Work hard, play hard

For those that don’t believe it, I do work for a living – you know who you are…”What, off on the bike again?”

I know, we’re joined at the hip, well, thighs actually. Get your mind out of the gutter, I mean Smoggy, my wee trusty pal, who’s approaching 67,000 miles young. Outstanding. He’s my stress relief and another reason to smile. Lots of reasons to smile; fab house, great hubby, very interesting job and yes, you guessed it, a passion for motorcycles and a wee red car called George. And a cat called Dotty; first name, Completely.

Work has been interesting, with another ‘incident’ at pump 1. Yep, for those of my readers that catch up on my news on Faceache, this has for once been something that I didn’t post. Just like the quad rider that hammered the pump, I’m sure. Long story short; he came in, too fast, lost control of the quad and hit the protective barrier and then the pump. In the (private) video that I have, you can see that it’s rider idiocy on steroids. Of course, it’s our fault. Natch. Bollocks; he was riding at an inappropriate speed and admitted to his hand coming off the controls. Just one of the many incidents that we have to deal with. Of course, it’s all our fault.

The next one was a corker. Can’t say much more than: biker, parked too close to pump one. Tight squeeze getting back into the bike, he was so close to the pumps. Heeeeeavvve…. got the bike up, forward, over the manhole cover, CLATTER, as his pannier hits the protective barrier. Of course, it’s all our fault.

Can’t write more than that for legal reasons. After all, the rider of the quad (first story, just in case you haven’t read the first bit) is suing me for his ‘injuries’. He did, at the time, admit that he had a sore back already. No shit, Sherlock, that’s why he was riding a quad. Talking the the insurance assessor, he was deeply impressed with my observation. I think he ‘gaffawed’ when he watched the video. Of course, it’s all our fault. Not.

I could officially write 279 blogs on stuff that happens in the business. Never mind that, I could write 250 of them on the subject of ‘idiots at our petrol station’. It’s astounding the things that people do. So many of you have to check that I’m not making it up.

In the meantime, I’ve been working both me and Smoggy hard. A great day yesterday with Lindsay, putting me through a pre-test assessment. Between that and the day I had last week with Roddy, of Get2Grips fame, ma heed is bursting!

So, togged up, but not plugged into my heated gear, I went down to Stirling. Great, made good progress, and the only delay was the roadworks at Loch Lubnaig. Ya-bloody-hoooo! Resurfacing one of THE best roads in Scotland. Ya dancer. The things I’ll not miss: the wee potholes, in fairness, this bit of road doesn’t have bad holes… however, I won’t miss the tar strips, just on the line that you want to be on, the overbanding is just on the perfect line. For so many years, I’ve wished that I could ride that road on the perfect line. It seems that that’s about to happen. Yabba, dabba…. dooooooooo! Going round the corner before the layby on the left, at the lochside. The one with the café. You know the road, you go downhill towards a left hander, having spent the last half mile avoiding overbanding, you have to get through a chessboard of tar strips that are on the corner; right on the corner. I won’t miss that, either. The next part of the road I hope will be the next chunk done. Wow. Can’t wait. The resurfacing is working it’s way towards Strathyre.

LOOK! LAMBS! Awwwww. Cute. We don’t even have proper sized daffodils yet in Tyndrum. The only ones that have poked their way above ground level are the wee miniature ones in my Mum’s garden. Two of them. That’s it. Lambs are out the question right now. Everywhere south of Strathyre was a bright yellow in places; beautiful daffodils everywhere. And lambs. Nice. I hate mint sauce.

I didn’t need to plug in, fabulous, great day and learned lots of wee bits and pieces. Thank you, Lindsay for your time.

Then, as I came into Crianlarich, there was a warning on the sign saying, “SNOW FORECAST”. EEK! I’m off to Gairloch for the weekend, and well, judging by the forecast, it’ll be an interesting ride. The snow is meant to be right over where I want to go. I do have a contingency plan in the form of my niece’s home in Muir of Ord.

Right, off to plug in and head north, there might be a blog.