www.diggah.net

Ok this isn’t as out of the blue as it sounds… only slightly out of the blue. I have decided to do a marathon 906 mile trip from Lands End to John O’Groats on my little Yamaha YBR125. Im still L plated so can’t use any motorways (but who’d want to on a trip like this?)
Im hoping to raise money for UNICEF in the process too!

My route looks something like this. At present I reckon its going to take 3 days, stopping somewhere near Shrewsbury and again near Stirling. Thats based on averaging about 300 to 350 miles a day. It could all go wrong if I end up doing more

Am I worried? A little bit. I should probably get the bike serviced before I go but no money for that at the moment (it will be iffy if I can afford the fuel but thats details ). I think I just want to do something more than just the little tootles I’ve been on (even up to North Derbyshire and back isn’t enough).

I hasten to add that I’m doing this alone right now as no one else has offered to join me. If you’re interested in coming along, even for just part of the way let me know

Had a lovely Happy Easter message from Paypal today… in the form of a note saying “you remember that item you posted but got lost in the post and wasn’t insured as the buyer was too tight? We’re gonna blame you and take £87 off you.”

Apparently its a case of guilty until proven innocent (what the buyer has to do to prove he actually didn’t receive it I have no idea). I have a proof of posting and email conversations with the buyer admitting he should have chosen the insured route but apparently they didn’t see the right proof of posting (I initially posted a different proof by mistake but as Paypals system doesn’t allow you to delete any “proof” I had to upload a 2nd pic and note on it that it was the real one).

I find it incredulous that a company as big as Paypal are completely unable to actually look at the individual case and can only look at their set criteria of “evidence”. The whole reason I sold some stuff was so that I could actually eat this month. No money to pay them their “refund” and as they took a cut of that money anyway its a fair cheek to ask for it again!

Don’t think I’ll be using Paypal/eBay ever again. Sad given my 9 years of use (and 100% positive feedback I might add) but something this ridiculous should never have even happened in the first place!

Spotted this on iPlayer this morning :http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00jkry6/Japan_A_Story_of_Love_and_Hate/

Ok not seen it all the way through and the camera work so far is terrible (as is some of the guys assumptions about Japan) but an interesting look at real life japan away from a major city.

Gods been getting on my case again about going out there. Im looking into options but I’ve no plans (nor no way) to go out there for at least a year or two yet so we’ll see what becomes of that. Interestingly the things that keep popping up when reading Kings 1 & 2 recently are obedience and how vital it is. I feel I may not be so good at that when it comes to Japan mostly due to my lack of seeing how I can do it. But then again I guess my limited vision shouldn’t limit Gods potential

Due to having booked some days off work  and figuring I’d not seen the olds in a while I decided to ride my L plate Yamaha 125 up to see them. They live near Glossop in North Derbyshire so it was going to be at least 160 miles.

I looked at the various non motorway routes (as I can’t ride on Motorways yet) and wasn’t too keen on going through Wolverhampton. My (vague) determined route was to go up to Gloucester, then head to Leominster, Shrewsbury, Teflord, Stafford, Buxton and then finally Glossop, a trip of about 200 miles.

Now I’ve never riden longer than 50 miles or so in one go before so this was a whole new ball game. On hindsight I hadn’t fully taken into account how cold it would be (given that the day before I set off was lovely and sunny in Bristol) nor how heavy my luggage would feel. I only had a small tank bag and my large burgen rucksack to carry stuff in so I figured that would be ok.

The journey started off well, leaving Birstol about 9:20am and following the A38 up to Gloucester. From looking at Google maps before I left I was a little worried about Gloucester as the route looked complicated. Thankfully it wasn’t at all and I breezed through it (I think Google maps is out of date for that area as well!).

Now this is where my route deviated from my planned one. I had planned to go from Gloucester to Newent and then on to Leominster using a B road. However I (cleverly) managed not to note down the road number only the place name, which wasn’t showing at all. Thankfully I did write down the name of the road I wanted later on (A417 I think), spotted a sign for that and followed that road. I ended up driving through the delightful medieval market town of Ledbury (one I will have to visit again when I’ve more time). I planned to stop in Leominster but due to the lack of signage as to which turning led to the actual town I ended up stopping on a dirt track beside a farm. I stretched a bit and re applied some Anti-fogging stuff to my visor and glasses before setting off again.

I made good time and had initially planned to stop for lunch in Leominster but pushed on to Shrewsbury. Once I got there I was suddenly left with the problem of where to park. I’ve never parked a bike anywhere other than peoples houses (oh and one car park in Cheddar) so I had no idea where to look. I followed signs for parking but once there, there was no obvious place for bikes so I parked up as best I could and even bought a parking ticket (there was no mention of bikes anywhere on the signage but I figured it couldn’t hurt). I also had no lockable luggage to had to drag all my stuff into Shrewsbury to find somewhere to warm up and take the load off my back. Managed to find a Subway (there’s never a Weatherspoons when you need one!) which was ok and stayed there for about 20 mins.

The next parts were fun. Trying to get out of Shrewsbury was … interesting and a detour with missing signs didn’t help but eventually I made my way to Telford and quite quickly found signs to Stafford (although the name Stafford kept disappearing so I had to do a quick GPS search on my phone to see if I was going the right way). Stafford was again very easy to navigate and there were some great corners on the way there to get the bike into a lean

Once through Stafford I tried to head to Stone, although once again signage was a little confusing with it leading you in a direction then giving you a mini round-about with no signs at all. Luckily my guesses were correct and I made it to Stone. I had planned to stop here to relive the numbing in my bottom but couldn’t find anywhere decent to stop so resorted to standing up when I stopped at traffic lights (and there were a lot of road works so must be close to April!). I was also having fogging issues with the visor. Another reapplication In Shrewsbury (with a clean too) hadn’t helped and condensation was forming. It didnt’ help that it was getting foggy outside as well (or was becoming so).

Anyway I pressed on and headed for Leek. Once through Leek the road started to climb and I suddenly realised that this route led over the moors and then down into Buxton. The moorland was fogged out. Visibility was about 10 meters but that wasn’t the worst of it. My fogging problem in my visor became much worse and there were points where I was struggling to see at all! Still I soldiered on and thankfully made it into Buxton ok.

I stopped at the station to try and un-freeze my poor hands. From this point I knew the way off by heart and was surprised how quickly I got to my parents.

I was elated to have made it and feel I’ve passed a real milestone. My body is very sore tho and I’ve pulled lots of muscels mostly from the heavy rucksack. I’ve ordered a top box and some better anti-fogging stuff to be delivered here for my return journey. So there we go. If you’ve read this to the end, well done

Well I figured its been about 4 years since I updated the theme on my website so it was about due for an overhaul. I can’t say I’ve done as much (or even any) customisation than I did on the old one but its simple and a nice theme so Im sticking with it for now. I might change my mind and change it again soon tho Who says progress is slow…. oh .. wait….

Just got back from a Reel Big Fish concert in Bristol. Last time I saw them was in Nottingham in 2003 so I was quite looking forward to it.

Sadly they’ve not improved with age.

The band feel tired with a trite mix of old and new songs, but the new ones just sound the same and the old ones seem to lack any oomph they once had back when they were released. Aaron himself hasn’t really aged well at all and now comes across as some learing middle aged man with a relationship complex. I feel very disappointed in their part of the gig (but happy the lad from work I took as a birthday present to him enjoyed himself. However it was partially saved by a warm up by Suburban Legends (which is nice to see back in the fold) which some great songs and a cracking cover.

I hope to hear more of them and less of The Fish.

You’d think it would be simple eh?

I bought a set of motorbike jacket and trousers at a fair price (but as it could save your life its a good investment) from an online retailer (which may remain nameless, depends on how annoyed I get). When they arrived I realised I had made a mistake with the colour and contacted them to try and rectify the problem.

“No problem” I was told as I explained what I wanted to swap them to and the time limit imposed by my pending CBT on friday. So following their instructions I posted the items back (not cheap) and waited their re-post. And I waited… and finally today a package arrived. I found it after I got back from work tonight. Inside was…. just a jacket… in yet another colour I didnt want.

To say this annoyed me is a slight understatement. I now have to phone them tomorrow morning (as its too late now) and ask them to both refund me entirely (as I will now have to go to a local shop to buy a jacket in time) and pay for the return postage of this jacket (as Im not forking out for it!).

Yes I could take the jacket as it is, but when you’re spending that kind of money I would rather have something in a colour I liked that I might keep on using for a few years than something Im gonna replace and loose money on.   GAH!!!

Just upgraded to the latest version of Wordpress (the platform this website is built on). The practical upshot to you the user is … well pretty much nothing as far as I can tell, but behind the scenes its very pretty.

In other news not much is going on. Im currently struggling to get my backside into gear editing and other creative things but thats ok. Anyway life goes on…

Yes its a new post but dont get excited. Its merely to say that yes Im not dead.

Long story short, I did move to Bristol and have been here since April 08. I am still doing video work with some part time stuff on the side. I have grown a HUGE amount in the space of a year which is fun, and looks like this next year is going to be equally challenging.

Anyway enough for now. This place needs a redesign and a whole load more work doing to it. Sadly I have very little time to do that but we’ll see what turns up.

Actually I’ve already left.

Things have moved forward quickly since last we spoke :)I’m now at Lee Abbey filming various projects(including a promotional DVD) but the general upshot is that I’ve now left the olds house, feasibly not to return (to live at any rate). I’ve still no job nor place to live in Bristol yet but  Gods been very insistant on trying to get me to learn t live in trust and although itgoes against my usual way of doing things its refreshing … sometimes  (other times its just plain terrifying!)

At the moment its kind of organisational chaos as I try to gather all the ideas and footage needed for this  project . Should be fun