Losing my lovely husband to a brain tumour in March after only 6 months of illness.  Picking up the pieces of my life, getting back on 2 wheels, joining BM and meeting some great new friends.                                                                                                                                                                                 

Going into the Xmas and New Year period as a recent singleton and determined to do something about in 2011...

12 months and over 16k miles later, I've been all over the country, from Land's End to John O'Groats, done loads of rallies, rideouts and camps. I've met loads of people from all over the country, made new friends, and lost a few too. All my single friends are hooking up one by one, and I'm getting that "back to square one and alone again" feeling....

So maybe 2012 will be my year instead, guess I'll have to just wait and see...

Have a good one peeps xXx                                                                                                                                                                             

just look to enjoy the year Sharky, and que sera - it tends to happen when you least expect it!! xx
                                                                                                                                                                             

If 2012 isn't a huge improvement for me I'm returning it for a full refund!!    Hope it's a good one for everyone else.  :-)                                                                                                                                                                             

Meeting loads of great people from BM!!! :)

Mountains, sea, ice cream and chicken kebab :)

:( :( Dad being so ill, im not going to forget runcorn bridge in a hurry :((                                                                                                                                                                             

Getting my flying licenceUpgrading my girlfriend lolKISS rally (how can anyone forget?)Bad thing: Continued back problems.  Hopefully fixed in 2012
                                                                                                                                                                             

It's just been brilliant for me had a great time with the best friends anyone could want,
 looking forward to 2012   
                                                                                                                                                                             

2010 Saw me get back on a bike again for the first time 6 years after the DVLA revoked my licence after my m/c race accident. 2 days later cancer was diagnosed, I've spent all year recovering from the surgery/chemo', but I'm in remission now so that's the thing I'll remember if it stays that way I guess.

Brings things into perspective seeing how u suffered...wish U best of luck in continued recovery from all....Enjoy 2012 ,get out there!!                                                                                                                                                                             

Cheers for that. I know it's back to square 1 again for the moment (Car) but my Bonny's pretty close to being on the road again and I have the "new" Commando as the back-drop on my comp' so that's an incentive!!!
                                                                                                                                                                             

Getting the bike id been searching for all these years. Doing rallies on my own for the first time in years, and rediscovering why i love them (bobcat - I owe you a drink for urging me on).
Deciding my Integrity was worth more than my wage and telling my boss to shove it.
Life on the dole for 12 weeks.
Embracing being single, and putting my ex well and truly into the past. Chatting up a girl ( at my age) and finding out its okay to be me.
A solo holiday abroad in the sun.

A mixed year, a sometimes scary one, a one where it all changed. I'm ready, bring it on!!!

Good Times
Joining BM Christmas Party in brum and meeting some wonderful people. Getting into contact with a very good friend from nearly twenty years ago. Moving into a lovely new flat.   Bad Times In the process of getting divorced after twenty years of marriage. Problems with my mobility Having to let my son decide to live with his father.     Roll on 2012 I plan to get a trike/bike and get to kiss 2 and to more BM events.                                                                                                                                                                               

Making loads of new friends on BM, having some great times out'n bout and meeting LF - what more could one ask for??????
                                                                                                                                                                             

Meliejayne which two u gonna kiss tho?                                                                                                                                                                             

2011 was a mixed bag, or to put it in the vernacular fairly shite, as i managed to loose my job a couple of weeks ago, that'll learn me not to give people an honest anwser when they ask for one      On the plus side i got my Gixer thou in July  which still gives me a massive smile on my face and scares the S**t outta me in almost equal measure...   Roll on 2012 it's going to be good one, off the the IOM for the first time after trying to get there for 30 years, it gonna be awesome.                                                                                                                                                                               

2011 a year I will never forget.
This is a bit long but I needed to write something Back in 2010 I decided after 47 years of going back to bikes more times than I can recall, it was to be this year I would take my bike test. Riding 250 which was then downgraded to 125, although still a lot of fun, these days were numbered. In 1966 I failed my test on two minor things but never got around to retaking it. Unfortunately my test scheduled for Dec. 2010 was cancelled due to the snow. So I rebooked for 2011 and passed. Why didn’t I do that years ago? I didn’t realise at the time how significant this course of action would be to my life. We are all faced with decisions in life and each decision effects the destiny. Having gained my bike licence I suddenly realised that everyone I knew at the time no longer ride bikes or never did. So you might say I became the lone rider, which was OK for a while but soon became a little boring. What I needed was riding buddies or a pillion to share the experiences with. I googled and I came across a site called BikerMatch. After browsing through the site I decided to join this bunch of nutters, I thought maybe they could be retrained or domesticated. After a short while I realised there was no chance of that and I would have to become a nutter instead. I suppose for most of my life, I have been a bit of a lone wolf, probably due to the nature of my work, but know it was time to run with the pack.
I started getting involved in the site forums, where some good topics arise and I got totally hooked on the word games (does anyone know of a good counsellor for this sort of addiction). Looking at the events I found the 1st BM KISS rally. This was to be my 1st rally, so I put my name down. I did not realise at the time that this was to be another significant life changing decision, that fork in the road.
Whilst following the BM forums and seeing how the numbers were rapidly growing for KISS, I noticed that a member who wanted to attend the rally had no way of getting there. As I was going to travel in my van (with the 1958 Beemer on board) I offered her a lift. I met up with menavelasco in London for a coffee, this was to be an ice breaker for both of us. It was thought meeting up for the first time on the way to KISS may not be such a good idea. We very quickly became friends, neither of us were actually looking for more than that. We both realised that we had a lot in common, likes dislikes, interests and outlook on life. Our friendship developed into love, a love like I had not experienced before. We were very much in love before KISS and attending the rally was such a wonderful experience. It may or may not have been noticed, that we did not participate fully in the activities, we did go on the ride out, which was brilliant. Mena was experiencing some pains, so we had to play things down a little but all in all we had a brilliant weekend.
We had already started to make plans for our future together and everything looked so wonderful. Mena had simplified her life and I wanted to do the same. I was the luckiest man in the world. On our return to London Mena had some tests done and by 2nd October she was in A&E where we received the worst news ever. Our lives were suddenly torn apart.
As I write now I still cannot believe that Mena is no longer with us, but I do know that she will live on in me forever. Our relationship was very short but I would not have missed the time I had with Mena for anything.
So was 2011 a good year for me? Yes it was a fantastic year with a very sad ending but a year I don’t want to forget.
During this year I have made a lot of new friends, many of which are you guys and I want to thank you for your support and kindness. Even nutters can have hearts of gold.
2012 will involve more decisions, more forks in the road. So let us hope we take the right road.
Thanks people see you somewhere in the next year x
                                                                                                                                                                             

Wow David i feel for you, i did't know Mena had gone but i did get to meet and talk to her, not sure what the problem was but hope it was quick and painless, so yes you have 2012 to look forward to so lets hope it works out OK for you, look forward to meeting you again

David, Whichever fork you take will be the right one, and you'll not be riding it alone                                                                                                                                                                             

I don't dwell on the negatives, so 2011 was good to me, fingers crossed 2012 will be just as good .. the highlights of 2011 was getting to more BM events .. couldn't possibily forget KISS 1st .. meeting new and no so new BMers .. some dreams materialising albeit for a short time, better to have loved (as the saying goes) .. welcoming baby Nieve to the family fold .. job developments for the better (bring it on) .. gaining Vera into the garage ..

Happy New Year to you all and see you soon xx xx
                                                                                                                                                                             

Persuading a friend to go to a LiveWire concert cos he was so stressed out with work, he's now my best friend and I love him to bits  
 
(yeah... I do mean Stroggy....  )