May
2025
It has been a busy month with so much going on in between hospital appointments and visits to the dentist it has been difficult to keep up. It was added to by Gita finally having her cataract done and me being chief cook and bottle washer for a couple of weeks. It has been a motorcycling month starting with Observed Sunday not feeling quite right I went in the car even though I had prepared the Kawasaki in readiness.
After making an effort to get up to date with the Blog I still felt it had got away from me a bit. I had been requested to do a presentation by Louise the Wey Valley Club social events secretary to do a presentation about my ride to Arunachal. A chance to share pictures and videos of the mud bath endured on the trip. It was a 1000km challenge and was a fete of endurance.
A few days later a group from the LE club visited Sammy Millers Motorcycle Museum. A real treat with the new facilities adding to the experience. Reminding me just how much I miss the passing of the London Motorcycle Museum. We were there until they closed.
Magic. That was the Thursday. Friday I prepared for the Kempton Park Bike Show, built the trailer and loaded the Valiant and prepared the stand for the show. Saturday was show time and as usual the interest in the Valiant was good meeting new club members and owners of Valiants all wanting technical assistance Even notable motorcycle journalist, Denis Frost paid us a visit. Talking about your bikes is what it is about but being the Wey Valley Advanced Motorcyclists stand there were few takers for becoming advanced motor cyclists. I did not go to the LE Club National Rally on the Sunday although it would have been great to go I ran out of steam to drive for four hours in the car for a day out.
A few days later was the 75th anniversary of the first LE Club run. This was to Newlands Corner. We arranged a club meet up from 11am. Being mid week only five people turned up. A couple together on their LE, and I can’t remember their names, John on his Valiant. Me on the Kawasaki and Anthony on his Honda. Even so it was a very enjoyable outing in the sun.
The following week was the Wey Valley AGM . I go to
support the Club and vote for the candidates that give their willingly to make it such a
thriving club. It was a nice evening made even nicer as I rode the Kawasaki in
warm conditions for the first time this year.
The sun continued as I did a repair job on a garden seat for my daughter. It came to me as a bundle of sticks and returned as varnished completed ends of a garden seat. A masterpiece in glue and screws. Amit , our son came over and helped me out replacing my 15 year old note book with a modern Chromebook. I have a presentation to do for Wey Valley and with a week to go modern technology has left me and my notebook behind. My version of Powerpoint is not supported anymore and the connectors for a projector are just as archaic.
Perhaps it is time to update but my notebook has been round the world supporting my holidays and adventures in my retirement along with numerous articles. It suits me but I will keep you posted with how my new piece of kit fulfils that role.
It was not until the day I was able to test out the presentation when I found some of the videos I wanted to use would not play because they were the wrong format. They would play on the laptop but not in the presentation. I replaced the videos with pictures taken from the videos and had the videos on the desk top to be ready to play. I did the presentation at the club night and it was well received. There were a few glitches where things did not work as they should even my 20 year old laser pointer failed to co-operate and some slides did not play but as no one knew of them it did not really matter. As Gita was not able to attend I did a video for her and if you want to relive the night follow the link to You Tube
https://youtu.be/BpYC1u6Xdng?si=-2Bmxs59uXCvV2Qs
It is about one and a half hours and in mirror view.
