Category: general

12th of October and public holiday in Spain. It’s such a nice thing to have a day off in the middle of the week. Sun was shining and I decided to go to Segovia to take a nice picture of my Ducati and the aqueduct. I was glad to have a purpose to the ride, after my journey this summer I find it hard to just ride out with no goal.

Well, the ride was fantastic as expected, but let me tell you what happened with the picture. I did a slightly illegal manoeuvre to enter the big square in front of the aqueduct and parked right at it.

After a few shots I realised how small the bike looked on the pictures and I decided to move the bike to the centre of the square and take a close up with the aqueduct in the background. I had already imagined the picture in my head and was about to move the bike to the perfect spot when two scooter police ladies approached and shot non-admirable looks at my bike. Of course, I couldn’t park there, I knew that, but I was taking pictures… anyway, history has taught me to not argue with police in Spain, nor try to explain anything. So I just say yes to everything, not answering how I entered the square and prepared to leave. I hoped they would move on so I could take the final picture but annoyingly enough they hung around to monitor me taking off, like they knew I would stay. I decided to take the bike to the café on the way off from the square and think things over. I started parking the bike in a place that not in any way would cause a problem, but one of the scooter lady police immediately shot off after me to say that I’m not allowed to park there either, but that uphill there is a parking space… I wanted to say ”hey, lady why don’t you ride out to fight some real crime”, but thought the better of it and said “gracias” and forced myself to produce a big smile.

After some circulating I found this place to give another try at photographing. I decided against returning to the square since the notorious police probably would fine me if I did so.

Last Thursday was a unique opportunity to see the movie Fastest in a few selected cinemas in Spain. For me, there was no doubt about it: I had to go. Even though it meant travelling for hours to the south of Madrid and seeing a movie at 9 o’clock in the middle of the week.

I was speculating on the reasons not to show this movie in a cinema in the centre where the movies in original versions are shown (In Spain the normal thing is to dub movies). The main reason I came up with was that probably there would not be enough parking space for everyone who would ride to the cinema. So you can see that I expected this to be a bit of an event. I was even worried that the tickets would sell out so I got the tickets in advance.

When arriving at the cinema, far south, I can’t see a single bike. Entering the cinema I can’t see a single person with a t-shirt with a motorcycle manufacturer logo, in fact I can hardly see a person. There are no banners, no posters, nothing showing that there is an unique oportunity to see this movie today. After showing our tickets and entering the screening room I notice a small poster made of two A4 sheets on the wall inside the entrance. The room itself is empty.

It is a rather small room, approximately 15 rows and maybe a 150 seats. Little by little people start to enter… when the movie ends it was half full.

The movie itself was a fantastic documentary of the career of Valentino Rossi and his opponents and who can challenge him for the title “the fastest”. The narrator was Ewan McGregor and he was indeed suited for this. There were loads of interviews with the riders and with the team personnel, as well as people from the home town of Valentino Rossi. Did you know that there is a church in Tavullia with a special altar for Rossi picturing him on a bike riding towards heaven, all in neon lights. Tacky and spiritual at the same time. I think it is truly Italian and I’d like to go there and pay my respect.

While being disappointed to the lack of event-spirit I was very content with the movie. The question is why so few found their way to see it. Probably not much was done to advertise this and I feel sorry for all the people who missed the opportunity. I hope that there will be a second chance to see it otherwise you’ll just have to settle with the DVD that undoubtly will be released sooner or later.

Just as happy as I was yesterday riding home on my Ducati, just as angry was I this morning finding it vandalised. Nothing disastrous but the right hand mirror was broken off and nowhere to be found. The mirror arm was turned so hard I couldn’t unscrew it, so this was obviously done with a lot of force. Since there wasn’t any other scratch I’m inclined to believe it was done on purpose.

When I brought down my Ducati from Sweden to Spain I promised myself not to cry if anything happened to it. The alternative had been to sell it and buy a bike that is less precious to me, but I couldn’t separate from my Monster and felt I had to take my chances.

The first time the bike was touched I did, but this time I just felt anger and tiredness. Yet another thing to organise. I have to contact the Ducati store to see if they have mirrors on the shelf or if it’s due to order. I do need it rather quickly, riding in Spanish traffic I need to see every angle.