New Wine

California vintners in the Napa Valley area, which primarily produce Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio wines, have developed a new hybrid grape that acts as an anti-diuretic. It is expected to reduce the number of trips older people have to make to the bathroom during the night. The new wine will be marketed as…………………

PINO MORE

Fishing

I decided late this afternoon to have a couple of hours fishing on the local reservoir, it wasn't ideal fishing weather, the wind was a strong westerly blowing large breakers against the dam wall. However that makes it hard to cast but easier to hide the fly. After a couple of hard hours I got a take, then another. I actually lost two trout before I landed the first, then had a couple of small Perch which I returned, and just as the evening was turning into a wet one I caught my second Trout. For those interested I was using a Black foam Beetle, the fish weren't interested in anything else. I had tried various traditional wet flies, a couple of lures, even a Deer hair muddler, but the old beetles won the day. Very pleasant evening and the fish are already in the freezer.

Bank Holiday Monday

It has become a tradition in this Family that Dad will not go out on a Bank Holiday Monday. After years of being a 'Rep' / Salesman, I never saw the point of going out on a days holiday and sitting in bigger traffic queues than you do on a standard Monday going to work. Now I don't work and the rule still applies.

Tom came round to see us on Monday, we had some good fun playing in the garden, we both got wet again, and He helped me with a bit of gardening work. He is not quite up to digging a trench or lopping branches off a tree, but it won't be long now.

Tempus Fugit

It has been a whole week since my last burbling, where does the time fly to these days. The weather has not been too good, but at least we had a couple of good days over the weekend.
I went for a short run on the AJS on Sunday, My friend Jack and I went to the Leyland Transport Museum. There was a bit of a meeting organised by the North-West Branch of the VMCC. Quite a few vintage Motorcycles were on display and as an added bonus we were allowed free entry into the Museum. Not a massive museum, but well laid out with some very interesting displays and a couple of extremely well clued up Guides. If you are anywhere near Preston / Leyland in Lancashire, it is worth a visit.

I was about to put up a picture of one of their trucks, but they are very touchy about using anything from their website. So stuff 'em - Here's a great photo of a Manx Norton

Beautiful Morning

The Magnificent Seven met up at 7:30 this morning and had a very pleasing walk over the hills of Grane. The highlight at the end of the walk was to see the newborn Foals as shown. All three were born in the last week. Doesn't it warm the cockles of the old heart to see such an amazing sight.

The other picture shows Stan, Val, Chris, George and Harold. George likes having his picture taken but Harold was more interested in checking if Chris had any spare food.

Open Letter to the Chancellor

Dear Mr. Darling,
Please find below my suggestion for fixing Britain 's economy. Instead of giving billions of pounds to banks that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan. You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan:
There are about 20 million people over 50 in the work force. - Pay them £1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:
1) They MUST retire. Twenty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.
2) They MUST buy a new British CAR. Twenty million cars ordered - Auto Industry fixed.
3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage - Housing Crisis fixed.
4) They must send their kids to school / college /university - Crime rate fixed
5) Buy £50 of alcohol / tobacco a week there's your money back in duty / tax etc It can't get any easier than that!
P.S. If more money is needed, have all members of parliament pay back their falsely claimed expenses and second home allowances

Modern Cars!

What is it with modern car manufacturers? In the (Good) old days comparatively minor jobs could be carried out using a set of rusty spanners of all denominations, and a simple job like changing an alternator could be done in a matter of a few minutes. Today I have spent several hours just trying to remove the alternator from the daughter's MG ZR and I have failed so to do!
The reason being there is a split-pin type hinge in the top bolt of the alternator, The nut and bolt only serve to tighten that up, so the bracket has to be removed. One bracket bolt is reachable but the second one is tucked in behind the alternator to a point that if you had fingers like ET attached to the hands of a small gynaecologist and two opposing elbows on each arm you might be able to reach it!
OK, any mechanics reading this probably think I am a total clown. I admit, I am to mechanics what King Herod was to baby-sitting, but life shouldn't be that difficult. If I could afford to insure the damned car I would be tempted to set fire to it.
Why am I getting so worked up? it isn't even my car! But little wonder MG/Rover went down the pan. Do not ever even be tempted to buy an MG ZR