yen_powell

The last one I had in a car was free if you go to the place that fitted the tyres and they still have legal depth tread on them.

I'm not a fan of Bruce Dickinson's voice in Iron Maiden, but seeing this on youtube today reminded me of one of the few songs of his I do like, the other being Hallowed Be Thy Name. Probably haven't listened to this in 20 years but I still remembered a most of the words so I must have heard it a lot for them to stick in my memory.

I was shivering on my way in to work this morning. My new jacket liner is not as good as the old liner it replaced, so I'm swapping that back over. I had the heated grips on, my 2 fingered gloves and my big handguards and my hands were still a little bit cold.

Yes, people are alright in their place, just not where I want to go and look at stuff. Whilst trying to look at the secret agent gadgets in a museum in Maldon a few years ago, 3 little shit bags were running about and making so much noise behind me, I wished the nearby bayonets weren't safely locked away. This was when I got that picture of the MI5 'bum key holder'.

I refer to my granddaughters as GD1 and GD2 when speaking with anyone other than their parents, I can't use their given names seriously. I believe that a child's name should be chosen the same way as you do for a pet dog. Would you be okay to shout it out loudly in a public place if they run off? If you would it's fine.

According to the website, it is the farm owners doing it on their own land (The Jolly family, I kid you not) and volunteers, which would be the cars in the car park. I was on my own most of the time until two families turned up on the train ride.

I went on a little ride on the trains shown at the platform and according to google maps it was about a kilometre each way. Looking at the maps, there is no connection to any other railway so everything must have been brought in by road. There has never been a railway there as far as I can tell, everything you see has been moved there. The railway to the town which is to the east of the site was used to transfer nuclear waste until recently but the line goes nowhere near the museum.

There were even tube trains here, including some I went on as a child, they ran them for so long.

There were no areas they were ashamed to represent. An Essex wagon. Designed for the absolute shit state the clay roads get in during the winter.

About 3 years ago I was just riding about in a windy part of Essex when I shot past a sign with a weird name and saying it was a railway museum. I turned around and went back for a look. There was a long access road, but no gate, so I rode up it for pure nosiness and found myself in a gravel car park. I could see a few wagons the other side of a farm building and a large wooden framed railway building sitting on blocks looking very battered and like it had been left there by one of those ring and runaway delivery companies. The place was shut up so I thought I would come back another time. Well there was a bit of a virus thingy for a few years and other stuff got in the way, but on Saturday I decided to go and have a look. A quick search found their old fashioned website and it said that the 4th February was actually there first day open of 2023. I got up late and dithered so it wasn't until about 11am that I set off. Because I had to get fuel I started from a weird location so my satnav took me the whole way on back roads. For the first 20 miles I think I only passed about 2 cars coming in the opposite direction. The roads were dry, but covered in dried mud from all the meteorological grimness of January. They also tended to have dirty great gouges of asphalt missing from frost damage, so you had to pay attention. By the time I got closer I realised I was heading into an area heavy with 2 wheel coffee/bacon sandwich tourists. I have no problem with the riders themselves, it's just that where they gather there tends to be a police or speed van presence and that always makes me nervous. After giving my 100th nod back, I thankfully got sent down a side road with the delightful name of Tinkers Hole. I stopped for a picture, there were actually two signs, the other one said Tinkers Hole Road, so I ignored that one. This time when I arrived and there were about 4 cars in the car par, the wooden building delivery was gone now. All were on the only small area of asphalt, so I crunched around in a careful circle on the deep gravel to park so at least I would be facing the right way when I left. I walked up a ramp and found a long parcel van inside a barn. The only door was a heavy sliding one, I fought with the thing, it was a real effort to open it. Finally I got it open and stepped inside trying to look like it was no effort at all. There a woman was standing behind a grill and she took my money for entry. I asked where to next and she pointed at the entry door's opposite number. I had another fight with a door I wasn't manly enough for and arrived out the other side into what looked like two huge barns joined together, rammed with old railway stock. There was even quite a lot of Canadian stuff, not sure why. This was obviously written by someone having a stroke.

For me it was learn or have a heart attack.

Ahh yes, you soon learn to clear it after a drop before restarting.

Perhaps an extra vest today.

Rode home from work with one less layer on and in flimsy motocross gloves with no heated grips on. It's like summer today, in February. Whilst at work I couldn't be bothered to put gloves on at all between sites. A nice man in the I.T. department loaded my sign design software for me, well I did it, he just put his password in at the critical moment because I'm not allowed any more. Test below.

Mine raced yesterday cycling up a hill, not a steep hill if you are walking, but every where is steep when I pedal. I thought I was going to clutch my chest and fall over at one point.

This bloke did all that and yet still had time to invent an indigestion tablet.

Pete, can you do a cockney accent and shout RUNAROUND NOW just before people switch votes?

The 'WHO STOLE MY ROLL OF LINO" pose

Wapping Old Stairs and some modern mudlarkers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudlark

I did do one day in the pissing rain, on small town tarmac roads covered in thin layers of slimy mud and occasional rainbow coloured oil slicks. This is when you ride very slowly, very very carefully and with your wedding tackle retracted to keep it from damage in a fall.

Yes, Michelin Desert tyres. I ran them at 15psi the whole time (with rim locks as well) and they never even squished much. In fact the morning after I got back I rode about 300 yards with my son on the back to take him to school without realising I had a rear puncture, seriously tough tyres. Still got them as souvenirs in the garage.