Poppy Subjects

I was listening to some radio station other than radio 4 today - one which played pop music. It struck me that the vast majority of pop music is about young love, which covers a very brief span of a person's life, yet seems to be the most creative and appealing period for the purposes of pop songs. No wonder the vast majority of pop stars don't last that long - they get married and have to face reality.

You never hear songs about divorce (however, lost love can feature in pop songs and Phil Collins was at his most creative when he split from his wife), the problems of parenthood, the death of loved ones (although Mike Rutherford was one of the very few who a good stab at that subject), the tribulations of home ownership and mortgages or the medical complaints one gets as one ages, such as one's first hip replacement or the onset of incontinence.  I suppose any songs covering the aforementioned would come under the blues genre, rather than pop.

New helmet and hands-free arrived yesterday. Had hours of fun fitting the hands-free (the little box on the lower right), but still can't figure out how to hide the wires without half destroying the helmet lining. The colour of the helmet is almost exactly the same shade as the Strontium Yellow of the bike.

The hands-free actually works, much to my surprise, but I have to remember a plethora of controls to switch between music, FM radio, intercom and simple phone answering - all with my hands encased in thick gloves. Good grief - I have enough trouble remembering where my keys are, never mind half a dozen different ways of instructing the hands-free with taps to a button.

The waterproof USB charging connection also arrived but, naturally, there were no wires supplied for the cable run to the battery. While it would be aesthetically pleasing to put the connection on the bike fairing, I don't really want to drill holes in it and there's not really enough space behind it to accommodate the shank, so I have decided on a cable-tie solution in an out-of-the-way position where it's not obviously seen.

Just the boots left to arrive now, which should come today and in time for a nice day, weatherwise, tomorrow. The weekend, however, is looking to be a washout and thus the bike won't see the light of day.