Well, what’s been happening on the Shiny Stormer front since the September meeting? Not a lot, I’m afraid, hence the lack of scribblings on the blog but as I’d got a couple of minutes to spare I thought I’d just ‘keep in touch’.
Following the last meeting the SS was prepped and made ready for the meeting scheduled for East Hanningfield. The B50 engine was removed from the frame and delivered to my ‘engine man’ with a list of things that needed doing following the lock-up at Marks Tey. With no rush the get the engine completed, as the B50 had effectively retired for the rest of the season, I agreed to start sourcing the obvious parts needed. The SS was promoted to Number One Race Bike for the rest of the season and I was looking forward to the last two meetings.
The chap who was organising the East Hanningfield event unfortunately had to withdraw and a new ‘volunteer’ was found. For the second meeting running we had a virgin organiser so I gave what assistance I could in the run-up to the event which basically consisted of making reassuring noises and telling him all the problems he was experiencing were normal – they weren’t singling him out for special treatment, our members really are that bad filling in forms!
A slight diversion from the Pre65 world the last weekend of September as it was the GLW’s birthday, a significant birthday at that, so a long weekend at Aldeburgh with her sister and brother-in-law was in order. It was basically an excuse to eat too much (the Aldeburgh Food Festival started on the Saturday, a happy coincidence!), drink just enough and take a couple of interesting walks. The weather was stunning and Aldeburgh was teeming with incomers, the majority of whom appeared to be of the braying toff type. It’s a shame that this section of the Suffolk coast-line has become inundated with upper class weekenders with their pink polo shirts and huge handbags (and that’s just the blokes) and I do appreciate the money they bring to local businesses but they do destroy the very essence of the area with their arrogance and total disregard for anyone else. Still we managed to have a good laugh at some of their antics and the designer shops that had sprung up to service their needs.
Sunday dawned bright and clear and we set off to visit the Minsmere RSPB reserve for a spot of twitching. This proved to be my downfall, quite literally, as I managed one of my trademark stumbles, landing heavily on my right knee and left elbow (no I don’t know how I did that!) but the subsequent bruising and blood proved the point. During the week before the October meeting the knee proved to be annoying but the damage to the elbow meant a lack of feeling in the left hand so riding was out of the question. Bugger!
The decision was also made to shift the meeting from East Hanningfield to Marks Tey as the EH track was deemed too dangerous due to dust as a result of the lack of rain in the area. Talk about a baptism of fire for the organiser! All the riders had to be contacted, plus marshals and officials but he appeared to have done a stirling job as everyone appeared to make it to Marks Tey on the day. I popped along to watch a few races and pick up the Chairman’s articles for the Club Newsletter and the meeting did seem to be very well organised with all the riders seeming to have a good time. Having endured the normal ridicule from the tricyclists, I returned home with sufficient ammunition to write a couple of scathing comments in the editorial!
The following week saw much typing on the home PC before finally putting the quarterly newsletter ‘to bed’. Hard copy delivered to the printers, labels and stamps stuck on envelopes, email copies sent out followed two days later by the ‘snail mail’ editions. Whew! Having lit the blue touch-paper, I then just sat back and waited on the fallout! Didn’t take long but nothing too serious (mainly around the ever-problematic Clubman Class) and hopefully it will have stirred up enough people to speak up at the AGM.
The next meeting is the ‘Christmas Cracker’ at Marks Tey 15th November. Looks like it will be a fun meeting, certainly likely to be a bit wet and muddy, and a last chance for riders to improve their complexions with all that mud before Christmas. I’m not riding but I will be sulking in the pits!
Onward and Upwards!
No comments:
Post a Comment