Where she gone?

Here she is. Sorry about the gap in transmission, since the Xmas Bash all kinds of exciting things have been happening, one of the top ranking events I'd say was on the Thursday following our hugely successful meal, but let's do that story first.

Nothing particularly gory to report, apart from one of the quiz teams didn't know what GBC stands for...so 500 points were deducted from their score. The food was yummy - melon fan followed by a nice piece of salmon, rounded off nicely with orange and something fool - can't remember if it was cranberry or raspberry, but it certainly wasn't prawn cocktail, Meeps! The raffle had some great prizes donated by members and our local bike shops - Shirlaws gave us 5 Triumph tee shirts, top of the range gear, and I'm hoping that I might be in line for one if it's a little too little for our Bry...and Bikesmart gave us a deal on some open face helmets and goggles...and Eccosse Yamaha/Honda gave us a gift voucher, plus there was a free subscription for Old Bike Mart (you should have been there BigBob!) and a free entry to ride in the 2009 National Assembly of Vintage Bikes at Blairgowrie (aka The National, I went last year and broke down...but I also went the year before and made it round in the pouring rain, much to a short persons amazement) courtesy of the VMCC Central Scotland section. Not a bad haul, and huge thanks to the members for bringing the bottles and chocs and biscuits and so on, and to Bry and Briano for helping out and collecting /arranging some of the prizes - couldn't have done it without you all. The quiz seemed to go down fairly well, apart from the incident mentioned above. Thanks to Captain Bill for taking the flak and reading the questions out - no one argues with him ya see, and if they do, they end up giving in. Oooh, nearly forgot to say thanks to Mr Meeps too, if he had not come to my rescue when both of my printers stopped working, then there would have been no quiz and no free OBM subs and no entry to the National.

So it was home late, and away early on Wednesday for work, home late again as I had to attend the AGM of the Bon Accord MCC. That's the trials / moto cross / super moto bunch who are organising the Grampian Convention in 2009. I wasn't feeling particularly well, having contracted the lergie from Mrs BC a few days before, but stayed long enough to be voted on to the sub committee for organising the Convention (to be referred to from now on as Alford, 'cos that's where it is held each year.) and even leaving 'early' I still didn't get home until gone 11pm. Then a bit of admin had to be done, didn't get to bed until 1am, and the alarm was set for 5am. Yep. That does say 5am. Got up, bright and sparky, all ready to head to the station and catch me a train to a briefing in Glasgow. Took the van through gate 1, got out to shut it, van rolled back, door swung open and bamm! Door and gate post came together with a nasty crunch. Ho hum, managed to get it shut, went back to bed. Phoned the garage later, took it in, and the clever clever guys at Cameron Autotech managed to sort it out with minimum fuss. Luckily the door itself didn't get damaged, just the door post had sort of, well, erm, bent. But it shuts and locks and to be honest, you wouldn't know anything had happened. Phew. On the Friday I found out that because the door post is now in a slightly different place, so is the switch for the 'lights on / door open' alarm, so I have to shove a thick bit of card in there to stop the alarm screaming at me any time the lights are on. It's a little annoying. Think I'm going to have to find the fuse for that and remove it.

Cor, just looked outside, its a beautiful day out there, warm as toast. But I'm dedicated to you lot, I promised I'd update you, so I will...after I've nipped out for a breath of air....

Ok, so Saturday was work again, Aberdeen in the morning, which is about 40 miles south, then north to Peterhead, then west and north a bit more to Cullen. Then home by 5pm at the very latest so that we could head out right away, this time south again to Banchory, for the UCAN Xmas meal, hosted by Chris and Val who are heavily involved in the cancer charity. Had been raining all day, non stop, making the roads quite treacherous. Still, just about got home in time for a scrub up, quick change and off for our supper. Made it. Just in time. Just as the rest of them were gathering in the bar. That was a good night out, sat next to a guy called Owen who is a fell runner....yeah I know....made eh! Why run when you can walk (or ride a bike)? Took some pics of the do for ya, but following my run of form recently, my lovely digital camera seems to be broken. Don't know where the time has gone since then, I think it's Thursday already, but I can't be sure. Took the van to the garage again yesterday as the brake light keeps coming on. A quick assessment from Ian and Lee, two cheery little Christmas elves, revealed that I need two new rear cylinders and pads, and new pipes all round. So that's my Xmas pressie list - don't feel you need to wrap the items, just fit them to the van while I'm not looking, that way it would be a nice surprise. Hopefully I can get the exhaust manifold for the car down to McKwak's friend who is going to try and weld it, so the car might be back on the road in the new year...probably about June! Hehe, it's all a bit of fun eh.

GUESS WHAT?!?!?!? CUBBIE IS ON THE FRONT PAGE OF OLD BIKE MART NEXT MONTH!!!! WOOOOOOOOOO, AIN'T THAT JUST GREAT!!!!!