Sunday 15th April, the day before my birthday, we set off on the bikes for the racing at East Fortune.

The sun was shining but it didn’t appear to make any difference to the temperature which stubbornly didn’t budge from -1 as we made our way up from the Borders. Stopping off for fuel at a garage off the A1, we met up with another keen motorcyclist  and Advocate, Steve Love, and we all agreed heated grips would be of some considerable help.

My son, who was driving the car behind us, had passed his CBT with Pro-Scot the week before. He will be doing his Direct Access in July and as I couldn’t bear to part with my old SV650, we can have that restricted making it a perfect first bike for him. He was desperate to be on a bike as we made our way along to East Fortune  but he had the heater and radio on in the car and, for all he envied us, I did wish briefly I could have been warm and cosy  too. If anyone has any experience with heated grips and  can make a recommendation I would be interested to hear from you.

The racing was fantastic and extremely well organised which is what you can expect from the Melville Motorcycle Club. I try to support the club and the riders by attending all race meetings and it was great to see our sponsored riders,     Andy and Sammi Tasker, in action. I still can’t get used to seeing Sammi on the 600cc bike as opposed to her wee 125 and with a huge entry in that race it was amazing to see her enjoying herself and building her confidence. You can see a short video of her on the starting line here.

As for Andrew…we were just blown away by his talent. He’s right up there and we were delighted to watch two of his races on the Sunday. See him in action here. It was particularly good to see the battle between Andy and Torquil Paterson. 

Well done to all the racers for a wonderfully entertaining day. We will be at the racing again on the 28th at Knockhilll. If you didn’t see our advert in the race programme at East Fortune,  don’t worry, we are still very much  “on your side" albeit, we were rather you were upright !

Now, I didn’t get my heated grips for my birthday but I did get an intercom set. I used to like the fact that out on the bike I couldn’t hear my husband and could just concentrate on doing my own thing. For some reason, if I’m up front, I’m flying but if I’m behind, I lose ground and the lads have to wait for me. I don’t mind but now I will no doubt get a wee reminder to push on!!

I wonder if it's possible to have a domestic whilst riding a bike….not if I get my heated grips before my next Birthday !