Rosie arrived tnis morning, delivered to my work, in a nice shiny silver van. The guy wheeled her out of the back and she looked an absolute picture. Everything on her, with the exception of the exhaust and the front forks, was new. She was immaculate.

Out came the shiny new panniers from their box, and we put them on. One of them needed a little adjusting, but the job was a good one.

I threw the helmet on and rode her round the car park, I was kind of amazed at how much power she had (bearing min mind that I've been off bikes for several months and my last time out was on a 200cc). She didn't feel heavy at all, well-balanced and nimble as ever. Almost too shiny and new to ride though, if you follow me. Still, a good rainstorm will sort that one out.

So now we're going to have an interesting couple of days getting various vehicles back into their correct positions, and this will probably involve getting lifts from The Missus at various points.

I was considering the options for the GPS, and here's an interesting thing. You can't get Ordnance Survey 1:25000 maps for the Garmin GPS I have on the bike. Which makes it useless for trail riding. I called Garmin and the guy I spoke to suggested that I might want to invest in a piece of software they have which shows all the countours and stuff. But, em, it doesn't show byways and tracks. Very useful indeed.

This is not as silly as it sounds. When I was out on Sunday, and I came home and checked the map, I realised that I rode across private land a number of times. Ab ability to follow the Byways would have helped, but my GPS doesn't support it. Which means map and compass. It worked for Columbus, I suppose.

Which always makes me think. Was Christopher Columbus the first person to discover America (other than the natives who were already there)? Or was he just the first person to make it back home again to tell everybody about it? How many people landed in America but weren't able to tell anybody about it?

Out trail riding on 8 February with AJP. I will be leading, Martin sweeping, so that I can get to know the trails properly and can then take people out on my own. As The Missus keeps telling me, it's probably too early for me to be going. As I keep telling her, it's not like racing - Trail Riding is different. Very different.

The AJP Action Day is extending into Sunday 17th as well. Martin, very cleverly, is taking some extra bikes along to the Midwest Racing enduro at Tetbury. If you fancy a test-ride of a PR3 or PR4 (with a 260cc engine or not) then come along and have a go. It will be a complete hoot, and you'll be doing it on a real enduro course which has just been ridden in a championship race.

My ageging friend was over last night, and we were ding-donging about bizz-ness - as we usually do. This morning, it turns out that we are invited to speak to Very High Up People in a Very Big Global Company about what we do and how we do it. There may well be possibilities there.

I am itching to get work over and done with so that I can get on my bike and take her home. I'll stop off on the way and get some 3-core electrical wire. I will then wire her up to the mains to, em, 'deter' would-be thieves.

And you know that feeling you get when you find a tenner in a jacket you haven't worn for a while? I mean, you haven't actually gained anything because it's your money in the first place but you still feel like you've scored? Well, I discovered yesterday that there are 3 timesheets which I hadn't sent in from back in October and I sent them in today. This will fill the bushel with some rather welcome groats in a couple of weeks.

All in all, a good day today.

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