Finlay Mini Moto Update

Finlay riding carefully!

Over the last couple of weeks Finlay has been getting a raw deal riding his Mini Moto. Either he's crashed it and lost confidence or it's broken down and needed 'fettling' back at the garage. Today I put the full sized shock on his bike for the first time and made sure the damn thing didn't break down. I was careful to make sure the got off to a good start and he soon settled down and started enjoying riding his updated bike.


Finlay followed Jacks 'track' around the field and enjoyed riding his bike for the first time this year! All Good.

Jack Graduates onto TY80

Mr TY80

Jack Managed to get a puncture on his Mini Moto, ripping the valve out of the inner tube. I didn't notice straight away and only stopped him when he said he was sideways everywhere and he felt like a speedway rider!

So plan B, see if Jack is big enough to have a go on his Yamaha TY80. I bought this as soon as we brought Jack home from Hospital. I had a son and he would need a Bike when he got older, that was 9 and a half years ago. The bike has sat in the garage awaiting this day.

To my surprise Jack jumped on the TY I put it in 3rd gear and let the clutch out for him, off he went. One hour later and he hadn't changed gear or stopped and was happily going round and round the field with a big smile on his face. No drama and Jack had really enjoyed the experience. Maybe the bike bug has bitten, he's wanting to ride the the Yamaha all the time now and enjoyed 'bragging' to his mates about his proper motorbike.

Ilkley Moor Walk

Moors are always places I imagine to be featureless almost barren stretches of land.Living high on the Pennines I'm pretty used to trudging over this type of landscape, hoping to descend into the much more pleasant valleys. So with this in the back of my mind we set off to Ilkley for a walk near to the Cow and Calf on Ilkley Moor.



It's always very busy, so today we kept way form the crowds. In all we walked 2 and a half miles. We walked up onto the moor and headed towards one of several rocky outctops, here we found a geocache, there are lots of strange isolated stones up here and these are useful to help you navigate. We set off again and headed for the horizon, now the landscape changed as we walked along the Lanshaw Delves, these bumps are a glacial moraine.  Next we headed into a small valley that cuts into the moor, stopped for a drink and headed back towards the edge of the moor.


Next stop was the 'Pancake stone' the kids enjoyed climbing onto this strange rocky outcrop. Soon we were back at the car and heading home.


The surprising thing is we will be able to come here again and have a quite different walk, we didn't see the 'Druids circle' and kept away from the 'Cow and calf' 


The kids didn't moan all day - bonus!

Cadwell Park Track Day

Barn

It was nice to get back to Cadwell and have another day on the little NC30. Last year I came to Cadwell and had never ridden the bike, so it was interesting to come back and see if I've got more comfortable on the bike.



Set off really early 5:45am, on Friday morning to get to the track for 8am. Usual routine Sign in, Riders meeting and sound test before the first session. Signed up for the intermediate group so I was expecting to be blown away down the straights!


First session and a bit of a disaster, after one lap the bike was losing power and I ground to a halt after the chicane, the bike restarted and I headed back to the pits. It felt like fuel starvation, I checked the tank and thought that I might be running out of fuel so I put a gallon into the tank. I wasn't confident that this was going to fix it so I had a word with the guys at No Limits who were very helpful and let me go out for a lap with the Novices to test the bike. There was still a problem, it did the same again.

The mountain

Scratching my head in the pits I took the tank off the bike and removed the fuel tap, blowing through it I realised that something was causing a part blockage in the tap. Last year I'd had the fuel tap in bits and siliconed it back together, a ring of silicon had come loose and was floating around in the fuel tap, I managed to get this out without having to strip it further. Put everything back together and thankfully the rest of the day went without a hitch!

Bottom of Mountain

I had a fun day building on my knowledge from last year. I ended up going into Coppice in 5th gear, dropping to 4th for the first part of Charlies, briefly into 3rd before the straight, much quicker than last year, but there's still more speed here!


I was much more aggressive through the Mountain and Hall Bends. It was good fun in the intermediate group and I had to work really hard to make any progress, hope I wasn't in anyone's way!


Our group was pretty good and there wasn't any disruption to the sessions, no red flags!


Had a great day, no accidents but I was stiff on Saturday, I'm getting too old!

The Australian Pink Floyd - Halifax

Usually I buy tickets months in advance of a gig, all the waiting in anticipation can overshadow the show and I'm left a little disappointed. Sometimes unplanned, almost spontaneous evenings turn out to be really memorable... You know where this is going.



When one of my colleagues at work asked if I'd be interested in going to see The Aussie Floyd at the Victoria Theatre, Halifax (his partner didn't want to go) at the last minute I didn't hesitate. I've seen these guys before, probably 10 years ago at Bradford Georges Hall and had a great evening back then.

One Big Kangaroo!!

So me and Pink Floyd.... My first recollection of seriously listening to the Floyd was as a 16 year old stopping at a friends house in Up-state New York, we'd all got really drunk and someone put The Wall on, it left a lasting impression on me. I'd always been into music, but up until this point only listened to a couple of bands seriously (The Jam, Madness, The Specials, The Beat) and this was the start of me opening my ears to all sorts of diverse stuff! 


I soon got myself copies of 'The Wall (1979)', 'Dark Side of the Moon (1973)' and 'Wish You Were Here (1975)'. On returning from America my brother Lea and a couple of friends were shocked and surprised that I had started listening to things that were not being regularly played on the radio, which felt much more mature than the 3 minute verse, chorus routine. It was obvious that I was finding things out for myself and not following the heard.


I have to admit that I have played to death all the Floyd albums, and I do need to be in the right mood to listen these days. I like all 4 (my view) incarnations of the band, (1) Early Syd Barrett led stuff, (2) Everyone (without Syd) pulling together, (3) Roger Waters takes over and finally the (4) Dave Gilmore revival!

The obligatory circular screen

The tickets said 7:30pm, we assumed that the show would start at 8ish and had a drink at the Upper George, to our surprise when we arrived at 7:40 the show was already underway! Our tickets were for the front row, yes we were sat within touching distance with a great view and lots of leg room. It was a bit embarrassing walking right to the front and sitting down when the band had already started playing.


As I watched and the evening progressed my feelings of respect for the Band just increased ten fold. The music was played faithful to how Pink Floyd performed. It felt like the band were a 'Super Pink Floyd'. Two great guitar players who could handle the solos with ease (and do it faithfully), again the singing could have been swapped between 2 or 3 people. There are so many important moments that if not done perfectly would sound really bad, each one handled perfectly.


The lighting again was something special, even if you didn't know the music you could sit back, watch the images on the circular screen and take in the laser and lighting show.


The only concession away from the original Floyd was the occasional reference to Australia. The Prism being Australia shaped, the massive inflatable Kangaroo and the occasional reference to Australia on the backing tapes, these were acceptable and just made you smile.

Best moments, Great Gig in the Sky - 3 amazing singers doing the business. Shine on You Crazy Diamond - beginning guitar part. Wish You Were Here and Comfortably Numb - Singing along!


As evenings go it would be difficult to improve on this one. The band left stage for a 20 minute break and then played until 10:45am. 


After the show I couldn't thank Mike enough for letting me have the spare ticket, we both had a great evening and I'm sure we'll be seeing The Australian Pink Floyd again soon.


Click Here to see what Mike said about the gig - Full video of Comfortably Numb.

Cartwright Hall Visit

The Impressive entrance

The weather was terrible so we headed to Listers Park to look at the art galleries at Cartwright Hall. Jack is doing a project at school about Bradford and wanted to have a look around the hall. Walking into the main entrance and straight away we were greeted by the massive 'Bigger Trees Near Wartner (2007)' by David Hockney. It's a great piece of work and we spent several minutes walking backwards and forwards, both looking at the detail and viewing the whole  vista. There are 50 canvases, 5 high and 10 across, to make it fit into the space the outside parts are angled, this makes you feel almost part of the landscape when stood up close.

The other galleries on the ground floor were closed so we headed up stairs to look at permanent art displays. There are three main areas, a central gallery and wings at either side. There is a great variety of things to look at, paintings and sculpture. Finlay soon lost interest but Jack engaged with many of the paintings, he was quite happy to explain his thoughts about many of the pieces on display. Jack described how he thought the the lady in Black was a jilted lover in the 'The Marriage (1886)' by J P Sinibaldi. Andrea disagreed saying she was a widow, I'm with Jack!


L S Lowry - Industrial Landscape (Ashton-under Lyne)

There is a massive variety of thing to look at, my favourite is the 'Industrial Landscape (Ashton-under-Lyne) (1952)' by L S Lowry. It's great to get up close to an original like this and really scrutinise how it was put together.

It was interesting looking at the two versions of Goredale, a Photo collage by Hockney and the dark 'Goredale Scar (1813)' by James Ward

We then headed back downstairs. I enjoyed looking at the Bruce Rimell images, especially the 'Digital Visions' work.

The weather was still poor so we didn't go into the park with the kids. Interesting couple of hours, it's nice to see the kids engaging with the art!