yen_powell

I save my favourites about 3 times a year and put them safely away. That way when I load chrome up on a new PC I can still have everything where I expect to find it.

I couldn't even tell you what this place was called before or now without looking. If I lose my link on my favourites I would be in trouble.

I put £21 of fuel into mine yesterday, that's a record amount for a bike of mine. I'd done about 180 miles since the previous fill up. In my early riding days I used to keep a £5 note under the seat so if I was ever potless far from home I'd be able to buy enough fuel to get back. That wouldn't get me to work one way nowadays. I moved my display about to get the things I wanted on my main display, which in my case was trip 1, engine temp and outside temp on screen 1, with trip 2, mpg average and current on screen 2. When I changed the battery the other day I was afraid it would all reset back to how it was, but it stayed the same, just zeroed all the trips, clock etc.

I never found the Roman track, just gave myself bellyache wandering about. I will be going back when I can cover more ground. Took a few pictures as I blundered about amongst the trees. At one point a squirrel froze mid tree scaling and tried to pretend I couldn't see him.

They have, inside the cover it says they also do:- WALES, SCOTLAND, LAKES & DALES, SOUTH WEST, CENTRAL ENGLAND, PORTUGAL, SCANDINAVIA. I have already bought Wild Guide: Devon, Cornwall and South West (Wild Guides): Hidden Places, Great Adventures and the Good Life (including Somerset and Dorset) for when I'm down that way.

Should have read the book properly before going to the old church. Apparently the grave of Richard Plantagenet the illegitimate heir to the throne is there. This may be what we sat on to eat our picnic, oh well, paid for out of our taxes I suppose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary's_Church,_Eastwell

saw this by accident. I was going to switch it off, but got drawn in. Worth watching till the hat falls off at least.

Today I'm going to pop up the road a bit to look at Wool Street and I quote, "Wool Street, Chalkney Woods, This Roman trackway runs through a wood more than 10,000 years old. Bluebells and anemones in spring, nightingale song early summer. Home to the greatest concentration of small leaved limes in Essex. After the directions it says, turn left into Wool Street, distinct as a plunging path. There is no Wool Street marked on the OS map of Chalkney Woods, even as large scale, but I'll give it a go. The important thing is, it's not far to walk once I get off my bike, so I won't get guts ache and red wee. I'm saving Charity Lane for after I get de-piped next week as that is a bit of a slog.

A few months ago I bought a book in Costco cos I liked the pictures. It's called WILD GUIDE (London and South East). It is basically a book of good places to visit, i.e. lakes/rivers to swim in, old ruins, caves, ancient trees, places to watch sunsets, places to eat, places to camp etc. The pictures are amazing and this one covers Suffolk, Essex, Kent, Sussex and London. I fancied a picnic today as it was supposed to be nice weather so I picked out an abandoned church and grave yard somewhere near Ashford in Kent and plotted out the narrowest windiest roads to get there after getting across the Thames. My mate and his other half, the poor man who bought my 103,000 miler Versys, decided to come with me. I think my mate was regretting it when some of the lanes were so narrow his left boot was in the grass at the side of the road and the centre of the road was deep gravel or grass where no one uses them. On the way there we stopped for a drink at the Ringlestone pub which we all used to visit in the 80 and 90s (in the 70s for my mate who's almost a pensioner) when we would camp in a nearby farm and walk across the fields each lunchtime. I mentioned to the new landlady that it used to be owned by a mad woman who kept the front door locked and you had to knock to get in. If she didn't like the look of you she told you to sod off. If you didn't sod off she would pull out a shot gun and point it at you. She laughed and said there was still a shot gun there when they took over the pub and they had put it on the wall above the fireplace. I had a pint of shandy, followed by a wee just before we left. I had to stop on a tiny lane and rush behind a hedge again within 5 minutes of leaving for another waz. My mates were shitting themselves whilst they waited for me as a large dog was going berserk the other side of a farm gate and it looked like it was going to jump over to get at them. We found the church and had a picnic sitting on a handy flat stone with writing all over it. Someone's name and some dates I think....... Then on the way home we stopped at the other pub we used to visit at night when camping on the farm, the Blacksmiths Arms in Wormshill. The original landlord, Barclay is long gone, but the new landlord knew of him. As we were about to leave a strange woman came up to me waving a bit of greenery at me. I had earplugs in so I'm not totally sure, but I think she was asking my opinion on whether it was wild lettuce. Looked like a nettle to me!

I like a bit of Marty Robbins.

I once had a letter from a man objecting to me converting 3 zebra crossings on the same road into Pelican crossings (1995ish). His argument was that I had taken his rights as a pedestrian away because where as once he could step out on the crossing and the vehicles should legally stop, now he had to press a button and wait till the red light stopped them. He demanded that we rig them so that they remained on a red signal/green man normally and any driver wishing to pass would have to wind down their window and press a button and wait to get a green light/red man before proceeding. I laughed back then, but it seems he was years ahead of his time. https://metro.co.uk/2021/05/27/london-pedestrian-crossings-to-have-green-man-unless-car-approaches-14661654/

I've got a Tom Tom 400. I use it on the bike and in the car. It came with mounts for both, some sort of deal the seller was doing at the time. In the car I just plug it into the power socket, but once when I had blown the fuse for that (when I plugged in a phone charger) I just used its own internal charge, knocking it onto stand by until I needed information when I would liven up the screen. Managed an 8 hour journey that way and then again coming home later that week, charged it by plugging it into the hotel tv usb socket. Took me a while to identify the fuse, every book and website gave a different location and number for it. Had never realised how many fuses and fuse boxes my car actually had until then. On the bike the mount will let you swivel it to read it long way up, good for seeing what's coming further along. I have the mount wired to the battery. Clicking it on to the mount makes it turn on automatically when it realises it has connected to a power supply. As it takes a while to get going, if I'm in a hurry I turn it on indoors whilst I'm togging up so it's ready for action as soon as I start the engine. If you miss a turn or deliberately ignore it, or it is a blocked road it recalculates in a few seconds. I occasionally work out a route using Tyre on the PC and then transferring it to the Tom Tom via cable. I've dropped it onto the road quite a few times, it's has shrugged that off.

I panic at the puddles though.

No, as my ex father in law said to me, non swimmers never drown because they keep out of the water. He can't swim either.

Same here, ball rarely got to me due to the violence committed on the people who were supposed to pass it along to me. I have no idea if we played union or league (or what the difference was) and the only rule I knew was not to throw it forwards. In fact I only really played it to avoid going swimming because I can't swim.

I got my nose broken playing Rugby when I was at school, I swallowed so much blood as it ran down the back of my throat. No one believes me now when I tell them that I was in my senior school rugby team because I can't kick a football straight or hit a cricket ball with a bat even if my life depended on it. I was a winger, although some people called me a flanker, at least I think that's what they said.

Strange Dave and his brother managed to fall off at the same time as each other, not sure how the hell they managed that??. And of course there's my avatar picture of me laying under my bike whilst it takes a nap. Other than that, I am usually picking the thing up rather than taking a picture.

Just like burnt margarine.

https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/international/ryanair-passengers-handed-hefty-fighter-jet-escort-charge-20210524208449

Everyone does now. It's all I ever smell when I walk around or when I'm riding down the middle of a queue of cars.