Sunday morning brought torrential rain and oodles of surface water, so I was rather glad that Andrew had made the call to drive to Whitstable (despite the absence of the White Dalton bus (white whale!)) rather than my having to learn to water ski on my motorbike!  The weather stayed fairly miserable for most of the drive down but by lunch time the sun had come out and was shining over Whitstable and the kind hearted bikers who had turned out for the Toy Run.

After Andrew met one of the organisers at the Bulldog Bash, the 2009 Whitstable Toy Run was sponsored by White Dalton, so all participants were rewarded with one of the new White Dalton snoods and a sticker.  Andrew and I felt a little spare at times as the bikers were stopped onto their way in to the car park and very efficiently presented with their goodies!  I have to say that I was extremely impressed at the number of stickers which went straight onto the bikes, given that the Whitstable Toy Run Association (WTRA) logo is a motorcycling teddy bear and a great number of grown men were sticking them on to their pride and joy!  Even one of the police bikes was ‘stickered up’.

People had really made an effort and there was a lot of tinsel, people dressed as Father Christmas, and even a Fairy with her Christmas tree complete with lights.  The efforts made for some great pictures even though I am a bit ‘point and click’ as opposed to having any photographic prowess (thank you to all of the bikers who kindly agreed to us taking a photo’, I hope we caught your best side!)

I have received a fair bit of stick for saying that I would really like a sparkly bike, but I found a man at the meet with a sparkly Ducati! I was allowed to swoon over the paint work and photograph it… and whilst the photos do not do it justice you can get the idea!

We were made to feel super welcome and I had a great afternoon.  The WRTA are a great bunch as were all the bikers who came along and I’d just like to say thank you for having us!!

If you would like to read more about the Whitstable Toy Association or get involved with their future events, have a look at their website www.whitstabletoyrun.com (I can only view it on Internet Explorer as opposed to Firefox, so if you’re having problems seeing the site try viewing in a different browser!)

What a glorious weekend for standing in the Garden of England-  sadly it would seem that the  sunshine drew everyone away from the show and down to the coast as the foot traffic past our stand was not as hectic as I’d been expecting.

Cheffy and I spent two days in the sunshine handing out prize cards and White Dalton freebies and chatting to passers-by about who we are and what we do.  It was nice to meet some clients of the firm (though none of mine came along  :’-( ) as well as potential new clients who were genuinely interested in what we do.  As always the prize bike had lots of interest (though I’m always shocked at the number of people who don’t want the chance to win  a free bike- maybe it’s just ‘cos I’m from Yorkshire and you know what they say about us, but where I come from “owt for nowt” is a good thing!)

Around the show-ground I managed to scare myself silly by going to sit in the demonstration van at the safety camera partnership stand- bikers beware- just because you don’t have a front facing number plate doesn’t mean they don’t have ways and means of catching you out!!!  Highlights of my day however were  chocolate flavour Yorkshire Dales ice-cream and watching the children’s stunt-show- one of the girls had a bright pink bike which maybe a spray job I need to carry out on my GS500!

Oh, and the sunshine there did something which 8 days in Mexico could not do, which is to give my legs a bit of colour…. alright, so it made one leg the extremely attractive  colour of boiled lobster,  and the other one remains very white, which has meant I have been the target of  some ridicule around the office!

Hopefully a few more of you will turn out for our next show – check our main website for details of who will be there and where it is!!

Jo ♥

I might be getting my motorbike (GS500) this afternoon… Argh!

After Cheffy and Paul’s trip to Dunstable, this week was the turn of Andrew and I to attend the Motorcycle Training Matters Road Safety event at Bedford Fire Station on Sunday. I was prepared for a day stood in the sunshine but just as I arrived so did the clouds… despite being rather chilly a cup of tea and a sausage sandwich from the burger van soon sorted me out!!

It was nice to see how many local people were aware of what we do and (just as Rhi noted at the Ally Pally show) how many people check the website every week to try and win the prize bike. I apologise to all those who asked me about the specifications of the motorbike and caught me completely off guard, therefore receiving a very girly answer!! Seriously, our prize bike is a road legal, limited edition CCM FT35S, with the engine of a Suzuki DR-Z 400S and yes it is scarily small and light (16kg (around 2.5 stone) lighter than the Suzuki) to have that inside it!! Good luck to all of those who picked up cards this weekend, I would love the bike to go to someone who showed genuine interest in winning it! You can check the results of the prize draw on our main website.

Perhaps the most entertaining part of the day was Andrew getting involved in the paramedic and St Johns Ambulance helmet removal demonstration (see pictures) but on a very serious note.

I know, and I always hope that given general first aid advice everybody knows that as a rule you should never remove a motorcycle casualty’s helmet, but I personally did not know that if you do need to remove a biker’s helmet it is a two man job- maybe because I’d never thought beyond “never remove a helmet at the scene”. Helmets should only be removed in the most emergency cases (the examples given were if the biker is not breathing and you need to start resuscitation, or if they are vomiting and are at risk of choking) – but it was very instructive to see how it was done.

So much of my job centres on considering the physics of a motorcycle accident and how injuries are caused as a result. I also know that there can be very common motorcycling injuries that occur very rarely in other situations and so really it makes sense that there should be motorcycle-accident-specific first aid too. I’ve always been a what-if sort of person and I like to be prepared- having been brought up around motorbikes and ride outs with numerous other bikers in the expanse of the Yorkshire countryside, the worst hasn’t happened, but I wouldn’t really know what to do if it did- despite having held a basic first aid certificate!

Having had a look around I’ve discovered there are a number of courses around specifically aimed at motorcyclists- for example that local ambulance services offer ‘first bike on scene’ training, some police forces run first aid courses through the Bike Safe scheme and the St Johns Ambulance offer a course for which on completion you receive formal certification valid for 3 years. I don’t propose to give a first aid lesson here but watching the demonstration certainly made me think that if I had been in that situation I could have made a bad condition fatal. The idea of all of us going on a bike first aid course has been mooted around the office- and now it’s going to be something which I think about very carefully!!

Sobering stuff for my nice afternoon in the sunshine with greasy food and cups of tea… but then I suppose that’s why they organise these events!!