead with the move. Mandy set herself up as a freelance consultant, but work was slow. Then, a few months back, a senior director from the European headquarters phoned her and sounded her out about a new role, which is what Mandy is doing now. The biggest thing has been in getting into all the "systems" here. The French love a bit of bureaucracy, so getting into the healthcare system, the tax system, getting our residency permits and all the other stuff has been challenging, but we're pretty much there with it all now. The coasters? Well, the French lifestyle! and we're both pretty impressed with the healthcare system here so far.

One year ago today we arrived in France to start our new adventure. It's been a bit of a roller coaster ride so far, but things seem to be settling down now and we hope to finally get our own place in a couple of weeks.