'The BIG day'
Sept 30th Big, big day
See the photos 'What an amazing day' I thought I thought as the Virgin Atlantic plane’s wheels left the Heathrow tarmac. Only 4 hours earlier I had made my parents take a 2 hour detour, on our journey from the farm to airport, to go to a McDonalds under the shadow of the Didcot Power Station cooling towers. Here I left them for a few minutes while I donned my best suit and went to call out Abi from her work to ask her to marry me - the vistor’s carpark at her work being marginally more romantic than McDonalds.
Nerves are a funny thing and although I had been thinking long and hard about asking Abi the big question and even making a ring for her a few weeks back, I completely lost it as I stood in the carpark with a bunch of flowers in my hand, so the tears came and I forgot to get down on one knee! Luckily Abi was well cool and said yes and we just hugged to enjoy the moment before returning to McDonalds so my parents could see Abi and offer their congratulations. Believe it or not that was all done in 20 minutes as we had to get back into the car to get to Heathrow for my flight.
The ring, I made with help from Simon at The Stones Gallary in Burford. It is a dual tapered silver sheet, rounded and soldered. With two silver square wires soldered ether side of a golden Hercule Love knot I hand tied from 0.8mm 18 carat gold wire. The silver square wires look heavy and strong and represent my arms around our love represented by the Love knot. The Hercule love knot is special in that the harder it is pulled the stronger it gets. As well as the Hallmark I have had engraved one of the old English posey ring sayings that was simple but deep - like me! Posey ring sayings are on the inside of the ring as they are a secret between lovers, only revealed to those who are trusted, so you will have to ask Abi in person if you want to see it.
At the airport, Virgin wanted £19/kg for the excess baggage of 10 kilos for the two tyres I wanted to take but in the end by removing the battery from my luggage that they would not carry, even though it was without acid and the Yuasa sales people said it would be no problem, they eventually took the tyres for free. It was great having my parents at the airport and not just for carrying tyres and spare batteries but for their support. Still, a quick goodbye to my parents, I have always hated long goodbyes, and I was bound for Dubai and the start of the second leg of my adventure with a feeling of happiness.
See the photos 'What an amazing day' I thought I thought as the Virgin Atlantic plane’s wheels left the Heathrow tarmac. Only 4 hours earlier I had made my parents take a 2 hour detour, on our journey from the farm to airport, to go to a McDonalds under the shadow of the Didcot Power Station cooling towers. Here I left them for a few minutes while I donned my best suit and went to call out Abi from her work to ask her to marry me - the vistor’s carpark at her work being marginally more romantic than McDonalds.
Nerves are a funny thing and although I had been thinking long and hard about asking Abi the big question and even making a ring for her a few weeks back, I completely lost it as I stood in the carpark with a bunch of flowers in my hand, so the tears came and I forgot to get down on one knee! Luckily Abi was well cool and said yes and we just hugged to enjoy the moment before returning to McDonalds so my parents could see Abi and offer their congratulations. Believe it or not that was all done in 20 minutes as we had to get back into the car to get to Heathrow for my flight.
The ring, I made with help from Simon at The Stones Gallary in Burford. It is a dual tapered silver sheet, rounded and soldered. With two silver square wires soldered ether side of a golden Hercule Love knot I hand tied from 0.8mm 18 carat gold wire. The silver square wires look heavy and strong and represent my arms around our love represented by the Love knot. The Hercule love knot is special in that the harder it is pulled the stronger it gets. As well as the Hallmark I have had engraved one of the old English posey ring sayings that was simple but deep - like me! Posey ring sayings are on the inside of the ring as they are a secret between lovers, only revealed to those who are trusted, so you will have to ask Abi in person if you want to see it.
At the airport, Virgin wanted £19/kg for the excess baggage of 10 kilos for the two tyres I wanted to take but in the end by removing the battery from my luggage that they would not carry, even though it was without acid and the Yuasa sales people said it would be no problem, they eventually took the tyres for free. It was great having my parents at the airport and not just for carrying tyres and spare batteries but for their support. Still, a quick goodbye to my parents, I have always hated long goodbyes, and I was bound for Dubai and the start of the second leg of my adventure with a feeling of happiness.
Oct 1st Back to Blanco
See the photos
A woman in her mid-forties decides to chat up the guy in the seat behind her on the plane. Who happens to be in the row in front of my row. She gives it her best shot, 5 hours worth! So I get little sleep and eventually arrive in Sharjah tired. Luckily, like the last time I arrive in the UAE it is the EID holiday, so the roads are quiet. I later learn that the EID holiday was announced at 8pm on the Monday to say it would start at mid-night that night, making business pretty tricky when most had thought EID would be the day after. Apparently it depends on some scholars going out into the desert to spot the moon. Oddly the rest of the world seems able to predict the full moon with great accuracy but not here, it has to be actually seen to be confirmed.
Stephan’s flat, where I am residing, looks the same as I left it and both Blanco and Jiji, two of the four cats, are very happy to see me, or maybe anyone, since Stephan had flown to Mumbai to explore India during the EID holiday. The other two cats are as miserable as ever though.
See the photos
A woman in her mid-forties decides to chat up the guy in the seat behind her on the plane. Who happens to be in the row in front of my row. She gives it her best shot, 5 hours worth! So I get little sleep and eventually arrive in Sharjah tired. Luckily, like the last time I arrive in the UAE it is the EID holiday, so the roads are quiet. I later learn that the EID holiday was announced at 8pm on the Monday to say it would start at mid-night that night, making business pretty tricky when most had thought EID would be the day after. Apparently it depends on some scholars going out into the desert to spot the moon. Oddly the rest of the world seems able to predict the full moon with great accuracy but not here, it has to be actually seen to be confirmed.
Stephan’s flat, where I am residing, looks the same as I left it and both Blanco and Jiji, two of the four cats, are very happy to see me, or maybe anyone, since Stephan had flown to Mumbai to explore India during the EID holiday. The other two cats are as miserable as ever though.
Oct 2nd reunited at last
See the photos
Having spent 4-5 hours trying to get my GPS to link to Stephan’s routing software yesterday, I was confident of having no issues of getting a taxi the 40kms to Mike Brodie’s house where Vafa was stored. But yet again the main 8 lane highway was block on one side as a construction lorry had rolled, the taxi driver did not know where to go and the GPS co-ords did not point to the right location. 2 hours later I arrive at Mike’s and there she was tucked under a bike cover. I could see the tyres still had air so was confident that I could just bump start Vafa and ride of to begin my second leg.
In the end it was 8 hours before I got back to Sharjah having:
In the end it was 8 hours before I got back to Sharjah having:
- Tried to bump start her but to no avail
- Tried two other bike batteries, no effect so kept jump leads from Mike’s car connected most of the time
- Spent more than an hour hitting the starter for her to run for two seconds then die
- Drained and refreshed the fuel (as no fuel stabilizer used during storage), no effect
- Checked the fuel pump was pumping fuel to the carbs, it seemed ok
- By-passed the fuel pump just in case, no effect
- By-passed the fuel filter, no effect
- Blown into the fuel pipe to clear any blockages, no effect
- Removed vacuum pipe from mini-airfilter, no effect, so replaced it
- Removed tank, airfilter and blown in to all the brass tapings in each carb, no effect
- Visually checked the Scot Oiler vacuum pipe looked in good condition, no effect
- Removed the tank and air-filter full of sand from Oman‘s desert, no effect
- Put hands over carb inlets creating a richer mixture and finally get the bike to run long enough to warm it up but still it won't idle and sounds mechanically bad
- Try to ride Vafa 40km through the evening rush hour, it runs ok above 5000 and dies below 3000 rpm so kept stopping when the traffic blocked my way - meaning I have to push it to the hard shoulder and wait for it to cool down and the battery recover before it will start. The hard shoulder on a Dubai motorway just before a junction is not the place to be as other motorists use it to gain a 3 metre advantage on their road co-habitees.
- Push the bike around a dual carriage way roundabout in 35 degC heat until the sweat drips in my eyes making them sting so I can’t see the traffic bearing down on me - that was probably one of the more dangerous things I have done in a long time.
- Rest for 30 minutes watching the traffic and remembering why I think Dubai is not all it is cracked up to be as to live here long time would require a very significant salary to offset the awful day to day drag of trying to get around the place.
- Arrive back in Sharjah covered in a rash from my own sweat and the detergent I had washed my clothes in 5 months earlier
Oct 3rd Slow day
It is 11am before I rise as I still seem to be on UK time and Blanco wanted to play through the night and hey what’s the rush anyway? Somewhat relieved, I note the rash on my chest has gone.
I take a walk on the beach, a typical Friday (aka the weekend) thing. I walk in the water, it is as warm as lukewarm bath water. Being a Friday there are lots of Pakistani and Indian men on the beach - probably 300. There are maybe 8 females in total, a few brave Europeans in bikinis and the odd Emirate and Indian. A couple of the Indian ladies swim and play in the waves while wearing all their clothes.
I hunt down some carb cleaner as Vafa had not mended her self overnight but the cash machine won’t give me any money. Then I remember I am travelling and to attempt more than one thing a day is asking too much. As I wander back I watch a guy having the black tint stripped and replaced on his top line sports car and this gives me another business idea.
Oct 4th Mechanic-ing
Stephan returns and tells me all about his 8 day trip to India, where he flew into Mumbai, hired a Royal Enfield and toured around through Goa and Hempie. I thought it was really rather good of him to do a recce for me sorting out some places to visit and stay. Though was not so convinced about the hotel with a frog in the sink.
I discuss with Noura what was involved in setting up a business in the UAE for my brainwave from last night. It seems I would need a sponsor. This has to be a local and the sponsor has to own a minimum of 51% of the company and therefore has access to the company’s resources and profits. This for doing nothing but signing a piece of paper! To be a local is only via birth as even though Stephan has lived and worked in the UAE for 14 years he is not classified as a local and in fact never can be. At one point the non-gulf Arabs where not allowed to marry the Gulf Arabs, I assume to prevent the money going out of the Gulf. Very different to the UK where it seems you are giving a cup of tea and a biscuit with your social security number if you ask to stay and you don’t even need to ask in English.
Rest of the day I spend on Vafa, down in the underground car-park where it is hot and stifling and I have to come back to the flat three or fours times to wash the sweat from my eyes. The VFR forum had agreed with my idea that the idle system in the carbs was blocked and luckily the local Co-op supermarket sold some carb cleaner and STP petrol treatment. It took all day draining the carbs, filling them with neat STP, blowing out the idle jets with the cleaner, while also changing the air-filter, min-filter, throttle cable and looking into why the light switch has locked up. I leave the STP to soak in over-night rather than waste the battery on trying the motor today.
Oct 5th Another carb day
After spending the morning swimming and sunbathing down at one of the local hotels where the Europeans go (and at the same time having my digital camera packup) it was time to go back into the underground garage and sweat some more over Vafa’s carbs.
My idea of leaving the float bowls full of a strong mix of STP did not resolve the idle problem. Still reluctant to pull the carbs apart, I rigged up a pipe so I could force the carb cleaner directly into the pilot system but by then the battery was discharged. Borrowing the battery from Stephan’s truck and a few more squirts and the sweet sound of a Honda V4 cam-chain-less engine idling returned to caress my ears and I knew the my adventure can continue again.