Being a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists I have been using their "in-house" broker for both my car and motorcycle insurance, and my renewal for the car this year is quoted as just short of £220 which when I received it recently seemed fine and I thought then I'd probably go for it, but I'd be stupid to just do that without at least conducting a cursory search of online deals.
On UK television these days is a fairly irritating series of insurance adverts featuring puppet meerkats (it's a play on "compare the market / compare the meerkat") so I thought I'd use that particular comparison website to see what they come up with, bearing in mind any quote would have to be better than the sum of the £220 quote plus the £30 it costs me for continuing IAM membership, so £250 is the target although in fact it'd have to be a lot less than that, not just a couple of pounds, to make me want to go through all the hoops of providing proof of No Claims Discount to a new provider.
So entering all the details exactly as they are on my renewal notice what were the options available to me?
I was fairly unsurprised to see that renewing with my current insurer will be the best option, with the cheapest online quote being about £290, but the surprising thing was when out of interest I scrolled to the bottom of the list to see a quote for an eye watering £1900 offered by some shysters called Quinn Direct! How on earth do they expect to get any business when they are quoting someone with 8 years no claims, advanced driving & motorcycling qualifications and 30 years driving experience eight times what he's already paying! Who are their target customers, stupid rich people? It does seem to include breakdown coverage, but you can get that elsewhere for £50. Twats!
So at some point in the next few days I'll call IAM Surety in Belfast, and give them my business again.
Showing posts with label IAM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IAM. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
IAM = Imploding Advanced Motorists
After my previous post I received another communication from the Glasgow North Group of the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) and this time it's getting serious!
The Extraordinary General Meeting called for by some of the motorcycle section members has now been granted. I don't know how many people are involved in this, as I said previously I haven't been there this season, but I have to think it must be a significant number.
The whole problem surrounds the committee's decision to change the format of the Wednesday evening bike runs and instead of travelling to one of a wide variety of destinations, as of last year it was a choice of one of four McDonalds outlets only a few miles from the start point. The previous post has a bit more of the background.
So the previous letter from the IAM Regional Group Co-ordinator has obviously done nothing to quell the disquiet (unsurprisingly), and the committee have decided to grant the EGM and put it to the vote.
But here's the sting in the tail.
Instead of canvassing the voting opinions of the biking members who are affected directly by this, the committee has decided that the sole question to be voted upon is
Do you support the committee choice of the four destinations?
and in a breathtaking display of mass petted lip and sharp practice has announced that if the vote goes against them they will resign en-masse, and therefore since this would then affect the WHOLE of Glasgow North Group the vote should not be confined to bike section members but opened up to car members too, thus ensuring that they'll almost certainly win the vote since, let's be honest, car section members won't give a flying toss about the actual issue.
Call me cynical, but this strikes me as a blatant attempt to manipulate the system, worthy of the worst of the Westminster/Holyrood politicians themselves (or jumped-up local councillors and oxygen-thieves as I think of the Holyrood ones).
I really can't be arsed turning up to this bunfight, so it was a no brainer to use the postal vote offered, which is to be sent to an independant adjudicator from a different IAM local group. But it seems that although votes at the EGM may be anonymous, it states specifically on the voting paper that postal votes can not be anonymous to ensure that only those who have voting rights (full IAM members, not associates) can vote.
Since the committee have chosen the specific wording, and taken pains to point out that they did so to make it simple, I had no choice.
I have voted NO.
Quite simply I do not support the decision to change to less variety, and I never have done, even prior to this raising its head (remember, I haven't been to any meetings this year so I haven't influenced or been influenced by anyone else's opinion on the matter). The fact that the committee, in a blatant attempt to influence the voting, has decided to effectively make it a vote of no confidence in them while avoiding wording it as such is unfortunate, and I don't intend my NO vote as such a vote of no confidence, however in all conscience I can only answer the question posed, that I don't agree with the four destinations. So I also added words to that effect in the comments section of the voting form before I posted it.
Realistically there's no chance of those with a quite reasonable objection to this decision winning the vote because of the way it's been set up by the committee, and unfortunately now I'm likely to be seen as a trouble maker because my name's on a form supporting the dissenters, but the committee left me with no choice, and in any case since I was likely to be leaving the group after this year this might just be the final impetus to jump ship. I'll still remain a member of the IAM though, just probably not of a local group.
Watch this space for the official result, some time soon after the EGM on 29th July.
The Extraordinary General Meeting called for by some of the motorcycle section members has now been granted. I don't know how many people are involved in this, as I said previously I haven't been there this season, but I have to think it must be a significant number.
The whole problem surrounds the committee's decision to change the format of the Wednesday evening bike runs and instead of travelling to one of a wide variety of destinations, as of last year it was a choice of one of four McDonalds outlets only a few miles from the start point. The previous post has a bit more of the background.
So the previous letter from the IAM Regional Group Co-ordinator has obviously done nothing to quell the disquiet (unsurprisingly), and the committee have decided to grant the EGM and put it to the vote.
But here's the sting in the tail.
Instead of canvassing the voting opinions of the biking members who are affected directly by this, the committee has decided that the sole question to be voted upon is
Do you support the committee choice of the four destinations?
and in a breathtaking display of mass petted lip and sharp practice has announced that if the vote goes against them they will resign en-masse, and therefore since this would then affect the WHOLE of Glasgow North Group the vote should not be confined to bike section members but opened up to car members too, thus ensuring that they'll almost certainly win the vote since, let's be honest, car section members won't give a flying toss about the actual issue.
Call me cynical, but this strikes me as a blatant attempt to manipulate the system, worthy of the worst of the Westminster/Holyrood politicians themselves (or jumped-up local councillors and oxygen-thieves as I think of the Holyrood ones).
I really can't be arsed turning up to this bunfight, so it was a no brainer to use the postal vote offered, which is to be sent to an independant adjudicator from a different IAM local group. But it seems that although votes at the EGM may be anonymous, it states specifically on the voting paper that postal votes can not be anonymous to ensure that only those who have voting rights (full IAM members, not associates) can vote.
Since the committee have chosen the specific wording, and taken pains to point out that they did so to make it simple, I had no choice.
I have voted NO.
Quite simply I do not support the decision to change to less variety, and I never have done, even prior to this raising its head (remember, I haven't been to any meetings this year so I haven't influenced or been influenced by anyone else's opinion on the matter). The fact that the committee, in a blatant attempt to influence the voting, has decided to effectively make it a vote of no confidence in them while avoiding wording it as such is unfortunate, and I don't intend my NO vote as such a vote of no confidence, however in all conscience I can only answer the question posed, that I don't agree with the four destinations. So I also added words to that effect in the comments section of the voting form before I posted it.
Realistically there's no chance of those with a quite reasonable objection to this decision winning the vote because of the way it's been set up by the committee, and unfortunately now I'm likely to be seen as a trouble maker because my name's on a form supporting the dissenters, but the committee left me with no choice, and in any case since I was likely to be leaving the group after this year this might just be the final impetus to jump ship. I'll still remain a member of the IAM though, just probably not of a local group.
Watch this space for the official result, some time soon after the EGM on 29th July.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
The natives are revolting
I was amused to receive a letter today, out of the blue, from the Institute of Advanced Motorists Regional Group Co-ordinator sent to everyone at Glasgow North Group. He's been asked by IAM in London to investigate dissention in the ranks relating to the destinations chosen by the committee, for the Wednesday evening observed motorcycle runs.
It used to be that we'd meet in Glasgow and you'd be told where to head for, perhaps Largs, Loch Lomond, Arrochar, Lanarkshire, and you'd take whatever route suited you and more importantly your associate (i.e. "trainee") to take in appropriate roads for what they were looking for.
The final destination was often a pub, cafe, hotel or fast food restaurant who'd have been told you were all coming and who'd lay on cups of tea, chips, sandwiches or whatever. After the debrief over refreshments everyone would head home under their own steam, on their own or in groups of riders.
This was fun.
Last year it all changed and the new committee (well, it had new members in key roles anyway) decided for some reason that we'd only have four specified destinations, all in Glasgow, and all fast food places, so you could still take whatever route you wanted but you'd end up back at a McDonalds somewhere much nearer to the city so that on the run home no one would feel intimidated by a longer ride on perhaps unfamiliar roads.
Hang on a minute, I immediately thought, aren't we all, Advanced riders and those training to be such, grown ups who should be able to ride safely on any roads?
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I didn't enjoy last year's observing, not only was it boring but they had more Qualified Observers than Associates so half the time I'd turn up and end up going for a ride with other surplus observers, so I haven't been back this year, although I have paid my £5 annual subscription for the Glasgow North Group as well as about £30 for membership with IAM London.
I get cheap bike and car insurance via IAM London and it's a requirement to keep up my membership, but it isn't a requirement to be a member of a local group, so a while ago I decided that this'll probably be my last year with Glasgow North Group, for various reasons.
Anyway, on reading the letter this evening, it seems it isn't just me who's disenchanted by Glasgow North Group, and generally it isn't a happy camp at the moment but the Extraordinary General Meeting called for by "some Observers" has been knocked back by the powers that be (i.e. the Regional Group Co-ordinator who sent the letter) on the basis that the committee are "acting in the best interests of the members", and the disputed decision "is within their remit". Interestingly, and perhaps controversially, the letter states that any Observer who cannot comply with the committee's requirements is "at liberty to leave the group". This appears to me to be overly confrontational, but then again I don't know what verbal exchanges have taken place up to now.
I genuinely make no comment on the fact that the Regional Group Co-ordinator also happens to be a member of Glasgow North Group, and while I believe he used to be on the committee, I have no idea if he still is, although he's listed on this year's membership card as the group's Chief Motorcycle Observer. I don't know the man very well, although he certainly comes across as being a good bloke, and it's for others in a better position of knowledge to comment on his impartiality.
I wasn't aware of this brewing, not having been there at all this year and although I'd already pretty much decided to quit Glasgow North Group after this year I'll hold off telling them for the moment lest it be thought I'm flouncing off in a huff because of this issue.
I have concerns regarding the group but they're personal ones (a bit of a clash of personalities perhaps), and while possibly linked to the root of the problem alluded to in the letter (or one of the roots) I'll keep my concerns to myself for the time being.
Happy days!
It used to be that we'd meet in Glasgow and you'd be told where to head for, perhaps Largs, Loch Lomond, Arrochar, Lanarkshire, and you'd take whatever route suited you and more importantly your associate (i.e. "trainee") to take in appropriate roads for what they were looking for.
The final destination was often a pub, cafe, hotel or fast food restaurant who'd have been told you were all coming and who'd lay on cups of tea, chips, sandwiches or whatever. After the debrief over refreshments everyone would head home under their own steam, on their own or in groups of riders.
This was fun.
Last year it all changed and the new committee (well, it had new members in key roles anyway) decided for some reason that we'd only have four specified destinations, all in Glasgow, and all fast food places, so you could still take whatever route you wanted but you'd end up back at a McDonalds somewhere much nearer to the city so that on the run home no one would feel intimidated by a longer ride on perhaps unfamiliar roads.
Hang on a minute, I immediately thought, aren't we all, Advanced riders and those training to be such, grown ups who should be able to ride safely on any roads?
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I didn't enjoy last year's observing, not only was it boring but they had more Qualified Observers than Associates so half the time I'd turn up and end up going for a ride with other surplus observers, so I haven't been back this year, although I have paid my £5 annual subscription for the Glasgow North Group as well as about £30 for membership with IAM London.
I get cheap bike and car insurance via IAM London and it's a requirement to keep up my membership, but it isn't a requirement to be a member of a local group, so a while ago I decided that this'll probably be my last year with Glasgow North Group, for various reasons.
Anyway, on reading the letter this evening, it seems it isn't just me who's disenchanted by Glasgow North Group, and generally it isn't a happy camp at the moment but the Extraordinary General Meeting called for by "some Observers" has been knocked back by the powers that be (i.e. the Regional Group Co-ordinator who sent the letter) on the basis that the committee are "acting in the best interests of the members", and the disputed decision "is within their remit". Interestingly, and perhaps controversially, the letter states that any Observer who cannot comply with the committee's requirements is "at liberty to leave the group". This appears to me to be overly confrontational, but then again I don't know what verbal exchanges have taken place up to now.
I genuinely make no comment on the fact that the Regional Group Co-ordinator also happens to be a member of Glasgow North Group, and while I believe he used to be on the committee, I have no idea if he still is, although he's listed on this year's membership card as the group's Chief Motorcycle Observer. I don't know the man very well, although he certainly comes across as being a good bloke, and it's for others in a better position of knowledge to comment on his impartiality.
I wasn't aware of this brewing, not having been there at all this year and although I'd already pretty much decided to quit Glasgow North Group after this year I'll hold off telling them for the moment lest it be thought I'm flouncing off in a huff because of this issue.
I have concerns regarding the group but they're personal ones (a bit of a clash of personalities perhaps), and while possibly linked to the root of the problem alluded to in the letter (or one of the roots) I'll keep my concerns to myself for the time being.
Happy days!
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Review of 2009
Well the choir of King's College, Cambridge are on the radio performing Nine Lessons and Carols right now as I sit here starting to type this, so it must be time for my third annual review. How was Lay Clerk's 2009?
A bit mixed, to be honest, but then again such is life. Much of what occupied my mind throughout the whole year concerns another person and according to the unwritten rules of Blogging which are solely in my head, I choose to keep that topic to myself.
Another unwritten rule is that I won't Blog about work, so apart from saying that I'm still enjoying it and we continue to be as busy as ever, I'll leave it there.
On the subject of work, a close friend was unfortunately made redundant at the start of the year, a victim of the worldwide economic situation, and for a few months went through a difficult time during which I hope I was there to offer what little support or help I could, and thankfully a new, better job was secured after a while. Onwards and upwards.
I still sing with Glasgow Chamber Choir, mostly enjoying it but sometimes having to fight against my inner dislike of certain types of choral music. On the whole it continues to be good fun, good musically, and a good bunch of people.
In 2009 my presence in the choirstalls at the Cathedral occurred more frequently and more regularly, and more or less every week I sing Choral Evensong on the Sunday, which I am thoroughly enjoying.
In about May the administrator of RSCM Scottish Voices, which was started the previous summer, resigned, and I was subsequently asked to take over that role. It's been an interesting 6 months, most but not quite all of it interesting in a nice way. I've registered a Domain name for the choir, but haven't yet got round to uploading the website which is sitting on my laptop. In truth, this is mostly because I've forgotten how to go about having multiple websites hosted together but kept separate, since it's been such a long time since I did anything with any of my sites. At some point I'll get the finger out and do it. And if anyone familiar with creating and uploading websites to 1&1 using Microsoft Frontpage is reading this and wants to remind me how easy it is, I'd be obliged! In the meantime I've also started a Blog for the choir, which is linked from the sidebar on the left. If any RSCM Scottish Voices members are reading this for some reason, and they fancy having a go at sometimes adding choir-related content to our Blog, email me.
In May I sang with The Biggar Singers in an enjoyable performance of Morten Lauridsen's piece, Lux Aeterna, which involved about a hundred mile round trip every week to rehearse. The choir's conducted and accompanied respectively by two members of Glasgow Chamber Choir who live down that way, and my few weeks of excessive travel pale into insignificance when set against them doing it every week coming to Glasgow. And indeed two other GCC members travel from Dumfriesshire every week to rehearse!
A personal high point of the year was when I was asked to sing the tenor solo in a performance of Stainer's Crucifixion on Good Friday in Paisley. My initial reaction upon being asked was "no thanks, I'm a chorister, not a soloist" but when I thought about it, knowing that I can actually sing the notes if not necessarily perform them as a "proper" soloist would, I thought why the hell not. And so I did. And it went well. First time I've ever had my name on a poster! I have no ambitions to be a soloist, and while I'd possibly say yes if asked again, equally I am not at all bothered.
I paid another visit to Paisley later in April, but this time to the Paisley Beer Festival, which was most enjoyable and having been there two years ago is likely to become an annual pilgrimage, albeit I missed last year as I was in Calfornia. I only went on one evening, but a fellow Cathedral chorister, Neil, took holiday from work and went every day. Now that's dedication!
In July four of us from Glasgow Chamber Choir, having coincidentally and enjoyably sung solo parts together during a recent concert, decided to get together and sing together some more. We've met twice so far, it's as much a social event as a musical one, and despite some (hopefully tongue in cheek) remarks from another couple of friends about "the elite group" it's just a bunch of friends singing, drinking and eating together. We've performed together under the name The New Quartet in public once, a few days ago in a branch of a bank for charity, but who knows whether we'll do it again or whether it'll stay purely as a social event.
After a break of 29 years, I met up with former schoolfriends at a wee reunion in Motherwell in April. It was as though we'd only had a break of 6 months and we all got on great again. An unexpectedly tremendous evening. Another one, on a bigger scale, is planned for next year when it'll be 30 years since we left school. And I foolishly offered to co-ordinate it. It shouldn't involve much more than a few emails though, so should be OK.
On the subject of school, there is a sobering time in one's life when one's schoolfriends start dying. In August Kenny Stewart was the first of us to go. Admittedly the lovely, intelligent, caring person Catherine Fellowes died in a tragic diving accident soon after we left school, leaving her massive potential unfulfilled, but Kenny is the first to die without having an accident. He was one of my closest friends at school, and despite us having some differences in later years, you can't take away the fact that we grew up together.
In July RE and I made a weekend trip to the north east of Scotland to see friends, Stephanie and Martin, and to have a wee tour about. It's an area of the country I happen to really like, and it was good not only to show RE round it, but to catch up with old friends at their barbecue. I've known Stephanie since the mid 1980's when she was a student at Glasgow University and joined the Cathedral Choir, so she's probably one of my oldest friends and although we don't see each other terribly often, it's good to catch up when we can.
In August my brother, his wife and daughter moved back to Scotland. They've been living abroad for about a dozen years, first in Dubai and then in San Diego, California. For some reason they decided to come back to the Scottish climate, and it's great to have them here. My niece, Jess, has joined the Cathedral Choir trebles, and seems to enjoy it I'm glad to say. I was immensely proud to be asked to present her with her surplice at Evensong when she passed from being a probationer to being a chorister. They hosted a Halloween party in October (on the 30th, funnily enough!) and the fact that they live in a castle (yes, really) made it all the more spooky! Great fun.
August also saw a return visit to the World Pipe Band Championship at Glasgow Green, with RE, her cousin and his German girlfriend who were visiting Scotland. It rained. But it was a very enjoyable day despite the weather.
In September RE hosted one of her sisters, visiting from New Zealand, and I joined them for a trip to Linlithgow, their ancestral town. It was the first time I've been there, and I can now recommend the Four Mary's pub in the main street.
In a much previous life I was a roadie and mixed the sound for a local band. All very enjoyable, but in an amateur way. A friend, Ian, does it for a living though, well, the sound engineer bit anyway, and ages ago I mentioned to him that if he was ever needing some semi-skilled labour (i.e. really unskilled!) then I'd happily come and lift and carry stuff around for him. In September he called my bluff, and I found myself for two days being a roadie working on the sound crew at the Merchant City Festival in Glasgow. With three outdoor stages and an indoor venue to be covered, it was hard work, a bit physical sometimes, and a lot to take in, but it was great. I even ended up twiddling the knobs for one act, while Ian was called away to deal with a change of venue for another group. All very basic stuff of course, but I'm glad to say Ian trusted me enough to leave me on my own, and I'm even gladder to say I managed to avoid fucking it up! I'm looking forward to the next time, although I don't expect a change of career is due anytime soon!
The Institute of Advanced Motorists has taken more of a back seat this year, pardon the pun, although I did complete the necessary number of observed runs to continue as a Qualified Motorcycle Observer. It remains to be seen however whether I'll continue next year.
I've started to get the flat a bit more sorted. With the benefit of hindsight I realise that when I moved in I wasn't really in the right emotional frame of mind to do the decorating necessary, and as time went on I stopped seeing the faults. I have now got as far as getting a quote from a decorator, and getting the hallway replastered. Soon after Christmas I'll contact the decorator again and get him to come and do the business in the living room and hallway.
My general level of fitness continues to improve as I take advantage of the gym a few hundred yards from my house. I even made it onto a running track with RE a couple of times, but that was very hard going at that time! In the past few weeks I've slipped a bit, but my main New Year's resolution is to redouble my efforts. And I WILL do it.
On a fitness topic, in 2009 I did something I never thought I'd do. I climbed a hill. Not only a hill, but it was in fact a Munro. I've never ever ever been interested in hillwalking, and have been vocal about that opinion all through my life. But RE persuaded me to try it. Well I say persuaded me, but not proactively. I just mean that her influence, unbeknownst to her, made me want to do it. So she kindly agreed to "babysit me" up a hill. I'd be lying if I said there weren't bits I didn't enjoy. I slipped and fell up to my knees in a very cold stream; I slithered and slid my way down what was allegedly a "path"; I fell and staved my finger, but I bloody enjoyed it! And I know that thousands of people do it every weekend and think nothing of it. But this was me doing it. Me who about a year ago looked as though he was about to expire after a very short climb up a set of steps to a scenic viewpoint in the Scottish Borders. Me who a year ago hadn't taken any form of exercise for God knows how long, apart from when I tried badminton and spectacularly ruptured my achilles tendon. Me who is a city boy who has always said he didn't mind walking as long as it was on a pavement. This was me who walked up that Munro. And it is still me who is immensely proud of having done it, and proud of his friend RE for having the patience, skill and perseverance to help me all the way. Others may do it more often and with less effort, but we all have different abilities and different goals, and this particular achievement ranks highly for me.
So that's a potted history of Lay Clerk's 2009. A mixed year, but generally a good one and ending better than it started. Much of the above was Blogged about in depth at the time so if you've read this post in isolation it must seem pretty sparse of detail, and of course I've missed things out. Not just deliberately missed things to protect other people's privacy, but simply because things will have slipped my mind. Something which will hopefully never slip my mind though is to mention the love, friendship, and support of my closest friends, some of whom have been such for the thick end of 25 years, some for only a couple of years, but I value them all and thank them for their continuing friendship and support. I won't name them, but you know who you are. Thank you one and all.
Happy Christmas folks!
A bit mixed, to be honest, but then again such is life. Much of what occupied my mind throughout the whole year concerns another person and according to the unwritten rules of Blogging which are solely in my head, I choose to keep that topic to myself.
Another unwritten rule is that I won't Blog about work, so apart from saying that I'm still enjoying it and we continue to be as busy as ever, I'll leave it there.
On the subject of work, a close friend was unfortunately made redundant at the start of the year, a victim of the worldwide economic situation, and for a few months went through a difficult time during which I hope I was there to offer what little support or help I could, and thankfully a new, better job was secured after a while. Onwards and upwards.
I still sing with Glasgow Chamber Choir, mostly enjoying it but sometimes having to fight against my inner dislike of certain types of choral music. On the whole it continues to be good fun, good musically, and a good bunch of people.
In 2009 my presence in the choirstalls at the Cathedral occurred more frequently and more regularly, and more or less every week I sing Choral Evensong on the Sunday, which I am thoroughly enjoying.
In about May the administrator of RSCM Scottish Voices, which was started the previous summer, resigned, and I was subsequently asked to take over that role. It's been an interesting 6 months, most but not quite all of it interesting in a nice way. I've registered a Domain name for the choir, but haven't yet got round to uploading the website which is sitting on my laptop. In truth, this is mostly because I've forgotten how to go about having multiple websites hosted together but kept separate, since it's been such a long time since I did anything with any of my sites. At some point I'll get the finger out and do it. And if anyone familiar with creating and uploading websites to 1&1 using Microsoft Frontpage is reading this and wants to remind me how easy it is, I'd be obliged! In the meantime I've also started a Blog for the choir, which is linked from the sidebar on the left. If any RSCM Scottish Voices members are reading this for some reason, and they fancy having a go at sometimes adding choir-related content to our Blog, email me.
In May I sang with The Biggar Singers in an enjoyable performance of Morten Lauridsen's piece, Lux Aeterna, which involved about a hundred mile round trip every week to rehearse. The choir's conducted and accompanied respectively by two members of Glasgow Chamber Choir who live down that way, and my few weeks of excessive travel pale into insignificance when set against them doing it every week coming to Glasgow. And indeed two other GCC members travel from Dumfriesshire every week to rehearse!
A personal high point of the year was when I was asked to sing the tenor solo in a performance of Stainer's Crucifixion on Good Friday in Paisley. My initial reaction upon being asked was "no thanks, I'm a chorister, not a soloist" but when I thought about it, knowing that I can actually sing the notes if not necessarily perform them as a "proper" soloist would, I thought why the hell not. And so I did. And it went well. First time I've ever had my name on a poster! I have no ambitions to be a soloist, and while I'd possibly say yes if asked again, equally I am not at all bothered.
I paid another visit to Paisley later in April, but this time to the Paisley Beer Festival, which was most enjoyable and having been there two years ago is likely to become an annual pilgrimage, albeit I missed last year as I was in Calfornia. I only went on one evening, but a fellow Cathedral chorister, Neil, took holiday from work and went every day. Now that's dedication!
In July four of us from Glasgow Chamber Choir, having coincidentally and enjoyably sung solo parts together during a recent concert, decided to get together and sing together some more. We've met twice so far, it's as much a social event as a musical one, and despite some (hopefully tongue in cheek) remarks from another couple of friends about "the elite group" it's just a bunch of friends singing, drinking and eating together. We've performed together under the name The New Quartet in public once, a few days ago in a branch of a bank for charity, but who knows whether we'll do it again or whether it'll stay purely as a social event.
After a break of 29 years, I met up with former schoolfriends at a wee reunion in Motherwell in April. It was as though we'd only had a break of 6 months and we all got on great again. An unexpectedly tremendous evening. Another one, on a bigger scale, is planned for next year when it'll be 30 years since we left school. And I foolishly offered to co-ordinate it. It shouldn't involve much more than a few emails though, so should be OK.
On the subject of school, there is a sobering time in one's life when one's schoolfriends start dying. In August Kenny Stewart was the first of us to go. Admittedly the lovely, intelligent, caring person Catherine Fellowes died in a tragic diving accident soon after we left school, leaving her massive potential unfulfilled, but Kenny is the first to die without having an accident. He was one of my closest friends at school, and despite us having some differences in later years, you can't take away the fact that we grew up together.
In July RE and I made a weekend trip to the north east of Scotland to see friends, Stephanie and Martin, and to have a wee tour about. It's an area of the country I happen to really like, and it was good not only to show RE round it, but to catch up with old friends at their barbecue. I've known Stephanie since the mid 1980's when she was a student at Glasgow University and joined the Cathedral Choir, so she's probably one of my oldest friends and although we don't see each other terribly often, it's good to catch up when we can.
In August my brother, his wife and daughter moved back to Scotland. They've been living abroad for about a dozen years, first in Dubai and then in San Diego, California. For some reason they decided to come back to the Scottish climate, and it's great to have them here. My niece, Jess, has joined the Cathedral Choir trebles, and seems to enjoy it I'm glad to say. I was immensely proud to be asked to present her with her surplice at Evensong when she passed from being a probationer to being a chorister. They hosted a Halloween party in October (on the 30th, funnily enough!) and the fact that they live in a castle (yes, really) made it all the more spooky! Great fun.
August also saw a return visit to the World Pipe Band Championship at Glasgow Green, with RE, her cousin and his German girlfriend who were visiting Scotland. It rained. But it was a very enjoyable day despite the weather.
In September RE hosted one of her sisters, visiting from New Zealand, and I joined them for a trip to Linlithgow, their ancestral town. It was the first time I've been there, and I can now recommend the Four Mary's pub in the main street.
In a much previous life I was a roadie and mixed the sound for a local band. All very enjoyable, but in an amateur way. A friend, Ian, does it for a living though, well, the sound engineer bit anyway, and ages ago I mentioned to him that if he was ever needing some semi-skilled labour (i.e. really unskilled!) then I'd happily come and lift and carry stuff around for him. In September he called my bluff, and I found myself for two days being a roadie working on the sound crew at the Merchant City Festival in Glasgow. With three outdoor stages and an indoor venue to be covered, it was hard work, a bit physical sometimes, and a lot to take in, but it was great. I even ended up twiddling the knobs for one act, while Ian was called away to deal with a change of venue for another group. All very basic stuff of course, but I'm glad to say Ian trusted me enough to leave me on my own, and I'm even gladder to say I managed to avoid fucking it up! I'm looking forward to the next time, although I don't expect a change of career is due anytime soon!
The Institute of Advanced Motorists has taken more of a back seat this year, pardon the pun, although I did complete the necessary number of observed runs to continue as a Qualified Motorcycle Observer. It remains to be seen however whether I'll continue next year.
I've started to get the flat a bit more sorted. With the benefit of hindsight I realise that when I moved in I wasn't really in the right emotional frame of mind to do the decorating necessary, and as time went on I stopped seeing the faults. I have now got as far as getting a quote from a decorator, and getting the hallway replastered. Soon after Christmas I'll contact the decorator again and get him to come and do the business in the living room and hallway.
My general level of fitness continues to improve as I take advantage of the gym a few hundred yards from my house. I even made it onto a running track with RE a couple of times, but that was very hard going at that time! In the past few weeks I've slipped a bit, but my main New Year's resolution is to redouble my efforts. And I WILL do it.
On a fitness topic, in 2009 I did something I never thought I'd do. I climbed a hill. Not only a hill, but it was in fact a Munro. I've never ever ever been interested in hillwalking, and have been vocal about that opinion all through my life. But RE persuaded me to try it. Well I say persuaded me, but not proactively. I just mean that her influence, unbeknownst to her, made me want to do it. So she kindly agreed to "babysit me" up a hill. I'd be lying if I said there weren't bits I didn't enjoy. I slipped and fell up to my knees in a very cold stream; I slithered and slid my way down what was allegedly a "path"; I fell and staved my finger, but I bloody enjoyed it! And I know that thousands of people do it every weekend and think nothing of it. But this was me doing it. Me who about a year ago looked as though he was about to expire after a very short climb up a set of steps to a scenic viewpoint in the Scottish Borders. Me who a year ago hadn't taken any form of exercise for God knows how long, apart from when I tried badminton and spectacularly ruptured my achilles tendon. Me who is a city boy who has always said he didn't mind walking as long as it was on a pavement. This was me who walked up that Munro. And it is still me who is immensely proud of having done it, and proud of his friend RE for having the patience, skill and perseverance to help me all the way. Others may do it more often and with less effort, but we all have different abilities and different goals, and this particular achievement ranks highly for me.
So that's a potted history of Lay Clerk's 2009. A mixed year, but generally a good one and ending better than it started. Much of the above was Blogged about in depth at the time so if you've read this post in isolation it must seem pretty sparse of detail, and of course I've missed things out. Not just deliberately missed things to protect other people's privacy, but simply because things will have slipped my mind. Something which will hopefully never slip my mind though is to mention the love, friendship, and support of my closest friends, some of whom have been such for the thick end of 25 years, some for only a couple of years, but I value them all and thank them for their continuing friendship and support. I won't name them, but you know who you are. Thank you one and all.
Happy Christmas folks!
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Great roads, great rides
A good motorcycling video (in two halves) which demonstrates some of the advanced riding techniques taught by the Institute of Advanced Motorists, complete with commentary. The commentary isn't usual for a bike, it isn't even compulsory in the advanced car test, but it's something I am quite good at in the car (when I'm in full flow) and I often do it on the bike just to keep my hand in!
Part I
Part II
Part I
Part II
Sunday, June 14, 2009
First IAM in over a year
Today being the second Sunday of the month it was the Glasgow North Group of the IAM motorcycle run, and a good run it was, albeit the first one I've made this year I have to confess! In fact it's the first one for me for just over a year, because the last one I was on bored me so much by being a slow procession of bikes, apparently unable to overtake anything!
So this morning five of us turned up at the assembly point at PC World at Finnieston for 0930hrs and we decided that the weather forecast suggested Ayrshire as a viable route.
Down via Barrhead, Stewarton and Kilmarnock to the A76 where we then turned off towards Ayr and then headed south past the Electric Brae (negotiating a 35mph car driver on the way!) and Turnberry (where the 2009 Open Golf Championship will take place in July, apparently) to Girvan where we partook of variations on fish and chips in a local cafe, followed by some Nardini's ice cream while we wandered over to look at a substantial (and bright yellow) trike parked at the harbour, which turned out to be for hire. The rider/driver, who was sitting nearby, didn't appear over-friendly it has to be said, since whereas normally bikers will happily chat to each other he sat there five feet away and pretty much ignored us. Prick. And he is, I think, the one sitting on the bike on their homepage, if you followed the link. I suspect he's trying to pretend he's Billy Connolly! Did I ever mention I had lunch with Billy Connolly in Glasgow a few years ago? I'll bore you with that story sometime!
So anyway, after having travelled south to Girvan our route became, ahem, a bit flexible, and we trekked north east a bit to Maybole before heading back down via Kirkmichael and Straiton then across to Dalmellington (which from a personal point of view was nice as my relatively recently passed-away grandmother got married there a number of years ago) before heading to New Cumnock and then Cumnock where we did the usual final starburst and went our separate ways (although we did lose one at a pre-planned split earlier) with three of us continuing east along the A70 to Douglas and finishing with a blast (at a maximum of 70mph, of course, M'lud) up the M74.
I covered almost 200 miles on the day, which was marked by glorious weather for most of the time apart from the stretch from Dalmellington onwards when it rained reasonably heavily, although it had cleared up by the time we were reaching Motherwell on the M74. And I saw a spectacular forked lightning strike at one point on the hills in the distance ahead.
On an unrelated topic, the Glasgow Chamber Choir concerts last weekend were a spectacular success. Glorious music performed, I have to say, bloody well! The fly in the ointment was my overindulgence of Hendrick's Gin after the Sunday concert, leading to the mother of all hangovers on the Monday which at least I'd had the foresight to take off as a day of flexi leave. This was the start of four days when I took no alcohol. Me. Who drinks every day! Never again. Honest. Coincidentally I passed the Hendrick's Gin Distillery today near Girvan, Made me feel queasy when I saw the sign!
Went to see Angels & Demons last night with RE and thoroughly enjoyed it. Good film and good company. Followed by some Mexican food, and a walk along the riverside at Glasgow city centre to the new pedestrian bridge, known apparently as the squiggly bridge, a name presumably linked to the squinty bridge which was opened a year or so ago further down river. A day well spent.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Another anniversary
It's a year today since I passed my Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) Advanced Driving test. Not a lot to say about it really, just thought I'd mention it!
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Anniversary
It's one year since I passed my Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) Advanced Motorcycling test. Right now the bike is parked on the street outside the house, covered in frost! Advanced rider or not, I chose to take the car to work today!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Even more incompetence
I'll give you the short version of this.
A couple of posts ago I spoke of the incompetence of the staff at my local council-run gym when they tried and failed to make an appointment for me. Well tonight I turned up (again) a good twenty five minutes before my appointment for my gym induction session, to find the whole building closed and shuttered, and a single A4 piece of paper sellotaped to the shutter addressed specifically to a slimming class which apparently normally meets there, advising them to go to a local church hall instead "because of the strike".
THE STRIKE!
The bastards have gone on strike! No official notice anywhere on the building. No prior warning. No courtesy call to my mobile number, which I gave them last week (twice), to give me a heads up not to turn up. No, they were quite happy to let me make my way there only to work out that they were on strike by reading a notice addressed to a slimming class.
Do they get my sympathy for their wage claim? Do they fuck. Will they get a third go at giving me a gym induction and thereafter will they get my monthly Direct Debit for membership? The jury is out. If I can find a privately run gym close enough at a reasonable rate then I'll go there instead. I don't like poor service, and that's exactly what this place has provided twice so far.
So instead I went to the IAM Wednesday night run. I was in time for it this time (just) but all the associates had already been paired up with observers, so I linked up with another two "spare" observers and we rode together up to Balloch, near Loch Lomond. And a most enjoyable ride it was. And since I missed the start of the pre-ride gathering, I missed the announcement that tonight was the last Wednesday run of the year, which I only found out by accident in conversation in the McDonalds restaurant at Balloch. If I'd not been told, and had turned up next Wednesday, I might have thought the IAM Glasgow North group had been taken over by council workers!
A couple of posts ago I spoke of the incompetence of the staff at my local council-run gym when they tried and failed to make an appointment for me. Well tonight I turned up (again) a good twenty five minutes before my appointment for my gym induction session, to find the whole building closed and shuttered, and a single A4 piece of paper sellotaped to the shutter addressed specifically to a slimming class which apparently normally meets there, advising them to go to a local church hall instead "because of the strike".
THE STRIKE!
The bastards have gone on strike! No official notice anywhere on the building. No prior warning. No courtesy call to my mobile number, which I gave them last week (twice), to give me a heads up not to turn up. No, they were quite happy to let me make my way there only to work out that they were on strike by reading a notice addressed to a slimming class.
Do they get my sympathy for their wage claim? Do they fuck. Will they get a third go at giving me a gym induction and thereafter will they get my monthly Direct Debit for membership? The jury is out. If I can find a privately run gym close enough at a reasonable rate then I'll go there instead. I don't like poor service, and that's exactly what this place has provided twice so far.
So instead I went to the IAM Wednesday night run. I was in time for it this time (just) but all the associates had already been paired up with observers, so I linked up with another two "spare" observers and we rode together up to Balloch, near Loch Lomond. And a most enjoyable ride it was. And since I missed the start of the pre-ride gathering, I missed the announcement that tonight was the last Wednesday run of the year, which I only found out by accident in conversation in the McDonalds restaurant at Balloch. If I'd not been told, and had turned up next Wednesday, I might have thought the IAM Glasgow North group had been taken over by council workers!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Incompetence
The incompetence of the average person working in the service industry in Britain never ceases to amaze me, although I really shouldn't be surprised.
This evening I turned up at the gym 10 minutes before my appointment, only to find out that the person to whom I spoke last night hadn't in fact made my booking on the computer and since there was only one member of staff working in the gym there was no one available to take me through my hour long induction.
So it has been rearranged to next Wednesday.
So I also missed the IAM Wednesday run, because by the time I got back home after my fruitless trip round the corner to the gym, I didn't quite have enough time to make it to the assembly point for the run. By the time I got changed, onto the bike, and rode the 5 miles, everyone had gone.
This evening I turned up at the gym 10 minutes before my appointment, only to find out that the person to whom I spoke last night hadn't in fact made my booking on the computer and since there was only one member of staff working in the gym there was no one available to take me through my hour long induction.
So it has been rearranged to next Wednesday.
So I also missed the IAM Wednesday run, because by the time I got back home after my fruitless trip round the corner to the gym, I didn't quite have enough time to make it to the assembly point for the run. By the time I got changed, onto the bike, and rode the 5 miles, everyone had gone.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Wordle
This is quite a clever image, isn't it. It's from a site called Wordle, and it looks at a Website, in this case this here Blog, and makes up a word picture, giving extra weight, visualised as larger font size, the more a word appears.
It presumably only looks at what's specifically on the page relating to the URL you submit, so it doesn't take into account archived postings. Recently then, the IAM has clearly been a favoured topic of mine, as has Insurance! I must try to widen the topics somewhat!
Surprisingly, my cursory examination of it hasn't revealed any swear words. I must try harder!
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Good and bad
The cartoon on the right is great.In almost every choir of which I've been a member, every one of the characters depicted has been a member. I'm sure I've probably been some of them at various times too! And in fact, I proudly admit to being The Traditionalist.
Thanks to Sir Monocle, from whose Blog I shamelessly stole it!
Two things mark today out as different from the norm.
One year ago today, I became divorced. This was not a good thing. Not at all a good thing.
And this evening I went back to the IAM Glasgow North Group for the first time in almost exactly two months, and was asked, given the long break I'd had, whether I wanted to sit the Qualified Observer Practical Test which they'd been waiting to offer me. Which I did want. And did do. And passed. This was a good thing. A very good thing.
So, the divorce. Amicable, yet these things are never ever painless. In retrospect, and with the clarity of 20/20 hindsight, it was the right thing to do to separate. Yet one never truly gets completely over such a thing, and by that I don't want to suggest that I wish we were together again. We have both moved on and, I think and hope I'm right in saying, we are both happy. I know I am. Every now and then though, in the privacy of my own head .......... well, you know, it hurts.
The motorcycling then. I haven't been back to the IAM for a while. There have been reasons for this, which I haven't Blogged about, but I will now. In fact I can copy and paste part of a posting I placed on the IAM Scottish Motorcycle Forum a while back. The rest of the post is of no relevance here, but the following bit might be:
"........ As an aside, right now I'm not sure whether I'll continue along the route to being a qualified observer, but that's because on one of my last runs I had a bad time of it over the Duke's Pass, and now, if the truth be told, I have a confidence crisis as far as my riding is concerned. I know the object isn't to go as fast as you can, I've never been of that opinion (I ride an R1100RT for God's sake!) but my associate on that run left me standing and I really didn't enjoy that evening, ending up feeling like I'd no right to be observing. The senior observer helped that evening, pointing out that in his opinion the associate had been riding too fast, and being of the opinion that I shouldn't have tried to keep up with him (that's where I went wrong), but the mental damage was done by then! I'll hopefully get over it at some point, but I don't feel like going back for the moment.
.........."
The Duke's Pass, for those outwith these shores, is a VERY twisty country road north of Glasgow, and during that run I was so far outside my comfort (and probably safety) zone that I felt sick. I have never previously ridden, and will never ride again, any motorcycle let alone a 44 stone tourer at that sort of speed over that sort of public road. And for the avoidance of doubt, at no time did we come close to breaking the speed limit.So what prompted me to return? Frankly, it was the list of names of others who had recently passed as Qualified Observers which was in the quarterly newsletter I received a few days ago. I thought, if they can do it, then so can I. One of them in fact started out on the observer training the same evening I did.
I still, in the dark recesses of my warped mind, think I am pretty new to biking, since I didn't take it up until I was well into adulthood, so I tend to think that every other biker I meet has more experience than me. But then I consider the facts.
- I passed my motorcycle test in 1996, 12 years ago. Almost all the IAM associates to whom I've spoken, and a hell of a lot of the full members, have been riding for less time than that.
- Most motorcyclists ride maybe up to about 5000 miles a year. I worked as a bike courier for a year, riding about 1000 miles a week in all weathers. That was a steep learning curve. Last year I rode about 8500 miles.
- Until my present bike, all previous ones have been my only form of personal transport so I rode them all year round. If I could dig it out the snow I'd ride it. No fair weather biker, me.
- I passed my advanced riding test after only 4 observed runs. In other words, I was already pretty much at the advanced standard and just needed polishing up on some points.
It's a bit like singing. Years ago, a LOT of years ago, I was occasionally asked to sing a solo in the cathedral choir. I would manage it OK, but would tremble and shake so hard while performing it that I could hardly focus on the music in my hands! For no good reason, out the blue, I had an internal conversation with myself, which went along the lines of "Fuck it! If anyone listening to this could do it better than me, then they'd be up here singing it, so I have nothing to fear." The shaking then stopped. I'm not for a moment suggesting that I am a brilliant singer, that's not the point, it's just that one needs self confidence to do certain things, even if that self confidence doesn't necessarily stand up to close scrutiny!
But that's enough Blogging for tonight I think. I am halfway through a large glass of whisky, partly to drown my sorrows on this anniversary, partly to celebrate having passed another milestone in my journey towards being the best rider I can be, and partly because I am happy having spoken to RE earlier, who always cheers me up, makes me laugh, and makes me feel wanted. Thank you.
Monday, September 01, 2008
Insurance. The sequel.
Ah, the satisfaction in a Scotsman's heart when he knows he's saved himself some cash! It's a warm feeling, I can tell you. I may celebrate by having a small whisky later. Oh, OK, make it a large one!
Regular readers, if there are any, will remember that I had a bit of a runaround recently when trying to renew my car insurance because I had the temerity to have passed my Advanced Driving test, and I also wanted to add an extra driver to the policy. This culminated in me saving the thick end of £200 by choosing a new insurance company. I mentioned in that post that I had the same hoops to jump through when the motorcycle insurance came up for renewal later this year.
It's now later this year.
About a week or so ago I was bored, and went online to get some quotes for the bike. About £160 was the best quote, which compared pretty favourably with what I have been paying. I was only looking for an idea of what I might end up paying, but I made a fatal mistake. I filled in the box when they asked me for my mobile number. Since then I have had daily phone calls from an 0871 number (most of them missed, since I don't have access to my mobile while at work) which have been the insurance company trying to give me a better quote. And that's without me telling them whether their online quote was good bad or indifferent. So today's tip, children, is don't give them your mobile number. Give them someone else's if you must, but you will be plagued by unsolicited Spam calls (are any Spam calls solicited?)
Anyway, today the real renewal letter from my broker arrived on my doormat. To renew with the same insurance company was going to be £287, but the broker suggested an alternative quote of £168 which seemed more reasonable.
So I called IAM Surety, and this time selected the "motorcycle insurance" option rather than the car one. To cut a long story slightly shorter, they are quoting £145 including Class 1 Business use so I could use my motorcycle for work (those who know me will realise that I can't do this!) and would be covered while doing any IAM Observing. It also includes Protected No Claims Discount (which the existing broker didn't) and Legal Cover (which the existing broker also didn't) and allows me Third Party cover to ride any other motorcycle as long as that motorcycle is insured by someone else. On the face of it a damn good deal, which makes the IAM annual membership worth the £18 (plus optional £10 to belong to a local group).
I called my existing broker, because after all they have been fine to deal with for the past couple of years and when I first went to them they managed to secure me a big wodge of No Claims Discount even though I hadn't had a motorcycle for a few years so probably wasn't really entitled to it. They checked, and checked, and finally came up with a comparative quote, including business use, protected no claims, and legal cover, of £155. Still about £11 more than IAM.
Except.
The IAM membership fee is probably going to rise from £18 to £28 a year soon (although fortunately after I have renewed for this coming year at the old price) because of their (I believe self-confessed, but I could be wrong) mismanagement (there is apparently a HUGE shortfall in funds) which is being VERY much talked about on the IAM members forums. So including the optional membership of the local group, there is an extra £38 to add to any IAM Surety Insurance quote, because if you aren't a member you don't get the special price.
And let's not go down the route of pointing out that becoming an advanced driver/rider is plugged by the IAM (and rightly so) as a Skill for Life. It's even called the Skill for Life Package! So if you then stop being a paid up member of the IAM do you instantly lose that skill and become a less safe driver/rider who will be more prone to being involved in an accident and therefore more likely to make an insurance claim? No, don't be bloody stupid, of course you don't. So anyway, I am going to continue with IAM membership for the next year, because it's at the old price, but if at the next AGM the proposed increase gets the thumbs up, then they will get the two fingers up from me for the following year. maybe even the single finger too. So if I leave the IAM I won't get a good price from IAM Surety (if they even quote me at all) for subsequent years.
Coincidentally, after speaking to IAM, I received another call from the 0871 number, so allowed them to try to get my business. They went through all the guff I'd already provided online, failed miserably to extract from me my email address, landline number, car insurance renewal date, and house insurance renewal date, and came in with a quote of £197. At the end of the call, when I told her she was way off, I asked if the daily calls would now stop, and sounding rather crestfallen, she agreed that they would.
So I have pretty well decided that I'm going to stick with my current broker, Websters since you ask, and pay £11 more than the IAM Surety quote, but with the knowledge that I can stop my membership if I want without having to dick about changing insurers again.
So, in summary. To renew with the current company (Norwich Union) would be £287, but Websters recommended an alternative at £168, and managed to chop it down to £155 with lots of extras thrown in when they were presented with some opposition.
I've saved myself £132 on my bike insurance this year, making a total saving on vehicle insurance of £317, so really I've got one of them for free compared with last year!
Regular readers, if there are any, will remember that I had a bit of a runaround recently when trying to renew my car insurance because I had the temerity to have passed my Advanced Driving test, and I also wanted to add an extra driver to the policy. This culminated in me saving the thick end of £200 by choosing a new insurance company. I mentioned in that post that I had the same hoops to jump through when the motorcycle insurance came up for renewal later this year.
It's now later this year.
About a week or so ago I was bored, and went online to get some quotes for the bike. About £160 was the best quote, which compared pretty favourably with what I have been paying. I was only looking for an idea of what I might end up paying, but I made a fatal mistake. I filled in the box when they asked me for my mobile number. Since then I have had daily phone calls from an 0871 number (most of them missed, since I don't have access to my mobile while at work) which have been the insurance company trying to give me a better quote. And that's without me telling them whether their online quote was good bad or indifferent. So today's tip, children, is don't give them your mobile number. Give them someone else's if you must, but you will be plagued by unsolicited Spam calls (are any Spam calls solicited?)
Anyway, today the real renewal letter from my broker arrived on my doormat. To renew with the same insurance company was going to be £287, but the broker suggested an alternative quote of £168 which seemed more reasonable.
So I called IAM Surety, and this time selected the "motorcycle insurance" option rather than the car one. To cut a long story slightly shorter, they are quoting £145 including Class 1 Business use so I could use my motorcycle for work (those who know me will realise that I can't do this!) and would be covered while doing any IAM Observing. It also includes Protected No Claims Discount (which the existing broker didn't) and Legal Cover (which the existing broker also didn't) and allows me Third Party cover to ride any other motorcycle as long as that motorcycle is insured by someone else. On the face of it a damn good deal, which makes the IAM annual membership worth the £18 (plus optional £10 to belong to a local group).
I called my existing broker, because after all they have been fine to deal with for the past couple of years and when I first went to them they managed to secure me a big wodge of No Claims Discount even though I hadn't had a motorcycle for a few years so probably wasn't really entitled to it. They checked, and checked, and finally came up with a comparative quote, including business use, protected no claims, and legal cover, of £155. Still about £11 more than IAM.
Except.
The IAM membership fee is probably going to rise from £18 to £28 a year soon (although fortunately after I have renewed for this coming year at the old price) because of their (I believe self-confessed, but I could be wrong) mismanagement (there is apparently a HUGE shortfall in funds) which is being VERY much talked about on the IAM members forums. So including the optional membership of the local group, there is an extra £38 to add to any IAM Surety Insurance quote, because if you aren't a member you don't get the special price.
And let's not go down the route of pointing out that becoming an advanced driver/rider is plugged by the IAM (and rightly so) as a Skill for Life. It's even called the Skill for Life Package! So if you then stop being a paid up member of the IAM do you instantly lose that skill and become a less safe driver/rider who will be more prone to being involved in an accident and therefore more likely to make an insurance claim? No, don't be bloody stupid, of course you don't. So anyway, I am going to continue with IAM membership for the next year, because it's at the old price, but if at the next AGM the proposed increase gets the thumbs up, then they will get the two fingers up from me for the following year. maybe even the single finger too. So if I leave the IAM I won't get a good price from IAM Surety (if they even quote me at all) for subsequent years.
Coincidentally, after speaking to IAM, I received another call from the 0871 number, so allowed them to try to get my business. They went through all the guff I'd already provided online, failed miserably to extract from me my email address, landline number, car insurance renewal date, and house insurance renewal date, and came in with a quote of £197. At the end of the call, when I told her she was way off, I asked if the daily calls would now stop, and sounding rather crestfallen, she agreed that they would.
So I have pretty well decided that I'm going to stick with my current broker, Websters since you ask, and pay £11 more than the IAM Surety quote, but with the knowledge that I can stop my membership if I want without having to dick about changing insurers again.
So, in summary. To renew with the current company (Norwich Union) would be £287, but Websters recommended an alternative at £168, and managed to chop it down to £155 with lots of extras thrown in when they were presented with some opposition.
I've saved myself £132 on my bike insurance this year, making a total saving on vehicle insurance of £317, so really I've got one of them for free compared with last year!
Friday, July 18, 2008
Insurance
Insurance, don't you love that time of year when it needs renewed? Especially if there are changes to your circumstances or to the details of what you want covered.
I've been with my current car insurer/broker for a few years now. I went to them initially because my ex-wife was about to learn to drive and I'd been phoning around getting lots and lots of quotes, all of which were in the region of £1000 pa for the Rover 416 we had at the time (see photo, although that isn't the actual car).
To put that in context, the insurance for me on my own to drive that vehicle was in the region of £200, but put a learner driver on the policy and the insurers want to screw you!
I eventually phoned this broker, who were actually to do with the staff federation (sort of a union) of my employer, and when I gave them all the details they quoted about £200. I patiently repeated that my wife was a learner, to which they replied, yes sir, £200. I explained, in case they hadn't fully understood, that my wife hadn't even yet applied for her provisional licence, and they sighed, and repeated, yes sir, we understand that, the price is £200. So the gist of it is that as long as it was my spouse, and she lived at the same address, then there was no change to the cost of the premium. Needless to say I immediately became their customer and have been for the past several years. I even insure my house and contents through them now.
Now wind forward dear friend, and if you are a regular reader of this Blog then first of all God help you, have you nothing better to do, and secondly you may realise that I passed my Advanced Driving test in January of this year. Membership of the Institute of Advanced Motorists costs £18 per year plus £10 per year if you want to be a member of a local group (in my case the Glasgow North Group) although local membership is not obligatory. But there is the carrot of cheaper insurance for Advanced Drivers (and Advanced Motorcyclists too, but I've that to look forward to later this year). You see where this is going don't you?
My car insurance is due for renewal. The quote from my current insurer was £285 pa to renew with no changes. That's including 6 years (protected) no claims bonus.
I called IAM Surety, the people who provide motoring insurance for the IAM (via the broker Adelaide). Their first quote was £245, a saving of £40. The annual IAM membership fee looks to be worth it then!
But wait! I've decided to add an extra named driver to my policy. Better get alternative quotes from them both. And I should mention that bizarrely, but coincidentally, both brokers are quoting only for policies via Royal and Sun Alliance!
With the new driver's details added, current broker, £338, IAM Surety £313. IAM win again!
But to be honest, £20 isn't really enough of a difference to make me change. I can't be bothered with the hassle of providing proof of no claims bonus etc, so I decide to stick with the current broker.
So, a call to the current broker to take them up on their quote of £338, and I find I have to give them all the details of the extra named driver again. When I do so they regenerate the quote and it's £370 pa! Hang on here, it has been a matter of 4 days since I was told it'd be £338. Why the difference? Sadly, because I'm in the "renewal" period they couldn't save the quote from 4 days previously, and they didn't know why there was a difference this time. But wait! There is one person who could explain it, and maybe sort it. The person who manages the database. But sadly she's on holiday. Perhaps I might want them to ask her to have a look at it when she returns in a couple of weeks? No thanks, perhaps I'll just go elsewhere! So I have to send back the new insurance certificate they sent me for next year. Yes, no problem.
So, at £57 cheaper, IAM Surety wins after all!
So I call them to take out the policy, and find that this was for a single payment of £313. I had already, in my initial enquiry, told them I wanted to spread this out and pay by monthly Direct Debit, but they seem to have forgotten to add the surcharge for this. OK, what's the new quote then? There's a 10% surcharge plus a £10 fee, bringing the new correct total to about £351. Still only £20 cheaper than the current broker's newly inflated quote. Hmmm, what to do?
I am pissed off by this point. Not with the individuals to whom I'm speaking, but with the whole setup.
Thanking the very helpful chap from IAM Surety for all the calls between us, I regretfully tell him he's lost out. I've already told the current broker they've lost out.
I look online at Money Supermarket, and enter all my details. Let's see if there's anyone else in the ballpark then.
Holy Shit, what's that? Admiral are quoting £161 based on exactly the same details. That can't be right surely? I look more closely. Yes, under "protected no claims discount" it says "check with insurer" so that's clearly going to up the cost. Similarly for monthly payments. Oh well, nothing to lose, I'll call them.
The extra cost involved in having protected no claims discount will be £5. The new total cost for fully comprehensive insurance with an extra named driver, is £166. If I want to pay monthly it'd be a total of £195. Woohoo! At these prices I decide to pay it all at once.
So, to cut a long story short (is there anyone still reading this far?) my quote to renew with no change was £285, to add an extra driver and take advantage of IAM membership would have been £351, but I have actually paid only £166.
A few days of hassle, and to be frank if it hadn't been a hassle I would just have chosen one or other of my current broker or IAM Surety, and I have saved myself £185.
So, just the bike insurance to look forward to in a couple of months!
I've been with my current car insurer/broker for a few years now. I went to them initially because my ex-wife was about to learn to drive and I'd been phoning around getting lots and lots of quotes, all of which were in the region of £1000 pa for the Rover 416 we had at the time (see photo, although that isn't the actual car).
To put that in context, the insurance for me on my own to drive that vehicle was in the region of £200, but put a learner driver on the policy and the insurers want to screw you!
I eventually phoned this broker, who were actually to do with the staff federation (sort of a union) of my employer, and when I gave them all the details they quoted about £200. I patiently repeated that my wife was a learner, to which they replied, yes sir, £200. I explained, in case they hadn't fully understood, that my wife hadn't even yet applied for her provisional licence, and they sighed, and repeated, yes sir, we understand that, the price is £200. So the gist of it is that as long as it was my spouse, and she lived at the same address, then there was no change to the cost of the premium. Needless to say I immediately became their customer and have been for the past several years. I even insure my house and contents through them now.
Now wind forward dear friend, and if you are a regular reader of this Blog then first of all God help you, have you nothing better to do, and secondly you may realise that I passed my Advanced Driving test in January of this year. Membership of the Institute of Advanced Motorists costs £18 per year plus £10 per year if you want to be a member of a local group (in my case the Glasgow North Group) although local membership is not obligatory. But there is the carrot of cheaper insurance for Advanced Drivers (and Advanced Motorcyclists too, but I've that to look forward to later this year). You see where this is going don't you?
My car insurance is due for renewal. The quote from my current insurer was £285 pa to renew with no changes. That's including 6 years (protected) no claims bonus.
I called IAM Surety, the people who provide motoring insurance for the IAM (via the broker Adelaide). Their first quote was £245, a saving of £40. The annual IAM membership fee looks to be worth it then!
But wait! I've decided to add an extra named driver to my policy. Better get alternative quotes from them both. And I should mention that bizarrely, but coincidentally, both brokers are quoting only for policies via Royal and Sun Alliance!
With the new driver's details added, current broker, £338, IAM Surety £313. IAM win again!
But to be honest, £20 isn't really enough of a difference to make me change. I can't be bothered with the hassle of providing proof of no claims bonus etc, so I decide to stick with the current broker.
So, a call to the current broker to take them up on their quote of £338, and I find I have to give them all the details of the extra named driver again. When I do so they regenerate the quote and it's £370 pa! Hang on here, it has been a matter of 4 days since I was told it'd be £338. Why the difference? Sadly, because I'm in the "renewal" period they couldn't save the quote from 4 days previously, and they didn't know why there was a difference this time. But wait! There is one person who could explain it, and maybe sort it. The person who manages the database. But sadly she's on holiday. Perhaps I might want them to ask her to have a look at it when she returns in a couple of weeks? No thanks, perhaps I'll just go elsewhere! So I have to send back the new insurance certificate they sent me for next year. Yes, no problem.
So, at £57 cheaper, IAM Surety wins after all!
So I call them to take out the policy, and find that this was for a single payment of £313. I had already, in my initial enquiry, told them I wanted to spread this out and pay by monthly Direct Debit, but they seem to have forgotten to add the surcharge for this. OK, what's the new quote then? There's a 10% surcharge plus a £10 fee, bringing the new correct total to about £351. Still only £20 cheaper than the current broker's newly inflated quote. Hmmm, what to do?
I am pissed off by this point. Not with the individuals to whom I'm speaking, but with the whole setup.
Thanking the very helpful chap from IAM Surety for all the calls between us, I regretfully tell him he's lost out. I've already told the current broker they've lost out.
I look online at Money Supermarket, and enter all my details. Let's see if there's anyone else in the ballpark then.
Holy Shit, what's that? Admiral are quoting £161 based on exactly the same details. That can't be right surely? I look more closely. Yes, under "protected no claims discount" it says "check with insurer" so that's clearly going to up the cost. Similarly for monthly payments. Oh well, nothing to lose, I'll call them.
The extra cost involved in having protected no claims discount will be £5. The new total cost for fully comprehensive insurance with an extra named driver, is £166. If I want to pay monthly it'd be a total of £195. Woohoo! At these prices I decide to pay it all at once.
So, to cut a long story short (is there anyone still reading this far?) my quote to renew with no change was £285, to add an extra driver and take advantage of IAM membership would have been £351, but I have actually paid only £166.
A few days of hassle, and to be frank if it hadn't been a hassle I would just have chosen one or other of my current broker or IAM Surety, and I have saved myself £185.
So, just the bike insurance to look forward to in a couple of months!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
When worlds collide
Two separate parts of my life collide in the first video below. Yes folks, it's the Highway Code sung to Anglican Chant! The second one is the weather forecast, similarly sung.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Second Sunday
Second Sunday of the month today. That means that this morning I turned up at PC World car park in Glasgow and joined seven other members of Glasgow North group of the Institute of Advanced Motorists for a nice long run.
We headed off for Oban, via a quick stop at Inveraray (see photo) then down to Lochgilphead and up the A816 to Oban for a lunch of (tasty but slightly greasy) fish & chips. Off again along the A85 and a quick stop at Tyndrum for coffee and ice cream, although at this point I didn't wait as I wanted to get back home earlier than I would have been if I'd waited for the rest.
A nice sunny day, and glorious scenery, but to be honest I was fairly bored. Can't quite put my finger on why, it was just a tedious run playing follow my leader at a fairly sedate pace with, for me anyway, nothing to commend itself to me.
Ah well, I suppose it can't hit the spot every time!
We headed off for Oban, via a quick stop at Inveraray (see photo) then down to Lochgilphead and up the A816 to Oban for a lunch of (tasty but slightly greasy) fish & chips. Off again along the A85 and a quick stop at Tyndrum for coffee and ice cream, although at this point I didn't wait as I wanted to get back home earlier than I would have been if I'd waited for the rest.
A nice sunny day, and glorious scenery, but to be honest I was fairly bored. Can't quite put my finger on why, it was just a tedious run playing follow my leader at a fairly sedate pace with, for me anyway, nothing to commend itself to me.
Ah well, I suppose it can't hit the spot every time!
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Aye Ready
It's a glorious sunny day and it's Wednesday. That means it's the evening for the Glasgow North Group of the IAM to have their weekly bike ride. Yet a few hundred miles from this city the famous Glasgow Rangers football club are playing in the final of the UEFA cup in Manchester, which sounds terribly exciting as it's being touted as the biggest European game the club have had since 1972.
The question therefore is this:
Is there going to be anyone else turning up for the bike ride? All will be revealed within the hour when I get there!
Update Thursday 15th: Yes indeed there were a few there, and more than I had expected. A good run up to Balmaha (near Loch Lomond) but I got very cold on the way back home for some reason, and combined with the previous night (Tuesday) being spent between the bedroom and the toilet (don't ask) and the subsequent (i.e. Wednesday) night being spent in a similar fashion, after having vomited for Britain before I went to bed, I am not a happy bunny today.
The question therefore is this:
Is there going to be anyone else turning up for the bike ride? All will be revealed within the hour when I get there!
Update Thursday 15th: Yes indeed there were a few there, and more than I had expected. A good run up to Balmaha (near Loch Lomond) but I got very cold on the way back home for some reason, and combined with the previous night (Tuesday) being spent between the bedroom and the toilet (don't ask) and the subsequent (i.e. Wednesday) night being spent in a similar fashion, after having vomited for Britain before I went to bed, I am not a happy bunny today.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Catch up
I've again fallen behind on Blogging, despite my best intentions and aims. Oh well. Maybe time for a catch up post then.
I've now had two Wednesdays of being talked to by an IAM senior observer about how to go about observing another motorcyclist and offering them advice on how to improve their riding skills towards passing the IAM advanced test. Then I've had one week where, accompanied by a senior observer, I was let loose with an associate who had no idea it was my first time (and I think I got away with it!).
Initially a bit worried about whether I would be able to spot things to talk about and verbalise what I saw in such a way that it would be constructive, I managed to cover all the pre ride points: introducing myself; checking out the condition of the bike and suitability of the rider's clothing; finding out what experience the rider had both in terms of overall riding and specifically how often he'd been to IAM evenings; ascertaining what things he felt he needed to work on; looking at his progress sheet to see how previous observers had seen him; explaining where we were going, the route we were going to take, and the practicalities of how I was going to follow him; and the very important disclaimer that is a version of
"at all times when we are on the road you are responsible for the control of your own motorcycle and responsible for your own conduct, and you should ride at all times safely and in accordance with the law. If by interpreting my words, actions or signals you believe that I'm asking you to do anything with which you're not happy, then don't do it."
In other words, if it all goes horribly wrong, it isn't the responsibility of the IAM or more importantly of me personally!
So having looked at his bike, a nice looking Honda CBR600 sports bike
which I believe does about 160mph (about 40mph more than my comfy big BMW R1100RT Tourer) and gets from 0-60mph in about 3.8 seconds (the BMW does it in about 4.5 seconds) and briefly wondered to myself if I was about to embarrass myself by being left trailing behind him, unable to keep up on the twisty country roads (while of course both sticking to the speed limit), we chatted and identified what the things were that he himself felt he had to work on, which was borne out by the markings on his progress sheet by the previous two observers, this being only the rider's third time out with the IAM.
As an aside, the photo was taken at the recent Easter Egg run and shows my hefty BMW coincidentally parked next to a svelte CBR600 in the car park at the SECC as we were gathering for the run.
So we set off, with the rider leading and mostly taking the correct road position, which is towards the right hand side of the lane, and, other traffic permitting, fairly near the centre white line (on a single carriageway road), and me behind him basically riding in the gutter! Yes, the best position for an observer following a rider is over to the nearside of the road, as this gives the best view of what the rider is doing, and doesn't obstruct the rider's rear view, allowing him to ride as he would normally do. It felt a bit strange at first, but not too bad, and I got used to it quickly. The senior observer followed me, watching what I was doing as I watched what the associate was doing.
As a general rule I have no intention of Blogging in any great detail about IAM associates and their riding (whether good or bad) while being observed by me, because I think that would be creeping towards being overly intrusive into their privacy, so I won't detail anything about the ride that followed, apart from mentioning one instance going round a left hand bend on a country road within the national speed limit (60mph) when the rider correctly stayed out to the right hand side of his lane, near the centre white line, giving the best view as far round the corner as possible so as to see hazards early, but he didn't move to the left, to a safer position, when he saw a transit van coming towards us, and I swear there must have been only a few inches between him and the van's mirror as they passed each other at a combined speed of probably 100mph (we were doing about 50mph and so was the van I'd guess). I took a very big sharp intake of breath as I saw the van approach and pass, although due to the tightness of the bend and the hedges on either side obstructing the view it appeared and disappeared again very quickly and it was all over in a flash. The senior observer, who was riding behind me, summed it up later when he simply said "I shit myself when I saw that". The rider himself knew that this had been a narrow escape, and I suspect and hope it was a valuable lesson on the learning curve! Sacrifice positioning for safety every time!
Twisty road wise I needn't have worried about trying to keep up with the sports bike. The BMW is a big heavy tourer designed for long trips in comfort down relatively straight motorways and autobahns, and sports bikes are light and designed to be flicked round corners easily, with massive acceleration. But when you factor in the 60mph speed limit, and the ability of an advanced rider to ride smoothly round bends without having to use the brakes very often, then the playing field was levelled somewhat and I had no problems keeping up and being in more or less the right viewing position for most of the time.
All in all an enjoyable evening, and I didn't have any problems thinking of things to say and suggest.
That was two Wednesdays ago, and the following Saturday, last Saturday in fact, the bike went to a mechanic for its 6000 mile service. Suffice to say that it was never going to go smoothly, and the £80 I was expecting to pay for the oil change etc has become over £400 due to the wee oil leak which I had noticed over the past few months happening very occasionally and usually only first thing on cold mornings and only a few drips lasting a minute before stopping. This is the fault of the oil cooler, apparently. The BMW is an oil cooled machine, and the little radiator type thing in the front is where the oil from the engine goes to be cooled as it circulates.
The recommendation by the mechanic was not to ride the bike until it was fixed, since he has seen the results when the cooler gives out completely (as it could do at any time apparently), dropping all the oil from the bike in one go over the front wheel onto the road just in time for the back wheel to go over it. If that happens at any sort of speed, leaving aside the fact that the engine is likely to seize causing cripplingly expensive damage, then the combination of tyres, road and oil doesn't exactly enhance grip, and you would be likely to fall off very painfully, perhaps even terminally! So I took his advice and the bike has been lying with him for a week.
So a new one of them costs £167, and there are two hoses connecting it to the system, one of which needs replaced, but to be honest what's the point of only replacing one hose when the other might go soon too, it being the same age. About £35 each hose. And the extra labour involved in removing all of the fairing (or Tupperware as I believe it's sometimes jokingly called) and replacing it again. An extra £100 of labour in fact.
I sourced the parts for the bike from Motorworks, although I couldn't find the oil cooler on their excellent website so had to telephone them and Yvonne in sales proved to be very friendly, helpful and knowledgeable, directing me to another website which they use to identify parts because it contains exploded diagrams of bikes. So having ordered the bits on Monday the box arrived at work on Wednesday, and I duly delivered it to the mechanic who will be putting the bike back together again today, I hope! I'm currently waiting on a phone call from him to say it's ready, and then I'll try to arrange a lift the 25 miles to where he has been working on it.
Singing wise, Glasgow Chamber Choir are about to travel to the south of France, to Marseilles, to perform a couple of concerts, one secular and one sacred.
The concerts are on Saturday and Sunday, but a crowd of us are taking full advantage by travelling out on Thursday and staying until Tuesday. Should be fun, and doubtless will generate one or two posts here in due course! The cats are booked into their regular holiday home from home.
Having taken an extended time out of the choir of St Mary's Cathedral (remember, the reason for this Blog's name!) which has lasted about a year so far, I recently sang there again to help out since they were very short of tenors for an Evensong. I enjoyed it greatly, and although I am not in a position to rejoin full time since they rehearse on the same evening as Glasgow Chamber Choir, I will be happy to help out as an occasional singer which seems to suit all round just now.
It seemed strange putting on a cassock after such a long time away, but it now seems inevitable that it was going to happen at some point, although I can now reveal that for almost all of the past year I have had no intentions of ever returning to St Mary's or to church generally, for reasons I won't go into. I also know that there is someone who, if they knew I was again at St Mary's, would be deeply hurt, and I'm truly sorry about that and genuinely hope that person is doing OK and getting on well with life. I'm sorry I don't know for certain that they are doing well, but I tried to keep in touch but was rebuffed, or my calls were ignored anyway. We all have to make decisions in our lives about what to do, and sometimes the right course of action for one person is absolutely the wrong one for another, and sometimes decisions we make for ourselves hurt other people's feelings. I don't mean to hurt anyone, it's not in my nature, but I need to do what's right for me, and not live my life worried about what others may think. Sorry.
Anyway, moving on.
I've been using Facebook for a while now, and although I'm clearly not in their target age range (!) I'm enjoying it and I think it's a good way of keeping in touch with current friends, and making contact with old friends. I've already added two secondary school contemporaries of mine as friends, and it's great to see how people are doing. I don't use my real name on here, and don't tend to use other people's real names either, instead sticking to their initials, but in the unlikely event that you read this Blog and want to become my Facebook friend (and God help you if you do, there must be something missing in your life!) then if you send me your email address and name I'll go searching for you on Facebook with a view to adding you as a friend. I think I can find you as long as I search for the email address you have registered with them.
I've been looking at Blogger and there doesn't seem to be any way to contact me privately via this Blog (although I do receive an email whenever a comment is posted), and I'm not going to publish my email address and neither do I expect anyone to publish their email address and name on a comment for all to see, so the best I can come up with to avoid nasty people obtaining private data, is that if you go to my Website, and to the My Choirs page, there's a link there at the top right hand side to contact me regarding choirs. It goes to a Webmaster email address which I monitor. That is a bit of a roundabout way of doing it, but it's the only way I can think of that avoids publishing email addresses for every bastard spammer in the world to see!
And in case you're wondering, this "be my friend on Facebook" thing is neither a sad plea for friends nor an attempt to harvest email addresses for nefarious purposes, it's just a wee extension of the Blog, sort of, and is aimed at any regular readers. I will not use your email address for anything other than searching for you on Facebook with a view to adding you as a friend. Promise.
I've now had two Wednesdays of being talked to by an IAM senior observer about how to go about observing another motorcyclist and offering them advice on how to improve their riding skills towards passing the IAM advanced test. Then I've had one week where, accompanied by a senior observer, I was let loose with an associate who had no idea it was my first time (and I think I got away with it!).
Initially a bit worried about whether I would be able to spot things to talk about and verbalise what I saw in such a way that it would be constructive, I managed to cover all the pre ride points: introducing myself; checking out the condition of the bike and suitability of the rider's clothing; finding out what experience the rider had both in terms of overall riding and specifically how often he'd been to IAM evenings; ascertaining what things he felt he needed to work on; looking at his progress sheet to see how previous observers had seen him; explaining where we were going, the route we were going to take, and the practicalities of how I was going to follow him; and the very important disclaimer that is a version of
"at all times when we are on the road you are responsible for the control of your own motorcycle and responsible for your own conduct, and you should ride at all times safely and in accordance with the law. If by interpreting my words, actions or signals you believe that I'm asking you to do anything with which you're not happy, then don't do it."
In other words, if it all goes horribly wrong, it isn't the responsibility of the IAM or more importantly of me personally!
So having looked at his bike, a nice looking Honda CBR600 sports bike
which I believe does about 160mph (about 40mph more than my comfy big BMW R1100RT Tourer) and gets from 0-60mph in about 3.8 seconds (the BMW does it in about 4.5 seconds) and briefly wondered to myself if I was about to embarrass myself by being left trailing behind him, unable to keep up on the twisty country roads (while of course both sticking to the speed limit), we chatted and identified what the things were that he himself felt he had to work on, which was borne out by the markings on his progress sheet by the previous two observers, this being only the rider's third time out with the IAM.As an aside, the photo was taken at the recent Easter Egg run and shows my hefty BMW coincidentally parked next to a svelte CBR600 in the car park at the SECC as we were gathering for the run.
So we set off, with the rider leading and mostly taking the correct road position, which is towards the right hand side of the lane, and, other traffic permitting, fairly near the centre white line (on a single carriageway road), and me behind him basically riding in the gutter! Yes, the best position for an observer following a rider is over to the nearside of the road, as this gives the best view of what the rider is doing, and doesn't obstruct the rider's rear view, allowing him to ride as he would normally do. It felt a bit strange at first, but not too bad, and I got used to it quickly. The senior observer followed me, watching what I was doing as I watched what the associate was doing.
As a general rule I have no intention of Blogging in any great detail about IAM associates and their riding (whether good or bad) while being observed by me, because I think that would be creeping towards being overly intrusive into their privacy, so I won't detail anything about the ride that followed, apart from mentioning one instance going round a left hand bend on a country road within the national speed limit (60mph) when the rider correctly stayed out to the right hand side of his lane, near the centre white line, giving the best view as far round the corner as possible so as to see hazards early, but he didn't move to the left, to a safer position, when he saw a transit van coming towards us, and I swear there must have been only a few inches between him and the van's mirror as they passed each other at a combined speed of probably 100mph (we were doing about 50mph and so was the van I'd guess). I took a very big sharp intake of breath as I saw the van approach and pass, although due to the tightness of the bend and the hedges on either side obstructing the view it appeared and disappeared again very quickly and it was all over in a flash. The senior observer, who was riding behind me, summed it up later when he simply said "I shit myself when I saw that". The rider himself knew that this had been a narrow escape, and I suspect and hope it was a valuable lesson on the learning curve! Sacrifice positioning for safety every time!
Twisty road wise I needn't have worried about trying to keep up with the sports bike. The BMW is a big heavy tourer designed for long trips in comfort down relatively straight motorways and autobahns, and sports bikes are light and designed to be flicked round corners easily, with massive acceleration. But when you factor in the 60mph speed limit, and the ability of an advanced rider to ride smoothly round bends without having to use the brakes very often, then the playing field was levelled somewhat and I had no problems keeping up and being in more or less the right viewing position for most of the time.
All in all an enjoyable evening, and I didn't have any problems thinking of things to say and suggest.
That was two Wednesdays ago, and the following Saturday, last Saturday in fact, the bike went to a mechanic for its 6000 mile service. Suffice to say that it was never going to go smoothly, and the £80 I was expecting to pay for the oil change etc has become over £400 due to the wee oil leak which I had noticed over the past few months happening very occasionally and usually only first thing on cold mornings and only a few drips lasting a minute before stopping. This is the fault of the oil cooler, apparently. The BMW is an oil cooled machine, and the little radiator type thing in the front is where the oil from the engine goes to be cooled as it circulates.
The recommendation by the mechanic was not to ride the bike until it was fixed, since he has seen the results when the cooler gives out completely (as it could do at any time apparently), dropping all the oil from the bike in one go over the front wheel onto the road just in time for the back wheel to go over it. If that happens at any sort of speed, leaving aside the fact that the engine is likely to seize causing cripplingly expensive damage, then the combination of tyres, road and oil doesn't exactly enhance grip, and you would be likely to fall off very painfully, perhaps even terminally! So I took his advice and the bike has been lying with him for a week.
So a new one of them costs £167, and there are two hoses connecting it to the system, one of which needs replaced, but to be honest what's the point of only replacing one hose when the other might go soon too, it being the same age. About £35 each hose. And the extra labour involved in removing all of the fairing (or Tupperware as I believe it's sometimes jokingly called) and replacing it again. An extra £100 of labour in fact.
I sourced the parts for the bike from Motorworks, although I couldn't find the oil cooler on their excellent website so had to telephone them and Yvonne in sales proved to be very friendly, helpful and knowledgeable, directing me to another website which they use to identify parts because it contains exploded diagrams of bikes. So having ordered the bits on Monday the box arrived at work on Wednesday, and I duly delivered it to the mechanic who will be putting the bike back together again today, I hope! I'm currently waiting on a phone call from him to say it's ready, and then I'll try to arrange a lift the 25 miles to where he has been working on it.
Singing wise, Glasgow Chamber Choir are about to travel to the south of France, to Marseilles, to perform a couple of concerts, one secular and one sacred.
The concerts are on Saturday and Sunday, but a crowd of us are taking full advantage by travelling out on Thursday and staying until Tuesday. Should be fun, and doubtless will generate one or two posts here in due course! The cats are booked into their regular holiday home from home.
Having taken an extended time out of the choir of St Mary's Cathedral (remember, the reason for this Blog's name!) which has lasted about a year so far, I recently sang there again to help out since they were very short of tenors for an Evensong. I enjoyed it greatly, and although I am not in a position to rejoin full time since they rehearse on the same evening as Glasgow Chamber Choir, I will be happy to help out as an occasional singer which seems to suit all round just now.
It seemed strange putting on a cassock after such a long time away, but it now seems inevitable that it was going to happen at some point, although I can now reveal that for almost all of the past year I have had no intentions of ever returning to St Mary's or to church generally, for reasons I won't go into. I also know that there is someone who, if they knew I was again at St Mary's, would be deeply hurt, and I'm truly sorry about that and genuinely hope that person is doing OK and getting on well with life. I'm sorry I don't know for certain that they are doing well, but I tried to keep in touch but was rebuffed, or my calls were ignored anyway. We all have to make decisions in our lives about what to do, and sometimes the right course of action for one person is absolutely the wrong one for another, and sometimes decisions we make for ourselves hurt other people's feelings. I don't mean to hurt anyone, it's not in my nature, but I need to do what's right for me, and not live my life worried about what others may think. Sorry.
Anyway, moving on.
I've been using Facebook for a while now, and although I'm clearly not in their target age range (!) I'm enjoying it and I think it's a good way of keeping in touch with current friends, and making contact with old friends. I've already added two secondary school contemporaries of mine as friends, and it's great to see how people are doing. I don't use my real name on here, and don't tend to use other people's real names either, instead sticking to their initials, but in the unlikely event that you read this Blog and want to become my Facebook friend (and God help you if you do, there must be something missing in your life!) then if you send me your email address and name I'll go searching for you on Facebook with a view to adding you as a friend. I think I can find you as long as I search for the email address you have registered with them.
I've been looking at Blogger and there doesn't seem to be any way to contact me privately via this Blog (although I do receive an email whenever a comment is posted), and I'm not going to publish my email address and neither do I expect anyone to publish their email address and name on a comment for all to see, so the best I can come up with to avoid nasty people obtaining private data, is that if you go to my Website, and to the My Choirs page, there's a link there at the top right hand side to contact me regarding choirs. It goes to a Webmaster email address which I monitor. That is a bit of a roundabout way of doing it, but it's the only way I can think of that avoids publishing email addresses for every bastard spammer in the world to see!
And in case you're wondering, this "be my friend on Facebook" thing is neither a sad plea for friends nor an attempt to harvest email addresses for nefarious purposes, it's just a wee extension of the Blog, sort of, and is aimed at any regular readers. I will not use your email address for anything other than searching for you on Facebook with a view to adding you as a friend. Promise.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
This evening the IAM Glasgow North Group (motorcycle section) season started again. Every Wednesday from now until September a big wodge of bikes will converge on the car park at the retail park at Crow Road in Glasgow, before setting off for about an hour of riding to a destination where there will be cups of tea and sandwiches, or plates of chips, or sustenance of some description. Tonight the McDonalds restaurant at Balloch, next to Loch Lomond, was the chosen place. Their hot chocolate is perfectly acceptable, I can now say.
So anyway, as of this evening I am now an IAM trainee observer, and the next while will be spent learning how to observe (funnily enough) and how to offer advice to associate members of the IAM who are training to take, and pass, their advanced motorcycle test, like I did in December. This takes the form of me riding behind an associate and watching what they do, and stopping every so often to offer constructive advice on how to ride better and, more importantly, more safely, with a view to passing the IAM test. All the while, or at least most of the time anyway, while I follow the associate a senior observer will be riding behind me watching what I do, and at the end of the ride, out of earshot of the associate, offering me advice and criticism.
This will lead to another test for me which when I pass will make me a qualified observer, allowed to be with an associate without having a senior observer following me. Apparently the time scale for this is usually 3-6 months, so watch this space!
So anyway, as of this evening I am now an IAM trainee observer, and the next while will be spent learning how to observe (funnily enough) and how to offer advice to associate members of the IAM who are training to take, and pass, their advanced motorcycle test, like I did in December. This takes the form of me riding behind an associate and watching what they do, and stopping every so often to offer constructive advice on how to ride better and, more importantly, more safely, with a view to passing the IAM test. All the while, or at least most of the time anyway, while I follow the associate a senior observer will be riding behind me watching what I do, and at the end of the ride, out of earshot of the associate, offering me advice and criticism.
This will lead to another test for me which when I pass will make me a qualified observer, allowed to be with an associate without having a senior observer following me. Apparently the time scale for this is usually 3-6 months, so watch this space!
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Easter Eggs
It's looking good for the Easter Egg run tomorrow lunchtime. The snowy weather promised by the weather forecasters a few days ago is looking less likely and right now the BBC Website says it's going to be pretty reasonable.
So if you happen to be somewhere in the west end of Glasgow tomorrow, Easter Sunday, from 12.30pm, then look out for the 3000+ motorcyclists bringing all the traffic to a halt while delivering a huge number of Easter eggs, and a fair number of cash donations to Yorkhill Children's Hospital.
Obviously the number will be swelled this year by yours truly together with RE riding pillion. This year I will not be standing outside St Mary's Cathedral leaning on crutches and with a glass of sparkly stuff in my hand jealously watching the dirty filthy bikers go by, no sir, this year I will be one of said DF bikers!
So if you're trying to drive in a car in the west end tomorrow lunchtime I'd give it a miss if I were you!
The trip starts at the SECC car park and the route (see image) travels up Finnieston St, left into Argyle St, right into Radnor St, right onto Sauchiehall St, left into Rose St (past the Glasgow Film Theatre), right into Renfrew St, left into Cambridge St, left onto Cowcaddens Rd, bear left onto West Graham St which then takes you onto Great Western Road, past St Mary's Cathedral, left at Anniesland Cross onto Crow Rd (the eponymous road from the Iain Banks 1992 novel), left onto Dumbarton Rd, right into Bunhouse Rd (at the Kelvin Hall, the location of my Achilles Tendon injury just over 1 year ago which led to me being on crutches drinking sparkly stuff), left onto Old Dumbarton Rd, then right into Dalnair St to the hospital. Then a wee trip back to the SECC which is only a few hundred metres from the hospital by the direct route.
An estimated 40 minutes of slow riding at close quarters with lots of other riders. Lots of horn blowing and lots of waving to watching pedestrians, including those outside St Mary's. Should be fun. Report will doubtless follow.
One thing that strikes me as slightly strange however is that the IAM are not represented there. Yes, of course there will be riders who like me are members of the IAM, but the Institute itself is not officially represented as far as I can make out. I would have thought that the presence of thousands of bikers in one place at the same time might be seen as a God given opportunity to spread the word and, more importantly, capture the chequebooks of some new associate members. But apparently not. Outside the official season no doubt, so out of the question.
So if you happen to be somewhere in the west end of Glasgow tomorrow, Easter Sunday, from 12.30pm, then look out for the 3000+ motorcyclists bringing all the traffic to a halt while delivering a huge number of Easter eggs, and a fair number of cash donations to Yorkhill Children's Hospital.
Obviously the number will be swelled this year by yours truly together with RE riding pillion. This year I will not be standing outside St Mary's Cathedral leaning on crutches and with a glass of sparkly stuff in my hand jealously watching the dirty filthy bikers go by, no sir, this year I will be one of said DF bikers!
So if you're trying to drive in a car in the west end tomorrow lunchtime I'd give it a miss if I were you!
The trip starts at the SECC car park and the route (see image) travels up Finnieston St, left into Argyle St, right into Radnor St, right onto Sauchiehall St, left into Rose St (past the Glasgow Film Theatre), right into Renfrew St, left into Cambridge St, left onto Cowcaddens Rd, bear left onto West Graham St which then takes you onto Great Western Road, past St Mary's Cathedral, left at Anniesland Cross onto Crow Rd (the eponymous road from the Iain Banks 1992 novel), left onto Dumbarton Rd, right into Bunhouse Rd (at the Kelvin Hall, the location of my Achilles Tendon injury just over 1 year ago which led to me being on crutches drinking sparkly stuff), left onto Old Dumbarton Rd, then right into Dalnair St to the hospital. Then a wee trip back to the SECC which is only a few hundred metres from the hospital by the direct route.
An estimated 40 minutes of slow riding at close quarters with lots of other riders. Lots of horn blowing and lots of waving to watching pedestrians, including those outside St Mary's. Should be fun. Report will doubtless follow.
One thing that strikes me as slightly strange however is that the IAM are not represented there. Yes, of course there will be riders who like me are members of the IAM, but the Institute itself is not officially represented as far as I can make out. I would have thought that the presence of thousands of bikers in one place at the same time might be seen as a God given opportunity to spread the word and, more importantly, capture the chequebooks of some new associate members. But apparently not. Outside the official season no doubt, so out of the question.
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