https://www.sparkyslider.co.uk/blog.php?u=403 Sparky Slider Motorcycle UK en Thu, 30 Apr 2026 02:04:15 GMT vBulletin 60 https://www.sparkyslider.co.uk/images/misc/rss.jpg https://www.sparkyslider.co.uk/blog.php?u=403 https://www.sparkyslider.co.uk/entry.php?b=9 Fri, 25 Dec 2009 14:30:03 GMT Ah well, Christmas lunch is in progress with the temporal precision that only Microsoft Project can give. Only joking! I used Excel. If it goes wrong, I shall cook Bill Gates and feed him to the local wildlife. I know what to shove in, take out, unwrap, nuke, steam, roast and prod. The... Ah well, Christmas lunch is in progress with the temporal precision that only Microsoft Project can give. Only joking! I used Excel. If it goes wrong, I shall cook Bill Gates and feed him to the local wildlife.

I know what to shove in, take out, unwrap, nuke, steam, roast and prod. The extremely rich christmas pudding will be steamed.

And when it's all over and I'm seeing double after the wine, I shall collapse and vow never to do that again... not until next year anyway. ]]> vfrooom https://www.sparkyslider.co.uk/entry.php?b=9 https://www.sparkyslider.co.uk/entry.php?b=8 Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:15:14 GMT It has been 9 (nine) days since I last rode my motorbike. It will be at least another 5 (five) days until I get the chance, weather permitting. I shall try not to strangle anybody in the meantime.

Hotel Chocolat has run out of champagne truffles. The world is ending. Anybody'd think they were being run by local government CEOs and councillors.

Goose fat!

The washing machine is double plus good, completely silent except for its happy chirrupy chimes when you ask it to do anything or it finishes what you asked it to do. It's not quite a video game but I did manage to score an extra rinse by firing on all thrusters and reversing the polarity of the neutron flow. It resulted in a wash which finished before it started.

Oh and the Sky box is now working after being replaced. We decided not to tell him that we'd replaced the hard disc in it a while back with a huge one. Lucky I'd watched some of the backlog the day before.

Goose fat!

Roll on Christmas Day, lots of food and drink... oh and presents.

Bah humbug to you all. ]]> vfrooom https://www.sparkyslider.co.uk/entry.php?b=8 https://www.sparkyslider.co.uk/entry.php?b=2 Sun, 20 Dec 2009 14:05:48 GMT "The view was all in lines, up and down..."

It was rather fine driving down the A21 between Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells yesterday - very picture postcard with snow-coated fields and trees either side and the sunlight just right to cause that whiter-than-white glow.

It's not so good in the garden however. The large, unpruned (due to cowardice on my part) bush, which partially obscures the bird feeder, has collapsed due to the weight of snow and ice. I'm not sure whether I want it to recover. I'm determined to fill the garden with strongly scented lillies this year to the extent that people will find it difficult to breathe in... almost. We'll see. I might dilute the effect with more sunflowers. If the bush has to be excised, then at least there'll be more sunlight and less shade.

I've not been on the motorbike since Tuesday evening. I'm beginning to suffer. I worked from home on Wednesday anyway and on Thursday morning was so bombarded by negativity about it being "slippy on the roads" from the neighbours, even the bloody postman, when they saw me in bike kit. I think my careful confidence ran back inside and hid behind the sofa, leaving me with a "oh fuck this, I'm working from home again" attitude. I've handled worse - riding along the M25 in -10C though that at least was after days of total dryness, sliding down a sheet of ice on the slip road from the A329M onto the M4, remaining upright and the carrying on as though nothing had happened. As I said, bloody postman. I would even have gotten home in time to see the first of the snow.

Friday was on my own terms. I worked from home again. I could have biked to Reading without a problem but almost certainly could not have entered Green Park as it's a private estate and if January was anything to go by, ungritted, icy and a little bit hard on the nerves.

Saturday morning and oh joy, it's nearly Christmas and the washing machine, long scheduled for replacement, forces the issue and leaks all over the place. The new one arrives on Wednesday. I can think of better presents to myself. Oh hang on, I can't - "new fridge freezer" popped into my mind.

Today I am mostly having a really good tidy up and trying not to think about my neglected motorbike. I found a file (paper one) of all my old school reports from Form 1-1 in 1977, my mother's front door key and a large pause for thought, all of the service receipts and MOT certificates for the previous bike and another not-so-large pause for thought.

Bugger. ]]> vfrooom https://www.sparkyslider.co.uk/entry.php?b=2