I have hankered after a motorbike for most of my adult life.  I did have one in the UK in the mid 1980's when I was working in Saudi.  I really cannot remember much about it, other than it was a Yamaha. 

I never had a bike license, and the rigmarole of obtaining one was enough to stop me from bothering,

so I rode it illegally for a very short time and then sold it on.

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Finally, in Thailand, the bike worm somehow got back into my head again.  The argument against

2 wheeled vehicles in Thailand is pretty overwhelming.  It's like playing Thailand Roulette. There are

over 20 million bikes on the road and the accident rate is in excess of half a million annually with the death statistics on a par with global warfare at circa 30000 every year, costing about 3% of GDP annually.  Nearly 40% of riders do not have a license, and about 35% are not insured.

Even after having driven in Thailand for 4 years and seen the antics of both car/SUV drivers and bikers and taking these statistics into consideration, I couldn't get rid of the earworm.
 

Anyway, after affirming that I was only mildly interested in getting a bike at my ripe age, I visited Honda.... just to have a looksee.  That was a mistake. 

 

Sunatcha is such a perfect partner, and allows me to do absolutely anything I want....... no questions,

no criticism, no recriminations, no arguments..... Merv is really spoilt rotten.

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My international driver's license had recently expired. So, dutifully, I went through all the requirements

of renewing my driver's license and obtaining a motorbike license.  The training course consisted of registering one's presence, taking a rudimentary eye test, and sitting through an hourlong video repeatedly showing actual footage of the carnage and mayhem on the roads, such as a family of 4 generations perched precariously on a meandering bike getting annihilated by a speeding SUV.  Unbeleivable.

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The New Baby - Honda Rebel 500 cc (2020 model) - was delivered on 2nd of July, a week before my

69th birthday.  I had most of the gear.... Sunatcha had already bought the jacket as a birthday present, and we had just spent a lovely long week-end in Bangkok so that I could get a good helmet.