First ride on the motorbike

My eldest daughter (10) got invited to a friends house for a playdate on Saturday. Since it was only up the road I asked if she wanted to go on the back of the motorbike. I was actually surprised that she said yes - I wasn't sure whether it would feel a bit too dangerous for her but she seemed excited about it so after checking one of my helmets fitted, we decided to take the old strumpet for a spin up the road (the Strumpet is the name of the bike, not my daughter). My awesome wife, before she became my wife, decided to call it 'The Strumpet' as she was the 'other woman' in our relationship. That being said, I still remember the time I was working in Egypt for 5 weeks and my wife went down to the garage and started the Strumpet up and let me listen over the phone while she gave her a few revs. An awesome thing to do for me and I'll never forget it!

After a quick spin up the street, we arrived at her friend's house to her awe at arriving on the back of a sports bike. Daughter seemed to enjoy it so that's great - I'm glad I didn't terrify her like I did one of my friends back in Sydney - my friend screamed all the way down the M2 and vowed never to ride on a motorbike again. Thankfully daughter really enjoyed the quick ride so much so that she suggested a ride on Sunday. Unfortunately it was raining at the time and we don't have much in the way of gear for her to wear yet so I wasn't going to take that chance but maybe we can look at getting something for her in the not too distant future. I will need to go over a few do's and don'ts of riding pillion though, she pretty much had me in a death grip around the midsection for the short trip, and she doesn't really know about leaning into corners just yet but I would love to take her on a longer trip through some of the amazing twisty roads that we have in the area (once she has some decent protective gear).

Nice segue into one of the issues I have at the moment, and why I haven't really been out on the Strumpet much recently, is due to a lump that has set up camp on my elbow. I thought it might have been bursitis as I had some elbow pain earlier in the year and this squishy lump appeared shortly after the pain went away but I have been referred to the medical imaging place in town to verify. Sadly they are really busy at the moment (An ultrasound crisis?) so I have to wait for a few weeks. While the lump itself isn't sore to touch (although my elbow aches a bit from time to time), if it is filled with fluid/liquid, I am worried about having it pushed hard against the elbow pads of my motorbike jacket and bursting (while I had the elbow pain earlier in the year, it was incredibly painful to put my jacket on - I tried it once but not again!). I'm sure that wouldn't be good for it! Hopefully it all clears up soon but until then I have decided I won't wear my leather jacket which means I can't go for a longer ride.