First of all, thank you all for reading my scribblings this year, I really appreciate it. And, on that subject, you’ve probably noticed that they have been a bit sparse of late. It’s not that I haven’t been riding and it’s not that there hasn’t been motorcycling stuff happening, it’s just that my pace of life has been a bit more hectic than usual.
So, where do I start? Well, obviously, it’s Christmas time so I will begin by wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year. I seriously can’t believe that 2023 has gone by so quickly and that we’re on the brink of 2024. It certainly seems to be true that the older you get, the faster the years seem to pass.
With the major racing series now in recess for the northern winter, it is always amusing to observe how the “news” outlets react to the lack of real news. What do they do? They make up news, that’s what they do. And, freed from the constraints of having to print the truth, they let their fevered imagination run riot. Like I said, it really is amusing.
It hasn’t exactly been riding weather down here on the coast, however. Most days seem to be punctuated by some rain at least and last night we had a huge storm that dumped nearly 100mm on Dapto. It does have the effect of cleaning the roads, that’s for sure but it makes riding conditions a bit sketchy.
In life there are the adventurers and there are the observers. I tend to belong in the second category, while Markus Andre Meyer most definitely belongs in the first one. This amazing guy rode around the world in 80 days (inspired by the Jules Verne book of the same name) and he did it by scooter, well, three scooters, actually. Realising that crossing both internal and international borders using only one vehicle was going to be awkward and very expensive, the preplanned his trip by having a scooter ready on the next continent so he could avoid the hassle. So, technically, he went around the world in 80 days on THREE scooters.
He also wrote a great blog about his journeys and you can follow it here.
You have to admire people like Markus.
Rainy conditions have also been playing havoc with speedway events on the east coast of Australia but, hopefully, it will be dry enough for us to finally start the season at Nowra with a big speedcar card this Saturday. The NSW Late Model Sedan championship race at Goulburn a few weekends ago was an absolute belter with a great crowd, a good entry and a feature race to remember. I love the big V8 sedans, they have attitude!
OK, that will do it for today, thank you for persevering with me, this year marks the 15th year that I have been publishing, my how time flies.