June 2025 First Half

 

June 2025

Glorious June has allot to offer, long days, balmy evenings and motorcycle gear to be cooked in. Time to be out and about but for me it has been a time of aches and pains looking at jobs that need to be done and not being able to do them but I have managed to do some. As usual I was at the Wey Valley Advanced Motorcyclists Observed Sunday for the shop and to take photo to record the event.

 It was also a special day as we are to inspect the alternative meeting place for Observed Sunday and the club base. It was Normandy village hall, much like Cobham with space to put our club storage sheds. This was a decent run from Cobham after closing the shop we had a convoy of three bikes. Me in the middle of John leading and Piers making sure I didn’t get lost. It was a busy run with detours to miss the traffic  to get on the A3 then  a blast down the A3 beyond Guildford taking the Puttenham turn off and wiggling our way to Normandy. The plan for the day for Observed rides was to depart from Cobham and finish with debrief in Normandy giving everyone a chance to see the possible new venue and enjoy more less restricted riding. 

There are allot of speed restrictions in the Cobham area and the grip of the Council by residents to reduce speed limits is increasing with the volume of traffic I feel that any advantage gained by being farther away from large towns will be short lived. I see the challenge for the Club in how to do progressive riding with these restrictions. It is also an interesting place having lots of parking and a cafe on site for other meetings.

 

I took lots of photos then made my way home via the Hogs Back. The A3 junction on the M25 was a nightmare and I hope the road works will soon be completed with the slip road not having traffic lights but I feel that may be too much for the planers.

The water at home has become almost unpalatable to drink. It smells so strongly of chlorine and has a very brackish flavour. Aviva is not doing a very good job for its customers. Privatisation was supposed to give us a choice. We have no alternatives with water and sewage and no control as there is poor investment and disregard for pollution they generate. What I have had to do is fit a water filter to the cold tap inlet side to get round this. It was easy enough to fit and the result was chlorine free water that no longer tastes of chateau sewage. The water has a lighter feel and is nice to drink. Success for me, I even feel better.

At the same time the tap was dripping. Was it hot or cold. The filter decided it. I replaced the hot side cartridge some time ago and the repair kit included the cold cartridge. I just had to fit it. That did not take that long except for removing the lime scale on the inside and outside to clean up the screw treads.

Other than greasing the kingpins and drive shafts and checking the lights worked on the   Burton I did nothing for the MOT. Always fraught as I have to pay ULEZ on it I set up the auto pay for it. I set it up to cover going away when I know it would be difficult to pay. This has its downside in any registration clocked with a G I get charged for. I get refunds but I feel I am persecuted by TFL for having a non compliant car. So much so when not taxed I remove it from the auto pay system. The Burton passed and good for another year. On the way home it had the feel of pulling to the left. This needed investigating. I had other things to do with my garden fence that was disintegrating and arranged with my neighbour to get it done. The preferred supplier had delivery problems in that their lorry had to have remedial works carried out and no orders were taken until it was back in action. It was delayed for three weeks. My neighbour did the appropriate cutting to size, painting and arranged with his brother-in-law to fit them. I would only have to refit the trellises and resecure the plants and shrubs. I agreed to dispose of the old fence panels. Trellises had suffered too and I had to buy two new ones. One I managed to carry from B&Q. It was not good quality so for the larger one a trip to a garden centre was needed. I measured up the car and no matter what I did it was not going to fit. So it was cut in half and it did fit. Cutting it with the saw I had brought specifically for this purpose. Gluing it back together when I got home. 

 Breaking the old panels down was easy enough, any rotten pieces of wood would be disposed of by burning in my chimenea. That was a good idea until picking it up was too much for it and it broke in the middle. Another repair job. It had three plates and six screws hold it together had rusted away. I only had that to do to  restore it. I made the three plates and drilled them. I had to drill out the existing screws as they were rusted in. I had 6mm nuts and bolts in my store of things and within an hour or so the chimenea was ready for action.

We had a plea from our daughter Ivy for baby sitting on a Friday. We went by tube and train to Hackney. The journey took about one and a half hours. Just as quick as the car but less stressful. While there I assembled the bench I had repaired the sides for. A quick, but awkward job of securing ten bolts and wood screws. Assembled it was stronger than ever. There is still half the month to enjoy.