Meet the newest member of Team Vallentine.

Meet...uh, well, we don't have the name settled yet, but here he/she is, in all his/her glory.

It is a Suzuki DL650 V-Strom and it is rapidly taking my place in Mark's affections. We bought it on Saturday after about three weeks of research. It was kind of the out-from-nowhere contender, since until about a week ago Mark was pretty sure that he wanted a BMW F650GS or possibly, if we couldn't find a BMW in our price bracket, a Honda Transalp. (He really would have wanted one of the new Honda Transalps, but those are definitely OUTSIDE Team Vallentine's budget, so he was going to have to have one of the boring older ones that didn't have all the neat-o improvements that the 2008 model has.)

Mark had sort of dismissed the V-Strom as a contender until it was recommended by Dad. He then started keeping an eye out for them and on Friday one appeared on the web site for our local BMW dealer. It was a new listing of a used bike that had come in as a trade-in. Mark went up on Saturday for a test ride and was sold before he even got back to the shop.

I went out for a ride on it on Sunday, and it was pretty cold even though it was sunny, so we just went up to Portishead and back. It's really comfortable, and once we get a top box for it, will be pretty much as comfortable for a passenger as Smedley, the Varadero we had previously. I think we could actually tour with it, and we talked about maybe going over to France with it. (Until we saw how much ferry tickets cost....but maybe some day!)

Mark rode it to work today and walked in this evening smiling and going on and on about how versatile and responsive it is, so I think it will probably be a long time before it loses its appeal...especially now that summer is coming! So now all we need is the name...

SeanSean

It's been a couple of weeks now since I was introduced to SatNav. In those two weeks, I've been to (googlemaps UK at the ready, everybody?): Slough, Plymouth, Exeter, and Mitcheldean in the Forest of Dean, for work and to South Wales for pleasure (to look at motorcycles with Mark).

I used the SatNav on all of these occasions and so far, it's going pretty well. I've tried out Sean, Ken, Kathy (briefly) and Bonnie. They're all quite companionable and it's going to be difficult to choose who I want to spend the rest of my (driving) time with.

Kathy, unfortunately, was in the car when I had a sort of bad driving morning (a bit lost, even with the SatNav, stupid drivers, etc), and I don't like the way she says "roundabout" (which, as you can imagine, she has to say a lot), so I think I'm probably going to leave her in the dust.

Ken is nice and we had a good trip to Plymouth together, but he's just not Aussie enough for me. I don't need Crocodile Dundee, but could do with Baz Luhrmann.

Bonnie is great because she reminds me of home. It's like having a college friend in the car. The best part is that she calls it the "highway" rather than "motorway," which makes me feel cozy and comfortable and brings back memories of roadtrips across the States. One issue is that it makes me feel a bit too nationalistic to go with the American voice. (I guess I could just use it in the privacy of solo drives, and switch over when other people are in the car, but that seems a bit extreme.) The other problem is that she uses the word "rotary" rather than "roundabout" which just sounds goofy to me. And, as mentioned previously, she has to use the word a lot. So I'm not too sure if I can commit to a long-term relationship with her if every other word is going to be jarring.

So that leaves Sean, dear Sean. When I arrived at the meeting in Slough, where I met two of my colleagues, I made some comment about the SatNav. We talked about it for a little bit and it transpired that all three of us, (all women - I don't know if that had anything to do with it) had chosen to be with Sean. I hate playing the favorite, but it looks like it's just the way of the driving world.

At least until Sean Connery decides to license his voice to TomTom. Now THAT's a voice I could commit to.

Stupid people ruining everyone else's fun.

I just had to delete a comment, left by some anonymous person, which included a link to porn site. I apologize if anyone unwittingly clicked on the link. (Although perhaps Dad's anti-phishing training means that everyone hovered over the link and saw that it was not something familiar and so didn't follow it. I can only hope!)

I hate people who do that. Hate hate hate. I know I should rise above it, but it just makes me angry.

Pip pip cheerio and all that rot

Today I became a British citizen.

Yes, that's right. I've joined the ranks of Winston Churchill, Paddington Bear, Lawrence Olivier, Margaret Thatcher, Dame Judi Dench, Ricky Gervais and even her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second.

The occasion was the right mix of British formality and British kookiness, particularly since it was presided over by the head of the North Somerset District Council and ably assisted by the Assistant Chief Registrar (or somesuch...I didn't take down names).


When you submit your acceptance to attend the ceremony, you have to choose if you are going to take an Oath or an Affirmation. The wording is the same for both, except for the beginning, in which you either swear to the Almighty God or you say you really, really mean it (or something to that affect). (As an interesting side bar, you also got to tick a box to express your preference to NOT shake hands. I was tempted, just to see how it was handled, and what you got instead, but couldn't go through with it).

On the day, the about-to-be-citizens were divided into two groups on two sides of the room, the Oath-takers and the Affirmation-makers. It kind of felt like West Side Story, actually, like we were going to rumble at any moment. Fortunately we didn't, because I was with the Oath-takers and we were way out-numbered by the Affirmation-makers.

As you would expect, there was official business (incuding a somewhat extended scripted monologue about how great North Somerset is - particularly Clevedon - by the Council Chair), then we stood up and repeated after the registrar person, who said the oath we were taking in small manageable chunks. Even smaller chunks than when you take your wedding vows, actually, even though we had the words written out for us on little laminated cards. I think they do that for people who are not fluent in English, which is nice, but at the same time, it made it really hard to say. Not to mention the lady next to me was really lovely and enthusiastic, so I couldn't really hear what I was saying. We have the whole thing on video, so I can check if I actually said it and said it properly. (And if you play it backwards, I say, "Paul is Dead, Paul is Dead.")

After the Oath-takers said ours, the Affirmation-makers said theirs. Then, we got called up one by one to shake the hand of the Council Chairman and get our "Citizenship Pack."



I was hoping to get one of those medallion things, but I think that's what you get after 5 years of citizenship.

The Chairman said a witty little aside for each person, and did a good job throughout putting everyone at ease. He also played the stern authoritarian and gave us a little speech about freedom. After that, they played the national anthem on a little boom box, which was quite sweet and a slightly awkward moment, particularly when the administration support lady accidentally let the next verse start, but cut it off right after. Then they served tea and biscuits in an anteroom. We didn't stay for the biscuits, but everyone was very nice.

All in all, a very pleasant experience. There was even a moment, when a newly-minted citizen was asked why he was smiling so much, he said "Because I was a man without a country. And now I have one!" So yes, we laughed, we cried, we discussed civic involvement.

It's great to be an American.

I mean, long live the Queen!

All good things...

Ralph died Friday night, in his sleep - Mark's mum found him on Saturday morning. Mark and I went down to Brean on Saturday and helped her bury him in the garden, near the sea. It was tough, but not as tough as it has been for his mum.

Ralph was suffering from a canine form of leukemia, which became apparent around Christmas. He was on steroids and it seemed he was making a recovery, so it has been a bit of a shock that he's gone. But it is for the best, because it is likely that he would have just suffered more in the future, even with the medication.

So let's all raise a glass, even if you never knew him, to Ralph the sheepdog.

Driving Miss Bonnie...Sean...Jane...Ken...

I just started my new job (even though I'm still doing elements of the old one, until the project wraps up at the end of March). It kicked off on Friday, but today I had my first official meeting with my new line manager, so today felt more like the first day. I'm excited about it, because there is a lot to do, and it's a completely new role so I'll get to shape it as I go.

But one of the aspects of the job is a decent amount of driving around the region, which a lot of people in the company do. This isn't a big deal, but recently the organization decided to invest in SatNav for everyone. So I got a new TomTom last week, and took it for its first spin today.

The Mazda is getting a tune-up, so Mark and I commuted together this morning in Noddy (the Honda). We knew where we were going, but I wanted to try it out, so I plugged the TomTom into the ligher and fired it up. There was a lot of set up and we soon had to make the biggest decision of all - which voice to use.

I had a listen to each and there were a few contenders. There are a mix of accents to choose from (and languages, if I could use if I could remember any of my high school Spanish, which I don't, unfortunately). There were a couple which I just couldn't imagine listening to for more than the 10 second test message, but there were more viable options than I had expected.

There was Jane, the Brit (very BBC, nice to listen to, doesn't grate on the nerves), Bonnie, the American (not as annoying as the guy American, I don't remember his name, sentimental, reminds me of home), Ken, the Australian (although not as strong an Aussie accent as one could have hoped - I guess they were trying to avoid the "Crocodile Dundee" stereotypes) and Sean, the Irishman (Kathy, the female Irish voice was in there with a chance, but Sean had a more obvious lilt, I think).

It was a tough call, but I went with Sean in the end. There wasn't one with a Scottish accent, which I think probably would have won the day, but Sean is quite nice. I might have to give the others a spin, maybe for a change of pace, or if Sean and I have a falling out.

Tomorrow is going to be the real test, because I have a 2 and a half hour drive to Slough to do, which I'm not exactly looking forward to (you may not know where it is, but it was where the fictional company in the original British version of The Office was located, so make your own conclusions). So we'll see how we do.

It could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.