@tom84

No problem, message me and we’ll see what can be done.

Where does it need bringing to? “The South” covers quite a big area…

I’ll be driving past Carlisle to Rugby on Friday if that’s any help?

It’s fine. I’ll just claim the sun was in my eyes, the pedestrian didn’t pay tax or have a number plate and looked a bit foreign and the jury will let me off and probably buy me lunch.

There’s a really crap cabinet that I’m wanting shot of. Bits keep getting replaced, but if anything that just makes it worse. Nothing about it works and it keeps coming up with new ways of making me poorer.

The chief cabinet maker is away soon but I can’t see the new one being any better so I just want to dump the whole thing.

It’s down in Westminster if anyone can help get rid of it?

My landlord is lovely. My tenants have told me I’m a star. They appreciated the hamper I sent them at Christmas as well.

My tenant pays £650/month. Every flat in the development pays £80 to a factor which covers insurance, fixing the roof etc. That cost might have gone up a fiver or so in the last 6 years. I also pay £23 to a property maintenance company who do the gas/electricity/legiinella etc inspections as well as covering all the labour for internal repairs. There has been no price increase in 4 years.

Even if all of my costs go up by 10% this year, it’s an extra tenner a month.

I’m not going to piss off my tenant by passing that on to them. I can afford it more than they can.

Your first responsibility as a landlord is to provide a safe, comfortable home for your tenants with a degree of financial security, not to screw every possible penny out of them to pay for your next ebike. A few more landlords could do with remembering that.

Things change…..not sure if your noticed but inflation and interest rates are rising.

That’s not the tenants fault if you haven’t fixed the mortgage rate.

I’ve been in the house that I rent for 8 years. No rent rises in that time. The flat that I own and rent out hasn’t had a rent increase since the current tenants moved in 4 years ago. My costs haven’t increased so why would I charge more?

Stay on the east for fewer midges. Have a look at the long distance walks on Walkhighlands.co.uk for some ideas.

Midges on the west side are likely to be horrendous in August.

That has zero bearing on hourly rate, it just increases the number of hours it takes.

No, the skills needed to work on hydraulics, electrics etc are greater than they were when bikes were all mechanical. This means more training, more tooling, more diagnostic equipment. This has to be paid for somehow and that is through the hourly rate. All these jobs are easy, until they aren’t.

Many, many times I had customers bring in bikes they had tried to fix themselves. Snapped Di2 cables, stripped out hydraulic brifters, cracked brake pistons, stripped threads on very expensive parts were all very common.

There’s regular threads on here about poor quality work in bike shops but customers don’t want to pay a rate that allows the shop to pay for training of good quality staff. Customers want to pay a rate that allows the shop to pay minimum wage to a school leaver. Bike shop wages are generally less than an Aldi shelf stacker. You get the level of expertise that you are prepared to pay for.

You can see my house in the pic from the top (nearly) of Birnam Hill!

I only ride R&R once or twice a year, pink Floyd maybe every 2 years. I’m much more xc than enduro but some of the best decents aren’t on trail forks or any other map I’ve ever seen.

Glad your having fun though, you seem to have found good places to eat and drink 😁

I don’t really see the issue. Anyone who wants to buy it will check the MOT history, see the mileage figures and run.

If anything I think the car is devalued because of this.

I’ll take midges over clegs any day. Smidge and a net and the midges are OK, but I got swarmed by clegs at Culra 4 years ago and it was horrendous. They bite through your clothes and my legs looked like I’d been attacked with a chainsaw.

As another “recommend what you got”, I’m very happy with my Kia CEED Diesel. Fast enough, big enough, comfortable enough, feels solid and has just done an 800 mile round trip from Perth to Gloucester fully loaded at a measured 67.8mpg. Also cheap to service and £30/year tax.

If you are feeling brave, I can share the secret waterfall-with-beach-and-perfect-flat-campsite or old-village-spooky-but-camp-in-the-ruined-walled-garden locations on Loch Tay…They do require a crossing of Loch Tay, which can be sporting at times. There is always a walk out though if it is too lumpy.

Yes please here as well!

Agreed, plus one guy I rode with kept forgetting to untether himself at fuel and cafe stops.

Much hilarity ensued!

If you are using a half decent camera then whatever you are pointing at with whatever focus selection you are using it will be in focus. I have never taken a single shot that was out of focus with my 13 year old DSLR and be surprised if newer cameras are any worse.

Sure, something will be in focus. But will it be the branch that’s 4m away, or the squirrel on the branch behind it that’s 4.5m away?

🏏 Can’t find the thumbs up emoji, so have a cricket bat.

I can only echo the above.

When I moved into my new house I asked for a phoneline to be connected so I could have broadband.

I took the day off work, no-one showed up. When I called on my mobile to find out what was going on they said they cancelled it because when they called in the morning to confirm the visit no-one answered. Turns out they called me on the number they were supposed to come and connect. Apparently they couldn’t come unless they got a positive response to the call they make in the morning of an appointment and they won’t take a mobile number, it has to be a landline.

Utterly, utterly useless.

Thing is, if we as a country don’t want the Tories to choose such arse awful leaders, the only way to stop that happening, is to join the party.

This. Absolutely this. In Scotland it costs you a quid. Bring the party down from the inside.

So who do I vote for this time? Sunak seems vaguely competent, possibly too rich to be easily corruptible but is more likely to win the next GE. Truss is the joker, could be very entertaining and is less likely to win the next GE but will damage the country more in the meantime. Should I just draw a cock and balls on the voting paper?

Half a bar of simple soap. Nowt else needed

It’s not brilliant as a toothpaste though is it?

https://www.lovehoney.co.uk/p/lhm-all-over-lace-boxer-shorts/a33885g60791.html

Supportive and very breathable. Go on, you know you want to.

This is the first heatwave where the media seem to be reporting temperatures in Celsius. Usually its cold temps in Celsius and hot temps in Fahrenheit because it sounds more sensational to write rubbish like

“Scorchio Britain bakes as the Mercury soars into the 90’s!!!!”

Maybe temps in the 40’s is sensational enough? Or maybe they are trolling Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Duct tape and eye wash pods.

It may be a great bike but it’s a shame it comes from Halfords. They are “box shifters” who detract from businesses who are real specialists. They offer poor advice on bikes, car seats and car parts in my experience. While they will have good staff members, the company as a whole seems not to have invested in training or even care about offering good service.

Just not true I’m afraid.

In the 2 years I worked for Halfords, I did a 1 day PDI course before which I wasn’t allowed to build bikes, a 2 day ebike repair course (never intended to be in depth, but just cover the basics) and a Technician course which was much better than either the Cytech 3 or Velotech Platinum Plus which I also have. Customer service was hammered in to us every day. We were told that we couldn’t compete with online retailers on price so we had to do it on service. Customer complaints were taken very seriously – visits from the area manager, making good with the customer, retraining etc.
Of the 5 of us who worked in the Bikehut, all were regular riders MTBers, Roadies, BMXers, Tourers. Halfords really tried to recruit enthusiastic cyclists to work in the Bikehut. The problems came when they didn’t have enough staff and someone from the Auto /leisure department had to cover.

How many kids can you legitimately kill before you get labelled as a serial killer?

Only three I’m afraid. Don’t ask me how I know…

It might be 40′ but at least it’s not snowing.

Imagine shoveling snow in 40′ heat!

(Sorry)
🌨️❄️🔥😁

Currently in the camper in Dumfries and Galloway and it’s pissing down and 13′. What is this “heat” of which you speak?

All the villages in Perthshire are now 20. There’s no congestion on the roads I drive so I am doing 10mph less for about 2 miles of my 11 mile commute.

It’s great, the time difference is negligible but there are noticeably more kids on bikes in these areas now

Just flick the speed limiter on the car to 20 and cruise along. No negatives at all despite what the gammon predicted.

There’s no way I’d ever wear a short sleeve shirt in the sector I work as I know certain people would look down on it.

I would look down on anyone that looked down on someone wearing a short sleeve shirt. Do I win?

Excellent! Good luck with the OP and the new job. :-)

Like Scotroutes I have Hillwalkers Gaelic as many of the mountains and their features are named as a description:

Beinn Dearg – Big Red hill
Dhu Loch – Black Loch
Lochan Uaine – Small Green Loch
and the hundreds of Geal Charns – Grey Hills

In the libraries Gaelic Bookbug sessions are run – singing and rhyming sessions for pre-schoolers and they are increasing in popularity. It’s a lovely langauge.

One other thing OP, I wouldn’t hand your notice in until you have to.

If anything goes wrong with the operation and you take more time to recover than expected, your contract with your existing employer will still end at the end of your notice period and you will get no SSP. Your new employer won’t start paying you until you start work with them, and as you voluntarily gave up your job benefits will be very hard to get.

What has RIDDOR got to do with anything? The employee doesn’t report it, the employer does. The employee wouldn’t know anything about it. Even if reported, nothing happens it just goes on the HSE’s stats unless it’s a very serious injury (amputation or loss of eye) or a death.

Also as long as you are employed SSP is payable. Notice period doesn’t affect that.

https://www.gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay/eligibility

The thing with Brexit is that it isn’t just leaving in itself that has screwed us. It’s also the combined factors of giving general acceptability and empowerment to the right wing nut jobs who were validated by the vote and the way the government was pretty much paralysed on every issue other than Brexit for the next five years.

If we’d voted to stay, idiots like JRM, Steven Baker and Pritti Patel would not have been allowed the influence they subsequently gained. The ERG would have stayed on the fringes, BoJo wouldn’t have been anywhere near the cabinet, and Mad Nad would be on reality TV eating a whales penis or something.

Brexit hasn’t just screwed us economically, it’s screwed us socially and politically as well.

The people that get to decide who the next leader and PM is, are the paid up conservative party members, not the electorate.

The conservative party only has 200,000 members (vs labour 430,000).

Now imagine people who are so tory they pay to be a member of the party. These are the people choosing.

Well you say that, but I am a fully paid up member of the Tory party. It cost me a whole Scottish pound but it does mean I get to vote for the next leader. Obviously not being a complete xxxx I’d never vote Tory in a million years.

I do appreciate that I am breaking their rules, but I’m only doing so in a very limited and specific way, so that’s OK, right?

So, do I vote for the candidate that will do the least damage to the country, or the one who will do the most damage to the party?

It says it all about “new” England, that when set 299 to win, I just assume they will get there easily. A year ago if set 99 to win I’d have thought it unlikely.

It’s the same players, but they are so different. God knows what Chris Silverwood is thinking.

My 20″ wheeled Trek Navigator is much better to ride than the Brompton I had before. Mine does around 10km most days and it’s great. Brompton are better folders especially if you need to wheel it around, but 20″ wheels ride so much better.

If mine were to die I’d be replacing it with the Carrera above. The Brompton was a horrible sketchy thing.

But cauliflower leaves are delicious and nutritious. Chop and fry with butter and garlic. Yum!

Can we all agree that adult males going shirtless in public (unless on a beach) is an affront to all that is decent?

Also, middle-aged men should not be wearing shorts in public unless simultaneously doing some kind of sport. The severity of this satirical transgression is first doubled when the t-shirt (or shirt) is tucked into said shorts and then squared when ugly socks are worn.

Ahh, now I understand. You are Jacob Rees-Mogg and ICMFP

i_scoff_cake

The problem with your fedecruct argument is that you don’t understand the brimmislemist nuances to it.

On order to allocate the slembands to the correct prograker you need to ensure the frantly undenonprol haven’t been misaligned.

Until you grasp this frankly simple premise then I’m afraid you’re just showing your ignorance.