But no money to feed it, for with the bad always comes the good, to restore the delicate balance of the universe. This week's turn of bad luck was my untimely firing (through some fault of my own, admittedly).
However, far outweighing the awful luck of losing my job, was getting my beloved bike back! It had been off the road for over a month, so when an old friend offered to help me out I jumped at the chance! Especially for the princely sum of a few cuppas - although I shall definitely pay him back in the coming weeks.
He swapped over the engine and put the bodywork back on, and it is now ready for the roads again - and admittedly with a little more torque than I remember it... but hey, parallel twins deliver their power in lovely ways!!
Next thing to do to it is to spray the bike. Not sure whether to keep the yellow or not. Black would increase the resale value, yellow would keep it's character. Both equally desirable!
Yellow or black. I think a google comparison is in order...
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Birth Order
I was reading a few articles on birth order today. I'm the oldest child, and seem to have pretty much all the oldest child traits. I knew all this already, so this is not what I was interested in. I am more interested in what my sister is like.
As the youngest, she is obviously so if you meet her - well, I think she is anyway, but I could be just biased; she is my little sis after all! However, judging by what I've been reading, there are only a couple of traits that I can identify in her that are younger sibling traits - socially outgoing for example, but then again, there are ones that I really can't see in her. Some sources say that younger siblings are agreeable and less likely to provoke, but I've lived with her long enough to know that's not true. In fact, if anything, on reading up on personality traits, she actually seems to have a lot of older sibling traits too.
Maybe growing up in my shadow caused her to develop a similar-but-different personality, or maybe my parents have been very clever in how they brought us up - which, all things considered, I wouldn't have put past them!
The birth order thing also led me to think about what it must be like for my little sister being born into the family with me always having been around. I find the idea of having three permanent figures in the family to be an odd one - I, being the eldest, only had my parents. Lizzy was a later addition.
Then I think, what about the family cats? They were there before I was born, so maybe if I think about it like that? And that's when it starts to make sense. And I suppose, if lizzy ever tried to fathom the feeling of the new addition, maybe she could use our new cat as an example!
I wonder if cats could be affected by the birth order phenomenon?
As the youngest, she is obviously so if you meet her - well, I think she is anyway, but I could be just biased; she is my little sis after all! However, judging by what I've been reading, there are only a couple of traits that I can identify in her that are younger sibling traits - socially outgoing for example, but then again, there are ones that I really can't see in her. Some sources say that younger siblings are agreeable and less likely to provoke, but I've lived with her long enough to know that's not true. In fact, if anything, on reading up on personality traits, she actually seems to have a lot of older sibling traits too.
Maybe growing up in my shadow caused her to develop a similar-but-different personality, or maybe my parents have been very clever in how they brought us up - which, all things considered, I wouldn't have put past them!
The birth order thing also led me to think about what it must be like for my little sister being born into the family with me always having been around. I find the idea of having three permanent figures in the family to be an odd one - I, being the eldest, only had my parents. Lizzy was a later addition.
Then I think, what about the family cats? They were there before I was born, so maybe if I think about it like that? And that's when it starts to make sense. And I suppose, if lizzy ever tried to fathom the feeling of the new addition, maybe she could use our new cat as an example!
I wonder if cats could be affected by the birth order phenomenon?
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Banana Transplant
My motorbike is severely unwell! :-(
Sunday before last, after a long and enjoyable trip to and around Bury Hill not even 2 miles from the end of the journey my bike lost its power and made funny noises. Oil all over the engine and none left inside it (despite putting a load in on Friday evening). Matt reckons piston rings or valves. Frisbys reckon the same.
So, as the cost of a garage replacing the engine would be gargantuan, I figured shell out £150 odd to buy another engine and fit it myself. I've played around with car engines in my car mechanics class, so it shouldn't be /too/ different - even if it is hellishly tricky, I enjoy a challenge and I'm an engineer so I need to get used to this sort of thing!
Might see if I can respray my bike while it's in bits.
Sadly this means I'm bikeless for quite a while! Only been a week and I miss it like crazy! I don't really know what to do with myself now it's out of action! :-(
Oh well - I should enjoy performing the heart transplant on my beloved... I always fancied myself as a surgeon! ;-)
Sunday before last, after a long and enjoyable trip to and around Bury Hill not even 2 miles from the end of the journey my bike lost its power and made funny noises. Oil all over the engine and none left inside it (despite putting a load in on Friday evening). Matt reckons piston rings or valves. Frisbys reckon the same.
So, as the cost of a garage replacing the engine would be gargantuan, I figured shell out £150 odd to buy another engine and fit it myself. I've played around with car engines in my car mechanics class, so it shouldn't be /too/ different - even if it is hellishly tricky, I enjoy a challenge and I'm an engineer so I need to get used to this sort of thing!
Might see if I can respray my bike while it's in bits.
Sadly this means I'm bikeless for quite a while! Only been a week and I miss it like crazy! I don't really know what to do with myself now it's out of action! :-(
Oh well - I should enjoy performing the heart transplant on my beloved... I always fancied myself as a surgeon! ;-)
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Reflections
First of all, can I say that I'm writing this in an internet cafe. Nothing wrong with that except that there is a man behind me watching fat woman porn, and I'm really struggling not to laugh.
But I digress.
I was just reading back over some of my old blog entries over the years. I was a pretty angry person! And VERY opinionated too. I still agree with the things I believed back then, but perhaps I could have worded some of it better, and maybe I could have been a little more level headed about it.
It leads me to wonder if I've mellowed out over the past year. I'm certainly no longer spouting innuendos left right and centre, even if I still find it hillarious. Maybe that or I'm more subtle about where I raise my eyebrow to an innocent-but-dirty sounding comment! I'll be the first to admit that when somebody pushes the wrong button, the red mist will come down, but that has become more rare recently. Perhaps either I now have less buttons or I've learnt to exercise self restraint. I expect I owe that to my lovely boyfriend, who is about the most chilled out person I know! (except maybe when it comes to exams, but again, I digress).
Then again, a lot can happen in a year, and you don't quite realise the extent until you read your old posts and can reflect back on how different and more immature you were when you were younger.
I also noticed a little throwaway comment about my long suffering dad sitting in the kitchen when I go downstairs to make my cup of tea in the evenings. I must admit I miss that, now I've moved away to my flat in London. Not only do I no longer have the pleasure of going downstairs to listen to my dad playing his guitar, and then proceeding to have long conversations with him about bike mechanics, or politics, or music, but I now longer have the pleasure of popping downstairs for a cuppa - the bedroom in my flat is the same level as my kitchen.
Perhaps I should carry on the family tradition of playing my guitar in the kitchen - although I don't expect my flatmates would be too pleased, considering I'm usually awake until antisocial hours !
But I digress.
I was just reading back over some of my old blog entries over the years. I was a pretty angry person! And VERY opinionated too. I still agree with the things I believed back then, but perhaps I could have worded some of it better, and maybe I could have been a little more level headed about it.
It leads me to wonder if I've mellowed out over the past year. I'm certainly no longer spouting innuendos left right and centre, even if I still find it hillarious. Maybe that or I'm more subtle about where I raise my eyebrow to an innocent-but-dirty sounding comment! I'll be the first to admit that when somebody pushes the wrong button, the red mist will come down, but that has become more rare recently. Perhaps either I now have less buttons or I've learnt to exercise self restraint. I expect I owe that to my lovely boyfriend, who is about the most chilled out person I know! (except maybe when it comes to exams, but again, I digress).
Then again, a lot can happen in a year, and you don't quite realise the extent until you read your old posts and can reflect back on how different and more immature you were when you were younger.
I also noticed a little throwaway comment about my long suffering dad sitting in the kitchen when I go downstairs to make my cup of tea in the evenings. I must admit I miss that, now I've moved away to my flat in London. Not only do I no longer have the pleasure of going downstairs to listen to my dad playing his guitar, and then proceeding to have long conversations with him about bike mechanics, or politics, or music, but I now longer have the pleasure of popping downstairs for a cuppa - the bedroom in my flat is the same level as my kitchen.
Perhaps I should carry on the family tradition of playing my guitar in the kitchen - although I don't expect my flatmates would be too pleased, considering I'm usually awake until antisocial hours !
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Long time no update!
Well, It's been a while! Well over a year in fact!
I shall update my blog in hollywood style "Over a year between last season and current season" A la 24, one tree hill, etc!
I went to loughborough university for the engineering taster. Changed my whole view on what I wanted out of life - whilst at the chemical engineering tour realised that was what I wanted to be doing. Decided that medicine really wasn't right for me.
Following my chemical engineer idea, I decided to spend 2 weeks with some engineers in portsmouth. During my time there, did 6 hours of 125cc bike training.
Did my july AS exams. Pretty bad. CCDU. Re-started maths AS, carried everything else.
Bought myself a bright blue Yamaha RXS 100. Got pretty seriously into motorbikes!
Met a cute guy at one of dad's jam nights. Musician AND a biker! Bonus. Got chatting, his name was Matt, he had a Honda Hornet 600, was a pianist, a campsite warden and lived just down the road from me.
We met up the following friday for a drink, after much hint dropping, shyness and the inevitable trip back to his, we eventually kissed, and both took that to be a sign of interest! Luckily for the both of us it was, and we're still together a year on! :-)
Anyway, back to the A levels. Not so good. Failed most of my January exams. However, I got one A. In physics - my favorite subject. Of course, I was told that one A was nothing to be proud of considering what else I got. They didn't really care that it was a sign that I was good enough to get an A, nobody helped, they just left me to my own devices.
Oh well!
In January I started my 125 lessons again, this time with an awesome training school called Frisby's (thanks to Matt's recommendation.) After an assessment lesson, I managed to dislocate my knee during one of my kickboxing classes, which put the bike lessons on hold, and caused a whole lot of discomfort and disorder. By march I was doing the lessons again, and in mid april I passed my bike test on my second attempt.
Of course, the next logical step was buy a bigger bike. After much research, I settled on a cheap to insure and run, low budget bright yellow Kawasaki ER-5. A 500cc naked streetfighter style bike! Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Flying Banana!
Predictably, A levels didn't turn out well. BUT, I still ended up in London! I left the witterings to go to LSBU! Ok, I know South Bank Polytechnic is a little far removed from Imperial and Cambridge and UCL and all those other top universities, but I am only doing an HND here. I actually intend to try and get into second year MEng at UCL or Imperial - so don't fret, my standards haven't lowered, I have just altered my strategic route! And with my famous sense of direction, I will get there!
Regards, Vicky
P.S facebook me - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=642684972
I shall update my blog in hollywood style "Over a year between last season and current season" A la 24, one tree hill, etc!
I went to loughborough university for the engineering taster. Changed my whole view on what I wanted out of life - whilst at the chemical engineering tour realised that was what I wanted to be doing. Decided that medicine really wasn't right for me.
Following my chemical engineer idea, I decided to spend 2 weeks with some engineers in portsmouth. During my time there, did 6 hours of 125cc bike training.
Did my july AS exams. Pretty bad. CCDU. Re-started maths AS, carried everything else.
Bought myself a bright blue Yamaha RXS 100. Got pretty seriously into motorbikes!
We met up the following friday for a drink, after much hint dropping, shyness and the inevitable trip back to his, we eventually kissed, and both took that to be a sign of interest! Luckily for the both of us it was, and we're still together a year on! :-)
Anyway, back to the A levels. Not so good. Failed most of my January exams. However, I got one A. In physics - my favorite subject. Of course, I was told that one A was nothing to be proud of considering what else I got. They didn't really care that it was a sign that I was good enough to get an A, nobody helped, they just left me to my own devices.
Oh well!
In January I started my 125 lessons again, this time with an awesome training school called Frisby's (thanks to Matt's recommendation.) After an assessment lesson, I managed to dislocate my knee during one of my kickboxing classes, which put the bike lessons on hold, and caused a whole lot of discomfort and disorder. By march I was doing the lessons again, and in mid april I passed my bike test on my second attempt.
Of course, the next logical step was buy a bigger bike. After much research, I settled on a cheap to insure and run, low budget bright yellow Kawasaki ER-5. A 500cc naked streetfighter style bike! Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Flying Banana!
Predictably, A levels didn't turn out well. BUT, I still ended up in London! I left the witterings to go to LSBU! Ok, I know South Bank Polytechnic is a little far removed from Imperial and Cambridge and UCL and all those other top universities, but I am only doing an HND here. I actually intend to try and get into second year MEng at UCL or Imperial - so don't fret, my standards haven't lowered, I have just altered my strategic route! And with my famous sense of direction, I will get there!
Regards, Vicky
P.S facebook me - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=642684972
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