Won’t Start Without It…..

The title of today’s post may be familiar to Queenslanders as it’s one of the slogans often found on RACQ road service vehicles used to advertise their batteries.…..and as we all know, a flat battery isn’t much good.

Anthony hadn’t had a chance to get me out of the garage for a week and when we were about to go out last night, a flat battery was what stopped us.

But today I was all charged up, and ready to go…..and despite the colder conditions (due to today’s lack of sun etc) it was a good ride.   And it was also an excuse for Anthony to get some bottles of Shiraz (this week he recommends the south eastern Australian 2007 Cleanskin Shiraz, from Liquourland for only $5.99)

It was a great ride, there wasn’t much traffic and once I was all powered up it was great to get out there and enjoy the late afternoon.

For today’s pillion passenger of the week, we once again return to the only girl to have ever sat on my pillion seat.   She’s the love of Anthony’s life, an amazing photographer, (for more info checkout http://www.vickijames.com.au) and I would have to say that she has been my favourite passenger featured on this blog.

She loves scooter rides, whether it’s a trip to the Rusty Eagle, up over Tomewin road, or a sunset cruise by the beach…..she loves her photography, she is the one and only Scooter Girl, (and here she is with Scooter Boy)…….she is Vicki James.

And finally for today…….with all the sadness and trauma going on in the world at the moment, it is worth reflecting on the death of a very important person, which  almost went unnoticed.

Larry LaPrise, the man that wrote “The Hokey Pokey” died peacefully at  the age of 93. The most traumatic part for his family was getting him  into the coffin. They put his left leg in. And then the trouble started……….

Something slightly more powerful than a scooter……

Its been another quiet week in scooterland…..the Derbi still hasn’t arrived either but will be due within the next 4 weeks…… Due to a variety of things, Anthony didn’t get much of a chance to take me out during last week, but that’s ok.  We got some time early in the week for a few rides.

But one of the things that he’s been up to lately didn’t involve scooters at all…..it involved one of his other passions, and that is motor racing.  For the last 10 months he has been looking forward to a drive in a V8 Supercar, and with the help of the team at QLD Raceway and the V8 Race Experience, yesterday he got his chance.

The day also gave him an opportunity to share the experience with his family.   It was an early start to the day, beginning with getting everyone ready and then he and Vicki loaded the kids into the cars and off they went, heading north on the motorway and then about 90 minutes later they arrived at their destination – The Willowbank Motorsport Precinct – home of QLD Raceway.  After unloading the kids (and the gear required for the morning) they headed to the pit area…..the sound of the cars getting everyone excited about what lay ahead.

Anthony then attended a drivers briefing, before returning to the pits, getting his race suit and helmet and then waiting in line with the rest of the wanna-be race drivers for their turn at glory.

The time ticked by, and soon it was his turn….car number 40 (a silver Commodore) rolled into the pits, and it was time to get in.  After sliding himself into the drivers seat (after climbing over the rollcage) Anthony was then confronted by a very efficient man who’s primary job was to inflict a small amount of pain to each driver as he attached their racing harness, (leaving them feeling like they were ready to ride a roller coaster)…..

…..and so after being strapped in, the radio was connected and then the voice of his instructor in the passenger seat came through loud and clear…..and then off they went.

The first lap out of the pits was slow…..very slow…,but used as a sighting lap, to visualise the corners, braking points etc and also get out of the way of faster drivers who had already completed a few laps…..but once the finish line was crossed, lap 1 of 5 began, and off they went.

With each lap, Anthony’s confidence in the car and his ability to drive it increased until by lap 5 he was pushing 180kmh down the front straight……he was hitting the corners smoother, braking later, and getting closer to feeling like he was driving the wheels off the thing……

It was a great experience, something he has looked forward to for a long time and it was so cool to have his family there watching.
Anthony now has even more respect for the abilities of professional race car drivers after experiencing a taste of what they do for a living.   Is he looking forward to one day having another go?  ABSOLUTELY!!

He would like to offer a huge thankyou and lots of love to Vicki (for being there with him, for taking some awesome photos and for watching all the kids) and a big thankyou to the kids (the blue ones and the pink ones) for being there to share the day and cheer him on.

Dad, You are Number 1…..

Its a small world….

Tonight was an excellent night for a ride.  Anthony flew out the door of the office, raced home to get his gear and then off we went.  He’d had a long day and decided that a scooter ride was required to clear his head.  And there’s no way that I’m going to complain.

We headed north and cruised up to the Rusty Eagle, hung out there for a while and then cruised around the streets of Coolangatta and Tweed Heads, zipping through the traffic and just basically having a ball…..

This week the building where Anthony lives and works was graced with the presence of another Italian bike.  Last time it was a Ducati, this past week it was a Vespa.  Anthony’s boss has purchased a 2nd hand LX50 and rode it to the office.  The sound of a 2 Stroke scooter cut through the early morning air, and Anthony went to have a look and there it was.…..and as soon as he saw it, there was something about it that seemed familiar.  It was red…no that wasn’t it…..it has a beige coloured seat….that was different…..but then he noticed the ScooterHQ number plate frame.  It was definitely starting to look like an LX50 he’d seen before.

When he got into the office he suddenly he realised where he’d seen it, quickly jumped on the internet and found the photos of the October 14th 2007 Scooter HQ ride….then he asked his boss’s partner what the number plate details were, and there it was in the photos.   They are now the owners of a Vespa that Anthony and others rode with last year.  Another small world moment…….

The winner of this week’s episode of Monaco’s Celebrity Pillion Passenger of the Week was born in England.  At the age of 14 she was kicked out of her all-girls school for stealing a car and driving it to the local boys school.

She has starred in “The Party of Five”, “Boston Legal” and “The Practice”, and most recently starred in the science fiction/action film titled “Doomsday”.

She has also appeared as the second live action model of the video game character “Lara Croft”….She is Rhona Mitra.

Afternoon drinks…..

Like you humans, I enjoy a drink in the afternoon (actually I don’t mind one in the morning, around lunchtime….basically any time I get taken to the servo is fine with me.) ….but today we headed out to Caltex after Anthony had finished work for a nice cool tank of Vortex. The servo was really busy today, and it was amusing to see that the amounts that people were saving when using Woolworths fuel discounts was about what we paid for a whole tank.

The weather was also a bit cooler today but it was still a good ride. And not wanting to be left out, Anthony enjoyed some Coopers Pale Ale when he returned home.

There was only one small issue with today’s ride and that was having to use my high-beam to see where we were going, (once it was dark enough to realise that the headlight wasn’t working…..something we probably should have checked before heading out…) We only put a new bulb in 3 weeks ago and have blown another one…..not sure what’s going on there, but I’ll get Anthony to get me another new one.

Perhaps it’s a bit of replacement-by-the-Derbi anxiety that caused the light to blow…??

Scooter Boy and Scooter Girl also got to enjoy another trip out recently. We headed down to Murwillumbah for a ride (via the back roads) and it was great to get out in the sunshine for a couple of hours..…..I noticed quite a few sports bikes heading onto Tomewin Road for the twisty ride over the border as we were heading in and out of town. Once again they returned home with smiles on their faces and it was great to see that once again they had fun.

And so we now move onto Monaco’s Celebrity Pillion Passenger of the week. She is a Canadian this week…born in 1979 in Alberta.

She is the daughter of a home economics teacher and a beauty consultant. She was formerly a flight attendant with Air Canada and was first nominated for a Golden Globe award in 2006

In 2004 she began earning $80,000 per episode for her role in the hit tv series “Lost” playing the rode of Kate.

She’s 5 foot 5 inches tall and has big feet……she is Evangeline Lilly