yen_powell

I didn't know we had this forum till Pete's comment on the other thread? It didn't come up when I hit the new post button. Anyway, another thing you can try is to fit the spring before you fit the stand if that makes sense, give you a bit more leverage fighting the stand rather then an evil pointy ended spring.

Have you done the spring yet? If not get a load of 2p coins, wedge them in between all the coils until the spring is longer. Fit the spring then use long nosed pliers to remove the coins one at a time.

Excellent!

Forgot this picture. A result of not dusting or cleaning the work top I expect.

To be fair, it is a lovely building, but for me it's in the wrong location. All of my mob are required to bring a vehicle to work every day, one of the reasons I have to be careful speeding, I can get the sack if I lose my licence. We keep getting told that it is an ideal location because of the public transport links. There is no parking in the surrounding area, it is rammed, so if I go by car I have to park about 15 minutes away, then 10-15 minutes to get to a desk and log in, or leave and log out. A few trips out to site in a day and you've lost a few hours. If I use my bike I would not leave it out on the streets around there. When the hoardings are finally down I may find somewhere to put it where I consider it safe, but at the moment that is not an option. I do feel sorry for the people who have mobility issues or are in wheelchairs, they used to be allocated a space in the underground parking area and then take a lift to their desk. There are no such facilities here and even if dropped off by a cab, it's a long way from the nearest carriageway through the building to the work areas. My mate with one non working leg despite numerous operations who uses crutches will probably leave and find an alternative job.

New town hall induction this morning. At 8am I pulled into our contractor's main yard and parked my bike in the cycle racks. The security bloke was new so demanded to know why I was there (there is a motorcycle workshop next door, so lots of bikes go in there by mistake). I patiently explained who I was, he didn't seem to grasp it, but when a big hairy Irishman walked past and shouted 'Hello Ian...Begorah Potato' to me, he cheered up and asked me to sign in. I was all set to walk to Bow Road station and go a few stops to Whitechapel Station, but then I spotted someone who is building the new footway outside and he was heading there in 10 minutes, so I cadged a lift. I got to Whitechapel, helped the bloke who gave me a lift to carry a load of barriers down the road then walked into the temporary entrance of what looks like a building site from the outside. At 9:15 a load of us trooped into the Council Chamber and we got a brief talk about the building works, some of which we missed as the speakers were playing up. Then got told there is no parking, but 2 bays for disabled residents to use if prebooked in advance for an appointment. We were supposed to be given new ID cards/key fobs, but these hadn't arrived, so all doors are unlocked for the next week. I managed to leave without any sort of key stopping me, so the general public could do the same in reverse. As the general public there has a large percentage of drug addicts and prostitutes, this does not bode well. With a final word that the Elephant Man's part of the building has been kept we then spent 10 minutes waiting for lifts to take us up to the 4th floor. With paper print outs of desk allocation not having any north point or road names on, confusion reigned for a while. I managed to log my lap top in and there was a request for me to print a plan for my boss when he came in. I sent it then found the single printer that the floor has as we are saving the planet. It didn't work, so it was a wander down to the 3rd floor to try and find their one. That worked but the print was not the best, so it was all the way back up and try again. From now on, the lap top travels with me to the printer! We had been told we had to unpack our crates asap, but on arrival no storage had been allocated to us, so they said to wait a few days. We just stuck a label on the nearest cupboards, whilst Environmental Health ran about shouting, this is mine, this is mine, this and this is mine etc. We had a suicide at work last year, someone jumped from a high floor into a public area, so I was shocked to see desks next to a low wall above a long drop in this new building (see pics) Upon leaving to head home I only walked into the same bloke who had given me a lift, jammy or what?. Unfortunately, he got nabbed to drive a large forklift around the block a few times to move pallets of setts to the main workers before we finally set off back to the yard to collect my bike. The general area, described as vibrant. This is where the drug addicts stand all day. They had all left for dinner in a local charity when I took this. Waiting to be inducted with no lube The Council Chamber before it filled up. One of the old hospital stair wells spruced up. The long drop next to the third floor desks. Looking out some of the windows whilst searching for a working printer.

Got back a little while ago from Friday's Drag Bingo, Saturday's pub beach party and today's Excel bike show. The highlight of the show for me was some bloke crashing whilst entering the indoor parking shed. He almost dropped his huge adventure bike on top of the bloke directing the bikes to their parking spots, but he leapt out of the way just in time to save himself. I was a bit delicate when heading off to meet my mate on his new to him CCM this morning before heading to the show, but I livened up a little bit by mid day. Tomorrow I have to get up at the crack of dawn, ride to my contractor's yard to park my bike, then get the tube to our new town hall to be inducted. I hope they use lube and have warm hands.

Waterproofed by a coating of brylcreem.

They are a bit light on their loafers though.

I've got a pair of those Forma boots. Very comfy straight out of the box and I did about 700 miles of riding in a torrential downpour over the Christmas holidays and they didn't let a drop in.

I'm going to Drag Bingo tomorrow night, it's only the bingo caller who is in drag thank god. Then some sort of beach themed pub do on Saturday night. I go dressed as normally for UK winter and my mates tell the landlord that is actually what I wear on the beach when we are on holiday. On Sunday morning I am meeting another mate who wants to try out his new (to him) Suzuki engined CCM, we are meeting on some back road in the sticks and then heading off to the bike show in London which will probably be as awful as the first one I went to at Excel about 10 years ago, but I will give it one more chance.

It's the future!

There's a Word document open at all times on his PC with his 5 standard replies ready to cut and paste.

Do you like egg and chips on your pepper?

A film I forgot about that I watched on Netflix was THE WRONG MISSY. Made me laugh a lot.

We had it at school when I first started, I think I was about 8 before we actually got any at home. I then discovered it actually came in different bright colours and without long hairs inside most of it, unlike the brown reinforced stuff at school. When my Dad died his Ford jeep thing was sitting in the front garden and my Mum wanted it gone as it was a constant reminder of him. The problem was it had no MOT and the hooter was disconnected, for some reason the alarm would go off whilst driving and that set of the hooter. My Dad had been trying to find the cause of this when he got ill so it had never been fixed. I had no chance of solving the problem so I bolted a motorcycle hooter under the bonnet and led two wires via the battery and a fuse then into the cab. I made a plasticard box up with a bell push button in it, connected it to the hooter wires and gaffer taped it to the dashboard with the words BODGOMATIC HOOTER (PATENT PENDING) written on it in magic marker. It passed the MOT with that and I drove it to my house and kept it there for a few months, green laning in it occasionally, before selling it for my Mum.

No pictures unfortunately. When I was about 8 or 9 I had been given a hand held telescope, the sort you see Admiral Nelson disobeying orders with. At that time we lived on the top floor of a maisonette (4 floors overall) and I used to look across the waste ground to the next town from my bedroom window. I got sick of the wobbling picture so decided what I needed was some sort of tripod. I found two large old glass coffee jars with screw top lids. Digging out my plasticine, I had loads, I stuck one jar to the window ledge. I unscrewed the lid half way and then plasticined the second jar across the lid sideways, unscrewing that one's lid halfway. Finally I plasticined the telescope to the sideways jar lid. I now had a telescope I could swivel or move up and down but stayed steady. If I had known about duct tape I would have had an easier time of it.

You want some nice testosterone tablets, that'll make it all drop out, save you a fortune.

I have just finished part 2, will be watching part 3 tonight. I'll give the bloke his due, he carried on riding when I would have gone home more than once.

The cold weather magnifiers were they?

You be careful. If the local scrotes are prepared to jack up a car and cut its catalytic converter off in broad daylight for a few quid, never ever fall asleep outdoors.

It was very firm.

I rode to work on Friday, it was a bit cold. Stayed at my mates Friday night and rode to the seaside today. Frinton, home of the retired UK pensioner and it seems their dogs. I have never seen so many people walking dogs in one place. Walking up the only high street in the area (shops not allowed on the sea front), I bumped into a friend I hadn't seen since about 1984, we recognised each other straight away. I did the obligatory foot writing in the sand.