Saul

Mate I lived here all my life and I still have much to see. Now we are allat least semi retired it is an excuse to get out on the bikes and look. More to follow later when I get the chance.

I finished my night shift at Lanson Hospital at 08:00 and should have gone home to bed but I got the Bat Signal from from the FOGGs (Fowey Old Grump Git Group) saying a ride out was going to occur at 09:00 4Turnings Garage. Of course there was no choice, I had the call! so I sneaked out of work 15 mins early pinned the throttle for the 35 mile ride back to Fowey. Got home, changed out of my uniform, took my meds and made 4Turnings with 10 minutes to spare. Didn't have time to swap bikes but I filled the CBF600 the day before and it was well up to the task of the old British Bike nails in the group. The Mission for the day was to find Martyn's ancestral home in Mousehole and recreate a photo of his Grandmother. At the meeting point we decided the first order of priority for the day was breakfast So we headed west, through Par, St Austell, Grampound, Tresillian, Scorrier, Portreath across the hayle Towans to Hells Mouth and the excellent Cafe that resides there. The Lads (Ha! that term was only accurate a long time ago in the 1970's) had the obligatory fry up but I, in my quest to be less of a fat cunt and survive past my upcoming 60th birthday, only had a coffee and tears of envy. Suitable vittled we again headed West through Hayle town past the Hayle estuary onto St Erth, Crowlas, Long Rock on to Penzance, Newlyn and finally Mousehole. Of course while we were there Ice Cream was on the cards. The Blackberry and Clotted Cream was particularly nice. Also saw a rat running around thought is was suppose to be the Mousehole Cat that was famous, shame he wasn't on duty today, he would have had some sport. Apparently the oldest house in Mousehole and the only one to Survive the sacking and burning of the village by the Spanish in the 15th century, or so the stone on the wall said. I think the Citroen is more recent. We met the nicest parking guy ever when we stopped who let us all park for free and also let us leave our helmets and jackets in his shed. Good guy, I reckon he liked the Cornish flag stickers on my bike, even though I do believe he was a Cockaneese in origin. We were probably lucky to get our helmets and Jackets back. Martyn majestically recreating the photo of his Grandmother in the exactly same spot a 100 years later. Interesting to note the name of the cottage now given that his family migrated East to Fowey (Foye). Looking out from Mousehole to Prussia Cove on a sunny day could almost be the Med. St Michael's Mount out there in the Blue. After enjoying a mouch around Mousehole on foot we headed off again. We thought about going to Lamorna Cove but decided not to as they have a particularly aggressive ANPR system there that likes to issue parking tickets like confetti if you don't pay quickly enough. Also on top of that there is essentially fuck all there apart from a cafe that is an Emmett honey trap and a disused granite quarry. People only go there because of the song. So we decided to go on to find the Merry Maidens Stone Circle in hope of benefitting from it's pagan fertility endowments. Couldn't fucking find it which was probably just as well given our age and collective health issues. So Penberth Cove was our decided destination given that it was much prettier than Lamorna Cove and free to park. Well I say park I meant abandon our bikes at the side of the road, but it was okay as the locals were all in a field at the WI Fete just up the road. Rather an attractive place. All run by the National Trust now so just an expensive dormitory with don't do this and don't do that signs everywhere. Still free to visit at the moment until the NT work out a way to commercialise the view. Steve having a Reginald Perrin moment, he said he was seal spotting but we know what he was up to, demented old fool. How the used to get the boats up and out of the water. How they do it now with a magic shed. Well not really, just an electrically powered hydraulic winch. Or so the geeks told me whilst on a Man Nip trip high on looking at mechanical things. Martyn testing the bridges capacity. You'll notice not much timber around here. When it all gets a bit to much best to sit and collect your thoughts. Martyn and Bob in crises or possibly just a bit sweaty. Dazed and confused group selfie just to prove I was actually there.

I haven't got a van Dear Boy, That van belonged to the Paramedic I was working with

Now all is good on the CBF I am back to 2 wheel commuting. The ride in is never much but the morning ride home across Bodmin is beautiful. I’ve missed this a lot. .

Been watching Chicargo PD. Bit of a formulaic police drama but my Mrs likes that sort of thing. Soap Copra. Ok though.

I have always thought they look the dogs bollocks.

Yeah that would be a red flag

I would care if she bought me a pre `V-tech VFR

Does look nice, but isn’t your GS heavy enough already.

Any good? Too noisy?

I did it on the 600. I did wait until I had got over the annoyance about it before sharing. I'm over it now I remember those Enfields, I think it was originally a water pump engine.

Not here, you do see project bikes going for that sort of money quite often. The point was this one was just down the road from me. But by the time you did, battery, tyres, forks seals, brakes plus whatever else you can get a tidyish one for £1500. Plus I don't really want a sports bike either.

My Mrs spotted a CBR600RR on FB marketplace nearby yesterday for sale for £450 and offered to buy it for me. I was flabbergasted, she is after something, newer car I reckon It wasn't really the bike for me as it the sort of deal where I would have had to spend £1000 plus sorting it out when I could buy a tidy one ready to go for £1300 to £1500. I do like them but I doubt I would ride such a thing much unless I wanted to tear it up and that isn't really my thing anymore. Plus Shadow would be obsessing over it and make my life a misery. But it was nice of the Mrs to offer though.

Oh dear, I thought you could do better than that. My Mrs was calling me DiseaseSaul for a couple of days.

Remember this post when I was all chuffed with myself for sorting the bike out. It's been long enough now and I have got over what happened on the first run out after the service. Shadow was still off the road so we went up to Damerells for her favourite Sausage sandwich then for a bimble about for 60 miles or so. Ran like a dream but when the fuel light came on I dropped in the garage and filled it up. About a mile later the it conked out. WTF. Anyway turns out I filled it up with diesel. Bloody self inflicted disaster. Only about 3 miles from home so I got the Mrs to collect Shadow and called the AA. I talked to the dispatcher and explained what happened. He said I was in luck as they now offer a refuelling service where they drain the tank and put 10 litres of E10 in. I was interested but not at the £190 they charge for doing it. So I said no thanks and asked to be recovered home. The dispatcher said fine but there maybe a charge for that if the Patrol man has to go and get a trailer to put the bike on. I said there better not be as I already pay for my bikes to be covered. Patrol man turns up after an hour, which I thought was pretty good, and surprisingly he was already equipped with one of those fold out transformer type bike trailers. A fiddle to put together but clever bit of kit. He was a biker, good as gold and offered to drain the tank for me gratis if I signed a disclaimer form. He checked with his control who said he wasn't allowed to do that anymore. Of course not money grabbing B'stards. So he dropped me home and advised me to syphon out the trank, drain the float bowls and let it smoke out with some fresh fuel. Which I did. His off the book advice was that the worse that was going to happen was the carbs/fuel system would have a bit of a flush type passive clean through. Very helpful guy. So now a few weeks later and a fresh tank of fuel and it's running lovely so all ended well. I'm over the embarrassment and annoyance at my stupidity now, enough so to tell you lot about it. Of course my mates haven't mentioned it at every opportunity since. Also still a bit pissed off with the AA's upselling stance when you call them. I pay £20 a month for their service to cover me and the Mrs, bikes included. I expected better. And yes it's the first time I have ever done that