Category: just-plain-life

Yamaha Majesty YP250 for sale

My Yamaha Majesty YP250

So its basiclly on its last legs now. Its time to give it up. Yep my lovely Yamaha Majesty is going to be replaced with something a lot larger and quicker. Its been great going here there and everywhere on it in the last few years. I remember driving down to Bristol in the summers. But I also remember the one crazy ride in the freezing cold and snow, when we drove back up to London on the M4 after a freak snow storm overnight.

Anyway back to the sale. Its actually in not too bad a condition. So here's the things which need fixing.

  • The coolent pipe has a leak, so the water cooling system lasts for 5mins.
  • The Battery is pretty much dead, so it needs replacing
  • The body work needs attention, its ok, but looks a little ugly
  • The Exhaust has a small hole, can be patched or best replaced as its old and gets very hot
  • The engine also needs to be looked at, but it does go well once running

I'm not expecting a lot for it but I'm still currently using it to drive to North Greenwich everyday. I'm going to stick the scooter on Ebay for about 400 pounds soon because it does have a good seat, box and it does still go with less that 30,000 miles on the clock. If you fix most of the issues outlined above, you could ride it for quite some time before another check up. With me and Sarah on it everyday, in and out of traffic for 36 miles a day, its a little too much for a older 250cc scooter. Someone riding less distance, with some training in motorcycle mechanics and not riding 2up everyday. Would love this scooter, and its a steal at 400 pounds. Tax and MOT doesn't run out till June 2007.

I was looking around Flickr for a decent picture of my model of Maxi-scooter but then I got hooked into modified Majestys. This one in Pink is simply nuts. While this one looks more like a TMax black edition which is certainly high on my list. This one is cetainly attractive and thankfully not as customised as the other ones. Anyway, do drop me a email if your interested, you could snatch it before it hits ebay, craigslist or the local loot.

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The portrait of a south london racist

Pissed fools

Miles paints a picture of a South London racist which it too good to miss.

A hazard of living in South London is racists in the neighbourhood. The recent press hysteria about new EU entrants and “Islamic fanatics” has given the racists license to start expressing their hateful prejudices in public once again. After years of public disapproval of racism, these scum have clearly been waiting for the opportunity to spout their worthless opinions – and our wonderful politicians and business leaders have just given them the green light…

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Foiled terrorist plot at Heathrow

Manchester airport

I first heard about foiled terror plot in my aggreagtor while heading to welling today (don't ask) but have been so busy, to read about it fully. Now sat on the train looking through the news and blogs, I'm getting much more detail. One of the most interesting is from Bruce Schneier.

The most interesting part is the ban on carry-ons. First up, I thought its about bloody time – I've seen people carry things as close to a suitcase as you can get, on board. But then I read the actual list of whats allowed.

  • Pocket size wallets and pocket size purses plus contents (for example money, credit cards, identity cards etc (not handbags);
  • Travel documents essential for the journey (for example passports and travel tickets);
  • Prescription medicines and medical items sufficient and essential for the flight (e.g. diabetic kit), except in liquid form unless verified as authentic;
  • Spectacles and sunglasses, without cases;
  • Contact lens holders, without bottles of solution;
  • For those traveling with an infant: baby food, milk (the contents of each bottle must be tasted by the accompanying passenger);
  • Sanitary items sufficient and essential for the flight (nappies, wipes, creams and nappy disposal bags);
  • Female sanitary items sufficient and essential for the flight, if unboxed (e.g. tampons, pads, towels and wipes) tissues (unboxed) and/or handkerchiefs;
  • Keys (but no electrical key fobs)

What the heck! I have no idea whats caused this insane change in the rules but it must have been something pretty serious and maybe something to do with liquids? Either way, I'm in total agreement with the last sense from Bruce.

I'm sure glad I'm not flying anywhere this week.

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1 year on from July 7th 2005 in London

London Remembers

London seems to be under a grey cloud today. I can't work out if its simply a Friday thing or people remembering what happened last year in the heart of central London. I wrote this long entry about the events during the day. Today in less that 30mins, I'll stand outside in the Kingsway and maybe just film the 2mins silence which is meant to happen at 12 midday. I'm considering just uploading it to Archive.org as a very Free Creative Commons licence. I was condering going up to Russell Square where the Bus Bomb went off, but I don't honestly feel like it right now.

So back from outside and people did come out to respect the silence at midday but the traffic was still going, so it was generally quite noisy. At lot of buses stopped but Taxi drivers didn't. Anyhow, I filmed about 5mins worth of sitting on the steps of the BBC Bush House looking northwards thinking about the people who were caught up in the bombs of a year ago.

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When did police officers get machine guns in London?

Crazy!

I ride thought Bank in the City of London pretty everyday on the way to work. But today, while waiting at the lights a police women crossed the road. Nothing special there you say, and I would agree except she was carrying a sub machinegun. Ok when did the police get to carry sub machines guns around in normal use? Usually the police will radio in for the big guns once they know theres a risk or something, not just carry them around in everyday use. To be fair at the airport you do see them but not just walking around the streets. If I wasn't driving I so would have took a picture and uploaded it. Sarah was with me, so I got a witness. Scary stuff….

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On work and life balance

Me and Sarah

Its funny I was reading through Furrygoat the other day, I found this very interesting entry but now I can't actually find it on the live site. I can only assume, it was removed. But its honestly too good to not blog. If I'm asked to remove it, then fair enough but till then…He's the entry titled Work life Balance.

Or lack thereof. And the worst part is that I've come to the realization that I have absolutely no one to blame besides myself.
It sucks – almost every day I go in to the office at 6am and work until 5, then I'm back on email at 8:30 until I go to bed. I check email all weekend long (which, when driving really pisses the wife off) due to the 'convience' of a smartphone. And to top it off, due to my obessive nature, I've realized that in many ways my work defines me. I am no longer the adventurer who went to Everest or the diver that went to Belize to scuba in the barrier reefs, I'm just a software engineer.
Sure, we've been in a super hard push the last few weeks (which is always tiring), but I've been wondering what's it for? In the end, we basically put pixels on a screen. You write code today and in a few years it's gone (unless it's 'Notepad' – that code seems to stick around forever).
After this push, I think I'm going to go back to having 'regular' hours of 8-4. Perhaps I'll start hitting the gym again in the mornings and enforce a 'hard stop' at 4. No more email at night. Liz, Tyler and our new son deserve that. *I* deserve that.

Being married myself and look forward to a kid at some point within the next 5 years, I think about the balance of professional and personal life (i hate to seperate them like that, but it will work for now). Me and Sarah were watching a Panorama documentary about the right time for a baby. I'll say little more, but its all about women choosing to work longer and not have babies till very late, sometimes too late. Its all stuff we've heard before, the middle classes waiting long and having less babies, while the lower class are have lots of babies. Nothing new here but interesting anyway.

But back to now, that work life balance is hard to get right. I'm always readjusting depending on events and how happy Sarah is. Its important and I don't have a rule or any wisdom to give in this area except to say its damm important. Those who get it wrong really risk screwing up more that they can ever imagine.

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Signs of brand loyality, or sadness?

My Adidas A3's

You know things are turning sad when you end up buying one of every Cushion technology by one brand. I seem to own one of every Adidas a3 cushion technology to date. This is totally by chance, it just seems the last 3 lot of trainers I have bought, have all been Adidas and they have all included A3 cushioning but are each slightly different.

The first type were the A3 Strike type (2005), then the ugly twin strikes followed. End A3 era 1. Then the A3 Torsions were made which one'tt come in twins, end of era 2 but you can still pick these up all over the place. Then era 3, with the megarides and twins named ultraride. Which seems to be nothing more than very strong modled plastic in a round hoola-hoop shaped cylinder with a joiner in the middle to make sure they don't break. I kind of prefer them to the Nike Shox, but not these crazy megaride things. Geez, i must be sad, but its been one of those things in my head for a while now – *grin* Don't worry I never bought any crazy trainers like the one linked. Why did I write this post? Well someone was asking me about my new trainers and it got me thinking about the whole A3 thing compared to the Nike Shox. Ah I remember the days when we use to go around popping peoples air bags on there trainers… No longer possible with these range of trainers.

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