Willie's Cacao Peruvian Gold

This one tastes similar to the first bar I tasted.  This is again very 'Fruity', aka acidic.  I am going to pass the chocolate off to someone else.

Jumping Car

The battery pack is absolutely useless when it comes to jumping a car.  It jumps a bike easy enough, but it doesn't have the juice to jump a car.

I don't have home start in my recovery, so I have to resolve it myself.  At the end, I flagged down my neighbour to help, and his van jumped it easy, success at one go.  It is always good to jump off a live car.

When I said Little Rome can be the donor should this happens again, Sarah thought I would kill Little Rome by doing so.  I am confident it would not happen, I will just make sure the bike is revving while I jump.

Common Car Faults

When I got my car, I have noticed there is no tick-tock sound on indicator, which isn't a problem.  Then there isn't a left light on warning either, which is very annoying.

Lo and behold, I left my light on overnight, and it is all havoc!  I finally am bothered enough to google about it, and it is a common fault, and not easy to fix.  Very annoying.  If my bike had been ready, then at least I have a choice!

Post Holiday Shopping and Chores

I deliberately ran down my fridge supplies and took the opportunity to defrost my freezer.  As a by-product, I might have saved £5 electricity.  I had no food when we got home, so I had to stock it up!


I looked through the post, and nothing was too important.


Then I also have to prepare little Rome for MOT, include changing her oil, which took longer than expected to empty.  I hope she likes the new oil.


Lastly, I finally got the wheel bearing sorted.


I aim to resume my after work gym routine.

Post American-trip effects

- I drove on the wrong side of the road for 300 yard before I realise, I am sure the other driver was scared and thought I was crazy.

- I used 'dollar' in conversation a few times

- I am more appreciative about the European coffee and pastries.

- I am more appreciative about the discounted goods (courtesy to UK being in the EU).

- I am more appreciative about the UK public transports.

- I love the English clouds and operating temperature.

- Sun really does help photography.

USA Grand Tour 2016 - Day 16 England

We landed into a cold England.  In preparation, I put on my sweater once again.  We went through immigration, got the car, everything went smoothly.  I managed to drive on the correct side of the road without much problems.


I took the opportunity to catch up with Angela while we were in Manchester, and Sarah thought I was insane.  We sat down and chatted a bit.  I got Angela some Dove chocolate covered cherries, and it went down well.


We went home for a nap before sending Sarah to the train station.  I got on with my gardening, it took hours to sort out my lawn.


I hope we have done enough to sort our bodily clock.

USA Grand Tour 2016 - Day 15 Nashville

On the final day of our tour, we woke up early, perhaps due to excitement/stress of the departure.  We got away early to go to The Pancake Pantry, as advertised on the airline magazine.  We were there about 8am, and there was already a queue outside!!  We queued for 30 minutes before we got seated, and waited another 30 minutes for food.


Sarah had their buttermilk pancakes, and I had their hash brown.  We wondered why it would take them 30 minutes for their standard/basic pancakes, except they were exceptionally busy.  Sarah is not used to buttermilk pancakes, and does not understand the idea of butter with pancakes.  The hash brown was chunky and buttery.  They must have parboiled the potatoes, I will have to try them at home.


When we still have a little time left before having to go to the airport, so we swung by Percy Lake.  Their camping season has not started, otherwise we could have camped there.  I am not sure I could cope with being away from civilisation for so many days and having to drive to get supplies.


We checked in and went through security.  The Nashville security was much quicker.  And surprise surprise, Sarah got stopped again!  'Routine/random checks' is always on her, what a coincidence?


We boarded the plane into chaos, much unlike Southwest, a family has sat on the wrong seats and causing a big chaos.  Luckily the delay did not bother us, as we had 2 hours layover in IAD.  When we got into IAD, we were down to the last $10, and we were careful to what to spend on.  We decided on some coffee, donut from Dunkin and cookies from Au Bon Pain.  This time Sarah chose a 'traditional donut', and I finally had a try, I absolutely hated it.  Who said I could not tell what I don't like when I had never tried before!!  I wish I never had that small bite either.  I chose a simple chocolate cookie, which was more like a flattened brownie.  I wanted a which chocolate macadamia and I should have got it.


We were finally on the trans-Atlantic flight.  Sarah was still not impressed by the UA food.

USA Grand Tour 2016 - Day 14 Nashville

Again after much deliberation, we chose to go to The Hermitage instead of Cheekwood and Belle Meade.  I had been to Belle Meade before, I am sure little had changed.  Cheekwood is not selling as a 'former plantation'.  Chris told me The Hermitage is well preserved.

We went to The Hermitage, and it is no longer a plantation.  As Sarah puts it, resembles a National Trust property.  Unlike other plantation, The Hermitage owns up the fact Andrew Jackson was a slave owner, responsible for the westward frontier expansion resulting in Native American displacements.  The exhibits boldly used words like 'slaves', 'Negro', etc.  Most other plantation white washes the past, and focus on their former owner's wealth and glorious past.



Sarah is upset to learn about the inconvenient history, and I am happier that the Hermitage did not white wash the history. And American slavery was akin to Victorian mills where desolates and children were sent to work not at their free will and severely mistreated. Sarah saw the similarity but still upset with the dark history and their legacy that still live with us today.

After the plantation, we went to Peg Leg Porker for some Tennessean BBQ.  I had a full rack of ribs and Sarah had a pulled pork sandwich.  It was quite nice, except I can taste the petroleum-based flaming materials used within the cooking process.  It could be gas flame or remanent of lighter fluid.  I liked the name so much, I was tempted to buy a tee shirt.  On the other hand, Sarah found the name quite insensitive.

We went shopping after the porky lunch.  We went to TJ Maxx, Vanderbilt bookstore, stopped for an iced coffee at Three Brother Coffee.  We had another quick walk around Centennial Park before going back to the hostel to start to pack. We tried on our new Vandy gear and decided to go to TJ Maxx a second time.  We got more tees.

I wanted to had some Church's Chicken's biscuit, but we could not find one would accept my coupon, so we gave up and went to SATCO.  I can't believe SATCO is still trading after so many years.  Their taco ordering system involves tick sheets.  Sarah was so relieve that we ended up eating Mexican food rather than yet more fried chicken.  We also had some ice-cream of my favourite flavours, namely Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz and tried Chocolate therapy from Ben and Jerry's.  They are not as generous with their portion as Thomas'.

USA Grand Tour 2016 - Day 13 Nashville

We went to downtown first to the farmer's market.  It is very different to how I remember it.  It is now a big food court with occasional events.  We walked along Bicentennial Mall and Sarah really liked the marble time line.  Then we walked to Tennessee State Museum, which has a fair bit of historic artifact.

We went to Monell's for lunch.  Sarah liked the experience of sharing table with strangers and the experience to try southern food.  I was so stuffed, I had not felt so full for so long.  We drive back to the market and took a free electric bus into town.  We walked around downtown and Sarah managed to buy some postcards.  Since neither of us is interested in music, the Music City downtown could not keep us for long.  We drove to a post office to get some stamps for posting the Hustler and the postcards.

We spoke to yet more strangers in the hostel and we offered the two fellow travellers a lift to downtown, little do we know it was a Predators game, and the traffic was not good.

We were again running ahead of schedule, so we went to Gaylord Opryland and Opry Mills.  Opryland now only allows 20 minutes free parking, which makes our viewing rather speedy.  Opry Mills is huge, and we spent a long time walking in the mall.  Sarah was not impressed with Bass Pro and their hunting theme.

Since I was so full, I skipped dinner and Sarah had her banana an raisins.

USA Grand Tour 2016 - Day 12 Nashville

The hostel is like a hostel, we talked to strangers. We didn't do much of that in Chicago.

The cold and the rain had kept my hayfever at a manageable level, but Nashville really brings it out full strength!

We went to Vanderbilt campus and walked to Carmichael Towers to see the tunnel.  The security has been improved since I was there, and real security guard/porter man the desk.  We had to be escorted to the tunnel. We stopped at Sarratt and caught up with Chris.  Chris remembers me and said Jeff would be back in the afternoon.  Chris told me the last printed Hustler was in, so I took a copy to post to Houston.

We stopped at K.C. Potter Center for a quick chat before we move on.  Katy presented me the Hustler's story on the K.C. Potter and we grabbed a couple pins.  We shopped at Cumberland Transit before moved the car away from the lunch rush and went to a Haus of Yarn and Thistle Farms.  Sarah finally found some suitable presents.

We had lunch at Panera Bread, walked around Peabody, checked out the Fine Art Gallery.  They have a photography project: Hidden Dores on show.  Then we walked around Hillsboro Village and walked back to campus caught up with Jeff.  He has changed a lot.

We went to Fat Mo's for a burger and ate at the hostel.  We only had the Deluxe as Sarah forbids me from having the Super Deluxe. We were tired and we could not walk much more, so we drove around Centennial Park, had a really short walk around.

We has a rest and we ventured out to a waffle house, just to put Sarah's diner fantasy to bed.  I had a greasy hash brown, and Sarah has a stodgy waffle.  Just before we leave, there were some unfriendly looks, which is normal when you are different in the conservative South.

One last sight for the night, we drove to Union Station in Nashville, except it is no longer a train station, it is a hotel with original train station decor and artifact.

USA Grand Tour 2016 - Day 11 Cleveland

On our last day in Cleveland, we took it easy.  We went to the local high street, had a coffee and walked back.  Sarah and Leslie did some knitting and I did some laundry.

Before we go to the airport, we stopped at the a large candy warehouse.  It was quite big, and it has got one of my favourite Japanese candy, and Hershey's Deluxe Kisses.  Since I have not seen Deluxe Kisses anywhere, so I bought some.  I had tried to encourage Sarah to do shopping while we were in Cleveland as sale tax is cheaper in Ohio, but to no avail.

We got to the airport at good time.  The airport is under refurbishment, in preparation of the Republican Convention.  The security line moves was slowly, we only had time to get in and had a bagel. 

We were flying Southwest.  It was Sarah's first Southwest experience.  Southwest is very efficient.  It took less than 30 minutes from boarding to the door close.  The plane ascent quickly to cruising altitude.  The drink service was also very quick and efficient.  Unsurprisingly, we arrived early into Nashville.  Nashville was much hotter than Cleveland!

We got the hire car without a hitch.  They decided to gave us a very new car with all mod con.  We were so spoilt.  We drive to check the hostel, dropped off the luggage and drove to Sonic for Sarah's first Drive-in experience.  We had some junk food and waited till 8pm for the discounted milkshake.  Just before we ran out of energy, we stopped at Love hill for a Nashville night skyline.  Last but not least, we stopped at Piggly Wiggly, which was formerly Comptons.

Music City Hostel allocated us a 5 person room.  We worry about the room would be too warm, luckily the room has air conditioning.

USA Grand Tour 2016 - Day 10 Cleveland

We took the train into downtown Cleveland.  The first landmark we got to was the Free Stamp.  It was interesting.  It wouldn't fit in the camera frame so I did not take any picture of it.  Then we walked to the water front and walked back to the mall.   We opted out all the museums.  As expected, Cleveland downtown is not very exciting.

Lake Erie is not as clear as Lake Michigan.

We ate at the food court, I had a Philly Chicken cheese steak sandwich and Sarah had a burrito.  They knitted while I had a walk around the shopping mall.

We took the train back to Shaker Heights and stopped for an iced coffee. By the end of the day, we did 9.3 miles.

We got home, we continued the chilling out at the pouch. We cooked a simple dinner of pasta and veg with the leftover pesto and chicken nuggets. We had enough time to watch a silly movie before going to bed.

When we did go to bed, we found some strange crawlies that we have not seen them before. Leslie 'took care of them' and told off Gracie now having killed the crawlies.

USA Grand Tour 2016 - Day 9 Cleveland

We walked to Case Western's campus areas for the gallery and baseball game.

The Cleveland Museum of Art was massive!  It has a very wide selection of art works.  Then we stopped by the Cleveland Botanical Garden with a butterfly house, where I saw a chipmunk the first time.

Lastly we went to a Case's baseball game.  The field is so tiny, it doesn't even have a hot dog stand. We should have brought some popcorn!

Leslie said how the college kids made her feel old.  And Sarah was glad we only sat to watch 4 innings.  By the end of the day, we had walked 9.1 miles according to Leslie's fit bit. I think Sarah now believes on my mileage estimates.

We went back and Bob prepared burgers.  The burger was a standard fare.  We hung out at the porch until the sun went down. Leslie had Tanqueray Stirling, and I got some orange juice to remind me of the old days.

USA Grand Tour 2016 - Day 8 Cleveland

We arrived in Cleveland early in the morning, and Leslie picked us up from the station.  We all agreed we should take a nap before we start the day.

As soon as I got up, I presented Leslie with the gifts.  I got her a medium t-shirt as she was a medium last I saw her, and I did not want to assume she regained the weight.

Leslie baked up some Pillsbury buns, and Sarah was happy to try.

Leslie introduced Bob.  And Leslie started to talk about dinner options, and I suggested to eat in, as it would be too indulgence to eat out many days in a row.  Leslie was so excited and got Bob to agree to cook for us.

We ventured out to the neighbourhood for a walk.  The used bookstore and yarn shop at the local high street reminded Sarah of Amherst.  We stopped for a bagel and a coffee before going to the grocery store.

Bob made fresh pesto and cooked us chicken and eggplant parmesan, which was on the list of American food to show Sarah. How convenient!  Bob also prepared chicken nuggets, Marsala mushroom and Marsala chicken.  After dinner, we broke up the Thornton White Easter Egg.  Again the egg was hollow but the white chocolate was good.  The chocolate goes well with the berries.

USA Grand Tour 2016 - Day 7 Chicago

On our last day in Chicago, we utilised the CTA pass to the max.  We went to the Union Station to drop off our luggage, picked up some coffee and headed back to Lincoln Park.

We went to the only thing that is free in Chicago, Lincoln Park Zoo.  Sarah was more impressed with this zoo than the DC zoo.  Then we went back into town to try Frontera Fiesta as recommended by Houston.  Sarah had a tortas.

We also stopped at the Money Museum.  Sarah was not keen on the Money Museum at first, until she read we were getting a bag of shredded money, she was more interested.  The Museum is part of the Federal Reserve, we had to go through metal detector and bag x-rayed before getting into the museum.  The museum turned out better than Sarah expected.

We walked back to the station for a quick break before going to meet the AVENites.  We saw a yarn shop, Yarnify! in the magazine, which was near the station, so we popped to the shop before the meet.

I was determined to try the Chicago deep pan pizza, and this was the last chance.  We sat down the with AVENites and I had the deep pan.  We looked at the pictures and it looked very cheesy and very pie-like.  We worried it maybe sickeningly rich.  We went to Beggars and they sell by the slice, so it was a good place to try.  I wanted the biggest slice, but the fellow AVENite got it, so I chose the second largest one, and I made sure the pizza girl knew what I thought.  Then the next fellow AVENite surprisingly got two slightly smaller slice for a price of one!  The deep pan was nice, Sarah also agrees.  Sarah even suggests we should replicate it at home.

We caught on a late train and go to Cleveland.  Since it was a late train, and an early arrival, we did not get any dinner or breakfast!  Our roomette this journey had a toilet and basin, we didn't get out of the room at all this leg.

USA Grand Tour 2016 - Day 6 Chicago

We were very happy the hostel provide breakfast.  I made some waffles, and Sarah was happy with the fresh porridge.

After much deliberation, we opted to visit the Museum of Science and Industry.  We got our discounted entry ticket with CTA one-use Day pass from the hostel.

The L train was very fast, and we got to south Chicago very quickly.  The MSI is very big, it has a passenger jet plane and a German U-boat! Sarah was like a stuck record saying, "is this real?" The exhibits are very interesting and very interactive.  We spent many hours main hall exhibits alone; there were many other special exhibitions requiring additional fee.

By the time we got into town, Frontera Fiesta was already closed.  We had a coffee and donut from Dunkin and went to the bean.


I had been meaning to ask Sarah to try mac and cheese.  We stopped at a supermarket and went back to the hostel for some mac and cheese.  We threw in some broccoli for the sake of meal balance.

I insisted on visiting the Second City, so we went to the 'old town' after dinner.  We could not afford any of the main shows, and we could not stay up for the late night improv, so we just went home.  One our way to the old town, we saw the Chicago History Museum building.  We originally was wanting to go, since we liked Museum of London as this museum is of similar nature, but after seeing the relatively small building, we decided not to go.

USA Grand Tour 2016 - Day 5 Chicago

The sleep on the train was okay.  The breakfast was a bit disappointing on the train.  We arrived in Chicago, and made use of the lounge.  We dropped off the luggage and started our walking tour.

We first went to little Italy, which was quite disappointing.  We went to an Italian Deli for a coffee, which was quite disappointing.  Then we went to China town, which was bigger than I thought.  We even stopped in the Chinese-American Museum of Chicago and learnt why the Chinese came to Chicago.

We walked past a 'L' train station, and since we were not in Chicago for long, we were not prepared to invest in another Ventra card with $3 deposit.  We decided to walk to and walk along the coast.  The cloud came and temperature dropped, especially noticeable when we were near the lake with the breeze.  We walked past the Field Museum, which looks massive from the outside with a equally massive entrance fee.

Sarah commented how blue and clear Lake Michigan is.

As it was not yet summer, a lot of the amenities were still close.  After a very long walk, we came to the Navy's Pier and had a proper break.  We were not expecting a conservatory, but it was nice to sit in the warmth.

Then we walked back into town, saw the Old Water Tower, and walked back to the Station.  While Sarah was warming up from her 'hypothermia', I worked out a suitable bus to the hostel.

We stayed at the Chicago Getaway Hostel near Lincoln Park.  We settled down and went out for a quick bite, ie hotdog at the Weiner's Circle.  Houston calls the Chicago hotdog 'drags through the garden'.  We arrived quite early and before the craziness kicked off at Weiner's Circle kicks off.

I told Sarah I reckon we walked about 15 miles, which she did not believe and said I always underestimate the mileage.

USA Grand Tour 2016 - Day 4 DC

On our final day in DC, we finally went to the Zoo.  Much to Sarah's dismay, we walked to the zoo in the rain.


We got to the zoo relatively early and managed to leave just before all the children decent into the zoo.  There were loads of FONZ trying to engage us.  We the animals were quite lazy and did not get to see the baby panda.  We saw the naked mole the first time.


We went home using the circulator.  Stopped for yet more Salvadorian food at Gloria's Restaurant in Columbia Heights.  They spoke very little English and were not keen on selling us 'appetisers' during lunch service.  After some struggle, we managed to order what we wanted.


We then trekked down to Union Station, hiked up the Capitol Hill.  Sarah had a walk around while I was watching the luggage.


We got back to Union Station to catch our Amtrak train to Chicago.  When we got to the gate, we were told we were eligible to use the lounge, and we should take advantage of it whilst we are in Chicago.


Houston told us about the perks the services and the meals.  We got to our tiny Roomette, checked out the features, checked out the viewing car and went to dinner.  I got the opportunity to try a flat iron steak, it is better than I expected.  We knew the meals were included but forgot the tips weren't, we tipped after the fellow customer tipped.

USA Grand Tour 2016 - Day 3 DC

We went back to the National Mall to see more of the museums and the monuments.  All the cherry blossom were gone, apparently due to recent high wind.We went to National Museum of American History and National Museum of the American Indians.  We ate at the NMAI cafeteria to have some Native American food, Sarah opted for a rice salad, and I opted for blue corn bread.  We passed on the fried bread!

We went to meet Kevin at Dupont circle at an agreed time, the old fashion way, as we had no mobile reception.  We took the Circulator to Georgetown.  We first went up to Georgetown campus, then walked past the old Georgetown with cobble and tram tracks, lastly we stopped for ice-cream at Thomas Sweet.  Their ice-cream is very well made, very food flavour and very generous!

We left Kevin to meet Sarah and Marie, we went to a Filipino restaurant.  I presented another Terry's Orange, and they also liked them.  After dinner, we walked home.

USA Grand Tour 2016 - Day 2 DC

Sunday morning, Houston made us some cheese biscuit (very similar to cheese scone), we ate them with scramble eggs and fake sausages.  I thought when they say 'fake' sausages, meaning poor quality/low percentag meat, and I asked for an additional fork in case John, who is a vegetarian, needs to to use the fork.  Then I was reassured the fake sausages were 0% meat and no need to worry about contamination.  The Morningstar Farms sausage was very good indeed.

We went to meet up with A-Mid-A at the National Museum of Natural History.  It turned out to be a big meet, we broke out a Terry's Orange and it went down very well.  The meet was so big that we had to split up for lunch, we opted for Teaism rather than burger.  Kevin offered to accompany us to Georgetown Monday.

Houston came down to meet us at the Renwick Gallery SAAM.  It has only recently completed refurbishment.  At one point, the line was very long outside, the gallery employed a one-in-one-out system.  When we were moving around the gallery, some girls saw my Vanderbilt sweater and asked if we went there.  Then Houston asked when they graduated, they said last year!  We did not tell them we graduated 14/13 years ago!

After the gallery, we walked around the neighbourhood, we were refused at a bar as we had no ID.  Then went to browse at Whole Foods while having a beer and iced coffee.  Houston showed off his Apple Pay.  We fetched John, wandered to Meridian Hill Park before going for some Salvadorian food at Judy Restaurant.  Pupusa is interesting.

USA Grand Tour 2016 - Day 1 DC

We managed to get some sleep on the plane.  Sarah was not impressed by the UA food.  We went past immigration without a hitch.

The fountain water in IAD Washington Dullas was absolutely horrible, but I filled my bottle anyway.

They just had a cold spell before we arrive, so it was cold and windy!

We stopped at the information booth, and the lady gave us pile of tourist information leaflets.  We followed the instruction to go to town on a bus, and luckily we did not have to wait for long.  The bus went past Arlington cemetery and the Pentagon, and Sarah just considered them seen.

When we got into town, we had slight problem getting on the Metro, unbeknownst to us, the Metro station L'Enfant closes two of its three entrance on weekends.  After we asked around, we made into the station.

We had to decide what kind of ticket to buy, and much to our surprises, there was an attendance.  The traditional paper ticket does not require a deposit, but the new Smart Trip has a $2 deposit, which is hard to refund, and confers a $1 discount on each journey.  Since we have estimated to use the Metro 5-6 times, it was worth the investment.

We finally got to Houston's condo, but I did not take down his flat number.  Luckily, we bumped into his neighbour and she knows them.  She showed us how to buzz in and we finally hit the first stop.

As expected, Houston and John had not seen Chase before and liked the bottle.

After a quick chit chat, we showered and headed out for food.  I told my DC friends to find us non-American food, we checked out the local high street option, and opted for Laotians food, but it was packed, then we went for Mexican tacos.  At Taqueria Habanero, everything was very cheap and everything is made to order.  John dislikes the lacks of ventilation and we all smell oily and smoky by the end of the night.  The Mexican Chorizo is very different than the Spanish Chorizo.  We also had our first Uber experience.  We broke up the Thornton Dark Easter Egg, the chocolate was good, but a bit disappointed there was no other chocolate inside. 

We settled in early.

USA Grand Tour 2016 - Day 0

We have been planning this trip since January.  I have decided to drive to Manchester Airport and booked some airport parking.  We arrived in good time and Jet Park worked as it should except the carpark was very full!

We checked in, had a coffee and went through the security.  Much to my surprise, the body scanner was not in use.  Just about everyone got stopped for their bags.  I had two cameras, and some charging equipment.  Sarah was stopped twice.

I confirmed with Houston that he still likes gin, so I got him a bottle of Chase gin from duty free with union jacks and a pretty box.  I personally do not like potato vodka/spirits, but other brands gin is widely available in the USA, so Chase was a good choice.  I took the opportunity to break up the 50 pounds note.

We boarded the plane and it was so tiny.  I could not believe a tran-Atlantic flight would be using such small plane.

10-60W Oil

I have this recurring problem with evaporated oil in air box.  Gavin suggested 10-50W oil, and I have been using 10-50W oil for the last two years.  I am trying 10-60W oil this year, I hope it will work better!

Chinese Influence

It could be the China-centric bias, but when I look at the Southeast Asian food, a lot of them have Chinese influences.  This does not limited to the countries with major ethnic Chinese population, such as Singapore and Malaysia, but all across, they all have a variant of fried rice noodles, Chinese broth, chicken rice.  It makes it very easy when I eat out, I could always stay within my comfort zone.

Timer Minimum Load

I have tried to use the timer on low load items, and my timer did not work on those.  I thought the timer is broken, but as it turns out, timer would need a minimum load to work properly.  I am glad it is not broken.

Discount Optimisation

When I am shopping, I try to find the best time with the best discount, but I don't always manage to tie all the discounts together.  I feel a little defeated!

Pre-MOT Maintenance

I just did some checks prior to the MOT on little Rome.  She is 17 years old this year!  I need to change her oil and I found a faulty switch.  I managed to clean it up and is now working.  One of my subcontractors said chain lube is a good contact protection, so I gave everything a squirt.  I hope she passes!

Spring Gardening

I have resumed gardening this year.  I did some basic maintenance to the lawn, weeded and reseeded.  Let see if they take hold in the next few weeks.

Euro Car Parts

Darren recommended Euro Car Parts for my spares, and I shopped with them.  They are great!  Shame they don't stock motorcycle parts.

Internet Pranks April Fool

Practical joke is never fully.  When you play prank on the internet, it affects a lot of people.  I hope this "tradition" should die out as soon as possible.