How about Hotel TerraVina[/url], with one of the worlds best Sommeliers.

Great food, great hotel expensive but not crazy money either. They do a few wine events too. Bit of a drive for you though. It’s my local, not that we go often but it is just about the closest place for food and drink from home, a great treat when we go though.

Similar boat here, I’ve just started 121 lessons, had and initial assessment first proper lesson this week. I had a look as TI videos years ago and didn’t get far with it. I think you need and instructor in the pool to with you to make it work you can’t see\understand what your doing wrong to fix stuff.

Ask at your local Tri’ club, that’s what I did. I’ve got a fully ASA trained instructor, she’s good and cheap! 8) She’s just tagging it on the end of one of her training sessions.

Last couple of weeks and especially the last few days and hours with my step Dad dying of lung cancer at home was absolutely horrible for everybody concerned.

I promise you you don’t want to go through that, or put any of your family or friends through it either. I know we all die and there’s no easy way but that was the hardest time in my life by miles. The one and only grace was everybody got to say their goodbyes. Getting upset just sat here thinking about it all again.

Be strong and kick it for good.

harsh I know, but I genuinely HTH!

yep certainly is, my brother works for the company that made it. He’s recently only just started working for them. He’s done a couple of stretch Bentleys already and a Audi R8 or Lambo is on the cards apparently.

edit not my cup of tea either but he’s loving working there

They’re treated the same as normal cigarettes in our office – ie you can only smoke them in the smoking shelter.

I wish this was the norm everywhere tbh.
For potential heath issues, which may be proven to not exist, I’ve not done any research.
Primarily though so e-cig’s aren’t normalised and picked up by kids.
I’m all for free choice (So long as that doesn’t directly affect others e.g. passive smoking in enclosed public places) but that level of ostracization of smokers and hopefully ECigs might help keep some kids from starting.
I can’t imagine many smokers actually wanting to encourage their kids to start either, and if they’re normalised into society that can happen much easier IMHO.

+1 self drive through the Kruger in SA we had a really great trip. You can pick up extra guided bits too early morning and late ones especially. We did a night Safari with a buffet on a hillside surrounded by guides with rifles for the millennium new year.

you can camp or glamp or stay in a whole array of accommodation. we stayed in some self catering thatched bungalows. We went some SA Family of mine, we either ate either Braai (BBQ) or did a potjiekos pronounced something like Poi-kee, game stew to you and I or used the restaurants in camp. you can spend as much or as little with in reason as you like.

we’d like to go back in a few years when baby29ers a bit older

great to see STW and it’s contacts hopefully getting things done.

good luck in getting it cleared CG

simmy – there’re loads of footpaths and bridleways around Winchester which seem to go down peoples driveways and through their gardens. It always brings a smile to my face when my mate and I run through ’em.

If somebody blocked one as per your example Simmy I’d take great delight in using it regularly and giving a cheery hello and wave every time I passed and saw the owner 😈

Himalayan 100 Mile Stage Race[/url]
I loved it, my wife did too, she came as a non-runner. I actually proposed to her after the race at the Taj Mahal. So it’ll always be a special one for us, I might go back and do it again one day.

Made some great friends who we still see regularly too, despite living 100’s of miles apart 5-6 years on. Socially and I run and race with them too.

That and Three Peaks Yacht Race[/url] are top of my running stage race list. Bit more difficult to get in on that one though, you need a yacht and crew. Late injury replacements spots can be had though easily that’s how I got in the first time. I’ve done it 3 times now and will be back again. Let me know if your interested in that and I’ll pass your name on to a couple of organising committee members I know.

I hope they’re stopping any drivers not in an NCAP 5* rated car too, and recommending they upgrade their cars as they’re putting themselves at risk 🙄

I do always wear a helmet though, for all the good it’ll do me in a lot of accidents, I do believe it will help in others, but each to their own 😀

[Edit]oh and to answer your question, imo a waste of time[\Edit]

Cheezpleez unless your mahoosive you’ll be fine, I use a Womens Rab bag which I bought for my wife for a trip to the Himalayas. It’s the warmest bag of half a dozen I’ve got. You can do returns to SP too if it’s no good.

Be cautios if trying “top up” a bag, unless there’s lots of room in it the top up bag won’t loft so you’ll not get much benefit from it. I’ve got a rab AR Top bag too, similar to the module listed above. I wouldn’t get away with using if in conjuction with any of my other bags as there’s just not the slack to let it work. good base layers and a silk liner can do wonders

30%! Oxford, I feel Dirty! 😉

North of Winchester’s up north round these parts.
I love up north really, except the grim bits, not going back to Rotherham in a hurry again, sorry Rothermites, was proper grim in places.

I really wanted to see it tonight but ended up booking Gravity, only because there aren’t any evening viewings for Enders Game. One cinema’s last viewing is 15:30 and the other’s 17:00 👿

I know it’s a 12 but it’s not a children’s film, is it???
why no evening viewings 🙁

😆

I’m used to that

OP & midlifecrisis sounds odd and like hard work to me. Why make yourself like something, when you don’t like it, because most other people do?

I don’t like tea or coffee, plenty of people can’t get their heads around that and think I’m a bit odd but hey, who cares.

I still go to the odd coffee shop with my wife and friends on occasions, I just have a smoothie\milkshake\hot chocolate.

If you try for long enough as midlifecrisis did you will like it no different from cigarettes I suppose.

Carry on and enjoy what you do enjoy, or push on, each to their own, just seem strange to me.

[edit] I do absolutely love the smell of coffee though, taste though blughhh[/edit]

Why is England always the last with anything like this?

e.g.
plastic bag tax
smoking ban
Right to roam
I’m sure there are others???

Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are often way ahead of us in these types of issues

my brother’s got it on his VTech Mini, it bloody stinks still, hundreds of miles in once the manifold’s hot. Smoked for a while too after initial fitting.

He did it for performance reasons though, good for Turbos. No idea what it does to emission though sorry

Croozer here bought 2nd hand from Stoner.
It’s normally used 3 times a week on the back of the bike for the nursery runs (10mile round trip) plus odd weekend rides plus walks and a few runs too.

My son’s (14 months old now) done about a thousand miles in it in 6 month now, he loves it. If I leave it in the garden when he’s out playing he quite often climbs in and takes a seat and starts playing with the toys that live in there 8)

It’s got the baby head support which I still use as it keeps his head snug if he falls asleep.

If it’s that well sealed then sounds like you could use an air exchange\heat recovery unit. They’re pretty effective and not that expensive. I’d have thought they’d been quite popular round your way.

bigblackshed – try some good brakes and you’ll be fine 😉

and sounds like that MD was a bit of a dick

All my bikes get hung up, never had a problem with air in my brakes, all Shimano though. If I used Avids then yeah I’d expect air in there but I’d expect air in there if the bike was horizontal too with Avids 😆

bike shed, dirty wall, why cares? It’s not the executive conference room

looks good to me, better than the crappy bike sheds we’ve got. We do have 30+ security guards on site though and full CCTV and it’s a closed private site so any thefts would almost certainly be somebody who worked here. Never had a problem in 10 years.

Nope, mine not covered, but sound like the same problem.

tbh it is partially user error i.e. it is how you adjust them that allows it to happen, but then on the other hand the cable adjustment is the most obvious adjustment. I didn’t find the piston adjusters until I was looking really closely after the problem had occurred. So still bad design imo.

When it’s time for a replacement’s I’ll be going for hydro STI’s, musc more fit and forget, cable discs are ok just need a little bit more fettling than hydro’s

I’ve got 505’s on my CDF which did this a while ago. I posted about it.

Scared the Sh– out of me when it happened, turned out I didn’t need a replacement calliper just new pads and an adjustment. You just need to be careful not to run the pads down and use the cable adjustment but instead use the piston adjustment instead (2mm allen down the centre of the pistons). Still not a great design as Xanboy says the piston jumps out of the helix which results in the brakes almost completely releasing and the level coming to the bars.

If it’s on a recall though go for it, I’d not heard about the recall, I wonder if mine are covered?

Would a new patio add value to the new property 😉

sram and shimano aren’t compatible afaik

nope not here yet but we’re right down south, I got hot cycling last night in shorts and a t-shirt. mind you all the fat\lazy\old lot in my office think I’m a freak, they had the AC set to heat during the summer, and I’m the freak 🙄

I live with 2 women.

can’t make my mind up if I envy you or pity you 😉

I use Gpsies.com for mapping a route in advance and upload the .tcx to my garmin 305 forerunner watch to follow a breadcrumb style route, or just record the route if I know where I’m going or am just exploring

After a month or two we propped the head end up an inch or two too

First of all congratulations, my little lad’s not long had his first birthday and is walking everywhere, time really flys!

Ours sagged a bit too, so I just cut a bit of ply I had in the garage and stuck it under the base, worked a treat!

he looked safe enough to me, nothing to crazy at all imho, I am a long way from be Rad on the gnarr. Looks he’s got better skillz than half of the people on here myself included 😉

I can’t wait to get my little lad on to a bike

wafer every time for me

I can image lesser used items, especially near the hob would get pretty greasy and dusty over time

imo colour of the clothes is nonsense, lights make a difference and some reflective bits in twilight but in the dark or daylight it’ll make sod all difference imho

Fairly thick fog here this morning I couldn’t believe the number of cars driving about with no light on at all! madness in my mind

Get well soon SBF

Well done to the guys that treated him
I bet that 30 mins was hard work and felt a lot longer (No disrespect to the emergency service, you were no doubt in the middle of nowhere)
so good he wasn’t alone and you knew what to do

4 weeks waiting for some shoes I ordered off of a promotional email (website said in stock)

called up after 2 “yeah they’ll be dispatched this week” at 4 weeks I cancelled the order and went to wiggle, ordered Wednesday (free delivery), arrived this morning.

It was a good offer but not if you have no ability to for fill it in a reasonable time frame

and don’t what ever you do put a foot down, most SPDs seems to be soled with an equally frictionless rubber compound

I ordered pedals and shoes 4 weeks ago, pedals took 2 days.
I Phoned up after 2 weeks “they’re on back order but will be dispatched by the end of this week” it was Thursday.

Almost 2 weeks again called up “on back order, no idea when we’ll get them” so I was told porkies 2 weeks back then? yes

So got a refund and ordered from wiggle, they’ve been dispatched and should be here tomorrow.

I found it difficult to get through on the phone too, I wont bother with them again tbh.

The really annoying thing was I ordered them within in hour of getting a promotional email and the website said there was stock. Obviously not.

MrMonkfinger, Soton BC? got a link or company name, not heard of them. Hoping to do my install before the winter, if I can get the cash together
Got a very empty looking hearth pad down ready that’s crying out for company

Not the guy in Netley Marsh.

He seems to have the attitude of it you want it you’ll chase him for it. I tried a few times to get a price and he never got back to me, I guess he must have deicide my money wasn’t worth it. not the way I’d run a business

A shame as he’s just up the road from me so would have preferred to spend my money local if I could of. Chardwood stoves, which is what we’re after are from the IOW so keeping it fairly local still

black chilli 2.2 here, a bit on the small side but a good tyre imo
I ran the non tubless ones, tubeless on 355s and liked ’em

got some rocket rons on now, which are good but! the bloody things will not hold pressure when not being ridden. pump up and all good for 3+hours ride sit in the garage overnight and down to a few PSI by morning 🙁
should have stuck with the MKs