Post 222: London

Well, I've exchanged the Thai climate for some English weather and arrived safely back in Blighty. To be honest, it's actually not as cold as I thought it would be and at least it's nice to see some early signs of Spring. I'd like to say that it's good to be home, but it's not, ... and can I really call this home? I got an email from Rick, a BMW riding traveller we'd met in back Siberia, he invited me for a drink in Bangkok. Unfortunately, I opened the email at Heathrow airport shortly after I landed, ..... next time maybe.


The Tiger is mobile again, at least it's a little more mobile than it's rider, but things have definitely improved since I last unsuccessfully tried to swing a leg over it. I can ride it normally now, no pain, no problems, just smiles. It's just as well, because back at the magazine Dave Gurman (Editor) has just thrown a brand new Triumph Rocket III down the road and I'm stepping in to pick up the next bike. I guess if your going to crash a brand new bike belonging to a third party, then you might as well choose the most expensive, the most powerful and the heaviest bike in their range. I'm just thankful that I didn't have to help him pick the bloody thing up because it must weigh as much as a small house. The good news for the magazine is that Dave is repairable, .... but the bad news for Triumph is that the bike probably isn't. Anyway, it looks like I'll be riding the new 1050 Sprint ST, ..... yes from Triumph, and I'll try not to crash this one for them. I'm not sure about the legality of me taking it out onto the circuit, so I'll say that I wont do any track-days and blame forgetfulness if I accidentally find myself out on Cadwell Park.

The Tiger is going in for it's MOT today and I decided to take the panniers off, ... the first time since I got home in December. Wow, .. they were bloody heavy. I couldn't even remember what I'd left in there and so I looked. Fortunately I opened them before I brought them inside the house because they were each at least 50% full of water, ..... water that had turned rusty as it had feasted on a variety of tools and spanners that I'd also left in there. The good new is that the panniers were outwardly watertight, .. they didn't really 'leak', .... they just simply 'absorbed'. Anyway, I hope it passes it's MOT first time because I'm feeling really lazy and I don't fancy trying to change brake pads and tyres just at the minute. It's still wearing the Scorpion front tyre that Roman found for me in Volgograd sometime last century, .... and that's got to be 15,000 gentle miles ago. Maybe I better check it before I take the bike down this afternoon.

Medically speaking, I've got a hospital appointment on April 6th, which I believe is also the beginning of the new 'Tax Year'. While I was away, I had an email from HMR&C telling me that as I hadn't used my 'Activation Code' to process my tax returns on-line, it had now expired. On a brighter note, they seem to have got my email address correct if not my home address, ..... Braintree wasn't built in a day.

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