Friday 15 August 2008

Blairgowrie here we come





















Look out, Cubbie's heading to Blairgowrie for the weekend....................................

.................................coooeeeee I'm back........yeah ok I guess you've all heard by now if you've read the comments on this post...............I'm awa' to recover then update later............

................right, I'm on the mend now, physically if not emotionally. It all started mid week last week when Nutty wasn't well. It wasn't something we could pinpoint, she was just behaving in a slightly different manner to the rest of the ewes and lambs. These cases are always a tough call, and not helped by me preparing to be away for the weekend. If we'd left her she might have picked up, but then again over the weekend, she might have got worse. So we caught her and her lambs and gave her a jab of penicillin, assuming that after the very heavy and prolonged rain of the previous few days, she had a touch of pneumonia. Wonder of wonders she was greatly improved the next day. So Friday arrived, and plan A was that I would go to work in the morning in Huntly, in the van with everything packed, then I could head south straight after work. Just as I was leaving the house, the phone rang and my appointment cancelled, so then I had all the time in the world. Which made me late! Had to nip into Turriff to pick up my newly engraved trophy that I won at last years National - for being young and glamorous. Left home about 3pm, didn't get to and through Aberdeen until 5.40. What took me so long? Well, seeing as you ask, there was a cloudburst at Fyvie, couldn't see the end of the bonnet let alone the road, then got stuck behind a combine harvester and two grain trucks, with heavy rain dinging doon and up off the road, making passing impossible. Although there were still some idiots driving with no lights on and overtaking about 10 vehicles when surely they couldn't see the other idiots coming the other way with no lights on. Then popped into Asda to fuel up, none of the pay at the pump facilities were working and the attendant couldn't fix them, so on to the next garage where the queue was backing out on to the main road. Oh yeah, it was rush hour by then too. Seemed to make good time trundling down the A90 and arrived in Blairgowrie just after 7pm, to be greeted by the skies opening again. Silly me, I thought Shorty was going to share his umbrella with me but he hogged it all to himself. Pah! Saw that Captain Bill was there, and Andrew Rae's tent was pitched already, so hurried along and got mine set up just in time to head to the rugby club house for stovies and chat. Had to take a piccy of KC's (one of Shorty's friends) Moto Guzzi after he landed on the grass - thanks to Westie for notifying me. Had a great evening catching up, not to mention, a bit of winding up too.

Saturday...ooooh...the day of reckoning...up early, got Cubbie out and fired up first kick. Had a 10.22am start time for the run, no problems, I can do that. Seemed to get slightly held up by people wanting to talk to me - think that was a set up so that I would be late setting off. Then met a guy waiting by Cubbie who asked if I ever had any bother starting it....well not until now...! Got going, whizzed across the START line and we were off. Route map taped on the tank, waterproofs on but no rain yet. All the lights in the village were green, a good sign, until I got to the first lot of roadworks which held me up for a few mins. Gradually got warmer and still no sign of rain, thought I was doing well averaging my nominated 30mph (using my speed, distance, time calculation I learnt at school) then kept being held up by lines of bikes toddling along, ho hum, bike still running well, me rather on the warm side but determined not to lose more time by stopping to strip off. All of a sudden, round a corner and up a hill Cubbie began to misfire. The best plan seemed to be to keep going and see if it cleared, which it seemed to, but after that there seemed to be a lot of hills. Cubbie began to run worse and misfired more often, so much so that I had to stop. Thought it was just the mushroom slipping again - sorry, that's the distributor thingy for all you technical folk, so was about to have a fiddle with it, when another Cub rider pulled up beside us. He kindly set about tightening the distributor clamp so that it gripped a bit better, fired the bike up and we all set off. Thought it seemed a little better but then it started losing power again. The other Cub guy and his pal zoomed off into the distance so I stopped again to fiddle with the mushroom, still thinking it must have moved. After several attempts at this (thanks to VMCC Immediate Past President Harry Wiles & his good lady Fran, for stopping and also to the big Triumph rider who followed me for a while to make sure I was ok) things just got worse and the top speed was about 20mph, downhill. All of a sudden Cubbie gave one almighty pop and then died. Pulled in to a convenient lay-by to investigate. Motor seemed overly warm, as was I, first things first, get those bloomin' winter waterproofs off! Checked a few things, main fuse had blown, asked the builders over the road if they happened to have a 15amp blade fuse going spare....nope...then who to my wondering eyes should appear (that's a mis-quote from "T'was the night before Christmas", in case you didn't know) but Short Stan. Oh great. Thats just fantabbydastic. There I am, winding him up something rotten by posting a pic of him pushing his bike last weekend and now here I am broken down by the roadside. And mine seems terminal. Well he just fell about laughing, could hardly stand up for giggling, poor old chap. To be fair, he did offer a spare fuse from his car but they were the wrong kind. Got rid of him quite quickly as he was on marshal duty then proceeded to 'mend' the fuse with a bit of fuse wire Captain Bill had given me a while ago - for just such an occasion. Feeling quite chuffed with myself I popped the fuse back in and kicked. Still no go. Ah, check the lights. What lights? Gone, nothing, not even a glimmer. Battery was as dead as a dead thing. Asked the builders across the road if they by any chance had a 6v charger on them....nope...asked at the 3 houses near by but no luck there either. So my fate was to sit and wait for the breakdown crew. They turned up about an hour later, and drove straight by. My frantic waving must have just caught their attention as Westie came hurtling back on his BMW - yeah, he had a right old laugh too but zoomed off and returned with the breakdown boys. Loaded it onto the trailer, along with Rod's Royal Enfield and travelled the last mile or two to the lunch stop IN A CAR. HUMBUG. And it was all going soooooo well!

Lunch was at Glamis, most people had been and gone by then, apart from another NE Scottish VMCC member, Tony on his Norton. He'd suffered a bit of confusion in the morning by going to Crieff instead of Blairgowrie, so decided to pop along to the lunch stop to meet and chat. He very kindly offered his pillion seat for the afternoon stint back to the campsite. Made a change, GBC on a Norton, whatever next. Had a good run back, wasn't far and we only missed one turning, got held up by a numpty farmer who had parked his tractor in the middle of the road and seemed oblivious to the growing line of traffic waiting to pass. It was Tony's idea to stick Cubbie's number on his Norton, so apologies to the checkpoint guys we passed...we thought you were waving us on to go faster. Back at the campsite you wouldn't believe how many cameras came from nowhere to photograph Cubbie being pushed back to the tent. :-( Still, after standing a while it fired up. Thanks to John with the Morgan for taking the battery home with him to charge up for the next day, and ta to Tones for the lift, but please, can you hurry up and get some glasses?

Oh sorry, got to go to work now....finish it off later....cancel that, change of plan......

So Saturday evening I was running around trying to interview people and get plenty of photos for Classic Bike Guide, spotted a bright yellow plastic rocket bike parked up amongst the Brit bikes, someone was being a bit cheeky I reckon. Met a couple of potential new members for our section, then the owner of the yellow bike returned, insisted on having a pic taken with Cubbie next to his bike - now theres a man with taste. Time then to get ready for the Wrath of Shorty - all down to the hotel for a very pleasant evening meal, good company and a lotta laughs. Andrew Rae decided to chuck a tray full of pints of beer over his mate Nick, good job they've known each other for decades! Poor old KC (the guy who dropped his Guzzi) was presented with some pink sparkly stabilisers, Westie was mightily embarrassed when Stan told the story of Cubbie at Ingliston - apparently they had to queue up to remove the bikes from the show, and when my full name - Gorgeous Biker Chick - was read out, Westie wheeled Cubbie forward....much to the amusement of all the rufty tufty bikers there! Next up, Shorty presented me with a lovely personalised tee shirt after saying a few kind words about me. I do wish I wouldn't blush so much. Never mind, see the pic of it being modelled by my, er, short assistant. So I had been expecting something like that, something of great embarrassment, but what followed was a complete surprise. ***A cheque from Shorty's VMCC section - Central Scotland - for £100 towards Cubbie's Counties! Woooo thank you guys, that's most decent of you - and thanks to those of you from outwith the section who dipped yer paws in yer pockets and raised a few more quid in cash for me too. That takes the total to £1276.39.***

That's just about it, social run on Sunday which I didn't do - popped along to the Banchory vintage show instead on my way home. Congrats to Captain Bill and Mr Rae again for winning a few more pots between you - oh, did I forget to mention I won the Youngest Rider award again? Haha, its a cracking trophy, just the right size and shape for a drip tray for "TC".
.

Next up is a county bagging weekend....watch this space....

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well while your down that way, why don't you stop into Arbroath for that Smokie? ;-)

BigBobW

Gorgeous Biker Chick said...

Funny you should say that Bob....was talking to a guy called Smokiechild who lives there...said I can pop in anytime for a smokie...

Anonymous said...

Travelling between Kirriemuir and Glamis on Saturday and saw a Cubbie Getting loaded on to a trailer. Do you have any idea who that could have been

Anonymous said...

this whole blog thing is getting pretty amazing BC ..... lol
reading it sis almost like being there .... (only without the wind and the rain u understand) ....

hahahahaha, find myself waiting for the next thrilling episode ...

well done girlie

Anonymous said...

Did the cow look at Cubbie because it wouldn't mooove?

BigBob

Lindsay said...

Gorgeous Grumpy Chick.....does have a certain ring to it I suppose. lol

Think you should have another caption competition for the coo shot.

Gorgeous Biker Chick said...

Hahaha Bob, love it! Linds, your suggested caption is too rude to print in a respectable blog such as this!

Gorgeous Grumpy Chick - its been said before ;-)

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