I suspect lots of folks spent Easter weekend away from computers, interacting with their relatives or doing some fun trip. Perhaps even DIY. Myself, I was stuck in my barn, cursing and swearing over my motorbike front wheel. Basically, the front discs were warped, and I needed new ones (£200). Which also means buying new disc bolts (the bolts that keep the discs on - Another £60), and disc pads for the brake unit (£30). Whilst doing that, its probably an idea to get rid of the 18 year old rubber brake hoses, and replace them with braided steel ones (£45). You see hydraulic brakes work by compressing brake fluid, and if the tube their in is made of old rubber, it expands fractionally too.

And of course I found that when I got my front brake calipers off, they had frozen. Out of eight pistons that push the pads onto the brake, all bar one had completely siezed. Damn. Another eBay frenzy (and another £70).

Once all this stuff is back on the bike (and the required tools - a HUGE torque wrench (£20), the proper bits (£12) and a dial gauge (£40) to measure (to 100th of a mm!) the disc alignment... All you have to do is put new brake fluid in (£15), and get rid of any/all airlocks (because air compresses, thus diminishing your braking). Well, 6 hours of cursing and swearing in sub-zero temperatures, and dragging a mate away from his decorating, and it was done. All I had to do was get the bike over to the garage to get tested..

(Why didnt I get a motorbike shop to do all this ? Because Motorcycle dealers - especially in Aberdeen - wont look at a bike more than 5 years old, let alone 18 years old.. They want to sell you a new one..)

So I set off this morning. In a blizzard. No, Seriously, it was snowing here. Hard. I've not felt that cold for a long time. And so it finally passed inspection, and I picked the bike up, waiting for a break in the weather. And rode it home through another blizzard. My eyes were watering with the cold, and freezing on my face. My fingers, inside gor-tex winter gloves, took five minutes to defrost. After a 10 minute journey.

But hey, when the snow stops, I can now take my bike on a decent journey this summer. Who fancies the Tomato Festival (La Tomatina) near Seville, in August ?