What did you do on the weekend?

Well my great plan to escape to the hills on the Enfield didn't happen. Saturday was such a beautiful day that I decided to try and do a bit more shed preparation. Using Vic's water level method (a bit of pipe full of water, and a few air bubbles) I messed around for a while trying to work out exactly where to put the shed. The original area does have a bit of a slope to overcome, but at approx 12' x 15' it's a bit too wide to bring forward, as it wouldn't leave much of a gap next to the greenhouse. Then I thought about tweaking it round so that it would be at an angle to the greenhouse, thus letting more light past and allowing more room to get to the steading, but there wasn't enough room. So after measuring and remeasuring, and moving plant pots around several times, I've decided that it's got to go in the original place, parallel to the steading and far enough back so it's out of the way. The first task after that was to strim the remaining grass, but I noticed the trigger needed a bit of lubrication. Easy, you might think. An hour and a half later, I'd finally put the handle / trigger back together! I shifted the pile of turf that came from clearing the plot next (used it to fill in some ruts somewhere else, a lot of wheelbarrowing was involved there!) and then loaded the van up with concrete blocks to get them all over to the site.

On Sunday I figured I deserved a day off, so togged up, fired the Enfield up and set off to visit a friend over at Ballater. Well the weather was bitter! Stopping at Inverurie for fuel, I considered going home it was so cold. Carried on though and called in to see Freddie near Alford where I received a welcome mug of cocoa and biscuits. He's got a 350 Enfield which he's rather pleased with, oh and he's promised me a go on that some day soon. Of course, I had to check out his wee 250 MZ too, and one or two other bikes. Feeling slightly more human I reckoned I could make it to Ballater. It's odd, because the air temp wasn't actually that low, must have just been the wind chill but by the time I rolled up at Chris's pad I was ready for another warming cuppa. For the ride home I went the direct route, via Echt and Dunnect which made a change, haven't been out there for a while. Back at Fyvie I stopped for a paper (there was a free book with it about Scottish place names) and got chatting to a biker with a 125 cruiser style Honda (a Shadow, I think) who took time to admire the RE. He also has a 1930s BSA in his shed, a few Donkeys and it turns out, he lives just down the road from me.

And just for you, BJ, a short report on the RE - it behaved rather well, cruising along nicely at 50 - 60 with that lovely puuuurrrrrrr at gear changes. That's all you're getting because it won't be long before the full story appears in a certain magazine, so you'll have to go buy a copy ;-)

Anyone watch the rugger or the F1? What a waste of time.....