EoSM : yet another report (long)

This island of ours is truly a Great Britain.

I had packed appropriately for a typical August in England, sandals,
shorts and T shirt. You can imagine my surpise after leaving Edinburgh
in glorious sunshine to find that all this talk of drought in England
was not true. It appeared that England had misappriated the Scottish
weather and was keeping it in Newcastle and Derbyshire.

Riding down the east coast of Scotland was most enjoyable, beautiful
sunshine, warm wind and spectacular views out to sea. After crossing the
border it all changed, entering the conurbation of Newcastle I was
confronted with a veritable sea of water, I swear there was almost two
inches of standing water on the motorway. Fortunately it was confined
just to Newcastle and exiting the city the beautiful sunshine and warm
winds returned.

I had carefully memorised my route so felt confident that I'd get to
Hulland Ward without mishap. Imagine my surprise when junction 28 of the
M1 just didn't appear, I was at 290 miles so it should be there. I
spotted an A6 o something and knew that I must be close. I stopped to
refuel and realised that the A606 wasn't quite the same as A6 and A1
wasn't quite the same as M1. Grantham was definitely not listed on my
route plan.

Fortunately the filling station had a special offer, if I bought a Mars
bar I could get a road atlas for £1.99 . It wasn't quite a handy bike
size but I could just squeeze it inside my jacket and it kept me quite
warm for the next part of the route.

New route planned and I set off into what can only be described as
British weather at it's best. My trusty voyager jacket was sadly beaten
into submission by Derbyshires wall of rain.

Arrived at Hulland Ward just an hour later than planned so hadn't missed
too much. Fortunately there was plenty of food available and as luck
would have it, a single slice of the most delicious chocolate gateaux
had survived to set me up nicely for the evening. That and a bottle of
red wine.

The rain held off just long enough to put the tent up and then it was
back to finishing off the wine.

It was nice to see everyone again.

Disco landlord was very entertaining. I now know why everyone always
wants to blow their own trumpet.

The after pub closing party round at dodgers place was particularly well
catered for this year. I can't quite remember what was available but
there was definitely a vodka with some sort of fruit in it, a plastic
bottle with some liquid in it and a hand written label. I stuck to the
bottle of Scottish gin because it had "botanicals" in it. I'd just like
to thank platy for allowing us to witness a teenage drinking binge up
close. I can't remember the ones I had a teenager so it was nice to be
reminded. I think the phrase he used was "it's better she learns her
lesson whilst I can keep an eye on her" or words to that effect, my
memory may have been impaired by alcohol. She's a sweet girl and was
remarkably coherent considering how late it was.

You can't beat a decent English cooked breakfast and the Black Horse
once again excelled itself.

Had a shot of the 1200 Honda Goldwing and all I can say it's very
different from a supersports 600. Not sure if I'm ready for one yet. The
Moto Guzzi was lovely, a nice noise, and for those of you who
wondered why I didn't twist the throttle all the way, the answer is, I
was scared. Actually come to think of it I was scared of the Goldwing too !

The journey home was pretty much uneventful, leaving Derbyshire left the
overcast weather behind, nice warm and dry until I hit Newcastle which
hadn't got rid of the rain storm.

Played acceleration games with a Mercedes sports car once I got over the
border. The last hundred miles just shot past.

Arrived home with aching shoulders and I could hardly turn my neck. A
nice hot bath and some sleep soon sorted it.

The bike is now 600 miles overdue for it's official first service.

Thanks to Lozzo for organising this event and good luck to Jackie when
organising the next one.

Roll on the next OSM.

 

"Sloe vodka" - Burnt was with us in spirit.

"Andrea's Mum's firewater" IIRC, courtesy of Boots Blakeley a couple of
years ago. We put it in the freezer once and it stayed determinedly
liquid...

Heh. Something like that.

Often too coherent...

A morbid and unnatural fear of black motorcycles, then.

 

Heh.

I've still got about five litres of that and seven of Gin from 2004...
plus a couple from 2003. Didn't make any in 2005, 2006 looks like it
may be a reasonable year.

I do wonder why I make so much though when I give more away than I
drink.

 

Why does this always seem to kick off *after* I've gone to bed?

Oh. Ah. Thank you.

<sob>
--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/CBX1000Z
|_\_____/_| ..82616../..22238.../..31893.
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 WG*
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 PM#5
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4 YTC#4 two#11
'^' RBR Clues: 36 Pts: 660 Miles:2579

 

Judging from her condition on Sunday morning, I'd say she reaped what
she sowed, so to speak. Whether it left any lasting impression, I
don't know - from personal experience at that age, I'd say probably
not...

 

She took a little while to get up to speed.

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=219926327&context=set-72157594244079839&size=l

There was also a certain amount of nodding-off on the M5.

 

To be fair, she's used to 12 hours sleep of a night, not 4½.

 

You went to bed in the middle of it.

Cheer up, you miserable bugger.

 

It was actually very palatable.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

 

That'll be because it was based on Stolly. Prefer the Gin though.

Well I think it is. I should either make less or drink more.

Hmm. I think I should make less; I don't really think I want to drink
more (actually, I'm barely drinking these days in any case; if you
ignore wine with dinner)

 

The wine's the killer - you get to the point where it's just what you drink
with your meal every evening, and you really don't notice how much you're
putting away.

Err, R/you/one/

 

how could anyone consider having an evening meal /without/ wine?

 

I do, almost all the time. Then again, I'm not really drinking in the
week anymore either.

 

Indeed, it's beyond me. Although TBF there are very odd occasions when
I drink beer with a meal, and even odder ones (like last Saturday)
when I had so much the night before (and didn't get to bed until 7.30
am) that I was still pissed, and hurting, at dinner time.

Which reminds me: has anyone else noticed the language-shift of recent
years from 'Dinner' to 'Supper'? I seemed to notice a much higher
proportion of people (many of whom I've skied with) using this term in
the last couple of years, and also it seems to be popping up in
literature[1] now.

When I was brought up we always referred to the evening meal as 'Tea'
and it often wasn't the main meal of the day - in adult life, and
moving more to the South of England, that was changed to Dinner for
the sake of being understood, as well as it almost always being the
main meal.

So what's happened with 'Supper'? Has it all changed again?

[1] E.g. Paulo Coelho's 'The Zahir' translated from portugese.
--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

well, yes - I don't have wine with absolutely every evening meal.

yes, though in my experience "dinner" is a meal between (very roughly)
7 and 10pm and "supper" is a couple of hours later.

breakfast-> elevenses-> lunch(eon)-> tiffin-> high tea-> dinner->
supper-> standing in front of the fridge in the middle of the night
not quite sure why you're there.

shifted rather than changed. In Middle English, for example, "dinner"
referred to breakfast.

 

Next time I'll imagine they're red.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This is your answer. Posh people, innit?

 

1. So all skiers are posh, are we?
2. Anyway, I'm talking about a shift in usage amongst the people I
know, nearly all of whom, by your definition, are posh.
3. Sort out your font-spacing, newbie.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

I suspect it's partly geographical, we all still say 'tea' round these
parts... but they don't on the BBC.

Supper to me is something that happens after 'tea', in a not quite
midnight snack kind of way.

Breakfast, lunch, tea, supper.

Odd as it sounds, I see dinner as something with several courses, rather
than just a plate of food at a certain time of day... so dinner can be
lunch or tea as far as I'm concerned, but not every day.

 

[snip usage of 'supper']

Yes.
<resists urge to mention gold taps>

<thinks>
But maybe not TOG. Although I reckon he's posh but just a bit
dishevelled )

See above.

Apologies, but I'm using Google Groups

Yeah, I think that sums it up for me too. And I'm southern.