MooN

I had some pics but they were on my pooter which I didn't have with me in blighty and we didn't get home till late last night so too late. t's got to be Tango's new trumpet for me, though I like @Tym's pic, and I reckon @XTreme stopped where he did in order to pick up his topbox which just fell off in the road so it was unintentional and doesn't count.

Having spent yesterday shouting at the computer due to stoopid bloody paperwork issues, that is now sorted ( still a lot of unanswered questions but you cant submit the paperwork online until 48hrs before travelling so you discover their stupid website at that moment and they dont work weekends so you can’t ask anyone wtf they mean) our documents have apparently been validated, which is a bonus! today i am mostly winning the “Who’s got the biggest top box” competition and then having a snooze

You know it makes sense! let is know what you think after roding it for a while

that would be funny if it wasn't true

well I think it already voided his bowels.

The Parisien police comissioner in charge of Road Safety just crashed his car... into an ambulance on call... injured a doctor on board and wrote off his unmarked police car and an ambulance. He was using his 2 tone and blue lights and speeding because wait for it... He was Late for a meeting! There will obviously be an investigation by the STJA ( service for Judicial Treatement of traffic accidents) a specific parisien brigade directed by... wait for it... The police comissioner for road safety. no it's not a joke, no it's not funny, you couldn't make it up if you tried but it's proof that people are the same the world over, give 'em a uniform and tell them they'e special and they take liberties and think they're immune to the law.

Naah, it's no problem, I grew up just always knowing I was adopted, even before I really knew what that meant. As far as I'm concerned my parents are who raised me. I was born mid september, count back 9 months and thats Christmas or new year so a pissed up shag at a party is a likely scenario, in 1971 abortions were not easy to come by and a young single girl couldn't raise a child alone and the stigma of if often meant, at the time, that she would have lost the support of her family. I know nothing of the circumstances but I know she didn't abandon me on a doorstep or anthing as her name appears on my birth certificate. I have never had the least inclination to know her name or anythig else except that I have had to get a full unabridged copy of my birth certificate for my French nationality request. This is when I discovered the name of my birth mother. Now I have that information I can ask for my full birth certificate from the General Registry Office in the uk. I have been putting this off because in doing so I have to open the dossier from the adoption agency. IF my birth mother has made any attempt to contact me or find out what happened to me in the last 50 years, a record of it will be in that dossier. IF she made an official request to be allowed to contact me, a letter from her will be in that dossier. So, if there is nothing, nothing changes but I will know I was not wanted. If there is a letter or something then I will know more about the why's and wherefore's and the onus will be on me to follow it up... or not. I can't decide which i'd prefer as I have enjoyed living in ignorance all these years. therin lies my angst, there's no heartbreak or sadness.

'course it's f'kin wet Tym, most of the country is under water... or would be if they weren't pumping it out all the time. freaking cold winters too, I know some guys who worked a coule of seasons in Lemmer on the hire fleets and they had really really cold winters.

I was then adopted at the age of 2 months so have no biological history at all, hence the reference to "bloodlines" in my earlier post. I could tell you the history of my adopted family back 3 or 4 generations but is that relevent? ( there's a philosophical question in there somewhere about biological and physiological history and a discussion on whether blood is really thicker than water, and what makes a perseon who they are, but this is probably not the ideal time or place )

yeah, that and the French didn't want you. . you'll find the dutch very different from the spanish Pete, mostly very nice and open but they have some wierd relationships with money...

If by ancestry you mean "bloodlines"; I was born in the London bourough of Merton. That's all I've got.

Last minuit changes! Due to the risk of not being able to get back into france and the complications that would involve for the family ( not to mention to my wallet) we had decided that I would be going to the UK alone on the 21st, We decided to wait till the 11th before booking a crossing and cancelling the cottage reservatoion as this was the date the UK announced it was dropping the need for a covid test within 48 hrs of arrival and I wanted to see if France would reciprocate and drop the need for a negative test 48hrs before comig home. no announcement was made during the day yesterday so wifey cancelled here holiday time with work ( nice of them to allow that) and in the evening I sat down to make my travel plans, cancel the holiday cottage and reserve a crossing for just me. I was an the ferry booking page when Mrs MooN told me they'd just announced that France is dropping the requirement for fully vaccinated voyagers from an "orange" country to show proof of a negative test on arrival. So, back to "plan A" for us too ( insofar as we actually had a plan at all...) and it now looks like we will be travelling " En Famille" after all. @boboneleg you're going to need a bigger tin of biscuits mate.... Seriously though, it'd be great to say hi if you're around at all that week, I guess you're about an hour and a half from Witney, something like that. If you want to meet up somewhere for a beer / tea/ coffee, whatever. I'll drop you a PM from here soon as I know exactly what our plans are.

Oh we can judge them all we like Pete, you're just not allowed to SAY it.

yeah I heard about it a lot too when I had the transalp, that and anodised wheels rotting from the inside out. I never had any problem with it though and it was 26 years old when I sold it, though to be fair I never made a point of looking for problems...

@Grasshopper's Ride I think we just discovered what you would need in order to be deleted from the site...

Mate of mine in Norwich sill navigates by cafes and pubs he was banned from in the late 70's cos he was a biker troublemaker

There used to be a Templar "commanderie" in Auxerre and legend has it that one of their mythical treasures is hidden somewhere in the area, there's often some nutter or other trying to find it.

well i you've got a nail gun as well I think Gymwitch has the names of a couple of people she'd like you to "have a word" with...

you really shouldn't be thinking at 3am Tym. it's not good for you.

Sun's just come out here and it's almost 4 degc.

I seem to be having an existential crisis in my reading habits and in some odd spirit of escapism am re reading the books I read as a child which all seem to be pre war or inter war adventure stories. All a little bit "Jeeves and Wooster" but mostly very well written. I haven't got desperate enough to re read my old copies of " Jennings" or " Biggles" but I just finished John Buchan's "The thirty nine steps" and have now started "The riddle of the sands" by Erskine Childers.

mil spec NBC kit. I seem to remember they used to call it " NBC = No Bloody Chance"

maybe manage to get out for a spin on saturday afternoon. The Mrs is workimg all weekend so Im on animal feeding duties...

That's shitty, I hope he's insured, but whatever happens your holidays fucked.

fair comment