We all remember the story of the little girl who went into the woods. Burgled the three bears house, nicked their porridge, done some criminal damage to baby bear's chair and then plonked herself in his bed for a nap. Back then, it was a fairy story. Today, she'd end up with an ASBO.

Several things happened today.

First of all, discussions with Martin about the setup of the AJP PR3 he's building for me. With or without lights? Presumably the race version - with the Marzocchi forks? The larger wheels, for more stability at speed. Taller bars? Mousse tyres. Stuff like that.

This is my Dawn to Dusk bike. If she can't get me round Dawn to Dusk, nothing will.

I got an email from big Oz (the whoop-ass geordie I met in Morocco) asking if I fancied doing Dawn to Dusk. Hold on, I thought, he's doing Heroes Legend with my ITM the following week. He's cutting it a bit fine. Turned out he meant the one in August, so that's OK then.

Email from Patsy Quick about another trip to Morocco. As before, it will be riding with her and Zippy, but this time we'll be supported by the 4x4 from Moto Adventures. Jago is going too, and he's at Son of Dawn To Dusk in a few weeks as well. Patsy is running two trips this year - the Desert Riding (similar to last time) and the Dune Special - experienced riders only. Her advice was to do the desert one again - we'll still have a day in the dunes but I can sort of pick up where I left off and get all that rocky riverbed time in.

I told her that she was an evil Bond villain - since she knew that I'd be healing right about now and would be thinking about getting back on the bike. Her response - "Hello John, Bond here ..." - told me that she had considered this.

The Missus is having trauma getting all involved with this panto that the Wee Yin is doing. She agreed to do the music and sound effects, and is having some tearful times trying to get flaky computer software to work in exactly the way she wants it to. Poor thing.

Chief, a regular gym-goer, is today discovering muscle groups he never knew he had. He told me the latin names for them - "leggus biggus muscleius" or something like that. I just know them as those ones in your legs that hurt a bit after an enduro but I think we're talking about the same ones. He had his first day in his new job today, spending most of it trying to synergise the objectives of the key stakeholders or something.

My own job is working out reasonably well, in as much as it's just a job. This is a novel experience for me - work used to be my life - and now it's just something that pays for enduros and bikes and desert riding. A means to an end. And my life is happier now. I don't know if my life is happier because I treat my work as a means to an end, or if I am able to treat work as a means to an end because my life is happier. Which caused which? And, really, does it matter?

Anyway, I tried the KTM 450 - too fierce. I tried a Honda CRF 230 - not fierce enough. I tried a BMW X-challenge - too heavy. I tried a Honda CRF 100 - not heavy enough. Then I tried the AJP PR3, and it was right in the sweet spot.

It's possible that I will outgrow her in a year or so but, right now, she really is perfect for where I am at with my riding and what I want to do. Whether or not she can take on something like Dakar really depends on how we get on with the 260cc engine but for all the other stuff I want to do - including the desert rallies - she's ideal.

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