I’ve bought a bit of Polaris kit over the years, every piece has failed within a few weeks of use. The kids stuff isn’t too bad though.

I’ve had a Topeak Hexus for about 15 years or so. Wouldn’t be without it. Not huge either and for 20 quid it’s a good piece of kit.

Local – Clitheroe

British – Dunstanburgh

French – Pierrefonds

For shooting it looks like specs are set to some degree but they don’t have to use the same equipment:

https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/shooting-101-olympic-equipment

I started racing BMX earlier this season and I’m really enjoying it, North Regional at Preston tomorrow, but they do have local race series. If you go to Our Sqorz you should be able to find some local evening or wekend series to give it a go. You don’t need an expensive bike, you can pick something up for a reasonable sum. 20″ is pretty hardcore and I wish I went cruiser but hey ho. It’s definitely not about the bike anyway, you need lot’s of practice and lot’s of skill, being able to manual is key, you don’t necessarily need to be able to jump. This isn’t too bad for the price – Haro Pro XL BMX

Getting your head round how motos work takes a bit of getting used to, particularly being in a final on your own!

I found the hardest thing (in your 40’s) are gate starts and balance, I’d reccomend riding flats at first if your used to being clipped in, as every track is unique. Some start ramps can be intimidating (Cumbernauld I’m looking at you!) others less so.

The community is really welcoming, races are quite pricey in comparison to CX but cheaper than MTB. Fill your boots it’s a great sport, however I’ve had more injuries in less than 12 months BMX than I’ve had in over 20 years of MTB, Road and CX!

You WILL need a full face helmet if you haven’t got one, mandatory for racing and a long sleeve top, you’ll also need pads (knee/shin, elbow, body armour/shoulder) if your new to it as you will crash at some point and it hurts! You’ll also need number plates. For local events you can get a with a bit of cardboard but for regionals you’ll need the correct colour coding.

We’re here at the moment and have been all week. The lower tasters and new blue red and black are excellent additions for a quick blast and skills practice. The lack of buzzards nest isn’t a problem and the climb up is pleasant enough. There seem to be a lot of people towing kids up (on some cases teenagers). The Twitcher (new red) and Turn and Burm (new blue) are easy to access on the fire road. There’s a few diversions in place around buzzards nest mainly for the black. My daughter and wife have thoroughly enjoyed it, some grumbling about the climbs from the littlun but massively appreciated the descents so happy to put in the effort.

The red descent is broken up into sections to rest although I did it all in one hit on Wednesday!

Nevermind

I’ve switched to rape seed oil, much cheaper and still low in saturated fat, although lacking in polyphenols.

We use a few commercial washers at our manufacturing site, they reach temps of around 80C, have a 90 second cycle and use caustic for washing stainless steel and plastic implements. The price point of home dishwashers doesn’t include parts that can stand up to the abuse of the use of caustic traywash. We have a small hobart in one of area of the factory, a 30 foot long rotary mould washer and large washer that will fit a pallet in for washing cheese moulds and utensils. Everything comess out spotless but with the use of caustic liquids they do need specific training, wouldn’t want to leave that to the general public!

We stayed in Broomhill, just outside Amble, cheap and cheerful, quiet roads for riding on.

You can literally pull them off with a pair of box joint pliers, then (if you can identify the bars) buy some new ends off ebay if you want to use again: https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=aero+roof+bar+caps&_sacat=0&_odkw=roof+bar+caps&_osacat=0

“A lot of very peeved people in supervisor positions that are not getting a rise and will be supervising the work of others for about 10p an hour. Clearly not the fault if those getting today’s improved minimum wage or even to be fair the government. But it still must suck.”

Yeah, I’ll be in that bracket as well as 2 of the team leaders under me, who were also overlooked last year. The breakdown on the BBC this morning of the bills that are going up is somewhat depressing also. To add, we won’t find out until we get our payslip at the end of the month, which is pretty frustrating. The primary option will be to vote with our feet.

I take my daughter on a Saturday morning for the BMX sessions with the club, the cafe is never open unless something else is on which is a shame because they have hash browns!

There was a proper throbber in Darwen doing this yesterday when I got back from my ride, just going backwards and forwards , overrevving, speeding round the town centre. Looked like a red Celica or something or other.

There’s a few that go round between the round abouts in Longridge, using Derby Road as a drag strip.

For me it’s been getting into Enduro’s and BMX racing haha!

Child turns up for coaching on ebike, your doing tight slaloms or another tricky skill like cornering, ebike and child goes over, breaking childs leg due to the weight. Does your insurance cover such a situation and would you be happy knowing that’s a possibility, kids can end end up riding into each other on coaching sessions, heavy ebike into another child isn’t gong to end well either. Just say no, kids should be learning on normal bikes.

“He always came across as a genuinely nice guy.”

I did some filming with them inbetween lockdowns and they were both genuine friendly and helpful blokes. Really nice to deal with and even agreed to opening a production building I designed FOC! Top fellas and a genuine shame.

How old is he? Maybe that’s an Aus thing but speed isn’t a major factor in the UK. Not sure I understand that he’s been moved ahead a year and then he’s struggling with the work and now you’re thinking of moving him back to where he should be? Surely if that’s the case he’s missed out on a year of progression and the key learning outcomes that comes with it? Or am I missing something?

Cheese manufacture and export. A very quiet January, quietest since 2009. It’s started to pickup a bit but nothing like it normally is in February.

Heaven forbid you go near anywhere with HGV’s!

Quite a bit of the damage can be caused by silage effluent runoff, if this is the case it needs to be reported to the council.

“We have a Vax blade, it’s the single most useless domestic appliance (if that’s the correct term?) I’ve had the misfortune to use.
If after hours of carefully cleaning out the machine, you get it to work properly and hook it back on the wall, you find yourself getting old faithful Henry out to clear out what then falls back out of it.”

I agree, after years of trying to get ours to work after motor failures, button failures, the head constantly disconnecting, we went back to a DC01 that someone gave us. It’s the only thing we ahve at the moment but it does the job!

And… Snyder isn’t attached to it, but Rogue Trooper seems to actually be finally happening (albeit in a low budget, animated way).

Have you seen Warcraft? It’s “low budget, animated” by the same director, it’s pretty good!

We’re currently going through the Costco (own label) supplier approval process. The buyers know their onions. It’s very strict and thorough. The product will be best quality for best price, essentially.

Try this?

https://www.bikeradar.com/advice/fitness-and-training/critical-power

@richardkennerley Stanley Chattertrack? that’s one of my local BW’s which loop did you do?

I did High Cup Nick on Thursday, absolutely covered in shite and wet through, but great to be out, even though there were no views!

I picked up the Decathlon Jacket yesterday for 50 quid. It’s end of line. You do have to size up though.

It’s a bit of a conundrum. Table20 doesn’t appear anywhere in the workbook, there are no hidden worksheets, the edit links button doesn’t exist, and the workbook links button is greyed out. When you select the change data source for the pivot tables (which I’m sure is where the problem comes from) this doesn’t fix the issue. I’ll probably just remove the pivot tables and start again. Thanks for the pointers, this has been a real headscratcher.

Back to work and a major product recall of Mrs Kirkhams Lancashire, not my job deal to with it but someone gave the other sites Technical Manager the week off :/ . 200 customers to call, yay.

I’m riding my Vitus Escarpe with Dissector Rear and DHF up front. The dissector is definetely faster than the DHR that was on originally. As a previous rider of nothing but XC bikes on a Racing Ralph, Rocket Ron combo you have to get your head around not going as fast on the climbs and flats on this type of set up as you would when racing XC.

Garburn was exciting this morning!

I’d avoid a karcher, they have a habit of the head splitting as it’s made of plastic. If you do buy one, be sure to empty to it fully after use in case it freezes.

These have worked fine for me – https://www.gripgrab.com/collections/cycling-gloves/products/hurricane-2-windproof-spring-autumn-gloves?variant=43264717029628

100mg Sertraline prescribed by the doctor, best I’ve felt for the last 10 years!

Lincolnshire poacher – better than cheddar, it’s make with continental cultures

All our cheese are made with “Continental” cultures, that’s a marketing ploy to be honest, there’s only really Barbers producing pint starters in the UK and some teritorial producers make their own starters (Singletons used to) but it’s a bit of a faff, and not as convenient as DVI frozen starters, plus you need the kit to make your own. I think Helers also make their own. Ours come from France, Denmark, Italy, Spain. It depends on the characteristics we’re looking for really.

@kelvin – You mentioned Black Bomber, is that what you meant as not in the supermarkets? It’s pretty much everywhere and a very strong brand. Most big producers have some form of strong cheddar truckle in Black wax, we have True Grit (got calcium lactate crystals in it) and Dambuster. They’re all made by bowl chopping cheddar and extruding it to whichever shape you need.

@tjagain mentioned Old Amsterdam earlier, there’s only one Old Amsterdam brand, we import about 9 tonnes a month and it’s the same cheese as you’d get in the Netherlands, though age may vary the profile will be consistent. We do have a really nice 3 year old aged gouda (not Old Amsterdam) which is incredible with espresso. Bit of a bastard to cut in to though.

But more importantly – where do you stand on crackers with cheese?

@tjagain – I’m not fussy, I eat a few pounds of cheese a week, rarely with crackers. If I am it’s usually Carrs Melts.

@tjagain Yes we supply George Mewes. Not had much dealing with him since I came back to the company earlier in the year though.

Ian Mellis, not personally had any direct dealings with them, however I’ll check at work tomorrow although I know we did supply them before I left a couple of years ago. I can see a number of products they stock that you’ll find in the multiples. Brendan from Isle of Mull is a nice chap, always a pleasure to deal with. Rory Stone from Highland Fine Cheese is great, always love the way he comes back to customers who complain his Blue Murder is mouldy :D

“And any good cheesemonger will also have cheeses that you don’t supply.”

Some cheesemongers will of course supply different cheeses, there are thousands of brands, varieties etc., regarding the quality of a product (in a like for like scenario) supplied to supermarkets or cheesemongers, the quality will be the same. An example being Rosary Goats cheese supplied to Waitrose in own label and the same make (prodcution make) as Rosary Goats branded cheese. The Brie de Meaux we supply Booths is the same that we supply to the farm shops delis etc., around the UK. Yoredale unpasteurised Wensleydale from Curlew Dairy is another small producer we work with as well as the Crickmores at Fen Farm, not just the big brands like Arla and Lactalis McLelland.

What I’m saying is the supermarkets (whilst I’m not a massive fan) have done their homework when it comes to buying cheese and actively seek out award winners etc., and to say that they don’t supply the same quality of product as an independent is incorrect. Different products that may be, but not necessarily different quality.

As an cheese maker, grader and auditor, I’ve visited a good chunk of the UK’s small cheesemakers seen their production records, know their processes and how passionate they are about the products they produce. We help nearly 200 uk cheese makers get to market, both in the UK and around the globe. If a customer wants it we supply it.

Some products are set at certain price point mild cheddars for example are cheaper as the storage costs are less, mature kept up to 6 months cost more and so on. They’re still the same product and not made any differently just left to age. It’s not always the case of course you can change starters, add flavour cultures before rennetting, mature at a higher temp to move the cheese on if you want. but the images of the goats cheese I posted earlier is all the same make, but the mature will fetch roughly £1/kg higher at wholesale.

I could go on forever so I won’t bore you all!

@redmex – Some yes, some no. UP cheese is fine but soft UP cheese such as Brie de Meaux is a bit riskier and has had the highest number of recalls I’ve ever carried out due to listeria presence. Hard aged cheddars are fine as the pathogens can’t compete with low moisture, acidity and salt levels.

@tjagain

dyna ti – must have been a poor cheesemonger.  there is no way M&S have the same quality cheese as someone like the cheesemonger I linked to.  However it is hugely expensive

This is incorrect, we supply the same cheese, from the same suppliers (and the cheese we produce ourselves) into both supermarkets AND farm shops and cheesemongers alike, grade (age, maturity) may be different dependent on customer, but the quality will be the same. We supply a lot of the well known cheesemongers throughout the World.

@elshalimo – They used to buy our smoked brie. There’s Craggies Farm Shop (https://www.craggiesfarmshop.uk/) who we supply and would be sure to get some in if you asked. Deliveries on a Tuesday ;)