First Erin Rally - Ireland

[Martin Barrett]

Keith,

you'll be six hours behind me. Do me a favour and pick up any bits of my bike that have fallen off.

 

glad that you could get it all to drop into place. See you there.

[Baldini]

.... Do me a favour and pick up any bits of my bike that have fallen off....

 

are all the parts clearly labelled....? I don't want to be driving thru Ireland with a steadily increasing collection of nuts, bolts, baling wire & Fergie tractor parts...

 

See ya there! Hope you have a good ride.

 

Keith

[belfastguzzi]

Prepare yourself for

 

Steak & Guinness Pie

 

1 kg Round steak

1 tbsp Flour

1 tsp Brown sugar

1 tbsp Raisins (optional)

5 Onions

300 ml Guinness

8 Slices bacon

3 oz Lard

Chopped parsley

Recipe of short pastry

 

Cut the steak into bite sized cubes, roll in seasoned flour, and brown in the lard with the bacon, chopped small. Place the meat in a casserole, peel and chop the onions, and fry until golden before adding them to the meat. Add the raisins (if wanted) and brown sugar, pour in the Guinness, cover tightly and simmer over a low heat or in a very moderate oven (325-350°F) for 2½ hours. Stir occasionally, and add a little more Guinness or water if the rich brown gravy gets too thick. Meanwhile, line a deep pie dish with half the pie crust: bake it blind: then add the Guinness/beef mixture from the casserole, cover with the top layer of pie crust, and bake until finished, probably about 10 more minutes. Variation: for the brown sugar, substitute 3 tbsp honey.

 

Vegetarians can have this, but leave out the bacon:

Boiled Bacon & Cabbage

 

2½ lb Collar of bacon¹

Medium-sized cabbage

 

Place the joint in a pot, cover with cold water and bring to the boil, Remove the scum that floats to the surface. Cover and simmer for 1½ hours (or 30 minutes per pound). Cut cabbage into quarters and add to pot. Cook gently for about ½ hour, or until cabbage is cooked to your liking. (Test constantly: do not overdo it) Drain, and serve with potatoes boiled in their jackets, and a sharp sauce - mustard or HP sauce (NOT the US version of HP, the steak sauce, which isn't the right kind of thing at all.)

[ferguzzi]

Well.... I hadn't planned doing any cooking over ther weekend, but I'll bear that in mind. Seems a waste of guinness though.

Yet another change of plans, it seems we will make the weekend after all.

I phoned various people down there and needless to say the hotels are full, and the nice lady in Creedons said the tenting is basic. i.e. no toilets or showers, though I don't know how true that is. We'll be staying in Mrs. Cronins place, about a mile from the village, and apparently it still has rooms.

I think we'll be leaving around 3pm from Dublin, as I think a few stops might be in order on the way down, and I want to get there before it gets dark. Or cold. Or both.

I have no idea what any of you look like, but I'm on a W (uk) reg Tenni, with a 6 foot canadian lass on the pillion. I'm Fergal, by the way.

P.S. I believe the BBC are doing a preview of the TT on Sunday morning, followed by the Barcelona GP live. Sounds like just the thing for a nice warm pub!

[big J]

We might run into one another if I can get away early enough. I'll be on a 02 sport with a Scotland flag on the number plate. I'm 4'6" tall,with a bad limp from a mangled leg and I have a cutlass tattoo on each cheek. I'll wear a carnation so you can recognise me

[ferguzzi]

Um, I'm beginning to think this is one of those websites my mother warned me about.

[belfastguzzi]

Well.... I hadn't planned doing any cooking over ther weekend...

 

the tenting is basic. i.e. no toilets

 

I think a few stops might be in order on the way down,

53703[/snapback]

 

toilet stops I suppose

 

I have no idea what any of you look like,

53703[/snapback]

You haven't been paying attention. John O'Sullivan's photo is already in this thread. He looks like this:

so you should be able to spot him.

 

And a trawl of the archives reveals that,

 

Martin Barrett is a bit of a strange bird. Try to spot him, before he pecks you:

 

You'll know Baldini by his 'tasteful' bike:

 

I wish I could find that picture of BigJ. Oh, here it is:

He's not so Big.

 

and I think this guy runs the Guzzi Club:

 

This is Nana. She might not make it though:

 

You'll find me by the clock. I'll be keeping a close eye on the time:

 

Hope that helps

 

A year ago sigh. Older and wiser now. (BTW if you look at that link, it's a different Big J)

[big J]

Older AND wiser??? That's a trick I'll have to learn. The older I get,the more I seem to have forgotten.

[belfastguzzi]

Older AND wiser??? That's a trick I'll have to learn. The older I get,the more I seem to have forgotten.

53726[/snapback]

Oh yeah. You're right.

 

I forgot that.

[belfastguzzi]

A bit of road

More pics, when there is more time

[big J]

Back safe from the Erin rally,hope everyone made it home without bother. BFG, how did you get on? 300 miles with a leaky box(the bike) would be interesting. It was great to meet up with you all,you werent nearly as bad as I thought you'd be! A sincere thanks must goto the incomparable Mr John O Sullivan who took a few of us on a rare wee tour round some great( and not so great- 2 miles of crushed limestone surfacing ! ) roads, a fine host indeed.Did anyone get any pics? Martin? Ferguzzi? Mine are crap. Aint getting back to the daily grind after a wonderful weekend the biggest downer ever? I'm off to drop-kick the cat into the neighbours garden-2 jack russels. It wont do the dogs much good, but it'll cheer me up!

[belfastguzzi]

BFG, how did you get on? 300 miles with a leaky  box(the bike) would be interesting.

54062[/snapback]

You can see in the picture above how shiney the tyre and rim are from oil. When I stopped for a break in Dublin and wiped the oil off, again, I saw that it really wasn't coming off. The worst of the wet stuff wiped off but a complete band, between a quarter and third of the tyre width, remained slippy soft after 750 miles of soaking. Putting my boot sole against the oily section, it slid straight off, no grip at all. Anyway – got home ok. VERY glad the roads were dry. Running on water would have been unwelcome. Fast right-hand corners, particularly on motorway, and roundabouts were . At least the good roads were mostly predictable. Worst thing was the bad roads because although slower, they threw up the unexpected and sharp engine breaking or use of back break resulted in slides.

Bike ran great, such a pleasure to ride.

A lot of the motorway sections are elevated and exposed in open countryside – the crosswinds get tiring when your head is already being pulled off. BTW, what way did you go? Via Cork and all main roads? I made the mistake of cutting across country to avoid Cork. The road was atrocious. Narrow continuous bends between hedges and banks so you can't see more than a few yards, every sort of surface imaginable, unexpected direction changes, unexpected things sitting on road appear round corner (including a wooden plank). Sticking to the main road (N22 and then straight onto the N8 at Cork) would definitely have been so much faster. I was surprised that it now seems to be possible to go most of the way between North and South on good (new) roads. Very different to the 'old days', though once you stray off the main roads you're right back to the old days. Part of the attraction of the Republic, of course (if you've got time). 3 hours to Dublin, 1 hr break, then 2 hours to home. Not bad considering the time-wasting back roads mistake and oiled tyre.

 

I'll post a link to pictures when I get time to put them on web.

[big J]

Yep, back through Cork(Jo wanted to go shopping,but all the shops were shut-yahoo!). Stopped a couple of times for a smoke,passed (I think) Martin and Baldini's bikes parked up on a bridge somewhere. Had to get back fairly rapid to rendezvous with the teenage kids social lives,but fair play,they taped the TT and Moto gp for us.Didnt hang about, took us about 3 1/2 hours. Was thinking about you,that couldn't have been easy. Bet your sphincter is now the strongest muscle in your whole body.

[belfastguzzi]

,passed (I think) Martin and Baldini's bikes parked up on a bridge somewhere.

54081[/snapback]

Parked on a bridge! That's the sort of obstacle that I was spending my time trying to steer around on the way home too. Martin should have known better. Obviously Baldini led him astray. I suppose they were in the river below the bridge: what do they call that – 'in the drink' is it? Sssshhhhhhhh.

 

they taped the TT

54081[/snapback]

 

You know there's an hour's summary on BBC1 at the moment?

[Martin Barrett]

We were lunching in the park, saw you going north on the N8. We were going east on the N72.