Big Bike.

Last weekend I had a go on a Suzuki GS500, it was much like my GS125 except it was bigger, heavier and more powerful. It went well and I've placed a deposit with the riding school to pay for a test at some point in April. Learning to ride a motorcycle is much different to learning to drive a car. With a car you tend to rely on a single weekly lesson possibly backed up with time on the road with a friend or relative. I was not a confident driver when a took my test. With the motorcycle I've been logging substantial mileage on my 125 since October and therefore most of the technical aspects of my riding are there. I've ridden in wind, rain and hail, and in heavy city traffic and busy arterial roads. So generally I'm a confident rider. When I go for the training course prior to the test I'll be learning to make observations and how to apply the correct procedures as well as learning to execute the required manouvers, such as the U-turn and emergency stop. As the instructor told me when I visited, 'he wouldn't be teaching me how to ride a bike'.

Ann-Marie was away last week and so I spent most evenings decorating. Because I wasn't getting home particularly early and I wasn't finishing decorating until late I ended up very tired. This made me less than thorough at work and I managed to make a mistake on Thursday which took two of us a day and a half to undo. That's an expensive mistake! This is a really good reason to ensure that I get 7 or 8 hours of sleep every night.