12/12/2010: As I am beyond the legal age to qualify for a mid life crisis I had to settle for becoming a tragic. In order to join the tragic ranks I have bought myself a motor bike. I am now the proud owner of a Triumph T100. This has opened up a new set of possibilities form me.
I recently attended my first meeting of a motor bike club which is held at the Hotel Alexandra in Leura. This is not a bad spot with quite a nice outdoor area which for this occasion bunged on a sausage sizzle from their outdoor BBQ.
As I am writing a predominantly beer blog I should say that I had a couple of ‘Old’s
It is early days as far as this group is concerned and as yet the numbers attending may not be all that high but after a while there might have been between twelve and fifteen bikes in the car park.
The get together had been going for about an hour when it was noticed that a vehicle with a couple of police officers in it had turned up. They said they where checking on security and well they may have been but while they where there I was told that they took a record of all the bikes rego numbers. Does this make me a person of interest? What do the police do with these numbers once they have taken them? Do they then record them on their computer? Will I be added to a data base of other persons of interest possibly even on the list of the airport group. Do you ever get crossed off such a list?
It was sort of funny from one aspect because when you looked around at the assembled multitude that night, most of the men where over forty and nearly all of them grey bearded.
Along the same conspiracy lines, I pulled up for petrol the other day in Liverpool.
As I have indicated I am recently returned to bike riding and as such am out of touch with things. So, I pulled up to the bowsers and while still sitting on the bike, in order to hold it upright and fill the tank to its capacity tried to get the pump to operate. This wasn’t happening for and I spent some time puzzling over this until a disembodied voice came over the speakers telling me to remove my helmet before the pump would be switched on. Now I gad deliberately left my bonnet on so as not to drop it while filling the bike, I had every intention of taking it off when I went in to pay for my six point sixty one litres of fuel.
OK I am aware that robberies have been carried out with people using helmets to hide their identity and that you may not be welcomed into banks and like fully kitted up but for fourteen dollars worth of petrol. Had the Middle Eastern lady filling up a large four wheel drive at the pumps next to me been wearing a veil would she have been asked to remove it. There have probably been as many terrorist attacks carried out by people in Middle Eastern garb as robberies done by the helmeted. A few days later I was at a petrol station at Londonderry, this time I had removed the offending helmet but had stayed on the bike for the reasons mentioned above, no pump action again and then the voice over the speakers saying that the rider(me) must alight from the bike before filling the tank. This I suppose was to stop me riding off without paying. So bike on stand, gloves off, helmet removed, key taken from the ignition in order to unlock petrol cap and fill the tank up with ten litres of petrol. In order to make off without paying I would have had to reverse the procedure. I wonder if I could have done that and made a getaway quicker than the four young blokes in, of course, a large 4WD near me, three of whom never got out of the car nor where they required to.
I await with interest for the next example of clear headed thinking.
I recently attended my first meeting of a motor bike club which is held at the Hotel Alexandra in Leura. This is not a bad spot with quite a nice outdoor area which for this occasion bunged on a sausage sizzle from their outdoor BBQ.
As I am writing a predominantly beer blog I should say that I had a couple of ‘Old’s
It is early days as far as this group is concerned and as yet the numbers attending may not be all that high but after a while there might have been between twelve and fifteen bikes in the car park.
The get together had been going for about an hour when it was noticed that a vehicle with a couple of police officers in it had turned up. They said they where checking on security and well they may have been but while they where there I was told that they took a record of all the bikes rego numbers. Does this make me a person of interest? What do the police do with these numbers once they have taken them? Do they then record them on their computer? Will I be added to a data base of other persons of interest possibly even on the list of the airport group. Do you ever get crossed off such a list?
It was sort of funny from one aspect because when you looked around at the assembled multitude that night, most of the men where over forty and nearly all of them grey bearded.
Along the same conspiracy lines, I pulled up for petrol the other day in Liverpool.
As I have indicated I am recently returned to bike riding and as such am out of touch with things. So, I pulled up to the bowsers and while still sitting on the bike, in order to hold it upright and fill the tank to its capacity tried to get the pump to operate. This wasn’t happening for and I spent some time puzzling over this until a disembodied voice came over the speakers telling me to remove my helmet before the pump would be switched on. Now I gad deliberately left my bonnet on so as not to drop it while filling the bike, I had every intention of taking it off when I went in to pay for my six point sixty one litres of fuel.
OK I am aware that robberies have been carried out with people using helmets to hide their identity and that you may not be welcomed into banks and like fully kitted up but for fourteen dollars worth of petrol. Had the Middle Eastern lady filling up a large four wheel drive at the pumps next to me been wearing a veil would she have been asked to remove it. There have probably been as many terrorist attacks carried out by people in Middle Eastern garb as robberies done by the helmeted. A few days later I was at a petrol station at Londonderry, this time I had removed the offending helmet but had stayed on the bike for the reasons mentioned above, no pump action again and then the voice over the speakers saying that the rider(me) must alight from the bike before filling the tank. This I suppose was to stop me riding off without paying. So bike on stand, gloves off, helmet removed, key taken from the ignition in order to unlock petrol cap and fill the tank up with ten litres of petrol. In order to make off without paying I would have had to reverse the procedure. I wonder if I could have done that and made a getaway quicker than the four young blokes in, of course, a large 4WD near me, three of whom never got out of the car nor where they required to.
I await with interest for the next example of clear headed thinking.
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