One week of work to go. Actually, the Monday holiday makes that four days. A house to pack, four websites to finish, a bike to sell, data and memories to back up thoroughly and send by different means. Then, a long holiday with lots of driving and camping. England, Wales, Dublin, England, New York City, Chicago, Wisconsin, San Francisco, Yosemite, the Rockies, (Canada?), the west coast, LAX, Brisbane.

Right now, everything we do is for the last time. Yesterday, as I rode to work, each tree, building and light was, potentially, never to be seen again. Never to weave my way along Clapham High Street, never make that call about which way I should go around Clapham Common, and to slowly forget where all those potholes lie in wait. Am I going to ride across Battersea Bridge one last time? Will Nic and I ride together in London again?

On a bigger scale, will the UK be even roughly the same when we eventually come back? When I left the UK at age 8, nuclear war was a serious scenario, one of the reasons my family migrated. Once more, there’s an underlying tension, a fear of destruction and loss, though not as bad as the US seems to have it. One big attack can change the psyche of a place for a long time, and everyone entering the US is photographed, fingerprinted, interrogated. A friend just back took two hours to enter San Francisco, and had her bag entirely emptied. Hopefully, we won’t be behind a flight from the middle east when we arrive at JFK, or we’re stuffed.

To return, the scooter is for sale on gumtree.com, in Loot and on its spiritual home, byscooter.com. Someone called about the bike yesterday, and arranged to see it last night. Then stood me up, stealing valuable beer festival time.

It’s a shame that scooters like this one fall between the licensing gaps. A bike licence is required for anything over 125cc, so you have to want to ride a big scooter to want to buy the bike. The audience is limited, and it’s not that it wouldn’t sell, just that it will take time that we don’t have. If I’m lucky, I can convince a friend to buy it. Otherwise, if a dealer wants it, they can have it. We’ll see. I’ll let you know.