Pedro

Thank you, that’s very kind. I ‘ll see what I can do Bob

Loosing pressure overnight between end of day and morning might just be the difference in ambient temperature cooling the tire enough that air inside doesn’t expand as much as when you measured it after a day of warmth. Did you check if they would go back up at the end of the day? Check them the day after at the time and ambient temperature you’ll ride. Cold temperatures in tires means ambient temperatures before you ride.

We’re getting scattered strong showers all over, but some areas are so dry or burned that water needs a long time to start hidrating the ground, otherwise it flows right over and just causes floods. Considering last month’s fires some rivers will be contaminated with ash saturated waters now. This is all according to plan though, rains through this week and maybe a bit of next one, and then a second summer comes to provide me with a sunny trip.

56, I'll be 56 Whose twisted mind came up with this thread?

Starting a ride report weeks in advance the actual thing takes place is not my style at all, I hate all the hype. However, this is more of a declaration of intentions so that I have no excuse to cower out at the last moment quoting some excuse. I have been making tiny preparations over the last few months, just to get myself in the mood. Stuff like renewing my passport, buying a phone that can manage using Moroccan data while keeping my Portuguese number active for (pretending to) work, buying a fender extender to protect the rear shock from rocks, buying a half tinted visor because the dark one is deadly at night and days get shorter in October, buying tires two months in advance, etc ... all that seems like over preparation but in fact was just me trying feel a little more in control by solving stuff when in fact I'm honestly plain scared about what I'm going to face riding out of that boat in Tangier. I've gone to the ridicule of freezing a couple of things at home, so that I have something nice and warm ready for when I return in the dark. My plan is to visit some familiar places and mix that with a bit of adventure, maybe see new places maybe a little more off the beaten path. Mountain passes are what I look forward the most regarding motorcycling, more so when they're heading to the wide open desert heat and herds of camels, in this case it's the easy familiar places that really amp up my anxiety, places where I proposed marriage and was happy, and where my heart broke and I contemplated darkness. Not sure if it's the happy places or the sad one that will challenge me. I'll be doing it alone at my own pace because that's how I deal with stuff, and because in a weird way I can't help but scratch wounds, you know it'll hurt but can't stop yourself from doing it. Today I booked a ferry ticket for the 29th September, a few things were starting to make me doubt going and finding an easy reasonable excuse for staying home working instead, so I bought the ticket and posted this so I'll be too embarrassed to not go at the last moment All that's left now is give the bike a small service, like an oil change and air filter change, and put the new tires on, and hopefully I'll be good to go. I say hopefully because I'm not really up for fixing anything on it, it's never needed anything so here's to that! My mum's 70th birthday is on the 27th, so on the 28th I'll ride to my place, pack everything nice and tidy and get in the mindset, have a nice sleep and on the 29th set off to catch a ferry that's leaving at an unreasonable 15:00 from Tarifa, since it's an adventure I'll probably miss that boat and call an hour earlier to change the ticket to one at 19:00 All in all, it'll be a grand time filled with extreme emotions, a perfectly reliable bike, twisty mountain passes shared with overloaded trucks, smells of spices wafting through street markets, and dusty boots.

I like that, it's like a food based music videoclip I purposely took that picture for you and a couple other forum members

That looks like a proper road, almost shame it’s so perfectly maintained

Or, it can be like this

No, it’s fucking freezing … to me. Here at home it does go below zero a few nights per year. If it’s dry it’s great motorcycling weather, though, this was on Christmas day:

It is, but at the end of the morning it starts to get a little warm. Max today is 32 or 33, but it feels maybe warmer, this is one of Portugal's warmest areas, though.

Rode up to my favourite cafe, just now posting while enjoying the coffee. Will not lunch as there’s a birthday party here and fucking lisbonners are turning this into a metropolis Rode a little dirt road for a bit, and stopped to let a tractor get away since I couldn’t pass it and there was nowhere for him to let me squeeze by

Great idea, I’ll do it outside my place, it’s a quiet street and I need the entertainment. Also people are really tight soI bet someone is going home for tools to get it!

Probably Norway, Portugal has a long history of sailing up north and catching codfish, then preserving it in salt. It's our most typical food, salted codfish cooked in 1000 different ways.

Probably their last name

Today's lunch, roe salad and codfish cakes. They are made from codfish and potatoes, not really cakes but that's how it's translated. If you ever come by Portugal and see these around a cafe just point and ask for them. Typical, inexpensive and very good. You can give the roe a pass though, can't see most brits liking that even though it's great.

Warning, couple of meals in this post are about to offend certain sensitive personalities that are more of the cheeseburger persuasion. Quick 20 minute fresh cherry tomato pasta: Canned horse mackerel sandwich Leftover grilled camembert and tomato bruschetta Hotdogs, with caramelized onion relish Mum's leftover squid from the previous day, turned into pasta the day after Proper summer meal, the amazingly sweet pineapple was the star Grilled courgette sandwich, with canned fish. It's a great sandwich, with olives and capers. Pantry sandwich, whatever's at home and opened goes in Basil and mint pesto, it was pretty much perfect Perfecting my Broccoli pasta, it's getting there and probably my favourite thing to cook right now. Although it's a paella pan, let's not offend anyone and just call it rice Vegetarian dinner: grilled aubergines, sautéed mushrooms with garlic, and salad. A simple onion omelette Lea the Terrier, very interested in this pasta sauce as soon as the anchovies started falling apart. No pictures of the end result. Octopus "à Lagareiro", baked with olive oil and potatoes. I obviously didn't cook it, a very nice restaurant did. "Lagareiro" is the man that operates the traditional olive oil press, most "Lagareiro" dishes are oven baked with garlic and potatoes, and a healthy dose of extra virgin high quality olive oil. The pesto was this place's touch and it worked. Giulia is an italian lady I know, she runs a restaurant in Germany and most dishes always feature peas thrown in one way or the other. I remembered her for some reason and peas went into the pasta, the result was pretty great. Comfort food, peas with quality chorizo from the Alentejo black pigs. I put a few different spices like turmeric, a lot of cumin, smoked paprika, some herbs, the home grown egg gifted by my neighbour finished it off perfectly and was a touch of love.

Rode a pretty sandy road today, on my was to lunch, soft sand but not deep at all with a hard compacted ground below so quite easy.

Escaroupim, a small village next to the Tejo where I tried to have lunch today:

Two big Lusitanos, imposing looking horses that were not too curious about my noisy bike and quickly made their way to a safe distance before I took their picture

I love the view this short bit of road shows over the farmlands of the Tejo, this is about 1 or 2km from home, today I stopped on my way to lunch just for you guys: Google maps shows this has a road Sandy but not deep sand with a firm path under it, through a pine forrest

Being a Portuguese, my opinion on this is obviously different to most of yours. I think she was a great lady, a worldwide symbol, and it's a shame she passed. Most countries would have been lucky to have a Queen such as her, or a King such as her father, in my opinion it's sad that she passed and sad that she's no longer your Queen.

Someone should tell your grandad about the TKC80 recall!

Like politics really, a true TOTY doesn’t fight for it, it comes naturally! You can even say the true great TOTY, like a true great political leader, is often that one that doesn’t even want the position … or thinks is worthy of it …