And this one deserves its own entry.

Did you know that sheep can cough. And when they do they sound just like a human coughing. It freaked us out a little up in them thar Shropshire hills when it happened. I’m not sure if it’s just a Shropshire thing - it’s entirely possible.

A little potter (7.7 miles) up Brown Clee hill - first up the not-so-high summit, then over to the higher of the two, and in fact, the highest point of Shropshire. I think this is the first time we’ve had good weather on a peak-bagging trip, so the views were magnificent - with the Peak District visible 50-odd miles away.

Then back down, via a circuit around the ramparts of Nordy Bank hill fort and back to the car. A great day out in the best company I could hope for.

click for full-size

click for full-size

Warning! No flipping the bird while riding a bear and carrying an axe in a leotard.

Beware of disturbing symbolism…

Beware of high voltage flying mushrooms…

Don’t post things in the middle of the night when you can’t sleep and your thoughts are racing.

So I bought my bike from a dealer (who shall remain nameless other than in the title of this post and a little bit further down) which was about 30 miles away, and at the time I consciously figured - due to the distance - that I would treat it like a private sale, helped by the fact that the price I paid was lower than the book price for a private sale.

While I was looking at it to buy, I noticed the chain looked a little old and corroded and pointed this out to them. “Oh yes… we give it a full service and pre-delivery inspection, so if it needs a new chain, it’ll have one”.

So it’s a good job I did treat it as a private sale because while lubricating the chain today, I noticed a mark on the swingarm which says “replace chain” and the chain tension adjuster was many millimeters past this mark. So their pre-delivery inspection didn’t involve making sure the chain was ok.

Oh yeah… nor did it involve putting the right amount of air in the tyres.

So, my advice would be go, by all means, to Midland Superbikes for your bike - but, as I did, treat it as a private sale.

And check the tyres asap.

At least it has fixed the funny, nervousness-inducing handling problem I was experiencing.

Oh, and I’m getting the chain and sprockets done on Thursday. So that’s nice.

Update 18-January-08: They said they had fitted a new battery, too. Well yesterday I had my new battery fitted. I’m not sure that was true either.

Today I am fucking pissed off at everything in the world being rubbish and stuff because I went to buy a tyre pressure gauge from Halfords and I saw the Halfords ones and I though “Halfords are a bit rubbish” but there was a Michelin one there too and I thought “Well, Michelin have been making tyres for a Very Long Time™ and so that will be a GOOD tyre pressure gauge” so I bought it and I got it home and then I discovered it’s in one of those stupid heat-sealed packs which you have to completely fucking mutliate to get the thing out which you bought and I hate those because they’re shit and what’s wrong with just putting it in a packet anyway…… *breathe*…… so I got it out of the packet and the rubberised coating was sort of peeling off in one place but it’s ok because that’s where the batteries go except the battery cover wasn’t on properly and it had deformed the case of the tester and there was a tiny weeny little screw which is supposed to hold the battery cover on so I tried to do it up and it went ping and landed SOMEWHERE in the garage but I have no fucking clue where because it’s tiny and it went ping and then I decided I could test my tyre pressures anyway and it was rubbish and each time I read the tyre pressure it was about 1psi less than last time because the gauge is rubbish and lets the tyre down unless you put it on perfectly straight and so now I don’t have enough pressure in my tyres AND a rubbish tyre pressure tester or TYRE PRESSURE REDUCER it should be called so tomorrow I’m going to go back to Halfords and politely point out to whichever unlucky customer sales representative (yeah that’s probably what they call their sales assistants these days) I get eye contact with first that my tyre pressure gauge which cost me lots of money is actually complete bollocks and I’d like a new one which works please.

Does anyone else have the affliction whereby you find it impossible to cook carrots?

Yesterday, I arrived home after a trip to the gym, had a look what I fancied for tea, started preparing it - sticking some stuff in the oven, and boiling up potatoes etc. and preparing some carrots.

Unfortunately, they looked so tempting that I polished off three whole carrots raw while waiting for the rest to cook.

Is it just me?

I just remembered I used to be nicknamed “Bugs Bunny” at primary school due to my love of raw carrots.

So I picked my new* bike up this morning and rode around a bit, visiting the odd cup-of-tea-toting friend/family on the way.

There’s something definitely wrong with the bike, though. It seems very slow. For example, it took me a good 35 minutes to travel 0.9 miles back from a friends’ house to home.

Of course, like on my test day, I did manage to get just a little bit lost on the way.

(*to me, not new new)

Thanks to Kika for the heads-up. I had plenty of guesses as to what would happen… but I was wrong on all counts…

Let me know how close your guess was…

Well, I found somewhere which was willing to let me test ride a bike - after signing a “you bend it, you mend it” disclaimer. So my decision is made and the deal is done…

Yummy. I took the photo part-way round my test ride, shortly after nearly dropping it getting off and shortly before I set the alarm off getting back on. How was I to know it arms itself if you leave the engine stopped for more than a minute or so? Luckily after a bit of fumbling to take my gloves off, and further fumbling with the alarm keyfob zapper I managed to silence it.

It might not be what I do the North Cape on, but at least I can start gaining some experience and confidence - and really start to learn what I want from a bike before committing any proper sum of money to one.

Oh, and I had another look at the MadAss and it was rubbish. Not even worth having for a laugh. Still very strange, though.