One of the side-effects of quitting Sony and starting a new job at Woven Planet was that I had to return to the UK to sort out my remaining items there. Mostly it was stuff that I did not want to take to Japan and was placed in storage, as well as my Yamaha WildStar motorcycle.
Picking up the bike
One of the first things I did after arriving in the UK and getting my accommodation sorted was to call Alan from Southern Car Storage and arrange a date and time to pick up my motorbike. The day dawned grey and I caught a series of busses and trains down to the south-coast of England where Alan picked me up from the New Milton train station in his car.
We proceeded to the storage sheds and I was finally reunited with my bike. Alan kindly lent me some spare gear and soon I was pootling off in the sunshine and fantastic environs of the New Forest.
Unfortunately the sunshine did not last long, and soon I was in a, typically for Britain rather chilly, downpour, yet that barely dampened my spirits as I made my way back towards London. After many a wrong turn and some green-laning (I had forgotten to take my GPS back with me and did not have a mount for a phone on the bike) I eventually made it to Robin’s place for a catch-up and a pub-dinner before heading back to my accommodation.
Sorting Stuff
After getting accommodation I booked a storage unit at Shurgard Alperton, right next to the Ace Cafe. A week later I arranged a man-with-a-van and picked up my items from the corporate storage place. Wow! What a pile of crap!
For the next week or so I spent several hours every day at the storage facility going through boxes, sorting out items, repacking, and enjoying breakfast and/or lunch at the Ace Cafe. Less definitely is more! What a waste of time and money..
I did manage to sell the motorcycle shed fairly quickly, but most of the rest of the items I had to more or less give away. Some to charity, some via freecycle, and some to my old motorcycle group, the VSOC. From the 2 full industrial storage crates I ended up with barely 5 medium moving boxes of items left to ship to Australia.
Germany
A couple of weeks into my trip I headed to Germany for a few days to visit relatives and back-celebrate my 50th birthday.
Packing up the bike and trailer I headed down grey old England to Folkestone to board the EuroShuttle across the Channel. Following my usual fuel-up-and-brekky on the other side at the first petrol station, I then rode to Aachen and spent my first night at my mate Jurgen’s place where we enjoyed a dinner of fresh asparagus and potatoes.
The next day I headed to my cousin Rebekka’s near Bonn, where I would more or less base myself for my time in Germany. It was a rather hectic time, but overall fantastic as I managed to catch up with almost everybody.
On Saturday we enjoyed a big family BBQ to re-celebrate my 50th birthday where nearly everybody turned up, and apart from a few small showers, the weather turned out to be much better than expected. I then toured around the family spending personal time with various uncles as well as a very enjoyable afternoon with my godmother Christa.
As is usual for the Werle-clan, there was quite a lot of walking involved..
Amongst other things, highlights were a lovely walk through Bad Godesberg and a small (ish) hike along the Rhine with Christa, a great afternoon/evening in Cologne with my cousin Stephan and uncle Uli where we saw a U-Boat being shipped up the Rhine to a museum, and a walk around a “Baggersee” with my uncle Siggi.
Dropping off the bike
My final act before heading back to Japan was to drop off my motorbike with the shipping company. This involved riding it to their warehouse and leaving it with minimal fuel – I was sweating quite a bit by the end as I didn’t find the warehouse right away, and I was already over 200miles on the clock! When I did finally get it there I reckon there was only about a liter left, if that!
After riding the bike into the warehouse, I disconnected the battery and mileage converter plug, all ready for shipping to Australia. I was promised some pictures of it getting crated up, then left it in the good hands of John Mason’s depot and caught the bus back to London for my final couple of days.
