Happy New Year from Carol and Jayne

Hey folks, Happy New year to you all.

I for one will be glad to see the back of 2010, which has been a painful year for the Carol and I.

It started well with a trip to Bristol for me to see Marduk and to meet Nemesis, my biking buddy.

Nemesis and Jayne

Marduk were amazing and it was such a shame they played such a short set.

Following Marduk, Halfords informed me that I was to be made redundant, which was great because I needed a whole summer of being poor and jobless! It was not such a great loss, but I did need a new job fast.

Then came the saddest news of the year, Carol's Father, Alan Franklin Beauchemin passed away in Hospital in February after a long illness.

This was one of the saddest days of our lives, Carol lost her Father and I lost a very dear friend and Father in Law. I still miss him and think of him often, missing his fast wit, sharp mind and funny stories.

The pitiful Redundancy pay out from Halfords paid for my Bike test and in April 2010, with the help of Carol, Matt a local Instructor that Carol had trained and all of our friends encouragement I passed my motorbike tests, first time too. I was a proud new rider of Sylvie the Suzuki SV650S and enjoying every second. Of course we still had Henry and we went our for rides together.

The summer was spent riding and job searching, but mainly riding when I could afford the fuel. Interviews happened and finally in July I got an interview with United Response, a charity that works with adults with disabilities. Life was starting to look up.
During the Summer we attended as many of the Weston Bike Nights as we could, putting our pound in when ever we could spare it. This was a great social event and I even managed to meet up with some of the infamous Orgers! Yes, the lovely folks from the SV forums, including Grunty Giggles, Metalhead19, Squirrel Hunter, Stretchy and many others. It was a great summer and all of these people touched me in some way (not in that way, you perverts!).

Another big loss for Carol was Alex, her son, who has ceased contact with her. I know that this is breaking her heart, but until the rift can be healed, it will continue to do so. We rode up to Gloucester in horrific rain to meet him and bring him down to Weston for a weekend, but sadly it turned sour and the visit was cut short, leaving Carol to grieve for the loss of her son.

Another trip was to meet Xander and Bof, while buying the amazing Agnes, our new bike. A nice pay out from a previous naughty employer gave us the cash to buy me a bike to commute to work on, a lovely Yamaha XJ400/4. Well I say Lovely, she was a little temperamental to begin with!

Jayne, Xander and Bof plus pets

Agnes was a real sweetie though, and riding her introduced to me a new chapter in my bike career. The Cruiser...

We also tore off Sylvies Clip On bars and gave her the Street fighter look.

There was also Bristol Pride, although Glastonbury Pride came first, before fizzling out to nothing! Yeah, we had tried to get involved in the set up of Glastonbury Pride, but it failed to happen. Bristol Pride though was a laugh and Carol's Band Oestrogenix got to play a long set in the Trans Tent.

I started work with United Response while filling an application for Teacher Training, however the job was so wonderful that I chucked the Teaching away and got settled in and then it went quiet right at the end of the year, I am still to see if more work arrives, but sadly it is starting to look like I am instead going to have to find another new job.

The year 2010 was also the year that my first Niece, Robyn, was born and also the year that Carol and I started working on the radio. Robyn was a surprise from my Brother and when I met her for the first time, she was a beautiful little baby, whom I sat on the back of Sylvie straight away for a photo by her Mum. I have seen her several times since and I truly hope that I am the sort of Aunty that she will grow to love and trust, who will lead her astray and show her some of the fun things in the world. Once she is old enough to go on the back of the bikes ofcourse!

As for the Radio, Carol present shows on Total Biker FM from One O:Clock on a Sunday. This is a labour of love and one that we are both extremely proud of, so come and tune in and even say hello in the chatroom, you know that you want too!

As Autumn changed to Winter, Snow hit us hard in November and then again in December. This did not stop us from having fun though and with the incentive of a clear work surface Steve, Andy and I set about a new challenge in Snow art, firstly the snow face.

Then the Snow Cock!

The Snow Penis Monolith...

Before the final piece the Snow girl...

You should have seen Steve making the hole!

So that was 2010, some bits were great and some bits were painful, but in all it was another year in our lives. Thank you to all of the people who have chosen to have a read of our Blog this year, may next year bring us even more adventures and lots more silliness!