October 2025

 

October 2025

 

October is the month for funerals. My dad died in October  my mum did as well. One of our very good friends was added to the list and a trip to Barnsley was needed. I feel that this month we need to change our names to Mister and Misses De’Ath. Too many people we know have left this world. I refer to Zuben Garg the famous Assamese pop star and I was lucky enough to be invited to the UK Premiere of his movie about drugs and gangs while he was here. A message for the youth of Assam.

Another Observed Sunday and the A3 closed again so I had to do another detour to get around the problem. All was not bad. This Sunday another Club magazine “Intercom” was issued and contained one of my articles “Who is Jugal Bailung?” It was about a short video of my first Ride to Arunachal in January this year. Nice to see my Assamese friends get some credit.

I have new spots for the El Cid. Those I fitted in 1997 have lost their lustre. Still working but with corroded reflectors needed sorting so I set about rewiring as the fittings were different. So were the mounting brackets.  Having got that done I checked the rocker oil feeds for oil-tightness while there was access as I had a problem at Easter. All was good. There was a leak on the exhaust. I thought it was the heat exchanger but it turned out to be the joints needing reseating. Also I put some silicone sealant on the gaps at the front of the exchanger to stop any free exhaust gases from getting in the cab. It had been quite smelly on the last trip.

We had a trip to Bristol in the C3 for my Sister-in-Laws’ funeral. On the way we went via Yeovil to drop the gearbox and parts off a Ric Pembro’s for assembly. Gita and I had set aside the whole week for family and any jobs we needed to do. The funeral was quite beautiful with a non-religious service celebrating her life marked by a poem of love written and spoken by one of her cousins. Yet again being so close to death and understanding your own mortality I have been stirred into more action. A book from the grandchildren “A gift from us to you for us”.  They want me to tell the stories of my childhood and my adulthood of me and my family before it all gets lost in the mists of time and poor memories. I confess, I don’t think I’ll ever finish it as my memories merge with theirs.

It was another French car day at Blackbushe Airport. I left early but got snarled up in traffic on the A312 just down the road from my house and languished in the queue before I could get out of the traffic and go through Hayes  to pick up the M4. Once on the motorway it was a relatively quick trip. It was great to meet up with members of the Thames Tortoises as there no longer seems to be monthly club meetings. The day had started in lovely sunshine  and deteriorated to cloud and cold drizzle. I left early to keep ward. I was beeped at by a kind gentleman who told me I had a flat tyre on the slip road of junction 3 of the M4. No sooner as I was on the A312 the tyre was completely flat. I found a place to stop just before the roundabout and changed the wheel. Another kind gentleman stopped to give me assistance but it was not needed. The flat was caused by a perished valve that had lasted less than three years.  

Two tyres and valves were changed when they were fitted in 2022 before going to Spain. I had a rest day on Sunday and Monday I was heading for the tyre place that had changed and fitted the tyres in 2022 but ran again into the traffic jam that was still there from Saturday and I abandoned the gripe mission and went to another tyre place that has more reliable services. A successful morning and with grandchildren staying with us little more could be done that day. Managed to repair one of the suspension cans. They are too good to cut down as a temporary solution for the van. Painted them the next day. After a couple of wet days it was fine enough to take the Buell for a run out. A forty mile trip, a tense ride. It was a journey into the unknown as problems had side-lined  it for a year. A good shakedown run with everything working as it should and the engine getting smoother as every mile passed. It was still dry in the afternoon to fit the suspension cans to the van to get them out of the garage.

September 2025

 

September 2025

 Surprisingly Observed Sunday was moved from the first Sunday of the month to the last Sunday of August. There was an observers training course that could not be rescheduled so something had to change. The changed meant I could not attend the shop as I was on a family holiday in Barcelona with the grandchildren. I was busy doing DIY in youngest daughter’s flat in between relaxing and site-seeing. When I got home it was time to write the August posting and articles about the bike ride in Arunachal and my view about electric bicycles and scooters another form of Powered Two Wheelers (PTW). I had the MOT for the Kawasaki and it passed, so good for another year and chased up the progress of the repairs on the Buell. Having changed my PC the program for my Kodak printer was lost. It was too old for Windows 10 and no longer supported. I have a twelve year old notebook that runs on Windows 7 and I loaded the software from, the original disc and it worked. I am no longer using it for printing but it is excellent for scanning far better than my Cannon MP272 that does the printing.

At the beginning of the month I was doing work in the garden getting things tidied up before autumn and winter removing dead plants and digging up an anti-social bamboo that was spreading around my garden and a wisteria that had taken over the front of the house.

The left side screen had dropped at the British Motor Show and had no idea why was it the heat or an attempted break-in? I investigated by removing the under-wing protective shields that I made after some rust removing and painting on the sub-frame. I had not looked at it since then and that was 2016. All was good. The support for the windscreen was in good order so there was no structural reason for the change in position of the side screen. The right side screen is still in the position when it was first fitted and has much more use than the left one. I made them both and I know how strong they are.

I was on a mission to be at Registers Day. I had parts to buy at the event and be part of the show. Registers Day is on the Sunday of the two day event. I drove down to Bristol on the Saturday and stayed with my brother Adrian. We went together to be day visitors on the Sunday at Westbury on Severn. We chose the scenic route which was delightful going over the old Severn bridge passing through Chepstow, Lydney, Blakeney and Newnham. It turned out to be a successful event with more cars putting on a display than I had seen before.

 I managed to talk to Paul who is Mehari Registrar for 2CV GB and I ask him about the article I has written about making the new hood for the El Cid as he had not publish anything in the magazine for months.  The article would be coming soon as life had taken over and left little time for anything else. Coops was also there and I spoke to him a new cover for the Burton. I had a great time talking to Paul’s son about the hood and my adventures in India I did not manage to pick up the spares I needed for the El Cid. There was to prize giving for the best car or variant in their class. I didn’t win anything for the El Cid and we headed off back to Chipping Sodbury around four taking the taking the M5 from Chepstow dipping in and out of the Welsh 20mph speed limits before escaping back to England.

Monday had us visiting Martin of Cotswold Classics to pick up some large diameter suspension cans then on to Simon for a better left front wing in Cam. The old one had too many rust holes and was too bad to repair. Next moth there will be more on the van.

I had my laptop with me and did more on my family history for the grandchildren. T hey had given me a Christmas present a sort of diary to record all I could remember of my family and their activities in a book “Dear Grandad from you to me”. This will more than fill the book. I have 20 years work of regular articles in the LE club magazine, nearly 300 postings on my blog and that is only about bikes and cars. I have written nothing about my working life in NHS Pathology.

On Wednesday Barry, Adrian and me went to Bristol and visited Vee Shed which is situated in Bristol docks with the “Matthew” moored in front of it. A brotherly expedition to the cultural centre of local history. It had become a more people oriented museum and less of local industrial history.

 They still have some displays like the Peckett steam engine, a Douglas Dragon Fly, a Thanet bicycle, the Brabazon made at Filton also where Concorde first flew from. I saw it take off from where I lived on Shortwood Hill. I could see Mangotsfield in the valley and across Filton all the way to the Severn Bridge and the Welsh hills beyond. All of the old stuff was in storage and we talked to one guy who was restoring a goods van that had become weather damaged. He was hoping to have it repaired for the up and coming event on the docks in about a weeks’ time. We paid a visit to the Brompton shop for Adrian to have a look at some new bicycles and then to Weatherspoons for lunch before making our way home on the bus.

An uneventful journey home the next day and the week finished with me refitting the weather shields to the under wings which was more difficult than taking the off. I had to make an extended spanner to reach the nuts hidden by the wing and the length of the plates. My hands are bigger now and not as flexible to get in the space available and hold a spanner.