Seven White Horses ride

What a day that turned into! Started off sunny and relatively warm, to a downpour (not a shower as forecasted), and the predicted time as shown on GoogleMaps was far longer than two hours!

But it was a great ride! The riding was not fast, more of a genteel burble around some pretty villages and small towns of Wiltshire. Sometimes its hard to find a decent spot from which to view the chalky white horses from, but that’s irrelevant to be honest.

The ride:

By the time we arrived in Devizes, we were rather wet but had a very welcome bacon sarnie and cuppa tea. Next time I do this ride will be in the spring / summer where I hope times will be happier. And, rather than a couple of hours, will plan a whole day!

Two hours and 20 minutes – not a chance to be honest! Not if you want to stop and take photos of each horse.

Great ride though and great day out. And the bonus was Sally joined me riding pillion!

Merry Christmas and here’s to a happy 2021!!

Bit of seasonal fun!

Driverless cars

Are no doubt the future, as are electric vehicles. We must accept that fact and get used to the idea, but, with driverless cars the question remains as to who is ultimately responsible in case of an accident – or incident. The driver who is technically a passenger but could be deemed to be in charge of the vehicle, or the vehicle technology company?

Now, let’s assume it’s the driver that’s responsible. This means minimal drinking and driving is allowed based on current legislation here in the UK. So, what’s the point? We can’t go out and have a good night, can we? On the plus side, if we were slightly over the limit our driving ought to be perfect so shouldn’t arouse suspicion.

Assuming it’s the car technology that is responsible, then we can go and have a few more drinks than planned. This is great news; or bad news if you are a taxi driver!

But, one driver gets away with drink driving every year! In fact, he’s been doing this ever since I can remember and I’m slightly over 25! He has autopilot on his vehicle plus the route remains almost the same most years.  The crazy thing is, we even encourage this behaviour!

Father Christmas drinks and drives every year and never ever gets caught! How many times have you seen a sleigh weaving across the night sky on Christmas eve? Even Norrad’s Santa Tracker is behind and can’t really track Father Christmas in real time; so if they can’t catch him, who can?

Across the world, let’s assume around 1 Billion households celebrate Christmas, and assuming all put out at least an average 25ml drink. That equates to 25 million litres of alcohol. Or to make it easier to envisage, 14.2 million pints, or 18.75 million bottles of wine. Whether that’s red or white wine I don’t know, but I guess it doesn’t really matter.

What does matter is that Father Christmas is encouraged to drink and drive. But he does have a few reindeer helping him and they know the way, don’t they? Now, what would happen if there was an incident where Father Christmas crashed? Who would be responsible? Can’t blame Brexit or Covid on this one!  Nor BoJo or Trump no matter how hard you might want to. Would we blame the reindeer? If so, what would their punishment be? Ban for a year – that would cause serious issues for 1 Billion families. We can’t even turn them into steaks even though reindeer steaks are nice, but these ones are rather old now so could be a bit tough! And all those songs would be ruined! No more Rudolph, Dancer, Prancer etc etc.  What about Father Christmas? If he can’t travel, how on earth can all those presents get delivered? Could we trust those little elves? Not from what I’ve seen of Elf’s on a shelf we can’t. Blooming nutters they are!

I suppose we could put out non-alcoholic beverages. Nah!! Only joking! Or low alcohol beer – which actually gives me serious wind. Don’t want Farter Christmas coming down the chimney do we – ho ho ho phhhhhhrt! Imagine that! No, we won’t.

What about the sleigh? If we can find out who made it may be, we could blame them! Or, how about using drones to deliver if Father Christmas is way too inebriated?  Takes the fun out of it a bit.

I guess, ultimately, we must accept that Father Christmas is always going to drink and drive and that we must let him. Coppers around the world will just have to turn a blind eye.

But, don’t get caught drunk in any type of car, driverless or otherwise, else  you will be banged up wishing your soap was on a rope when dropped it in the prison shower!

Happy Christmas!

Seven White Horses of Wiltshire

Leading an interesting group ride this Saturday around the seven white horses of Wiltshire. Six of us riding, maintaining social distance of course (getting bored of hearing that statement now, so we’ll just assume from now on).

Hoping for a dry-ish day for it!

https://goo.gl/maps/2aga5Umr8nD5gAcUA

Filtering fun!

This is one of the reasons why I enjoy riding a motorbike!

Filtering fun

There was a long queue leaving the A419 heading into Cricklade due to a serious accident on the southbound carriageway.

Rather than sitting and waiting, we filtered past, saving a lot of time.

Is it safe? Is it legal? Is it necessary? Errrr…..yes, yes and yes!

I wanted to go back and do it again but Sally was getting a little cold so we had to head home.

Please note, only one BMW was offended during the making of this. Will try harder next time!!

Music is Memories from Bensound, http://www.bensound.com – I forgot to add that credit at the end which I normally do.

First ride in a while – Sally as pillion

Had a nice ride yesterday with Sally as pillion. Only a short one, around Swindon and back – trip of 40 miles or so.

Sally and me!

It was also the first ride for me after a minor operation but felt so good to be back out on the bike! Took it steady but its amazing how quick that grin reappears! And, wearing my new Belstaff Mcgee jacket too which performed very well in keeping me warm – lets see how it works in the rain shall we!

The only problem I have with the bike is with the X-System Scott Oiler. Disappointingly it seems to stay “on” all the time with the first blue light on quite bright. Its connected direct to the battery as per instructions (may change this to a spare fuse slot) but will be dissapointed if this is a fault after only a couple of years of ownership.

Next year’s trips – still thinking and planning, but waiting for the all clear from Covid before anything is finalised. I know things will get better but there could still be restrictions. Travelling into Europe will be a little more complex, as we have just found out as we have booked the ferry to Spain in the van, but only minor stuff and nothing worth worrying over – err, except passports need to have 6-months remaining which mine doesn’t!!

Anyway, back to getting some more riding in during the next few weeks!

Stay safe and enjoy!

PS: that is not a “polite” jacket – in case anyone was wondering.