It was my 50th birthday this year, so it was important to me and my husband that it should be memorable for the right reasons.
 
The weather hasn't helped. I can't complain, as we haven't suffered from any flooding, but it has been the worst year for biking for quite a while. (I bike for leisure, so I don't generally choose to go out in the rain, though I certainly got caught out a few times this year!)
 
But we have had some great holidays to celebrate my birthday.
 
In late February we went to India. I got to cycle round Delhi, see a tiger in the wild and ride an elephant, amongst other things. And I didn't have "Delhi belly" at all. The photos are at http://www.torquemonsters.co.uk/indiaheader.htm
 
In July we spent a week staying in the grounds of a castle. The photos are at http://www.torquemonsters.co.uk/falmouthp1.htm
 
And then in September we went to China. I walked on the Great Wall and saw the Terracotta Warriors and some giant pandas, amongst other things. The photos are at http://www.torquemonsters.co.uk/chinap1.htm
 
Other than that, things have been fairly stable. I'm still working as a freelance copy editor from home, which is as good a way to earn money as any, I think. At least my sole client is seemingly unaffected by the recession and I can always find as much work as I want to do. It's my choice, on a day to day basis, how much work I feel like doing. It takes a bit of self-discipline, but it works well for me. I've still got my lovely 2010 FZ1. I think that it's the ideal bike for me right now, and I have no plans to change it any time soon.
 
I finally gave in and joined Facebook in May, as it's the best way to stay in touch with young relatives, apart from anything else. I also got my first iPad last month, as we'd had a minor windfall and the husband wanted to buy me a present. I love it and will be able to take it with me when we go bike touring.
 
As for 2013, we already have two holidays booked. We're staying in the grounds of Dover Castle for a week in March (my birthday) and then we're taking the bikes to Normandy in September. I booked the ferry crossings and the gite a couple of weeks ago while Brittany Ferries had an early booking offer with 20% off.

 

Congratulations!

wow they turffed you out of your room while you were out ! ffs
 
Did they give you a good reason ?

Well, when we first checked in we didn't have much time to get ourselves sorted out and over to the concert venue and there was a long queue at check in. When we got to our room it hadn't been made up from the previous guests (plus one bedside cabinet was hanging off the wall). So we went back down to reception and waited in line again. I think their computer was down, which wasn't helping. So they allocated us to a new room. We got into the room, dropped off our bag, took out our soapbag and put it in the bathroom and headed off to the Who concert.
 
It would seem that while we were out they made up the room we'd originally been allocated to and moved our soapbag into it (completely missing the blue and yellow holdall that had most of our stuff in it). Then they gave the room we'd been moved to to new guests, deactivating our key cards in the process. So when we got back from the Who concert, fairly late, we innocently went to the room we'd left to go to the concert to hear the TV and find that our key card didn't work.
 
We did get our money back and I even insisted on getting the car parking charge back, but as you'd expect we've not stayed there since. 

7 is a real fanatic !             

Errr ... I've been out at six sometimes in the past, though I'm not as good at getting up early as I used to be. Round our way the roads are already starting to get quite busy by eight or so, so unless you get up really early you only get half a ride before the traffic seriously limits your fun.
 
The attached photo was taken at the end of a breakfast run last Saturday ... at 7:58, so I think we must have been on the road by seven, if not earlier.

I cant agree on the legal expenses comments...I have used them 3 times VERY successfully....I paid about £25 extra on the policy, but have reaped that back an undisclosed amount more...

I've only used it once in 1990 - the very first year that I paid for it! Mine was through DAS. The solicitor assigned didn't know a lot about bikes, but did know plenty about law. She got me full settlement in a case where I knew that it wasn't my fault but the other side was too arrogant to accept that they could possibly have been in the wrong and fought it tooth and nail. Needless to say I've always paid for it since then.

This could be an urban myth ... or not. I heard once that if you fill up as quickly as you can a fuel pump tends to over-register the amount dispensed, and if you fill up slowly you have a chance of getting a bit more actual fuel out for the same measured (and charged for) amount. The chances are that if your tank is very nearly empty you'll use the pump at a higher flow rate than if you're only putting a small amount in. But, like I say, I don't know whether that's true or just a myth.

Having recently been to India for my 50th birthday trip I'm spoilt for choice. The obvious thing to do would be to enter a picture of the Taj Mahal, but everybody has seen that before, so I thought I'd go for something different.
 
Here's a view of Agra Fort, which is quite close to the Taj Mahal:
 

 
and here's a view of part of Fatehpur Sikri, an abandoned city, just down the road from Agra, that was built in the 16th century:
 

 
All the pictures from the Indian trip can be seen at http://www.torquemonsters.co.uk/indiaheader.htm if anyone is interested. I should point out, however, that I didn't take all the pictures on the Indian trip - my other half took a lot of them. The two I have submitted for the photo contest were definitely taken by me though.

i am also a bridgestone fan, but will also praise the dunlop roadsmarts, which really work well on my 09 speed triple, which is maybe closer to ur bike than a gen1.Speed triples do eat tyres though as its so grunty, but an FZ-1N with its top end rev bias should be gentler on tyres ( cos you can treat them gently).The dunlop roadsmart are also very good in the wet. On my gen1 I got 5000 from a rear, which is very good for me. 023 bridgestones  more like 4500 to 5000.
When I next change tyres I want to try the new roadsmart2 for both my bikes.
Sorry I dont vote michelin...I never got on with them, and they are alwas at least £20 dearer per set to anything  I usually buy ( roadsmart/ 023), so am not  a fan.

Thanks for that (and to everybody else who has responded). I was always a Bridgestone buyer of choice until recently. I also loathed anything Michelin with a passion. I had the dreadful Michelin Hi Sports on my Hornet 900 and hated them. When they wore out I got BT010s, which were miles better and lasted a bit longer (what's not to like!). I've ridden several demo bikes with Pilot Roads, and always felt like the front end was trying to go wider than I'd aimed it. When I got my '06 R1 I chose the limited edition yellow one, and then my heart sank when I realised that it had Pilot Powers as opposed to the Dunlops or Bridgestones (I don't recall which) the standard bike came with. But then I was absolutely amazed by how good they were in the dry or the wet, and how quickly they warmed up. Yet they still lasted fairly well. Then I got a Hornet 600, which my dealer had to order from Honda UK as they didn't have any in stock. That bike came with either Pilot Powers or BT012SSs. Of course mine came with the Pilot Powers. I wasn't convinced that I'd like them, even though they worked well on my R1. But again, on a significantly different bike, they were really great (at least for my riding style). So I'm pretty much sold on the Pilot Powers. I've always found that I'm either way about Dunlops. My only reservation about the Pilot Powers is how long they'll last on my FZ1-N.
 
However, I got my dealer to price up a few options on a ride-in, ride-out basis and the cheapest quote was for Dunlop Qualifiers, with the pair of Pilot Powers being just £4 dearer. The BT023s were a full £50 dearer than the Pilot Powers. I want to get them dealer fitted, as the bike is ABS and I want to be sure that it's done properly (and with comeback if they do bend anything), but actually all their quotes were only about £7 dearer per pair than our local branch of Protyre, so I'm reasonably happy. So the upshot is that I'll go with the Pilot Powers and report back on how I get on with them and how they last compared with the OE Dunlops.

Here's a night shot of the Atlanta skyline
 

My problem is that I wear (expensive) glasses. It's not so bad taking a helmet off, but I find that I need to put the glasses down briefly when I put my helmet back on. Garage forecourts are often quite windy, and the last thing I can afford to have is my glasses blowing away and getting scratched on the ground. Because of this I tend not to remove my helmet, but I can honestly say that I've never had any problems (or even comments or unfriendly looks from filling station staff), even when there has been a sign on the door requiring helmets to be removed. I live in Weston-super-Mare, where they must get a fair bit of out of town trade in the summer, but it really hasn't been a problem in practice. When I'm touring further afield I'm with my husband anyway, so he usually goes to pay. As he doesn't have the same problem as me, i.e. doesn't wear glasses, and is a big bloke who people could possibly find threatening, he does remove his lid.

Well, after a week of anticipation and exitement at the thought of getting a new FZ8, unfortunately it didn't happen. I had put a returnable deposit on the last blue FZ8-N to hold it until I had test ridden it. I covered motorways, twisties and town work but when I got off, and thought about the ride, I've got to say it was really quite an anti climax. Dont get me wrong, I wrang its neck in certain places where I could, and it was quite quick too, handled ok and was fairly comfortable but it just lacked something.
I didn't get that big silly grin that I normally get after a good blat. The difference between the FZ8 and my little FZS600 is, in my opinion not worth the extra money each month. And for those reasons I will not be parting with any cash.
However, I am booked up for a test ride on the FZ1-N next weekend and am looking forward to that, I hope I get the grin factor this time around. 

 
That sounds very similar to my route onto an FZ1-N from a Hornet 600, see http://foc-u.co.uk/index.php/topic,21.msg2172.html#msg2172
 
Interestingly, I've also spotted that the FZ8 appears to be one insurance group HIGHER than the FZ1, see http://www.powerseeker.co.uk/motorbike-insurance-groups.php (groups 15 and 16).
 
In my case the FZ1-NA (ABS) was also being offered to me slightly cheaper than the FZ8-N (non-ABS), so it was a bit of a no-brainer to go for the brain-out bike!