Sadly I think he cracked under the weight of expectation and internal pressure. I do hope he is able to win a Tour in the near future.

There are reports he was ill.

Frome – great guy, ugly riding style, champion
Bardet – great guy, beautiful riding style, future champion

Not just a morning. I’d be glad to see the back of this week.

Two elderly relatives passed away last year, they both separately said Greed was the curse of humanity.

It’s certainly the curse of recent times. People have become greedier, which makes me feel very alienated, as the one sin I’ve never suffered from is greed.

Don’t get married, don’t have kids, keep your options open.

Hangovers last twice as long for every 10 years of life.
Most organisations are led by sociopaths.
Trust your instincts.

Send them an email politely asking what the anticipated salary range of the position is. Polite directness is an asset in business.

If a job pays a truly competitive salary, then the job ad would state what the salary is, e.g. above £60k plus benefits.
If the salary isn’t stated then the first thing to ask is what it is. If an employer can’t give you a straight answer there and then, walk away.

Tried the kayaking society but couldn’t stop capsizing.
Moved onto the mountain biking club, which was great.

For me it’s a toss-up between Piers Morgan and John Terry.

George Michael.
Barry Norman.
Paul Simon must be worried.
RIP Mr Norman.

I will dig one out. I was looking through some a couple of weeks ago. It’s very weird seeing yourself, smiling, happy, excited – in my case, unrecognisable in every way!

It’s 35 as above. Everything changes – you put on weight, hangovers get worse, everything aches, and crashing really hurts.

Evensong at the cathedral not your kind of thing?

You were doing well there, getting you point across, and giving a relevant reason to cut down, Spoilt it with the usual STW sign off. Just can’t help yourself, can you.

Isn’t “Just can’t help yourself, can you?” a typical STW sign off too?

It very much depends on the drinker, but in general there aren’t any positives to drinking in excess, even if it’s only for relatively short periods.
Like many people I use alcohol to relax, especially in relation to work. It’s not a good thing and I’m currently pursuing alternative ways of relaxation.
Alcohol can be a false friend, I often think I can actually “feel” its demonic pull when I’m sitting in front of a pint.
The main thing which has stopped me from drinking to excess is the fact I get increasingly bad hangovers. I have a friend who has never had a hangover – he can go out and have 12 pints of Aspalls cider, a couple of glasses of wine, maybe a JK and coke, and turn up to work the next day not feeling the worse for wear. But he keeps on having accidents when drunk, like falling and hitting his head, so his wife has forced him to stop drinking, which in the long run is the best thing as he would drink himself to death before he reaches 50 otherwise.

Sounds like a great opportunity for you. I’d definitely go for it, as you can recharge over the summer, get out on the bike, and just relax as nature intended.

Badnewz – I don’t think many British socialists own vacant homes in London, the rental market is too tempting…it would mainly hit Chinese and Indian investors.

There are plenty of Labour voting homeowners in London, they may not own vacant property but they will be concerned over Corbyn’s remarks. I think it was an error of judgement on his part and revealed his truly revolutionary nature (as if hanging out with the IRA wasn’t a sign in the first place).

Labour may have simply got a big protest vote at the last General Election, and the Tories are now going to have to lighten up the austerity, build more houses, and stop stoking the housing market if they want to get re-elected. The Corbyn alternative is frightening to a lot of people, especially when his shadow chancellor starts agitating for people to take to the streets at a very sensitive political moment.

Corbyn is a revolutionary socialist. If you don’t know what that means in practice, you should read up on it.
I suspect Corbyn has shot himself in the foot and alienated a lot of home-owning voters after his remarks, as people soon discard their Socialist Credentials when they think they might lose their property rights.

They can, but I think the main issue has been this – you need two types of money.
You should have one form of money for the “socialism” aspect – a basic income, which provides a safety net.
Then you should have another form of money for the “capitalism” aspect – venture money, which you can risk/invest as you see fit, and lose or multiply accordingly.
The problem is we only have one type of money to try and reconcile what are conflicting aims – on the one hand, safety, and on the other, risk.
For example, if we had two types of money pre-banking crisis, then the bailouts should have taken place with the “risk” money, and the “socialist” money should go untouched.

I think you would be mad to buy a second home at the moment, the political atmosphere means they will be taxed mercilessly.
Get a Winnebago!

The atmosphere has changed. Like when you are in a pub, and it’s all fine, then something is said, and instinctively everyone recognises a darkening.

There has been A LOT of news recently, all of it bad.

I overheard my young niece and nephew in the garden today and felt very sorry for them, I don’t know what kind of future they have ahead.

I wouldn’t be interested in seeing photography of homeless people.
But I would be interested in seeing a painted portrait, where the artist has got to know the person, and captured something about them through their art.
I just find photography an overrated medium of pretentiousness for the most part. Click and run.

If you can invent me a beer that doesn’t give me a hangover or damage my liver, but gets me drunk, then you will be a billionaire this time next year.

I hate being an employee too, the only reason I stick at it is I can remote work a lot.

Yep young vote has made a big difference.
Tories ignored it for too long. Corbyn mobilised it.

Been hanging round this place too long. Is any knowledgable source predicting anything other than a Tory win? It’s just a question of by how much I thought.

I’m not sure why the people at YouGov keep their jobs given how wrong they’ve been in the recent past.

Brexit will mobilise the young, as will free tuition fees. I also think there is a very considerable part of the population who are fed up with austerity, and May’s biggest mistake was not rolling this back and going on some kind of infrastructure spending. She is also a very difficult person to like.

I’ve not been on here much, I just spend too much time in pubs talking to people, young and old, and there is a lot of anxiety and anger out there. This often translates into unpredictability and the rise of outsider candidates.

We shall see!

My train was delayed yesterday and I happened to be in Highbury and Islington. Corbyn was giving a speech nearby and I’ve never witnessed anything like it.
LOTS of young people.
The growing tension in our society is old vs young. I’m not sure if there are enough of them to have a major influence on this election, it may be a few years too early, but I would be amazed if the Tories improve on their existing majority given Corbyn has mobilised the young vote like no-one before him.
My feeling is hung parliament…

Hairpin is one of the slowest parts of the course, so hopefully everyone is ok.

McGuiness won’t come out and say his crash was caused by the gear shift on the Honda, but he implied it by saying he’s only had two crashes in his career and neither were to do with rider error.
If a bike isn’t right to race it shouldn’t be raced, certainly not on the island.

He’s loving Bagels instead.

Apparently five other potential attacks have been foiled in the last ten weeks.
I think the intelligence services are simply overwhelmed.
And what do you then do with the suspect? You need fairly firm evidence to put them in jail, where they would just end up radicalising other people.
Perhaps send them to Downing St for a telling off by the bloody difficult woman, after she has told off Google and Facebook.

Blame the English, why not?

Overhead some people chatting about terrorist attacks this morning. The consensus was this is the start of a period of sustained and frequent attacks.
I hope they are wrong but can’t find much evidence to disagree.

Hutchinson to dominate.

The thing is, for the disenfranchised, whether the budget balances or not is irrelevant.
They want to stick the boot in.
That’s why we are living through a revolution.
Expect it to remain uncertain for the next ten to fifteen years.

Lots of private land, I’ve never been mtbing in Italy, but it’s on the list.
My ex was Italian and I spent a lot of time in the north years ago. All the cliches are true – the people are temperamental but very loyal. Spending time there can lift the soul as you are surrounded by beauty and I really like the everyday civility.
But as a country it has some serious problems, ageing demographic, poorly paid jobs, cost of living is quite high. My parents visited there a lot in the 60s and 70s and said you always associated Italy with little children everywhere, but not anymore – Italians are dying out and not reproducing.
That’s why I would only live there if on a UK salary and pension and able to work remotely.
On second thoughts, I think it would be 1) Verona 2) Bolonga and 3) Lucca. I love the centre of Mantua but the outskirts are too industrial. Florence I’ve never got on with, just too much tourism and I find the locals quite rude.

My favourite country. With the rise of remote working, my long-term plan is to have a UK job but live out in Italy, just a pleasant one or two bedroom flat in Bologna, Lucca, or Verona.
That castle is wonderful. One can dream!

Corbyn has won this election.

I’m sorry for your loss.

Such a sweet, gentle person, deep, intelligent and interesting.

This is the exact same way I would describe someone I knew who died a year ago. Underneath the smile, and the jokes, was a very sensitive person who was in mental anguish every day. Also around the same age.

I spoke to a mutual friend a while back. He said something I’d noticed but not really thought about, that even when smiling, our friend had the saddest eyes you’d ever seen.

And yet the rough, the selfish, the superficial and manipulative prosper. There is something very wrong with this world of ours.

The Airline Industry is incredibly competitive and cost-cutting is rife. But whereas RyanAir, EasyJet and other newer companies started with a no-frills business model, BA have had to try and change their business model and transition over legacy IT systems. I’ve avoided BA for many years now and fly with newer airlines for short and long haul.