Chair’s Chatter

Hello everyone and welcome to another Chair’s Chatter.

I hope you have all had a pleasant late summer and had many occasions to harvest smiles from those miles.

I have. I went to Dungeness for what I believe was the first time and thankfully they serve the most excellent fish and chips at the Britannia Inn, otherwise I don’t think I would go back!

We’ve just had a weekend in Wales, as we went to check the roads are still okay for the training weekend at the end of September – you are welcome ha, ha! I have seen at first-hand how grey squirrels have now taken over from pheasants as the new Kamikazes of the road - hint, left, right, left, right, stop, backwards. I discovered that there really is such a thing as a blueberry bubble gum milkshake of which I am going to guess does not contain one single genuine blueberry, but gosh it tastes good!

I also had an interesting experience with a large lorry, which led to some comedy hand signals (all polite). This led to an interesting conversation over dinner about how other motorists view motorcycles and what they can and can’t do.

Jane (Mrs Harle) was recently on single-track lane and heading downhill when she encountered a demonstrative chap in a Jaguar who was heading up the hill. With no obvious passing space, the chap in the car refused to back down. Physics prevented Jane from either rising up into the air or travelling backwards up the hill - she was on a GS, not a Goldwing and no reverse gear. There were a lot of words mouthed and hands raised from inside Coventry’s finest as he slowly reversed down to a safe parking spot. As they passed, Jane slowed to say thank you and as soon as said chap realised she was female, he was all smiles and no worries!

If It had been me, no doubt I would have been a child born out of wedlock amongst other things, and all because someone could not apply logic, or did not understand that a motorcycle can only go forwards - unless of course you have the thighs of an ex-Soviet shot put champion.

We have now completed our return to both Pot Luck venues and after 18 months of missing them, bacon butties came back to LAM. Peter and Louise (with the help of George Foreman) Raynham as well as the famous pink (or yellow) did us proud – thank you both and thanks for being at the front of the queue to welcome us back.

We have a lot of talented individuals in the group. However, we are all volunteers and we don’t always get it right. We do have some fabulous tech that helps us to function but if anyone has any other ideas or skills they wish to donate to the group, we would be grateful to hear and or receive.

Ride safe all and see you at a meeting soon,

Paul