Stuart’s GoldWing Blog

Slogan reads "We're bringing Oil to American Shores"

I don’t often climb on to a soap box so I hope regular viewers of this Blog will tolerate this exception, especially those in the US, for whom this has been written.

The oil leak from a BP installation in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico has been world news and justifiably so because it does constitute a major event and it has already been very disruptive, for example of deep water fishing off the Gulf Coast of the USA, which has been banned over large areas.

I was on vacation in Florida as this incident started so I had the opportunity to see how it was handled by the US media and by the US politicians and the BP executives who found themselves having to answer challenging questions.

I am as disappointed as anyone that this incident occurred at all and also that sufficiently reliable contingency arrangements had not been made to prevent significant leakage even if, as BP have explained, it needed a combination of seven failures (of safety devices or systems) to allow leakage to become uncontrolled in the way it did.

But a very large leak of oil and gas there has been and despite the use of vast quantities of dispersant continues………

It's like Morris Dancing without the sticks and bells

Far be it from me to claim anything other than inspiration from the late great Alistair Cooke by adapting the title of his famous BBC radio reports from New York but I did used to enjoy his broadcasts when I was a lad and I am temporarily resident (or at least on vacation) in Florida, so it seems appropriate to send my Blog viewers something to read while I’m away from the UK GoldWing scene.

Management (as she’s known in our household) and I have been privileged to be staying with genuine Floridians (or rather one real-deal Southerner and his fully assimilated and acclimatised Yankee wife) and it’s been great to get off the tourist trail and spend time with the real people.

Out Host for our first three nights in Florida was Randy Rodriguez and his wife Cat.  We met them several years ago when I first saw a Drill Team in action, since when Randy has become the Captain and his Drill continues………

Picture taken from the BBC website - hope they don't mind!

Sorry the Blog has been a bit quiet lately. This is partly because I got involved in a charity collection for the victims of the Cumbria Floods.

The public have been extremely generous, recognising that this particular disaster is on home territory, a flooded home is a real tragedy to have to deal with and that it could easily have been our home which had been struck.

In the first weekend of collecting at a Garden Centre north of Preston over £5,000 was given. I think this is a really great testimony to the British people’s innate generosity towards others.

We were also collecting in the Centre of Preston and it was clear to see that the generosity went right across the community, all ages and ethnic groups were being generous. We were even getting £20 notes put in the buckets and there were lots of £5 notes.  At least three times as much was going into the buckets as might be expected from an average charity collection.

I was particularly touched when a boy of about ten or eleven, out in Town with his mate on a Sunday morning spotted the “Cumbria Floods Coolection” on my bucket, stopped, dug out the £1.50 or so in his pocket and put in a decent part of it. What a cracking young man; no parents to prompt him, he did it entirely off his own bat.

If your GoldWing or other Bike Club is into charity collections this is a very good opportunity. To make a collection on the streets you need a licence from the local Council but on private land – such as a Shopping Centre or Supermarket all you need is the landowner’s permission. Use sealed collecting cans or buckets if you can get hold of them and display your Club’s name as well as what you are collecting for so the public know you are not working a fiddle.

The money you raise can be sent to the Cumbria Community Foundation Fund.   This Fund was set up during the Foot and Mouth outbreak to support recovery and they have continued to support communities since then, including during the Carlisle floods a few years ago.  They are a very well managed organisation which works closely with communities and businesses in Cumbria and they have an excellent reputation for getting money to those in need quickly and efficiently without huge amounts of red tape.   Instructions for making donations are given on their website.  There are also facilities for individuals to make donations directly on line.

Postscript:  The collection I referred to in this Article has now raised over £10,000 after its second weekend, which is a tremendous testemony to the generosity of the public of the Preston area.  Over £6,000 of this money has already been sent to Cumbria and the rest will follow as quickly as practicable.

My worn out hip, the cartilage space between ball and socket has gone; bone on bone contact is what hurts when you walk. The extra nobbly bits around the ball are extra bone growth - trying to be helpful but actually limiting movement.

This Article may be of limited interest to bikers, even to those GoldWing riders who might be approaching the age when arthritis creeps up on you.

But I’ve just had a hip replacement, so I can’t do any biking to write about at the moment, and this topic might at least be of interest to some of you.

Normal hip, you can see a gap between ball and socket where the cartilage keeps the bones apart and provides a smooth sliding surface for joint movement

The techniques and technology of modern surgery are pretty awesome stuff.  Infection control is especially important in orthopaedic surgery because if any infection gets going in bones it can be extremely difficult to deal with, even with antibiotics, so they operate inside a sterile tent.

The method of a hip replacement are also very impressive, although in some respects it still pretty brutal stuff.  It is major surgery, it cannot be done bloodlessly, so recovery from hip surgery does involve giving the body time to muster its repair process and deal with the aftermath.

Recovery does therefore take a number of weeks and it does involve a bit of effort on your own part – including the patience not to overdo it, especially during the first two weeks or so, when your skin and muscles are repairing the damage which, of necessity, the operation did.  Too much too soon can aggravate this damage.

Thereafter it’s a question of no pain no gain, so exercises as taught and an effort to mobilise yourself rather than settle for being a couch potato – although fortunately there isn’t much pain really, it’s more a question of putting in the work to overcome stiffness and discomfort, to get yourself going again and to rebuild rebuild the strength in your thigh and buttock muscles to give you the stability and confidence in your new hip that you will achieve.

You are encouraged to resume a fully active life, excepting only such continues………

Waiting for a second lease of life - Steve';s GL1000

I recently was watching TV with the family, in fact it was the film Charlie’s Angel’s to be honest and I was trying to compare it to the original series in the 70’s (That’s my excuse anyway!).  As it turned out it was a good film, the kids loved it and it had some excellent songs on the soundtrack too.

But what grabbed my attention was a song playing in the background during the restaurant scene.  I had heard it so many times but never knew who sung it.  All I knew was it was sung in Japanese and the tune had been playing over in my mind again and again for years.  It eventually got to the stage in the film where I was eagerly reading down the credits to find out the song title, but it was not there!

Anyhow a few days later I was on line and I thought I would check out the soundtrack through Amazon (being a bit of a computer nerd) and to my dismay the song was not listed on the movie soundtrack CD.   I played the 25 second previews of each track and began to get really frustrated.

So the next step was to Google it and eventually 2 hours later I had found the song I’d been searching for.  Amazing what you find with a little perseverance and patience.  It is called “Ue O Muite Aruko”, or in English “I look up when I walk” and was originally continues………

Wingless in Limone

As soon as the dust had settled after the Blackpool Light Parade my wife and I set off on holiday, as indeed did three other couples who had been in the Organising Team.  The Event had gone as well as we could have hoped given the weather and a few other problems, and we had enjoyed ourselves but we were also ready for a break.

One couple flew to Florida, carrying with them, as a present from his Light Parade friends, a plastic inflatable sheep.  This was for Smitty, our incurably bachelor Motorcycle Drill Team solo rider of last year’s BLP, in case his seemingly inexhaustible supply of lady companions ever runs out.  Two more couples rode off to Italy on their GoldWings to spend a week based in Limone on Lake Garda.

My terminally arthritic hip restricted my wife and I to four wheel touring for this holiday, so we also set off hoping for some Italian sunshine but in our motorhome, leaving the bike and its trailer at home for a change.  This holiday was planned some time ago to give my hip a last (gentle) outing before continues………

Oh dear, hit a tree

In a previous Article on this Blog I wrote about my adventures using a motorhome as a base for GoldWing touring, towing the bike in a trailer in order to enjoy exploring the Alps or some other distant motorcycling area with the advantage of sleeping in your own bed every night.

Unfortunately my motorhome, a Hymer, suffered minor damage a while ago and I had to get it fixed.  The firm who did the repair, Motorhomes UK Ltd,  did such a good job at such a reasonable price that I thought they deserved a bit of public praise.

My “van” has a fibreglass moulding across the top rear and, not uncommonly with production mouldings, must have had an air bubble under the gel coat on the corner, where the underlying woven rovings had not been pressed firmly into contact when it was being constructed.  The result was a very thin and fragile gel coat skin over a hole which was prone to damage.  From feint witness marks near the hole it was probably contact with a tree branch which broke the gel coat “roof” of this hole.  Whatever it was it needed repairing. continues………

Kevin Crawford, currently detained in one of HM Prisons

Kevin and Betty Crawford, of Childwall, Liverpool, owners of a GL1500SE and described in Court as active Members of a GoldWing Club, were sentenced to imprisonment earlier this week when they were both convicted of Benefits Fraud.  Between them they had fraudulently claimed nearly £50,000 over the past three years.  They started claiming benefits 17 years ago.

But Fraud Investigators were reported to have spotted them on their Club’s website enjoying a biking lifestyle and this triggered suspicion.  They were subsequently observed riding their bike together and camping at a biking event.  Kevin was also seen working up a ladder fitting windows; he has been running his own business as well as claiming benefits for some years.

Kevin was supposed to be barely able to walk because of a damaged knee cap and Elizabeth, as she was referred to in Court, claimed to be unable to walk or climb stairs or even to go to the toilet without assistance because of arthritis.  Yet they attended a series of biking continues………

Begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have plenty of room at each side.

With a 5-lb potato bag in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides and hold them there as long as you can. Try to reach a full minute, and then relax.

Each day you’ll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer. After a couple of weeks, move up to 10-lb potato bags.

Then try 50-lb potato bags and then eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100-lb potato bag in each hand and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute. (I’m at this level.)

After you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each bag.