So Farage didn’t turn up for the first day at his new job, did any of the other reformers?

It’s all showmanship, Nigel in Clacton gets his own media audience.

“A max of 125 for the Tories now”

Any predictions on the date and likely candidate for the first one to jump to Reform?

POC Koital sizing

Can we have a dig thread?

What rarely gets mentioned is if everyone is working who’s volunteering?  There are a lot of organisations that rely on volunteers and a lot of these volunteers are retired.  Generally there is a drop off in people volunteering once you get over 75.  Creeping the retirement age up means we are gradually cutting the time people have where they can choose to put back into society.  Often putting back to cover off things lost due to a hollowed out public sector and austerity generally.

I don’t know what the rules are but I suspect footpaths are out.  That leaves you with coming up from Moor House on the bridleway or on tarmac.  Personally I’d go for the tarmac,.  On the bridleway you will be pushing for parts and if the conditions are less than perfect you could loose hours.

Isn’t there a US election in the autumn as well?
I wonder if that has any bearing.

It’s free bile and given current form you’d have to think a lightbulb went on in some tory schemers head.

There’s always the winners who pull up, rest up and go again when they have recovered.  It’s all about the long game.

Just having a good year on the bikes because it’s been looking pretty dubious for a few years.  First 100 miler for the decade – Ride to the Sun being as good as it ever was.  Had a uk based biking week, not been out on the mtb 6 days out of 7 for about a decade.  Mostly down to a big focus on road riding then a bit of a long covid hiatus.  Made a return to the deeply unfashionable world of mildly competitive map reading.  Was shockingly bad at it and it mostly rained.  Going to be back for more of that next year.

Grassholme Observatory in Teesdale.

Home

High Force Hotel for local drinking with waterfall walks or there’s always Barnard Castle for all kinds of optics.  Bowes Museum for a bit of culture.

Warm beer gravy, the ultimate insult when you’ve been given pub pastry toupee pie.  Didn’t even have the decency to re purpose a stew.  Flash fried beef with a bit of warmth run through a pint and some bisto chucked in.  

Isn’t it a Ted Liddle route?  Try either the National Park website or his Rievers / Sandstone Way one.

I never really got into mtb marations but it felt like the rise of MTB marathon events matched the decline in Polaris Challenge.   A mass shift from one type of event to another.  Now it feels more like a stratification and  diversification.  There is a move to bigger distances – frontier 300.  Glorious Gravel now seem to occupy the marathon ground.  Gravel riders are as likely to have come through road biking as mountain biking. GPS tracks and mobile phone apps making navigation without big arrows a lot easier.  Allied to this is likely the availability of information on what riding is like.   People don’t need an event anymore.  Then there’s club / collective / gang rides being more of a thing.  More on that in the next print issue?  The move to enduro and riding harder stuff because over all rider skill levels and bike capability and lack of have gone in that direction.  It’ll be interesting to see if the rise of down country sees a return of mtb marathon.  Or maybe things just have their day.  Doesn’t look like the rise of gravel and more adventurous riding is translating into increasing MTBO participation and the return of Polaris.

J Raine and Son – aka the corner shop in Middleton in Teesdale, website covers everything you need to know!

Felt good to get back to it again this year, relatively last minute only decided I was fit enough to get through it last week.  6hrs 20 moving about 8hrs 30ish in total.  Usual chips, piping and raving stops with the bonus of a puncture in the final few km.  Longest ride since 2019 .  Saw the sunrise but missed a bacon roll at the Kirk hall.  Felt a bit quieter on the first leg to Moffat but I was also a bit later than usual setting off.  Was a bit surprised about how warm it was over night.

I was wondering if the youth mullet was just a Cumbrian thing, appears not.  It was getting to the stage the life mullets going to go extinct.   This will top up the gene pool until the next great mullet resurgence – 2050’s?  Maybe there’s some genetic trigger when mullet populations drop below a certain level.

Usually find Giro and Specialised usually work for me but just bought a TroyLee Designs.  Fox doesn’t work for me because I’ve acquired a few boney lumps from different head impacts over the years and the helmet presses uncomfortably on them.  POC seemed a bit model dependant, again the issue being pressure points with some.

It’s just a name for a role although Rangering itself has split out into a multitude of different strands. In terms of people doing the role there might be a noticeable gender split with the more practical estates based skills towards men and engagement and community roles towards women. On the whole constantly re-balancing and a long way from the old male dominated world were a lot of rangers were wardens. To me it feels like a decent and increasing number senior ranger roles are now held by women. Still terrible ethnic diversity.

Paths for Everyone always feels like an appropriation of Paths for All.

My Berlingo is the Middle-aged Microbus because it was deemed not a van by fellow car park dossers a few years back.

Just had the same thing last week but with warning lights. Turned out the urea additive pump hadn’t been triggered when I replaced the fuel cap. Went into limp mode the moment I left the garage and then each time I started up. Garage re-set the code and that seems to have sorted it.

Currently about 7am to 8am. Used to be 6am winter and 5am summer. I’m guessing I’ll start getting up earlier in a few weeks.

Another misread name: I keep reading onehundredthidiot as “one hundred the idiot.” I’ve no idea where that extra ‘e’ came from.

The Mandela effect?

I did Bodo to Tromso through the Lofoten Islands then on upto Nordkapp in 2019. Two four day blocks of riding with a day off in Tromso in the middle. Stayed in hostels and hotels. As above – ferries great and ferry dogs are cheaper food, views are stunning. Senja was a highlight for me – Bergsbotn view point definitely one to visit.

Weather was a real mix a few days of going on holiday to March others blue skies and sun shine. Lofoten was still stunning with storms rolling in. North of Alta Finnmark was a bit more austere. Unfortunately Lyngen was on a wet grey day so didn’t really see that much of it. Didn’t have any issues with the tunnels – North Cape tunnel was an experience but that was more for 200m+ of descent and ascent involved. There are also sections where you can take the old road shore road rather than the tunnel.

I’m not riding much road at the moment – maybe one ride this year. Although it’s a quiet part of the world there’s still ever present Amavan risk but it’s mainly I’m just enjoying mtb and gravel more.

I drifted away for a while and went mostly road. Felt the urge again in 2019, bought a new bike and went early adopter on Covid which royally spannered things. Maybe rode the new bike half a dozen times in the following two and a half years. Fitness picked up a bit late summer and now manage to get out round the local trail centre or have a tracks day on the gravel bike a few times a month. At the moment it feels like the urge is there again but the legacy in terms of fitness and co-ordination is the limiting factor.

I’m back in an office again, first time since…

Technically it’s blended working but the days I’m notionally at home are really quiet so I’ve just gone in anyway.  Guess it’s just the novelty of seeing people.  Did all of my last job from home without meeting anyone outside my project team and then only physically every couple of weeks.  Downside is going to be less exercise – generally I was taking a break every couple of hours to do a short walk to lean on a gate and take in the view and collect my thoughts.

Did do some volunteering from Glencoe car park / cafe last month.  Not sure I’d want to that on a regular basis, any cafe is a bit too busy is usually too busy for me to focus.

I guess could use some of the WFH flexibility to start a weekend away earlier.  Travel on the Thursday and work part of Friday to save on leave.

Last employer had a policy for working out of the country that made me think Norway for a few weeks might be an option.  Blend a bit of ski and work.  Ultimately fitness / long covid was the main barrier.

Downside of bait can be the smell if it pops it’s clogs in the walls.

More time on bikes and generally keep rebuilding my fitness. Finish the Wainwright’s, or more correctly get organised and sort out a last two walk.

Last week but that’s more covered under a general take us as you find us. On the whole no but I need to do more getting in touch with people having gone very much post social.

I’m just hoping for small wins like the removal of Mogg and Coffey and their pet projects and personal biases.

He’s also desperately insecure and needs constant affirmation of his own wonderfulness

Doesn’t bode well for assembling a government of all the talents. By it’s very nature the best cabinet to see us out of this (admittedly it’s thin pickings) would by it’s very nature be the worst for Johnson’s ego.

Atleast Putin will be happy the UK is in convulsions again.

If we have in listening mode early doors on the Boris lingo bingo card it has to be a red flag for same old same old. Boris Johnson the wilderness weeks and how it changed him would be another.

Caught a bit on Radio Scotland this morning where it was suggested Johnson was banking on a quick implosion at the end of Trussmania opening up a route back for him. With him telling his people to back Truss. I make that three solid attacks on the nation to further his own cause – Brexit, operation neuter May and now the Truss gambit.

Snowdrops coming through

There’s a Privileges Committee hearing about Johnson that will happen live for 3 days a week for the next few months, there are “hundreds” of witness apparently waiting to give evidence about how unfit he is to be an MP. One of their recommendations can be that the House has a debate about Suspending him and that can trigger the Recall Act.

Wonder how many will melt away if he does return – interests of national stability and all that. Or just keeping their seat in the next election because as a return to Johnson is a return to the personality cult over party for some voters.

Given there volume of Boris per hour mentions in the media I fear it’s highly likely he’ll be back. 100 nominations and there isn’t really any other result than Boris Johnson vs another on the membership vote.

Seems to be just the sort of thing that a party suffering from the Trussmania would do.

Thought I’d give an early adopter update – it’s only taken two and a half years and nine bouts of symptoms but I’ve now got a positive test. Feels like a more severe bout of the same symptoms as the one’s I had in July. The severity feels comparable to last November and the original March 2020 ones.

Other than that, never quite shaken the impact of long covid. Still find I need to grab early nights if it’s been a full on working day. November’s symptoms followed by vaccine 3 seemed to flush out the brain fog and worst of the fatigue. I’d spent most of the Autumn just working and sleeping. Still no where near my pre-covid fitness but things are going in the right direction. That said vaccine one and subsequent infections have felt like they hit chest / heart and currently going through some tests – ultrasound and 3 day ECG next. I’d been putting up with things and then had a couple of going dizzy nearly falling episodes in July. Decided it was time to act at that. Lost a bit of high end brain power and memory which is taking a bit of getting used to.

I’m wondering if this is the start of a new wave.

I went down the Cascade route had the SIDs fitted. I like my full sus but was missing a quicker ‘lighter’ hard tail feel and have found wide bars a bit of a pain on the climbs. PNW drops are at the wider end as it feels a bit like going back to narrow bars and bar ends. Just need to remember to get myself set onto the drops at the start of a descent as mid way switch takes a bit of thought. Did a not too technical 50km round N end of Windermere last weekend and could deal with most things. Where it didn’t go that was more fitness and skill than bike. Still working through the limits of what I feel happy riding on it.

Chisel, Dial and Whippet all seem to hit the light weight hardtail brief. There’s also the Broken Road.

Sadly it seems the Very Tory Solution to the energy price cap is less about helping people and more about maximising the PR opportunity for the new leader. Hopefully people catch on to the party spinning whilst the nation stresses and suffers. Solving a problem that could have been solved days or weeks earlier is not a sign of a decisive new PM.

He’s always been at the dressing up box. Although it seems it’s been most days I’m going for 30% premiership being Mr Johnson’s jolly time.