I used to have gerbils for many years – great pets(you need at least a pair) – don’t smell and site there toilet away from their sleeping den unlike hamsters. Hardly ever bite in my experience – they give you a warning nip and if you ignore that then they can bite like a bastard. Remember trying to shake a gerbil that had clamped itself to my finger , blood was pissing out everywhere from the teeth had punctured the finger. I always found that on average males were easier to keep – females seemed to fight more often. I found them relatively easy to handle. If you put them down on the floor they either faint (don’t like open spaces and pretend to be dead)or run round like maniacs. I had one who was an escape artist and he could turn up anywhere. I remember one night he’d gotten into my quilt and as i lay there this lump moved inside the quilt towards my head- nearly shat myself. I had one would climb out of his tank and wander round the floor for a wander. If you’d just eaten your dinner and put the plate on the floor he’d eat the leftovers before hopping back into his tank. Quite funny when i’d had a bolognese and this white gerbil was half stained red on his belly. You need an old aquarium and a decent lid to stop them escaping and a constant supply of toilet roll inners as they like chewing (everything so no plastic habitats unless you want to find them running run the floor or passed out . I quite often think of getting more gerbils but my cats a killer. i read somewhere that gerbils were the ideal pets for young children because they don’t mind being handled and are not as bitey and unsociable as hamsters who can be quite vicous -( my mother had one and my previous cat was shit scared of it and this was a cat that attacked dogs) They also don’t stink like mice. they are also usually diurnal to an extent though most active at night.
I did have a Jird – which is like a large gerbil. Hated it – it kept on escaping and was very bitey. I don’t think they like living solo.

If you want any info on keeping gerbils let me know.

If you’ve ever worked at the post at christmas and chucked parcels into a york you would be surprised that any parcels got through unscathed. As parcels may be sorted several times from receipt, at each sort parcels are thrown several feet into a york – which is basically a large sack hanging in a wheeled frame. When they get fullish you can either ram the parcels down , shake the bag or just as usual kick the bag to settle the contents. You can hear the badly packed items break when they hit the sides of the metal cage or bounce off and hit the floor, if your aim is not 100% accurate especially as maybe throwing from a distance of 6 to 12ft. If i ever send anything either my royal mail, parcelforce or courier I go mental over the packing because I’ve seen how they are treated and it involves a lot of throwing.

I’ve had a michell syncro turntable and i haven’t used it for years. Shock horror to all those who say vinyl sounds better – I prefer the sound of my cd player which blows the michell into the weeds, but then it’s an expensive Yamaha cd s2000. It’s got quite a warm sound for a cd player, but the clarity and bass are far superior. I’ve been slowly flogging my vinyl off on ebay but still got a few left. Prices on ebay are quite cheap unless you’ve got something rare or a first edition of a cult record.

@allanoleary – only in the town. Theres no donut shops in the sticks. In fact can’t remember seeing one once out of the town boundaries unless it’s hiding behind a van with a speed gun.

I use Mirtazapine but then according to the doc I suffer from the hangover effect and i usually get a goods night sleep. Every so often have to stop them for a week as i build a tolerance to them. As bonus they’re an antidepressant so I don’t get depressed because i’m always topped up with anti depressants. I’ve been taking them for years without any side effects.

During lockdown 1 i was regularly riding round the suffolk countryside visiting various churchyards – 20 to 30 miles round trips with no problem. As for the if you injure your self argument – i had to have an ambulance visit yesterday because of a back injury sustained getting a screwdriver out of the boot of my car. The muscle was spasming so bad i couldn’t even get off the sofa for 8 hrs until the medics doped me up with entonox: so I wouldn’t be worried about cycling. If the weather wasn’t so shit and my back wasn’t playing up i’d be cycling round the countryside. The police round here hate getting out of their cars unless it’s to buy donuts in Tesco’s or hassle motorists.

I’m impressed with my Ravemen 800 for use on the road with a flood for off road. 800 is not going to meet your requirements but they do a 1600. The road mode is really good.£125 with plenty cash left over for additional light

Try x-o.co.uk £5.95 a trade.

I find that the large crane bells as per tjagain’s picture are loud and have a lovely sustain.

I Love my gravel bike. Living in Suffolk most of the off road stuff around here id bridleways/farm tracks and footpaths. Theres no real need for a mountain bike round here. I’ve got a flat bar (severe wrist problems preclude the use of drops) Sonder Al Camino and find it perfect for the stuff round here.

“A lovely piece written to confirm what the readers of The Spectator think.” read the comments – I’ll think you’ll find most commentators disagreed with the article.Theres a great spread of opinion amongst the spectator articles and the comments below the line.

had a evo 2 for years before selling to a mate – one of the best bikes i ever owned. All reliable old tech – 27.2mm seatpost, 68mm threaded bb shell, straight steerer forks with external headset, standard 135mm q/r rear., Is mounting for the rear disc brake.

great bikes to ride -really comfortable frame. The bike exceeded my skill level in tricky situations.

theres a member on retrobike who specialises in servicing these forks – Tim English aka justbackdated if memory serves corect ( i maybe wrong about the name)

i’m running a deore 42t cassette(10 speed) and deore 6000 gs (medium cage) derailleur. up front an old 960 crank that’s been jonesd running a 38t ring. – on a sonder al camino flat bar . works fine for me, no idea if it would work with drops.

a deore m6000 in medium will do a 42t cassette. i’m using one on my sonder al camino 1×10 with deore 42t cassette and it works fine.

i think a stringbike out niches a schlumpf http://www.stringbike.com/

Clarks brakes which use mineral oil like Shimanos do spare piston seals for their clout and M3 brakes. The pics look like the shimano square cut seals. i wonder if they’d fit any shimano pistons ? http://clarkscyclesystems.com/

I’ve had a similar problem to the op – ordered but doesn’t appear on my account- in fact i received a message on my account that order had been cancelled as payment had been refused (not true) I contacted via the website contact form and i’ve been advised that the delivery will be made on wednesday (although nothing appears on my account). I will see on wednesday if this is true, but i can’t say that i’ve been impressed by how their online system works (as at today still nothing on my account and therefore can’t track)

The ones who piss me off the most (apart from the ones who don’t turn up) are the ones who say i can get it cheaper from x so will you lower the price? i always tell them to buy from x then. The other dozoes are the ones who offer a derisory price because they’ve just spent all their money on a new car/holiday etc as if this is going to gain them sympathy.

i thought waitrose had stopped selling the bum butter – hasn’t been on the shelves of my local waitrose for ages. Great stuff. I’m now using Burts bees baby bees ointment .

I know it’s of no help now- i’m an inveterate key loser. My car is keyless entry too. I’ve attached my keys to a brightly coloured neck lanyard which i wear whilst driving. When not driving the keys live in a biscuit tin – i’ve trained myself to never put them anywhere else other than round my neck – lost too many keys/spent endless hours searching for them when i’ve put them down somewhere safe. Good luck in finding them.

@kcr – Mandy is a very weird film – cage goes totally bonkers. Worth watching for it’s weirdness.

kcnc do a dual clamp – one bit the size of the seatpost – the other bit normal clamp size. Would be great except the allen bolt heads seem made of cheese so you have to be extra careful if you want to adjust seatpost after original fitting (or change bolts for something not made of cheese)

sent you a pm

Whilst doing online training – of the not most interesting training – class 1 nics i was woken by my manager. I told her i was thinking. She told me next time do your thinking with your eyes open and your mouth shut.

I also fell asleep during the introductory chat when i worked for hmce given by the regional collector in charge ( though it had been a heavy lunch in the pub)

I’ve usually used a large jiffy bag.

I’ve got a Cube reaction Hybrid HPA Race 500 29er – it comes with an 11 speed 42t cassette  and 15t front . Quite honestly it pulls pretty strongly in any gear – i probably only use half the cassette – in fact after a few months i realised that the factory had shortened the chain by too much so it wouldnt even go into the largest cog. If you buy one with a bosch motor the performance cx is the motor to go for. I’d also recommend freeborn cycles – i got a good deal out of them.

@winston “Are they accurate in the lumen count, I wouldn’t want any less than 950”
<h2>Moon ADJ950 Front Bike Light</h2>
The Moon ADJ950 Front Bike Light provides 850 lumens of directional light

Brooks Cambium. Variuos widths very comfy

Planetx have some good prices on fulcrum wheels at moment – delivery was very quick – ordered friday sfternoon, delivery monday morning if you fancy some wheels to get you going before building your own.

When van moof first started selling in the uk, on the website description it proclaimed the benefits of using a quill stem rather than an ahead stem as quill stems were less prone to going out of adjustment. Yeah right I thought- not in my experience. My friends son bought one – very heavy and expensive – but as he loudly proclaimed it had a built in lock and lights. I note that these earlier versions now go pretty cheap secondhand on ebay

Well if 10% of shares are priced at zero – then the value of the other 90% are going to be reduced. If bike manufactures gave away 10% of their production – do you reckon the secondhand value of the bike you paid full price for would rise or fall ?

The shares have to come from somewhere – either the current shareholders (a lot of pension companies hold shares) – are labour suggesting just taking them – or paying market prices? or by issuing new shares – diluting the value of current shareholders – reducing the value of pension funds. It’s a gimmick from a man who would like to see capitalism destroyed and see all of us dependant on the state. Who’d invest in share offerings knowing 10% could be taken from you or the value immediately slashed by 10% ?

elon musk who simultaneously believes that we are living in a simulation aka matrix and is scared that artificial intelligence is about to take over the world ? – which seem to very muddled thinking at least (if not bonkers)

Unless they had spoken to me on the phone , i’d ignore it. If they make a fuss just say i never received it/my internet was down/went into spam/was out whatever. sounds like the overbearing and self important cockwombles that infest hmrc.

used aliexpress with no problems. They seem to ship the stuff to somewhere in uk , then reship using the royalmail from the items i’ve bought – cheaper than ebay plus cashback through topcashback

Honda Jazz.

those keter store boxes. When collected mine, wickes had to go through the warehouse to find an unwarped lid. Needless to say the lid warped within a few months anyway.

I had to move my metal shed as originally located too close to end wall. Originally nailed down with masonry nails and sealed edges with expanding foam on a concrete base. Once took the nails out still wouldnt move because of the foam. So when finally freed i didnt bother with the nails just went bonkers with the foam – no leaks and the thing seems superglued to the concrete.

I’ve got hundreds of the damned things. It would take days to photograph them and then post on here. Watch out it’s a slippery slope. I now only try to collect models of american cars especially muscle cars. It starts out cheap and then when you have bought all the models from one range that you want you end up moving up the price ranges. Minichamps are good models and have quite a range. However i’ve bought all the minichamps that i’d like and find myself purchasing Neo models which are a bit more expensive. I used to buy brooklin models that used too be £40 a pop – they are now £100+ . Some years ago there was one of those agostini magazines that did a series of rally car models – they were basically ixo models and at a decent price – i ended up with 3 metro 6r4s. It’s best to get a display cabinet with a glass door – otherwise they end up dusty and a bit manky. You can display them of course in the display boxes they come in but I think that looks a bit naff.

Remember to keep all the packaging and boxes if you ever want to sell them .

I usually purchase most of mine through ebay – though strangely enough ebid sometimes has the same models cheaper. Most of the model shops have gone – driven out of business by the internet, but it’s always a thrill when you come across one still open – an aladdins cave of treasures. if you want any further info message me direct.