Funky moped...

When Scrobs turned sixteen, his first thoughts were about ditching the Triumph Palm Beach bike and getting engin-ised! His dear sister already used a Lambretta for college, and therefore the only affordable transport available was a moped!

There was one like this available at Styles' Garage in Battle, and it cost £19-0-0, so I bought it - or rather my dad did! The first ride was ecstatic and I must have reached at least 25mph at one stage! I think the insurance was £2 a year, and I grew to love the old thing, even though most of my friends had real motorbikes like a Francis Barnett or a James...

I read recently that mopeds are staging a sort of comeback as nostalgia reaches the minds of many of my generation, and I'd rather like to consider buying one and 'doing it up'...

I say consider, as it won't happen, and I still get the buzz of powered bicycling on my electric bike, which goes nearly as fast as the old Mobylette!

Conundrum...

Scrobs has been thinking quite a lot about a combination of emotions, feelings etc., of late, and while there's nothing concerning or worrying about the collection of thoughts, it's an intriguing conundrum to write down the facts and try to figure out what the outcome will be!

First, the tragedy of the Oceangate loss was always going to be something to take up a lot of time to understand and accept, but I'm reading a great book by Nevil Shute, (see Scrobs passim), called 'An old captivity', which is all about a flying boat's mission to the unknown in Greenland, and the similarities are extant, such that I know that something's going to happen, but I haven't got there yet! The story is rivetting and I look forward to a proper time to read it and not just dip in for just a few lines here and there!

Why the eternal fight by Peter Boggis who is trying to protect his house in Lowestoft from falling into the sea figures in all this, I don't know, but watching 'Coast' last evening, the subject seemed to reverberate within the context of the book as well!

The current earworm is the latest music by Peter Gabriel, with lyrics which an artist could paint within these parameters, and that adds to the confusion too! 

'I walk with my dog and I whistle with the bird; Stuff coming out and stuff going in', all slots in as well so what's next...?

For those you'll never meet, but want to chat with anyway...

Just the other day, Scrobs was peering at his PC screen, blinking at the various messages one gets from the bank, (sod'em), Ebay etc., and a message came up 'just asking how everything was going at The Turrets'! It came from a chum with whom I've had numerous chats, but have never met, and sadly never will - probably...

Well, it's not all bad really, and the heat is hurting Senora O'Blene more than somewhat, but the upside is that for the first time, I let our hound, Lily off the lead for the first time since we got her!

This morning, as we started off on her early walk, I met two lovely ladies who live just down the road, and they were on a trek around the fields and orchards we are lucky to still have, and I was invited along!

Scrobs never says no to that sort of invitation, and so we ended up in some fields about half an hour away, and just while I was thinking about perhaps trusting her not to run away, the girls suggested that I let her off the lead!

So I did, and she had a whale of a time, darting here and there, playing with the other two dogs all the way, and getting exhausted in the process - as did I!

It's odd really, always thinking she might have just toddled off, but she stayed close, had some great games, and was great company for all of us!

So Linda, it was so nice of you to write and ask how we are; it's prompted me to get up and go forward just a little more now, and we'll certainly chat again soon!

Understanding Sturmey-Archer is next...

 

Instructions for driving normal, petrol or diesel cars...

Fiddle-de-dee...

Off to the supermarkets this morning, to be confused yet again at how they try and cheat their customers...

I need to buy some spuds, as at this time of year, we have Jersey Royals, Cornish Smalls, Mallorcan News etc., plus a load of bakers, 'essentials', ordinary whites, reds etc.,, and they'll all be priced in different ways!

Some of the big ones will be priced as 'each', with no weight shown, some will be priced in ready-packaged bags by the kg, while other similar spuds will be charged in lbs. I even shot myself in the foot the other day, as I saw some Cornish News in a bag, but they weren't priced at all, so I 'zapped' the bag with the little gun, and got a label printed. Then I thought that the deal was OK, so got another bag, and did the same! I didn't see that the packaging was so similar, but I'd bought different bags, and after I got home realised that I could have got exactly what I wanted cheaper had I bought a loose lot...

I know all the habits of market trading back in the old days still control the 'ethics'* of supermarkets, i.e. sell as much as you can fiddle, and I even tried to take a hand-held Ipaq PC with me some years ago, so I could pop in the numbers, and calculate the price differentials, but it took ages, and I still thought I was being ripped off!

We're watching 'Open all hours' at the moment, and Arkwright is in full swing, so that's why I'm going to tremble when that little tin falls off the top of the crashing till, or rather more when the lovely Julia comes across to help me check out on the self-service till...

* There are no ethics in supermarket trading - Ed