So…pointing out to my line manager that the big gas cylinder leaning against the wall and not chained up to stop it falling over, going off like a missile and killing untold numbers thus having the MD in court then prison and the company closed down would mean the person reporting it would be ‘blacklisted’ for his troubles? If that’s your train of thought, good luck with that.
If I was a shop steward? That would never happen. Never have and never will have anything to do with unions.
Basically, at work I do the best I can for me, the people I work with, the service users and the company/authority I work for and take it from there. Not caused me any problems so far in life.
I am a litho printer and plate maker by trade. Sadly, I was involved in an accident at work that resulted in a perforated lung, both ear drums perforated, right arm almost ripped off and various internal injuries that I will have lifetime repercussions (large bowel and a couple of other things). Following this accident, I was in a surgical hospital for 12 weeks and then a psychie’ hospital for 8 months. I sued the pants off of the company and have declared it to each employer I’ve had since. It doesn’t seem to have been a problem getting a job thus far. I can well imagine being an obstanate work shy flop on the other hand (if that was declared by me or some industry wide fast track reference service) would have me off the shortlist within seconds and fair play to it or them.
Classic case of reap what you sew.
I don’t mind particularly having my credit card company track my spending habits and targeting me for certain advertising either. I like what I like and I’ll buy what I want if I can afford it. I have no objection to CCTV on every lampost or DNA being taken at birth.

Isn’t this just an industry wide fast track personal reference system? If I was an arse at work (I’m not, just on here) then I wouldn’t really have a place to complain if I applied for another job and didn’t even get an interview because the unoffical reference already stored on a date base said exactly that – he’s an arse at work (which I’m not, just on here).
If I was an employer, I’d be very interested in joining the group with access to the information so I didn’t waste time interviewing people who were arses at work.
Then again, I really don’t get the big problem with I.D. cards either.

“what is the correct thing to say if i am passed and want to hop on for the ride? “

“Can I sit on your wheel a bit mate, please? I’m fat, slow and paggered.”

Works for me everyday of the week 🙂

Where Offerton Green to North Reddish (Leafy Cheshire) Sometimes straight up the A6, other times off on one via Derbyshire.
What Specialized Langster Monaco or Felt FX1 or Cube LTD Race or Willier Izoard
When Varies between 7:00am – 9:30am going and 4:15pm – 6:15pm coming back

Oh christ! It’s either a figment of a very good bit of wind up humour or a cat. A member of the family

Dear oh dear…..get a grip. Your heart is meant to pump blood not bleed it.

That’s an exceptional wind up or you need help!

Assuming it’s true – if you keep losing cats on this stretch of road where you live…..you may like to sit down with a brandy before you read the next bit, it may you a tad feint……STOP BUYING CATS OR MOVE F***ING HOUSE!

jackthedog – Gods own Manchester to the god awful Sheffield via Ancoats, Gorton, Hattersley, Glossop, Snake Pass and on in to Yorksh-….Yor-…Yorkssssh-…sorry, I can’t bring myself to say it. All on road. Coming back via Baslow, Calver, Peak Forest and into the warmth of GREATER Manchester.

A57 trail from start to finish Saturday. Dark Peak Sunday, probably Hayfield area.

St Bees to Robin Hoods Bay was done in 18 hours by two guys featured in Issue 2 of Singletrack (and that included an injury stop). Depressing in’it? 🙂

I was discussing this with a guy last year and he said 4 days was tough but doable. I was hoping to do an extra couple of hours per day to squeeze it in at four days. If it takes five, I’m on a very tight schedule to get home on the trains again.
They said the English off road coast to coast couldn’t be done in under 20 non stop hours though. So much for that. It’s all a challenge waiting to be taken on.

I set off doing it last summer unsupported (tent and stuff in my EBC trailer). I planned four days (mentioned 5 to the family just in case they called out the search teams) but secretly hoped to do it in 3 and half long days. I ditched it part way through the second night as I was completely soaked from setting off the day before up to that point. I’m going back this year and I’ll do it or die this time. No bailouts aloud. Again, I’m hoping to have it done in less than 4 days if poss. but I’ve booked 5 days just in case.

That “selling out fast” really means perpetually available and I’ve been rushing to buy things all my life when there was absolutely no need.

Is that Lockerbrook?

Hells teeth Rude And Serially Unable To Spell Correctly Boy, do you ever see eye to eye with anybody? Not even if they sit down?

Ok, I’ll let it go now.

Dear oh dear….It’s just entertainment. Not a religion, not a life philosophy.
Rude And Serially Unable To Spell Correctly Boy, are you vertically challenged? You do come across as a very angry boy. 20 moans, rants or toxic word vomits a day on here, at least.
Calm down man and give spell checker a chance to do its thing. Spell checker is your friend. Little people AND big people can be your friend as well.

If it’s through Cycle Scheme it most certainly is NOT fraud as the bike being purchased under the proviso that the majority of journeys to work are made using the bike has been removed. This is borne out on the agreement paperwork that I signed for mine yesterday and somebody asked the guy implementing it to confirm checks wouldn’t be made as he’ll not be using his for work despite what it says on the website. My employer (local council) even promotes the scheme as “being an excellent way to get you or a family member fitter and healthier by cycling”,

3 litres during a 2 – 3 hour ride? You’re not dehydrated if you’ve still got an imprint in your forehead, you’ve just got a fat head and your helmet is too small

It’s a hospice Ziggy. They’re charities, nothing to do with NHS or hospital trusts etc.
The big boss at the hospice said “No” when asked about introducing the Cycle Scheme.

The cheapest Hub bike is £200 too dear but thanks anyway.
It’d be a very long term loan so I doubt they’d be interested but it’s worth a go.
4 of the 5 are going from virtual none cyclists to riding Stockort to Liverpool to Leeds and back, off road (all be it river bank and canal tow paths) as quick as they can (maybe a couple of hours stop at each location and few rest stops on the way but no sleeping allowed) so they’ll need to get the bikes soon ans they’re going to have to do some mileage on them before the big ride in August. Possibly too long a period for an extended loan I would have thought?

“Use as better delivery company?”

What, a delivery company that advertises that it will try very hard not to lose your parcel?

Very helpful, well done.

I’d be interested in a 50 Peak Dsitrict Benches ride Rich. Hang on, I can feel another daft idea coming on…..

I’ve just spoken to the holder of the accounts and it would seem that our hand holding idle chat at the weekend about all the things we could do with our money was just that, idle chat. Apparently, there is no way in the world we would be buying a house to rent out even if we wanted to. It’s great being a simpleton. Such a stress free way of life, unencumbered by the stresses of finance 🙂
I’m still convinced that 90% or even 95% mortgages are going to come back though. No other way of getting first time buyers in to their first homes……surely?
Oh and Gordon Brown does so many u-turns you could get a whiplash just watching him.

I shouldered it for the last section of the Roman Rd down to the gate. My hands were going numb by that point.

Bloody hell! There’s one hell of a lot more to it than my simple brain had considered to be honest. It’s a good job my wife is the money person in our family :-).
I want to change my thread! “Where’s best to invset 10k long term?”

Our vague and tentative chats about it so far have been on the assumption that house prices are not going to fall much further if at all and that 95% mortgages (certainly 90%) mortgages will be widely available by the middle of this year as something has to happen to get funds circulating again. Redrow Homes announced a further 90 building trade job losses this week and they say their employeee number (now 550) is exactly half what it was this time last year.
How is the housing market going to get going again (all be it never at the ridiculous pace that it was) if the initial deposits for first time buyers is going to be so high? I remember struggling to get the 5% deposit for our first home! If first time buyers struggle or indeed find it impossible to get their first home, the whole market is in flux isn’t it?
We’ll not pay our house off for another 14 years yet. Maybe our 10k is best left alone in the bank?

I have the spesh Langster Monaco (as pictured above). I swapped the brakes over to drop brakes rather than the bar tops and I took the rubbish Keiran grips off and put some blue flower embossed bar tape on but other than that, it’s as standard. I like it but it does get a lot of attention which I’m not so keen on. It’s a bugger to keep clean though and the gearing is a bit spinny outie.

I’ve done the red at Llandegla on mine. Not through choice and I wouldn’t do it again. Oddly though, I quite enjoy Roman Rd, Jaggers, Dirtlow Rake et al. on my cross bike but then I have a good excuse for chucking it over my shoulder and running with it off road in the Peaks. I had to ride it all at Llandegla (my mountain bikes were poorly at the time and I promised to take my daughter so needs must). Not again though.

£899:00 plus £35 for Eggbeaters. Ordered from Surosa Cycles in Oldham. Full details here: http://www.cube-bikes.de/xist4c/web/LTD-RACE_id_31068_.htm

I’ve just ordered one of these through the Cycle Scheme : .
Got the email today to say that the voucher should be available mid April! ARSE! The big kid in me wants it NOW! 🙂

The same here Slowjohn. I ride from home out in to the Peak District at least twice a week and more often than not on my own. I don’t have a mobile phone and I can’t leave notice of where exactly I’m going as I never know, I make it up as I go and I don’t think anybody at home would be much bothered if I was gone for days :-).
Don’t worry about it, just enjoy your ride and deal with what you have to deal with when it presents itself.

No luck with your tips either Ti29er but thanks very much for the suggestions. I’ll take it in to Jessops tomorrow.

I work in the Council Tax dept. of my council.
The bands were set in April 1991 based on the value of your property. You can ask the Valuation Office to come to reassess your banding if you feel it is incorrect although it will only usually be rebanded (up or down) if there has been a material change to the property (extension to the property) or the surrounding areas (an industrial estate has been built round the back of it for instance) although even now, a few properties on occasion are being rebanded as being incorrectly banded as of 1991. NOT always in the residents favour though and it IS backdated either way.
Council tax pays for all of the councils services and is not service specific. I have an automated response for the moaners who “don’t have children, why am I paying for schools” etc. Internally it’s “FERK OFF”, externally it’s a patient explanation of the system and a cheery suggestion they approach they’re democratically elected councillor to air their grievances further. According ti the surgery attendance figures, not many do.
Valuations were carried out and set in 91 within set % boundaries rather than specific financial figures. Also, individual councils will have to pay differing amounts to differing companies for it’s services, have more or less council tax payers to service users and differing amounts of properties in the various bands and as such, has to set amounts for each band BUT the original band boundaries were pre determined.
I’ve just noticed the comment about the guy with the extension that has not been rebanded. Looks like the Planing and C/tax dept have a communication problem. I would strongly recommend that the person who owns the property gets in touch and tells C/tax as soon as poss.. When tit comes out that the banding needs ot be increased, they’;ll backdate it to when the work was completed, he will be rebilled and as it is past years, he’ll be allowed the maximum of 3 years to pay the backdated amount. If his local council is anything like ours, they’ll not muck about with obtaining a Liability Order id he defaults on any Special Payment ARrangment (SPAR) that they set for him, In fact, if they are like our council, they won;t even allow him a SPAR and just rebill. It gets to Recovery (court summons) a while heap quicker if there isn’t a pesky SPAR getting in the way. I issued 712 Court Summons; last week. and two c/tax defaulters are about to receive Committal Pending Notices as their accounts have been returned from bailiffs as Nulla Bona (no retrievable goods of value).
There is some desperate meetings taking place this week as the council would rather not be in the news for sending residents to prison if they can help it.
Going for a bike ride now.
Have a nice Sunday all 🙂

Purchased from Jessops on 22/12/2007 so just over a year old

Just looking for a hardware reset. thanks for the tip.

Arse! Viewfinder blacks out and doesn’t clear again until the shutter button is pressed again. I’m guessing it’s very poorly 🙁

Further to the above. Tried the hardware reset. Still the same 🙁

2nd hand? 105 groupset. Possibly with Ultegra rear mech. carbon fork and seat post for sure. Probably looking at something weighing around 19lb, possibly a bit more. Think good but not red hot. Durable and reliable rather than speedy quick. Deore/LX equivalent standard.

We might have to say we’ll ride back on as much off road as we can find if Sheffield is going to be a problem. I don’t hink it will go down best well if we’re publicising in the press and on radio that we’re riding on footpaths.

Chris! Ay’up mate. Fancy riding with us?

“…should we just have one child and send aid money abroad ?… Or, we have no children and send money abroad…”

Close but not quite. Have one child, send IT abroad! Result. I have one, where do I despatch if from?

That’s the size of it iamsprticus. Family friends, colleagues and anybody else who can be guilted into it are going to give us money for St Anne’s Hospice if we cycle from Piccadilly train station in Manchester along the A57 out of the city, through the suburbs and beyond, Snake Pass and down the other side and into the suburbs of Sheffield and on into the city centre until we reach the train station in the city centre (one end of the A57 to the other) and then ride back to Piccadilly in Manchester virtually all off road on the return leg.
We know the route inside out from Redmires Res. back to Manchester. VERY little road although from Stockport to Manchester is going to be the very flat and quite boring River Mersey trail but by that point I think we’ll be glad of the easy track.
I only say Redmires as we don’t know anything else over that way. If somebody could shout up something better bearing in mind it’s looking like 50 odd miles on road with some decent climbs going and even more off road coming back, we’d be very grateful.
As well as that, as above, anybody who feels like coming along (sponsored or otherwise) please feel free to shout up.
Thanks for the comments and suggestions of routes out of Sheffield.

I’ve only just got your link to the route out of Sheffield Matt, thanks for that.

What were your times like Matt? I’m thinking if we allow three hours for the road ride Manchester to Sheff. we can plan ‘phone ins’ and stuff but not sure on the time for the off road return journey. A steady but consistent pace with food and drink on the go, all being well. We’re not wanting to make any extended stops on the return section unless the sight of my front door overwhelms us 🙂