Hi, All..Jet, Sportstercat, Tweek and others. Yes, it's that man again!! I was out yesterday on the bike, getting out late after spending too much time as usual getting the bike looking super shiney (thats what non mechanic's do to their bikes to make them more reliable) was crossing the Thames atop the highest point on the Dartford QE II Bridge (bloody high Google see images) gazed in the near distance at the industrial landscape, and moored Scandanavia bound Ferries and container ships; I wonder if a deal could be worked for a bike and rider to Bergen.
A three second day dream, yeah, head north towards the Artic Circle, the land of waterfalls, and the Northern Lights are spectacular this year due to the record Solar Flare activity. No, I'm going to slow down a bit, pull in behind this truck, I think this is worth a few more seconds. Beer is $10 a pint at the moment in Norway! On the plus side though the further one travels north in Norway the cheaper the petrol is; this is one of the Tax incentives the Government offer to encourage northern migration similar I believe to Alaska. But, and it's a big BUT the beer gets more expensive, and after making all that effort to get that far north (and it's further than you think) a beer would be in order. Strange people with a very high suicide rate, thought to be due to long winters when it never really gets light, poor buggers all that salted fish, I say give em cheap beer and Jimmy Buffet!! Whooahh, brake lights, back to the real world, and it goes really unreal, sureal, weird, honest, strange thunder and suddenly the Two Sisters (two 600 foot chimney stacks) fall at that moment. I later learn were controlled explosions, with minimum publicity apparently not wanting to encourage spectators, what were the chances of that! In an instant that industrial horizon changed forever, even at night the red aviation lights could be seen as a distant beacon, nearly home. They had stood for all of my living memory, and I had only noticed them now they were gone. I stopped in a service area and mentioned this amazing event I had witnessed to a complete (approachable) stranger who was suitably unimpressed. Buc