Saved by the Marvelous Marriott

It's fair to say that last night in Dover was without doubt the lowest point of our adventure. What a sad, lonely, broken town! And it really made us question why we are staying here instead of packing up and running for home.

Well that may still be what happens if our travel insurance requires it after the scans next Tuesday. But for now we got as far away from Dodgy Depressing Dover as we could and have treated ourselves to a night in the Marriott at Swindon on the way to Wales.

What a world of difference. Words simply cannot describe it. And not a shifty East European accent anywhere.

Excuse me while I order another Jack Daniels...

... I think the jacuzzi is a tad too warm, don't you?

Time for a few videos

I've been playing with my toy.  Here's some vids that we've taken over the last few days.

 

Following request from Rho, here is the street we now call our London base.  Westbourne Terrace Road, Little Venice, near Paddington. And again, we cant thank Paul and Alan enough for everything they've done for us..

Yesterday (Thursday) I was filming the Spitfire and Hurricane at the Battle of Britain Memorial, when I heard the unmistakable sound of a Merlin engine overhead.  Sorry for the dodgy camera work, but how amazing it this?

 

And the Memorial itself. Sorry about the shaky zooming, but you'll get the idea.

The motorsport fans will surely know of the sentimental home of British motorsport, Donington Park.  We arrived during a Ron Haslam training day. My camera work leaves a lot to be desired, but you'll get the idea.

 

And finally, a little sample of the M40 Motorway during quiet time. Today this road was so congested traffic simply stopped. Really.

Dodgy hotel in Depressing Dover

We took some great vid of the Battle of Britain memorial and lucked it in with a Spitfire flypast. But otherwise this place is just so broken down and depressing.

And dodgy hotel doesn't help. Staffed by shifty looking young East European girls and wornout english men. I expect the hotel is cover for some nefarious import ring.

We're escaping west. Searching "luxury accomodation in south east england" as I write this. Unfortunatly it seems every crackpot with a spare bed less than 100 years old thinks it's luxurious.

I think we need to get the f out and work it out later.

PS. Ill post vid of the flypast as soon as this blog thingy lets me.

Safe and well and back in London

Thanks to Paul and Alan we have been welcomed back to what seems to have become our "base" in London at Little Venice. It's nice to be back among friends even though the horrendous London traffic really took it's toll on our frazzled nerves this afternoon.

We called past Donington Park on the way down, and lucked it in as they were holding a motorcycle ride day. Was a lot of fun to check out those parts of the track I'd been watching on tele for so many years.  And Janelle got to see how a real track looks. It's just a tad bigger than Wakefield. Yes I have video.

We'll be leaving our motorcycle gear here, as it's pretty much useless now, and repacking a suitcase for a much more normal traveling holiday.   Off down south tomorrow and the new plan for my birthday is to check out the Battle of Britain flypast. It's not everyday you get to see a Spitfire and a Hurricane in close, low level formation, flying over the Battle Of Britain Monument at Dover.  It should actually be a really special moment.


Then we'll slowly make our way back to Chesterfield for the ultrasound next Tuesday.  Not sure what way we'll go, Wales is looking good...


So in a nutshell, all is ok, We're working things out and looking forward again.

Now I really want to take a minute to publicly acknowledge my amazing, awesome partner Janelle. Remember her holiday was also shattered, and the last few days have really been very me focused.  She literally hasn't breathed a singly word of complaint (well maybe a little about driving in London peak hour traffic).  She just got on with everything and anything that's been needed.  I'm in awe of your courage and resilience my beautiful girl. Love you more than words can say. And thank you for so very much more than is possible to mention here

Thanks to you all for encouragement and support.

Terry and Awesome Girl Janelle

Forensic photos

As requested by lots of you. Sicko's!!

 This is the big problem. It doesn't look bad but under that swelling are a bunch of torn muscles. just how many remains to be seen.  The marks are carpet burns. Yes seriously.

The finger isn't broken. Just as sore as hell.
How can 1 finger cop it so hard and none of the others?

Nice cuts on the palm of my left hand. They're healing fine. Just more annoying than anything.

 
And my right hip. Ouch!

What can I say? It is what it is.  Ive attached another pic of the stairs so you can see how incredibly lucky I am.  Really!

Pitch darkness, and I walked across them with my left arm gliding along the wall.   Simply fell into space, hit with my shoulder and bounced the rest of the way. 

'Nuff said.

Warm and settled and insurance looking ok.

We've got ourselves into the Premier Inn in Chesterfield for a couple of nights. Thanks for the suggestion of cottages, but they have stairs and those bloody things hurt!

Spoken to travel insurance. The lost ferry cost is covered, as well as tonight's accommodation and Nurburgring, and looks like the bike recovery back to London as well.

And my medical is free. So financially we're pretty well covered.

We plan to continue the holiday as best we can subject to medical instructions.

So, thanks to the massive support we've had from you all, both on here and by email.  It really is appreciated and its great knowing so many of you are with us in spirit.

And we have a mobile number if anyone wants to contact us +44 7 5387 41701

Cheers
Terry and Janelle

Not good news Im afraid.

Ok, Game over as far as the bike is concerned. I wont be riding anything for quite a few weeks. They've booked me an ultrasound next week when the swelling dies down, but most likely is surgery to sew the muscles in my shoulder back together.

So we've hired a car for a couple of days to buy time to assess options.  The feeling is to continue on as much as possible but right now we just need to find a motel, a bath, a big comfy bed and hold each other for a few hours until we can think straight again.

Thanks for all your support.
 

How quickly things can change

We might be in Derbyshire a tad longer than expected.

Last night I got up about stupid o'clock for a wizz, and being a stupid git, and it being stupid o'clock I had to do something stupid didn't I?  And so exactly on queue the stairs jumped out at me and I had no choice but to throw myself down them.

Rather long stairs they are too, and rather steep, 14 of the little buggers in all. The end result was a) me ending up in a battered heap at the bottom, and b) the entire household waking up to the chorus of clatter and groans.  In all seriousness, falling down a narrow flight of stairs in pitch darkness is really a pretty horrible thing to go through.  I was extremely lucky to not bang myself up more than I did. However, besides a scary number of cuts and bruises Ive managed to tear the rotator cuff of my left shoulder.

So today was spent at emergency in Whitworth Hospital, and then a referral to xray at Chesterfield A&E. The aussie public health system could really learn from these guys but that's another story.

Upshot is I don't know how long till I can ride again. Not today, or tomorrow, maybe the day after (whatever that is lol) but maybe not for some time.

We've postponed the ferry crossing, the bike is safe and I'm back to the fracture clinic tomorrow for them to assess the damage, not that anyone thinks it's fractured but that's how we have to find out.
Then we'll work out what to do.

Best case - a couple of days and I'll be ok to ride again and we alter the route in Euro to allow me to heal.
Worst case - pack up and come home for surgery.
Bloody Bugger!
So fingers crossed. We're hopeful of the former but will know a lot more tomorrow.

I'll let you know when I do.

Terry

(So does anyone want to see my lovely bruises?)

What the hell are we doing in Derbyshire?

Having a pretty amazing time, that's what.
So are you sitting comfortably? Good, than I shall explain.

As mentioned last time, given the difficulties we were having with the bikes temperature, and also that I couldn't fit the GPS mount the way I intended to, I thought I would put my Ulysses club membership to good use and ask for assistance from the GB Branch. Well one email led to another and just as the London weather got normal again, ie drizzly rain, we found ourselves heading north along the M1 to visit the Ulysses GB Secretary Steve (Stephanie) and her husband Gray.

After an afternoon of both motorway and windey village roads a little reminiscent of the Robertson/Moss Vale area, we arrived wet, tired and wind blown in this hamlet of Wensley and have spent today hanging out with them. As an excuse, Im still tweaking with our gear set up and Janelle has developed a sniffle which makes us a little careful about heading straight over to Europe immediately. If it's going to get worse, much better that we're still in a place they understand us. Having said that, we've booked an overnight ferry from Hull to Zeebrugge in Belgium for a Monday night crossing.

So this morning we went for a ride into the nearby town of Matlock for some top box mount modification bits, and then this afternoon our wonderful hosts took us for a ride through the most amazing little English villages. Words can't really describe it, so we have taken a fair bit of video, which Ive posted a little snippet of below.  Couple of things to say about this vid, a) clearly we've managed to mount the vid on the bike, b) unfortunately it's sideways, hence the portrait aspect. Oh, and c) the sound is crap.Sorry about that, very little I can do about it.

We also took a trip map on the GPS which I've added as a separate post because it needs to be HTML to work properly.  The attached (rather annoying) graph is able to be closed immediately if you want, and it shows out speed etc.  It averages at 17 mph but includes 2 stops. Yes miles. Everything is in miles.  Im slowly getting used to it.  You can zoom out to see exactly where we are in UK.

Anyway, we're off tomorrow morning, and plan on dropping by Sherwood Forest to play Robin Hood for lunch, then onto Hull to find our Ferry.

I must say the biggest possible thank you to Ulysses GB and especially Steve and Gray for the amazing hospitality, assistance, advice and just about everything else.  You guys are gold!

So assuming everything has worked properly, below is a vid of the ride back into Wensley and a map of our little jaunt today.

Till next time.

T & J.

Ride into Wensley