A magic morning!

With all the lovely spring weather, domestic activities in the James household have been on the back burner for at least a week.  Gardens need weeding, house needs vacuuming but what the hell, it's time to get out and have fun!

Last night, we decided to leap in Jennie's car first thing today and head for Ardmore Aerodrome south east of Auckland.  It's NZ's busiest in terms of take-offs and landings as there are helicopter and fixed wing flying schools, plus all manner of other stuff there.  Falling in to the "other stuff" category is that it's one of the locations for NZ Warbirds who are dedicated to the preservation and operation of ex-military aircraft in flying condition.  Jennie had never been there but was enthusiastic on the grounds of a spirited drive on the Firth of Thames coast road, plus lunch at an excellent cafe not far from the airfield!

Arriving at the Warbirds, we were disappointed to find out that it's only open 3 days a week and today wasn't one of those days.  However, there was someone just inside the door who saw us pull up and invited us in anyway - simply awesome!!  The lovely guy who invited us in gave us the full run of the place, both inside the hangar and out on the taxiway outside - a wonderful lack of formality which is typical of NZ.

Skyhawk, Aermacchi and something Czechoslovakian in blue camo

I think the CEO would like this Skyhawk rocket pack on her car!

Sharp end of a Skyhawk

 Great crest for NZ's 487 Squadron, which flew Mosquitos in WW2

DH Beaver - flawless condition

Harvard trainer

The aircraft below is a T28 Trojan US Navy trainer, complete with arrestor hook for carrier landings.  It has a 9 cylinder radial engine which sounds like it's about to expire because of the odd number of cylinders!  The pilot was preparing it for a flight and very kindly invited me up to have a look in the cockpit.

Trojan T28

9 cylinder, 1425 hp radial 

The Trojan cockpit - more complicated than I thought it would be

Enthusiasts everywhere are so generous with their time and although the pilot didn't know us from Adam, he was more than happy to spend time talking about his passion. The generosity extended as far as being allowed to bring Jennie's car round from the car park to the taxiway and put it right next to the P51 Mustang.  Probably not many places in the world you'd be allowed to do that nowadays on an operational airfield!  Here's the million dollar shot:

 Mazdaspeed-prepared MX5 and P51 Mustang - 2 beauties!  Errr... 3 actually.

The Warbirds have many other rare aircraft but a lot of them periodically rotate to other locations in NZ.   However, aviation enthusiasts world-wide will have probably seen that the only flying WW2 Mosquito was recently restored in NZ for an American collector.  It's based at Ardmore but sadly, we weren't able to get to its hangar.  The following fantastic photo recently shown on TV New Zealand of it flying over Auckland in the company of a Warbirds Vampire jet is well worth posting though.

DH Mosquito and DH Vampire

After leaving Ardmore, we headed for an excellent lunch at nearby Clevedon.  I don't normally do food photos as our moto-blogging friends from the US and Canada do such a great job but this is an exception.

Iced coffee for both of us, smoked salmon with hollandaise sauce on bubble and squeak (fried mashed potato and vegetable mix) for Jennie and pork belly with Udon noodles and stir-fried Asian greens for me..... both delicious.

Smoked salmon on bubble and squeak

Pork belly and crackling on Udon noodles and Asian greens

After lunch, it was the 150 km haul back to Coromandel on the twisty coastal roads which are made for Street Triples and MX5's.  Days really don't get much better than this one!!!

 No room for error! Thames coast road

Up into the hills on the coast road

The twisties with Coromandel Harbour and mountains in the background

(Typical traffic congestion!)

And domestic activity will have to wait a bit longer as the boat comes out for a bit of fishing tomorrow.  I know....... this retirement business is tough but someone has to do it!

Oh, and nothing to do with today but for the cat-loving bloggers, I took this photo the other day of Annie kitten making herself comfortable under the duvet in one of the spare bedrooms.  Awww....

Annie, aged 18 months

A great day on two wheels

The last Sunday of the month signals the Auckland province IAM advanced training run.  For the previous few days, the forecast had been showing wet conditions which was a bit disappointing.  I don't mind riding in the rain but when you have to ride 180 km to the venue, do the assessment ride for a couple of hours and then ride home again, wet conditions do get a bit tedious!  As it happened, a high pressure weather system hung on for a bit longer than expected, allowing us to ride in warm, sunny conditions.  Even got to wear my silver and black "chick magnet" (I jest, of course!) leathers instead of the bulky cordura winter stuff.

Special thanks to Ken and Mark for some of the photos.......

Some of the assembled bikes - a great mix

Arty-farty shot of some of the hardware.  The wicked 750 Kawasaki in the foreground is owned by Catherine, one of several recently-joined women members

It's a mark of the enthusiasm of IAM members that people start assembling at least an hour before the ride to grab a coffee, socialise and start zoning in.  The other noticeable feature of these gatherings is that although there's a lot of leg-pulling and laughter at each other's expense, there is never any unwarranted bravado.  People who join IAM know that the expected standards are so high that you have to be on your game 100% of the time and the level of support for each other to achieve that is outstanding.  The photo below is of Morne, an extremely experienced Observer who is supremely talented in giving great feedback to Associates and trainee Observers alike.  He typifies the spirit and generosity of the voluntary organisation.  There are sometimes jokes about the IAM being an organisation for "Old Farts" but that couldn't be further from the truth - look what Morne rides!

Morne and his GSX-R 750

Pre-ride socialising over coffee - Mark, the writer and Kim.  We look far too serious!

 IAM Associate Brett to Roger, "Ewww....has something died in your boot mate?"

As Roger noted in his BLOG , there was an even split between Observers and Associates on this occasion so we could put in some real quality 1:1 ride time.  Chief Examiner Philip allocates the pairing, based on the particular individual skill requirements to be assessed.  I'm paired with Ian, an experienced rider who has recently sold his Honda VFR 1200 and bought a Triumph Tiger 800 adventure bike.  The ride is also for my on-going training, to meet the practical competence component of following and assessing a "quick" rider!  A major requirement of the advanced roadcraft training is what is euphemistically described as "the ability to make progress", whilst obeying normal road rules and I was really looking forward to a spirited ride!   

A route was chosen with a mix of open road sweepers, tight narrow stuff and some urban work to test Ian and his handling of the new bike.  Delighted to report that it was an "A" standard ride and that Ian's pre-full membership check ride shouldn't be too far away.  It was great to ride at real pace in perfect safety on surprisingly empty roads given the great weather.  The Tiger 800 was hugely impressive.  Even on dual purpose tyres, the handling was outstanding in the tight stuff and would give a sport-orientated bike a run for its money with someone like Ian on board.  The look on his face was priceless when I told him he was within a whisker of decking his pegs through the tight stuff - he simply hadn't realised how far he was leaned over!

A wonderful day where not only do people get to have a fun ride in great company, but everyone adds something to their riding.  In my case, a well-spent 420 km.  Simply can't lose, can you?

A frenzy of farkles.....

The last couple of days have been pretty good in terms of farkles, albeit quite diverse in function.  The first item arrived in the post yesterday....

A fellow Street Triple owner in Perth, Australia (cheers Allan!) alerted me to some very nice swing arm crash bobbins on EBay.  I don't plan on crashing anytime soon (fingers and everything else crossed) but their design has another nice feature.  As the Triple only has a side stand, lubricating the chain and doing laser wheel alignment requires the use of a paddock stand.  With the previous home made locators for the stand arms, there was always a risk of scratching the paint. The new crash bobbins double as locators for my paddock stand and the shape of them keeps the arms clear of the swing arm too.  Relatively unobtrusive as well.  A great result all round!

The new swing arm bobbins/paddock stand locator

The next farkles arrived by courier today......

With the exception of the Damascus Steel carving knife we commissioned  a few years back (story and photos HERE ), our kitchen knives purchased over the past 4 decades have been cheap and utter crap (a technical term) and simply won't hold an edge.  In fact, a carpentry saw might give a better result. I suppose I'm the last of the moto-bloggers to cotton on to the value of really good kitchen knives!!!

Finally losing patience, we recently investigated what might be described as high end kitchen knives.  The first reaction was "Bloody heck" (another technical term), mainly as a result of the eye-watering price.  I reckon that NZ kitchen accessory shops could teach the Mafia a lesson or two in terms of extortion.  Fortunately, the Internet is a wondrous thing and we found a supplier in the US who specialises in internet sales to keep overheads to a minimum.  Not only would they ship to NZ at a saner price but he gave some excellent impartial advice to help us navigate through the bewildering minefield of specifications.  Their advice was that you didn't need many knives at all, but quality was everything.  We ended up with these 4 knives:

Tojiro ITK 270mm blade bread knife (also great for melons and the like)

It has a thin, hard core to keep a lethal edge, sheathed with a surgical grade stainless steel and like all the knives we bought, the general "feel" and balance is light years ahead of our other knives.

These are the rest:

Wusthof Ikon 4 1/2" utility knife, Wusthof Classic 6" serrated utility knife, Tojiro 15cm utility knife

Haven't had time to use them properly yet but have seen an impressive demo of the bread knife on YouTube and at lunchtime, I cut a soft tomato with the serrated utility knife - it's like it's cutting through air!!!  Incidentally, the Wusthof Ikon 4 1/2" utility knife was the most expensive of the lot at just under US$100 - go figure that one! At least Jennie can't grizzle about the outrageous price of bike accessories any more!

As a final comment, I'm inclined to think that internet shopping has made suppliers world-wide really lift their game in terms of quality of service.  Whether it be motorcycle parts or anything else, I'm  struggling to think of an example of having been on the receiving end of poor service in the last couple of years. If only the same could be said of our local councils and some notorious banks where poor service is the norm, rather than the exception!

Addendum:
A nice sharpening jig arrived today.  You can set the sharpening angle and it comes with 4 stones between 400 and 1800 grit.  Tried it on one of our crappy old knives and it works perfectly.  I'm useless with a steel and this delivers a professional finish even when operated by a complete idiot like me!

 Idiot-proof sharpening jig

What's in a number?

The number is 65 and the answer is there is absolutely nothing bad about this number!

 Me in Dad's helmet, aged 5

I was going to keep quiet but it would seem that quite a number of people somehow know (thanks for the good wishes guys - you know who you are) that I hit the milestone of 65 last Thursday.  Best to get in first and admit it before someone else writes a pack of lies in their blog!  In a lot of countries, this officially signifies OLD FART status as it's traditionally (not by law) the time to retire and receive national superannuation courtesy of the government.

Maybe there might have been a bit of introspection had I not deliberately retired at 60, thanks to a very good company superannuation scheme and some investments but at present,  I feel quite enthusiastic about frittering the government's forthcoming contribution on wine, women and song! Well, wine anyway..... I can't sing and pursuing hot chicks would see me sucking my meals through a straw in a hospital casualty ward at the very least!

Almost respectable, aged 20 or thereabouts

In all seriousness, I reckon birthday milestones shouldn't really influence how you organise your life.  Let me explain.....

Back in 1987 when I was 40, my best friend Alan and I were rising through the management ranks in one of NZ's biggest manufacturing companies.  Long hours, good pay, fulfilling careers with the downside being that perhaps we didn't spend as much time with our young families as we should - the classic dilemma.  Then everything changed.

Early one evening, we got a phone call from the police.  Alan had lost his life in a car accident and would I please go with them straight away to break the news to his family.  Putting it simply, having to do something like that once in your lifetime is once too many. I won't dwell on the incident but the impact was profound and from then on, the focus dramatically changed to never putting anything off in life so that we never had to say the dreaded words, "If only..........".   Since then, Jennie and I (and our kids) have gone out of our way to do all sorts of stuff and experience different things from pursing personal and shared interests, through to a bit of community voluntary work.  We've kept ourselves pretty busy but that doesn't matter at all when what you do is fulfilling and enriching.  And importantly, we've had fun and laughed a lot - particularly at ourselves!

In my late 50's - bottom of the South Island on the

Southern Cross round NZ in 5 days endurance ride

Back on a motorcycling theme, regular readers will be aware that last year, I joined the Institute of Advanced Motorists which arguably sets the highest advanced riding standards anywhere, based on UK police rider training.  Passing their full membership test and now hopefully not far off becoming an Observer has in all honesty been the highlight of my riding career (spanning 50 years next year) and I'm unbelievably proud to have met those goals .  More importantly, it's made me a much better rider which will hopefully extend my riding career.  It's also allowed me to put something back into a lifelong passion. It's challenges like this with more than a dash of irreverence and humour thrown in which will continue to make the number of years lived so far just a number, nothing more!  And definitely no "If onlys....".

Out on the town celebrating last Thursday

- both of us have the giggles!

A Walk on the Wild Side - Auckland's west coast

We have just got back from a few days away and it's been quite an occasion!  Most of our IAM training rides take place on the roads to the west of Auckland and the topography in that area is mainly dense bush and twisty, technical roads with wild surf beaches.  Jennie has never been out that way and I've only had a fleeting visit to one of the beaches themselves so it was a good opportunity  to spend a couple of days exploring together out that way.

The forecast was for stormy weather which was the perfect conditions for seeing surf beaches.  The Street Triple stayed safely tucked up at home and we headed off in Jennie's MX 5 to stay at our Auckland-based son's house to get an early start the next day.  The first surprise was when our daughter arrived unexpectedly (also Auckland-based) to take me out to a show as an an advance birthday present for later in the month.  And what a show it was!!!  The famous UK comedian and classically-trained musician Bill Bailey was giving a one-man performance and I'd have to say that it was one of the most memorable I'd ever been to.  Laughed until I hurt all over and his musical talent with all manner of instruments was unbelievable.  Clearly a lot of collusion among the family to get me there and something deeply appreciated.   For those who have never seen Bill Bailey at work, the short following clip is an example of both his deadpan humour and musical talent.  His hour-long YouTube Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra is outstanding.

The next morning, we set off for Muriwai, the northernmost of the surf beaches and the GPS decided to try and send us 576 km south to an unknown Muriwai Road which was clearly not our intended destination!  There are times to trust your intuition and we found the proper destination pretty much by dead reckoning.  From then on, the GPS behaved impeccably!  The stay wasn't a long one despite the really impressive surf as the wind was picking up huge amounts of sand and with no shelter, the car was getting a real hiding, not to mention black sand getting in our mouth, hair and eyes, the moment we stepped outside!

Next stop Bethells Beach, some 30 km away by road.  The roads in this area are narrow and winding through native bush but during spring, the bush is dotted with flowering trees and the spectacular native clematis shown in the next photo.

NZ native Clematis

Bethells beach was magnificent.  Huge surf driven by the high winds but we were sheltered by a large hill at one end of the beach for much of our walk.  There was no-one about and the black clouds, black sand and white surf made for a great contrast.  The surf lifesaving season has yet to start and the empty small lifeguard tower added to the lonely atmosphere of the place.  Not a place to go on your own and get into trouble.

Bethell's Beach - the perfect weather to visit

White shell and black sand contrast

Wind erosion on the dunes

At the far end of the beach, there was a warning about quicksand.........

How's your insurance, honey????

Time to visit the next beach south for a late lunch.  Piha is the most frequented of the west coast surf beaches and is featured in an annual surf lifesaving TV series, mainly featuring young, bulletproof foreign tourists who deliberately ignore instructions to swim between the flags and make headlines for all the wrong reasons.  

 Piha from the lookout

There's a good mix of permanent and holiday homes in the hills at Piha. The smaller holiday homes are known as baches, apparently a contraction of the old phrase "bachelor pads" from long ago when mining and logging operations etc provided basic accommodation for single men.

Typical NZ coastal baches

A few hardy surfers, despite the cold conditions

Our accommodation that evening was nestled in native bush in the hills overlooking Karekare beach.  NZ IAM member Keith (HD Sportster) and his wife Ann own a beautiful home with separate high quality visitor accomodation.  Keith was at work in the city when we arrived but Ann welcomed us with fresh chocolate cake and settled us in.  It's a beautiful location full of native birds and views to die for.  There's also an outdoor heated spa pool in the bush for a romantic evening...... or any time come to that ;-).

View from the front garden

Our accommodation

The guest lounge

View from the bedroom

Keith and Ann are the most wonderful hosts and next morning, we enjoyed a sumptuous breakfast of fresh fruits, cereals and toast.  We would loved to have stayed longer but alas, we had friends to meet south of Auckland so bid our reluctant goodbyes.  Very happy to recommend Lone Kauri Lodge as it's an oasis of tranquillity with great walking tracks and beaches nearby.  IAM members even get a good discount!!!

All in all, a wonderful trip exploring Auckland's wild west coast and hope you've enjoyed the journey.....

A run in the sun (at last)

Today was the monthly IAM training run in Auckland which necessitates getting up at 0530 to ride the 180-odd km to get there.  If that wasn't bad enough, the clocks went forward to NZ Daylight Saving time last night so it was pitch black for the first part of the ride!  However, the forecast was for warm and sunny conditions which was a change from our woeful recent weather.

We knew it would be a good turnout with 4 potential new members (2 women, 2 guys) turning up too but as it happened, several Observers were unable to make it at the last minute.  A couple attended fellow moto-blogger and IAM member Roger's birthday celebration the previous evening so there might be a reason for their no-show.  The words "ill" or "looking after the kids" might be cover for another root cause :-).  Good on ya Rog, your hospitality knows no bounds!

The shortage of Observers to assess the advanced trainees meant a hurried reshuffle and Rog and I found ourselves with 2 trainees each to assess and coach.  I had Alan, a BMW adventure bike rider who is very skilled and will be sitting his full membership test before long.  I also had Charlotte, a sound engineer from a major TV network who had come along for the first time on her lovely black Bonneville.

Great turn-out.  Charlotte and Alan's bikes in the foreground

Introducing Charlotte and her Bonnie

After explaining the rules for the ride and assessment process to Charlotte, hopefully setting her at her ease and setting up bike-to-bike comms, we all discussed the route which was a technical mix of urban work, open country sweepers and tight, narrow back roads  with regular changes in posted speed limits.  Delighted to say that Charlotte had an absolutely fantastic attitude and soaked up the comments and suggestions which will move her from an already competent rider to a truly advanced one.  She wants to come back and learn more so I can't have been that much of a bastard!!  Alan had an exemplary ride, confirming that a check ride prior to sitting his full test is imminent.  Well done both of you!

Socialising after the ride

With all the written assessments out of the way and everyone relaxing, Philip, our Chief Examiner, gave a demo for those who hadn't previously seen one of the correct method to pick up a bike by walking it up backwards.  Philip is slightly built but made it look easy and his Honda ST1300 must be one of the heavier bikes around, with a high centre of gravity.  The highlight for me was Roger having a go, mainly in anticipation of him stuffing up (that's what friends are for after all).  Kudos to Roger though and here's the evidence:

Taking the strain.......

....and up she comes!

Any riding day is a great day, but the great weather and excellent company made it 420 km of sheer pleasure!

Only a wee bit about bikes....

We moto-bloggers tend to post about riding safety a fair bit and quite rightly so but I forgot a cardinal rule around the home late yesterday. Consequently I'm paying for it right now and having a quiet day of not doing very much at all.

A small area in our garden is paved with treated wooden blocks which have a coefficient of friction when wet that any budding perpetual motion inventor would lust after - even small animals and insects steer well clear of it. (you can see what's coming, can't you?).

In a hurry to finish a couple of chores before heading off for our weekly evening pub quiz competition, crossing those darned blocks is not exactly the best time to be distracted.  We'd just had a light shower of rain and........

This is going to hurt.......

(courtesy Poolcenter.com)

Gravity, even from a short way off the ground ensures a rough landing and there I lay in light drizzle hurting and wondering what the hell happened.  Jennie was indoors and oblivious to all this as I made tentative movements to see if there were any unusual grating sensations and wishing Mummy was there to make it all better.  Mercifully, there were no breaks although my shoulder aches and it hurts when I cough - just strained chest muscles I hope.  Didn't try to play the sympathy card as I've planned to do something about those darned blocks all winter so the response would have been predictable.  (This has been the ultimate prompt to do something sooner rather than later).  No doubt there will be some interesting colours coming out on the body over the next day or two but don't feel too bad right now having swallowed some anti-inflammatories and rubbed in Voltaren Emugel.  Just hope I'm not too stiff to take part in the IAM ride on Sunday or I'll never hear the end of it from a certain other Kiwi blogger who will see it as his mission in life to tell the other riders!!

Back to the subject of bikes, I had an experience on the Auckland motorway a few days ago which was a timely reminder that even with a high standard of riding, motorcyclists are still at risk.  I was in a line of traffic in the outside lane, moving marginally faster than the next lane in.  Leaving a decent gap to the vehicle in front, I was slowly going past a 4x4 in the next lane.  I was just past the driver's seating position when I sensed as much as actually seeing that his front wing was swinging across to the space I currently occupied!  Delighted to say that's where the IAM training kicked in with muscle memory instantly triggering an avoidance manoeuvre.  No fright, no nothing other than an instantaneous control response - pretty darned pleased with the level of internal discipline.  Reflecting on that incident, a couple of things come to mind.  In the last post reviewing David Hough's new motorcycle book, he talks about prominent vehicles capturing another driver's attention to the extent of ignoring smaller objects (like me!).  This near miss could very well have been an example of this phenomenon.  The driver may well have been fixated on the vehicle in front of me and combined with the decent space I'd left, simply assumed it was ok for him to change lanes.  Guess he'd never heard of doing a lifesaver or shoulder check.  Just take care out there everyone!

Finally, a friend has just introduced me to a supremely talented young Australian musician with a wicked sense of humour.  I can't remember when I've laughed so hard, which hurt rather a lot, given the current state of my ribs.  The satirical song Tim Minchin sings about young children is music to the ears of grandparents in particular, but also parents after they've regained their sense of humour.  I particularly dedicate this YouTube video to our fellow blogger and recent father again Chillertek !!  Incidentally, Tim Minchin has many more hilarious YouTube videos which can't fail to brighten your day.......