There’s 2 things I like: the general convenience to some great outdoors nearby and The Old Bell Tavern.

There’s an extension for MS Edge which allows you to use your iphone stored passwords on your windows laptop etc.

It works well. Sometimes the sites and apps themselves are a bit clunky and require a bit of copy and paste action but nothing too onerous. It can take a while going through everything systematically and changign your duplicated passwords but start with your bank and phone ones.

Saalbach if you want a bit of fun. Courchevel 1650 if you have the budget. La Plagne also a good place to learn but it’s a big quiet.

Personally I’d go to Austria as it tends to be good value and well organised.

I’d pick a ski school and go there as the lessons are more important than anything with beginners.

Courmayeur has plenty of good beginner terrain but you’ll be downloading probably all week. It also has some wilder stuff but it was very suitable for my almost beginner gf.

I wouldn’t recommend Samoens as the beginner lifts are always breaking down although there is a nice progression from one to the next.

Two years ago, in London, we paid 15% less than asking price which was already on the low side due to just coming out of lockdown. The place had been empty for almost 2 months so the landlord was £3000 down and the agent was advising them to accept our offer. Nowadays they’re trying to put that back up to near the initial asking price and everything similar advertised is way over the original starting point.

For the property that I own in Yorkshire it always goes for the asking price and there is usually 3-5 people who want it. I don’t take the piss with the price as I’d rather have a choice of tenant but it always goes up a little bit when tenants change.

Most landlords seem to be wanting out as the tax relief on mortgage interest has gone and there is the looming threat of having to get your EPC rating up to band C which for most older properties is an unrealistic investment.

There aren’t enough affordable, decent properties to buy or rent in places that people want to live. It looks like the days of the small property portfolio of 1 to 5 houses are ending and the only way to make it work will be to have a huge professionally operated portfolio so you can have better control over trades and hopefully be less affected by bad tenants.

Bingley is on a par with Horsforth imo and well connected by train to Leeds or Bradford. Journey time would be not that much different to Horsforth to Leeds It’s big enough to provide your everyday needs without getting stuck in the Aire Valley traffic and that much nearer the dales or Calderdale.

Bathurst? Home of Mark Renshaw who now runs the lbs, organises rides and has a busy enough road and MTB club. Not too far past the Blue Mountains either.

Has anyone stayed in Brides-le-Bains? Whats the link to the ski area like, gondola to Meribel?

It’s not so much the ride up, although that isn’t pleasant to sit in that little bubble with a hangover, but the last one back is at 5PM which is really limiting at Easter. The only alternative to get down is an expensive taxi.

Go to Koyasan and stay in the temple. Eat the amazing veggetarian food. It’s 8 years since I went to Japan and this is the memory I like to tell everyone about over all the others. It sounds like it’s a bit out of the way for you but there will be other temples.

Kyoto was also very good and I think more imortant to see than Tokyo.

Also, don’t get too fussed about sushi. The noodles and pork are probably better and much easier to find. Really just be open minded on what food you try as it’s all pretty amazing and sometimes disgusting but way more the former.

As you plan to travel around use the suitcase forwarding service and save carrying your bags on the trains.

I reckon most Greek islands are less hassle to get to than St Ives

I still use Rossi bandits as my only skis but I’m looking to get on to something very on-piste only oriented. I’ve tried a few rental options without really finding the right thing but I’m forcing the issue this season by leaving them at home.

Been with them 6 weeks after 18 months with Plusnet. Absolutely worth every penny to have wifi that never drops out.

Anywhere in the Lauterbrunnen valley. Going for 2 weeks I’d do there for a week and Chamonix for a week.

Plenty of ski resorts are dead in the summer but it’s worth looking around for those running deals on lifts. A couple of years back Courchevel was offering free lifts.

Am old iphone with a working but cracked screen for £25? I’ve hotspotted my way around europe with it running the laptop including teams so it’s up to it.

I’ve got about £1200 profit to take out when I need or want. It’s barely any effort to make an extra £20 or £30 in a week. Just rattling through sign up offers is something that you’d think would run out but there’s nearly always something to go after.

You had picolax and you needed something stronger?

I wouldn’t bother telling work. I’d like to see how long before they actually missed me and how long they’d keep paying me for.

I did mech eng 25 years ago. With the benefit of hindsight I would definitely be choosing civil. Buildings will always be completed where they are needed. That can give you a job locally or you can go to an interesting building / project anywhere in the world. Mechanical things can be made anywhere (cheap) in the world.

I’m pretty out of touch now but I’d say you’d be on better money earlier in your career in the civil world.

Zaanse Schans to have a look at some windmills. It’s around 20 minutes by train from Amsterdam and has an interring demo of how a clog is machined. Also the mannekin pis chippy half way up damrak is legendary in my opinion.

It’s probably more about going where lessons aren’t going to be crowded out. As you say half term I’d avoid France. Wherever you go choose a school that has a maximum of no more than 8 students per instructor. The option of a private instructor is there but it’s expensive and group lessons are part of the fun to begin with.

I did think of co-ordinating a load of high value bookings then cancelling at the last minute by way of revenge on one of the worst rental operators.

I’m on the global no rent list for Hertz after they added the insurance after it was declined with no issues from them and the car had been returned. I claimed it back through the credit card at which point they sent an invoice and added me to no rent.

got a 14pro, moving up from a 7. It’s really nice but a fair bit heavier and I still haven’t sorted the esim out yet.

If anyone wants a working 7 with a cracked screen let me know. I’m thinking charitable donation and postage cost.

It makes me think of how mobile phone masts were rolled out. Organisations set up to find suitable sites, do a deal with the land owner owner and get through design, planning and build which was then paid for by Vodafone, O2 etc

Maybe there’s something like that already in place working on behalf of the operators?

Castellon / Benicassim area might work. You’d have a couple of miles on the flat to get inland to the hills. It’s also nicely connected to Valencia and Barcelona by train.

I find mine unpleasant on hard, bumpy surfaces but it’s fine riding it for extended periods if the surface is smooth.

I would like for recruiters / policy makers to acknowledge that the classrooms of years ago weren’t full of a diverse group of students (for whatever reasons) so you can’t expect to easily fill positions requiring years of experience with a particularly diverse group.

Diversity in my team has been great help in covering the various religious holidays (just one example) but it’s about filling roles with the best candidate. I feel that some places have gone for a bit more box ticking and a bit less merit in recent years.

Just to add, one of the things for self teachers that lessons don’t tend to give is getting miles on narrowish quiet country roads. It takes away all the manoeuvre pressures and hill starts and lets the learner get used to the width of the car and how to steer, accelarate, change gear and brake without having to know specific rules for much. Also, occasionally asking what colour is the car behind you worked wonders on my use of mirrors.

It was fairly normal where I grew up 30 years ago. I had 3 lessons and learnt 4 things:
– if you’re going to squeeze through a gap, slow down, 3′ either side of you and it’s no more than 30mph, 2′ – 20mph, 1′ – 10 mph. 6 inches @ 30 mph was not going to get you through your test.
– I got told to slow down well before corners to avoid coasting rather than risk hanging on the clutch and coasting. a well meaning uncle thought not dropping the gears until later would help smooth things out which was true but coastign will fail you whereas a bit of lumpiness is tolerated at tests
– check if your instructor smokes. Mine did constantly and both him and his car were unpleasantly smelly
– your 50+ years old instructor will pay as much attention to young girls as your driving

Personally, i’d say if you can get the miles in without falling out then you don’t really need one.

I did Saltaire to Silsden on a Brompton. Dullest ride ever and it can be slippery mud fest or baked hard and bone rattling. It was lockdown and the only bike I had access to.

I’d say the hardest part will be getting food in if you’re not used to riding long enough to need to eat properly.

Penrith maybe?

Someone I kinda know trying to get accom up and running.

Maybe if some of those small high street shops opened in the early evening rather than Tuesday morning at 9.30 some people would actually be around to buy something. Shops aren’t open so people go and buy it online. It bemuses me when shopkeepers tell you nobodies been in all day. Of course not, they’re mostly working whether it’s at home or in an office or factory.

Regarding parking spaces for new flats. If someone is paying £650K for a new flat (rough going rate for a 2 bed in West London) then they can probably afford £2K for something to sit outside for the odd occasion when they do want to go somewhere that very good London transport doesn’t get them to. It might not make perfect financial sense but it’s lot easier than picking up a rental car on a bank holiday weekend. FWIW, I just checked and I’ve used a tank of petrol since early May but I’ll still keep my car and I’ll probably replace it if I need to.

Saalbach a few times for me and I suppose a possibility of Solden. I’m thinking about joining a gym this week as lockdown laziness hasn’t gone away yet and last winter was a struggle.

one before the last is on now. Workign at the office doesn’t seem such a bad idea.

I’m interested to hear from anyone that has used them. The optician recommended them for me as my prescription requirement is fairly low (-1.5 in both, no astigmatism) but said it would take a few weeks to get used to. At the time I didn’t want uncertainty for a couple of weeks and they’re quite a lot more £ per box but it’s getting to the point at which my arms aren’t long enough.

Shhh, everything seems to be working reasonably well lately.

Leave Innsbruck along the A12, then turn left at Ötztal Bahnhof.
That road, up the hills towards Obergurgl. It’s not the prettiest route, but by gosh it’s get the heart going. One day I’ll ride my bike up there too.

That’s lovely, fast enough to have you twitching your arse and concentration at maximum and the local guys are quick. It’s also one of the few Austrian roads that isn’t always a procession. I was going to suggest the contuation into Italy over the Timmelsjoch pass. I did it in the opposite direction, in the last hours of daylight, just as a storm was coming in and had the road to myself.

I read somethign a while back that really chimed with me – bad desk posture isn’t the problem, it’s doing it for too long. Their solution was called a 20/20/20 rule. Every 20 minutes look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.

I still don’t do it despite it being free and simple.

8.4% for me, Don’t really use much petrol – maybe £10 a week on average. I’ve been able to make sure my gf is no worse off than before by absorbing the food, council tax and electric increases.

The only thing I’m not doing much is eating out which is partly changed behaviour since the lockdowns and partly reluctance to accept the current prices. I’m really lucky and thankful for my position. It must be really rough for anyone driving a long way for low pay and feeding a family.

The question is sensible enough – it just happens to be the risk question (or one of them).

For a while I had neighbours that smoked from the moment they arrived in from work until they went to bed. I wasn’t so bothered (quite like the smell in small doses, tolerable enough in larger ones) but my ex-gf was seriously upset about it. My copper mate advised to report that they were producing it rather than just smoking it if we wanted to see some action.

If it’s just a one off just live and let live.

I’d be inclined to turn around and spend a couple of days doing nothing at all in Crookhaven especially if the weathers good. As you’re no doubt aware it can change quickly and if it’s as glorious as it looks you really need to take advantage especially if there’s no rush to be anywhere.

This is my absolute favourite part of Ireland. I’ve got lots of memories of camping holidays there with nothing much available to buy in food shops.