1.2vti Peugeot 208. Good cheap commuter. Pretty much 50mpg with a miserly 89bhp. Mostly country roads and a bit of round town.

Bit rattly but not as bad as some small cars.

Got a 2008 as a courtesy car last service and it had the same 1.2 engine, car didn’t feel much bigger but it was only getting around 44 mpg.

It’s pish, It rains all the time.

SWMBO is a proper Highland Wifie with family in Caithness and Aberdeenshire, quite liked the bits I’ve visited and there was some sun between the episodes of fog and rain.

They hate the English.

Most had a good experience, there were pubs the missus would avoid when I was there, especially in Fraserburgh. Trying to claim Yorkshire isn’t England and is almost as good as Scottish doesn’t work.

Everything is deep fried.

You can get a whole black pudding, deep fried and battered in the chippy, not slices, the whole damn sausage. Amazed, I may not live long if I move there.

Midges.

Never understood the midges thing until visiting Camster in Caithness, I think I managed to lose half a stone in blood.

Don’t do it.

It may be inevitable if SWMBO gets her way, planned a move to Inverness or Moray Coast depending on jobs\houses. It was a future plan but already have half an eye on job moves and house moves.

Rubbish for the bin?

Go to a profile and there should be a huge green button for the messaging.

Never used it so don’t know how the notifications and stuff work.

Used them years ago for cleaning lab kit, they were mostly little 1L baths to drop small bits of kit in, not heated and just had a timer.

Added a Super Muc Off type detergent called Decon 90 which was pretty vicious stuff but cleaned things up a treat, including the odd sneaky bike chain.

Can’t really say it was useful enough to buy one for home – not for £100 anyway. Could buy bike bits if I had £100 to spend 🙂

Gluten intolerance? 🙂

More seriously, I’m on tablets that boost insulin production, they really help pile on the pounds if I’m not careful, I have a tricky a tricky balance of food intake, activity and tablet dose and it all changes with the time of year and temperature. I’ll put on weight more easily when it’s cold and I’m less active than over the summer when it’s warm.

Carbohydrate control is a huge dietary factor. I can eat more carbs over summer as I’ll burn them off, over winter I’ll tend to cut back on the carbs or the extra insulin the tablets produce just stick the carbs straight on as fat.

Without suggesting that you have any odd metabolic issues like mine, ask yourself:

Have you really had the same levels of activity over winter?

Has your diet really stayed the same?

If you can certainly say yes to both, might be worth cutting back on the carb content of meals a little and seeing what happens.

I did the move away from the city 20 years ago nearly. Moved from Leeds out into the Vale of York. Went for the close enough to commute – it’s about 30 or 40 minutes to get to most bits of Leeds or York.
Didn’t go full on lonely rural house, still live on an estate of about 80 other homes in a village setting, but it is quiet and friendly.

Pretty much got to drive to even go to a shop, GP is miles away, but it does mean prescriptions are easy as I can collect stuff from the GP Dispensary as I live too far from a pharmacy.
It’s a 2 mile walk to the train station, but that just keep me fit if I have to use the train.

It’s cost me a fortune in cars and fuel, usually just laugh when the car dealers try to offer a 5000 mile a year personal lease plan.

Can’t stand cities now, been into Leeds once in the last year, even York is crowded and horrible.

Certainly had the difficulties with the other half, she still wants to go out late night partying but won’t learn to drive or expects me to seeing as I don’t drink and she wants to. Can’t get public transport easily and last trains are usually about half an hour after the clubs open.

Love the riding though, no hills so it’s CX bike and farm tracks or drive to a trail centre\bridleway.

Find social riding tough anyway, I’m really slow, have to keep stopping, some days the pancreas doesn’t want to play and no matter what other people say about “social” rides or “beginners” rides or “slow” ride, it’s never been that and no one has enjoyed waiting, I get a bit angsty in a group about holding it up so stick to solo now and really enjoy it. Probably the good thing about getting my bike nicked at Cleeve Hill a few years ago 🙂

Don’t know if I could recommend moving out of the city, it does cost a lot more in travel and it isn’t getting cheaper. I find it was worth it though, just getting home to quiet clean air has been worth the downsides.

I thought the intra-vitreal Lucentis jabs were bad enough, rather have another 20 of them than go through what is described.

At least they didn’t get the type of endoscopy mixed up and try to inflate you 😯

All true to some extent. What I meant I found poor was the reporting presenting a few facts as the entire picture, which they aren’t.

Huh, are you Donald Trump’s Press Officer?

What’s the rest of the picture? Looking for confirmational bias or altternative facts?

Two best acts I’ve ever seen live, Nick Cave and the band that the other bloke in this video is in.

Blixa Bargeld and Einstürzende Neubauten.

Did the firmware update for the Kickr Snap last night, damn the power resistance was good, noticable change from before the update, Box Hill nearly killed me, stayed pedaling all the way.

Can’t have got the tension set right as the steeper bit after Box Hill had the trainer tyre slipping a bit. Coming out of the underground at the end was really slow, as soon as the gradient hit 15% I could barely move without the tyre slipping.

Just have to tighten it a bit more next time.

Pleased with Zwift still, if I include Zwift miles I’m already way ahead to hit my distance target for this year.

I’m from Aberdeen/shire, and as with Donald above (who seems to know his stuff!) can confirm Doric is a Scots dialect-

Missus is from there, first time I went for a visit I was lost for a week. WTF is a teuchter? and instead of a polite “what” in an Aberdeenshire accent, t’other half went back to shouting fit at me and then calling me a feel guipe or something.

Kind of got used to it now, her dad is from the Broch though so I still need subtitles from time to time.

Visting Caithness was different though, being a Yorkshire bloke the Caithness dialect seemed to make more sense – was told both Caithness and Yorkshire are heavily Danish influenced.

T’other half kind of understands Gaelic to listen to but doesn’t really speak it. Always got the impression that the dialects were more common than the Gaelic – keep wanting to spell it Gallic as she pronounces it though.

Does it have to be a separate PC with monitor?

If I had to buy something now and could use the living room TV I’d get an Alienware Alpha and set it up to run in Steam Big Picture mode on the TV. I’m past the days of having a desktop and monitor setup in a corner so probably biased. You could probably stick a big monitor on the Alpha though and set it up like that – might bust a £600 budget somewhere.

There is the Steam Machine too but I’ve not played with Steam OS that much so don’t know if you lose a bit of flexibility.

http://www.dell.com/uk/p/alienware-alpha/pd

Dedicated PC, I’d echo the CCL advice above, local shop for me and had a pretty good service from them for quite a few years. Most of the shops do that headline price for a basic unit and when you add a good keyboard, monitor and mouse it all starts to ramp up the cost. Just double check what you’re getting.

No idea about the likes of PC Specialist, looked recently and the prices were a bit steep.

Got this cold thing finally that’s been going around now, so not sure how that contributes.

Simple answer…more riding less food.

Part of it, it’s probably a bit different for everyone but I found exercise alone isn’t enough to bring down BP.

Biggest contribution to lowering my BP was stopping the daytime coffee binges. Work in an IT Office so the coffee rounds gets a bit silly. Sleep better too, which probably helps too.

Stress is a bitch, I took a less stressy job to manage health better, less pay, better quality of life. It’s started getting stressy again so looking to move again.

I get slightly higher readings when ill.

So if I’m well, exercise, not stressed, sleep well and avoid too much coffee then I tend to get the lowest readings. Took a bit trial and error to find out what worked though.

I got a Boots one, made my Omron or a damn good copy with a Boots Logo.

It’s better than the one my diabetes nurse has that often resets part way through a test. I got it as I was getting silly high readings at the docs – had a 148/120 as my worse one. Must have got used to medical visits over the past few years and it’s been more normal at appointments now.

At home it’s pretty much borderline around 125/80. I keep a track of the trend, don’t want it creeping up as I’ve had Macular Oedema and high blood pressure isn’t great.

Needs to be Android
4G
Stuff all bloatware
Bluetooth

Moto G4 is £160ish, if you go for the G4 Plus it’s still under £200.

Buy direct from the Motomaker site and you get to design it, they’re all dual-sim. You can buy elsewhere, Amazon have stock usually but you have to watch you’re getting dual-sim.

It’s bog standard stock Android so no bloatware.

Got a free sample of the SIS Isotonic ones – like drinking wallpaper paste with a nasty after taste of too much sweetner.

Dread to think how bad coffee flavour would be 🙁

think Zwift presents a good solution to the turbo trap, especially with a smart turbo, getting you riding far more dynamically (and more representative of outdoor riding) than you would usually do during typical turbo sessions.

Only started last weekend and I’m hooked for that very reason.

Did the 18 mile figure of 8 last night and thought I was about to die, resistance on the Kickr Snap really worked, the short 10% incline felt a lot harder than the 6 or 7% elsewhere.

I could have just set the resistance on the old trainer but it’s dull, at least with Zwift the course feels more natural and there’s that thing of being able to see the top of the hill and just keeping pedalling.

I suppose I’ll have a go at the workouts and racing eventually but for now I’ll just enjoy the ride.

Lint free cloth and IPA might get some of the sticky stuff off the case, I’ve also used the Car Glass Wipes from Halfords as well and they’re fairly safe on keys.

I suspect you’ll be stuck with the stink as the previous owner is likely to have smoked while using it and the smoke will have been drawn in and through the fans.

Small company or one with an IT department? We’d not give out one in a state like that and if anyone did then I’d expect it to come back and my boss giving the previous owner and the person who handed it out a bit of a stern word.

We have billed contractors for laptop damage before, would your boss be accomodating to billing the previous owner for deliberate damage? (Unlikely I know).

Just started on Zwift this weekend. No racing, just riding around getting used to features at the moment.

Best damn Turbo Training I’ve ever done.

Got the Wahoo Kickr Snap, anyone with British Cycling membership and ordering from CRC, don’t forget the 10% discount.

Look for another job, boss is a cock and will no doubt stitch him up at the next round of changes.

That’s easy, he was known as the lead singer of the Smiths.

That’s not Bob Smith, that’s Bob Morrisey, strange vegan bloke from the next village over. Not a very good minstrel, if he actually turns up to the pub to entertain, you can guarantee a chicken will run through the bar and he’ll storm off 🙂

Dell Precision is possibly the one – just been looking at the next batch of machines for work and keep coming back to these – XPS 15 comes close but the choice is a bit limited.

Lenovo were OK but Dell beat them on pricing. HP just seemed to have a range of stupid specs that didn’t quite do what we wanted.

PC Specialist I’ve never tried but they seemed to be a bit overly expensive when I tried sorting a replacement for my home machine last month.

Ended up with the Wahoo Kickr Snap.

DC Rainmaker roundup below kind of swung it after the comments above, and then remembering the 10% British Cycling discount with CRC.

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2016/10/annual-winter-2016-2017-bike-smart-trainer-recommendations.html.

Build quality seems good, feels more stable than my old Tacx ever was and no fiddling to put it together.

Picked up on the Wahoo Setup App on Android, ran the Advanced Spindown without a problem. Firmware was upto date so didn’t have to do that bit.

All seemed to just work without any fuss, did a quick test ride with Zwift and it’s quite impressive, resistance changes really do feel oddly unexpected. Used the Garmin ANT+ and the Kickr and HR Strap picked up immediately. Only did a short two miles on the London course but even that felt better than any turbo session I’ve done before. Off for a proper ride later tonight.

Hmm, half the distance to the garage down the road from me and you could have had an ex-MOD 1980s serviced and checked with 100000K for a few more. I’d have one like a shot but they keep getting nicked round North Yorkshire 🙁

Home

Won’t catch me near one after reading this thread. Might summon Morrissey 😯

Nawaabs on Wellington Street isn’t too bad, work Chrimbo Dinner was there, just pre-ordered a whole mix of starters and mains and everyone just dug in and got a bit of every dish.

http://www.nawaableeds.com/

I’m 44. Todays HR Max was 126bpm

That’s my minimum, time for a coffee 🙂

I loathe German cars, find them over rated and just as unreliable as any other brand.

The Matrix was crap.

I used to get my hair cut by family, I was 17 when I last had a haircut and it’s taken until late 40s to start thinking about it again.

Been thinking about it for a couple of years now, might even do it this year, but the sheer terror and trauma of haircuts still haunts me.

Do you really want to put your kids through that? 🙂

WD40 or GT85, both best things ever for dissolving sticky residues.

Got a distance target, probably a lot less than most listed here.

Mainly aiming to keep riding and get a few longer rides in, last year was mostly improving after a few years of health problems. Not got better but they’ve got managable.

Mainly want to enjoy being out at my pace and enjoy the scenery, removed the cadence meter and setup the garmin to record GPS info and HR only, no more Live Segments and may even get shut of Strava when the sub runs out.

All useful tools but I get caught up in the stats and forget to stop and look around. 2017 will be about the journey not worrying about how fast I get there.

Depending on dates and work on-call, I could make an effort, pootling is my ideal race speed these days.

Hills are an unknown phenomena in the Vale of York.

Best one I’ve had is a Helly Hansen dual layer thing, supposed to be their Lifa material next to the skin and a merino outer layer.

No idea if that’s reallly how it is made, but it’s toasty except for a really long stop and it’s now three years old and wearing well.

Stopped wearing packs a while back, had lots of muscle issues after being on statins and after not wearing a pack for a while I now feel a bit claustrophobic with one – even the Wingnut ones were a nightmare so that’ll be up for sale when I can be bothered.

Anyway, I use saddle packs for most rides, I don’t use a dropper as I’m not really into the kind of riding. I was thinking of flogging the full sus as there’re are no bottle cages but two of these and some velcro cable ties let me have bottles either side of the top tube.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/OneTigris-Minimalist-Tactical-Carrier-Walking/dp/B00VTIBNUS/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1483099243&sr=8-15&keywords=onetigris

The top tube packs are also pretty good for things like phone and gels. Keys are always in a zipped pocket though or for road rides from home, just the house key on a shoelace and worn round the neck works.

Some old Panaracer Fire XC Pro from 2000 are still good but they spent a few years in a dark garage.

Recently got given a steel road bike from early 90s and the original Michelins on that were perished, tread surface was good but the sidewalls were cracked.

My mate had to pay £1000’s when the pumping station serving his estate required renewal. No warning, just a bill for several K towards it. He was not a happy bunny, even less so was his neighbour whose house flooded when the newly refurbished pump was overwhelmed about a year later.

Sound familiar, that’s why we had to build up cash reserves as £1000s of funds went in call out and new pumps.

Speak to hospital and see what patient transport options there could be or if they have advice. If none then dry run is recommended to avoid stress.

Problem will not really be getting to Leeds, it will be getting through it to the LGI, it’s not the clearest of one-way routes, hospital is road signed but easy to miss under pressure.

Parking is horrendous and the multi-story is insanely narrow with lots of concrete to scrape a car down.

Did they say which site to turn up at? The multi-story is a short walk from the A&E entrance, but if it’s Clarendon then it’s a bit more of a trek.

Our is ex-MOD housing sold off in the late 90s.

Estate Management Fee is £250ish per year. Went up a few years ago to build up some cash reserves but came back down.

At least the grass verges are looked after and the shared areas get tidied up. Handed the water pumping station over to local water authority finally so the nightmare of pump replacement because someone is flushing disposable nappies again has stopped.

Street lights are a pain to get bulbs changed but don’t know if council would be any quicker.

Overall living here for 15 years it’s been OK, the odd passive aggressive letter for dog walkers and people who’s hedges don’t quite look standard stopped when one of the estate reps moved house.

Management Company seem to charge a fortune to swap transfer the fee to the new owner when a house gets sold.

Roads have been patched up a couple of times, keep trying to get them taken on by local authority but they’ve requested a complete resurface before they’ll consider it which would cost a fortune.

Not a terrible experience other than paying the fee feels a bit like retro banking, they still have cheque as an option.

Even when they see people acting in an ignorant anti social manner.

All that for parking poorly?

Perhaps if the other person was robbing the shop or hurling abuse at passing shoppers. Parking poorly is being a little inconsiderate but hardly the downfall of society.

A little perspective and winding of neck in would have saved a whole evening of annoyance for the OP, the bloke in the car and the police.

Somewhere that evening there was possibly a real crime committed that a couple of officers couldn’t respond to because someone thought it was their right to insult someone else who was a little inconsiderate and it all escalated badly.