I seem to have a sudden interest in classic motorcycles. Classic cars are bad enough, but motorcycles too?

Therefore, I want one of these!

Ural Motorcycles: Red October

It’s not exactly classic, but at least the design is classic, in a similar fashion to the Royal Enfield motorcycles. It’s a limited edition motorcycle with side car, painted with the theme colours from the movie The Hunt For Red October, manufactured by (and very fittingly too) the Russian motorcycle manufacturer Ural.

Too bad the production run is exceptionally limited. Which means I’ll not be able to get my hands on it. Then again, I think I’ll be equally happy with any Ural motorcycle.

What a good friend of mine said really holds a lot of weight – you don’t know what you’ve lost till it’s really gone. That’s human nature, by the way. We always yearn for better things, and always think that the other side of the fence holds tastier grass.

We almost never reach a stage of total contentment. Then again, maybe we do, but that’s probably towards nirvana, or enlightenment, of whatever you may wish to label it.

I don’t recall myself behaving in the way that I am. Either my memory is failing, or that I’ve slowly getting more and more disillusioned and frustrated with the present circumstances. I guess it’s very hard to discard the rose-coloured glasses either; the pair of green eyes peering through rose-tinted glasses – not the best combination at all.

Like what I try to tell myself, in order to avoid wanting to cross over the fence – enjoy the moment while it lasts. Don’t be green eyed with envy, for the present situation will never last for an eternity. It will soon pass, and maybe it’ll be other’s turn to be green eyed. But then why is it that I seem to be headed in that direction? Something that I’ve been telling myself not to do so?

I’ve the the Vespa back from the workshop. Apparently, it’s a worn out alternator coil. The plastic insulation for the wires were all brittle and falling apart, which probably shorted the wires and prevented the bike from starting again.

The alternator coil

Close-up

There goes a hundred and a half bucks.

The Vespa couldn’t start today, for some unknown reason. I had brought it to the workshop for routine servicing just 2 days prior, and right after it was still working fine. So, for some reason, after riding for not even half an hour, it just stalled on the side of the expressway. I could neither kick-start it nor I push-start it.

Thank goodness a good friend of mine had a pick-up. Gave him call, and thankfully he didn’t have anything on. When he arrived, both of us strong-armed the bike onto the back of the pickup! LOL. If it was any other bike, it might not have been possible.

The bike’s now at the workshop. Hopefully they’ll be able to diagnose the problem and get it fixed tomorrow.

Gave my dad a hand in removing the canvas top off the car for some repairs. Check out the end result.

Quite cool. It’s now a single seater, and there’s no roof at all. Should be interesting to take it out for a spin, but it’s not going to be a nice experience should the weather turn foul.

It’s been almost a week since I returned from my trip. I still have yet to upload my photos to anywhere, let alone show them to anybody. All this while, I’ve been acquiring the telecasts of the Formula 1 races as it happens, but I’m lagging like a handful of races behind, which isn’t good too.

I have Google reader enabled, and have subscribed to dozens of blogs and feeds, and well, apparently I don’t even have time to clear the day’s growth of posts, let along the backlog.

Since I’ve recently acquired a set of wheels (not really acquired as I’ll still need to return it to the rightful owned anyway), I’ve set it upon myself to spend a bit of time each weekend to do small touch-ups here and there.

That’s probably the gist of it. I’ve got so many things to do, and it just seems like it keeps piling up every night. Oh well, I guess better than nothing to do?

Finally, after 15 or so months, I get to feel the wind in my face. Unfortunately, it’s rather hot wind, but it’s still wind all the same.

Yeah, I was fortunate enough to be able to borrow a mate’s motorcycle. He’s not really using it at the moment, and I long to be able to travel via two-wheels again. So far, it’s a great experience. No doubt the vehicle needs some work to be done, notably the signals, but at least it’s ridable. The brakes need some tweaking too. I’m very much used to using the front brake, but this one isn’t very effective in bringing me to a standstill. So much so that I had a near miss this morning! That really woke me up. Thank goodness nothing serious happened.

At least for now, I need to get used to riding once more. It’s going to be fun times ahead! Yeah!

Sometimes, I do wonder if the way things are developing is simply an after-effect due to the fact that I was out fishing for such an extended period of time. That thought has crossed my mind many times already. And then, there’s the wonder that maybe, after seeing things the way I do, I just decide to compartmentalise my inner workings, in an effort to lessen the devastating effects should a result, one that is less than ideal, occur.

More often than not, I seem to think that it’s more of the latter than it is the former. Whether it’s good or bad, I do not know. Will I ever get out of it? Maybe; maybe not?

It’s almost like I’m able to separate myself from the emotion at will, and in doing so, feel indifferent about the situation? Heartless; inconsiderate? Maybe, depending on the circumstances. So, is this good? Or is this more bad than good, since I deny myself from experiencing the emotions present.

What significance does this have, if any?

Managed to get my air tickets booked a few days ago. Not my most desired trip, but it’s still a trip never-the-less. A short get-away for me thankfully.

Interestingly, I happened to overhear a rather interesting rumor in the office. Just hope it turns out the positive way.

It’s probably too early to proclaim that it’s official, but I guess that doesn’t mean that I cannot keep my hopes up. Well, the boss has already mentioned it, so that should be sufficient confirmation. Only question remains – when? How long will I have to wait? It’s been 5 months, something which is nothing short of eventful, but I guess it’s about time to leave it all and move on? Perhaps so.