THE GOOD BUCK

I’ve been working at my new job for long enough to have accrued some holidays, so I’ve taken a week off. Which is to say, 4 day’s rest, 4 day’s holiday, 4 day’s rest. 12 days off! Oh yes, I do like this job. I did another 2 days overtime before my hols. So that’s 3 days this month. I think I will get that in my next wages. The driver I did my induction with said 3 days was the optimum, if you do more they take most all of it off you in tax. I’m looking forward to seeing what that’s worth. I think I might do 3 weeks of 5 on, 3 off, per month. Leave the last week of the month as 4 on, 4 off. That would be nearly £55k pa! Bloody hell! Ball park figures of £800 per week take home, so roughly £500 per week spare. Yeah, I think I’ll totally do it, if my wages reflect my estimation. I’m not sure what we need that much for, but retirement is rushing towards us, we will need all we can get.

Talking of, I finally beat the Pru. I battered down all the online obstacles and made the claim. That took forever so I had to do it all again, but this time the Pru said I was locked out of accessing the policy online. A cunning ploy to take me out of my native environment, but to no avail. I rang up and they are sending me the cash. Should be in the bank tomorrow or the next day. Also I managed to sell the SV650 for £700 this week. I paid for our new picture to be framed with it, and the rest I’ll deposit tomorrow. With that and the pension money we can pay off the bike loan in one go.

Here is the new picture. I wouldn’t have got it if I’d have known how the bill would keep on going up (import duties, framing) but we’ve got it now. And It’s stunning.

I’ve been obsessing over a Japanese ‘potato potato’ (Harley sound) cruiser for a while. I finally settled on a Kawasaki Meanstreak, 72hp, relatively good ground clearance, mag wheels, and less of a Harley clone than the others. I inquired about a few, and got a £4k loan to buy one, but it had sold. But not to worry, I finally got my new bike.

A Yamaha MT09 Tracer. An 115hp, trials bike style, performance sports/ tourer triple. Obviously.

I had a bit of an ordeal buying it. For once the seller was right on my doorstep, under 2 miles away. I had been looking at bikes in Southampton and Scotland, so that was a minor miracle. I went around on Saturday morning to look at it, (bloody lovely) came home to do the online checks, (all good) and rang the guy to say I’d have it. Then I rang my multibike insurance company and told them to cancel my two bikes and just insure the new one. They quoted me £1,100!

I will update tomorrow, after I’ve done the DVLA questionnaire with the doctor, but it’s still all up in the air. My cardiology appointment said to ring if I’d not heard by the 9th, so I rang yesterday. He said the doctor’s had referred me as ‘urgent’, they’d reviewed it and also classified me as ‘urgent’ so it’s a 23 week wait. Minus the time I’ve already waited, so about 18 weeks to go. Which is from the 16th of November, not the 5th, as I originally thought. He said it was a bit of a wait but it was a good job I was ‘urgent’, the normal waiting time is 77 weeks! That’s a week short of 18 months.

In other news, I’ve been working on Beryl. I’ve changed the final drive sprocket seal, the clutch pushrod seal, the chain and sprocket set, the exhaust system, and I’m waiting on the water pump seal to arrive tomorrow. I’ll throw that back on, new gaskets and sealant, fill the oil and radiator, put the fairings and seat back on, and I *should* have an oil tight, fully sorted, bike. We’ll see.

It’s been a beastly heatwave for ages now. It’s supposed to be cooling a bit in two days. Yay!

It feels like it’s been an eventful period since my last blog.

I’ve been to the doctors about my month-long diarrhea. The first test cleared me of all viruses and stomach infections, which was good. Then they thought it might be cancer, which was a less than optimal outcome. They tested, nope, it’s not that. I thought it would be, to be honest. It’s only the start of this year that mother went in to A&E with stomach pains and was dead 3 months later. I was expecting the same. I can’t say I was that bothered. Perhaps I would have been if they’d have given me 3 months. Probably the BPD working it’s magic again. Anyway, I’m not dying. Which is a bit of a downer because now I’m going to have to go on a diet. I wasn’t going to bother if I was on my way out.

I’ve not heard from the heart people yet, but on the NHS app it said the average wait time for the procedure is 21 weeks, which would be the 5th of November. I said about it online and someone said he had the opposite condition, bradycardia, where his heart slows until he loses consciousness. He had all his licences suspended for 6 months, took them 8 months to finally return his licence, with his bus and lorry categories removed. Literally 10 minutes later I found where they’d hidden my test results on the app, apparently I have bradycardia as well. Well, isn’t that just swell? It just drops my pulse down to 44bpm for a bunch of beats while I’m asleep. I’d never even heard the word before. Super.

Everything was finally coming up roses. Sanity, permanent job, enough money, great motorbike and fun project with which to play… and… bugger. It looks like everything is going to fall apart. I found the government advice page for doctors assessing health risks for the DVLA and it looks very iffy. It all boils down to their definition of incapacity. “For the purposes of this guidance ‘incapacity’ is defined as any condition, symptom, or treatment that is likely to cause an individual to be unable to safely control or stop a vehicle.”

Clearly my tachycardia doesn’t interfere with my ability to control or stop a vehicle. But if the flapping of the GP is anything to go by, they might err on the side of caution. If so I’m out of the game until a fortnight after successful ablation of my heart. sigh.

I’m worried that work will sack me and not have me back because of not declaring it. Technically I only found out a week or so ago, and DVLA have said I can continue to drive until a decision is reached, but still…