Slowlycatchymonkey

I had to let this ride report settle for a minute before posting because it had great depth. I have to say your ability to convey the emotions in a second language is exceptionally good. In parts I felt like I was there. Some amazing pics and good descriptive writing puts this right up there on the pleasure per word scale. It’s even made me think I should dust off my helmet cam and maybe even post some non car park shots

Cheers

It’s a bit now n then so here you go. I love these machines. The skill and effort put into making these gorgeous things mean you can buy a machine that’s 100 years old and it still works perfectly. Saville Row tailors still use these old singer sewing machines because there’s no other machine that comes close to the quality of the neat top stitch. I’ve wanted one for a long time and did buy one in 2019 but when I picked it up the needle plate was missing. It was very frustrating at the time because the guy I bought it from just kept saying it must have fallen off in his garage and he’d post it to me…… grrrr. I’ve poured over hundreds of these machines and it’s extremely rare to find one with the gold paint intact. The gold paint (and it really is gold) used is protected by a thin layer of shellac and is easily damaged usually where your hand would rest to push the fabric through. I’m very excited that this machine is going to be mine. I feel pretty lucky to have bought a piece of history, as if I’ve walked into a museum and bought a gorgeous exhibit. Anyway I know it’s unlikely to be anyone on here’s thing but I’m certain there are a few who appreciate the mechanical beauty of it. It was a choice between one from 1928 and this one from 1955. I wanted the 1928 one just because of it’s age and the lovely domed bentwood case but this one was in significantly better nick and is sold by Singer sewing machine centre who serviced it and demonstrated it’s in good working order. Bit of geek out history- 1858 SINGER brand introduces the first lightweight domestic machine “the Grasshopper” @Grasshopper Expanding fast with nearly a million square feet of space and almost 7,000 employees they produced on average 13,000 machines a week in Scotland, In the First World War sewing machine production gave way to munitions. The Singer Clydebank factory received over 5000 government contracts, and made 303 million artillery shells, shell components, fuses, and aeroplane parts, as well as grenades, rifle parts, and 361,000 horseshoes. It’s labour force of 14,000 was about 70% female at war's end. From its opening in 1884 until 1943, the Kilbowie factory produced approximately 36,000,000 sewing machines At the height of its productiveness in the mid 1960s, Singer employed over 16,000 workers but by the end of that decade, compulsory redundancies were taking place and 10 years later the workforce was down to 5,000. Financial problems and lack of orders forced the world's largest sewing machine factory to close in June 1980, bringing to an end over 100 years of sewing machine production in Scotland. The complex of buildings was demolished in 1998

They won’t have him back and the paedo sold his place there a while ago.

Let's see where the freak goes, place your bets... Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand.

I think I had a lot of fun, it's a tiny bit hazy

Hungoooooverrr

That’s made me hungry, I’d better start cooking

There’s never enough sauce for a Brit

Know what you mean. I tend to choose the Bandit for long distances if there’s motorway involved just for the power but the thousand miles to Spain on the Himalayan are also a real joy. It’s such an undemanding bike you’re free to just enjoy the scenery. It’s also completely trustworthy, during the recent ride in the storm with hail and so much deep water on the roads I never once doubted the bike would go where I looked. Even when a slide started I knew the Himalayan was with me and going to come back out of it. Can’t quite say that for my other bikes.

Morning mingers Kind of got the day off and the requests for dishes are in. Murgh Makhani, Begum Bahar, King prawn Korma, Samosa’s, Padron peppers, mushroom rice, poppadoms n chutneys, garlic naan followed by icecream n a nice cocktail for pud. Not making the naans or the poppadoms because it’s not worth it for the few bites they get. Pudding I’m going to do the ‘Screaming O’ a lovely cocktail of vodka, baileys, kahlua, amaretto n cream. Well worth the effort. It’s still fecking freezing but the blanket of ice over the field has made everything feel very Christmassy

Excellent ride report Pedro. @Saul I guarantee you the Himalayan can more than cope.

I do like a quality finish, just not the usual accompanying price tag!

It won't be enough

Fucking hell it's fucking freezing here!

Nope, nothing exciting, soz At some indeterminable point around Christmas everyone decides to either clear their desk or realises “oh shite this has to be done by next year” - cue flurry of work and don’t get to bed til well after 1am every day, last night 2am. Snore. Exciting was the ride to the airport out on exposed viaducts in the mountains with torrential rain, thunder, lighting, hail and a sky so dark it was like night. Thought about sacking it off but as Pedro kinda guessed boys excited I’m coming home and booked an everyone home banquet for Friday And am British so in my DNA to do stupid shit, didn’t book a car and rode to the airport anyway. Todays ride was hairy. Gonna buy some super reflective gear

Close

A cyclist managed to stay on a motorcycle forum with you lot So where is he now?

Booked flight home. Didn’t want to but schools break up 15th/16th Thurs/Fri next week and the airlines have so far every holiday been unable to cope and cancelled flights, add into that the border control strikes and them saying “flights will be cancelled” I booked a flight for 14th Wednesday, I’ll be damned if I miss Christmas with my boys. It was 20 degrees here today when the bike wasn’t moving it was boiling and I’ll be arriving back to a feels like of -3 I’m not pyrex, the thermal shock could see me shatter into a thousand pieces

Bet he didn’t last long

No cabbage or onions in the uk ones, well maybe a bit of spring onion. The only way I can describe the filling is more like a stirfry usually of beansprouts, diced prawn n pork or sometimes duck. The wrappers are thinner and usually multi-layered to make them crispy and obviously don’t have egg in the wrapper so they don’t bubble but it’s the same sort of thing as an egg roll.

It’s a version of what we have - spring rolls.

Top notch TOTY stuff there.

ooh Buckysbigbadboy pants are back on.

You'll have to ask Pedro he's in charge of education