saturday

saturday. saturday between christmas and new year. late nights and late mornings. no work, well, no day job. lazy, tea drinking sofa saturday. hot toast and cuddly dogs and tea. more tea. boots on. the dogs tell me when its time to go. plastic ducks and duck, 'me duck, carved into tree branches. mossy walls and squirrel hunters. freezing fog, mossy walls and muddy lanes. spot-faced brackets, grub screws and cutting oil. milling stock, taking stock and leaping stiles. saturday.

happy days toy town

 those pesky kids eh? fancy photo-shopping my face onto the picture of that daft bloke wearing his mr's 'onesy' and joke feet slipper's, i mean, as if i would ever wear anything like that and expose it to the blogosphere, ahem, anyway, heres a quick look at my gifts received on xmas day from my family and friends, the 'loveless's bar' neon sign was a stroke of genius by mr's b, the jarno saarinen dvd brilliant, i'm a sucker for books too, [i read everything thats put in front of me, always have, always will i guess, i even read the back of the porridge box every morning whilst i'm waiting for the microwave to 'ping'] the casey stoner book, the johnny cash autobiography, dennis hopper's amazing story should prove to be an eye-popper, two northern soul books, [so many memories] and 'that near-death experience' the story of four riders competing at the world's greatest roadrace, the isle of man tourist trophy races, then there's the music, led zeppelin's classic live bbc sessions,  previously only available as poor quality bootleg's sold on at record fairs, finally given the release they deserve, a double eels live release, [saw 'e' live earlier at rock city in nottingham with jess, a great gig indeed] and some blues from old seasick steve himself, and then? well, that only leaves the dvd 'the miners campaign tapes' a 'secret' collection of video tape footage that a group of independent film makers took back in 1984 at the height of the strike, fascinating viewing to those of us who lived through those dark days and certainly not easy to watch, from the picket lines to the marches to the infamous 'battle of orgreave' to quote david peace from an article published in the 'new statesman' from 1st march, 2004, it may give you a taste of why i feel so passionate about this slice of british history........'twenty years ago, there was sacfrifice. twenty years ago there was selflessness. not in a novel. not in a film. but in great britain. in this country. in 1984...in great britain, in 1984, people might have done things differently, but the past is not a foreign country. the people who lived and died there are not strangers. they are our people, us and it is our country. then and now, right or wrong, we are shoulder to shoulder.'

christmas day at the bailey's.......

please, drink responsibly people, happy xmas mofo's........

these things will keep me loving you....

in no particular order, happy xmas to, jan tomlinson, [stinkyfiveblogsot], thanks for the music and the amazing photo's, greg aka nanno, ed at fingymoto, still need to meet up for a couple of porters and show the 'narrowback's' a night out ed], joe c, down-under ex ducatista, harley botherer, the long eaton crew, bench-donkee andy and grant, hairy larry and the hermit from over the pond, mr bison-head, med's, [can you hear that? that's the sound of forest's bandwagon grinding to a halt] my girl's, mr's bloody b, [scottish, 'resting-face' hard, soulmate, lover and best friend, we will get through it hon, love you, hard time's coming up i know but we will beat it]  the kid's, jessica, [baby girl] jack, [my first-born] the 'boy's' ted and gus [r.i.p. the big staffy in the sky, unfinished business mate, they will be getting a knock on the door i promise...]  soul boys and girls everywhere, the 'proper english gentlemen' derby county efff-ceee!!! sweary mick and chalky, neil at cornerspeed, rosemary in the isle of man for the dig's, all the racers, raver's and rocker's..... best wishes from dangerous too, my right hand man so that's it then, except......... oh yeah, a big sloppy fucking kiss to my homie in surfers paradise, mr dog williams, love you bro' you know why......oh, sorry, i missed chris snyder out from 'the boy and his duc' blogspot, sorry chris, here's to more 'sparring' in the new year 'ya big, daft yank!!!!

gimme dat harp boy

 captain beefheart, has anyone ever listened to 'trout mask replica' all the way through? i reckon it's brilliant, but, after two tracks i want to smash my i-pod, treasure arrived today, a beautiful, hard anodised, lightweight rear sprocket, made by another brilliant british company, hat's off to renthal, who along with oberon, produce real quality, well engineered products that just work as they should do, class, [especially compared to the horrible o.e.m 'thing' fitted to the rear hub, the headlight mounting brackets took a lurch forward tonight too, a one-millimetre slot, end-milled to take a 15mm bush, [ready for our not-so-friendly, nasty bastard, welding ex-spurt to wield some majick] this will carry the lovely, little oberon led indicator, now,  imagine two more bushes, this time welded on at ninety degrees to the first bush, these will mount the brackets to carry the headlight in a norton-domi-racer rip-off stylee, [see post from the recent n.e.c./motorcycle live for a picture of what i'm trying to achieve] oh yeah, one of the things that really, really, fucks me off, [everytime i look at the bike] is the horrible 'headsteady/top engine mounting bracket] i mean, look at it, a couple of pieces of thin tinplate, bent in a vice with a hammer, fucking horrible, especially as it's right in the centre of the machine and right at the heart of the bike, the first thing you look at is the engine and there's a bracket that ikea would have rejected on a 'smmmalck' swing-bin, cheap, nasty, tacky, wank [can you imagine ducati producing something like this for even a bottom of the range motorcycle? nah, i don't think so] we deserve better triumph, it's a cheapskate fix, not up to the job, piss-poor in fact,  and that's why i spent a sleepless night thinking about an alternative and roughing out a couple of pieces of eight-mill........

solstice

december 21st, the shortest day, somethings never change, the 21st december is the shortest day, the least amount of daylight in the year, after today, the days draw out by two minutes a day until the 21st of june, the longest day, the seasons come, the seasons go, there's nothing so certain, today, the sun barely breaks the horizon, me and the boys take a long walk to celebrate the winter solstice, the trees are bare of leaves, naked in the milky winter sunshine, the sun offer's no warmth at this time of year, frosty and cold, dead leaves and the dirty ground, crab apples fallen from the tree and gently rotting away, the river, dark brown and muddy, swollen by the winter storms, up onto the southern most slopes of the peak district before they fall away gently into the derwent valley, dogs, panting, running, marking their territory, someone has marked out a huge 'w.w.1' on the steep hillside, burnt into the turf with some sort of chemical agent, 'world war one' it's a hundred years almost since the outbreak of the 'great war' the shadows lengthen, almost as soon as the day breaks it's fading away........

girl, you have no faith in medicine

xmas songs, i reckon the pogues, 'fairytale of new york' is the best ever, love this song, bring's a tear my eye every time, fucking brilliant, heard it for the first time this year today in the shed, anyway, enough of all that sentimental old bollocks, let's talk about stuff that really matters, mounted the big, ugly horn under the tank, out of the way, never to be seen again, turned up a little spacer out of a scrap of round stock that i found in the lathe bed, lets talk  headlight brackets, i had originally dismissed the big, chrome, stock headlamp, it was heading for one of the big, blue, plastic storage bin's in my ma's shed, never to be seen again and replaced with what? yeah, another cheapo 'bates' copy that i fit to almost, [ok, ok, every bike i build], a quick search on the 'tinterweb reveals a hundred and one alternative headlight mounting bracket's, all of them servicable, but, well, fucking ugly really, dig out some 50mm aluminium round stock, perfect, the fork leg diameter is 41mm, turn up a plug gauge to replicate the dia. of the forks so we have something to work to, a mountain of swarf hit's the shed floor, i'm not fussed, weighed in a couple of bags of turnings at my favourite scrap merchant's and swapped the moneytary value for used, servicable stock, like the man said, 'what goes around comes around' or, 're-cycling' i suppose, handmade parts, it's the way forward, inbetween all this, i've finished the cam cover, i have no fingerprints left, i've rubbed them away with endless pieces of 'wet and dry' [wet of course, with a squirt of 'fairy liquid' in the mix], all to a xmas soundtrack on the radio, mariah carey, 'all i want for xmas is you', sexy, george and andrew singing 'last christmas', mud, 'it'll be lonely this xmas', [who can forget les singing the last verse 'merry christmas darling, wherever you are' cracks me up everytime] a close second must be the darkness 'christmas time' [don't let the bell's end], brilliant, which brings us full circle, the pogues, best xmas song ever i reckon, 'it was christmas eve in the drunk tank......'