A Blat with the Missus...

OK, so with the kids & school & a nice winter’s day happening in Ol’ OJ, what better way to spend an afternoon that a quick blat on the bikes...& possibly feed my prodigious belly!

Yes it was cold & it was a relativly short spin in the sun; it's funny, cool in the sun isn't as bad as rain is it! 

The sunny spin was to a little local restaurant on the outskirts of OJ that was busy doing the 100 mile menu thing, un-surprisingly called “Totally Local” this was all fine by me as the most important piece of this activity was that it was enough to get us out of the house & to spend some tinme t

Local Beer & Wines too - off the menu for our lunch as I don't like to drink & ride!

 

We even saw a punter on a Royal Enfield put past; we did the "fellow biker wave" to each other & all was good with the world!

I haope that the Enfields-man was enjoying the weather, as, in typical OJ style, “brisk” possibly “Bracing”, but enjoyable… probably closer to the Royal Enfields traditional home of England, as opposed to it's real home of "the Sub-Continent"...

 

We went the other way & I beat the Child Bride to the mail box on the way home (just to show the world that my 150cc’s of awesomeness may not be a Raj built Rocker Rocket, or a Tuff Hog, but it is still just about one of the coolest rides in OJ… Small pond though it is!)

 

Yep, the Silver Surfer for all his Italian fickleness was still the first!

The Little Haouse still looks like some sort of Biker lifestyle statement at times!



So Mote It Be

Leigh 

 

Seat Update

So, the Cub’s seat…

It was, after all, the first piece that was started in earnest after stripping the Cub & I had sent it to the Auto Upholsterers to be made better again…

So what has happened since this monumental commitment? … Well I’m glad you asked!

I had called by just before Easter; I was rather guilt ridden over this visit, as, due to the sale of the Auld House, I thought that had stiffed a decent bloke as I reckoned it was safer to keep the seat at the shop, that to damage it in the move.

Thus I rather sheepishly went into his workshop (when my car was having its yearly rego check 1 door down). I was really worried; I had last spoken to him a month a half before I moved from the Auld House.

Davo had been ticking away slowly & steadily on it… & was rather apologetic that he hadn’t completed the work yet

I suppose the truth of the matter is that, as with his sign, Garry is rather Old School when it comes to work, if someone says, “it’s a low priority job” he doesn’t worry too much about the delivery date; rather he shifts priorities to the guys that are crying out for the jobs to be done.

Cool!

Thus, when I said “Nah, the bike isn’t even painted yet”, he was visibly relieved that he had remembered correctly… the relief was palpable!

Seat meet some Nylons...

Anyway, the seat was on the bench (& underneath some rope, so I know that Davo had been working on it… it looked like it had been in a bizarre bondage session (for motorcycle seats that is)

OK, so I can hear some out there in the Net saying about how important it is to be on time when a commitment is made, but hey, I don’t roll that way! And neither does Davo; have a look at his shops sign…

If you ring this number, put "63" infront of it...& note there is NO mobile number listed either!

…OLD SCHOOL! The Phone number is only 15 years out of date!

In much the same way that the Cub itself is 40 years out of date!

Read timeless; Cary Grant - You know, incredibly cool & timeless!

The Love Cub, Cary Grant & My Auto-Upholsterers; I’ll wager that you’d never think that you’d read them in the one sentence!

So Mote it Be!

Leigh

Alt Girl...

So, we (in this case the “we” was the boys at work) were standing around drinking our morning coffee, & mulling over the implications of whatit was that the particular boof heads of whatever popular sport had done over the weekend & Complaining about how sport wasn’t like it was when we were kids… Nostalgia, it ain’t what it used to be!

Usually I do silly things after alcohol, not a sensible coffee...

Thus we decided that we wanted a clean sport that was sporty in all the appropriate sprortyness… thus, after my watching of the Doco “This is Roller Derby” on a flight to a friend’s wedding, we decided that Roller Deby it was!

Thus "we" decided to Google this fantastic sport. After or extensive research, we decided on the following:

1.      Our respective home towns had Roller Derby leagues (Tick)

2.      There were a rather lot of attractive female participants (Tick)

3.      The Sport had a rather Alt-SteamPunk – burlesque cool vibe going on (Tick)

4.      It was fast (Tick)

5.      It was contact (Tick)

6.      A lot of the participants were tattooed (Tick for Mike the Kiwi Geo, although, I am not too sure on this point)

7.      Fishnets seemed to be very popular (Tick)

8.   It was REAL sport!!!! (TIK, TIK TEKETTY TIK!)

We were sold! Instantly

So now what? We promptly forgot about our stupidity & went back to work!

At home, a casual comment from the Child Bride about needing some active wear (meaning running clothes etc) was also immediately forgotten… until, when again we were gossiping over another coffee talking important manly things at work

The penny dropped: I will buy some Roller wear for the Child Bride!

It was a perfect fit; Retro yet modern, comfortable yet wearable to the beach or to snooze in at night… How good is this idea? Well, most of my ideas ARE terrible to be entirely honest… well the truth hurts doesn’t it!

Warning, This is where I am bordering on some un-paid product placement/product endorsement…

Anyway, after a rather inspired session on the internet I Googled something like “Roller Derby Wear” & I ended up at the following:

https://www.facebook.com/hellcatclothing

AND

http://www.etsy.com/shop/hellcatclothing

Thus lead to the weirdest series of e-mails I think I’ve ever sent … fortunately, the rather unusually named “GoGo Fiasco” (or Helen to her friends) was rather patient & helpful with me. From a male point of view, Ordering clothes for your wife is quite confronting (I am sure the guys out there will sympathise with me on this!) That being said, GoGo was rather helpful to e-mail size suggestions that made sense!

Just so you know how worried I was, I actually said that I’d rather not sneak around & take measure the child bride when she was asleep, which, despite the creepiness of that suggestion, GoGo was still able to provide a good size suggestion for my purchase.

So after a bit of “over the web payment options” I had ordered some Alternative Cool Active Wear for the loverly Child Bride… now I conveniently left the Home for work & awaited the results of my silliness, unfortunately, I would be away when the present popped up…

Thus the laugh was set in motion!

So, Wednesday night when I rang home, the silly boys where cackling away at this surprise package for mum; the red star & the lucky clover designs caused much hilarity. Instant hit!

The Child Bride was suffering from much consternation as to the origins of the package – then when I burst out laughing about the situation & explained that I thought it would be good active wear & I purchased it as a surprise for her she was much relieved! YAY, I will live to blog another day!

So would I buy from Hellcat again; Heck Yeah, any time & great service, BUT, it seems that they do tend to cater for attractive women, not for men who (to be blunt) resemble giant pinkish advocados

Anyway, that was a rather long & winding story that had not very much to do with scooting; but, I have decided to attend the next bout of the Orange Roller Derby (work & other commitments aside) as I think it fits with the Vibe of the Scootin’ I like Doin’… hopefully I can take the Silly boys & Alissa the sensible to this event; if not, I’ll Vespa there!

https://www.facebook.com/OrangeRollerDerbyLeague

Watch this space!

So Mote it Be

Leigh

Sorry to disapoint, but there was no way the Child Bride was going to allow me to post a pick of her in the Spiffy roller pants!

CH-CH Changes

CH-CH-Changes...

Ah that wonderful song by David Bowie summed up my first “Vespa in earnest” since the move to the Little House!

As I had changed address, I thought that I had best do the formality & change my licence information; way cool, a time to Surf out to that wonderful example of neo-urban-farmhouse-inspired-building being the NSW Roads & Traffic Authority Office, located in the Leewood industrial estate on the cool south side of OJ. On the upside, it also gave me a chance to ignore the painting & other work needed on the little house in order to have, some me time, if only for a little while.



Changing addresses took 10 minutes! Parked nicely in the middle of a spot again...



Anyway, the nice thing about the new address is travelling home! As I did not have to take the most practical & quickest way home (which I probably wouldn’t anyway!), I got to traipse all over OJ & down memory lane about the rather dull working class city that I grew up in…

The sign looks current; it isn't; The danger no entry sign is!

I first rode past the site of the Orange Sale Yards. These were operating on this site for years; it got to the stage where, after agreement between the 3 local government areas (being, Orange, Cabonne & Blayney councils) that the sale yards would be moved to Carcoar. I think the new facilities are probably way better… I can’t help thinking of the young Bogan (that I was) thinking that this place was so cool when we went here on school excursions; oh the joys of Primary school in OJ in the late 1970s!



Ahh, Edward street - so many memories!



Next on my impromptu hoon was a right turn for a spin down the wide expanses of Edward street; there used to be an Auto Wreckers that I spent a vast amount of time toiling away at when I was in my early twenties. It went by the way & the shop is now a welder/sheetmetal fabricators shop these days. Unfortunately for the wrecking yards, the arrival of quality at very affordable prices in the mid-nineties seems to have killed off the industry; such is the way things go…

The Electrolx factory; carpark in the forground

This is the manufacturing hub of OJ, Electrolux. They make refrigerators in this factory. In the past couple of years there have been rumours that this plant will shut down as it is cheaper for the Swedish multi-national to manufacture in Thailand (& bring in these fridges to Oz, as we have a free trade agreement with that Kingdom); I hope it doesn’t go the way of the Sale yards; this factory is part of the reason that OJ is a large provincial city, in many ways it has been the spine that built Orange, yes, mining has added a great additional source of employment to the town, but, the less other industries we have, the more worried I become, OJ used to have fruit co-ops, wool scouring & a textile factory, granted that these were in some ways “the ugly & low paid” industries, but heck, how many coffee shops & restaurants & gyms do we have & do they really replace these manufacturing jobs as far as creating opportunities in these areas? I will let everyone else come to their own conclusions over that question.

Those trees drop sap onto anything underneath them; i am not leaving the Surfer to that treatment!

Oh gawd, talk about nostalgia, I grew up here – it is now a Cardiologists practice (although it does look a lot better than it did when I was a teenager & when I did leave the place), the Galah-like colours are still the same though; as are the slate tiles that Dad & I put down on the front porch in the early Nineties. The medical centre that is beside this house was where Mr & Mrs White lived; they lived in an old weatherboard house… it had large “Art Deco” style furniture inside it & the old gas light controls & fittings too. It became a rental house for quite some time before the developers moved in & created the tasteful modern medical site…

Naughty!

I next shot past the Orange Velodrome, which got me thinking as well; Whene we were teenagers, Megamind (My thoroughly evil younger brother) & I used to ride our 10 speed racing bikes on the Orange Velodrome, mostly we’d race each other & dreamt about stuff… It was the 1980’s & we were teenagers & that is what teenagers did in the 1980’s

This reminiscing about racing cyclists prompted a memory…I have seen professional cyclists following a pace setter on a scooter or other small motorbike; thus I decided to see what it was like to take the surfer for a spin around a Velodrome…

I have to admit, it was cool, it reminded me of the old days, but with a lot less sweating! I did make it to top gear & flat out & was quite chuffed at the result – as the speedo isn’t working I have no idea as to the speed that I achieved!

Other than that, from an official point of view, what I did was rather naughty & should not in any way be condoned or done by others… don’t you love it when those in power say this stuff when they get busted by someone digging up a 20 year old picture of them living it up as a teenager!

As for the velodrome, Mr White once told us that there used to be semi-professional racing conducted here in the 50’s, with large crowds & professional bookmakers offering cheap entertainment to the denizens of OJ… apparently, this scene was killed off by the arrival of Television to the central Tablelands.

I wonder if there was a Vespa rider pontificating about the way things have changed when the cycling races stopped, the reason I thought about this was that I had past by Wade Park (opposite where I grew up). This park once had a greyhound race track around the outside of the footy/cricket oval. The races went to the Bathurst track about 6 years ago… apparently better facilities & more TAB money in the Bathurst track. To be honest, I was a bit sad that the old greyhound races don’t happen there anymore. When I split up with Alissa the Sensible’s Mum & was living across the road from the place, we used to have a great time wandering over to the dog track & watching the “dish lickers” run around on a summer’s Saturday night… As Alissa was about 3 years old at the time she just liked to try & talk to the doggies; but hey, we had fun! It’s a bit sad that the Silly boys won’t get “that fun” in the future either…

I couldn't get any further; all the horsies were in their stables I supose!

Of course, my meanderings then took me past Towac Park; OJ’s own centre of Horse racing; which, in my humble opinion, was in due need of a thorough Vespa-ing… at least the car park bit anyway as I could not work out how to get onto the racetrack!

I have been to the races a few times at this track & usually ended up with a rather large headache & a 10 on the Richter scale case of “never-again-itis”… I don’t actually gamble, so I’ll let you make up your own mind on that one! But let’s just say; I did enjoy these events!

After I got home & was picking up the Silly Boys, I suppose my case of nostalgia was one of those rose coloured glasses days, where you think “gee, looking back, that was cool” when at the time you hated it all; you know what they say “Nostalgia, it ain’t what it used to be…!!!”

So Mote it be!

Leigh

Selling out???

I have accepted Fate

After the move, I now have some time to do some stuff… I have ordered a speedo cable… about time too, the surfer has been showing 357.2km for about 12 months now.

Originally, I was acting the goat & not caring; BUT, it would have been a bit impressive if I could quote a top speed; I was always looking at it the way that the Newtown Rugby League Club looks at its “official attendance”… after every game, it is always the same number (taken from their last first grade home game…) If you’ve ever watched a game at Henson park, you have to laugh at the shenanigans that the fans & club managers get up to; every game that quote the same number of people in attendance as they have since they returned to competition - to a raucous chorus of laughter & cheering.

I was doing the same thing… until this morning at 4:30AM when I cracked & placed the order… am I a sell out?

I hope not, but maybe I can track the speedo & get the economy of the Surfer & such… it will be an interesting exercise

So Mote it Be

Leigh

I'm Sure it was OK!

I’m Sure it was OK - Or, Gee, it seemed like a good idea at the time!

The sign was there for bicycles, not scooters… anyway, I wasn’t taking up much space…

Guilty as charged your honour

That was until I saw the parking cop walk past… straight away my stomach dropped.

Oh well, I have gotten away with my silly business for far too long… here comes my first traffic infringement in a while… I had even taken an incriminating photo of my unlawful actions, so I could not even plead that it was someone else with a ’68 Vespa in town

So I finished my cappuccino & the associated posing & even the quick call in at the Chemist on the way back (as I didn’t want to see the Brown Bomber in the act hitting me with a ticket)

Nothing… Hmm, I’ll just have to wait & see if this is an electronic infringement system that will see me booked & the notice sent straight to the home address!

Bugger

Leigh

The Little House

Hi Anyone - Check out the new digs; looks like a motorcycle ad doesn’t: It’s all about the bikes man!

From 4 bedrooms to four rooms...

Chair, Petrol, Bikes...(I use a green fuelcan for the Vespas 2% 2 stroke fuel)

So Mote it Be!

Leigh