Truth be known, I didn't feel like heading out on my bike this morning. I had a proper upset tummy, which coincided with the usual and the shits. This ulcerative colitis is really doing my head in. I don't think I can tolerate the mesalazine medication; it actually makes me feel worse, and I was supposed to be going for an urgent sigmoidoscopy, which I think is a waste of time, as I just had one in April. Obviously, I want to try and avoid yet another camera stuck up where the sun doesn't shine. It now appears as if I am just being left to my own devices, not on any treatment and just hoping and praying that the god awful symptoms start getting better.
Before I went out on my bike, I checked the weather forecast. I'm not sure if in the back of my mind I hoped it was due to rain, that way I would have even more of an excuse to just stay in. Then I thought to myself, "Glenn, just get yourself sorted, you'll feel better once you are out", and so that is what I did.
I had no real plans on where I was going and just decided to ride and see where it took me. Then I was off on my new Scott Lumen. The other day, when I was out, I was thinking, "I am sure this bike has three power settings". It only took me a few minutes to figure out that I had to hold the power button in just that bit longer to get the bike to have no assist, "Ahh that is why it had felt like the bike rolled real easy the other day", I had been riding around in eco mode, so had a little bit of assist.
Okay, so this blog post is going to be a bit of a rant concerning just a few things that have happened that I am sure each and every one will agree with me about. Of course, if you know me, you will also understand I tend to go off on tangents, so the post also contains a link to a video I wasn't going to post, as I didn't think I had enough footage to make it interesting. Well, maybe I still haven't, but fuck it cobbled it together and uploaded it to YouTube anyhoo.
So, to what has pissed me off, well, it's basically society in a whole, but mainly how corporations and companies, businesses and whatnot are all out to rip us off.
Some weeks ago, I got a message from my insurance provider saying words to the effect of "Dear Mr Johnstone, would you like to get a guaranteed future value on your motor vehicle?". The car in question is Grandma, my limited edition VW Beetle GSR. Grandma is on a 63 plate, so 12 years old. She is not classed as a classic, as not old enough; however, she is a very rare car as there were only 30 ever brought into the UK in this model and colour. Not only that, she has lots of top-end mods, so when I insured her, I put a valuation of £20,000 on her. Now I know a lot of people may think that is a bonkers price, but I just saw a Yellow & Black GSR for sale on Piston Heads with a lower spec and not as many mods, and it was up for £18,995.
Anyhoo, I had posted on Facebook about this valuation and one of my friends contacted me saying before I went ahead with paying the extra £52 to get the valuation, if I sent him the details of my car, so the registration and. mileage, he could get the true value that the insurance company would use. You see, he works for a company that all the insurance companies use for guide prices.
So this is what I got back from my mate. Sorry, the image isn't great.
So, as you can see, the top book is probably just over £10,000. So my point here is why the hell would I pay an extra £52 just to be told that my car is only valued at the rate the insurance company value it at in the first place. This has been nowhere near what it would actually cost to replace it in the event of an accident. Insurance companies are only too happy to quote us extortionate amounts for us to insure our vehicles, yet when we come to claim, we would be lucky to be able to go out and purchase a like-for-like example.
I think a good idea from a customer's point of view, where insurance is concerned, and it could easily be introduced, is that, say, your insurance was £1000 per year. If, after that year, you had no claims, you were reimbursed half the amount of your insurance. I mean, the insurance companies would still get interest on the money you paid them.
Anyhoo, this gets me onto my next whinge. So a few months back, I paid for an updated version of Wondershare Filmora. A piece of software so that I could edit my GoPro footage. Now I thought, in fact, I am sure I had a paid-up version of the software, version 13 or something. Yet when I went on to make a film, I was told ~I had to update to version 14. So I did this and paid once again for the latest version. Now, in making this latest video, the one I wasn't going to make Lol well, I got all the way through the editing and went to produce it, only to be told "You have used transition assets in your production", or words to that effect. I thought "WTF", I've just been on ages complaining this and now this dumb software wants to charge me more money to produce the final edition. Not only would it not allow me to just pay a one-off fee, oh no, it wanted me to fucking subscribe to a monthly payment. I hate shit like that. I mean, if you subscribe to everything that comes along nowadays, it's like signing your pay cheque away.
I had to go back and remove all the paid content out of my video, and fudged together something which is probably pretty naff, not much riding scenes in it, but it does have some pretty places I visited the other day.
Ok rant over, here's the video. Oh, and whilst you are here, if you haven't already, why not go and grab yourself a copy of my book "Lost2bFound"? You can find it on Amazon or in other good bookshops.
On Wednesday I received an email from David over at PublishNation to inform me of the pricing for the hardcover edition of my book. David
also attached a file of the finished draft.
On Thursday with nothing better to do and as I was feeling a bit ropey with
this ulcerative colitis I decided to read through the final draft. Imagine my
horror when within the first couple of chapters I discovered errors.
Immediately my OCD kicked in and I began getting proper stressed. What I did next was
real stupid and I am still berating myself. I read all the way through my book
to try and spot more errors, in which there were a few, however I didn't bloody
write down where they were, what a complete tit. You see I have lost count of the number of times I have gone over my work. I think a lot of what has made things incorrect is trying to use two different computers with different operating systems, these being my Apple Mac and my dads Windows PC.
On Friday after a restless night I decided to contact David and inform him of
my mistakes. I also checked the e-book and paperback editions of my draft, and
sure enough there were errors in the same places. This is a major problem as
those two editions have now gone out for publication. To correct them is an
additional £75 per edition, as they need to be re-published.
The errors are not huge, the thing is I know they are there. I dare say even
when I correct the errors there will still be a few in there that people will spot. I have
leant that writing without making the odd mistake in either punctuation or in
grammar is very difficult. I couldn't afford to get a professional proofreader,
I mean it would have cost me thousands.
Lost2bFound inside cover
So,
what to do? Well, I went over the draft all day yesterday trying to spot errors
and remember some from my previous days reading of my book. MY dad who is a
legend helped me, as he could see I was having somewhat of a meltdown. One positive thing I can say is that when my dad was reading he was having the odd chuckle, so I thought "Hey I must have got some parts right, as it's making my dear old dad laugh to himself". Hopefully this is the case for other readers.
As I read through I became aware at some point in my writing I must have tapped the "s"
key on my keyboard instead of the "a", so there was a kind of
incorrect and spare "s" floating around in my text. OMG! both my dad
and myself were on almost all day yesterday trying to discover this mislaid
"s". We eventually discovered it on page 38, chapter 4. My dad using
a search believe it or not for every "s" contained within my book,
just imagine how many there were in a book of over 80,000 words.
So where I am at now. Well, I can either leave the books as they are and hope anyone
who purchases a copy understands this is a self-published book. As such it has
been completed by a complete amateur author, and hopefully cut me some slack. Or I can pay
the £150 and have the books re-published, bearing in mind I dare say there will still be some minor errors in various areas, which won't impact on the story.
Duh,
duh, duh, duh, duh, duh duh! That sound doesn't come across quite
as well when typed as it did in my head Lol Maybe I should just stick with a
"Ta Da".
Anyhoo I am very excited to announce the long-awaited release of the book I
have been working on. It is called "Lost2bFound" and came about from
an idea I had long ago when certain people said to me "Glenn you should
write a book".
Now when they said that I am not sure if it was a polite way of just saying
"Glenn you do waffle on a lot" and therefore mocking me, or did these
people genuinely think I had an interesting tale or two to tell.
I would like to think the latter, so after visiting BBC Radio Tees for an
interview in September of 2024 and mentioning my idea, with the host Gary
Phillipson and Gary saying "You should do it", well I decided to
start putting pen to paper, well really fingers to keyboard.
BBC Tees Gary Phillipson & me
Now
I am not a real writer or storyteller, the extent of my experience has been in
doing my blog for the last 13 years. I have had various spells where I would
attempt to write poetry, and quite recently write songs, which are quite
secretive and I only practice to myself, needless to say not in the bath or
shower as I would get my guitar all wet or worse still electrocute myself. To
be fair I can't for the life of me multitask then go on to strum and attempt to
sing at the same time.
Lost2bFound
So where to start? I found it difficult to try and tell my story, so that the
reader could keep track. You see so much had gone on from way back, yet it had
affected me moving forward right up to the present day. Another thing that was important
to me was to be completely honest, so certain thoughts and getting them down
were difficult and brought up quite a few home truths, where I had to stop and
take a break to ask myself questions about my feelings. I had to also go back
in time and try to recall certain events, some of which were very painful, and
some which were possibly painful and embarrassing at the time, however, now I
can see the funny side.
I am hoping my book will be received well and those people who do read it can
take something from it. I am looking forward to the feedback I receive, both
positive and believe it or not negative, as I think this is how we learn and
can improve ourselves.
My book is available for pre-order from all good book stores or you can find it by doing a search for "Lost2bFound" on Amazon or follow this link.
I'm bored! And what do I do when I have a week’s
holiday, and the weather hasn't exactly been great. Well apart from trying to
help my dad out with our garden I have of course been looking at "Bike
Porn".
I'm sure I have some sort of an addiction. My
way of thinking was, as I have gone halfies on a new bathroom with the Ern,
which dented my plans to save up for a campervan, well I may as well blow
the remaining bit of savings on yet another bike. I was quite surprised my dad
didn't put up much resistance. I guess after all these years he has just become
accustomed to how I operate.
Of course, the dream of a campervan, and even
one day that house in Scotland is still alive. I just printed out some pictures
of the latest dream house, using my new printer I blogged about the other week,
it's a Canon Selphy C1500, and I have to say it is a most excellent bit of kit
for doing small postcard sized prints. The colours are vibrant and it's very
quick. Just what I need to continue adding things to my now four dream boards,
as Ern went and got me another one just the other day.
It has been a while since I mentioned how my
book is going. That's right I have written a book about my journey, and I am in
the process of getting it self-published, using a company called Publish
Nation. So far, I have paid for an express critique and an express proof
reading. I received some very positive feedback from the critique concerning my
tone, and how my personality came through. Things to look at were as I expected
my grammar, and punctuation. I have learned a lot over the last few months
about writing and layout, punctuation and grammar. I didn't realise I was quite
so bad at certain aspects. I have to say Publish Nation so far have been
excellent and they even helped put me in touch with a friendly gentleman to
help design the cover of my book.
This will be part of the front cover to my book Lost2bFound
The cover of a book is apparently what can sell a book. I always had this idea
in the back of my mind of how I wanted it to look, and what I would like it to represent;
however, I am not sure everyone will get it. For me the reason I chose black
and white for the cover, is because I wanted to convey a sense of
"Darkness to Light", which kind of described my life’s journey.
Anyway I guess once it's out there, that will be that, and it will either be of
interest to people or a complete fail. At the end of the day, I'm just pleased
I had a go, and if nothing else I enjoyed the reflection, and some of the
memories it brought back. If it receives some positive feedback well that would
be a bonus.
I will post when my book is out and links to where anyone interested can get a copy. It will be released in ebook, paperback and hardback.
Next on the agenda, wor Neville, wor ickle border terrorist. He is settling in nicely and growing ever so
slightly in size. He has a wonderful if somewhat mischievous character and has
brought so much joy and happiness into our home, even if I am now getting up at
around five in the morning every day. Nev is my constant companion. I can't go
anywhere without him wanting to be by my side, this includes when I want to
have a bath or shower. He will whine at the bottom of our stairs until I open
the baby gate then follow me up into our bathroom, then stand on his little back
legs with his front placed over the edge of the bath, watching as I get washed.
Each morning, he goes ballistic when I let him out of his crate, as if he had
not seen me in months, and once settled somewhat appears to smile and is keen
to play.
Wor Neville
Okay well I guess onto this new bike I got my
eye on, but before I do a little background. So the other week I went out on my
Santa Cruz Heckler SL. I love the bike, the Fazua motor has taken a bit getting
used to in how it works and the power delivery, however, I like the overall
feel of the bike. I think the only drawback is that Fazua don't offer a larger
battery or range extender, so upon my latest ride out I covered approximately
thirty-four miles, and upon returning home I was on one bar of battery
remaining. The Heckler feels and probably is more like a trail/enduro bike,
something I knew before purchasing it, and I was happy with my decision to get
it, as I intended to use the bike on rougher trails with jumps and drops and
whatnot, I still do.
Scott Lumen eRide 900 TR
So on to this new bike. I started looking at bikes that were more XC orientated,
in fact some months earlier I was actually thinking of getting an analogue
gravel bike. Pretty much as soon as I went online, I saw a Scott Lumen. Now
what drew my attention initially to this bike was the fact it looks so neat and
tidy in its design. I particularly liked how the rear shock was hidden inside
the frame. I then started researching weight, the motor, which is a TQ, the range,
and whether a range extender could be fitted, specs and of course prices.
Scott Lumen eRide 900 TR
Following a little more research I could see I could get a Scott Lumen eRide
900 TR 2024 at a considerable discount from when new, and the only difference I
could see between it and a 2025 model was the colour and the rear shock. The
2024 model having a Fox Nude 5 EVOL and the 2025 having a Fox Nude 6. I have to
admit I am not entirely struck on the 2024 colour scheme, which is prism grey
green, but saying that I haven’t seen one in the flesh as yet. One of the main
reasons I went for this bike is the range, which certain sites have said can be
as much as 100 miles with the range extender, and of course dependent on
terrain and level of assist.
Love the frame and shock intergration
Scott Lumen eRide 900 TR with AXS
Not sure of colour
Range extender fits canny neat
Very neat display
I didn't want another full power bike; part
of the reason I opted for the 60nm Santa Cruz Heckler SL and now this lighter
Scott Lumen which has a claimed weight of 16.6 kgs, and has a TQ motor offering 50 nm with a 300-watt hour battery.
The range extender at 160 watts, adding an extra 44% battery capacity.
Now all I have to do is await J's Cycles to
get my bike in from Scott and of course start saving up once more for more
toys.
.jpg "Lost2bFound Glenn Johnstone")
