Jerry_Atrick

HR Departments.. Have no idea how the real world works.. Won't go into detail, but one of my reports works her posterior off and wanted a couple of days compassionate leave. She doesn'tyet meet the service requirements as per the policy., which says in rare circumstances, exceptions will be given, but of course doesn't list the circumstances. I asked for an exemption based on the hours she puts in compared to the hours she is contracted. No dice from them. Rules are rules! So, Ihad totell my direct report no,but then said, do not work an hour over her contracted hours for the foreseeable future. Their loss, for two days leave!

My brother has done that.. I couldn't bring myself to even try..

Despite their not being a credible alternative to the ALP at the moment (beyond the Teals and David Pocock - the Greens seem to have swayed a little to the activist side at the moment), the ALP seems to be doing a reasonable job. There will be stuff ups and vested interests to contend with, as well as powerful lobbyists, but compared to the previous governments, they could do a lot worse given how crap the others are. I didn't think Albo had it in him and the Voice referendum jusitifed my position. But to his credit, unlike Starrmer here, he has learned a pretty valuable lesson from that stuff up and seems to be far better than many people's expectations. He hasn't made decisions that will satisfy everyone - you can't do that in politics. But it seems, with a couple of exceptions, he is finding the correct balance.

Hmm.. can't recall ever being offered free electricity when fossil was the major player in town. So much for the cost argument: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/australia-offer-three-hours-free-solar-per-day-millions-2025-11-04/

Are you sure: But, yeah, luv the bike so far...

Looks like they are all united.. like they were last time:

Day 2 of ownership and I took the bike this morning to the shop - in 2 degrees grey muck with a little drizzle thrown in for fun. First of all, F! it is a heavy bike with a dry weight of 251kgs. We have a stone parking area of the driveway and I had to drag the bugger back with a bit of resistance before I could get onto it and go. Around a tight curve then down the steep bitumen driveway, holding it in first and using the brakes to stop it rolling away. A tight left onto the road, a shallow left, followed by another tight left and up a country lane, where it is quite hilly and s biy of debris around: The top red line is quite hilly, with an especially steep and narrow road deading south into Milverton. Past Milverton, it is more undulating, but narrow and some quite heavy traffic, wtill with a lot of muck on the road and it was getting wet. Also, as I reached Wellington (Tonedale is a suburb of Wellington), my hands were noticeably cold. For the lower red line, a van had to be patient behind me as I was not taking it too fast. I am still getting used to the lump of metal at the moment. But, into Wellington, I was able to filter past stopped cars and the van was eventually left well behind. Foolsihly, I said to my partner to head off ahead of me as I will catch her in no time. Famous last words as she had been waiting for a "few minutes" for me to arrive. Looking at the bottom right of the map, the red dot marks the location - Foxmoor Business Park. Coming south along the road, you had to drive to the round about at thejunction of the M5, and dow a yewie back as no right turn is allowed from that road. When I dropped the bike off the mechanic was working on a pristine Harley of some sortwith a fantastic side car. Ithad a blue andwhite colour scheme and looked the bees knees. Anyway, I received a call - I was a day early for the MOT renewal - it is due on the 18th Decemeber, but can only be renewed within the month it expires, which starts on the 19th of December. Apparently, it sailed through with no problems. It had a full service and a check over, and all is OK. That was a relief. Heated grips and storm guards are fitted. It is tucked away nicely in the shop, which is great, as it is chucking it down today. I may well park it in the coach house overnight, a dilapidated garage on site that is still largely watertight. It is also at the bottom of the driveway so not such a pain to get out. In addition, there is a slight downslop to the garage, so I can "back it" into the garage ready to be ridden out immediately. Problem is, it is a 50m walk or so to the top of the drive, which will be a pain in the wet and lugging luggage up. That reminds me - fitting the top box tomorrow.

Defo.. I touch the downpipes when I think I think it is ready

I picked up the bike today. By the time we lest this morning at around 10:30am, the temperature here had already exceeded the forecast higjh of 7 by a whole half a degree. The drive was pretty good for a daytime, with only a couple of disruptions thanks to roadworks. Although, now, it is saying a tad under two hours, it was about 2hrs 15 mins today to Northleach: A quick inspection checked all was OK and into a church converted into a lovely house to move the cash (by bank transfer - nice) and transfer the registration all at the same time. At this stage, after so many years out of the saddle, I was starting to feel some trepidation. The temperature at Northleach was a balmy 5 degrees, and it is a reasonably big bike with a twitchy throttle. I was hoping I wouldn't drop it before getting a metre from the kerb. I went back to the car and robed up with the new motorcycle kit. The braces on the trousers weren't playing nice, so stuff it - just the one brace would have to do it. Otherwise, everything fit fine. I was a little worred that my hands would freeze up uickly with no heated grips or storm guards. And, I bloody well forgot my ear plugs. It was going to be a noisy ride home. I gently rode from the kery getting the feet on the pegs as quickly as possible. It pulled away smoothly and responsively. As the main village road was uite narrow for the volume of cars, I took it easy, not going above 20mph for the 300 metres or so. Then onto an A road, but with a 60mph limit, I kept to 50 getting used to the bike. Darn! I forgot to adjust the mirrors before I left, so adjusted them while riding. Everything seemed to be working and the tyres were gripping well - although it was dry. The bike likes to rev high for a tourer - at least to me. 70mph indicated comes with about 4,750 rpm.. And the speedos in these are known for their over-reading.. so a true 70mph is about 5,000rpm. It redlines at 10,000, but for a detuned fireblade engine, I was expecting the cruise RPM to be a little lower. You can get a front sprocket to "improve" the gearing, but the jury is out. For now, I am going to leave it as it is. It does explain the slightly lower fuel efficiency. Anyway, I came to what I knew to be the first disruption/traffic jame due to roadworks. I was able to filter past about 2/3 of it, with about 1/3 being within double lines and every car was hugging the centre line trying to see what was going on. I guess I saved maybe 10 minutes, as the queue was long and the temprary lights seeming to only allow about three cars through the green for about triple, if not more than that going the other way. Onto the M5, and crusing at 75moph (about 70mph true) had me at 5,000 revs, and I checked a few times if I was stuck in 5th instead of 6th. Nope - that is how they rev. I could feel it was cold, but remarkably, the kit was hilding up well. My hands weren't exactly toastie, but they weren't cold, either. The bike was stable and very responsive. I did take it to 90mph for a short time, and acceleration from m70 to 90 was swift enough. The bike is responsive to rider inputs. The only let down is the helmet. Adter a while, it started to feel like it was clamping on hy head, which is weird as it starts of comfortably snug. A stop at a motorway services and a top up of the tank (even though it is 30p/litre more at these places, I was out of pocket by £11 instead of about £9.50, I reckon). After I took the helmet off and put it back on again, it was fine, only to start clamping agains as I got to within about 5 minutes of home - after riding for about an hour. Will have to check that out more. The sun was shining brilliantly; the outside weather climbed to 7 degrees. I was riding into the sun all the way, and the built in sun visor did an OK job, however, as the sun's slant angle became more acute, it became more difficult to see.. And that was in the country lane back to my village, where at times I could not see very far in front at all.. That was not a great feeling. Up the driveway - onto the centre stand, and after cooling the brand new Rainex cover went on. Generally speaking, this is a very good bike, especially for its age. It will go on for a full service tomorrow and its MOT as well as fitting the storm guards and heated grips. More to come.

At the moment I would agree

I did mean, on a celcius scale, 7 degrees is warmer than 6. It is currently 4 degrees where I am, with a northerly wind with a bite. Without heated grips, it is going to be a "fun" ride home. I may take longer and ride slower, me thinks. I have to do some work this morning and then I will be off to get the bike.

The cat's out of the bag now, mate...

I have to admit, they are comfy bikes - bit like riding in an armchair

Are trying to attract new residents to the area?

At least if that does happen, it will be a big enough smelling rat that the MAGA will further split and eventually implode.

While it's hypothetical that a party will win all seats in both houses, it isn't hypothetical that a party wins such a strong majoirity in both seats that they may as well have won all of them, especially at the moment. The old saying, "power corrupts and aboslute power absolutely corrupts" generally holds true, whether it is for personal enrichment, seeking to entrench power of disproportionately pushing an ideology. So what will happen will depend on the strength of the constitution and the constitutional institutions in applying the guardrails. On one hand we want to limit their power; on the other hand in such a situation, the electorate has spoken that it wants them to use their power.

I have seen the vid before and I agree about the leather. I have a good set of leathers, alas, still a little too narrow at the moment (still working on it). One of the articles of clothing were too small and one was way too large, so off to Bristol to sort it out. Tomorrow.. pick up the bike. Forecast for where I get the bike from is still good, if cold: Bristol is a little warmer: Taunton is the same as Bristol, so hopefully a good ride!

Just bringing the CBF discussion back to here: Thankfully, no tram lines on my route. London only has one tram line between Wimbledon and Croydon, and from the below snippet, it does not interact with the road all that much: I purchased a Shoe neotec helmet with a pinlock visor, which is an inner visor that fits to the main visor. It does a great job of keeping the visor from fogging up. However, it comes with an inbuilt drop down dark tinted visor, which is handy for someone like me who wears specs, but thgat does fog up, but for the times I ride in winter, the sun is rarely a problem. I do have a steep driveway, but the bike will be parked at the bottom of it, so I don't see the need to use the brakes at the times I ride in winter that often until there is some warmth with the bike. I have purchased a decent waterproof cover for the bike, which of course doesn't stop condensation and then picking up moisture when riding, so that's a fact of life I have to live with and manage. Peak hour drivers in the UK are much better than their Aussie counterparts in general. That is because there is so many of them and they are all very focused on getting through the traffic to get to where they want to go. They are generally situationally very aware and very courteous to motorcycles - often moving away fro mthe centre of the road if they see a motorcylist filtering, for example. Of course, there are exceptions. Day drivers are a totally different beast. I have learned the hard way about debris on the road - and not only leaves, twigs, sand and the like - but I was coming up the centre of the road to a red traffic light passing stopped cars. As I turned to get back in lane at the front of the queue to get back into lane, the ftont wheel slid out from under me (at low speed). As I was going down I was thinking what the F! caused that. I got the bike back up and stood it out of the way of cars ready to go on the green, and walked back to see what happened. You wouldn't believe it, but a think clear rectangle of perspex or similar was laying - impossible to see - right where I started the turn back into the lane. That was my skinny faird er6f Ninja, Bent clutch lever, scrape on the fairing, busted foot peg (they are cheap bikes) but massively dented ego. Yes.. there aren;t too many riders that haven't learned lessons the hard way. Youtube is full of those that can teach others. I agree - there aren;t too many. The First day I had my brand spanking new Honda CG125, I dropped it. I out it on its centre stand on the side of the road, not realising how much camber was on the kerb side of the bike. It stayed upright until I got to the front door! Thankfully, it is a light bike. The VFR750 went over twice - once it had snowed overnight and our road had ice and snow on it. So I walked it to the top of the road (about 100metres) where the main arterial road into London was, which was nicely ploughed. But, as I looked right, I noticed a bus coming and instinct kicked in to get out before the bus came. I gave it a little throttle and let the clutch out a bit while the rear wheel was still on the icy bit. Over she went. The second time as at a supermarket. I wasn't payint attention when disengaged the centrestand, lost balance and over she went. The er6f had three drops - the one I mentioned; one where a van cut me off in a turn and I lost balance as it clipped me (and then took off - but I caught up with him, as did a witness, so that fixed the damage), and my accident where I lost grip in the wet under moderate braking - I can only think I hit oil. As the bike started to veer into oncoming traffic, I had to dtop trying to keep it upright and drop the bike - just didn't get my ankle out of the way quick enough. These are all lessons learned. Even the van incident, which was not my fault, taught me what I could have done better in that situation. I have only hit black ice once, and that was in Richmond Park on by bicycle, on a concrete shared walking/cycle track. Wearing helmets is not compulsory when cycling here, but I make a habit of doing it. It was on the 24th December, and I came off backwards and whacked the back of my head so hard on the concrete, it snapped a side stap of the helmet and cracked the side as little. Shudder to think what would happen if I weren't wearing it. If it is too cold, I will leave the bike at home, but the weather seems a lot warmer, and the motorways are well salted these days (an issue for the frame - for which ACF50 will come in handy). I haven't yet encountered black ice on the maotorways or arterial/main roads in London yet. But, yeah, there will be a first time.

Been bucketing it down all day today. As we're on top of a hill, we are OK, but the village roads have standing water everywhere. And to top it off, we have found our roof has a leak again! F! And the builder's phone is diverting straight to voicemail. First world problems, actucally. But it is still, F!'ed But I still feel OK.. I get my motorbike on Monday. Have I mentioned that, yet? Forecast for Monday is stuill sunny, though the surrounding days forecast have become decidely worse Quite the opposite woudl be the case if I have an aircraft booked!

(editing window too late).. All done online, no Amazon involvement. It is a well known local chain supplier. With friends coming over this weekend, I would not have had a chance to get to Bristol or Cheltenham, the closest two stores... which are about 45 and 75 miles away respectively.

Just ordered: Textile Jacket -Alpinestars - Their own Dryshield rather than Gore-Tex... On sale. Has elbow and shoulder body armour. Body armour - back protector Trousers - Waterproof and knee/hip protection. Can't reall the brand, but they were well reviewed and the zips fit the jacket. About 1/2 the price of Alpinestars. Alpinestar racing boots (best protection) Gore-Tex on sale (1/2 price and I checked other stores). Bonza! Gloves - Alpinestar Gore Tex, with knuckle protection High Vis one piece waterproof outer. All done online.. Should arrive tomorrow. That is all the kit done now. Just waiting for Monday!

@facthunter - your post re the cooling system did get me thinking - in case, how much am I looking at. A new Honda (claimed) genuine waterpump goes from around £100 to £150 at dealers. The radiator is around £100 (again, claimed genuine). Fitting and coolant would be extra of course. .Allow a couple of humdred pounds. A thermostat is about £30.. So a full refit (ex sensors) would probably be £450-ish.. I am now double hoping there are no problems.

Yeah.. one has to be careful with water cooled bikes, but everythign checked out OK on this one so far. The radiator looks in good condition and although placed nicely away, has a guard on it, too.. Of course, that doesn't stop corrosion, but with only 3 owners and very well documented history, it seems it has been well cared for and with the right anti-freeze and concentration, should be OK for a few miles yet. Fairings are generally expeinsive over here. If I break a fairing, so be it.. It is a winter/commuter hack. Another reason why I didn't want to spend a lot of money on it. I will do a repair if needed, find second hand (never easy), or a mate has a really good 3d printing setup - I am sure he can knock something up in the right colour for a lot less. Honda here are not known to be more expensive than the other Japanese brands in parts. Hopefully I won't need to find out (famous last words).

Looks like the Democrats need to grow some gonads: Of course, it is only a few of the Democrats, apparently