Page 31... The return of a biker!

Wow, it's been absolutely ages since I've been on my blog! It's been a VERY quiet winter (blog-wise), unfortunately, but lots has changed in my situation, I have been feeling guilty about not sharing it with the world! Well, here goes...!

Firstly, I am four months into my new job, working in a factory on Auckland's North Shore, working at the tail end of a printing press, packing envelopes into boxes for delivery around the country and Australia. It's not exactly glamorous work, but it pays the bills... which is pretty good to be honest, it was a fair while in between jobs before I found this one. Huge thanks to the good friend that helped me get the position, you're a real legend mate! Without making excuses, the workload is part of the reason I haven't been online much at all lately, I'm doing 12 hour days, 4 days a week, and the weekends have been pretty busy lately too...

Two weeks into the job, I asked a pretty young lady (that I work with) out on a date, we've since moved in together, things are going exceptionally well and I couldn't be happier! I won't babble on about the subject, but we 'click' really really well, we've bought a car together, been off on road-trips for a few weekends... she's been instrumental in my getting back on my feet again. I feel so lucky to have found her!

On the 'bike' front, I recently decided that I want to turn it into a track-bike, which is the current project underway. A couple of weeks ago I started stripping the whole thing back to bare frame, and have been ordering parts left, right, and centre, to get everything back to 100% perfect. New race fairings, tires, fork service kit, electrics, etc etc the list goes on and on! We're getting the frame powder-coated this weekend, then reassembly will begin! I can't wait to get back to the track, I've been waiting for so long for summer to arrive again! The bike's been off the road for a little while now, the battery died shortly after I started my new job, and I discovered the left fork has developed a small leak, but luckily it was decided that a car would help out with things a lot so that was the route we (my girlfriend and I) took. It's actually made things a lot easier to be honest, going away for trips and still feeling like a part of the 'biker group' that have become my family in recent times.

I still can't believe how quickly the last four months have flown by, and the next few months before Christmas are guaranteed to go even faster! My calendar is quickly being filled with 'garage time', then track-days (when the bike is finished), weekend trips away, holiday plans with my family (Lol my real 'family', that is!) and all sorts of other things that are bound to come up between now and then...! All I can say is, bring it on!!! :-)

Till next time, hopefully it doesn't take me as long to write again as it did this time!

Keep smiling! :-)

Page 30...

Hi again everyone, how are we all after a beautiful long weekend (here in Kiwiland at least!)? I've been out and about heaps as usual, decided to get away from it all for a night while I could. More on that later!

The biggest news I have to share tonight is, I found a new flat to move into! I've been keeping my eye on 'flatmate wanted' ads on an NZ trade website, and found a couple that were both really close to work that I thought I'd inquire about. Gladly, one of them (the cheaper one!) replied quite quickly saying I could go and have a look, which I did on Saturday afternoon. Within a couple of hours, the advertiser texted me back saying I could move in next weekend! I'm completely stoked to have one more piece of my jigsaw puzzle in place now! It's a really cool place, the current residents are a lady in her 30's and her 5 year old son. I didn't meet the little guy, but she's a really cool chick, studying to be a nanny as well as running her own beauty type business. The house is nice, leather lounge suite, new appliances, newly refurb'd bathroom etc etc. I'm really looking forward to moving in! Firstly, it's literally two minutes from work, which is going to make things heaps easier, and secondly, I miss having my own space to chill out in without feeling like I'm intruding upon other people's area. And it'll be really really nice to sleep in my own bed again! :-)

Anyways, the rest of my weekend was pretty laid back apart from that, I decided to go for a night up at a camping ground at a beach up north, it was so quiet and calming! One night away from the busyness of normal life was definitely good for the soul, and I'll definitely be doing it again in the near future! I spent a day at the hot pools, watching movies on a big screen from one of the pools, soaked in a 40 degree spa pool, caught up on my suntan (a little bit), and generally just had the most relaxing day I've had in years! Then the following day I sat on the beach for about an hour, before coming back to the city. After that I spent the rest of the day at a friend's place watching DVD's. In all honesty, I feel hugely refreshed, it's been so long since I've been able to just get away on my own and do absolutely nothing! And, seeing that the motorcycle season is pretty much finished for the year, I plan on doing it lots more...

Apart from that, there isn't much more to share this time. Work is going great, the bike seems to be running even better than it has done in over a year, I've started getting my finances back in order again now that I have an income again... All in all, things couldn't be much better! So many people deserve my most heartfelt thanks, helping me get back on my feet again, putting me up, helping me with the bike, and getting me back into work... I feel like I owe everyone around me more than I could ever repay. I can't wait to be able to give something back to each and every single one of them in some way that will mean as much to them as what they've given me. With things on the up and up for me like they are at the moment, it won't be long before I can do just that! :-)

I have been so lucky lately, having such good friends around me... I know I have been guilty of taking my friends for granted in the past, but if the last three months have taught me anything, it's to put real value in the lasting relationships. I don't know if anyone else can understand how much it means to me that my friends have all been 'good' friends, not giving up on me, not trying to push me into things before I was ready on my own... I don't exactly know how to put it into words, other than to say that I hope each and every single one of you out there reading this can appreciate your good friends as much as they appreciate you!

Take care out there!


Until next time...

:-)

Page 29

Wow, time has literally flown by since my last blog post, I've been so busy with work and weekends filled with taking the bike out on the track! Everyone has been nudging me to keep the posts going, so I'll do my best to fill in the last three weeks worth without boring you all to tears!

Work is going really well, I've been moved up into the 'front room', where the printing machines are a little bit more complicated, a little bit faster, and a little bit more technical. Packing is still roughly the same, and I've been doing well so far to keep up with the pace of the printing machines (up to 1000 envelopes per minute!) so I'm really happy with everything on the job front. I get along really well with everyone at work, they're a cool bunch of people! One of the ladies celebrated her 15th year in the company last week, which I thought was absolutely amazing! She's not the only long-server either, some of the others have been there even longer! From what I see, the company really looks after it's staff, if they didn't I doubt the staff would stay so long. I'm still feeling really good about being back in the workforce again, being a productive member of society. I'm pretty quickly getting used to the 12 hour shifts, I think working all hours of the day and night when I was with the V8's helped me somewhat with that. Other than that, I'm still learning how everything runs, how the different envelopes are made, and how the rest of the company works outside of the manufacturing floor. I find it really interesting to see how the whole company operates.

Outside of work, I've been concentrating on getting my bike 'sorted' again, thanks mainly to my new flow in income. So far, I've fixed a couple of issues with the cooling cycle, as the bike was tending to overheat on longer rides, and give the motor a good all round servicing in general. Today, I went to a track day, with a couple of good friends, and only had one small issue where the bike started smoking quite a bit after I started using the top end of the rev range... Long story short, I inadvertently over-filled the oil when I did the oil and filter change, and it over-pressurized into the cylinders down the back straight. My friends quickly realized what had happened, and we dropped the excess oil from the sump. I was worried it might have done internal damage, but they said it 'should be fine', so I went out in the next session and let the remaining oil (in the cylinders) burn off by itself. After that, the bike was running better than ever! I was putting in some really good laps, reaching a really good top speed down the back straight, and getting more and more confident with my cornering. My best run was just before the rain set in, and as everyone else was packing up to go home, I decided to stay out for one more session to concentrate on my 'line' at slower speed before I called it a day as well. It was good too, on my last session I had the track all to myself! The flagmen were cheering me on from the start-finish line, which was really cool too. And, the other positive thing was that the bike didn't overheat once all day, so I'm really stoked that the day turned out so good in the end. Initially, when I saw all the blue smoke coming out of the exhaust, I thought I'd done major damage - maybe blown a piston ring, or a head gasket, or something expensive, so when it turned out to be a minor, I was so relieved!

While I'm on the subject, I'd like to say a big Thank You to the event organizers from today, it really was a great day, and I greatly appreciated the officials coming over to make sure I was okay after they saw my bike smoking so much! For anyone riding in the Auckland region, I highly recommend coming to the next event (in September I think), check this out for info: Pro Rider Website. If you do come, you'll definitely see me there!

Anyways, I'm buzzing that everything is still going really well in all aspects of my life, next up is to find a place to move into... The arrangement I have with the absolutely awesome people that are letting me stay here isn't permanent, I'm saving for a bond and looking at 'flatmates wanted' adverts online and in the papers. My only two requirements are: the house has to have a garage for my bike, and that it's relatively close to work. Hopefully that criteria wont be too hard to fulfill! Once I've got a fraction more money saved, I'll be ready. So everyone has to cross their fingers for me again, just this once last time! (Unless you want to keep them crossed for me to win lotto next weekend...? Lol)

Well, that's about all from me, next weekend is going to be a quiet one (at this stage), some of the guys I ride with are going for an annual meetup down south, but I've decided not to go so I can just relax (and save more of course!)

I do hope that everyone out there is doing as well as I am at the moment!


Until next time...

:-)