At my high school, everyone seemed to own a moped from age sixteen, and two years later they were legal to car drivers. I never participated in the craze. On one long cycling commute back home, I in fact shouted against the rain and wind: "I'll never get a car, motorbike or other polluting piece of shit!". Aye, sometimes traversing traffic on a bicycle can seem an unequal and unfair struggle. I was an aspiring environmentalist too, so it made sense at the time.

My current life in the UK unfortunately doesn't allow for me to commute to work by bicyle: the 15 miles of busy potholed roads and roundabouts clearly don't cater for it, and cycling is far too tiring and dangerous as a result, I think. Even on the weekends I have no idea where to ride, as I don't usually fancy the traffic, the hills and the weather. Perhaps if I were living in a town with more cycle lanes I would go out more and venture further. While I lived in Nijmegen I certainly did, and in Edinburgh too it seemed mostly fine. Not in Manchester; I am truly sick of it here.

Today then, at Riverview training centre in Bolton, I went for a CBT: Compulsory Basic Training. And I managed it. Truthfully I fancied obtaining my CBT on a geared motorbike, but as I had never been on anything with an engine, I struggled to get the control right. I never fell over or anything as silly as that, cornered fine and accelerated no problem, but what did it for me was the gears. I just found it impossible to accelerate out of a bend, switch off the indicator and gear up almost immediately, then brake, gear down and go into another bend. The short course only allowed 2 seconds or so between bends, and even when leaving gear changes until another bend up ahead, I still struggled to think about all the required knobs and buttons. When I tested myself on changing gears then trying a quick stop, I completely overshot it and decided an automatic moped might be better for me.

Now with the levers on the handle bars being rear and front brakes, no clutch and no gears, I suddenly became quite the ace biker. I know, I know, it's not quite the same thing at all to squirt and go. However, I'm realtively proud of myself for obtaining a CBT on that moped, doing well in traffic too, and I'll get used to geared bikes at my own pace. No use spending all day going in circles on a tiny test track is there?

So ehrmm.. No Honda Varadero 125 for me then. I'll probably end up getting a 125 scooter that seems nice and has enough space for my legs.. Then getting used to clutch and gears on an old banger round our cul-de-sac, and upgrading to a proper license and a Honda Transalp or the like in a few months time. For now at least, a moped might mean an end to four hours of bus transport a day.. And while a Vespa might make me look gay or something, come to think of, I would probably prefer that over waiting at Wythenshawe Bus Station again. Aye, definitely.

For too long I've been dubbing about paper work: provisional license application, CBT, DAS, where to take any test, how to pay for it, where to buy a bike, how to finance that.. Ugh.

Next week Wednesday I'll finally be taking my CBT at a test centre in Bolton. The succesful completion of which will allow me to get a 125cc motorbike. And that'll do me for now. Enough acceleration and presence to be safer in traffic than I am on my bicycle, but not scary amount of power to leave any car for dead. As a cyclist I am usually aggressive and fast, so I wouldn't want to test my patience on a lethal bike just yet..

Wish me luck for the test!

I've recorded a few more VHS tapes onto the computer hard drive.. This one is from May 1996, when I performed a few poems at my school's theatre night. The second video underneath I was involved in too, though you might not recognise me dancing in te background. The quality, naturally, is very poor.

Finally, I own a camcorder. Since I was a little kid I was fascinated by them, but the steep prices always fended me off. Now that camcorders have become a lot smaller and cheaper to run in conjunction with computers, I've bought one on Tuesday evening. And then another, the day after.

When I started browsing for camcorders, I came across a voucher code valid for Curry's, where you could buy a JVC Everio GZ-MG344H for £259 rather than £299. When I tried it though, I made the mistake of putting a 334 rather than a 344 in my 'basket'. Still, I thought the asking price of £280 was reasonable, just £20 pounds more than the voucher promised and that's not bad. Avoiding delivery times et cetera, I picked one up on the way home, from Curry's at Manchester Arndale.

I couldn't shake the feeling though that I had made a mistake. While the 334 is a beautiful little camera, surely the 30Gb hard drive on it is wrong? I had compared models from Sony, JVC and other brands and it being a 40Gb model is what clinched it for me. Well, along with the 35x optical zoom. I looked on t'internet again and found that indeed a 344 existed with a 40Gb drive. And that the review page of it had thrown me off. I had only looked at it to view the model comparing to the 344 the most: the 334. Which had linked me through to Curry's, and putting the wrong model in my basket there. D'oh! I tried again with the 344 and found the promotion was valid, so I had bought its lesser brother for £20 pounds more! Thankfully, the staff at Curry's were very helpful. Completely unaware of their own company's on-line promotions, but still. They asked no questions taking the 334 back, and as they found no 344 available in the shop, asked a store employee to walk to another store through the rain to get it from there. It's not often said, I gather from other internet resources, but the customer service at Curry's digital was spot on.

Anyway.. Why are my introductions always so bloody elaborate? All I wanted to do on this blog is link to a Youtube clip really. This is testing my new camera yesterday evening, using 35x optical zoom at the rear garden, in the rain. Actually, I'll post it above the text..