Bummer with the needles, must of had some tension on their somewhere.
I had a similar thing happen on an inner drive shaft joint on the car. Bloody needles everywhere but did get it all back together again.
Me and Mandi visited Edinburgh when touring on the bikes. It was pissing with rain all day but the people, mostly students were great. It was also tattoo week so real busy.
Our water proofs were a good talking point. Lovely place.
OK here at the mo but rains moving in and staying for the weekend. Still got plenty of house stuff to do so time won't be wasted, well no more that the usual weekend.
Might get that bloody carb sorted one day.