There were signs out after Bell saying \u201cSNOW AND ICE ON ROAD\u201d but I didn\u2019t see any. The thermometer on the VFR said it was twelve degrees centigrade, which is pretty warm for up there in July, and even that last right-hander at the bottom of Scenic Hill that never gets sunshine looked dry.<\/p>\n
Lithgow is a cold hole of a place, but I had four layers of clothing around my trunk, and I didn\u2019t care. I finished visiting the sick around midday, and I figured I would have lunch before going home. No-one has ever been able to show me a place in Lithgow that serves a decent lunch and beer, but I knew that the Tarana pub was about half an hour away, and I knew that the road there had lots of turns in it and few highway patrol.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a cracker of a road. \u201cYou are making good life choices,\u201d I told myself as I parked the VFR outside the Tarana hotel thirty minutes later.<\/p>\n
There was a R1100RS and a Tiger Explorer parked outside. Excellent, I thought. They will never talk to a VFR rider. I can lunch in peace.<\/p>\n
The bar was warm. I ordered a beer and a burger, and formulated my plan. It was to drink my beer, and when the burger arrived, get another beer, and sit at one of those tables over there on the right and get outside both of them.<\/p>\n
There was bike noise outside. Four cylinder bike noise. Another guy came in to the bar. I tried to look nasty, but I had undone my jacket and was wearing a shirt underneath with a button down collar. Lord Vader himself couldn\u2019t look nasty in a shirt with a button down collar. On the plus side, the guy didn\u2019t look that happy. And then he spoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cHi\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
I nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat your VFR?\u201d<\/p>\n
I nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you like it?\u201d<\/p>\n
I considered this question for a few seconds, and then I said \u201cI like it fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat made you get the 800 and not the 1200?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have a VFR1200, don\u2019t you?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
There were so many ways to direct this conversation. My VFR was made seven years before the VFR1200 first hit the market, so I could take that angle, but it probably wasn\u2019t surreal enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cI bought the 800\u201d, I said, \u201cas a result of a complicated thought experiment that most people have difficulty in understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTry me\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo understand my reasoning\u201d, I said, \u201cyou must first think of the VFR800 as your childhood friend Jennifer.\u201d<\/p>\n
To his credit, he was only rattled for a second. \u201cUm, okay\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd also\u201d, I continued, \u201cyou must think of yourself as a pony.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRiiight\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook\u201d, I said, \u201cif you don\u2019t want to go any further we can stop right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo\u201d, he insisted. \u201cI am thinking of myself as a pony.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGood\u201d, I said. \u201cWhy the long face?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh\u201d, he said. \u201cMy wife left me last week.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNever mind\u201d, I told him. \u201cThere are plenty more fish in the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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