Looking where you’re going is out of fashion – for any form of perambulation IME, as is being vaguely aware of your surroundings.

The people having a go are IMO just frightened – they didn’t hear you coming and rather than say sorry or say nothing, they have a go at the thing which frightened them. Whereas being aware of their surroundings would probably be a less stressful long term strategy

Show this video to anyone you know who thinks UKIP are anything original 🙂

Compulsory measurement of all adult British knees

The irony of the symbolism of that graph ^^
It’s more flaccid than it is upstanding 😀

Unlikely IMO. They’re just a sign of the times – their rise is a protest at lower living standards, not a belief that they could actually provide any leadership and run the country properly. Farage preys on people’s fears for their futures, there’s nothing constructive in the way he operates.

Ironically, far-right parties are showing increased popularity across Europe – he has more in common with the people he says he’s against than he has with the UK electoral as a whole.

They’re not cohesive – it’s just Farage and a load of randoms. He’s just enjoying being a troublemaker and giving the incumbents a bloody nose. He has no MPs don’t forget. Even if he won 10 seats at the general election he’d still have no power in Parliament. And polls do not necessarily reflect voting patterns anyway.

I’ve given up hope that the market price will reduce more than a few percent.

Well I’m wondering that too, but no-one expected the crash in 2007/8 nor the earlier one in the early 90’s… and many senior and sensible people are going public at Gideon to stop ramping up prices, because any shock to consumer confidence right now from a fall in house prices will kill the ‘recovery’ stone dead

One sure sign of a bubble is that everyone expects prices to keep going up…

I’ve been told that there are many people in the same boat, and now really wished we’d found the right house three months ago!

I suspect you’ll find the recent bounce with asking prices was people trying to get in before the lending restrictions – which sellers and estate agents took advantage of, hence people overpaying.

With MMR now in place, further lending restrictions likely to come in June and interest rates rise(s) poss early next year, you’ll likely find yourself in a stronger position in 6/12 months time when it comes to negotiating the price down as sellers will not be in such a strong position (fewer buyers able to borrow so much) + you’ll presumably have a bigger deposit saved.

This might well mean you get to pay less because you’ve waited..

Not having a go, but it’s sentiment like the one you’ve expressed that estate agents and sellers have been exploiting these last few months…

Worth reading the 1 and 2 star reviews on Amazon…
Tony Robbins stuff is v good IMO

Interest rate rise?

This’ll put a dampener on things… not just the amount people can afford to repay in mortgages but it’ll increase the size of the repayments for all the credit card and car finance debt people appear to be living off – more pressure on what they can borrow

Not sure. They’re in excellent health – far better than I (or they) expected at this stage (77 and 75).
My brother lives in Ireland and doesn’t have enough cash or time to come over often. I’m in London and my parents are in Cheshire.

I don’t want to move back North – I tried that a few years ago and didn’t like it at all.

I think they’d prefer to remain independent for as long as possible so I’ll support them in that, and deal with the reality of things as and when it happens. Luckily they’ve invested well so likely any care they need will be funded from their own savings, which will give us more choices

As a first time buyer living in London but currently priced out and having to look at the (boring) suburbs, I see this as a good thing. True, I won’t be able to borrow so much, but I don’t like debt anyway. The medium to long term effect should be a stabilisation of house prices and an end to estate agents getting away with open days, sealed bids and offers over the asking price to greedy sellers… because buyers can’t raise the silly prices they’re asking for.

So yes, harder to get the ££, but in time, you won’t need to borrow so much in the first place – which is better overall as you’ll pay less over your lifetime

Nearly today…

Coming up to traffic lights by Lambeth Bridge – lights change to amber so I came to a stop. Car driver behind me, however, either wasn’t looking or was planning to run the light (straight into gridlocked traffic on the main road – the usual pointlessness)

He was less than a metre from my rear wheel after he’d stood on his brakes…

A colleague of mine rides a scooter/moped to work. He shares similar thoughts about car drivers. Even been spat on apparently…

The problem is more than just how to improve cycling provision, it’s more about the lack of basic empathy shown by people when they get in cars… this story shocked me…

Revving at pedestrians = dead grandmother

Sometimes. But I’ve been proven wrong every time so far – 100% failure rate 😯

I find that the ‘assume every vehicle you can see is about to pull off the stupidest, most dangerous manoeuvre you can think of’ strategy tends to help here e.g. assume any vehicle turning in will cut or overshoot the corner; assume the car sitting in the side turning is going to pull out regardless of the fact I’m already there…

Not sure it’d help tbh – speed limits/speed humps/solid white lines/ASLs etc etc get routinely ignored now anyway – can’t see how a new law would change behaviour.

More enforcement of existing laws and proper consequences would be better.

Maybe the copper standing by the Oval junction yesterday morning looking right at a car stopped in the ASL, but doing absolutely nothing about it – could become an illusion rather than reality!

Are we talking geegees or seahorses? I know that John Squire was into MTB but I didn’t know he’d progressed to paragliding

What secateurs for Afan?

I feel sorry for the guys who wrote The Rules. All that time spent trying to bring an element of style and decorum to road riding and then all these British ex-MTBrs just come along and trample all over them with gay abandon 🙁

I’m emigrating to Italy

UK consumer is not well off at the moment and unlikely to be so for quite a few more years yet. Plus, when interest rates go up (later this year/2015?) and mortgage repayments rise, expect all kinds of belt tightening, especially discretionary spend on stuff like mountain biking…

On the other hand, as people try and reduce transit spend they may cycle rather than drive or take the train, which could continue to boost demand for road bikes and associated kit

Who knows!

Def keep a diary and email the manager recording the outcome of any conversation they have.
And actually, I would be looking elsewhere. It’s horrible working for a backstabbing boss even if you win any official battles…

+1 for Pixies Indie Cindy
Plus Young Person’s Guide To The Orchestra after watching Moonrise Kingdom last week

RaceRocketHP?
Email in profile and you can have mine for enough groats to cover the postage.
Although surely the point of a pump that small is so you can stick it in your pocket and not break ‘the rules’ 😉

My parents’ cork floor in the kitchen and hall are still in perfect nick after 45 years.
I’m not sure it dates that bad, really. Warm, easy to clean, quieter than tiles

Tax burden is going to get greater as the population ages and fattens…

That’s bloody tough.
Get on the phone to yr GP and let him/her know how you are so they can give you some support. You shouldn’t expect to deal with stuff like that on your own…
Best wishes

I wonder how much sat nav has to do with the overtakes into oncoming traffic… people have essentially switched off their navigation/observation function, and delegated it to the talking machine on the dashboard…

Oh and I did see a few cars try to squeeze past a steam roller last week – on the A23 in Purley – the road narrows as you go past Tesco and at least 3 cars accelerated into the narrowing gap as the steam roller trundled along. The last of the 3 nearly got crushed 😯

The only way some motorists will stop hating cyclists, is if we all stop cycling.

I can deal with being hated. It’s the driving straight at me which scares me.

But this happens when I’m in my car and running/walking as well.

I know it feels like we’re under attack when riding sometimes but my observation is it’s wider than car vs cyclist – there’s a much bigger problem about how some people display psychopathic behaviour when they get in the driving seat…

That tweet ^^^ is truely nasty. Can it not be reported to the Police?

People’s attitude to cyclists is truly shocking – I’m not sure people are aware how they sound when they come out with stuff like that.

Stanley Millgram and whoever ran the Stanford Prison experiment would no doubt have something interesting to say about how well-protected metal boxes insulate people from the harm they do…

Given that there are many road users who take no notice of other, taxed etc, road users already, one does have to wonder why anyone would think this would make a scrap of difference?

This. It’s not working for motorised vehicles at the moment…

You’ll notice that all the anti-cycling rants rely on anecdote/personal information rather than data or downright factual inaccuracy, which never stands up to scrutiny – which tells you it’s just prejudice and inability to cope with change.

Edit: I get tailgated all the time when I drive at 30 in a 30 limit. My car is fully taxed and insured…

why would you offer yourself up for a story like that in a national newspaper? Is he that desperate for £££?
£120k is so far from the ‘squeezed middle’ that the whole tale comes across as a constructed story for clicks to me…

What’s worrying is everytime one of these FAILS is publicised, their poll ratings appear to go up 😯
Has someone put something in the water?

All the comments I read on that last night were measured, fact-based and balanced.
To pull that article because of the volume of comments pointing out how factually wrong and harmful it was is just cowardice.
Write an incendiary, prejudiced piece, get hauled up for it – and rather than be the big man and apologise he justs hides it away. Coward.

tbh that’s all you need to know about the anti-cycling brigade

Edit: the forum appears to be shut too…

He appears to have lost the argument 😀

Wealth managers talk about rags to riches in 3 generations;
There’s a generation that make all the money – self-made. They work hard, have positive values and a sensible attitude towards the wealth they created and tend to be responsible with it, having worked hard to create it.
The next generation grow up knowing some of this story, and with most of the values of their parents. Having seen the sheer effort their parents made, they tend to be responsible with the wealth.
Then the grandkids come along. All they know is big houses, private schools, wealth that’s just ‘there’. They’ve not worked for it and neither did they experience their grandparents working for it so they tend to take it for granted and squander the lot.
It’s only the successful wealthy families that can engender in each generation that their job is to look after that wealth and pass it on to the next generation.

I have a theory that the Western world is going through an extended version of this – the Empire/Victorian generation built the infrastructure and institutions that our grandparents grew up with (look at how many UK houses are Victorian, and the railways for e.g.)

Our grandparents generation knew enough about it to not take the wealth for granted – helped no doubt by the scarcities of material goods during and between WW1, Great Depression and WW2. Then the baby boomers came along and went ‘wa-haaaay’ and wasted the lot. We’re now picking up the pieces and could well be doing so for a couple more generations. Unless of course we can find some new way to generate wealth for ourselves…

ASLs are only useful if people driving know what they are and are penalised when they block them… In my bitter experience paint on the road is making no difference whatsoever… so changing the way the road is painted needs to be accompanied with communications to road users and proper law enforcement

EDIT: maybe outlawing tailgating and screaming at people riding primary through pinch points would be a good idea if we really want cycling to increase…

Rich people who spend their money in an ‘interesting’ way aren’t rich anymore, they’re poor… they’ve spent it all!

Exhibit a: George Best

I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.

OP – good on you for admitting your mistake. Why not go and chat to your neighbours over the weekend and apologise/explain?

That Pro-flex sticker on your toolbox is on the skew

I want to be one of those old boys who still does 40/50+miles in his 70’s. Albeit a little more slowly than I do aged 40 at the moment!

@chris Sealed bids don’t mean anything unless you are in a room when they are opened and you can be sure your bid hasn’t been looked at in advance by only handing it over on the day. If you say would want to do this the agents will be very very much against it. Sealed bids are a scam.

I assume that the buyers put in their sealed bids. And the estate agent, on his own in his office, opens them up and then calls the ‘winner’ to say ‘well done, you’ve won’

No opportunity to totally make up a figure then? Or take the highest bid, ring that person and tell them they’re second on the list and they could win if they bid a little more…

That’s just being mugged for several thousand pounds (+ interest)!

Everyone I’ve known who’s had a drug problem (alcohol, acid, dope, coke) has, as far as I can see, been trying to deal with personal issues and the drug has been a way of trying to live life with some kind of bearable balance… so if we want to reduce usage, where’s the counselling, the social support etc to help people deal with the underlying issues?