GBC goes to London; by train. Yawn.

Phew. No sooner have my feet touched Scottish soil then I'm back on the move again. Had to nip down to London for a few days for a briefing. Went on the train. Oh me. 8hrs on the way down, 2 days of sitting in a meeting force feeding my brain with new and important information, and sightseeing trips after the meeting taking in Oxford Street (one of the main shopping drags, apparently), Marble Arch, Hyde Park, St Pancras station (a most magnificent and beautiful old building), and Baker Street, home to one Sherlock Holmes, back in the day. I saw the Griffins that guard the centre of the city, apparently the Queen must ask permission from the Mayor before she can pass the Griffin, and if he allows her to visit, he will gift her a pearl encrusted sword to carry with her. I'm not sure I like the idea of Boris being in charge of swords. Walked through an area I later saw on the news, known as the Square Mile, summat to do with these stock broker guys I think, but the most impressive sight there was St Paul's Cathedral. Much as I don't want you to navigate away from here, go check out the virtual tour - www.sphericalimages.com/stpauls/virtual_tour.htm - its wicked man. Anyway, tain journey took 10hrs on the way back cos its all up hill y'see. Only kidding, engineering work on a Saturday led to a diversion via Carlisle. Met 3 very interesting people on the train though, Marion, an art teacher who insists that everyone, even I, can draw. Claire, a trainee GP who seems to have travelled the entire Scottish coast in her quest to surf, and Christie, a farm owner from Nigeria. Certainly helped pass a good few hours chatting to them. Then changing at Edinburgh saw a 45 min wait cos the brakes kept coming on when the driver tried to pull away. Changed to another service heading north which was packed to the gunnels. Ended up sitting on the floor scoffing my Burger King meal. Sat in First Class for a while, but only cos once I was in there the automatic door wouldn't open and I was trapped. Then Mrs BC met me at the station at half 8pm and we got half way home before the fan belt on the van started to shred itself. Remind me to fly next time.

So back to Cubbie. My chum Victor has very kindly let me 'borrow' the stator from his C15 until I can a) find a suitable one to purchase and b) afford to purchase one. Odd thing is the rotor and stator look to be the same size as the Cubbie stuff, but the hole in the rotor is larger. No problemo for a genius like me though, I'll simply use the original rotor and his stator. But of course the bullet connectors on Vic's are smaller than the corresponding ones on the Cub, so it was out with the knife and time to butcher. Er, after checking with the owner first. Only had to change one and managed to cobble the other two, but then what to do with the 4th wire that comes from the bike? On the old stator, the 3 wires plug into their connectors and the 4th one is in a kind of a double connector so don't need to worry about it dangling or touching anywhere. So I've left it in the plastic bit and wrapped it up in insulating tape, will that do? Who knows. I guess you know, but I don't. And I won't, until the battery is fully charged and I can fire it up. Hope to do that first thing tomorrow morning, maybe after I phone the garage to see about taking the van in for a new fan belt. Would prefer to save money and do it myself but without a decent jack or a pit to put it over, its kinda very awkward to get at it. Will probably give them a nudge about my car too, thats only been in there 2 weeks, or is it 3. Could do with that back as the van requires a little work on the brakes too. Oh me, looks like a vehicle crisis in GBC land!