Posts by UK_Paul

Now the doctors set to work trying to find the cause of all the problems.

The doctors had quickly concluded, at this time, I had a urinary tract infection and that antibiotics would sort things out, very quickly. That all sounded great and I was discharged 3 days later. All looking very good and positive.

During this time I was handling probate, for my mother's death. This required regular visits to check the security of her home, to cover insurance requirements. Two days after my hospital discharge, I was visiting my mothers home. I had checked out some dodge fuses in a fuse box, high up a wall and felt a little unwell after all the stretching to reach up to it... The next thing I remember was that I was laying on my mother's front lawn with one of her neighbours looking over me. I had passed out and they had spotted me laying there' when they returned home.

You guessed it...

The pain had returned and it was back into casualty again!

So the next chapter in this story had now begun.

I had, recently, been feeling more unwell and had continued to go down hill, a disabling pain in my abdomen was increasing as each day passed. One morning, at about 03:00 hrs. after another night without sleep, things had got so bad my wife, Elaine, called for an Ambulance.

I'm normally pretty resilient to pain but this was getting unbearable. The majority of the pain appeared to be coming from my Prostrate Gland. When the ambulance arrived, I was unable to get downstairs without some major help. Being the morbid sort of person' that I am I had taken a selfie video of myself in the washroom, (more of that later) and no I'm not going to post it on this thread. In addition to all of this, we live out in the countryside and you may recall that we had decided that a new drive would be required to get the SlingShot up to our home. Therefore the same problems also applied to an Ambulance, so I had to get myself down to it, from the house.

Success... Into the Ambulance and we were off to the Hospital. I was admitted to casualty and the staff started relieving the pain. Starting with Parocetomol + Codeine Phosphate, followed by Morphine tablets, then some Orimoph liquid... None of this was working so it's on to the Pethidine injections. After three times the normal amount of Pethidine had been administrated, I was finally starting to relax. Still in pain but, when it did all finally kick in, I felt rather good.

Quote from MiM

I liked the majority of your post... Not that last paragraph though...

The Hospital staff were now getting to know me and I was given this by one of the nurses.

When I got back home, Elaine was keen to know how I got on. I explained all about the day and how much I had enjoyed it. The general conclusion was very positive, however, given my prevailing health problems, we both agreed that if I detreated further, then I would not be me driving/riding the thing and Elaine was going to be the person that should be, the one, comfortable with it.

Next move; was to arrange a test drive, for Elaine. At this point in time, Elaine spent most of the working week, in London and returned (the 200 miles) to our home in Herefordshire, every Thursday evening, then she worked from home (all day) on the Friday. This was going to make life difficult, as the dealer that we had first spoken to was over the sea, in Northern Ireland and the dealer that had arranged the track day at Mallory Park was approximately 100 mile away from our home. Elaine, understandably, did not wish to spend all of her time traveling backwards and forwards to do a 15 minute test drive, in the SlingShot.

I first talked with Steve Cain (see above postings) about getting hold of one to test drive and we were hopeful that this could be organised, as I knew he sometimes attended a local customer, for Polaris "military" vehicles. I highlight that he had never revealed this to me; but I did tell you all that I'm good at finding these things out and after all, to this day, he still doesn't know what my job is. He had said he'd try and bring one over when he was visiting the area. However nothing ever came of this and I suspect that Polaris UK would want the distributor to arrange this sort of thing.

I spoke with the dealer, that had organised the day at Mallory and asked about the possibility of getting hold of one for the weekend, if I picked it upon the Friday and returned it on the following Monday. We decided that this was a good move as it could then appear on the driveway, at home and I could give Elaine the keys, saying "You've got it for the weekend." I was aware that this dealer was working with the same local customer, so I hoped something could be arranged, without too much difficulty.

Time progressed and it became apparent that when I was free to collect it, the SlingShot was never available, as it was off at shows or the dealer was not around. Conversely either I or Elaine weren't available when the SlingShot was. This was all getting very difficult...

Things then went from bad to worse. The virus that had caused all my health problems, earlier in the year, returned with a vengeance!

The journey back from Mallory, was OK however the day had worn me out and the sensible thing to do, was to stop for a rest. 3 hours later I continued home to tell Elaine all about it.

Quote from WOLF

Man @UK_Paul even your prisons are Castles. You are living the dream. Going to prison is probably the least expensive Castle living experience.

In the old days political prisoners used to get better treatment.

Quote from WOLF

Man @UK_Paul even your prisons are Castles. You are living the dream. Going to prison is probably the least expensive Castle living experience. What is something I could do that gets me a free six month stay?

A speeding offence in a SlingShot, could do it if you upset the judge. (30+ mph, over the speed limit, may do it).

You may have to try a little harder, if you want to stay in this one though

Quote from slingmods

@UK_Paul could have been a little more lowkey Paul We will miss you, please let us know where to send our letters and packages too!

Looks like it may be:
"HMP (Her Majesty's Prison) Wandsworth, South London."

Well, I suppose, it still looks like a castle.

Quote from Tripod

All - please write @UK_Paul & send care packages to him as he will be incarcerated for quite some time...

Internal Error

They closed down, an enormous barn, that was being used for production, just a few miles away from my home, a short time ago.

And, when asked, the farmers always tell you, that their poly-tunnels are only used for growing strawberries, in this part of the country.

Quote from slingmods

We are just happy Chris Evans is gone

It's amazing. He was awful in that show. He sure is a real Petrol Head but it just was not right with him (and he knew it). He has the highest ratings national radio show 5 days a week and is excellent in that, he used to host an evening show. along the lines of the David Letterman Show. where he interviewed singers, bands, celebrities etc. and he also had an enormous following with that show.
- TFI Friday - Wikipedia -
Fortunately he was big enough to realise Top Gear was not a show, that was working, for/with him. Let's all hope for an improvement in the new series.

Quote from MiM

Lol brilliant!

And your home is beautiful too! That yard... You must have dogs... If not, get some!

Well, if and when you make it over to the UK, look us up. You'll always have somewhere to stay.
No dogs but we do have a couple of cats, and a very friendly Peacock (owned by one of the neighbours) that keeps taking a stroll around our garden.

Quote from MiM

Okay, there is a red Slingshot there! Whose house is that? Is it really yours? When can we come visit?!?

Hi MiM,

I hope that you noticed, "Gnasher," the vicious guard dog, on the front lawn, too. It's wonderful what you can do with Photoshop nowadays.

This one's my country residence.

Not quite a castle, but it was built in Tudor times and is believed to have been made, from wood taken from Spanish ships, in the, 1588, Armada.

The ROC (Race Of Champions) certainly looks slow when comparing it to how this man can put his SS around a real track. Even if they do try acrobatics with them in the ROC..

-

He can do that too, when he try's too hard.

Quote from WOLF

It is absolutely Beautiful @UK_Paul, I knew you all lived in castles, I just knew it. Thank you for the unequivocal picture proof. It must be a dream to live there, except for the occasional flying, fire breathing Dragon. How many of those have you seen?

Most of the Dragons stay just over the border, in Wales.
Oh yes, this picture was taken, just over 10 miles, up the road from my home, in Herefordshire. (Presteigne, in Wales).

- Presteigne - Wikipedia -

The SlingShot was moving very quickly around the Mallory race track. It drove through, the chicane at, "Edwina's" as if it was hardly there! As it came back along the straight it was running much faster than anything else had, all day long.

This was very, very gooood indeed!

After a few laps, at breakneck speed, the SlingShot finally came in. It was a Red 2016 SL, with no modifications whatsoever. It had joined the circuit just as I had returned, to the pits. The rider/diver got out and removed his helmet and he spoke with a Spanish accent...
I had no idea who he was.

Our conversation eluded to the fact that he had regularly attended the race circuit, in the early evenings, for a quick spin around the track, in his beloved SlingShot. (Steve Caine later told me that) This guy had also taken his own Lamborghini around the track and had said the SlingShot was by far the more exhilarating.

So why was this guy not too keen to have people know who he was. Well; he worked for Yamaha, at that time. This gave him a direct conflict of interest as Yamaha & Polaris both make competing ATV's (All Terrain Vehicles) and this man could not be seen to be riding a SlingShot, while working for Yamaha.

That may all be fine, but what was his job? He is a three-time MotoGP™ World Champion!
The man in question is "Jorge Lorenzo." I'm not sure how popular this is in north America but; for motorcycles, it is the equivalent of F1 motor racing, with a huge following around the world. Mr Lorenzo is without doubt one of the two best racers in the world! (The other one is his old team mate Valentino Rossi).
- Jorge Lorenzo - Wikipedia -

Well this guy certainly knows his stuff and it shows. Now, after nine years with Yamaha, he has made a move to the Ducati Team. No more conflict of interest so. Perhaps the guys at Polaris should now be taking a look at what they could do, to capitalise on this?

Jorge Lorenzo is not shy to try a few thing and you may also be interested to see him pushing a Mercedes F1 car around the track too.

Check out the link below:
-

Times are now changing, for Jorge, he can now talk about his SlingShot and he may even has a little room left on the new bike for some advertising.

Quote from WOLF

Could you, just to reestablish my skewed world view, recant your "we don't all live in castles" statement? Next you'll tell me all Scotts don't walk around with bagpipes and skirts, all Irishmen aren't 1 meter tall and rich and all Swiss people don't work in watch factories, drink hot cocoa like we drink coffee and ski every weekend.

Dam...
I knew I'd have to post a picture of my house sooner or later.

Quote from UK_Paul

More information and some "Hot News" to follow next.

It was now time to take the SlingShot, back out, for a few more laps. The runs were great fun. I learnt a lot and I noticed that I'd managed to hit just a little under 100 mph., at one point. That was not too bad, considering the small size of the track. Nonetheless; some of the other people attending were definitely achieving higher speeds. (Sometimes, you just have to recognise your own limitations and get on with it).

The day was moving on and it was late afternoon. All the demonstration SlingShots had now come back off of the track and pulled into the pits.

Time for a few posh pics'.

But...
There was still one SlingShot out on the track. And WOW, It was sure moving quickly!
What the f#%£ was that?

Quote from Br4hm4

Last year before the Grand Tour was filmed, I Tweeted Richard Hammond about possibly doing a show on the slingshot vs Morgan vs any other competitor...never heard back. Hoping that they featured a Morgan on a roadster episode of Top Gear a few years ago, maybe they will revisit that on Grand Tour with a new line up of vehicles.

The Morgan works is not very far from where either of us live (approx. 25 miles). I'm sure the program producer would have organised things, but it would be an easy call for him.

Quote from Cameron Roberts

Looks awful. I'll bet it's awful. I'll make an exception for the Stig.

Time will tell Cameron. This is the second series now, without the old line up and the first one died on its feet. So they have some work to do.

However, presenter, Richard Hammond, (Ex "Top Gear," now on "The Grand Tour,") lives in a small Castle (Bollitree Castle), just a few miles, down the road from my home, in Herefordshire.

And before you all ask... No we don't all have castles, to live in, over here.

Oh yes, he has sometimes been seen in an interesting three wheeled machine.
- Reliant Robin - Wikipedia -

Perhaps I should pop down with the SlingShot. Who knows, you may then see it on the show.

Quote from Cameron Roberts

I didn't know this was a thing. Been watching the old geezers on the grand tour, Amazon.

Yes Cameron, these are the people carrying on with the original program.