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

Reincarnation

A couple made a deal that whoever died first would come back and inform the other of the afterlife.
Their biggest fear was that there was no afterlife.
After a long life, the husband was the first to go, and true to his word he made contact,
"Mary. Mary."
"Is that you,Fred?"
"Yes, I've come back like we agreed."
"What's it like?"
"Well, I get up in The morning, I have sex, I have breakfast, off to the golf course, I have sex, I bathe in the sun, and Then I have sex twice. I have lunch, another romp around the golf course, then sex pretty much all afternoon. After supper, golf course again. Then have sex until late at night. The next day it starts again."
"Oh, Fred you surely must be in heaven."


"Not exactly, I'm a rabbit in Suffolk."

Procrastinate Now!

After several weeks of procrastination I have at long last finished the Poorly AJS and wonder of wonders the old girl fired up on the second kick - for the benefit of younger people, Old British motorbikes are started manually by a kickstart lever. Even better, after approx two minutes of ticking over engine oil was seen returning to the oil tank. Just got a few minor jobs to tidy up and we are ready for a run. Of course I will be carrying a large bag of tools as I still don't fully trust my own mechanical skills. In theory with new main bearings she should be good for a year or two.

I have a sneaky feeling there is something not quite right! She has stood for a few hours now and there has not been any oil leaks - and before you ask YES I did put some oil in it

Morning Walk

I had another solo walk around the hills of home this morning, and what a beautiful morning it was, the sky was completely clear, the sun blazing down and a refreshing chill from an easterly breeze.

Which leads to an interesting point - why is it that when we are travelling from east to west we are travelling westerly, when the wind is blowing from east to west it is known as an easterly wind?

Anyway we (Jay, the autistic spaniel and meself of course) finished up in Troy quarry, as Jay had decided to lie in a muddy puddle half way around the walk, he needed a swim to get the mud off before I let him into the car. Whilst lying in the margins up to his ears in water, waiting for me to throw his ball further in, he hadn't noticed the pair of irate Canada Geese who didn't really want him in their bit of the pond, plus of course he is so single minded he didn't realise the frantic honking noises were aimed at him. As he swam out for his ball, he noticed them.

I haven't mentioned before but he is not too fond of larger birds (He takes after me in some ways!!) For instance, our garden is a no-fly zone for pigeons, crows, magpies and helicopters all of which he chases and barks at, if they happen to fly across our airspace.

So when he realised the two geese were homing in on him He attempts to bark at them - have you ever heard a dog gargle? the daft lad was trying to swim, carry a ball and bark all at the same time. Anyway the geese won, Jay decided discretion was the better part of valour and returned to shore pretending he wasn't interested in them at all.

The piccies show the geese approaching, and a general shot of the nearby clough-head quarry, that is an interesting shot showing the strata of the rock exposed by the quarrying.

My Pal Thomas

Lovely surprise last evening, Thomas called in on his way home from nursery, He brought his mother with him of course. He had made some cakes for Grandad, possibly his Mum helped with that as well. So we shared a Chocolate/Rice Crispie cake. Mine was gone in seconds - then the little monkey taunted me by taking his time with his. When Grandma arrived home from work he got so excited he dropped what was left and it fell behind a radiator, that will be a nice surprise when I eventually get around to decorating again.

He's a good looking lad though, obviously taking after me.

British Humour II

Found this the other day. Wonderful stuff!

British Humour

While I know that one shouldn't be amused by things that cause death, destruction and suffering, but I am English and we can laugh at most things - mainly ourselves, and long may it be so. So if anyone is offended by the above picture - Tough. don't read my blog

May the fourth be with you!

On the way to taking the Autistic Spaniel for a walk this morning heard on Radio Lancashire - sorry that should be BBC Radio Lancashire (They apparently get quite tetchy if you don't use the full title) The morning show is being transmitted from Burnley Football Club where there is a Star wars or Star treck convention, I'm never quite sure which is which, - actually timed to be on this day - May the Fourth.
I bet most of the people there have bought new anoraks specially for the occasion!
Each to there own I suppose.

Busy, Busy

Apologies to my many followers, (all three of you) I haven't got round to posting anything for a whole week. I have been so busy, trying to catch up with the gardening, trying to finish the AJS, trying to get out each morning for a walk with Jay (the autistic Spaniel) and generally failing at everything! The butterfly brain takes over regularly and I succeed in not actually finishing anything.

I did have a couple of very pleasant meetings this week with my friend WBW, who has been in the area visiting parents and in-laws from his new home in the far north of bonny Scotland. He came to see me on Friday in his new toy, a 20 year old Bentley S3. What a magnificent piece of British engineering!

I made him a curry, one of my specialities, a dry mince and dhal curry, not a regular item in UK curry houses, but something I used to eat regularly whilst in the Merchant Navy. I may get around to publishing the recipe soon. It is actually one I have worked out myself rather than blag from a cookery book. If you are desperate to try it in the meantime, contact me and I will send it to you.