It’s not a Bee or Wasp, as it only has the one pair of wings. So it’s some sort of Bee mimic. I’ve never seen anything like it up here in Stirlingshire though. Is it native to the Uk?

A reminder to be more careful around the lab mascot when working with the DNA crosslinker.

https://www.tpsonline.org.uk/

Does this still work? We signed up to it a few years ago and the number of cold calls dropped hugely. They do seem to be creeping back up again though.

*Ah, I just had a look at the TPS website and sure enough, pretty much all the landline cold calls we get nowadays are ‘Marketing’ or scammers trying to get us to renew our kitchen appliance insurance.

Bring something with a decent amount of Deet in it. Jungle formula etc, and you might survive.

I was reading something recently, and apparently the Scottish midge problem is all down to the people of Applecross.

Back in the day, just after Ragnarok, the surviving giants got on quite well with the local humans, except one giant who was a bit of a heid-the-baw. He lived up on a mountain, in a cave and kept coming down into the valleys to find humans, bite their heids off and suck the juicy bits out. He was eventually banished by the local Giant/Human council and in disgust he headed south. He worked his way down through the islands and ended up in the outskirts of Applecross. The locals had heard he was coming though and knew of his heid biting, so they set up a trap. The local neds all waited at the top of the glen and as soon as they saw the giant’s head appearing they all started chucking empty bucky bottles at him and hurling abuse. The enraged giant sped after the neds, didn’t spot the trip wire at the bottom of the glen and went flying into a huge pit that had been dug and filled with spikes. While he was in there, skewered on the spikes, the locals all jumped in and have at him with axes, saws and pointy knives. Chopping him up into tiny wee bits. Satisfied with a good days work, they all went to bed, but in the deep of night they all heard a tiny whisper. ….”Am gonna look for ye, I’m gonna find ye, and am gonna bite ye”. In the morning, sure enough, they looked in the pit and all the chopped up bits of the giant were still moving…he was still alive! BBQ time! The locals got a raring fire going, filled the pit with trees and cremated the giant’s remains. However, as they stood looking at the ashes, a wind blew up and raised all the tiny flecks of ash into the air….and everyone heard the tiniest whisper “Am gonna look for ye, I’m gonna find ye, and am gonna bite ye” as the giant’s ashes spread into the wind and blown all across Scotland. The folk of Applecross’s fault. Truth.

*Stolen from the Anthology of Scottish Folk Tales

Yup, Down in the Lakes 1st-5th celebrating my wife’s best mate’s 50th birthday. Well, they’ll be celebrating it. I’ll be out on my bike each day hitting the trails and the pubs.

:-)

I just bought a bell. What on earth happened? I was suddenly overcome with a sudden need and desire for a new bell. I should probably get back into the lab and do some work before I buy a new bike to put the bell on.

C.

Okaay, should be working, but now I’ve found something much more interesting to look at.

My KYM coffee grinder has ‘Made in West Germany’ printed on the bottom. It grinds the beans up and makes good coffee.

Last night I woke up screaming. Scared the beejeezus out of the wife as well. No idea what I was dreaming about.

I’ve got an Edge 530 and tend to use it more for tracking my rides than navigating. I’ve got an old Etrex Montana that’s much better for navigating with it’s big touch screen and OS maps. However, the 530’s battery does last for multiple rides, and as well as having it linked to Strava (so my friends can see I’m still alive and kicking), I have it linked to Trailforks.

On Sunday’s wee spin around my local haunts ‘Le Tour de Plean Park et Torwood’ on my Orange 4, I was pleasantly surprised to see that while stationary, the screen was swapping between my bike computer data (a handy wee thing I also like is that it can display my e-bike’s battery status), and the map display that was actually showing all the ‘trails’ that folk have uploaded to Trailforks. I think it can do this with Strava as well, but I don’t have a subscription for that.

I quite like the way that you can download apps onto the device. Still my favourite is beers earned. I tend not to look at a lot of the calories burned / fitness increased nonsense it displays. But beers earned on a ride? Now that’s a useful statistics!

I remember looking at racks that allowed you to fit the bike on the rack, then the rack itself would do the lifting. Think I saw a towbar mounted version and a roof version. I was looking at options for our tandem mind you, but I wonder if something like that might be worth considering as well?

I watched my dad die of Pulmonary Fibrosis (Miner’s lung) when he was 59 yrs old, 36 yrs ago. I’m just shy of 53 and was diagnosed with early stage pulmonary fibrosis last year. Having recently come through fairly advanced bowel cancer, let me tell you, it felt like a pretty solid kick in the balls to be told in the same conversation that I was cancer free, but the scans had detected PF! However, as I understand it, Pulmonary Fibrosis is a catch-all term for a whole host of conditions that lead to lung scarring. I’m not a smoker, I work in a very clean environment (molecular biology lab), and I’m fairly active. I am aware that even just going for a walk now can lead to me puffing and blowing like a whale, but my consultant doesn’t seem overly worried and like others have said, it’s whether it’s progressing or not and at what speed it’s progressing that’s the important bit.

I’m just waiting on my 2nd assessment in the next few weeks to get a better idea of where I am with it. I don’t see it as any different from the cancer diagnosis though. You’ve got to deal with it as best you can whilst grabbing life by the goolies and squeezing it till it squeals for mercy.

Always happy to have a blether if you want to email or PM me.

Craig xx

One of our cats develops a terribly sore paw as soon as one of us goes near the cupboard where their meaty ‘crack stick’ treats are stored. Full on limp and paw held in the air. It’s pathetic and never works, she’s just naturally big boned….honest.

I’ve been mountain biking for over 30 years. If you asked me to describe or define myself, ‘Mountain biker’ would probably be one of the first things I’d say. I started on a fully rigid steel hardtail and over the years worked up to a nice collection of mid-range bikes, mostly bought on interest free credit. My current love is a 2018 model Orange 4

I’m now touching on 53 years and the accumulated dings are starting to take their toll. Broken leg (same one twice), arm, collar bone, rotator cuff…. A crushed vertebra from a snowboarding accident 7 years ago has left me with chronic back pain and a sensation like someone’s twisting a knife in my back whenever I’m on a long grinding climb. Successful cancer treatment two years ago robbed me of my fitness and a recent diagnosis of pulmonary fibrosis means that when I went out for a 7km spin on my Four along the river on Tuesday night, I very nearly passed out on one of the wee climbs because my lungs are so shredded.

I’ve had a Spesh Levo for the last 18 months and it allows me to keep on riding. It allows me to keep on being a ‘mountain biker’. I’m the only e-bike rider in my group of regular riding friends and no-one is abusive (in a nasty way), no-one rolls their eyes when they see me rock up on Lemmy. Everyone is just glad to see me out on a bike. I’ve never preached to people on the trails, or looked down on them for riding a regular bike and likewise, I’ve never encountered animosity from e-bikers or regular bikers targeting the bike I’m riding.

I’m genuinely bemused by this thread, to me the e-bike is a way to prolong my mountain biking life because there’s going to come a day when I won’t be fit/well enough to ride any sort of bike. Am I cheating? Why do you care? I don’t care what bikes my mates ride, just as I don’t care about my next door neighbours car…it’s a red one by the way. What I do care about is being able to get to the top of Dumyat on a sunny summer’s evening with my mates and finish the descent with a pint and a blether. Lemmy’s going to allow me to continue doing that for a lot longer than I’d be able to without him and if that makes you despise me as an ‘e-biker’ then I’m sorry, but also very glad I don’t know you.

C. xx

You should be standing tall and proud, My dad was a Dick and my eldest brother is a Dick….although he does insist I call him Ritchie.

Ignore him up there ^^^ he’s talking out of his arse again. It was Roam, that’s the really good one that I liked. Seasons was okay, but Roam was the best one.

C. xx

Nah, I think Seasons is better. ;-)

I’m with Klunk on this one, sorry OP.

Tropical paradise by the sea..
By the way..
Ya Bullet.

;-)

Hey Dick,

We went with this company https://www.more-living.co.uk/ for our new front and back doors. Not mail order I’m afraid, but they were superbly fitted. Each door, with all the fittings and colour matched outside and inside with surrounds, cost about 1K.

Only complaint we had was how long it took them to order and install, but we did order them at the height of the lockdown induced delays.

C.

Hope you don’t mind me asking Worldclassaccident, but you are okay, aren’t you?

I’ve followed your exploits for a good few years now with wonder and admiration. You make me feel positively healthy and lucky!

Well, thank you for that Woodster. Now I’ve learned something new and will have to google ‘delete browser history’.

As others have already pointed out, it’s how you ride with others. When I ride with others, it’s a social thing, not a race. I gave up on that sort of group riding years ago, where everyone was waiting on me at the top of the climb and then would scream off as soon as I caught up. Dicks. Now I have an ebike due to ill health, (beat cancer, then diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis), which I ride with my current social group of riders, but I ride it exclusively in eco mode when I’m with them. It’s a fairly good workout for me, and I’m riding at the same speed as the group. There’d be no point in going out with them otherwise.

C.

I’ve got the PS+ Extra package at £84 a year. This month, the free ‘PS5 game’ was a remastered version of the Mass Effect trilogy. I’m in heaven, I may not go outside again till Spring. I reckon it’s worth the fee for the monthly free games, but it also gives you a large back catalogue of 100+ PS4 and PS5 titles

It’s not Christmas till….

Have you tried a different HR monitor? I’m a fat, sweaty, hairy monkey man. Most of the time my chest belt HR monitor thinks I’ve flatlined. The one on my wrist is a bit more forgiving.

Did you tell the Doc that you’d found a lump? A week seems an awfully long time to wait for an appointment. For your own peace of mind, I think you should be getting back on the phone and asking for something much sooner.

Reading, and enjoying ‘Revolution: How the Bicycle Reinvented Modern Britain’ by William Manners, I’ve discovered why Jasper is called a ‘Pathracer’ bicycle. Path was the old Victorian / Edwardian name for velodrome track, but a Pathracer was a track bike that was modified for the road with freehub and coaster brake. I did not know that.

Jasper, earlier in the year…

First thing in the morning game for me is….see if I can fill the bowl with frothy bubbles. I have kidneys, probably about the only thing left of me that functions okay. As with everything though, if it worries you, even the slightest wee bit, go see your GP.

Hey Mboy, that sounds like an awful experience. Did you get the scan done in the end? You need to get it, so the Docs can assess the situation and for your own piece of mind. I can’t help with the needle thing. I’ve been a type 1 diabetic for 30yrs, so they’re a part of my life. However, once the cannula is in, you don’t feel it, and the dye gets pumped into you in less than a second. It’s just a wee drop. The dye is quite pleasant going in, you get a toasty hot flush, a bit of a need to pee and a metallic taste, all at the same time. Kinda like doing a naughty wee in the swimming pool.
They put the dye in so that they can get a better contrast in the image and the whole process takes around 40 minutes, with only 5 of those in the scanner.
Everyone’s cancer is different, some get chemo before, some after surgery as a belts and braces approach to make sure any stray cells are mopped up. I had radio/chemo before surgery because Trevor was particularly large …. and yes ladies, this time I’m telling the truth. The docs wanted to reduce the size of him before surgery, but in actual fact the treatment obliterated him. However, without surgery there was a 50% chance he’d be back within a couple of years, post surgery that chance dropped to 30-35%. So I chose to have the surgery on the advice from the oncology team.
Hospitals are having a horrible time of it at the moment, but your treatment team will have your best interests at heart. Speak to the nurse from the oncology team, the Macmillan nurse (I never got that option, are they just South of the border?), and your GP. Maybe you need a wee tranquilliser before your next scan.
Again if you want a blether about it PM me, or I can send you my mobile number and we can be WhatsApp buddies.

Craig xx

Really glad to hear it’s worked out well for you. I’ve been down a similar road the past two years. At the start of lockdown I was having bowel problems with periods of…

Diarrhea
Constipation
Blood in poop

I put it down to irritable bowel syndrome (Google diagnosis), as I wasn’t going to bother my GP with an upset stomach when people were dying of Covid. I decided that the blood was due to piles because of me straining so hard during the periods of constipation. When I eventually spoke to my GP at the end of the first lockdown I was rushed into hospital where they found I had advanced bowel cancer. Radiotherapy, Chemotherapy and two rounds of major surgery later and the cancer is all gone.

I laughed and joked about it to everyone at the time, but it is a very scary experience. If you want to have a blether about it, feel free to drop me a PM.

Craig

One day we found a Russian navy issue, Submarine Escape suit, in our lab. I was nominated to try it on for size and comfort.

It was only after the last zip was zipped and it very quickly started getting very stuffy, that we realised what the hose was for that comes out the back!

I’d like a tye dyed t-shirt as well, in…XXL, because I like the baggy boho look, not because I’m a chubster…honest.

I did my Dryz-a-bone full length jacket a couple of years ago. First time in 28yrs and I’m kind of hoping I don’t last another 28yrs so I have to do it again.

Knowing what a hard job it was, I would pay to get it done professionally.

We cracked this weekend and put the central heating on. What did it for me was the curtains. The dampness in the house meant that the curtains wouldn’t slide on the rail!

Fork Handles?

I’m with Big Scots Nanny on this one. A three hour blackout on a clear night would be telescope heaven. I’m actually hoping that the cost of energy increase will deter some of my neighbours from switching on their Heathrow Landing Strip insecurity lights.

I’ve started wearing jumpers in the house to toughen me up for this winter, haven’t switched the heating on yet and Mrs Beagleboy has enough candles scattered around the house to make a Satanist feel comfortable.

Bring it on.

My Skywatcher 150mm Newtonian shows Jupiter’s bands, the Great Red Spot and on one memorable evening the tiny shadow of one of the moons cast on the cloud deck.
I can see Saturn’s rings, and at high magnification on a clear night, I can make out the Cassini division between the two main rings.
It’s a superb starter scope, although if I’m honest, I actually started with its big brother the 200mm model. However it was just physically too large for me to humph up and down the stairs after breaking my back on the snowboard.

I have a 2021 Levo, so it’s a 29er front and back unlike the newer models that are Mullets….bleurgh. Before I got the Levo, my normal goto bike was my Orange 4, a wonderfully poppy and fast bike.

The Levo is a better bike.

Even without the assist, the 29er wheels and the massively long wheelbase make it into a confidence inspiring bulldozer of a bike, it’ll take on anything and laugh it off. The multi-pivot suspension design feels better than my Orange’s single pivot as well, although I don’t fancy servicing it.

It’s heavy though at 22-25kg (I ride an XL), and is a bugger to lift over gates etc. Also, if you’re a large chap like myself (110kg), a longish day in the hills might not be that long. Biggest day I’ve managed has been around the 60km mark with around 1000m of climbing and that was almost exclusively ridden in Eco mode. Although the beauty of the Levo’s phone based Mission Control app is that you can tweak all the power settings, or even tell it how far you expect to go and let it manage the battery for you.

@sofaboy73 What shape of head do you have? I’m struggling with my POC Tectal. I have a big round 62cm beachball sized heid and at first I thought the Tectal was a great fit. However, the darn thing keeps slipping down towards my eyes everytime I hit downwards rough stuff!