Should I or shouldn't I?

That was pretty much today's theme.  There was an open day at a motorbike shop over in Glasgow, and I kind of wanted to go. They do happen to be a Royal Enfield dealer after all, and I had a chat with them a few weeks back about trying a Himalayan.  Which bike to even ride there?  In the end I decided to see how Fidra felt so I pottered over to the city bypass, the voltage seemed good, the throttle seemed good, the temperature seemed good...so off we went!

Before very long I was over the Kingston Bridge and relying heavily on my GPS, which took me on a couple of wild goose chases before I reached the shop.  The place was busy!  I had a good sit on the bike I went to see, and liked some of it and didn't like some of it.  I also had a wee sit on Darth Vader's version of Biscuit, a Classic 350 in none more matt black.  I liked that too!

Back outside l bought some lunch from the burger van that was doing a roaring trade and drank homemade tea with honey and lemon and ginger, because this week, I will be mostly havin' a cold.  The clientele though was big burly guys almost without exception and before long I decided to escape.

Not very far away was a piece of Kirkintilloch foundryana I wanted to see, a nice piece of ironwork above a very Art Deco doorway in a very Art Deco former factory.  The place was closed though and I hurriedly took my one photo and returned to Fidra, lest some random security guard rush over to ask me what the hell I thought I was doing.

I rounded the airport and picked up the M8 again, which here immediately parallels the route of the old Renfrew Airport runway and consequently has a dead straight section.  I stayed on the motorway until I reached the massive tailback I'd seen riding in, so diverted to the old road through Salsburgh, which is also quite interesting because you can see where the A8 (as once was) was built with potential dual carriageway upgrade later. After they built the M8 in stages - it's all very complicated really - the road reverted to B-road status.

I picked up the motorway again somewhere around Whitburn and belted home. Then I realised Fidra's electrically up and downable windscreen wasn't working properly.  Le sigh.  If it's not one thing it's another.

I was glad to get home and stretch, get unpacked and then changed to cycle to Mum and Dad's for tea, although with proto-cold I wasn't sure whether to or not.  More large cups of tea with honey etc. were requested and duly served, then lasagne.  Not staying too long as I had to look after this mystery injury still, so a ponderous ride in the cold and dark took me home for another big cup of tea.