It’s that time of the year again that I reflect on the past 12 months and plan the next.
My past year has been very much a blur, partially through the amount I have managed to cram into it and partially because I’d rather forget about it.
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Archive for the ‘Goals’ Category
Reflections
Friday, January 1st, 2010Module 1 Motorcycle Training
Saturday, October 24th, 2009Started the day early as I had my DAS training, as per usual I was running late and found myself rushing around at 8.30 looking for important documents and protective clothing as the rain was pouring down.
I got to RMT a little later than normal but luckily not too late.
Soon got dressed up and ready, more-so than RMT as they had got me the wrong bike!
There was another lad with us for the morning who was preparing for his Mod 2, so we stayed around Redditch and Bromsgrove covering typical test routes. The weather was quite dismal but was a great experience to have covered it now rather than on my test for the first time. It didn’t seem as bad as first thought, although you have to be cautious of the wet, a bike still has a lot of grip.
Before long it was lunch time, I felt more confident than ever before, but still not entirely comfortable, realising I was having to over stretch for the clutch meaning I wasn’t using it correctly and still not slipping it enough.
We prepared the bike with a strong cable tie to help me out with the clutch and headed off to the Mod 1 test centre where I will be having a taste of the circuit; comprising of several module including pushing the bike, weaving in and out of cones, figure of 8, emergency stop, swerve manoeuvre, u turn and walking pace.
I struggled a little with the figure of 8 but felt very confident that I will be ok on my test. We headed back to Redditch and unfortunately started to splutter a little bit, suddenly losing all power and realising that the bike had been on reserve all day; meaning I had no reserve to get to any fuel station so had to drain a couple of litres out of the other bike.
By 4.30 I was home and knackered as usual, once more finding muscles I never knew I had!
It was all a mad rush preparing for the holiday as I hadn’t done anything yet.
By around 10.30 I had been to Tesco for last minute things, had a shower, packed my bag had yet another take away and ready for bed.
Wow, long time!
Saturday, January 17th, 2009It’s been a while since I last came here and wrote anything so I thought again, new year new start I would write more… but already we are 17 days in to it!!!
Reviews of 2008… I think I will just leave that one for my memories, not a productive year at all.
2009 however, lets start optimistic!
Within the next 2 months we will be seeing the final fall of Weberrific as neither of us (Dean and I) have the commitments anymore. I do still intend to keep the site(s) alive and maybe, just maybe actually develop a few… Looking at it, I have nickwilkes.co.uk, where-local.co.uk, redditch4x4.co.uk, wilkesphotography.co.uk. hmm, what to do! Lets review in 12!
Although work has been difficult, I have full intentions of getting to grips with a few things this year, in particular my timing and motivation. We have a lot of work scheduled for the next few months so that has at least taken the strain off things for a while. With Lamborghini and Bently placing large orders with us it stands a chance that things will be quite challenging and interesting for me. This week has also seen my annual review which went very well I feel with a mutual understanding of where I am and what it is next I need to achieve. It was a little dissapointing to hear no cost of living increases planned for the year but under the current climate I guess it was innevitible… There goes the house buying idea! But none the less, I am now a Software Engineer, no longer Junior… thus meaning I now have to show my worth and develop into a more expanded, professional and self motivated role.
That leaves me with pretty much 2 options to leave us with, save save save… haven’t proved to be any good at it in recent years but this is the year of the save! The other option being inventive and dynamic, with my interest in automation significantly increasing I have all these wacky and wonderful ideas in my head which are probably already out there but the fact they are hard to find suggests that it is either in its infancy, or is just a poor idea… Time to investigate (Watch this space)!
Farley Quarry 20/01/2008
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008On Friday 11th January I won an auction on eBay and collected the Suzuki SJ 410 on the 12th for the sum of £330;
Since then my dad, Jon and I have done nothing but work work work on this little beast (aka Roller Skate) to get it ready for Farley Quarry near Much Wenlock, which was on the 20th. A new clutch was required, new battery and alternator and a few legal issues with the trailer.
Started fitting the clutch on the 18th and immediately had problems, we had bought the wrong one, registration of vehicle seemed to be incorrect with engine, no problems, we looked further into it, apparently it had part Fiat, part Spanish Suzuki, with special thanks to Sureparts. Sure enough my dad managed to get it in by late Saturday afternoon and it was suddenly a mad rush to test it all, to my horror I didn’t concentrate properly and wrapped the trailer lead around the front bumper of the SJ… without realising I drove it off the trailer and nearly wrecked some £100 worth of electrics but thankfully nothing was damaged. On a good note the clutch worked a treat. So she was ready just in time for Sunday.
Got to Farley quarry, she started up a treat which was good news as the alternator was not working and we were unsure of the new (old) battery condition. Porl got in and we went around a bit of the grounds to see what was about, I saw something interesting; axle twisters (extremely uneven ground over a short space). Within 5 minutes I had almost rolled the vehicle, we were precariously balancing near on 90 degrees sideways! Driving in this position is quite difficult and stalling really doesn’t help!
Porl decided to go in his vehicle and I follow for a while, this scared me a bit as I was still totally new to it all… I regularly forgot to let handbrake off and have now managed to totally knacker that up. I stalled the car a few times, but was really amazed with her capabilities up the hills.
Not a video of my car, but almost identical to what I did in the same spot (in wetter conditions) – not that I am trying to make excuses! I got my wheel caught too in the same way, causing the vehicle to go up at 90 degrees, but twice, you would have thought I had learnt the first time!
In the mean time however, when I stalled, it wouldn’t restart so I was stuck in this little ditch that is far worse than it looks in video. After trying to get her out for a while, a chap comes over with an electric winch, great, got the straps out and started pulling. All of a sudden, ‘snap’ the strap frayed and snapped flying the shackle on the end straight on to the window, smashing it completely.
Got it restarted and went for dinner, had a whopping great big double beef burger with cheese, MMMMM!
After jump starting it down a hill, I just thought that things were going to get worse, but carried on out. Within minutes I was struggling to find gear and managed to stop some way away from the starting position. Had a little look but couldn’t really do much so Porl towed me back to the trailer and we left it there whilst going out for a little longer.
Absolutely fantastic day out (to the point of wetting myself of laughter!) and are now aiming to get it all repaired and better than ever for Sunday 10th February which is at Sibbertoft. Finding someone to deliver a windscreen is impossible so I am going to Chesterfield on Friday all being well, might have to stop in at Deano’s as it appears the scrappy is minutes away from his house, bargain!
How clean does she look considering the dirt she had been in, damn!
