Happy New Year

A Guid New Year to ane and all and mony will ye see. A line from a Burns poem that sums up my thoughts for you all in this coming year. As I often say, life is here but once, grab the nettle, get out there, make a difference, be happy , just do it !

Get that Norton rebuilt & join us on an adventure as we go through 2006, the Clapper Rally & Thistle rally in February, the bike show in March, camping in March & April, the Guzzi Rally in April May, camping in May, the International in June, sunny Portugal, maybe Ibiza, Camping in July, the National Rally held by the Nottingham branch in July, Camping & the Begonia in August & who knows what else for the run up to next Winter.

Motorcycling opportunities are like life, don’t miss an opportunity because you don’t know when it’ll come along again. Lets make this year a year to remember. Looking forward to Portugal, it’s been a few years since we travelled on our Nortons to sunny climes,for those of you that remember and for thos of you that were jealous you didn’t go, remember Switzerland & St Pompom, the sun. the beer, the camaraderie and make only one new year resolution this year. I WILL GET OUT AND EXPLORE LIFE ON MY NORTON THIS YEAR.

JD in International incident

Speaking of International travel I had a visit from JD two weeks ago, he asked me translate a official document in Italian. This is where it gets scary & worrying; he was going through the mont Blanc tunnel last June and remembers being flashed by a camera in the tunnel. This was the fixed penalty ticket for the offence, delivered to his home address by registered post six months after it happened.

There are two options if this happens, pay up and decide it was a fair cop or ignore it. The ignoring option is fine until one day you arrive in Italy and either hand over your passport to an official or get pulled on the road. Italian’s are good at this type of bureaucracy, I suspect you would find yourself being some Italian Mafia Don’s bitch & finding new uses for your Ar*e in short order. Either that or avoid going back to the country again.

It is worrying as I was sure I had diplomatic immunity when I’m abroad but it appears maybe not. The really worrying thing is when HM government start doing reciprocal points on licence scheme, I find it hard enough to cope with and understand our own traffic regulations never mind another country’s. Big brother is alive and well and is becoming international as well.

Drivel

I received my usual Christmas card from Wolf Pfieffer this year, he always sends a personalised card. This year it was a picture of him naked from the rear showing off his spectacular bruising following a crash at a hill climb last June. Wolf is one of the great International Norton characters and you never know just what to expect when you get one of his cards.

I spent the first day of the year in excellent company, I visited Phil & Trudie who had George, Gary & Amy visiting New years day spent talking about Nortons & Rallies, a brilliant start to the year but I was sober as well, maybe a sign of things to come ……not!

Norton Ebay activity

I’ve been going a bit mad on Ebay lately, I just missed out on a Commando oil pump which I was narrowly outbid for. I started looking at the stuff for sale in Europe and got one for about two thirds of the price in France. Bolstered by my good fortune I looked at America and got one even cheaper. My advice is to look beyond these shores for bargains. A word of caution though, some Germans don’t like paypal and want money transfer, this costs a minimum of £14 in my bank so it can make thigs expensive. Just check before buying, Australian items seem to have the same constraints.

You can’t have too many oil pumps!

Well that’s it for this month, two rallies coming up so hopefully plenty material for February & remember next month is AGM time!

The Small Print

The views and opinions contained within this publication are not necessarily those of the NOC or of the branch but are probably mine as I wrote it.

No one accepts any responsibility for anything, if you have a good time don't say I didn't warn you.

Gino Rondelli

January 2006