New project

I sat in bed and watched some Olympics this morning. A bit of gymnastics and the ladies cycling road race, which I was glued to. Eventually I had to get up. Sorted the ironing, peeled veg for dinner this evening, whilst watching more Olympics. I got into the Tae Kwondo and was rooting for the young man from England, who ended up this afternoon with a silver medal.

Some ironing done, but I'm slow, so Mollie did the second half while I did a bit of sewing. Then there was a bit more weeding until I got bored, and Jon trimmed our home grown hedge at the bottom of the garden. He had spent a big chunk of the day putting shelves up in our 'utility' bit of the back of the garage. It is now a more efficient storage space. We do hope to get something done to our kitchen 'soon' (this year or early next I hope) but in the meantime this gives us more organised space. Something we are so limited in our house.

Roast dinner in the oven, we went into the garage to tackle this project. We have done a bit of research and planning, and armed with a sort of plan, today was our first day tentatively starting to slowly disassemble the C11. This is one of Dad's bikes. One he restored in the 80s. When he bought it, answering an advert in the early 1980's, he was stunned to discover this bike had been stored in a garage in a block of 4, right at the bottom of his garden. So this bike had been in a garage next to dad's own garage, for, we don't know how long! Plus, it was painted a dusky pink. I remember dad being unimpressed by that. The bike - a 1949 BSA C11 - was a challenge for dad, and over time he stripped it down, rebuilt it, and had it on the road. Technically it was supposed to be mums bike, but I don't think she rode it other than as pillion maybe? She will no doubt comment to put me right. Anyway, it stayed in mums name. The tax disc shows 31.5.1989. So that tells you how long it has sat in the garage unridden- over 32 years. Now, of course, it is mums bike, completely seized up, and what I would really like is to see it up and running, in the hope that dad is looking down pleased with our efforts. Of course, if he is actually looking down, he will probably be muttering about how we aren't doing it right! He was never the most positive of people....something I inherited!

Jon was the lead in our project, explaining to Henry and I as he went, telling us what each part was and what it does. I labelled the few bits we had to take off, and carefully put them in separate tubs. Everything is very stuck, so we have left it with a bit of wd40 to try and loosen things, and a bit more research. I feel like I'm really learning something as we go!

Going to do a bit more sewing now, then a short working week to look forward to as I have Friday off!